Hey Everyone,
Recently I mentioned that I’ve been working on a sci-fi short film “Effigy Road”. Well, the director of the film, Rob Kelly, has put together a teaser trailer from the footage taken so far. This project is still in production with some ongoing filming taking place in Carlow town which should be wrapped over the next couple of weeks.
But for now thanks for reading and please enjoy this teaser:
Just over a year ago I worked on a short film, “Caliber”, directed by Rob Kelly. So when Rob got in touch and asked if I’d be involved on his new project “Effigy Road” I was happy to jump on board. “Effigy Road” is a sci-fi piece with an end of world theme running throughout.
Filming is taking place in various locations throughout Carlow town, and the Ardmore Studios C stage and green screen facilities will be used for the big crowd scene and replication of an “alien arena”. We’ve completed 3 weekends throughout June in Carlow town and have still a couple of weekends to go to finish the project. Next weekend will involve some stunt work which I’m really looking forward to.
Thanks for reading, Sarah 
Still of Sarah Carroll taken from the short sci-fi film Effigy Road.
It’s Galway Film Fleadh time of year again. The festival kicks off tomorrow and runs for 6 days until Sunday 11th.
Covies, the web series in which I played lead female Bridie O’Malley, has undergone a face lift and been edited by director Len Collin into a feature film which has been accepted by Galway Fleadh as one of their wild card screenings. Covies is due to air in the Cinemobile, which will be parked outside the Town Hall Theatre, on Thursday 8th at 10am. Tickets are an extremely reasonably priced €3 so if your in the vicinity please do drop in and give it a view.
I am still hopeful I will make it to the festival myself at some stage during the week.
Enjoy!
Sarah
I have been very quiet on the blog front over the past few weeks so this is a short update of a couple of smaller projects I was involved with in June.
I accepted a role offered by the grad students in IADT Dun Laoghaire leading to an enjoyable and eventful week working with them on “Escape”. The piece was very visual and we had some interesting set ups, including a night shoot in a forest. Broken mirrors were suspended from the trees and reflecting light everywhere for part of a dream sequence.. It looked great on the night and I’m sure it’ll transfer well onto screen.
I also embarked on my first attempt at a short film of my own. An actor friend of mine, Linda Teehan, and I have been talking about putting something together ourselves for a little while now, so we bit the bullet and got down to business. We improvised some ideas together first of all, and although our ideas ranged from drama to black comedy, somehow a script for our 4 minute comedy short film evolved. Thankfully we were fortunate to enlist the help of Noel Brady of Phoenix Artz for camera and editing, and with him Ashleigh Ekins for sound. Our final input came from Dylan McDonough who played the role of the doctor for us. The concept was simple enough, so a short filming period and lightning quick editing from Noel meant our little short was packaged up and ready for festival submission within a matter of days. “Waiting Room” is the first production from TeeCarr Productions, we hope to get accepted into festivals and hopefully we’ll move on and film a few more little projects in the future.
That’s all for this little update… stay tuned as always for more information.
Sarah
In a previous post I spoke about the short film, Guerrilla, that I worked on with Dunsany Productions. The film is due to be finished in the summer and will begin the festival rounds from then, but for now you can check out the new trailer below!
Enjoy!
Sarah
“In the near future, the economic structure of the entire western world collapses under massive recession. In an attempt to quell the chaos that ensues, the EU sets up the ECHO; combining all member states’ armies into one to enforce martial law on the people. Years pass and even when relative peace returns, the ECHO refuse to give up their power and a totalitarian Pan-European regime begins. In Ireland, the Guerrillas are formed to fight and remove their foreign oppressors. From Dunsany Productions, ‘Guerrilla’ is written and directed by Blaine Rennicks, produced by Randal Plunkett, edited by Dominique Brennan, director of photography is Stefano Battarola and music by Darius McGann. Starring Jack Lowe, Darren Killeen, Sarah Carroll, Eoin Barton, Bertie Brosnan, Karl Gordon, Shane Fox, Gerry Wade, Matthew Radford and Graham Ward. Coming Soon.”
For a while now I’ve been meaning to write about a newish venture and great new asset to the Independent Filmmakers of Ireland, Underground Cinema, developed and co-ordinated by Dave Byrne. Dave has successfully run Bluemoon Theatre Company for many years and I came to know him when I had the pleasure of working on one of their productions in 2008.
Last year however, Dave changed course from the theatre company with the introduction of his new project, a monthly screening night in the Kingston Hotel Dun Laoghaire for Irish Short films, Underground Cinema. The idea behind Underground is to air the many wonderful independent Irish Shorts shot throughout the year that very often don’t get the screening time they deserve. Dave has opened the doors to anything which is sent to him, stating that any genre or convention is welcome. Over the months the screenings have also stretched to cover music videos and the occasional feature film. Another great aspect of Underground Cinema is that these monthly screenings will culminate into a nominations night in the Kingston Hotel, the Underground Film Festival in the IMC Dun Laoghaire and the Underground Cinema Awards (Black Tie Event) in Fitzpatricks Castle Hotel Killiney in September.
The whole project is ambitious to say the least and has so far had a well deserved great reaction, but this project has legs and is expanding all the time with Daves further introductions:
Underground TV (a live online showing of films with the director available for live chat afterwards)
Underground Cinema Roadshow (screenings held to a wider audience in venues throughout Ireland and the UK)
Underground Cinema Movie Marquee (a film tent appearing at various summer festivals)
Underground Cinema Movie Workshops (delivering valuable workshops in many aspects of film making)
I’m sure I’ll be writing more over the coming months about the exciting development of Underground Cinema but of course there’s much more to read about on the official Underground Cinema website and you can keep updated with the events by following on Facebook and Twitter.
Enjoy,
Sarah
Unfortunately I’ve been up to my eyes since attending the Irish Times Theatre Awards so my apologies as this blog post is more then a little overdue. The Awards had a change of venue and a change in the running of the event, but the toned down and more “climate appropriate” version in Vicar Street was a credit to the Irish Times and the organisers none the less.
Of course the night was topped off with the fantastic news that Director/Co-ordinator of The Core Dublin and The Trojan Women, Rodrigo Rodrigues, took home the very beautiful (and very heavy) award for “Best Designer: Costume”. A fantastic accomplishment!
It must be noted, that for many of us in the audience that night, the year ahead is one filled with enormous strain and uncertainty as the announcement of the Arts Council’s funding decisions for 2010 was ringing in our ears. However, it was addressed on the night that many of the smaller companies in particular had quick reaction to the crisis to thank for maintaining some level of success. Some recognition of this, I think, is the fact that on a budget of zero Rodrigo managed to work in a way that still achieved a level of production and design standard high enough to scoop an Irish Thearte Award. But overall the night was one to be enjoyed, and a huge achievement for Rodrigo and The Core Dublins first production.
Rodrigo took to the stage with Co-Director of The Trojan Women Alan King, and with a little beckoning from them, myself and Phyllis Carthy joined them on stage as Rodrigo accepted the award.
Congratulations and well done Rodrigo!!
Sarah
It would seem auditioning with no voice isn’t such a bad thing after all. I was in a bit of a panic this week with three auditions to get to and a voice that just wasn’t co-operating. But here we are with my second role secured for the week. It’s a short film titled Guerrilla to be shot by Dunsany Productions on location in Navan, Dublin and Dundalk. It’s a futuristic war movie and judging by the size of the gun I held in audition it’s going to be an eventful shooting experience.
I will play the female lead of Jacky. She is a soldier totally dedicated to the cause she fights. She has found herself on opposite sides to a former lover, Donelly, also the father of her young son. She’s hated him ever since he left her because she was pregnant, however when presented with the situation to let him live or die what will be the outcome? (Ohhhhh suspense!)
Should begin with costume and promo shots next week and shooting week after that. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of updates as we get closer and shooting begins so stay posted.
Sarah
As a founding member of The Core Dublin, I am absolutely delighted to announce the nomination for Best Costume in The Irish Times Theatre Awards for Director Rodrigo Rodrigues in our production of The Trojan Women. I played both the roles of Athena and Helen and over the course of our lengthy rehearsal period I was involved with Rodrigo in the construction of my costume. Rodrigo believes costume construction is a valid input into the creation of a character. Rodrigo worked with each actor to develop his costume ideas and defined his technique in every detail, right down to the sound a costume makes.. as he always says “the sound the costume makes is part of the script!”
Sarah Carroll as Helen of Troy, Gerard Byrne as Menelaus
A little more about how we got there:
Way back in October 2008 I responded to an add posted by Brazilian born actor/director Rodrigo Rodrigues. The add was calling for actors for an unspecified project, but it interested me so I applied. Approximately 10 actors were invited to the first meeting where Rodrigo discussed his ideas to produce something fantastic. It was vague to say the least, but I liked what I heard, I could visualise Rodrigos ideas and I felt I understood what he wanted to achieve. So here, in the basement room of Filmbase, The Core Dublin finely opened with a group of 10 actors under Rodrigo’s Direction.
“I attempted to create a group called THE CORE without success numerous times in Dublin. After meeting with Phyllis Carthy and Sarah Carroll it became possible when they believed in my form of art. Actors came and went and then Linda Teehan arrived. I’m so PROUD OFF THESE GIRLS “ (says Rodrigo Rodrigues
)
Over the next year we met every Sunday for workshops. Rodrigo wanted an idea to evolve over time, he felt sometimes in Ireland the process of getting an idea to stage was too rushed. We took our time, exploring new ideas and techniques. Rodrigo used elements of Japanese dance and theatre forms such as Butoh (from Kazuo Ohno and Yoshito Ohno), Kabuki and marching. Long discussions occurred about life, politics, art, religion and the current situation of the world. From these discussions Rodrigo gradually formed his ideas and after observing the actors workshops, exercises, reactions, he came to the decision to put on a production of an ancient Greek tragedy, The Trojan Women. Our group, over the weeks had whittled down to just 3 actor members and our Director Rodrigo so we then held auditions for additional actors to fill the chorus and male roles in the play. We were also delighted to welcome actor/director Alan King (Waiting for Ikea) to the project.
The visuals of our production were of the utmost importance to Rodrigo. We spent far longer working on these elements then running lines. Rodrigo insisted on actors being involved in the construction of their own costumes and rehearsing in them from the very early stages. The costumes were made from recycled clothing, household items, accessories, cardboard or anything we could lay our hands on as long as it was free. Rodrigo had a vision for the costumes from the beginning and each cast member researched ideas to add to the mix.
Of course it was a pleasure working on the production, although it wasn’t without it’s difficulties. Overall, I was involved for over a year before we took to the stage with The Trojan Women in October 2009. It was a lengthy process, one we’re not used to in Ireland and we hit many obstacles which had to be overcome. However, in the end it all came together and we were delighted with the response to our show and sold out most nights in our two week run in Smock Alley Theatre. Of course receiving recognition for all the hard work in the form of a nomination is just music to my ears but truly well deserved by Rodrigo.
The Core Dublin will continue to strive for the highest standards in future projects. We are looking towards projects not only in theatre, but also film and television. Watch this space!!
Thanks for reading,
Sarah
(Photography Sean Meehan)
Gerard Byrne – Poseidon. Annette Kelly, Fiona O’Connor, Melissa Nolan, Mary Cate Smith, Karoline Rose, Maura Foley – Chorus
Phyllis Carthy – Hecuba
Annette Kelly, Fiona O’Connor, Melissa Nolan, Mary Cate Smith, Karoline Rose, Maura Foley – Chorus
Linda Teehan – Andromache. Dylan Donough – Talthybius
Sophie Campbell – Cassandra
Sarah Carroll – Athena
Hello all,
A little news on the job front! I auditioned a couple of days ago for a feature film, Girl Next Door. I am happy to accept the role of Tania in the feature due to begin shooting in Ireland towards the end of this month. The feature is written and directed by Lorna Fitzsimons. Lorna has worked as a successful photographer and is now moving into the world of film. Tania is a supporting role, she’s a bit of a bitch and should be a fun character to play so I’ll be looking forward to working on the project.
More info to follow as I get it.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Sarah