They came out from the cutting rooms to party. The splicing machines were silent. Editors, producers, directors and documentary makers packed into a corner of the Irish Film Centre to toast a new book about the film industry.
The weighty book, written by Belfast man Declan McGrath, comprises interviews with 15 of the world's top film editors. McGrath says he flew to cities such as Paris, Tokyo and New York to meet them. He's back now and, this week, it was on with the show at the IFC.
Editing & Post-Production, published by RotoVision, was launched by writer and director Gerry Stembridge, who said "it's a fantastic book because it brings you into their world". Sé Merry Doyle, editor and documentary director, said the book "is very timely" and is pleased that "the craft is so elevated".
Cathal Black, director of Korea, was there, too. His next film, Love and Rage, starring Greta Scacchi, is due out in mid-February. It's based on the factual story of a man who lived on Achill Island in the late 19th century and almost murdered a woman named Agnes McDonald, says Black. "It's the first case of extradition in Ireland," he said.
More scrutiny of film production is offered to listeners of RTÉ Radio 1, who will learn all about Jack Foley (no relation), the man who pioneered the art of creating sound effects on film, when a documentary on this subject by producer Michael O'Kane, is aired shortly. (There's just no keeping the Foley clan down.) O'Kane's friend, Scott Fairweather, a freelance editor, and Emer O'Clery, a TV editor, were at the book launch, too, to salute the author and talk about shoots and retakes and . . . life in general.
Kester Dyer, a young film maker from Montreal, is currently making his first short film, Pádraig agus Nadia. Katie Holly is working on this as well. It will star Aonghus Weber, of Ros na Rún fame, and is to be screened on TG4 in the summer.
Director Terence Ryan was there with his wife and co-writer Susan Morrall. Their film Puckoon, based on the Spike Milligan black comedy, starring Richard Attenborough, Elliot Gould and John Lynch, will be screened at the Berlin Film Festival in a couple of weeks. It opens in the US at the end of February, said Ryan.
Others spotted at the party include Jim Sheridan, Patrick Bergin, the Falcarragh, Co Donegal woman Neasa Ní Chianáin, a documentary director, and her sister, Aifric Ní Chianáin. Then, as they say, it was a wrap, and the party moved upstairs to The Norseman.