The making of young Irish film makers

A group of teenagers found that movie production is both more and less than it's cracked up to be - but nobody got fired and a "100 per cent professional" film is nearly ready for RTE. Co-operation, pre-production and money. These are the words that slip off the tongues of a group of Kilkenny teenagers when asked what they think are the most important things needed to make a feature film. The innovative cast and crew of Under a Hawthorn Tree (adapted from the best-selling teenage novel by Maurita Conlon McKenna) made in Ireland this summer have none of the pretensiousness, star-egos and personality clashes often associated with film-making. Identifying their mistakes just as readily as their achievements, the group shows enthusiasm that far outshines that of most adult teamwork exercises. "Nobody got fired, although jobs were switched about sometimes," says Michael Lennon, director of photography.

Young Irish Film Makers began life as the Kilkenny Children's Film Project in 1991, with the aim of making short films with young people. "We felt it would be good to access the media at broadcast level," says Mike Kelly, youth worker and now artistic director of Young Irish Film Makers. The organisation now involves up to 100 young people (between the ages of seven and 19) who participate in film-making, acting, lighting and sound programmes. Directing and scriptwriting programmes are now up and running.

So how did things go during the seven-week shoot of Under the Hawthorn Tree? Co-director Bronagh Murphy explains: "It was very serious the first day because I had never directed a feature film before. But we got more relaxed as we went on. "One of the biggest difficulties was the lack of pre-production, and sometimes we ran into problems finalising locations and sorting equipment on specific days. Another thing we learned is that you should always be over budget." The film's main sponsors are Channel 4, San Diego-based Irish-American businessman Tom Costello, Avid Technology, the EU Leader Programme and RTE. The madder anecdotes from the shoot include the time they hung a microphone from a paintroller when the boom pole was left behind; a bag of flour being wrapped in a shawl to substitute for the crying baby; and leaving crew behind on a location in Glendalough, Co Wicklow.

Challenges of another kind are recounted by one of the leading actors, Liane Murphy. "My costume shoe fell apart and I had to walk across rocks with the sole hanging off. Later, we stuck it together with gaffer tape," she explains.

Getting the details of their film's period (Ireland in the 1840s during the Great Famine) was another factor which demanded assiduous attention. The courtyard outside their building in Kilkenny was creatively transformed into a market day in a rural Irish town for one of the locations.

"We had to ask people to cut out their engines when we were shooting in Rothe House in Kilkenny," says Peter Ryan, who was in charge of continuity. Dubbing out the sounds of a combine harvester and jumbo jet flying over are tasks yet to be dealt with, before editing is finished.

And was all the work done without the involvement of professional adults? "We had adult supervision for the first two weeks and then they were on their own," explains Mike Kelly. "We were never 100 per cent professional," adds first assistant director Ger Dooley, referring perhaps to the unorthdox ways dilemmas were solved (cue paint-roller experience). "Yet it will look 100 per cent professional," says Chris Boland, who played the male lead.

Under the Hawthorn Tree was filmed using the most up-todate digital format camera equipment which allows the director to follow scenes as they are being shot. The task still to be done is the computer-based editing, before the film is ready to sent to RTE for transmission at Christmas and Channel 4 for transmission as part of its schools programme next autumn.

Meanwhile, some of the graduates of Young Irish Film Makers are now attending film production and photography courses at third level. And Young Irish Film Makers have plans to shoot another feature film next summer - the script of which they hope to write themselves.