NORTH WICKLOW FILM FOCUS
ACTOR BRIAN Matthews Murphy from Bray took a strange route to his profession.
‘I never went to acting school,’ he said. ‘I just worked until I was about 34 and decided it’s now or never.’ He was a gardener prior to that, and decided in 2014 he would take the chance and go in to acting full time.
He wanted to set a good example for his own daughter, in terms of trying to make a profession out of doing something you love.
Some of his projects have included the Lost City of Zed, filmed in Belfast in which he played Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand; and Ghost Adventures, an American TV show. He spent a day with a crew filming at the Hell Fire Club and telling its dark stories for a Halloween special. He also might be recognised as the guy on the treadmill beside Kevin Kilbane in Boyle Sports ads during the World Cup.
While he has focused mostly on film and TV, Brian has dipped a toe in theatre. He did a show called The Plot in The Axis in Ballymun. ‘It’s not feasible for me,’ he said. ‘I actually can’t afford theatre work. It’s very time consuming with rehearsals and shows.’
Brian came up with the idea for North Wicklow Filmmakers (NoWiFi), when deciding that there had to be a way for those in the film industry to take control of their own careers.
‘As an actor you have to wait for the phone to ring,’ said Brian. ‘There’s the frustration of that. I like to work and don’t like being inactive. The film industry in Wicklow is so big, there had to be other people in the same position.’
He set up a Facebook group, but notices online, and there was a huge response from actors, directors, writers, camera operators and others.
Their first meeting took place in The Strand in 2016 and was attended by about 25 people. In two years they have done 45 short films involving over 100 different people.
Brian said that creatively, it has been an amazing experience for everyone. ‘Especially with more experienced people in the group really helping beginners,’ he said. ‘Learning by doing is what I did as an actor,’ he said.
Their output has included films of one minute to 20 minutes.
Writer David Butler, also of NoWiFi, had been commissioned to do a series of 12 poems. NoWiFo created a film for each poem, with a team of actors and directors each taking on a poem. ‘I have done some directing,’ said Brian. ‘As a means to an end really. I wanted to play amazing parts. So I wrote parts to play. I directed some, some were directed by other people.’
He said that the process is very fluid. A writer might bring a script to a meeting. They may have a director or team already, or someone might jump in to take it.
The idea behind NoWiFi is that things which get started, will get finished. ‘So many short films disappear,’ said Brian. He described how, as an actor trying to build up experience, sometimes he would have put work into a project only for it to fall apart.
‘Before the group was started I’d done 20 short films, maybe 10 were finished. In just five I got the show reel back. Nobody is waiting on footage in this group.’
The next step for NoWiFi is a web series. ‘That would be a stepping stone to doing a feature.’ The idea was Byron Hayes’s while David Butler will write the script.
They are planning 40 minutes – so eight five-minute segments.
There is also a YouTube channel, and it’s up to the filmmakers whether they want to avail of that for their work.
The group has done quite well so far in festivals. They have won prizes twice in March on Film - David Butler for The Lobster Pot and Conor Waldron has taken best script for Confessional.
A couple of weeks ago, Rebecca Flynn won ‘best actress’ at the Alternative Film Festival for ‘Dandelion’, and Brian wrote and directed ‘Where’s Sami’, best online film at the Underground Film Festival.
One of the younger members, Ciaran Cullen (17), will have his first short film in Noise Flix Festival next month. Ciaran started out with a clapper board and has learned from his colleagues in the group.
the pieces are shown each month at mermaid Arts Centre. On the first ay of the month, the theatre Monda NoWiFi short before their main shows feature film. Every six months, the group has a night at Whale Theatre devoted to screening their work, selecting, with difficulty, what they think is the best of what they have done in the year so far. No WiFi meets every second Sunday evening in Duffs. The next meeting will take place on Sunday, November 4.