Film is everything for Kerry’s Noel

In this weeks interview, Fergus Dennehy talks to Listowel filmmaker Noel McElligott about his own ‘weird and wacky’ beginnings in movie making, why he feels that a director should be as skilled as those working with him and why he loves to film here in Ke

LISTOWEL’S Noel McElligott is a man on a mission - a mission to learn everything that he can about the intricacies and the craft of film-making; it is what drives him, what gets him out of bed in the morning, what he lives and breathes, it is, as Noel simply puts it himself, his ‘white whale and his obession’.

Hailing from a little area called Greenville, a few minutes drive from Listowel, this ‘obession’ of Noel’s has already seen the young filmmaker amass credits as an editor, director, actor and cinematographer in over two dozen films, including a recent award for his two-minute short film ‘Timekeeper’ - something that when he first made his initial humble foray into the film world, he could have scarely believed was possible.

“How I got involved in it [filmmaking] was pretty random and mainly because I had a friend who was kind of really going through a rough time in his life and he rang me up out of the blue one day and said: ‘Noel, do you wanna produce some films with me?’ and I thought it was weird for him to ask me because at the time I was doing Theatre Production and had no real experience making films,” he said, talking to The Kerryman last Friday.

There are humble beginnings in someone’s career and then as Noel jokes, there is how he got started - something which when talking to Noel, you can still hear the mixture of pride and slight embarrassment in his voice as he recalls the memories of those early movies.

“It was just this completely weird and wacky thing and looking back – I don’t know if you could call what we were doing, film-making,” he laughed”

“We started shooting these really weird little comedy films around Tralee and when I say weird, I mean really weird – think random, random to the point where it’s not funny anymore – I mean, we would have one friend dress up as a cow and he’d pour milk over his head and I would be hiding somewhere in the street filming it!”

As random and as ‘weird’ that these early films were, Noel admited that he was hooked from the very beginning and that he knew that this was something that he wanted to progress further in - even if it was just to show his parents a videothat didn’t involve cows and milk!

“He had a laptop and this small camcorder and we just started filming and I had always loved movies and I got notions in my head that if I ever got to work with real actors, we wouldn’t have to film this weird stuff anymore – that maybe I could become respectable and I could actually show my parents what I was making for once!” he chuckled.

With a qualification in Theatre Production from the famous Tinteán Theatre in Ballybunion under his belt and this newly acquired film experience to boot, Noel now set his sights on the bright lights of Cork City, a place where he knew that he could fine tune his new found craft.

“I got to study a film course there in Cork for two years and it was the foundation for all that I know now - it was just a really practical and hands on course and I really learnt a lot from it.”

The hands on aspect of film-making is the aspect of the

craft that drives Noel; he says that he is forever trying to upskill himself and that it is this desire to be the best that he can be that led to him to choose directing as his preferred area of the craft.

“At first I thought that I was going to be a cinematographer or a camera man but I found that I liked directing the most – I like being in control, I like doing my own thing you know? I always describe it as ‘I like to bring the mountain to me’.”

“That’s how I describe it, you know, instead of chasing after work, I’m able to go out there and do my own thing – I can be an independent operator, that’s what I really enjoy.”

“I’ve worked on about two dozen films as an editor, cinematographer and a director – I’ve done about four films as a director but I’m also obsessed with technical side of things – I love absolutely everything about the craft of film-making.”

One of these four films in which Noel has been behind the camera for, was his latest film ‘Timekeeper’ - a film which captured the hearts and minds of judges at the ‘Donal Walsh Live Life’ film competition, where the film was named as one of the three winners in ‘Adult’ category.

“It was about this old antique store owner who is this lonely bachelor and he’s working up the courage to ask out his local barmaid on a date – I’d describe it as a real comedy of errors – it was just a lot of fun to make.”

“We were delighted with and it was nice to get recognition for the work – we filmed it all in Listowel and as a side note, I have to say, filming in your home town was a really weird, but very special experience for me personally.”

“We’ve another film almost ready to go now at the moment called ‘Writers Block - t’s about a young man who is trying to come to terms with his writing career and you get the sense throughout the film that he’s had a great tragedy in his life and he’s struggling with that but he’s pouring this into his work aswell.”

“We joke that because it’s been sitting on my computer for so many years, we’ve started calling it Editors Block, but all going well now, I think we’ll have that launched in about four days now so we’re very excited for that to be out in the world and for peope to be able to see it.”

What is it that most inspires Noel to make a film? As with all creatives and ‘dreamers’ out there, Noel says that there is scope for a film in every little thing that he sees throughout his day and that it is these endless possibilities whuch excites him the most.

“I could be walking around town and I might just see something and I would just get excited and my imagination might start running wild with ideas of ‘what could I do with this?’ or ‘what could this be?’”

“With all of the camera technology out there at the moment, you can capture this idea or vision in your onto and bring it to the screen – I sometimes think of it as a dream machine – you can create what you see in head.”

As with most young Kerry film-makers, he says he and the rest of us living here in Kerry are spoilt by the wealth of opportunities for film-makers in the county

“I’d absolutely encourage as many film-makers as possible to film here in Kerry, there’s just something about the county – we’re natural storytellers here, we like to talk absolute nonsense sometimes and it just seems to work; we have the scenery here, we have everything that film-makers could need so we’re blessed in that sense.”

The future is bright for this young filmmaker and he admis that as long as can he make a living out of it and that people still enjoy what he does and what he creates, then he’ll keep on going as long as he can.

“The short term goal for me at the moment is to create more short films and then move on to make my first feature length film – realistically though in the long run, I’d just love to have a sustainable career, to be able to pay the bills and make projects that I like, that I want to do and that people enjoy watching – that’s the dream and hopefully I can achieve that.”

With all that he has achieved so far, we think it is quite safe to say that we’ll be hearing a lot more from Noel and his team, so keep your eyes on the screens!

I just like being in control of a film, I like doing my own thing - I always describe it as ‘I like to bring the mountain to me. Instead of chasing work, I can go and do my own thing.