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Director of moving picture entertainment pieces.

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Somebody to Love wins 'Best Short Film' at Yellow Fever Film Festival!

Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009 5:12AM / Standard Entry

Hey Everyone,

It's been far too long since I've done an entry. So I'm pleased to say I have a new entry and something worth writing about too!

Somebody to Love recently won 'Best Short Film' at the Yellow Fever Film Festival! The festival was organised by George Clarke a man very much after my own heart. There were some great films shown so it was an honour to be chosen for Best Short.

The Festival was held in Northern Ireland so I was able to attend along with my family. I had a great time at the festival and it was a pleasure to be surrounded by like minded people. The festival organisers are a truly wonderful group of people and are film-makers in their own right, their feature film 'The Knackery' was premiered at the climax of the festival.

The Festivals guest of honour was AnD's own Mike Leeder who gave some very informative Q&A's and was generally an all round great person to be around for the festival. Mike will be doing a piece on the festival for Impact in the next issue so keep an eye out.

For my part I was asked to participate in some Filmmaker Q&A's, where the lucky festival goers got to hear my inane and incoherent ramblings about film-making which were nicely offset by Mike Leeder and the director of the feature film 'The Bodyguard: A New Beginning', Chee Keong Cheung, both of whom were clear and consise in their answers and have actual experience to speak from.

Happily my girlfriend Terumi was able to attend and enjoyed the fest too. I was very happy and proud that her and my parents were there to see me get the award. They put up with a lot from me during the making of the film so it was good for them to be there to see me get some kind of reward for my efforts and their suffering. So thanks again guys!

A big shout out to my cast for the film all of whom were very popular with the people at the fest who saw the film. There were a lot of action fans at the festival very impressed by Philip and James' moves and a lot of men who were impressed by Yennis!

Thanks as well to everyone involved in the film. I couldn't have done it without them and a large part of the win is down to their efforts. Especially thank you to Jayson Li who was tireless in his promotion of the films win and to Radwynn and Koko for their thanks.

I hope to be doing more entries in the weeks to come and I hope to have more things to write about too. In the meantime everyone take care and thanks for reading!

Seamus

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Short Scene from the movie

Tuesday, Apr 14, 2009 9:47AM / Standard Entry

Hello All,

Am very near the end of post production. Just waiting for my friend to be freed up from post production work on a paid job to be able to finish the VFX for the film and a few small things to fix in the sound mix.

Thought now would be a good time to show everyone a short action clip from the film. This scene takes place at the end of the 2nd act of the film and sets up the final action. It is a short scene as action scenes go but I must say I am quite proud of it.
Everyone involved did a great job but a special shout out to the action director Jude Poyer and Stunt man Ringo Chan Ka-leung who performs the flip at the end.

I hope at some stage to be able to go into more detail about certain directing decisions I made regarding shot selection but for this clip I will say that the close ups that begin the scene were not what I had originally intended. I prefer using a wider lens to show more depth in the frame and I had originally wanted to bring other characters into the scene without using cutaways. However I couldn't afford to pay overtime for the background actors so I ended using a longer lens to get close to the characters and to show less of the background so as not to give away that the people in the background of a previous scene were now missing! I was lucky however as I found that by shooting it this way it gives the scene a more focused energy as the two leads are now all we see which I think helps bring you into their conflict.

One shot I am particularly proud of in this sequence is the shot which begins with Jeff (Philip Ng) kicking Anthony (James Ha) then flipping back (with a nice pose thrown in by Phil) and running away, we then we focus back to Anthony popping up and barking orders only then to focus back on Jeff being pursued by Anthonys henchmen, all in one shot. I like the shot as it is a couple of different shots all in one which is a technique I am very fond of. For truly excellent examples of this technique watch any Steven Spielberg or John McTiernan (Die Hard) movie. A big shout out to Hong, our wonderful focus puller for getting the focus right on every take.

Anyways hope you all enjoy the clip and I will update on any progress with the film.

Seamus

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz9dz_Chu6s

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Back in Ireland

Sunday, Mar 22, 2009 4:36AM / Standard Entry

Hello again,

I've been back in Ireland for about a week now and have been relaxing and putting the finishing touches on the film (in that order)

First off apologies to the people who commented on my guestbook who I haven't yet replied to, I've been neglecting my AnD duties lately but I hope to catch up soon.

Anyways the film is very nearly finished (for real this time) but in the meantime here is the old trailer in Hi-definition and with colour correction.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a88p_dIizMw

Hope you enjoy and will update soon.

All the best,
Seamus

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Back in Hong Kong

Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 11:09AM / Standard Entry

Hi everyone,

I am currently back in Hong Kong.

I will be here until the end of the month, though I'm not sure what exact date I will be leaving yet.

I will hopefully have a finished version of the film within a week. I am making the last few changes to the editing and I will be doing the sound mix and picture grading over the next few days.

I miss Japan (especially my girlfriend) but I love HK so am doing my best to enjoy myself.

Hope all is well with everyone and I look forward to showing you all the film (though it won't be on the net for at least a couple of weeks)

All the best,
Seamus

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Blog: Wednesday, Jan 28

Wednesday, Jan 28, 2009 6:30PM / Standard Entry

Hi Everyone,

Just an update and bit of good news. 'Somebody to Love' is the subject of a four page article in the months issue of 'Impact'. Impact is an action film magazine which is distributed worldwide. You can find their website here:

www.impactmoviemagazine.co.uk

You can buy an online copy of this months issue from the website which you receive immediately.

The article is an interview with me along with lots of good photographs taken on the set. The magazine in general is great and well worth a subscription for any action fan.

The article was made possible by Mike Leeder so a big shout out and thank you to him. If you are interested please buy the issue and support a great magazine.

I don't get any money from it in case you're wondering.

All the best,
Seamus

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