irish sitcom Category

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December 21, 2012 • irish sitcom, mycrofilms, v.p.i., vultures

Employment Opportunities

We’ve just released the trailer for the very final Vultures episode. ‘The Dicks Who Came In From The Cold’ hits the web this Sunday December 23rd and it will tie up our second series with a bit of festive panache.

The trailer features a head to head between the punky informant Jack Street (Ross Costigan) and dapper architect Tom Moriarty (Stephen Colfer). It allowed us a nice opportunity to give two of the best Vultures supporting characters a scene all on their lonesome as we see that the former detectives aren’t the only ones struggling with unemployment.

It also ups the stakes for our detective baiting Christmas reunion in the final episode. The plot for the new episode sees Janine Drew upping the stakes as she tries to reunite the good dicks who can take the fight local crimeboss Johnny Curragh. And it’s also set at Christmas just like the very first episode all those many, many years ago. It’s nice to finish things off in a sorta full circle kind of fashion. Here’s the trailer:

Check out www.VulturesPI.com for everything else on the show!

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March 15, 2012 • irish sitcom, mycrofilms, v.p.i., vultures

The Vultures Are Circling

We’ve just announced the date for the return of the Mycrofilms webcom Vultures.

Janine Drew Presents Where Have All The Good Dicks Gone? hits the net this Monday, March 19th (I made that title way more complicated that I needed to). It’s the first new Vultures episode since The Long Goodbye in 2009 and the first of what will be four incoming webisodes between now and June. We’re also lining up a new Christmas episode but we’ll see how everything else goes first.

Everything else being the various walls that we’ve flung Vultures shit at over the past few years, some of which have stuck. The feature film version of the show (which has the equally long but sleeker working title of The Dicks Who Came In From The Cold) has been shortlisted for the Digital Comedy Lab which will see 2 filmmaking teams (1 Ireland, 1 UK) get €50,000 to make a feature mockumentary. So we’re going to get really competitive about that because we want to win. The plot of the movie is the same storyline that we had been saving for a potential follow up series and we’re confident it’s suitably cinematic. The quartet of new webisodes bridge the gap between the lives of the detectives in the first series and our ultra exciting second series story (none of which are too indebted to each other).

Speaking of mockumentaries, the new episode is the first Vultures one to be shot in that format. It follows Janine Drew’s attempts to make a documentary about unemployed detectives in her hometown for her first year college project. The results are tragic and comical. Yes, we’re going for a general tragicomic tone on this one. We hope you enjoy it when it hits.

If you don’t, it’s entirely my fault as it’s the first Vultures episode I’ve written and directed entirely on my own. Yup, I’m finally off the stabilisers. I could probably blame Alan Slattery, my trusty producer…. and I guess in some way, I will.

All the main cast are returning as well as other familiar faces and some new ones, like this ginger rogue Ronnie Drew, younger brother of Janine Drew. He’s played by Colin O’Brien who I had the great pleasure of working with last year on Devious Theatre’s production Shifting. He’s a fantastic young actor and also a total scumbag, which helps.

The episode will go online at some undetermined time Monday and can be viewed on VulturesPI.com, YouTube or if you’ve subscribed on iTunes you’ll get it there. Give it a look, spread, support and share, it’s all very much appreciated.

Photos by Ross Costigan… who may or may not be in the episode….

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October 5, 2009 • detectives, episode 7, irish sitcom, kilkenny, the long goodbye, v.p.i., vultures, webcom

The Long Goodbye

With a teary eye, the final episode of Vultures has just gone online.

‘The Long Goodbye’ is the concluding part of our comic detective serial and follows on from the events of ‘Attack Of The Pinkertons’

The episode is synopsised as thus:

‘With Isabelle Vultour captured and the Pinkertons establishing their firm grip on the town, the gentlemen detectives of V.P.I. must concoct a plan to get Isabelle back, stick it to the Pinkertons and for Vultour and McGrain… avoid a threesome with Natalie Blaise? But in order to do so they must rally the troops. And the actions of the bullying Pinkertons has ensure that there’s plenty of volunteers. This is it. The final battle. The detective apocalypse. Who will reign supreme? Who will prove to the best detective force in town? Or will it all descend into a terrible mess? This is the long goodbye, where the goodbyes are long and the farewells are hard.’

Thanks so much to all the cast and crew who worked on Vultures over the past 2 years, without you we wouldn’t have a low budget webcom!

Also, a big thanks to the people who have watched it and have supported the show since we first shot and screened that first episode in Christmas week back in December 2007. We’re glad to have reached the end of the road with it, it’s been a hell of a journey and this is a rather fitting goodbye. A long one.

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September 28, 2009 • detectives, enid blyton, irish sitcom, the famous five, the terrific three, vultures, webcom

Meet The Terrific Three…

The trailer for the final episode of Vultures ‘The Long Goodbye‘ has just gone online.

Set in the glory days of 1998, when the summer holidays were spent laughing, running, solving and knacker drinking, we’re introduced to the teenage Dan McGrain, Jim Vultour and Natalie Blaise, all before things went very, very bad.

But for a while, these teen detectives were the best of friends and could do no wrong. And here they are, in all their Blyton-esque glory.

Thanks to the immensely talented gents that are David Sheenan, Neil Quigley and Peter Lawlor for producing that 70’s tastic title track. And also thanks to David Galster, James Doran and Hazel Doyle for such good flashback acting.

‘The Long Goodbye’ goes online this Sunday October 4th over at www.VulturesPI.com

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September 25, 2009 • enid blyton, episode 7, irish sitcom, kilkenny, the terrific three, vultures

Running, Laughing, Solving…

Here’s our Vultures flashback picture that was first glimpsed at the end of ‘Attack Of The Pinkertons‘.

It shows our happy, smiling, group of teen detectives before things went very wrong.

L-R: Isabelle Vultour, Jim Vultour, Natalie Blaise (with Marlowe), Dan McGrain.


You’ll see more from these Enid Blyton inspired scamps when the trailer for Vultures Episode 7 ‘The Long Goodbye’ goes online this Sunday, September 27th.

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September 22, 2009 • attack of the pinkertons, episode 6, episode 7, finale, irish sitcom, kilkenny, vultures

The Pinkertons Have Attacked!

The penultimate episode of Vultures ‘Attack Of The Pinkertons‘ has just gone online. And here it is!

This is the first of our two part finale that will conclude with ‘The Long Goodbye’ on October 4th.

We had the screening for cast and crew on Saturday night and it was lovely to bring the series to a close with everyone who worked on it. People who we are enternally indebted to. The sheer exhaustion of finishing has been helped by the nice feeling of accomplishment in completing the series and telling the story we wanted to tell. It was a tough, long haul and we learnt many lessons, and indeed probably would do it completely differently but it was worth it. Which is really all that counts.Align Center

If you believe in the Pinkertons then you’ve probably seen their campaign popping up around the place and their website has been spruced up too. Here’s some photos from the campaign as taken by Ross Costigan, who has provided fine acting, photography and directing throughout the project. Enjoy!

Oh, and keep an eye out for the Episode 7 teaser trailer which will go online this Sunda

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September 11, 2009 • attack of the pinkertons, detectives, finale, irish sitcom, kilkenny, mycrofilms, the long goobye, vultures

Vultures 6 & 7 Title Cards

We’ve just got our hands on the title cards for the upcoming Vultures finale. As is usually the case, Paddy Dunne has done another sterling job in representing the episodes in a fine display of design and fancy lettering.

Our idea for the Attack Of The Pinkertons title card was to go a little Manga on the look. And of course, pink. Which is quite befitting of the storyline in which the Pinkertons finally open shop and start their campaign to take over our little unnamed town. Our remit for this episode was to load up on the action and of course, we’re suckers for Manga so we thought it’d be a nice look for what’s shaping up to be our most violently cartoonish episode.

The title card for The Long Goodbye is a little more noirish and does a good job of evoking the sense that this is the final hooray for Vultures. We went a little 40’s noir on this as the episode itself has plenty of smoky bars, subterfuge, femme fatales and indeed, goodbyes.

Attack Of The Pinkertons goes online on Sunday September 20th.
The Long Goodbye will follow 2 weeks later when it brings all matters to an end on Sunday October 4th.

I’ll be posting a few bits and pieces here in the run up but as usuall, all things Vultures can be found over on www.VulturesPI.com

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August 24, 2009 • alan slattery mycrofilms, attack of the pinkertons, dragnet, episode 6, irish sitcom, kilkenny, pinkertons, pinkertons ireland, the long goodbye, vultures, webcom

The Pinkertons Are Coming…

We’ve just launched the trailer for the penultimate episode of Vultures ‘Attack Of The Pinkertons’.

We’ve kept up the idea of using the trailers to bridge the gaps (and there have been long, long gaps) between episodes. But this one is kinda short and sweet. Which after the last few talk heavy trailers is a nice change. Although the Dragnet thing is very overdone at this stage, it was something we really wanted to indulge ourselves with. So here it is!

‘Attack Of The Pinkertons’ is just abouts finished and we’re still beavering away on its sister episode ‘The Long Goodbye’ which will be taking a bow 2 weeks later on October 4th. And that’ll be us done. But instead of me going on about it, here’s the synopsis from the website:

“Entitled Attack Of The Pinkertons, the episode sees the newly unemployed gentlemen detectives of V.P.I. reacting badly to the Pinkertons opening for business. Unemployed and underground (well, in Tennyson’s house), Vultour and McGrain are intent on eluding the clutches of their old friend Natalie Blaise. Tennyson however is looking for a peaceable resolution, no doubt with a strong mug of scald and a chat involved. However, Natalie Blaise doesn’t seem to be open to dialogue. The Pinkertons are making their presence felt. And people are getting hurt. Can V.P.I. regroup and fight back? Will Natalie Blaise emerge from the shadows to explain herself in a long winded villainous fashion? Or is she merely just misunderstood? And what will Tennyson do to fill in the unemployed hours?

All these questions and more will be answered when the action packed denouement of the Vultures series goes online on the 20th of September.

All will be finally resolved two weeks later when our final instalment The Long Goodbye brings the series to a close on October 4th.”

This episode is probably the one we’re least complainy about. The first couple of episodes have suffered from all pratfalls associated with doing something as a part time project but with the last 3 episodes we’ve had a chance to refine it and get closer to what we want to achieve.

We’ll be ramping up the promo campaign for the two final Vultures episodes in the coming weeks. Ideally, we’d have Pinkertons attacking people on the street but we’re not too sure what the legalities of that just yet.

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August 18, 2009 • episode 4 mycrofilms, irish sitcom, james bond, kevin mooney, kilkenny, q, quint quigley, v.p.i., vultures

Meet Quint Quigley

Quint Quigley (Kevin Mooney)

The profile for the fugitive stoner from ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm’ has just gone online over at that very page.

Quigley was one of our favourite characters on page. We’d never had anything as exciting as a fugitive to work with and we wanted to flesh him out into something different than what we’d done before. So, yeah, stoner comedy and fart jokes. Voila, there he is. And we liked the idea that a fugitive who initiates a chase episode would in fact be completely brain fried and slow.

Our grand plan was for Quint to be the resident tech nut for V.P.I. Kinda like their equivalent of Q in the James Bond series. Hence, the name. Q central. But we never really got around to loading Quigley up with all the cool homemade implements that we wanted him to design. And he never did get to give V.P.I. cool gadgets to fight the Pinkertons with. But we did manage to get him across as a stoned and paranoid conspiracy theorist. So at least that base was covered. And thanks to Kevin Mooney for keeping that moustache for 3 months. Legend.

Quigley will be making his return in the forthcoming ‘Attack Of The Pinkertons’. There’ll be more announcements on that tres soon. In blog form! In the meantime, enjoying getting to know Quint a little bit better.

Thanks to Ross Costigan for another lovely profile capture in our ever expanding micro universe.

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