Voting for the final round of RTÉ’s Storyland competition officially opened yesterday (Monday May 28), with the remaining three finalists uploading the last instalments of their webisodes online.
Comedies ‘Student Teacher’ and ‘The Begrudgers’ will battle it out with drama ‘Trouble Times Three’ for the top prize in the hopes of being commissioned for a web series.
For the last three years, Storyland has given filmmakers the opportunity to develop a series of webisodes, with the prospect of extending the shows to a full television series.
One of this year’s finalists is ‘Storyland’, a comedy/drama about overachiever Conor Shaw, who graduates early from school only to find himself back teaching his old class. Conor O’Toole stars, with a number of Irish comedians making up the rest of the cast, including Carol Tobin (The Savage Eye), Neil Molloy (Republic of Telly) and Kevin McGahern (Hardy Bucks).
Giles Brody (Life Coach) wrote and directed the series, with Rory Walsh of Spire Digital in Galway and Damon Blake producing. Cormac Walsh was director photography. The webisodes were shot in Athenry School.
The second finalist is ‘The Begrudgers’, also a comedy which is set in Cavan, and shows characters Nobby and Snout rethink spending their days begrudging the rest of the world when two enthusiastic people enter their lives.
Shane Carroll (Murder on Main Street) and Ray Fitzsimons (Flat Lake) star, with Will Govan and Brianne Fitzpatrick co-starring. Philip Doherty (The Drunk Ouija Board) wrote the scripts. John McKeown, Aine Corby and Jessica Duggan all produced with Finn Keenan the director of photography.
The third finalist is ‘Trouble Times Three’, a drama about a man named Scott who finds out he is expecting three babies with three different women all at the same time. Declan Reynolds (Lose the Booze) plays Scott, with Audrey Hamilton playing one expectant mother and Michelle Beamish playing another. Reynolds wrote the scripts, with producer John McKeown and director Eoin Cleland (Free House). The webisodes were filmed in Monaghan.
Voting opened at 10am yesterday morning and will remain open until Monday June 4. RTÉ will announce the overall winner on Tuesday, June 5.
Previous Storyland success stories include 2009 winners ‘Hardybucks’, the comedy series which went on to run a full series on RTÉ. Written by Chris Tordoff, Martin Maloney and Mike Cockayne, ‘Hardybucks: The Movie’ recently received a
€175,000 production loan from the IFB to develop the film.
To see the final webisodes of the 2012 finalists and to vote for your favourite, visit RTÉ’s Storyland page.
