Answer Me These Questions Three #6 Ciarán Foy

Ciarán Foy studied film at the National Film School of Ireland (IADT-DL), where he graduated with an honours degree. While there he worked on over twenty short films in areas such as art direction, editing, writing and directing. Some of his own college shorts have been award winners at festivals around the world such as The Puppet, Wired 03:36, and 1902. The Puppet was chosen to represent Ireland at the 2002 Student Academy Awards in Los Angeles. He also won highly commended certificates for his test spots at the Kodak Student Commercial Awards London in 2001 (for The Tired – Lucozade Solstis) and 2002 (for The Thief – Physio Sport)

Ciaráns also successfully completed five Screen Training Ireland courses with certificates in Cinematic Story Development (Bobette Buster & Beth Serlin), Visual Structure (Bruce Block) Advanced Screen Writing (Linda Seger), Dramatic Vision (Martin Daniel / David Howard) and Blocking for Camera (Mark Travis).

The Faeries of Blackheath Woods, his first film since graduating from college, has screened at over 35 festivals worldwide and taken home best short awards at festivals such as; Cork, Kerry, Brest France, Cinenygma Luxembourg as well as three ‘Claw Awards’ at The Terror Film Festival USA (Best Fantasy Short, Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects). It was also nominated for an IFTA and a Golden Méliès (European Fantasy Award). Recently it won the Diversions Short Film Award and Best Horror at the Melbourne Independent Film Festival.

Presently he has teamed up with producer Katie Holly at the newly established Blinder Films. Citadel, a council estate based psychological horror, is due to film in 2008. It will be Ciaráns feature debut as both writer and director. He is also presently represented at Blinder as a commercials director.

1. When did you first get the goo for film?

The first film I ever saw in a cinema was "Return of the Jedi" when I was 3 or 4 years old. That experience gave me such a giddy sense of awe that I became hooked on that feeling ever since. Spielberg, Lucas, Cameron etc became my dealers and I was a happy genre junkie. Then when I was 11, a friend of mine, who's brother was an usher, sneaked us into a showing of "T2", and that was that.

2. Was film always your first love?

Yes and no. Until i was about 15 I either aspired to be a video game designer or involved in movie special effects. I knew the whole history of places like ILM and used to make models and stuff and shoot them on a crappy camcorder with friends as my cast etc. Then the more I shot the more I wanted to call the shots on everything.

3. When did you first get the idea for Faeries... ?

Well "The Faeries of Blackheath Woods" was initially conceived of as a way of generating interest in a feature project called "The Horde". "The Horde" is essentially a horror about the Sidhe myth but the only similarity between it and the short is the Faerie creature itself. The main idea for it came rather maliciously when myself and my girlfriend Olwen Kelleghan were watching a movie in college called "Fairytale - a true story" (or something to that effect). It told the story of these prissy little girls who encounter beautiful benevolent fairies at the back of their garden and the whole thing made me sick. We started to talk about how the origin of the myth was Celtic and how our notion of faeries in this country are much darker. You don't piss the faeries off. I confessed that I'd love to subvert the expectations and do a really dark Faerie story where the Faeries kill those spolit kids. Olwen, who is a designer, began sketching this creature with rotten leaves for wings and a body that looked like a cross between an insect and a concentration camp victim. That's where it all started.

4. How many redrafts did Faeries go through before you were satisfied?

Two. The first version was much longer and we were with the parents on the journey to Blackheath Woods. We learned that the woods were being chopped down to make way for a road and that strange things were happening. The second version was really edited to allow it to be eligible for short-shorts.

5. Would budget constraints influence your story before you even type 'Fade In'?

Well I knew if we got the 15,000 euro from the film board for short-shorts that I couldn't have as many effects as I had wanted. I had a lot more moving shots planned, cameras circling the girl etc But the more movement you have the longer it takes to track the camera and the more expensive it becomes for CGI. Also because the Faeries look like autumn leaves when they're in a static state I had wanted a tree brimming with them to be behind the character as she backs away in the marsh area at the end. Again it would prove too expensive because such a shot would take longer to do. So in a way the budget influenced the storyboard but not the story itself. That remained the same.

6. Have you anything else in the pipeline?

Well I've spent the last year and half writing a new project called "Citadel", which is a dark psychological horror about an agoraphobic trapped in a council estate from hell. I'm directing it and Katie Holly of Blinder Films is producing. We just got production funding from the film board so its full steam ahead. We plan to shoot next winter.

6. What's your favourite Irish film?
"Bloody Sunday".

7. What Irish film do you think deserves more credit?
I'm not sure. I can certainly think of a few that deserve less credit! To be honest, I must to confess I don't end up going to see that many Irish films. A crime I know, but when you've a tenner in your pocket and you're outside Cineworld and you can go see one movie, it can be hard to choose the low budget Irish offering. Plus I'm a genre junkie so (as happened recently) if "Children of Men" is on in one screen and a particular Irish film is on in another, I'll choose "Children of Men".