vultures kilkenny v.p.i. irish sitcom Category

Vultures ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm’ trailer is online!

The trailer for the fifth installment of VulturesThe Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm has just hit up those interwebs. And here it is in all its Smith and Jones aping glory.

The fifth installment in our ongoing comic detective serial goes online on Sunday June 7th exclusively on www.VulturesPI.com

The press release for the episode reads a little like this:

“Entitled, ‘The Adventure of the Hidden Microfilm’, the new episode sees the gentlemen detectives of V.P.I. contacted by a mysterious fugitive on the run from the authorities. This fugitive is in possession of a secret microfilm belonging to the rival Pinkerton agency. Except he doesn’t know exactly where he put it. Although he suspects it might be inside him. And it could be a floppy disk or a USB key either. He’s really not sure. Can V.P.I. strike a blow to the Pinkertons before they’ve even opened? How do they get the microfilm from the fugitive? And really, who is this Natalie Blaise we keep hearing about?

All these questions and more will be answered and then asked again when ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm’ goes online.

Vultures is produced by local production company Mycrofilms and has been funded and supported by the Kilkenny County Council Arts Office since it commenced in December 2007. The series wrapped in March of this year and the final pair of climactic Vultures episodes will go online in August. For all information on the show, please visit www.VulturesPI.com”

And there we have it. There’s some really nice promo material, which I’m pretty delighted with, coming out in the next few weeks leading up to the episode. I’ll post what I can here but as usual, the bulk of the material can be found over at the website.

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Photographing Vultures

There’s a lot of really lovely new photos from the fourth installment of Vultures gone online now over at the website. You can have a gander right here.

The photos for Vultures were intermittently handled by Ross Costigan for the first two episodes. Since The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse’ he came on board fully as on set photographer and the quality of the picture content has gone through the roof. His eye for character and detail is razor sharp and thus, the pictures have so much life to them. When you’re filming something with so many heightened characters and scenarios, it’s important that everything is crystal clear visually and Ross has brought that to his work as photographer and also as a director. He’s an exceptionally talented photographer and like a lot of talented photographers, he’s had to spend a long time making shit bands look good in shit locations with shit lighting (There’s many exceptions to this rule on his website. See the promo stuff for Clive Barnes and The Lion’s Mane for example). But if the Vultures shoot has done anything, it’s given him opportunity to show off his bag of tricks with a shitload of different characters, locations and scenarios. There’s an awful lot more of his stuff to come from the shoot for Episodes 5 & 6 and they’re going to be fucking great, I promise. In the meantime, check out all his other pictorial delights here.

Here’s a couple of my own favourites from Episode 4:

This photo I love, not so much for the Vulturesness of it all but rather for the fact that Ross made a lovely looking park look even lovelier. We shot this on a very crisp, cold November morning and the light was just perfect. A lovely shot, even with a man stalking a mad Russian woman in it. Lovely.

This is a perfect example of a picture summing up an entire scene. It’s not the easiest thing to do but it’s done to perfection here.

This is one of those shots that captures the sense of behind the scenes in a really lovely way. Just a few actors bantering. As opposed to men tinkering with lights for hours. The colours here came out lovely. And that’s the main miracle of this picture. Our office is shit for lighting.

This picture of Janine Drew and Jim Vultour is one of my favourites basically because of the unholy alliance of the colours pink and brown. I’m glad we decided to put those two together because that colour scheme is not just the essence of these two characters but also of how mismatched they are. Disgusting for the eyes, really. But in a good way. Another lovely example of a picture that illustrates a scene.

If these pics tickle your fancy head on over to the Vultures website and check out some more.

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Meet Tatiana Leeson

Since ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ has just gone online, new character profiles are being added to www.VulturesPI.com. This is the first one up, a lovely picture by Ross Costigan that captures the Cold War in lady form.

Tatiana Leeson (Edwina Whearty)

Find out more about Russia’s scariest export since TATU on ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ page on www.VulturesPI.com.

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‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ is online

The newest episode of Vultures went online yesterday and it’s free for all viewage at www.VulturesPI.com. Or else you can watch it here!

We’re pretty happy with it I have to say. More and more our intentions and what we want to achieve is actually being realised. So yeah, little by little, it’s getting there. But please do enjoy, I’d love to hear any feedback too.

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‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ is a coming

The edit is nearly done and all the fancy bells and whistles are being put into place as we speak. So we can safely announce that the fourth installment in our constantly ongoing Vultures adventures will go online on Sunday February 1st.

We decided to go for a funky Saul Bass riff on the title card, plenty of primary colours and moving shapes. Paddy did a helluva of a job on this one, drawing from the title cards he designed for The Man With The Golden Arm, Vertigo, Psycho et al. It looks a treat, the title card fanboy in me just went wild.

As for the episode itself, I’ll let the promo blurb from the website do the talking:

“Our newest episode sees the arrival in the V.P.I. offices of a TY student on work experience. Played by Suzanne O’Brien, Janine Drew is brash, ambitious and what in social circles is known as a ‘chav.’ Her appointment coincides with a series of errant romantic entanglements that degenerate into a potential powder keg of social embarrassment, messy divorce cases and extreme violence.”

So that sums the whole shebang up. There’s plenty of surprises in store on this episode and we had a great time writing it and filming it so I hope that translates on the computer screen. I’m also hoping it’s going to show the improvement and the confidence we’re gaining as the project progresses. Not to mention the crew. What a bonus!

It’s going online Sunday week so please do give it a watch. It’s also available on iTunes if you’re an iTuner.

We’re still in the midst of filming the 5th and 6th parts back to back, I’ll write something about that soon. This mix of pre-production and production and post production leaves very little room for internet updates, or anything else for that matter but I’ll try my darndest.

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How To Identify A Pinkerton

Pinkertons are in town and they are coming for your jobs and women and of course, with particular relish, your children.

How do I identify these Pinkertons?

Here’s the how:

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Say No To Pinkertons!

We’ve just launched an anti Pinkerton campaign online at www.VulturesPI.com.

There you will find a very informative video presentation which tells you everything you need to know about the Pinkertons in a fair and balanced manner.

If you’re interested in finding out more about these Pinkerton scumbags then do check out www.Pinkertons.ie.

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‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ wraps up

We wrapped shooting yesterday on the latest installment of our comic web serial Vultures. A cold, frosty but charmingly sunny Sunday morning saw our final scene for Episode 4 wrapped. Last night also saw us do some secretive shooting for Episode 6 and with that, shooting on Vultures for 2008 concludes. No rest for the wicked though. Not a hope.

We’ll be spending the rest of the year getting ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ ready for a January online bow and we’ll also be getting ourselves geared up for shooting Episodes 5 & 6 in January, when we have nothing better to do but stand around outside in the cold with cameras. More information on those 2 episodes will be following along soon.

‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ has been abbreviated as thus:

“The fourth episode of our escapades will see the arrival in the V.P.I. offices of a TY student on work experience. Her name is Janine Drew and she is brash, ambitious and what in social circles is known as a ‘chav.’ Her appointment coincides with a series of errant romantic entanglements that degenerate into a potential powderkeg of social embarrassment and extreme violence.”

The shoot for Episode 4 was a blast, partially due to a well spaced schedule and enthusiastic cast. But mostly down to having Ross Costigan working as director on this one. Ross is well familiar with Vultures at this stage so he knew the whole concept inside out and having sat around for so long and watched years of plays and films being filmed, he was chomping at the bit to get behind the camera and shout at us. After a couple of early hiccups on the shoot (namely freezing, ice rain) it picked up the pace and we’ve ended up with the best Vultures material so far. For me, it was great to be able to focus on work in front of the camera with Ross there manning the decks. He brought a fantastic commitment, focus and professionalism to the shoot and for the first time I felt as if I had someone on set who I could work with to push the boundaries of how the show looked and he brought out the best in everyone on set. Alan really upped his game as well and it’s resulted in a really lovely looking episode which I have to give the lads all props for. The visual aspect of Vultures has suffered tremendously in the first 3 episodes due to not having the required crew to really achieve what we needed but with Ross full time behind the camera with Alan, the two of them really brought it to a level where it looks, yes, like a sitcom!

So, the editing process is kicking off this week and I really can’t wait to get tuck into it in the knowledge that we’ve got coverage… lots of coverage. The shoot for 4 has me revved up for the shoot for Episodes 5 & 6, it’s going to be hard, no doubt about that, but myself and Ross have a good handle on how to shoot it and Alan will take care of the production side of it. Scripting is near completed on both episodes (more of which later) so things are looking good on the entire Vultures wrap front.

Once there’s a date set for it (no pun intended) then it’ll be announced with mild fanfare and the crippling pressure of impending deadlines. It’s how we work best, see. High blood pressure here we come!

www.VulturesPI.com is newly updated so check it out. All the photos on it (and here) are taken by the aforementioned Costigan ladchap and more of his work is available for visual perusal at his website www.Oss237.com

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Meet Janine Drew

The promotion for Vultures Episode 4 ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ is kicking into gear and here’s the first new character to take a bow. Plus she’s got an introductory trailer to boot. Please meet:

JANINE DREW (SUZANNE O’BRIEN)

Straight from www.VulturesPI.com is the lowdown:

‘As our latest installment ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ looms into view, we’d like you to become acquainted with the newest member of the V.P.I. workforce, 16 year old Transition Year student Janine Drew. An ambitious young go getter she certainly is. Not to mention that she is what is known in cultural circles as ‘a chav.’ She will be doing her 2 weeks work experience in the cluttered offices of Vulture Private Investigations and no doubt, she will get up to all manner of merriment.’

You can check out her profile page at the Episode 4 section of the Vultures website.

And here’s her trailer:

Chavtastic!

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Meet Noah Hennessy and Tom Moriarty

Here’s more additions to the character profiles for Vultures. You can check them out on our ever expanding website at www.vulturespi.com. These are 2 character that were introduced in the second episode, ‘The Scarlet Lady Vanishes’.

NOAH HENNESSY (GUS MCDONAGH)

First up is the Italia 90 obsessed, permanently moustached taxi driver / butcher, Noah Hennessy played by Gus McDonagh. He’s a man not to be messed with. Especially if you try to strangle his prostitute girlfriend.

Check out his profile at http://www.vulturespi.com/Episode_2.html

TOM MORIARTY (STEPHEN COLFER)

Next up is the ever so smooth, well groomed moustache of Isabelle Vultour’s slick architecht boyfriend Tom Moriarty as played by Stephen Colfer. A man so slick he makes David Niven look like a hobo.

Learn more about this modern day Casanova at his profile http://www.vulturespi.com/Episode_2.html

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