THE ATHENRIDES ARE HERE! (2 Viewers)

[Scientician 0.8]

Yep.

 

[brixtoncat]

oh pardon me, I apologize. I did send one de-rep to Scientician... I openly admit it, but I was de-repped by him first.

Please, arrest me officer, for I put spam on forums and find it amusing that people work themselves into a tizzy over an un-funny 3 minute film about a fake band. I apologize for ruining everyone's day and promise to never ever try to share what I thought was a little bit of creativity attempting to poke fun at the Irish love of novelty acts. (slaps herself on the wrist) bad bad brixtoncat!

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Keep that promise and we can be friends.

 

[Wilbert]

oh pardon me, I apologize. I did send one de-rep to Scientician... I openly admit it, but I was de-repped by him first.

Please, arrest me officer, for I put spam on forums and find it amusing that people work themselves into a tizzy over an un-funny 3 minute film about a fake band. I apologize for ruining everyone's day and promise to never ever try to share what I thought was a little bit of creativity attempting to poke fun at the Irish love of novelty acts. (slaps herself on the wrist) bad bad brixtoncat!

Well, at least you've learned your lesson.

Hey everybody, to prove we're not begrudgers of Irish talent, who's up for some Irish Seinfeld?

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=6785278870496324219

 

[Skrankio-X]

Ah, that's nice.
Now I want something from my de-repper. Hello? Cherrymorello?

 

[pissypants]

hmmmm... yet yer all talking about it.

Your right. Talking about something automatically means it's amazing.

 

[coast to coast]

Is that Dirk Kuyt?!

Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kuyt!

(It was the first annual Beatles day in Liverpool yesterday, which I found out whilst watching LFCTV.)

 

[Wheels]

If I may, I'd like to offer some constructive criticism.

The Athenrides was produced as part of the Irish Film Board's Virtual Cinema funding scheme, which offers a very small budget to enable people to creation a two minute film. It's open to anyone with 'some relevant past experience.' The guidelines also state that

'The scheme aims to encourage exploration of fresh filmmaking ground, with no creative holds barred. Deliberately, no guidelines are offered at this stage with regard to content or style, though material likely to give serious offence is unlikely to be funded.'

The aim of this scheme, like the others offered by the IFB, is to hopefully produce some decent pieces of short film, and promote them as examples of Irish talent. For me, this is where the problems begin. In the case of Virtual Cinema, the guidelines written above clearly state that the board do not actively oversee the content of what they're funding. That is to say, if you tick x amount of boxes, almost anyone can have their idea funded regardless of the quality of the script, acting etc;

This in itself is fine. The internet is awash with similar attempts at comedy and drama, some better, some worse.
In defence of the Athenrides, it's not the worst thing ever made, it's just not particularly original or funny, (although no where near as bad as the aforementioned 'Paranoid Fat Chick' travesty). Thusly, it's added to a long line of similar projects that have been funded by the Filmboard, and RTE over the years. The same lack of quality control and input has led to slew of poorly realised television comedies like Extra Extra, Upwardly Mobile, The Cassidys right up to recent The Roaring Twenties. Similarly, government funded projects have been responsible for plenty of terrible short films and animations.

My point is that rather than just blame the people creating the work, what about the responsibilities of the funders, the promoters and broadcasters? Yes, they can only work with what they're given, but there has always been a distinct lack of quality control when it comes to what's given a green light in this country. If people are told 'yes, this is a great idea, go for it - why wouldn't they? The Roaring Twenties was utter shit, but the producers didn't care, they took the money and ran. The person or persons who commissioned that are the ones that should be lynched.

Were the rest of the Virtual Cinema applications so terrible that board simply gave the grants to whoever wanted them? I doubt it. Were there more interesting ideas that would have been a little less safe style and content wise that weren't risked? Probably. Could the commissioned scripts have benefited from some outside input and so make them more successful shorts? Definitely.

And if there was someone paid to do that role, then they clearly shouldn't be in that job. Now we have a situation where a collection of Irish works are being marketed as what this country is capable of, and for the most part will be quite rightly savaged by a weary audience. Irish audiences know funny, but rarely get to laugh and applaud their own.

In a perfect world, the likes of Barry Murphy and Graham Linehan would be employed to dissect, critique and help create some genuine quality Irish comedic work.

But then again they wouldn't want to, and sure who could blame them.

 

[simp]

YouTube - Neal Medlyn's Coming In The Air Tonight

 

[taubstumm]

wheels 4 taoiseach

 

[egg_]

what wheels said

 

[Doctor Muscles]

what everyone who said that video isn't very funny said

 

[Froog]

Please, arrest me officer, for I put spam on forums and find it amusing that people work themselves into a tizzy over an un-funny 3 minute film about a fake band. I apologize for ruining everyone's day and promise to never ever try to share what I thought was a little bit of creativity attempting to poke fun at the Irish love of novelty acts. (slaps herself on the wrist) bad bad brixtoncat!

the only one getting worked up here is you mate. if you can't take criticism than maybe you'd be better off doing something not in the public eye?

 

[brixtoncat]

if you can't take criticism than maybe you'd be better off doing something not in the public eye?

In my defense, I can completely take criticism - I am not offended in the slightest by any comments made about the film, and I don't know where you got that idea, since it certainly wasn't based on any of my replies, if you've bothered to read all two of them.

To be perfectly honest, I'm actually pretty satisfied with the response that this thread has had about the film, it obviously has created a lot of discussion, mostly negative, true, but I'd rather be part of something that ignites a reaction than something that is so bland that people can't even be bothered to talk about. I'm sure I'll get more flaming for saying that, but again, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

 

[Wilbert]

To be perfectly honest, I'm actually pretty satisfied with the response that this thread has had about the film, it obviously has created a lot of discussion, mostly negative, true, but I'd rather be part of something that ignites a reaction than something that is so bland that people can't even be bothered to talk about. I'm sure I'll get more flaming for saying that, but again, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Thing is, I don't think anyone will be talking about it outside this thread.

It's not the worst thing I've ever seen (Irish Seinfeld holds that honour) but it is very unimaginative and poorly executed.

You say you'd rather be talked about than ignored but if people are talking about how pointless and bad it is then surely that will ultimately lead to it being ignored. Not sure how that is better than being ignored straight off.

 

[Froog]

hey brixtoncat, were you involved with this at all?

 

[brixtoncat]

Jesus! I wish! That looks amazing!

 

[kidney]

comedy is more difficult than it looks. fair dues for giving it a whirl anyway.


i'll never forgive virtual cinema for refusing to commission my script 'couchfucker'- but at least their refusal motivated me to make something for zero-budget, a sort of short film/music video hybrid..

a lot of my mates aren't that into the tune but i love it for some reason it's similar to thou shalt not kill at the start of The Lost Boys...

funding is pretty rare tho. i think out of 10 or so applications i've got 2 grants....

 

[Wheels]

zero-budget, a sort of short film/music video hybrid..

Threadjacker!

 

[paul-]

but at least their refusal motivated me to make something for zero-budget, a sort of short film/music video hybrid..

this is really nice..ive watched it a couple times
the last day or two. very cool!