The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan, will officially launch the Cork Screen Commission (CSC), Cork’s one-stop film shop, on November 11th during the Cork Film Festival.
This date also marks the launch of the CSC website, www.corkscreencommission.com, which will feature an extensive database of Cork based professionals, including cast and crew, film services and production companies and a locations database.
The CSC is a new initiative which aims to maximise the cultural and economic benefits of local film and television production in Cork. The commission will operate under the auspices of the Cork Film Centre, which works closely with filmmakers from entry-level to industry standard, to actively market the Cork region as a prime location for film and television production, to provide support for the region’s indigenous production and to those involved in the industry and to attract incoming investment to the area.
“The economic benefit from even the smallest television and film productions can have a huge influence on an area,” said Jason O' Mahony, new Cork Screen Commissioner. “Even relatively small productions can have a comparatively large economic effect but, at the risk of trotting out a cliche, you need to invest money before you can see a return, and Cork City and County Councils deserve fantastic credit for taking the initiative and setting out their stall to attract audio visual investment to the area.”
The CSC is jointly funded by Cork City and Cork County Councils. Films that have recently shot in the Cork region include Brendan Muldowney’s ‘Love Eternal’, which shot for four weeks in Cobh in August/September of this year, National Geographic Documentary ‘The Dark Secrets of the Lusitania’ which filmed this August off the coast of Kinsale and Ian Power’s Galway Film Fleadh winning feature ‘The Runway’, which filmed in Goleen and Schull Cork in 2009 and has recently been release don DVD by Element Pictures Distribution.
