When Damien Aulsberry received a communication last week from Florida, he was understandably 'over the moon',
writes Brian Byrne. His screenplay for a short movie, 'Sons and Broken Noses', had just won the Neo-Noir category of the Film Noir Shorts Competition of the Humphrey Bogart Film Festival.
"I entered the screenplay in four places this year, but this is the one I really wanted to win," he said after getting the news. "I didn't expect to, because my fellow finalists were top professionals, and they were actually at the Festival, while I was waiting here in Kilcullen."
Just shows, talent will out. Damien's script had already won its category at the 2017 Wexford Film Festival, so it's doing well for him already. He describes it as an 'Irish-based contemporary Western', and it's about a couple of part-time criminals who take a hostage during a botched bank raid, and find they have taken a big load of trouble. Another good thing about it, it's scheduled for filming in December, with a top-notch Irish director and Irish actors.
Short films don't make money for the writers or directors, but they offer a road into the feature film market for newcomers and those without a movies background or big bank balance. They are also a way of honing skills, especially for a writer like Damien who has only been doing it since 2013. "I wrote my first script for a €5 bet with a friend, after we had been discussing movies and I rashly said I could do one."
He won his €5. Not content with that, he joined an online screenwriting group operated by the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, where members critiqued each others' work. Damien says he learned a lot from that. Eventually, his 'Memoirs of a Docket' was included as a read script in a major Toronto Film Festival. Two years ago he had the first ten pages recorded on stage
by members of Kilcullen Drama Group, to use as a 'demo' for possible production.
"That was really brilliant. A screenplay is nothing until you hear and see actual actors doing your words and actions. I had always had a great respect for Kilcullen Drama Group, and to hear people like Dick Dunphy and Bernard Berney playing my parts was just great."
Moving on, last summer Damien had a short script filmed, and that is now in a post-production stage. The actors included Bosco Hogan, Paul Ronan — Saoirse Ronan's dad — Karl Shiels from 'Fair City', and Anthony Morris who has been in 'Game of Thrones'. "I haven't seen it yet, but I was there when it was being filmed, and to hear an actor of the calibre of Bosco Hogan saying my lines just blew me away. There will never be anything like that first experience for a writer."
The last two years have brought Damien on a very steep learning curve about the craft. He has corresponded with producers and directors at home and in the US, some encounters ending with frustration, others resulting in useful knowledge gained and an increasing network of contacts in an industry he says is 'cut-throat'. His experience on set while his film was being made last year also gave him a very important insight into how the wide range of elements that go into making a film work.
"Even to the matter of deciding what to put in or leave out for budget reasons," he says. "For instance, when I was writing 'Sons and Broken Noses', I then knew that the cost of shooting an actual bank robbery scene would be very expensive, so all the story takes place after the event."
When Colin Fleming and Nigel O'Brien decided to pick up the screenplay for production, it was moving to a next level for Damien. Not least because money had to be raised for the €10,000 cost. It is a 4-day shoot, and the money will pay for the actors and the crew.
Eric Lalor and Jason Byrne play Jake and Sean, the hapless bank robbers, while Frank O'Sullivan is an underworld kingpin whose kidnapped son is played by Emmet Byrne, recently seen in the RTE drama series 'Striking Out'.
The funding is being raised through
Indie Go Go, the crowdfunding website, and Damien has already seen a strong level of financial support. "Though it will take more effort to reach the goal."
When the film is completed, it will be introduced to the local and international film festivals circuit. Which means that Damien's work is then incorporated into a team production which will be a 'calling card' for all involved, a 'trailer' for their abilities which they hope will lead to commissions for feature length productions.
"I've learned a heck of a lot over the last few years, both about writing and production," Damien says. "I know that I'd even like to direct at some point. But most of all I have learned self-confidence. I'm no longer someone who wants to be a screenwriter, I am a screenwriter."
He didn't do it on his own. He acknowledges a lot of help, advice, and encouragement from many people in the business, and, just as important, from his family. And he knows too that he still has a long way to go.
"But I'm turning 50 shortly. My children are grown up, my life has reached the completion of that phase. Now I think it is my time, and I intend to go wherever it takes me."
He knows also that it isn't going to be an easy road. "Of the screenplays that are written, 95pc get thrown in the bin, five percent are read, and one percent get made. Also, there's no 'amateur circuit', you're up against the pros from the beginning, and you've got to hit the ground running."
With 'Sons and Broken Noses' already beating the pros, that's just what he's doing.
This article was first published in the Kildare Nationalist.
