Two years ago Pearse Moore produced the Oscar nominated short, Dance Lexie Dance. With international acclaim comfortably under his belt he set to work on his next project, the 26-minute animated film The Kings Wake. Gary Quinn travelled to Derry to see the result.
Sitting alone in a preview cinema screening can be a strange experience. It’s colder than usual, the projectionist speaks directly to you and you’re aware that immediately afterwards you will have to conjure up an intelligent appraisal of the film directly to its makers. You realise that you really want to love it.
Relax - I did.
Actor Stephan Rea picks up the lead voice of Conor, the King of Ulster, in this epic reworking of the mythical tales of the Ulster Cycle. Set during the King’s last fear-filled days, it takes an eager and powerful approach to the myths and legends that form the basis for Ulster’s present day reality. Although a work of fiction and highly entertaining simply as a story to be told, there is a powerful subtext running through it. “We wanted to reflect the element of machismo that runs through Irish politics, the being afraid to back down,” explained producer Pearse Moore. “We were very attached to the idea that Celtic mythology be used to tell a story for the modern day.”
The film contains a combination of 3D backgrounds rendered on the software platform SoftImage, and 2D hand-drawn character animation overlays. “When we started in 1996 this was the first animation that was using this combination of technology and traditional techniques. Then Prince of Egypt came out last year and their press material focused on how they were the first feature animation to do the same. We were beaten to the punch,” explained Pearse Moore smiling. “We just wanted to play with the aesthetics of the film. If you look at the Kings Wake you can see that there are a lot of different visual styles.”
“…more film orientated than animation…”
A high point of the film, includes a hand held camera effect to show the point of view of the King when he is being tormented by his past deeds. Indeed, Moore claims the original vision of the project to have been more film orientated than animation. His co-producer Martin Melarky working with writer Damien Gorman brought a visual style to the writing process which includes such diverse film references as the films, Good Fella’s and Sunset Boulevard - and it shows. The SoftImage package used in the production of the film allowed the development team to take these references and apply them to an animation genre. “The script really evolved from these kind of references,” explained Moore. “That was something that we thought we simply couldn’t achieve using only traditional backgrounds and techniques,” he said.
Although Kings Wake director John McCloskey achieved international acclaim with his last short animation, Midnight Dance, the animation sector in Northern Ireland is not as strong as it potentially could be, explains Moore. “Animation is a poor cousin of drama and television and it is on the periphery of filmmaking. There’s no patronage of animators from the broadcasters based in Ireland. RTE support animation through the Frameworks scheme but that’s only for 5-minute productions. People want to do half hour programmes. If you go to Channel 4 or BBC Bristol there is an investment in key animators who have a vision, like Barry Purvis or Mick Park. And it works.”
The Kings Wake could have been a feature had the funding been available. To navigate this funding deficit the production team have decided to produce a trilogy and that the three pieces can stand alone or as a feature. “The Kings Wake on one level is about guilt, but the rest of the trilogy is about redemption, what’s next? Are you given forgiveness for your sins?” Moore explains.
Currently seeking development funding for the trilogy, chasing finance has become marginally easier since their success with Dance Lexie Dance. “It’s like having a currency, money in the bank. When we go out with a project and try to make our first contact we can sell ourselves as Oscar nominated producers and writers, and people understand that. It makes a sort of sense to them.” he says laughing. Usually that’s as far as it gets them though, a foot in the door. “Its as hard as ever for us to put a package together. I think that had we been further ahead in terms of the development of a number of other projects at the time we got the Oscar nomination, I think we would have been able to make much more of it.”
“…An Academy Award nomination is like a currency…”
He is quick to acknowledge the opportunity it provided him though. “We were in the belly of the beast for a while. We did a lot of meetings, some of which were very good and some not so useful but it was all experience.” He recalls one meeting where he sat across a table from a man who claimed to be a phone call away from getting them $40 million funding for their next project and in the next breath asked them what side of the political divide they were on. “4,000 miles away from Northern Ireland and we were still being asked what foot we kick with. It was horrendous to think we were sitting with someone who has so much power and we were pitching him ideas to try and get development funding and at the end it was all bull,” he says laughing. This was an isolated incident and far removed from the welcome they received elsewhere. “A friend of John Hume’s invited us to dinner in Malibu and the bill would have financed a short film. There were 12 of us eating and 24 waiters. It was incredible. Just going into diners and seeing the reaction form ordinary people was great,” he explained.
He is reluctant to talk too much about the Oscar trip for fear that he will sound like he is bragging. Moore prefers to focus on what is happening right now in Derry since then.
“An academy award is a currency that everyone recognises but what is important is what you are taking away today, an idea of how hard people work to get ideas and scripts and development money and make things happen. We’re no different. It’s about getting the job done,” he explains.
“…billed as a bitter sweet romantic comedy…”
Right now they are working on a feature which has just received confirmation of development funding from the Northern Ireland Film Board entitled Next Dance Please. Set in Derry, it is billed as a bitter-sweet romantic comedy. This is the first feature that Moore feels will benefit from the contacts they made in LA with Dance Lexie Dance. “Its important to be realistic and make a film which can be made locally within a budget and can be artistically good.” It is clear that Pearse Moore takes pride in the fact that his projects have a local background. “Its important to be based here at this time but that doesn’t mean that Next Dance Please precludes wider British, Irish or international inputs. When it gets up and running, that’s when the local endeavour begins to connect with the international endeavour. We’re open to that.”
Connecting filmmakers is always a central focus for Moore. His other day job is as Chief Executive of the Nerve Centre in Derry. Consequently he believes in investing and nurturing local filmmaking. “Film is essentially a collaborative process, so get connected and lets get something going. I think that that kind of praxis is essential. I had a phone call yesterday from someone who wanted to get involved in film and didn’t know where to start. He was offering to come in and make the coffee. I thought ‘you shouldn’t be offering that. You should be saying, have you any spare stock, can you lend me a camera for a day or is there a writer I can work with? Don’t be afraid to do it. People will give you the support.”
The Kings Wake will have its world premiere screening at the London-Irish Film Festival on Thursday 2nd March in the Tricycle Cinema Kilburn
Tel: +44 171 328 0795
Visit the Nerve Centre at www.nerve-centre.org.uk
