MAKE YOUR MOVIE FILMMAKERS ARE BEING DRAWN HERE BY A WEBSITE SHOWING THE COUNTY’S GLORIES
HOLLYWOOD, here we come, as a new website promotes County Wexford as the perfect location for movies, building on the success of earlier projects such as ‘Saving Private Ryan’ ‘The Sea’ and ‘Brooklyn’.
Wexford County Council in partnership with Creative Ireland have gone live with the website wexfordfilmlocations. ie to attract more film investment into the county which has already hosted a number of high profile movie productions.
The message is that County Wexford has a stunning and varied landscape with a rich maritime and Norman heritage, lending itself well to the wide variety of backdrops and settings that film location companies need.
Film locations manager Gor- don Wycherley who worked on ‘ Brooklyn’, was contracted earlier this year by Wexford County Council’s Arts and Economic Development Departments to audit the county and create a database of locations that would particularly appeal to film companies and film location managers.
The result is an extensive photo data base incorporating more than 4,000 images divided into more than 20 categories including beaches, castles, rivers, period houses and villages and one pub (Sinnott’s of Duncormick) all incorporated into an easy to navigate website.
The new website went live in early November with the best-selling author and Wexford Ambassador Eoin Colfer joining County Council chairman Cllr John Hegarty in the National Opera House to mark the occasion.
Cllr Hegarty welcomed the website and said: ‘Having an industry eye in Gordon Wycherley to capture locations around the county and by working closely with the Irish Film Board, supported by Creative Ireland, we are confident that we will create more opportunities for Wexford in this sector.’
‘Location filming is worth a lot of money these days and Wexford has as much to offer as any other county in this area – I’m delighted to see the site being launched and have no doubt it will attract more interest in the county,’ said Eoin Colfer.
Ireland has experienced record levels of film production activity over the last two years, with the Irish Film Board estimating a €250m spend on feature films, TV drama and animation.
The indigenous and overseas film industry now has firm roots developed in Ireland, partly due to the Government Section 481 tax incentive.
‘The attraction of Ireland for overseas location filming is well-established but it is important not to underestimate how strong our indigenous industry has become’, said Carolyne Godkin, the economic development officer for Wexford.
She cited the countys’ most recent success, the Irish Film Board supported gothic horror movie ‘The Lodgers’ which was produced by the Dublin based production company, Tailored Films as an example.
‘Tailored Films took advantage of one of the Countys’ most iconic heritage building. Loftus Hall. The company effectively moved down to Wexford with over 100 cast and crew for a six-week period in late 2016, filming the vast majority of the movie in Loftus Hall, Johnstown Castle and Clongeen Village and bringing a boost in sales to many local businesses.’
Wexford County Council is working closely with the Irish Film Board to ensure the new site is promoted to location managers at home and round the globe, ‘As well as linking and promoting the WexfordFilmLocations.ie site through online and social media platforms, our plan is to continue to take advantage of film opportunities where we can and in particular to build a local film crew database to which we can promote these opportunities’, said council arts officer Liz Burns.