The INSPIRE INTERVIEW: Navan filmmaker Eamonn Norris

By the time this appears in print, Eamonn Norris will be across the Atlantic, in New York, for the New Jersey Irish Film Festival. He’s excited, but nervous about the trip, as his new feature film, ‘Making It’, is the subject of a special screening and he is a guest at the festival, partaking in a questions and answers session before the film shows.
Not that he should be nervous, for the Navan man is well used to working with big names on both sides of the ocean, on such hit American series such as ‘Blue Bloods’, or our own ‘Ros na Rún’ where he has directed a number of episodes.
The past couple of years have seen him working in Kerry, Galway, Dublin, Meath and New York, as he divides his time between his filmmaking and TV work, something he had always wanted to do.
His entry into the business was very much by chance – as a young twenty something on his J1 visa in New York, he was working as a doorman on Park Avenue, when he saw some filmmaking going on on the street.
“I saw a lady with a walkie talkie, and I went over to ask her what they were filming.”
The lady turned out to be Andrea O’Connor from Dundalk, who was a second assistant director on ‘Sex and the City’. She got him a part as an extra on the show, and it began a working relationship with Andrea which continues to this day.
“Unless you had family in the business, or someone sponsoring you, it’s very hard to get into the business,” Eamonn, originally from Commons Lane, says.
His only acting experience had been as the Duke of Albany in ‘King Lear’ at St Patrick’s Classical School, where teachers Richie and Mary Ball had been big influences. As a young lad, he worked in the Diamond Cinema in Navan.
“I loved it. I would have worked in the cinema for nothing I loved it so much,” he says.
Having studied history at University College, Dublin, in 2003 he returned to college to do his MA in Irish history, with an eye on then going on to study law.
But he drifted more into the TV and entertainment world, initially working as a volunteer on the local Navan TV station Province 5, reporting and working behind the camera, where the bug bit.
Then, with Kells comedian Fred Cooke, he ran Lantern Laughs, a comedy night at the Lantern Pub on Watergate Street.
Once again, there was a chance meeting which led to further work for him. A former pupil of Scoil Eanna, he was doing some work for Irish language series ‘Scannál’ in RTE when he bumped into Larry Masterson, the executive producer of the Late Late Show, in Montrose. Masterson was looking for somebody to help book acts for the Late Late, and Eamonn’s work in booking comedians for Lantern Laughs stood to him.
“It became my first direct link into Irish TV work,” he says.
TG4’s Ros na Rún was hiring, and he sent in his CV. He became assistant production coordinator.
“It was an office job initially, but I learned a lot about producing, and realised I wanted to be a director.'
Over the next few years, Eamonn became stage manager and floor manager on Ros na Rún, then left the show for a number of years.
“It’s a long apprenticeship to become a director,” he explains. He trained and studied, and worked on other shows on TG4 and RTE, including ‘Single Handed’, ‘Mattie’, ‘Údar’ and the award-winning ‘Na Cloigne’, some as assistant director.
“In 2011, I decided I needed to learn new skills, and enrolled in the Fás TV and film production course in Tralee.” Run by Paraic Dolan and Brian Nolan, its reputation with the industry was second-to-none, and here, Eamonn learned more about camera equipment, editing software, light and sound and more.
“That year 2011-2012 changed my life,” he says. “I met brilliant people. We started to make our own short films, going out to compete in festivals, and eventually picking up prizes.”
Eamon became part of a small team, with John McCarthy, David Pembroke and Fred O’Connor, making short films.
Some years earlier, had renewed his contact with Andrea O’Connor in America, telling her that she had a great influence on his decision to go into the business. She became a great mentor to him, and having become second assistant director on ‘Blue Bloods’, she invited him over to work on the CBS police drama starring Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg.
“This work in the US changed me, made me a lot more focused,” Eamonn says. “Seeing the drive and determination of everybody on the show, and their pride in their work, and the long hours they put into it, 12 to 16 hours a day. It was amazing working on such a big budget show.”
Eamonn was responsible for handling an actor from the moment they came in, right through filming, until they had left, from the major to minor roles. It helped that he had studied Irish history, as the show is about a New York-based Irish-American family, and as the real Irish lad on set, he was always being quizzed about different aspects of Ireland.
Returning home, Eamonn began to use his US experience and influence on his filmmaking with the Kerry ETB team, winning The 50 Hour Film competition at the Kerry Film Festival in 2014 for the short film 'The Deadline', about a screenwriter up against a deadline and all that befalls him.
“I had a new confidence when we won the 50 hour,” Eamonn says. “It was a good feeling after coming home from America.”
In 2015 he won The Audience Award at the Oddalenia short film festival in Dublin for his short film 'The Countryman', and was a finalist at the 'Live Life' video awards in 2015.
Brian Nolan, who had now taken over the production and skills course in Kerry, asked him was he interested in taking on the direction of a film production, and so Fred O’Connor and himself wrote ‘Making It’, based on a story developed with Brian.
Ros na Rún actor Seamus Hughes was available, and Moya Farrelly, a Navan actress living in Dingle who had starred in ‘This is my Father’ with Aidan Quinn, was also cast, having brought her daughter, Kaylin Galvin, along to audition for a role.
“In directing, it’s all about getting the cast right,” Eamonn says. “Then, you have half the battle won.”
The comedy film tells the story of Mike McMahon, a family man who loses his job and decides to enter a film making competition to win a big cash prize. With little talent but large ambition, his efforts soon land him in trouble with both sides of the law.
‘Making It’, which took two and a half years from start to finish, was selected to open the Kerry Film Festival, which Eamon says was a real honour.
“It was a real career highlight for me to see 270 people sitting in a cinema being entertained, hearing them laugh and enjoy something we had all worked so hard on,” he says. It has shown at a number of festivals, and cinemas, and he hopes to bring it back to the Diamond Cinema for a homecoming show, given all the Navan connections to it.
Meanwhile, Eamon returned to work on Ros na Rún in October 2014, to complete the standard training of two formal apprenticeships needed to become a director. Having trained with Claire O’Loughlin and Stephen Butcher, he has directed eight episodes.
“Series producers Coílín O Scolai and Deirdre Ní Fhlatharta had great faith in me, and helped me to become a director, and I have to pay tribute to Máire Ní Thuathail, the founder of Ros Na Rún, who died last September. She was a visionary in the industry, with a massive impact on me.” Currently working with new executive producer, Siobhan Ní Ghrada, three episodes he directed last August /September will screen at the end of May (23rd, 25th and 30th May).
On Ros na Rún, he is working with a childhood friend from Navan, writer and actor Domhnall O’Donoghue, who plays Pádraig Ó Loingsigh in the TG4 series. The pair were member sof the St Pat's debating team back in their schooldays.
Eamonn hopes to continue working between America and Ireland, and with the Irish language.
“I’d love to be making the big film – but also telling stories that are Irish,” he says.
He believes that while it’s never been easier to make a movie, with Iphones and YouTube making it more accessible to everybody, and more and more media courses, it may also be much harder to make it through that maelstrom. However, with a good team and a belief in what you are trying to create, all should work out. Take it from one who is ‘Making It’.

 

 

This article first appeared in the Meath Chronicle Inspire magazine May 2017. 

'Making It' has since been named best feature film award winner at the New Jersey Film Festival.