Press Release: Student team cleans up at film awards ceremony - 24/04/09

A team of students from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) got a real taste of the Oscars at The Digital Hub last night, when their film, ‘On The Cutting Room Floor’, swept the board at the DARE2BDRINKAWARE Awards Ceremony.

Gobias Productions – made up of five students from IADT – won all of the judges’ categories in the student film competition, beating rival entries from colleges throughout Ireland and scooping a total of €4,000 in prize money.

Now in its second year, DARE2BDRINKAWARE is a competition for third-level students, sponsored by drinkaware.ie and organised by the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA). The aim of the competition is to highlight young people’s attitudes to alcohol: through the use of digital media, students tell their stories and inform their peers about responsible drinking.

The film that cleaned up at last night’s event depicts two workers in a control room within a student’s brain, editing footage from the previous night’s drinking session to ensure the student is left with only positive – though hazy – memories of his night on the town. After the workers delete scenes of drunken clumsiness and embarrassing behaviour, the student awakes in his bathroom with a limited recollection of his antics the night before.

The film was lauded by a prestigious judging panel, which included TV and radio presenter John Kelly, alongside representatives of the Irish Film and Television Academy, the Irish Film Institute, the Union of Students in Ireland, drinkaware.ie and The Digital Hub.

Acclaimed Irish director Lenny Abrahamson – who was the special guest at last night’s event in The Digital Hub and whose own film, ‘Garage’, enjoyed a similar clean sweep at last year’s IFTA Awards – was full of praise for ‘On The Cutting Room Floor’.

“Competitions like DARE2BDRINKAWARE are integral to the future success of the Irish film industry,” he said. “It’s very tough starting out as a novice film-maker, so the experience and support gained through competitions such as this one are invaluable.

“I was really surprised – in a very good way – by the quality not only of the winning film, but also of the runners-up. It’s great to see emerging talent being rewarded in such a public way.”

Fionnuala Sheehan, Chief Executive of drinkaware.ie, said all of the films that made the shortlist for the competition were of a high standard.

“All 10 films that made the shortlist really succeeded in meeting the brief for the competition, which is to creatively explore young people’s attitudes to drinking,” she said. “The medium of film is a good way of engaging with third-level students as it is widely accepted amongst that age-group.

“We were delighted with the response to DARE2BDRINKAWARE and blown away by the quality of ‘On The Cutting Room Floor’. The 10 films on the shortlist will be screened at ‘Movies @ Dundrum’ as part of the Cinemagic Film Festival over the coming weeks, which will be a great experience for the film-makers involved. In addition, all of the films will air on City Channel over the next month, while the winning film will also be screened at the Oxegen music festival.

“The experience, contacts and knowledge gained by the students who take part in this competition is really invaluable as they embark on their future careers.”

The IADT team behind ‘On The Cutting Room Floor’ is made up of: Evan Barry from Rathgar, Dublin; Richard Boland from The Curragh in Kildare; Simon Doyle from Knocklyon, Dublin; Kevin Herlihy from Tralee, and Ian Hunt Duffy from Blackrock, Co. Louth. Collectively, the team-members are known as Gobias Productions.

The team won the top award in all categories vetted by the judging panel for the competition: Best Production; Best Original Concept; Best Impact, and Best Overall Film. It was pipped at the post for the online public vote, coming in in second place, after ‘Drunkorexic V. Obesity’, a film by Athlone IT student, Michelle Lavelle Glynn.

All of the films that made the shortlist for the competition are available to view at www.dare2bdrinkaware.com.

ENDS

Contact: Martina Quinn, DHR Communications, Tel: 01-4885808 / 087-6522033

drinkaware.ie
drinkaware.ie is a MEAS initiative. MEAS (Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society Limited), a registered charity, was established in 2002 by the principal companies and trade organisations in the drinks industry to promote social responsibility within the industry and moderate consumption by those who choose to drink, in order to reduce alcohol abuse and related harm. MEAS is committed to continuing and expanding its responsible drinking campaigns throughout 2009 and beyond.

Since its launch in November 2006, the drinkaware.ie website has emerged as the leading information portal for consumers on all aspects of alcohol and drinking. The ‘Had Enough’ campaign follows on from the successful ‘know the one that’s one too many’ campaign, and is a key part of MEAS’ long-term commitment to promoting the responsible consumption of alcohol in Ireland.

MEAS has published a number of drinkaware.ie guides, including the essential ‘Festival Survival Guide’, ‘Alcohol, Sport & You’ and the, ‘No Nonsense guide for students’. All guides are available free for download from www.drinkaware.ie, alternatively printed booklets can be requested by phone on 01 6114811 or by emailing info@drinkaware.ie.

www.drinkaware.ie

The Digital Hub
The Digital Hub is an Irish Government initiative to create an international centre of excellence for knowledge, innovation and creativity focused on digital content and technology enterprises. The core development of nine acres is located a 10-minute walk from the city centre within the historic Liberties area of Ireland’s capital city, Dublin. Over the next decade, this initiative will create a mixed-use development, consisting of enterprise, residential, retail, learning and civic space. The project is managed by an Irish government agency, the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA). There are now over 100 companies and 600 people employed in The Digital Hub.

Although essentially an enterprise project, The Digital Hub also has an urban regeneration remit. As part of this remit, The Digital Hub delivers a number of learning projects through local schools and local community organisations. A recent independent evaluation into The Digital Hub's learning programmes found that 46% of participants in community learning projects expect to go on and seek employment in the digital media sector and 44% intend going on to further education.

www.thedigitalhub.com