Interview: Storyland Semi-Finalists Talk Team Production & Competition

Currently in its third year, Storyland is an online drama competition which looks to offer new talent an alternative opportunity to develop a drama series online. Storyland co-ordinator Aillish Kent instigated the compeition and tells us her aim in intorducing the online compeition: "RTÉ was looking to create a way of reaching out to people who weren't a part of our normal submission process,"she starts. "Online was a space that we didn't really feature in at that time so I wanted to use that to embody the spirit of the competition because online is very democratic. I saw it as a way of letting people know that, as a public service broadcaster, we can be approachable."

This year’s installment of the RTÉ competition launched in September 2010 following which 91 scripts landed in the Donnybrook post box. Of those just eight were chosen and – two webisodes each later – that group has been further whittled down to four contenders via an online vote.

The first of these is Kilkenny based Thankless Films’ ‘Rent a Friend’ where Dave and Der – two guys who are out of college and out of work decide to sell the only asset they have - their friendship. Thankless Films have joined with Kite Entertainment’s Amanda Spencer (Anonymous) to produce the series, a partnership that was borne out of an innovative approach by the team behind the project Der Tobin and Dave Minogue: “We didn’t know a huge amount about the workings of the industry,”’Rent a Friend’ actor and co-writer Der Tobin tells us. ”So we just started cold calling production companies and got really, really lucky getting Kite on board.”

The next group left standing is Colm Cafferkey’s ‘Lucky Run’, a drama from Capaillín Bán Teo set in a small town in the West of Ireland where lead character Robbie has 48 hours to repay a finger-chopping gangster €5000 and prevent his train-wreck of a life from steamrolling into the fireworks factory. The project has received a huge amount of support from locals, all of whom seem to be quite au fait with the Storyland set up ”People in Tuam have been absolutely amazing,” producer Deirdre de Grae tells us. ”We had a screening of the first two episodes in the local pub, Canavan’s and the series has gone down a treat so far because the people here get every local joke and nuance in each episode.”

The next project to be shortlisted this year is Ivan McMahon’s ‘The Outlaw Concy Ryan’, a Limerick based mockumentary that follows proud Moyhill native Concy Ryan as he struggles to preserve his way of life in the face of a new government initiative to regenerate the area. ”It’s what the Americans call ‘dramady’, a comedy drama.” explains creator Francis Ryan, who also plays Concy in the show. The series’ other star is Geronimo the horse who had to fight for his place in the show, it would seem: ”We had loads of offers from people with horses for theirs to be used,”Francis tells us. ”But we needed one that was stabled so that brought the numbers down a good bit.”

The final Storyland competitor is Dublin based production, ‘The Last Security Man’, produced, written and starring Liam Hourican (iCandy). The show is a comedy about Dirk, a Belgian security guard and self styled action hero, who stands for security and civilisation while working in a Dublin shopping centre and his rookie side-kick Tom. Cathal Watters (Rolla Saor) and Rachel Lysaght (The Pipe) are the producers of the show which reflects past experiences of Liam’s ”I lived in Belgium when I was young and so Dirk is based on several people I knew then,” he says. ”I would talk to guys in bars wearing nothing but leather and sporting handlebar moustaches and I knew it would work brilliantly as a story.”

As it stands each of the productions are working on their third webisodes – following a two-day shoot, each group’s marketing campaign will, one can only imagine, swing into over-drive. “50% of our energy goes in to making the programme and the other 50% goes in to the marketing and promotion of the show,” Liam Hourican tells us. Francis Ryan is in agreement, ”this competition is won through Facebook, no doubt about it. We’re doing a few live events but ultimately it will be through online promotion that this thing will be won.” ‘Rent a Friend’s Der Tobin re-iterates the importance of social networking sites for competition victory but also cites a rather more old-fashioned method of promotion: ”The power of word of mouth has helped us out a lot,” he explains, ”that said we still have a fairly low-key celebrity presence in Kilkenny, people only seem to recognise us after they’ve had a few drinks in the pub!”

A win in the competition does not guarantee a series for any of the competitors but all harbour hopes of a TV series future for their projects, like winners of the first Storyland competition, ‘The Hardy Bucks’. “It’s a great competition in that it brings strong cast and crews together because it’s well known at this stage and a good thing to be a part of,” Liam Hourican tells us. “Even those who don’t win will have four strong episodes to bring in to future pitches.” Capaillín Bán Teo’s Deirdre de Grae tells us that the competition has already benefited her and fellow producer, Eamon de Staic: ”I have a documentary background but we had been trying to get more in to drama production,” she says. “Storyland is a great opportunity to do that.”

However, as a downside the €8,000 budget allowed for each episode does appear to be taking its toll on the filmmakers. Storyland co-ordinator, Ailish Kent tells us that a lot of research goes into the budget allowance for the webisodes: "We look at each team's budget sheets and I would definitely say that every penny they spend goes up on the screen, she says. "We've lower the max duration from 7 minutes in the first year to six but kept the same budget because it is workable but still challenging."

When asked if the opportunity of a TV series with RTÉ will ever be offered as a prize in the compeition, Ailish is firm: "We don't want to have that as a prize because then people will lose site of the goal of Storyland," she says. "It's more so a way of people getting to grip with writing episodically and becoming known in RTÉ. The point of Storyland is to meet people who will eventually become involved in our drama area."She says. Such was definitely the case for Screenworks who took part in the first Storyland compeition and are currently in development with a four part drama for RTÉ, 'Amber'. Der Tobin is acutely aware of this goal of the compeition, telling us that:”it’s a really great way of getting some drama production experience and an understanding as to the working of television production.”

Voting for the next round of the competition launches on Wednesday, April 27th with the overall competition winner announced on Wednesday, June 1st. For more information about this year’s Storyland finalists visit www.rte.ie/storyland/

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