snowluke

Oscar Buzz

2012-01-25T08:51:00.001-08:00

Congrats to our very own Eimear O'Kane, producer of Fran who has been nominated for an Oscar for her short film 'Pentecost.'

Wow!

Here's a clip of Eimear in action

Fran Available on DVD

2012-01-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce that 'Fran' will be go on general release on DVD on the 3rd of February 2012.

Fran 2 Return

2010-07-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

Snowluke are pleased to announce that mockumentary Fran will return for a second series. It is scheduled to be broadcast by Setanta Ireland this Christmas.

Read more about it here.

http://iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4283190&tpl=archnews&force=1

Fran to return for a second series

2010-07-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

Fran the Return

2010-04-22T02:37:00.000-07:00

Snowluke win Innovation Award

2010-01-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

Snowluke Pictures were recently awarded the Media Cube Innovation Award 2009. The prize is one year's free office space in the Media Cube in Dún Laoghaire.

Media Cube is a business incubation facility set up by The Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) and funded by Enterprise Ireland.

The Media Cube Innovation Award 2009 sought companies that could demonstrate: 1) an innovative product/service, 2) a focus on overseas development, and
3) a need to operate in environment with industry peers. On the judging panel was Sarah Newman from the Irish “Dragons Den”, Paul Rellis, Managing Director for Microsoft Ireland
and Dr. Martin Curley, Global Director for Intel Labs Europe.

Clare Champion Review

2010-01-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

Channel hopping

Marguerite McGrath

It is very rare that I mention something from the TV3 stable. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the number of homemade productions I have commented on from that particular station. However, it must said that one programme did impress me. Well, eventually!
Fran, is a made-for-TV3 pseudo-documentary of the life and times of Fran Costello, the assistant manager of St Peter’s United, a Leinster Senior League team. He is, to put it mildly, a bit of an eejit but he has a heart of gold and a passion for his club and football. He gets little respect from the team but he keeps going despite all the ups and downs he suffers.
The programme follows the team as they try to reach the First Division, something which Fran is convinced they will do. The acting leaves a lot to be desired in this programme and I sometimes think perhaps the ordinary featured are indeed ordinary people out doing their shopping. Anyway, despite a rocky first episode, this programme blossomed into quite an entertaining piece of telly. Fran is incredibly likeable and by the end, you really are rooting for the lad. It was well worth a look and no doubt will be repeated many times to come.

Up For Air Poster

2009-12-03T09:04:00.000-08:00

Sunday Business Post Review

2009-11-11T03:28:00.000-08:00

TV Review
08 November 2009 By Emmanuel Kehoe

There are many awkward moments in Fran: Assistant Manager (TV3). It has been on for some time, but last week’s episode in which Fran (Darragh Humphreys) took over as manager of the shambolic St Peter’s FC, while his boss was suspended on charges of scalping tickets, was extremely funny. Fran’s new role had touches of Ricky Gervais’s David Brent and even Bill Cullen in The Apprentice. It’s soccer drama without Wags.

When Fran Met Brian

2009-10-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday Independent

2009-10-27T06:50:00.000-07:00

Independent.ie

TV3's strange new programming policy

By Declan Lynch
Sunday October 11 2009

It is truly bewildering. A day hardly goes by now, without the announcement of some new series on TV3. And by this I don't mean that they're showing us something that's also on ITV, or that they rented from Australia, I mean actual Irish programmes with Irish people in them, doing Irish things.

Now I realise that there was a time when there was nothing bewildering about a TV station making TV programmes. By a certain narrow definition, that used to be the general purpose of TV stations, in days of yore.

You'd set up your station, and then you'd need to put something on it for the people to see. And you'd do this, by making TV programmes. There was no way around it really.

But as you wander through the digital wasteland, you can see that there's no need for that any more, when you can just set up your station, and show old programmes that other people made, long ago. Or programmes that no-one else wants to make, about sheepdog trials and gymkhanas and the like.

TV3 used to broadly subscribe to that ethos, but with this strange new policy, it is coming dangerously close to performing a public service here, a concept that is so old-fashioned you half-expect to see Charles Mitchell or Maurice O'Doherty materialising on the screen to read the late-night TV3 news.

There's so much of it, you can hardly keep track. The recent series Surviving The Recession was near enough to being the best thing I have seen about various individuals surviving the recession.

Anything about this subject is going to be watched, as it is the story of all our lives, but this one was considerably better than it needed to be.

The Forgotten Irish has also impressed, with its profoundly sad stories of Paddy getting the boat to England back in the Fifties and Sixties, and surviving somehow to the present day, mostly in dire circumstances -- though a few of them did well for themselves, including a chap who had been in "Artane" and who ended up owning pubs in Birmingham, and The Forgotten Irish found him, too.

I suppose this was also linked to the recession, because it reminded us that we used to simply out-source all these problems to England. And vast amounts of money -- billions indeed -- would come back to Ireland from the poor devils who had been cut loose.

This is just a general impression I get, but TV3 seems to have broadly formed the view that we want as much coverage as we can possibly get of the "downturn", whereas RTE has broadly formed the view that we need something to take our minds off it.

TV3 has got it right here.

Ivan Yates' new TV3 show Business Matters is nominally about business, and about things that matter, and of course about Ivan Yates, but again it's ultimately about the terrible state of the country.

These subtly different attitudes may explain why Vincent Browne ended up on TV3, where he owns the night.

He could have been doing it on RTE, where he was presenting this show on the radio for years. But RTE found a way around that, and with perfect timing too, handing him over to TV3 just as everything was falling apart.

Now it must be said that TV3 was starting with a blank page here, or near enough to it. That they're a bit like the defender who starts scoring a lot of goals -- you find it remarkable because you figure that's not what he went out there to do.

And while I'm in this area, I should also mention the Champions League coverage and TV3's recent acquisition of Fran: Assistant Manager a well-observed spoof series transferred from Setanta for an undisclosed sum.

But then there's the perennial Ireland AM, with another former RTE man, Mark Cagney, and there are the gabfests such as Midday and Midweek which you imagine are using the same chairs and tables as Vincent Browne, but with a bit more attention to the feng shui aspects.

So they're shifting a bit of furniture out there, and it shows.

And I haven't got to The Apprentice yet, which is certainly not unconnected to the recession, thus securing its place in our hearts. Or the essential follow-up You're Fired, which is apparently filmed somewhere in Santry, presumably because someone else is using the room at headquarters.

It was obvious from watching him on RTE's You're A Star that Brendan O'Connor has whatever it takes to work on TV, but then RTE stopped showing You're A Star, and TV3 gave him his own show.

Would there be a sort of a pattern here?

They've also lucked in to an outstanding character in The Apprentice itself, the one called Breffny. He is from Cork, allegedly, but it is abundantly clear that Breffny is from another place altogether, and that he is only visiting us for a while.

Bill himself has a burning ambition to be the first Irishman in space, but it seems that Breffny may have got there before him.

It will be a very ugly scene there, in the boardroom.

- Declan Lynch

Fran - Evening Herald Review

2009-10-08T05:25:00.000-07:00

Fran - various reviews

2009-10-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

Fran - Sunday Tribune Review

2009-10-08T05:19:00.000-07:00

Fran - Irish Examiner

2009-10-08T05:17:00.000-07:00

FRAN - Léirmheas

2009-10-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Léirmheas deas ón iris míosúil 'Nós'.

Fran Reviews - Evening Herald

2009-10-06T10:05:00.001-07:00

Fran Reviews - Irish Mirror

2009-10-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Fran to air on TV3

2009-08-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

From the Irish Times:

ALISON HEALY

HOME-PRODUCED programmes account for more than one-third of TV3’s output in its new autumn/winter schedule, a significant increase on previous years according to the station.

TV3 chief executive David McRedmond said yesterday the station was producing 1,200 hours of Irish programming three years ago, compared with 1,900 hours in the new schedule.

“Essentially the major part of our schedule is now Irish and that’s a big shift for us,” he said.

He said the TV3 audience was getting younger with the majority of its audience now under 44.

Even shows such as Vincent Browne’s political show were attracting a young audience, he said. Nightly News with Vincent Browne has been averaging 119,000 viewers per episode, or 12.1 per cent of the adult ABC1 population.

Mr Browne’s show was the most watched programme after British soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale, Mr McRedmond said.

Asked if he regretted axing The Political Party presented by Ursula Halligan, he said: “I always have regrets axing anything . . . but I think Ursula is going to have a few surprises in terms of what she will be bringing later in the year.”

He said the TV3 audience was often underrated by politicians who did not realise that it attracted the floating voter. This vote was crucial in last Lisbon referendum and would be in the next one, he said. “The floating vote in Ireland is young, female . . . and that is TV3’s audience.”

Mr McRedmond said three years ago, 250 TV3 staff were producing one channel. Now, after pay cuts and two rounds of redundancies, 200 staff were producing TV3, 3e and an online service.

“It’s too soon to say there’s a recovery but there’s some signs of some greater commercial activity in the autumn,” he said. “Certainly some of the bigger multinationals are coming back on to the schedule . . . it’s too soon to say what will happen to Irish advertisers.”

New TV3 programmes coming to air this season includes Business Matt ers, presented by businessman, broadcaster and former minister Ivan Yates, and a weekly current affairs show Midweek, presented by Colette Fitzpatrick.

TV3’s production unit launched last year will present several new series, including Nick’s Restaurant , a fly-on-the-wall series following maitre d’ Nick Munier and chef Stephen Gibson as they set up Pichet, their new Dublin restaurant.

The two-part The Forgotten Irish will look at Irish emigrants in London while other documentaries will cover issues such as facing death, surviving the recession and alternative therapies.

The Taoiseach looks at the most important office in the country and profiles former taoisigh. For something completely different, The Cosmetic Surgery Show threatens to leave no body part unexplored. The Apprentice will return and will be followed by the new The Apprentice: You’re Fired show hosted by Brendan O’Connor.

TV3’s first two-part drama series The Guards is shot in documentary style and will focus on three young gardaí who will do anything to secure a conviction. The station has also commissioned a feature-length drama Laura Windermere’s Bag , which is billed as a modern Irish take on Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan.

Bought-in shows include V, a remake of the 1980s aliens show, and Modern Family which is “laugh-out-loud funny”, according to TV3 director of programming Ben Frow . He also highlighted Fran , a new Irish comedy following the assistant manager of a senior league football team.