CAVAN INSTITUTE TEAM REACHES ALL-IRELAND
A team from Cavan Institute has reached the All-Ireland final in the dare2bdrinkaware competition, designed to creatively explore the relationship between Irish culture and drinking. The group of Year 2 Multimedia students beat off stiff competition from third level colleges throughout Ireland to make it to the final of the competition where their project will compete against work from Athlone Institute of Technology, NUI Maynooth and a number of Dublin colleges.
Dare2Bdrinkaware is a digital film competition sponsored by drinkaware.ie and run by the Digital Hub Development Agency based in Dublin. Drinkaware, is a drinks industry-sponsored organisation promoting the “respectful consumption of alcohol”.
The Cavan Institute team of John Wrenne, Eamonn Cahill, Catriona Boylan and Grainne O Reilly documented their ideas on the attitudes of young Irish people towards alcohol in a three minute video entitled Last Night. They were one of two teams that the Institute entered in the competition.
The shortlisted films will battle for €5,000 in prizemoney and the winners will be unveiled at an awards ceremony in the Digital Hub in Dublin on Thursday 23 April, which Lenny Abrahamson, the director of Prosperity and Garage , is to address. The best editing, cinematography, narrative, creative interpretations of the competition brief and best overall film will be judged by RTÉ presenter John Kelly, Ãine Moriarty of the Irish Film and Television Academy among others.
“It is a remarkable achievement for Cavan Institute to reach the final stage of the competition as there were over 100 entries.” says Donna McCarron, Multimedia Tutor at Cavan Institute. With the final decision due on Thursday the Cavan Institute tutor is encouraging everyone to log onto www.dare2bdrinkaware.com and cast their vote for Last Night, the Cavan entry as the viewing public will be also be able to vote for their favourite film.
“The focus on alcohol consumption is very relevant topic for young people and by working through this project the students were encouraged to use their talents and skills to present their view of this issue,” says Ms Carron. She believes the competition also offers students with an interest in film-making an excellent opportunity to develop their skills. “As a result of reaching the final the Cavan Institute students will also have the chance to network, meet with industry professionals and gain valuable advice.”
The three-minute long film – Last Night - deals with health and emotional issues associated with drinking. “Our film aims to raise awareness about the consequences of over consumption of alcohol,” said Grainne O Reilly, Bailieboro. “The story line focuses on what happens when an underage girl and her friends purchase and consume alcohol before heading out to a niteclub to drink more. The consequences of having drank too much and taken a lift from a drunk driver become evident the next morning when she wakes up to news reports of a fatal road crash involving her friend.”
The students working as a team developed their initial ideas and drew on their knowledge of multimedia production techniques to produce the final video. “Multimedia technology is a good way of making young people aware of the real consequences of underage drinking and the consumption of too much alcohol,” according to John Wrenne, from Cavan Town.
As a mature student John believes short graphic video clips are essential in getting the message across to young people about the consequences of drink driving. “This is the type of technology that young people access regularly and the fact that it is a short clip means that they don’t have to download a large file in order to view it.”
Catriona Boylan from Ballyjamesduff acknowledged the contribution of other courses in the Institute and the support of local business in Cavan Town in the making of the video. “The size and variety of courses on offer at the Institute meant we could draw on the skills of the drama students but many other students also got involved in helping us make the video. That help together with the support of our tutor Donna McCarron and the rest of the Multimedia department including Cara McDermott and Joe English, the head of the Computing School really meant that we could produce a quality product.” The students filmed through Cavan Town and shot some scenes in local nightclubs and bars.
Eamonn Cahill from Maghera, Virginia believes the competition was a good opportunity, for the group to explore the visual presentation of the consequences of drink driving. “As a team we were challenged to creatively explore the relationship between Irish culture and drinking through considering the values, attitudes and behaviours that young adults have in relation to alcohol. The competition presented with a great opportunity to make a good hard hitting video about a very relevant topic to young people.” He says the team focused on the impact they wanted to achieve with the viewer. “We wanted our film to prompt the viewer to consider their own alcohol use and the effects of over consumption.”
Last Night can be viewed at www.dare2bdrinkaware.com