Young Laois film director to shoot movie in home town

As Ireland celebrates having a record breaking 14 nominations in the Oscars ceremony in March, a young award winning Laois filmmaker is poised at the start of what could be an illustrious career as a movie director.

Reuben Harvey, 22, from Abbeyleix is preparing to shoot a film on his doorstep, an important final project for his college course, but he needs donations to fund it.

The filmmaking student has chosen well known locations to shoot scenes, including Abbeyleix Bog, Preston House, Clelands supermarket and Abbeyleix Manor Hotel, for his final graduate film for Dun Laoghaire National Film School IADT.

He told the Leinster Express about it.

“We begin filming at the start of February for 1 week.

“We have local support in terms of locations we have been provided.

“Abbeyleix is a great town, it feels good to be able to show off its visual qualities and utilise it’s character and aesthetics,” he said.

His final graduate short film will be called With Love, From AIDAN.

It is a science fiction tale about a robotic AI who comes to life with the programming to assist and learn to love his family.
However the AI also has the ability to decide whether or not to follow this programming, and grows feelings that tempt him to question his makers.

“I wanted this year to write and direct a dark satire about something that’s very relevant in our society today, perhaps not to this extent just yet, but in a world where AI is scaring developers of creative content, designers and musicians alike, a story like this is actually not as far-fetched as we might hope,” Reuben explains.

Reuben is running a crowd funder and has raised over €3,700 in just over a fortnight since it aunched.

“We couldn’t believe that we hit our target in such little time, because crowdfunding a film can be hard.

“ People don’t realise how expensive it is to produce a film and none of our student crew members are being paid, all that raised money goes into logistics.

“One of the challenges is bringing a 20 person film crew to Abbeyleix for the week, I suppose seeing how people are still donating just makes us so grateful for the support and belief in me and my crew, we really want to make a really strong and effective film for everyone who has donated,” he said.

The dream of becoming a filmmaker began for Reuben when his father, Canon Patrick Harvey won an mp4 Digital Camera from The Irish Times.

Canon Harvey's photo of two gardai at the Electric Picnic was used by the paper and won him the prize., according to the MidlandsIreland.ie website which features Reuben this month.

Reuben attended Abbeyleix South National School and then Kilkenny College. In school, he says he was never good with theory.

Spotting his love for music and hands-on approach to learning, his music teacher David Milne encouraged his love for music by introducing him to composers.

A self-taught musician, Reuben now composes all the music for his films and has scored many others.

Last year, Reuben won a Royal Television Society Undergraduate writing award for his first year short film, ‘Flash_Thunder 93’.
He also scored the haunting music for the short film, and co-wrote and directed it.

His unique approach to filmmaking means he writes the soundtrack first which gives the film its feel and tone, and the story is then written around that.

“Music informs my writing, “it’s like reverse engineering” Reuben said.

Flash_Thunder 93 was shot on the grounds of the rectory in Abbeyleix where he grew up and he cites many benefits for shooting film in Laois.

“The West of Ireland has its sweeping landscapes, but towns like Abbeyleix have their own aura and beautiful architecture, as does Stradbally Hall and Emo Court.

“Logistically it’s better to have a knowledge of the area you’re filming in”.

Below: Reuben and colleagues filming Flash_Thunder 93.

He outlines the importance of making the film, and not just to him.

“This is our major graduate production for the IADT National Film School and determines all of our Heads of Departments for Directing, Producing, Cinematography, Sound and Editing final grades for our college course.

“All crew members are working for free and our budget which is entirely self-funded is entirely invested towards production including transport, hiring talent, props, make-up, costume design, location and any additional equipment hiring.

The Banshees of Inisherin comes to vintage Laois community cinema

“Any and all donations from anyone whether big or small would contribute greatly to helping our film ‘With Love, From AIDAN’ be the best film it can be,” Reuben said.

He has his eyes firmly on a future in the film industry as a director.

An Cailín Ciúin is first Irish language feature film to be nominated for an Oscar

“My hope after college is to continue to direct, maybe in Ireland or abroad, that I don’t know yet, I just know my goal is to direct feature films,” he said.

There is plenty of new Irish talent out there he said.

“There has been a great boost for Irish film in the last few years, and just seeing the talent in my year at the national film school really gives me high hopes for the future of the industry in this country,” the young director said.

See his fundraiser on www.gofundme.com called With Love from AIDAN.