52 Jokers Wild

Stop, Look and Listen become key factors of my discussion with Garvin Burke, CEO of The Film Production Academy. This was a reflective piece in which the two of us explored key issues that we had discovered through our interviews, now nearly 130 episodes. We recognised the gulf between what the filmmakers want and what the investors want and pondered on how best to bring these two sides together....

Judith Blackburn, director of the Chicago Irish Film Festival says the strongest films coming out of Ireland are horror stories. Though a good comedy would also go down well. Garvin and George felt in their element creating more horror and generating laughs all the way. With feral children lost in the attics down in Thomastown, with creaky floorboards, spiders webs, and strange moaning noises send...

Irish F-ing Attitude is all over the place this week. There's no stopping it. George, now Irish, attempts a coup to change the show name but the 52 Jokers WIld strikes back as plenty of attitude coming from Garvin. Matriarchy wins the day as the strongest voice, as Myia Elliott rounds the boys up and sings the song that inspires both Garvin and George in getting the blend right between creativity...

Over the last six months, Garvin and I got to talk to many leading female filmmakers and businesswomen, all with a strong voice and a sense of purpose. Each at different stages of their career. All have similar goals. Have either achieved them or are preparing to put their plans into action. Business is foremost. Each knows how to work with and get the best out of others, understanding the importa...

New Year 2022 Compilation It's the beginning of a New Year, and after the festive season, we are all fired up for new adventures. It's also a great time to reflect on what has been achieved to date and take some advice from our most recent guests. So we have pulled out a few gems from those conversations to make our latest compilation. We hope you enjoy and look out for more guests from around the...

Ronika Merl has only been a scriptwriter for three years. Three years. Yep, that's right three years. And she has been firing on all cylinders, blasting out a grand total of 22 features in 36 months. The last producer told Roni the budget was just ten grand. No problem. 48 hours later. Bump. There's the script. No messing. Job done. None of this lily-livered pining over each syllable, glassy-eyed...

CJ Walley is stirring up quite a revolution. "Power to the People," Garvin fists the air, spurred on by 'Citizen Smith' starring Robert Lindsey as Wolfie Smith in the old British TV series from the seventies. "More like Winston Smith from George Orwell's 1984," George remarks. But CJ Walley's revolution is in screenwriting, ramping up the action with indie writers trying to get a break. "What's th...

Stephen T. Ford was shy, reserved and introverted as a writer, BUT then it twigged, the only way to get noticed was to muscle in on the director's gig and make his own shorts. Now everyone is after him and he's becoming a powerhouse in Irish Indie Productions, and by the time this blurb is finished, he'll a made five more movies. What am I doing? I shouldn't be writing this stuff. I should just ge...

Gerry Cannon as an Actor & Producer came to the game later in life but has managed to put the full weight of his commercial knowledge into developing his new skills within the film industry. He has a great way of looking at the holistic picture and seeing ways to solve problems in a manner that no newbie producer would be able to. Having studied acting in his youth, life took a different journey b...

Baz Black is a big fan of the old DVD. Says he is old school, just like Quentin Tarantino. George got to talk, briefly about the olden days of Super8mm from his old school, while Garvin brewed up a few numbers to frame his picture. Everyone was getting in on the act, and so did the subject. Baz is definitely beating his own drums, tapping out an amazing number of short films, winning awards and ma...

Eleven Jokers, including Pauric Brennan, Sean Breathnack, Annie Doona, Mo O'Connell, Roisin Kearney, Frank Kelly, Dave Minogue, Grace Garvin and James Webber talk about their passion for filmmaking and the different methods they go about where they get ideas, the roles they find they have to take, the right way or practical way to make films and the way they plan for the future. Garvin throws in t...

Michael O'Sullivan was a gift, coming in at the last minute as a referral by Aidan from a previous show. Garvin and I were like old prospectors in some far off Canadian ravine watching out for old grizzlies that might have come bounding out of the undergrowth looking for a tasty meal. Instead, we struck gold, that rare nugget that pans out and brings in a richness to the show that you just could n...

Aidan O'Sullivan, Actor, Voice-Over Artist & Comedian, had hoped to do a monologue from Shakespeare but there was no chance of competing with Garvin's monologue in this show. The battle gear came on in each corner as all and sundry clashed like the Titans. But Aidan wasn't going to take it lying down, even though he'd played a corpse in a coffin. George found a lanyard and the power seemed to shif...

Dave Thomas, Writer, Producer and Director, is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. Discs started flying off the wall. Garvin and I weren't sure if the alien invasion had begun. Should we bunker down in defensive mode? Then the TARDIS appeared and we knew we were on safe ground. Dave Thomas, writer, producer and director is an avid sci-fi fan. Along with the many awards, are a fleet of Star Trek shi...

Dave Minogue, Film Producer and Director, is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E16 The banter was mighty in this episode of "In The Room". Garvin got thrown a couple of curveballs as Dave Minogue, our guest this week, had us both rolling in the aisles with laughter. Dave set himself a challenge to get a film made and out there to an audience on Sky and other streaming platforms, and he did in t...

Annie Doona Chair of Galway Film Fleadh is ”In The Room” with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E15 We have reached another milestone. This time we celebrate our 100th episode of "In The Room". This week our guest is Annie Doona, Chair of the Galway Film Fleadh and recently Chair of Screen Ireland. Annie has a wealth of experience in film education as she was for many years the chair of the National Film School,...

Frank W. Kelly Multi Award-winning Filmmaker is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E14 Our guest this week is Frank W. Kelly, a multi-award winning filmmaker. Two pointing fingers and a smoking toy gun is the challenge in this week's 99th episode of "In The Room" with Garvin and George. A new teleprompt stirs up some issues but are quickly resolved and the outtakes are kept in. The main thrust o...

Roisin Kearney Multi Award-winning Screenwriter & Director is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E13 In this weeks episode, our guest is Roisin Kearney, Multi Award-winning Screenwriter, and Director talking about her beginnings in theatre and how this inspired her passion for writing and film directing. Roisin is aware of the importance of collaboration and how helping others to achieve their f...

Mo O'Connell (Actor/Screenwriter/Director) is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E12 In this weeks episode, our guest is Mo O'Connell, actor, screenwriter, and director who talks about how she gets her films across the finishing line and has the drive to succeed. Each project is a labour of love and seems to cause all the pains and heartache any mother would go through bringing her baby into thi...

James Webber (Screenwriter/Director/Producer) is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E11 In this weeks episode, our guest is James Webber, screenwriter, director and producer who is gaining success with his first feature film, Sorority. Garvin and I managed to get some great insights into James filmmaking process and how he managed to develop his feature film based on an earlier short film he had...

Francesca Romana Nider (Screenwriter/Producer) is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E10 Our guest this week is Francesca Romana Nider, a screenwriter and producer. Francesca has studied screenwriting and is looking for collaboration with her feature-length script, The Sins of Our Mothers, which was a Semifinalist in the recent Writers Lab UK and was in the Top 50 Finalists of the ScreenCraft Dr...

Grace Garvin (Wild Rice Films) is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E09 Our guest this week is Grace Garvin, managing director of Wild Rice Films and film producer. Again, like several others we have interviewed, film producing is Grace's job. She loves it but it is her business, even though she sees her projects as being precious. Though new to film producing her previous experience in marketi...

Producers and Influencers in Film S3E08 In this week's episode, we revisit four of our recent film interviews focusing on our guests. Karl King talks about being a locations managers and the issues of trying to find people to fill the below-the-line jobs. What he has found is that most media courses promote producers, directors and writers but the craftspeople are missed and would-be filmmakers do...

Pauric Brennan (Bren Enterprise) is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E07 This is a must-see episode, or at least listen-worthy,, as our guest, Pauric Brennan, goes where no micro-producer or buddy filmmaker goes, into the Heart of Darkness of the Mysterious world of.... promoting, distributing and, basically creating a target audience, so there is someone to watch your film once it has been pr...

Sean Breathnach (Ego Productions Ireland) is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E06 Sean Breathnach (Ego Productions Ireland) is "In The Room" with 52 Jokers Wild. S3E06 In this week’s show, Garvin and George get to talk with Sean Breathnach, writer, director, producer, and editor of the film “Beyond the Woods” which is currently available to see on Amazon Prime. Sean runs his own production com...