Work Begins on National Film School Building | The Irish Film & Television Network

Announcing the government's approval of the project Mary Coughlan said it was a major capital project for the suburb of Dun Laoghaire. The new 1,315sq/m film school building will accommodate 385 students, with courses in film, television and radio brought together in one building. It will also allow for new courses to be introduced in specific areas of film and television production.

The NFS Building will contain two HD television studios one of which will have croma key (green-screen) capabilities, two radio studios along with classrooms, offices and ancillary production spaces. It will be the most up to date facility for education in film and television production in Ireland.

The contractor (Michael McNamara & Co. Ltd.) has been appointed and the new building's design team includes ABK Architects, Whyte Young Green Consulting Engineers, Punch Consulting Engineers and Healy Kelly Turner Townsend Quantity Surveyors.

Talking to IFTN, the Head of Department of Film and Media and Creative Director of the National Film School, Donald Taylor Black says the project was first proposed ten years ago. He tells us what exactly the role of the new building will be "It will act as the headquarters of the B.A. in Film and Television course and the M.A. in Broadcast Production."The building will have new radio studios to replace the current one which are to be demolished however the existing TV studios will be kept alongside the new ones. As mentioned the new studios will be the only HD facility in Ireland and will be used for both multi and camera.

The new NFS building was designed following visits to other studios in both RTÉ and TV3 and discussions with a number of highly rated international film schools, which are, like IADT, members of CILECT, the International Association of Film and Television Schools. The new facility will allow for the future introduction of more postgraduate programmes, Donald tells us, amongst them will be an MA in Documentary making, and then soon afterwards a suite of others probably including, Fiction Directing, Cinematography, Animation, and Film Production & Finance.

The €5 million that the government has awarded the building project will not cover the cost of the equipment required, the purchase and installation of which will be financed by a fundraising drive that began place two years ago and saw 78 organisations and individual,s including IFTN, RTÉ, TV3, IFTA, Screenscene, Windmill Lane, Walt Disney Pictures Ireland, Element Pictures, Parallel Films, Jim Sheridan and Roddy Doyle, support the National Film School as Founding Sponsors. Donald tells IFTN that the second phase of the funding drive is to begin shortly to allow for the aforementioned equipment, scholarships and regular visiting fellowships. The new NFS building is expected to be ready for the academic year starting September/October 2011.

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