Mr. Russell’s 5th Class 2017/18 entered the national FÍS film making competition for primary schools. The boys wrote a script and made storyboards for their 5 minute film, which was a short look at the history of Waterford’s City Walls. The title for their film was “Waterford: Ireland’s Oldest City”. The boys worked very hard on their film, and with the generous co-operation of Mr. Peter Grogan and Emagine.ie, they received permission to use a lovely short video shot by drone, of Rice Bridge and the Quay and the Waterford city skyline on a beautiful sunny morning. They also wrote to the Office of Public Works, and were lucky enough to receive written permission to do some filming inside Reginald’s Tower, one of the oldest buildings in Ireland.
With the help of Mr. James Barry, three boys filmed their scenes inside the tower, adding to the story of their film. Recorder teacher Mr. Mac Auliffe helped with the music, adding the tune of “Bhíos sa Lá i bPort Láirge” to the film. All in all, the film took 5 weeks to complete, and the first edit was well over the allowed time. The FÍS competition has a strict 5 minute time limit, meaning that the boys had to cut a number of scenes. They had to make some tough decisions, and as everyone agreed on the scenes that ending up on the cutting room floor, the film was completed. The boys still felt that the cut scenes were well made, so they made a special, extended “Director’s Cut”, featuring the 3 extra scenes.
Then, in September 2018, came the amazing news that the boys had been shortlisted for an award at the annual ceremony and that they were invited to the 2018 FÍS Film Awards at The Helix Theatre in Dublin.
These awards are the Oscars for primary school film making in Ireland. There are always a lot of entries but only a very lucky few films are shortlisted for an award and invited to the big day in Dublin.
It was a thrilling honour for the boys to reach this stage. On Wednesday, November 14th, the boys travelled to The Helix Theatre in Dublin with Mr. Russell, Mr. Morris, Mr. Fahy and some family supporters.
The class had their photo taken before the ceremony began, and Charlie and Ajim (from 5th Class) interviewed PDST Technologies Team Leader Mr. Michael McNamara about FÍS and the awards, an interview that airs on “The Big Interview” on the radio station of St. Stephen’s.
Without a doubt, the best part of the day came when it was announced to the crowd in the Helix, and the many watching the live stream online at school and at home, that St. Stephen’s had WON the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film Making for a Documentary!!!
Josh and Benjamin were invited onto the stage and accepted the award on behalf of the class and had a chat on stage with the show’s host Sinéad Kennedy.
We’re very proud of the boys for this huge accomplishment. It was a wonderful day out, and the boys enjoyed the movie atmosphere around The Helix. The last stop of the day was to enjoy some McDonald’s on the way home!
A huge word of thanks to the parents who travelled with the class to offer their support, and to Michelle, Michael, and everyone at PDST and FÍS, and Bernadette and all at IADT who made everyone so welcome on the day. Thanks to Michelle also for arranging the lovely photos on this page. Check out some of our own photos from the 2018 FÍS Film Awards in the gallery below!
