John relishing the director’s role

Fergus Dennehy talks to Dingle filmmaker John Kennedy about leaving his career in banking to pursue a more creative life, learning the tricks of the trade in Fás, why he loves the technical side of filmmaking, his career highlights to date, what he is cur

FRESH from the controversy that surrounded the Oscar nominated film ‘Detainment’ which he worked on, John Kennedy is now ready to step into the spotlight on his own merit.

A Dingle native and a former bank worker in Dublin - a job that he got “totally sick of” - John said that eight years ago he made the decision to embrace a more creative lifestyle and made the move into filmmaking and that he hasn’t looked back since.

“I was always mad into films. I just absolutely ate them up, I just watched loads and loads and I was always kind of interested in how they were made, but I never really thought about getting into it myself,” said John speaking last Thursday.

“I already paint and I’ve played music for years so I was always in that creative space. I worked in a bank for a few years in Dublin and then got totally sick of that and so I came back to Dingle. I heard that Fás were doing a film course and so I applied for it. I had a few little things and videos done. I got the course and honestly, it was the best thing I’ve ever done,” he continued.

Going in completely cold with no prior knowledge of video editing or filmmaking was the situation. John was as fresh as they came, but it was seemingly a match made in heaven with John telling me that he “took to the camera work like a duck to water.”

“I think that I wanted to specialise in cameras, like support systems for cameras. When you know the technical side of things, you know what your camera can give you. I was a camera assistant for five years and I know every camera going now and what they’re capable of, what they can give you in low light or high light and all that. I know all this now and I feel like I should progress,” he said.

After graduating in 2012, John set about cutting his teeth in what is regarded as one of the toughest industries to break into; one of the very first projects that he worked, he tells me, was a Channel 4 production where he worked alongside veteran camera man, Tony Burn as a camera assistant.

It is these jobs and other jobs on set over the last seven years that have helped him to grow into the filmmaker that sits before me - a filmmaker ready to fully embrace the role of a director.

“Being on set, you learn so much more. Like about the flow of a shoot, how tight everything is for time and how important it is, even in your own projects, to have deadlines because if you don’t, projects can just leak on for months.”

“I am calling myself a director now. I have a couple of short films in the pipeline so the next few steps is to get them up and running by raising a bit of money and get them off the ground,” he said.

“I’ve sorted out locations for the first short film that I’ve written and I even have a friend to produce it for me. The short is going to be called ‘Trophy Girl’, it’s about 12 minutes and it’s all going to be set in Dingle. We’re hoping to start filming that at the end of April or the start of May. We’re in the middle of casting at the moment.”

Speaking about what it’s like to be in charge of casting his very own film for the first time, John admits that it’s slightly surreal but a role that he is relishing due to the creative freedom which it allows him.

“I do enjoy being in charge because from doing art and music and stuff, I like to put my own stamp on my projects. I mean, I do love collaborating but there is always a point where you have your own vision and you want to express yourself,” he said.

With a burgeoning directing career on the cusp of taking off, I ask John to look back on his career so far and what are the highlights that stand out to him and what is coming on the horizon.

“Working on the ‘Young Offenders’ movie was a big, big highlight for me. It was my first big project and I think that’s my proudest highlight to date. I was working as a camera assistant in a very small crew and it was such a haul. It was really hard work but I stand by the work. It was definitely a highlight.”

“The next highlight though will be to finish my short, ‘Trophy Girl’. I’m very excited about that. Other than this, I’ll be starting a podcast in May. I don’t know what it’s called yet but it’s going to have different sections about music, movies, mental health and then I will have interviews with people from different careers like teachers, hairdressers.”

“I’m doing it all anyway so I might as well get paid for it,” he laughed.

John is currently looking to widen his network of creative collaborators and is calling on anyone who wants to work with him orwho wants to send him a script to email him at johnkennedy675@gmail.com.