Hubbub over potential BUHUB

Ireland is turning away millions of euro in potential investment because of a failure to provide the film industry with new and viable studio capacity.

However the Border region is looking to play a leading role and take centre stage in that space. And, with the right level of marketing and investment in both education and a creative space, it could be a case of ‘Lights, Camera, Action’ in the near future.

That was the script pitched to a high level delegation, which met in Cavan last week.

Macanna Teoranta, run by award winning film and radio producer Kevin McCann, is currently undertaking a feasibility study, funded by Enterprise Ireland, aimed at exploring the potential of locating such state-of-the-art production infrastructure here in the Border region.

The second strand of the initiative saw Kevin submit an application earlier this summer to Screen Ireland, on behalf of the Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board (CMETB), aimed at kick-starting talks on establishing a film crew development hub locally.

Called the Border Union Hub (BUHUB), it’s envisioned the educational and training initiative would incorporate the interest of the region’s technical universities also, in Sligo, Letterkenny and Dundalk, as well as South-West College in Enniskillen.

Last Thursday, a top brass delegation from Screen Ireland (Fís Éireann), invited by local Fianna Fáil Deputy Niamh Smyth, met in Cavan to discuss the ideas being put forward.

Among those from Screen Ireland at the meeting held at Cavan Institute were Désirée Finnegan, CEO; Susan Bergin, chairperson of board; Gareth Lee, skills development manager, and Louise Ryan, marketing manager.

Deputy Smyth, her party spokesperson for Arts, also chairs the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, and recently heard from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland about the effects of COVID-19 on the film industry.

The meeting was hosted by Louise Clarke, director of quality assurance at Cavan Institute; and attended as well by Ciaran McManus, assistant CEO of SW College, which also has colleges in Cookstown, Dungannon and Omagh.

Industry expert Dan O’Rourke, vice-president of legal and research at Paramount Pictures, joined the meeting virtually from LA to lend his experience and Hollywood perspective to the proposed Border project.

“We’re still investigating,” Kevin tells The Anglo-Celt when asked for specifics on the plan to establish a new studio for the region.

“We’ve investigated some sites, in Monaghan, in Cavan, and also Leitrim, but it’s only a scoping study for now to see the feasibility to bring a studio of international potential to the Border region.”

He adds that the film industry worldwide is “going bonkers” for new studio space. “Ireland right now is sending away business because it doesn’t have it. That’s a fact.”

Kevin points out that the nearest ready-made studio space to the Border is located in Belfast, followed by new investments at Greystones in Wicklow, being built on a 40-acre site at a cost of €150 million, and another studio project at Dublin’s Grange Castle business park that will have 12 sound stages, along with 100,000 square feet of workshop space and 100,000 square feet of offices.

Atlantic Studios, meanwhile, is being developed on the site of the former Galway Airport, and aims to be up and running by summer 2022.

The Border region has long since been eyed up by film companies as a shooting location.

A now scrapped HBO spin-off prequel to George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones series saw some of the early stages of development filmed in the Florencecourt area around the Marble Arch Caves; while Philip Doherty’s award winning Redemption of a Rogue was filmed in Swanlinbar and Cavan Town.

Disney and Warner Bros, and now tech firms such as Netflix, Apple, AT&T, Youtube, Amazon and others, are being enticed to film in Ireland by incentives such as beneficial tax offerings, and lower costs.

But Kevin states the primary foundation of a fully-fledged Border studio will be first putting in place the “eco-system” from which it can be sustained.

“One of the main things you need to operate a studio is crew. You can have a big studio, and all the bells and whistles, but if you’ve no one there to run it, it’s a dead duck, or white elephant. So a strong skills programme is needed in the region to warrant a studio being built and there is great collaboration there between the ETB, the ITs, and South-West,” explained Kevin.

Welcoming support from other stakeholders too, Kevin puts it in a nutshell when he says: “There were 18 different partners involved in that application [to Screen Ireland]. What we are trying to say is the Border region has the potential to be a major centre for film and TV production. There are two elements to this. One is studio, the other is crew development, and really one needs the other if we are to be successful.”

He says if a new programme is established to train hundreds of skilled film industry recruits, then “a strong case” can then be made for new studio investment.

“If we can get the core part of this right, it will tick a huge box for us, because if it happens, it will be a major infrastructural development. Some studios are repurposed factories or warehouses, whereas others are greenfield sites. Right now, we’re exploring all options.”