“VISIONARIES” AT THE FASTNET FILM FESTIVAL!
Clap ‘n Load Studios’ inaugural documentary “Visionaries” has premiered at the 2022 Fastnet Film Festival in Schull, Country Cork. If you’re around the festival this weekend, you’ll have two more opportunities to see the film!
“VISIONARIES” (2021) poster featuring OFFICIAL SELECTION laurels from “23rd Chicago Irish Film Festival”, “St. Patrick’s Film Festival” and “Fastnet Film Festival 2022”
Clap ‘n Load Studios is delighted to announce that our film “Visionaries” premiered at the Fastnet Film Festival 2022 on Wednesday 25th at 1pm! But don’t fret, if you’re in Schull this weekend, there are two more opportunities to see the film as part of the festival; see below for times and venues!
When: Friday, 27th @ 2pm
Where: “The Carlton” AKA Nico’s Restaurant
When: Saturday, 28th @ 1pm
Where: “The Odeon” AKA Hackett’s Bar
We’re delighted for everyone at the festival to get a chance to see “Visionaries”, and we sincerely hope everyone who gets the opportunity to view our film thoroughly enjoys it.
For more information on booking tickets, please visit the Fastnet Film Festival’s booking page, and we hope you enjoy the show!
A VERY SPECIAL PROJECT : NCBI STUDENT FILM
We’re thrilled to partner with NCBI (National Council for the Blind of Ireland) to assist in creating a bespoke short movie with a group of visually impaired young adults.
As all of us here at Clap 'n Load Studios continue to work tirelessly on the creation of new projects as we carve out fresh opportunities for ourselves within the film world, and we're thrilled to finally be able to tell you about our latest project that saw us partner with NCBI (National Council for the Blind of Ireland) last February to assist in creating a bespoke short movie with a group of visually impaired young adults.
The film, graciously funded by Hub na nÓg (Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth), was shot on Friday 22nd April, 2022 after three sessions hosted by Clap ‘n Load Studios’ John Kelly and Derek Masterson. Throughout these three classes prior to the shoot, the students learned, not only how to make a movie from beginning to end, but also had the practical experience of learning about filmmaking tools and techniques, shooting tricks of the trade, and scriptwriting lessons and workshop before becoming stars of the silver screen!
We're delighted to have been invited to create this project for NCBI as visual impairment is a subject close to our hearts, and the subject matter of our very own short movie "Visionaries" that is currently lighting up screens on the festival circuit around the world.
On Wednesday 11th May, 2022 the young people will undertake a final class concentrating on the art of editing before their film is unveiled to them, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them for taking part in the course, and all the staff at NCBI for their enthusiasm and support throughout and for entrusting us with this very special project.
“BABY YOU’RE MINE!” - A New Music Video
With the release of gifted singer-songwriter Shubham Patil’s debut song “Baby You’re Mine!” we share some behind the scenes insights into our shoot of his music video.
We pride ourselves on working with the best in new and upcoming talent here at Clap ‘n Load Studios, and recently, on a particularly cold, but thankfully dry and sunny March day, had the opportunity to shoot a music video for wonderfully gifted singer-songwriter Shubham Patil.
His debut song “Baby You’re Mine!” is a gorgeous guitar based love ballad (which you can hear on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube) and, not wanting to distract from this, we decided to shoot his video against the backdrop of a beautifully bright and clear Cabinteely Park.
We were delighted to work with Shubham and to be able to assist him in creating a visual representation that was in-keeping with the spirit of his song and the overall vision he had for his music video. It was a pleasure working with you, Shubham, and we hope to create more videos with you.
Planning your own music video?
As well as independent short and documentary film production, Clap ‘n Load Studios also offer a variety of commercial video production services (including music videos!). If you’re a musician or band and want promotional or music videos, contact us!
“VISIONARIES” : Selected for Fastnet Film Festival 2022!!
Clap ‘n Load Studios’ documentary Visionaries accepted for Irish premiere at Fastnet Film Festival 2022!
All of us here at Clap ‘n Load Studios are thrilled to announce our short-documentary film “Visionaries” has been accepted into Fastnet Film Festival 2022!
We’re so excited to be part of this festival, not least because it’s the third festival “Visionaries” has been selected for this year, but because it’s one of Ireland’s largest and leading independent film festivals that brings together the best of first time and established filmmakers from around the world!
We can’t tell you how proud we are of our short documentary, and once again we’d like to reiterate our sincere gratitude to Donal Haughey, Alan Duggan, Galway Film Centre / Galway Co. Council, our production crew, and our documentary subjects, Frank Kelly, Conor Maguire and Audrey Tormey who make the film as warm, insightful and engaging as they are.
“VISIONARIES” : Selected for Irish Film London: St. Patrick’s Day Festival 2022!!
Clap ‘n Load Studios’ documentary Visionaries accepted for UK premiere at Irish Film London: St Patrick’s Festival!
Clap 'n Load Studios are delighted to announce that our short documentary film "Visionaries" will feature in Irish Film London: St. Patrick's Day Festival 2022 (11th - 19th March).
We're truly honoured to have been selected as part of this wonderful festival as it showcases and celebrates the best of new Irish film-making talent.
We felt this was a special project throughout the course of its creation and we're incredibly excited that audiences in Chicago (23rd Chicago Irish Film Festival), London and around the world online are set to see our short film about visually impaired musicians this coming March during both of these fantastic festivals.
#IrishFilmLondon #StPatricksDay #CultureIreland #Visionaries #ShortFilm #IrishFilm #Documentaries
WATCH Official Trailer for: “VISIONARIES”
Clap ‘n Load Studios is proud to release the Official Trailer for our premiere documentary “Visionaries”, following the story of three inspirational visually impaired musicians.
With the premiere of our short documentary film "Visionaries" due to hit the silver screen of the 23rd Chicago Irish Film Festival next month, we thought now would be a good time to share with you our official trailer for the film.
We're ever so proud of this passion project of ours about visually impaired musicians which was funded by and made in conjunction with Galway Film Centre / Galway County Council, and we'd once again like to extend our gratitude to Donal Haughey, Alan Duggan and the team at Galway Film Centre who played an integral role in the making of this movie.
Without further ado, we present to you our official trailer for "Visionaries"...
“VISIONARIES” - Selected for The 23rd Chicago Irish Film Festival!!
Clap ‘n Load Studios is kicking 2022 off with a bang, and are pleased to announce that their first documentary short “Visionaries” has been selected to screen in the 23rd Chicago Irish Film Festival this coming March. The film will have its premiere in a number of theatres across the Windy City!
Since we rang in the New Year, all of us here at Clap 'n Load Studios have been quietly working hard behind the scenes on script development, funding applications, pre-production of future projects and submissions to upcoming film festivals, and it's truly a wonderful feeling when that hard work pays off...
We're delighted to announce we received confirmation that our short documentary film "Visionaries" has been selected for the 23rd Chicago Irish Film Festival, which is due to be held in a number of theatres throughout Chicago and virtually from March 3 - 13, 2022.
It's an honour to be among such a stellar lineup of impressive Irish films and filmmakers and we're thrilled to be part of the festival for so many reasons, not least of all, our short documentary "Visionaries" was a passion project of ours about visually impaired musicians which we shot last September, and we were humbled for it to be funded by and created in conjunction with Galway Film Centre / Galway County Council. We’ll be speaking further about “Visionaries”, along with it’s origins and creation, in the coming weeks.
For now, all we can say is: 2022 has started off strong for us (as we hope yours has also!), but we feel this is only the beginning of great things to come this year ; keep on eye on our blog for further positive news, film making insights and behind the scenes information on our exciting upcoming projects!
#CIFF2022 #ChicagoIrishFF #ChicagoIrishFilmFestival #CultureIreland #Visionaries #ShortFilm #IrishFilm #Documentaries
TENSION FILLED STRINGS: THE MUSIC OF MASQUERADE
The importance of music far extends being the cause of us mentally revisiting scenes from movies we would prefer not to ; it informs us of mood and feeling that might otherwise remain illusive. Alan Smale, former leader of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and musical consultant for Masquerade sits down with us to discuss his choice of period-appropriate music for Clap ‘n Load Studios’ inaugural short film
As I sit listening to Q Lazzarus’s cult hit “Goodbye Horses” blaring in my ears writing this post I'm reminded of the importance of music. The mere sound of those opening beats sends chills through me immediately causing me to mentally replay Buffalo Bill’s infamous dance scene in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 multiple Oscar Winning movie, “Silence of The Lambs”.
The importance of music far extends being the cause of us mentally revisiting scenes from movies we would prefer not to ; it informs us of mood and feeling that might otherwise remain illusive. For instance, if we were to listen to Elton John’s “Circle of Life” a sense of warmth might wash over us, whereas Louis Armstrong’s "We Have All The Time in the World" could evoke a sense of melancholy.
It reminds me of conversations I've had with film fanatic friends of mine who gush at the mere mention of Ennio Morricone‘s name yet scathingly mock the intrusive nature of Hans Zimmer's body of work, particularly in the action genre. Music is an incredibly powerful component in the making of a film, however it’s really just another tool at the disposal of the Director of the film to help reinforce the creation of the world they've invited you into. Clap 'n Load's "Masquerade" is no different. Albeit the production team did things a little differently. Where most films will include music in their movie after filming has long since wrapped, the recording of the music took place first and the scenes were shot second.
"We story boarded the film to the music by timing the dialogue." John Kelly, the film's writer-director, tells me when I asked him about his consideration of music in his short-film some months ago. "It was unique to record the music before shooting the film, but it allowed us to create an intensity on-set and in the delivery of the dialogue that correlated to the music."
Of course picking the correct pieces of music was integral as it not only had to fit the tone of the story, but reflect the period accurately too. "I wanted what they'd really have listened to at that time at a Masquerade Ball" John tells me. "That must have been a task in itself?", I query. "Well, thankfully I had help in selecting the right pieces." John enlisted the assistance of renowned Violinist Alan Smale. If that name sounds familiar to you it’s probably because it is. Alan is First Violin for The National Symphony Orchestra and Wexford Opera House to name just a couple of his impressive credentials.
I could tell you more about the musically driven choices Alan made for the short-film, but why would I do that when the Greystones native was good enough to take time out of his busy schedule to discuss just that with us, which you can watch here...
The music for the film (the wonderfully melodic combo of Tchaikovsky's "Andante Cantabile" and Puccini's "Crisantemi for String Quartet") was recorded two months prior to shooting the film by a string quartet in Ashford Church over the course of a single two hour session. That was as impressive a feat as it was ambitious. "It was worth it." John smiles. "We played the music on-set to allow the actors modify the delivery of their dialogue and help them get into the headspace of their characters...and when the music stops dead at the end of the second piece, we baked that interruption into the scene.". The thoughtful filmmaker recognised, not just the importance of music in his film, but the psychological insight it could afford the actors in the portrayal of their characters, together with an opportunity to enhance the cinematic experience for his audience, allowing them experience the Masquerade Ball aurally in an accurate representation of the period in which it’s set.
Listening to samples of the pieces John has sent me, one could argue if music informs us of mood in film, then this short-film has plenty of tension filled drama afoot.
“ANOTHER YEAR OVER, A NEW ONE JUST BEGUN...”
With 2021 coming to a close, we take a look back at some of our achievements and highlights from this past year. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who has joined and supported us throughout the year. Here’s to another great year!
The end of the year is in sight and it’s a time where we’ll all invariably take a retrospective look back at the year that was. For the majority of us there will have been as many fond memories as there were frustrating. However, we here at Clap ‘n Load Studios like to focus primarily on the positives as we take stock of a tremendously productive and successful year. We won’t bore you with a long list of our achievements, however, we put together our staff’s selection of highlights which were...
Completing production on our wildly ambitious Irish sci-fi comedy-drama “Nevermore”. It was a huge undertaking and required our largest cast, crew and catering budget to date!
Being selected for funding by Galway Film Centre/Galway Co. Council to bring our first short-documentary “Visionaries” to life. We had a quick turnaround from the time we received funding to the time we were required to complete the project, and we couldn’t be prouder of the end result.
“Masquerade” finally hitting the festival circuit and coming away with wonderfully positive feedback and a plethora of nominations and award wins, including a win for Best Actor (Barry Roe) in an Indie Film.
We have so much to be grateful for, but we couldn’t have done it without so many people, including you, dear reader. So for now, we’d like to extend our gratitude by saying a sincere “thank you” for your support throughout 2021. We hope you’ll further join us as we continue our cinematic journey in 2022.
There’s nothing else for us to do - let’s raise a glass. Here’s to 20-22.
Happy New Year!!
OUR GIFT TO YOU: “MASQUERADE”
After a long two-yea production process, Clap ‘n Load Studios is proud to present their first short film, and directorial debut of founding director John Kelly, “Masquerade”.
What an incredible year it’s been for us here at Clap ‘n Load Studios. We’ve achieved so much over the past 365 days and set ourselves up with several new and exciting projects for 2022, which we’ll touch upon in a later post. But for now, we’d just like to say thank you for supporting us and our creative endeavours.
To those of you that have been with us from the start, over the past months, and played a part in helping us bring to life our first short movie, we thought there could only be one gift we could give you this Christmas.
We present to you Clap ‘n Load Studios “Masquerade”. We hope you enjoy it, and we wish you and your loved ones a peaceful, warm and wonderful Christmas.
WATCH: Official Trailer for “MASQUERADE” Released
After much anticipation, Clap ‘n Load Studios has released the official trailer for their inaugural period short film Masquerade!
After much anticipation, Clap ‘n Load Studios has released the official trailer for their inaugural period short film Masquerade!
“We’re delighted to finally be getting this project out to the public. The film received such a warm welcome at our screening in The Whale Theatre, and I think online audiences are really going to enjoy it. We really appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding throughout this process”
The full fuilm will be releasing online very shortly, so be sure to sign up to our Mailing List to be notified when it drops!
A LOOK BEHIND THE MASK : MASQUERADE
With Clap 'n Load Studios about to drop the official trailer for their first short film "Masquerade" this Friday, we decided it would be an appropriate time to reflect on the origins of the project and the unexpected adversities it had to overcome in order to come to life.
With Clap 'n Load Studios about to drop the official trailer for their first short film "Masquerade" this Friday we decided it would be an appropriate time to reflect on the origins of the project and the unexpected adversities it had to overcome in order to come to life.
John Kelly, the film's writer and director speaks to me over Zoom on a particularly wintry December evening. His affection for his first production is infectious as his warmth for it is transmitted down the camera lens. "I was on a flight coming home from DC and had been thinking about writing a story that focused on what people present to us rather than what they are, and the imagery that came to mind was of a masquerade ball. So I wanted that to be the focal point of the film." he candidly explains giving an insight into the background of his idea. "So I spent the flight Googling images of Masquerade masks and costuming, which wasn’t easy with the awful internet connection." he laughs.
Initially an idea for "a three minute showpiece without dialogue" it quickly became apparent to the young writer-filmmaker that this idea could expand far further than he initially imagined as he began to realise a much larger world within the germ of his idea. So much so he tells me that creating it as a short movie became a task in itself.
“There’s the basis of a TV series here, and we have the plot points and outline of that series already written. Masquerade is just an excerpt of that longer story.”
However, it being a Kickstarter fundraising film it was decided to keep the project, an ambitious period piece set in England prior to the Irish 1916 rebellion, to under fifteen minutes. "Its a situation story about power and the tenuous position of power. There's a whole lot we haven't gotten around to talking about in this pilot, but there's a lot of stuff going on." He isn't wrong. In the trailer for the film he shows me we meet a staunch Duke, his power-driven wife, their cowardly Physician, and learn of the dangers looming for each of them when the actions of the Duke’s headstrong son come to light on the night of their masquerade ball.
Of course, the production wasn't without its issues. The primary one: being a film with a low budget means less access to crew and equipment. Calling upon friends, family and volunteers the film was shot at a breakneck pace over a single weekend in Kilruddery House in Wicklow. Undaunted and undeterred by a lack of budget the production steamed ahead and where glitches arose creativity overcame. Frustratingly, after production wrapped further delays on the project were met as the the post production team working on the film were forced to work from home due to the pandemic resulting in a lengthy delay.
John Kelly’s enthusiasm for his film assisted him in overcoming each issue stating "Where problems arise I like to see as an opportunity". After the lengthy wait for post production to finalise, John using the time in-between to work on future projects for Clap 'n Load Studios, the film was released to competitions around the world and has been a resounding success receiving awards and nominations for Best Actor and Costume, to name a few. The delays in seeing his project come to life were no doubt disheartening at times, but the end result (which is slated to be released on Christmas Day) and trailer that will be released this coming Friday are a testament to his passion for film-making.
Support Masquerade
YOU SHOULD’VE BEEN THERE…
Derek Masterson recounts the official premiere of Clap ‘n Load Studios’ first three film productions at The Whale Theatre on November 28th.
Sunday (28th November, 2021) marked a most joyous occasion in Clap 'n Load Studios history as it was the official premiere screening of, not one, but THREE short movies in The Whale Theatre (Greystones, Co. Wicklow).
The hard work, perseverance and much perspiration of the teams behind each movie throughout the past two years culminated in a greatly anticipated event that, not only delivered on the promise of high quality films with great entertainment, but exceeded it.
Since its inception in 2019 Clap 'n Load Studios has aspired to making the most ambitious of movies that push the boundaries in terms of what is achievable on a low budget scale. Film Director of each film, Founder of Clap 'n Load Studios and MC for the evening, John Kelly, told the audience "According to Dublin City Council a micro-budget production is anything under €150,000...well we had a lot less than that!" as he effortlessly hosted the gala.
"Masquerade", a period piece set in England just before the 1916 Irish Rebellion, impressed the audience in terms of acting, narrative and costume, while "Visionaries", a short documentary about visually impaired Irish musicians (funded by Galway Film Centre), illustrated John Kelly's versatility as a film maker and was warmly received with intrigue as the audience connected with the subject matter and rapturously responded with laughter at intervals. The film’s creative visual recreation of the varying sight conditions of each of the film’s subjects was highly praised, and audience members commented again and again on how it opened their minds to a previously unexplored world and made them think about how those around them experience life. "Nevermore", the headline act of the evening, a Sci-Fi Irish drama with black Irish humour expertly sewn into the fabric of the story wowed the audience in terms of what Clap 'n Load could achieve in terms of scale and scope on even the most modest of budgets with impressive special effects, score and set design.
Each short film presented something very different to the sell-out audience and helped establish Clap 'n Load as an already prolific film production studio that's gone from strength to strength in its short existence to date and the 28th of November, 2021 will go down in the history of the company as one of great importance.
You should've been there...