A two hour documentary, to be broadcast by National Geographic in the US, will begin filming off the coast of Kinsale, Co Cork this August. Produced by Lusitania Productions Ltd. in association with M3TV, the documentary, entitled ‘The Dark Secret of the Lusitania’, will attempt to uncover the mystery surrounding the sinking of Cunard Liner off the Southwest coast of Ireland in May 1915.
The documentary is being co-produced by Aidan Mulcahy (From Here to Maternity) of Cork based production company M3 with Dave Harding (Cave of Forgotten Dreams) executive producing. Niall Mahoney of Musketeer Production Services in Cork has been providing production support for the project.
The wreck of the Lusitania is owned by 83 year old American businessman Gregg Bemis, who will travel to Ireland to take part in the expedition. The Lusitania was torpedoed on May 7th 1915 by a U-boat off the coast of Cork. It took just 20 minutes to sink and approximately 1,200 people were killed. Rumours of a second explosion on the ship have led to speculation that there may have been ammunition on board the passenger vessel.
The project will use the local production services of Musketeer Production Services. Niall Mahoney of Musketeer explains that the production requires a lot of specialist equipment including atmospheric diving suits (Newtsuit), which will allow the diving team more time to examine the wreck. Musketeer have been busy prepping, and arranging the “crewing, shipping, docking, loading, dealing with Ringaskiddy Docks, the Granuaile Vessel, making sure that we have the power requirements, all the technical bits and pieces,” ahead of filming which will take place this August.
The production will be based in the Granuaile Vessel which has been chartered for an eight day trip and will remain above the wreck of the Lusitania for the dive. There will be five different cameras filming the wreck, explains Niall: “We will have HD cameras on the submarine, on the Newtsuit and the diving team will take down a camera. The ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) will have a camera as well. And then we will have pole Camera which will dip inside the ship once it opens up.”
A production office is currently being set up in Kinsale, which is the closest land location to the wreck. ‘The Dark Secret of the Lusitania’ will be filmed in HD digital.
The technical diving team will be lead by Irish diver Eoin McGarry with most of the sea faring crew and almost all of the television crew and support coming from Ireland. Niall Mahoney of Musketeer Production Services says the crew has been “handpicked to be multi-skilled. They need to be fit, they need to look after each other, and they need to undergo special safety at sea training. The crew are multi-talented and multi-skilled.”
Niall says that the use of Cork crew and support on the massive production shows the capabilities of the Cork production industry, “we can offer specialisation; multi-skilled, multi-talented people with lots of ideas and abilities with new technologies who can fit into any number of productions,” he says.
Musketeer have previously facilitated German production company Bavaria, who have made nine feature length television dramas called ‘Our Farm in Ireland’, in the past five years in Cork. These have pulled in an average audience of six million viewers. “We’ve got immense good will from local authorities, county councils, traffic wardens, and police. There is a very positive attitude to filming so you can really get things done.”
Niall Mahoney has also been employed by the Cork City Council to compile a database of Cork Filming Locations, and scouted one thousand Cork Locations. It is hoped that this database will be used by the newly formed Cork Screen Commission to help maximise the levels of film and television production in the area – with most of these locations available to view on IFTN locations section which can be found here: http://iftn.ie/locationsireland/irishlocationsregion/sublinks_static4/cork/.
For more information on Kinsale Town, visit HERE and for Musketeer Production Services, click HERE.
’The Dark Secrets of The Lusitania’ will be broadcast on National Geographic in 2012.
