heritageatplay

Archive for the ‘Updates’ Category


Conclusions

In Playing Irish, Reflections, Updates on October 10, 2010 at 7:26 pm

It has now been weeks since we premiered “Playing Irish” at the Newport Public Library. In that interim, the Heritage at Play team has been busy mailing out DVDs to our sponsors, friends, colleagues, and project participants. We have also been working on some formal conclusions to the project, with an eye to review what we did, how we did it, and why we did it the way we did.

For both of us, the Heritage at Play project was an absolute joy. It’s challenges and hundreds of hours of work were validated in a simple experiment. We showed the film to a public audience we did not know, and they enjoyed it. In fact, they wanted to know more about Gaelic Games. An Irishwoman in attendance told us we had captured “the entire ethos” of gaelic games and what they mean to the Irish. An American told us he was smitten with the beauty and uniqueness of the games. Both of these responses create great satisfaction for us, as appeasing these two populations with different agendas was our ultimate goal.

Read on for the full, formal conclusions:

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“Playing Irish” Premiering This Weekend

In News, Playing Irish, Updates on September 13, 2010 at 7:58 pm

Playing Irish a 2010 documentary by Colleen Brogan & Zachary McCune will premiere in Newport

NEWPORT, R.I. – This Saturday (September 18th), Colleen Brogan & Zachary McCune will premiere their “Playing Irish” documentary at the Newport Public Library. The event will be free and open to the public. Nearly two months since the pair left Ireland, and three weeks since the team completed the film, the event will mark a celebratory conclusion to the Heritage at Play project. The Newport Public Library is located at 300 Spring Street Newport, Rhode Island and the screening will begin at 4:30 pm. A question and answer session with the filmmakers will follow, and items collected during the filming of “Playing Irish” will also be shared.

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‘Playing Irish’ Completed!

In Broadcasts, Playing Irish, Updates on September 1, 2010 at 2:55 am

Playing Irish a film about gaelic games by Zachary McCune and Colleen Brogan

After dark, wet week in Cambridge, Mass. Colleen and I were able to complete our feature documentary. The result, a 32-minute exploration of what gaelic games are and what they mean to the Irish who play them, is cheerfully titled “Playing Irish.” The title is inspired as much by our experiences as filmmakers in Ireland, playing along within a world of Irish sports and culture, as it is by the fact that for many of the Irish people we met, gaelic games represent an Ireland at Play.

Much of the final film cut has been drawn from the best of our broadcasts so readers and viewers familiar with our material here on heritageatplay.org will recognize a number of the characters, places, and adventures shown in the final documentary. But fear not, the documentary also features a host of new material and more importantly, the entire approach to editing this final film was very unlike the broadcasts. Instead of focusing on our travels and experiences, “Playing Irish” approaches gaelic games as a single theme, working through its meaning to communities, players, coaches, and spectators around Ireland. The result, we think, is a tight and informative exploration of hurling and football, offering an introduction for the uninitiated and a succinct celebration of the GAA for the long-time fan. Or as we describe it on the DVD box (which are prototyping this week)

Gaelic Games are among Ireland’s most popular and celebrated pastimes, with massive stadiums, national television coverage, and a network of clubs criss-crossing the Emerald Isle.

But few outside of Ireland have ever heard of Gaelic Games, and fewer still know how they are played.

Just after graduating college, two Irish-American filmmakers (Colleen Brogan & Zachary McCune) set out for Ireland to learn about these ancient games and their importance to the Irish people.

And that’s the story we’re telling!

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The Making of “Playing Irish”

In Reflections, Updates on August 8, 2010 at 5:16 pm

“Playing Irish” — that’s the working title for the documentary culled together from the 10+ hours of footage we shot in Ireland. After catching up with work stateside, Zack and I have come back to our Heritage at Play project to begin composing the final piece.

It’s been tough.

We’ve been at it for 72 hours now, holed up in an apartment in Harvard Square with bottles of Diet Coke, a 6-pack of Allagash White, and an air conditioner. Occasionally we ventured outside, and let ourselves remember it was summertime.

During the course of this project, we have worked hard to keep on top of our footage. Every few days in Ireland, we would summarize our activities with a Broadcast. These proved helpful for us because it let us catalog what we had captured and exciting for people following the blog from around the world. We had wonderful responses.

Making a 5-minute broadcast wasn’t easy, but it was intuitive. We organized them based on our experiences in specific locations, so no “grand narrative” was necessary. With our documentary, however, a binding narrative structure seems essential. And creating a simple, powerful structure is very hard. We’re still trying to nail it down.

After 3 days, we have 36 minutes of a documentary. There’s really no time we’re explicitly shooting for, but we expect it will be under an hour. It’s hard to not include things, but at the same time it’s difficult to make all of the included clips clear and relevant.

I guess this is why people do this professionally.

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Two Weeks Out: Ireland from Abroad

In Games, News, Updates on July 30, 2010 at 2:17 am

It’s been just over two weeks since we left Dublin Airport for Boston. Though it seems like only a short gap, we’ve substantially been missing the Irish, the life in Dublin, and the thrill of exploring the implications of Gaelic Games on the people of the Irish Republic. Which means we have not stopped going over things (like our footage), revisiting unresolved questions (like what is happening in Northern Ireland, and how it prevented us from getting to Belfast), and of course following the progress of the intercounty competitions.

One big thing we would learn after leaving Dublin was that a potential contact at RTE had decided to retire. This made us feel a considerable bit better about the failure to actually visit the Irish media giant and learn how they covered GAA events firsthand.

While we were in Ireland, Waterford had forced an epic replay with Cork by scoring a goal in the dying moments of the Munster Hurling Championship. Following on the RTE’s iPhone App a week later, we learned that Waterford put the Rebels away to take the Munster crown.

The Dublin (“Dubs”) Gaelic Football team, the very ones we watched be dismantled by Meath, have made considerable strides in their qualifying for the All-Ireland Football Championship. In the GAA, teams eliminated from their Provincial Championships are entered into a secondary “qualifier” bracket that can advance them into playoffs with the four regional champions for a place in the All-Ireland final. Speaking to people around Ireland revealed some disagreement about the appropriateness of this system. Some saw it as a second chance for losers, others a long needed multigame solution for weaker counties. Whatever the feelings, Dublin is taking considerable advantage of this second chance and is moving towards making up for that shameful loss almost a month ago

We got three hurls, three sliotars, and a gaelic football for our time in the Emerald Isle studying such things. Back home in the US with them, Colleen and I have both taken a few afternoons to play around with them and to show them to our friends. The enthusiasm has been incredibly high for the hurls, though actually striking the ball (and mastering the lift) proves hilariously difficult. Everyone has the same awe-struck reaction when we hand them a hurl: “wow, this looks like a weapon…”

And that brings us to the hear and now: Colleen is in Boston working at the Institute for Contemporary Art, and I am in Fairfax, Virginia at a little conference on the Digital Humanities. This project has already come up several times, and a bunch of people wish I’d brought the hurl to try it out.

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