'Tarantino of the future' John wins filmmaking gong
AN ASPIRING young filmmaker from Drogheda has beaten stiff competition to win a national award, and be described as a 'Quentin Tarantino of the future'.
John Farrelly, who is just 12 years old, collected the top gong at the Fresh Film Festival in Limerick last Thursday for his film 'American Nazis', and another of his short movies 'The Masked Man' was also screened.
The young director won second place in the same competition last year, so he was determined to do better in 2013!
'He set out to win the top award this year, and he didn't disappoint, we are so proud of him,' says mum Lillian.
'In fact, one of the judges said John had actually gone up a notch from early Tarantino, and showed an extraordinary level of humour and maturity.'
The sixth-year student at Scoil Aonghusa didn't have to look far for his cast, as he used his school pals in the movie.
'I spent five days on my own writing the script, then decided which actors would suit the characters and I cast them,' said John.
'I cast myself as the main character Lieutenant John Noris, my brother Cathal Farrelly as private Chris Waltz, Pauric Leech as private Jason Hanks, Jack Bogue as Adolf Hitler, Ronan Collins as a Nazi General and Declan McCabe as a Nazi Officer.'
John filmed all their parts on one Saturday from 10am to 8pm, and spent the next three days filming landscape shots and close ups on his own.
'I also filmed Jack doing the German voice overs, which my mam helped out with and then had to edit my film, which took me ten days.'
Fresh Film Festival is the place for all you aspiring young filmmakers to have your masterpieces screened in front of captive audiences, get invaluable feedback, see the latest inspiring feature films, take part in workshops and enter for consideration in the Ireland's Young Filmmaker Competition annually.
John and his family, plus actors, attended the final in Limerick last week. and were there to see him take the top prize.
'He works so hard on his films, as well as attending the Irish Film Academy classes, so this is definitely what he wants to do for a career, ' says Lillian, who is married to Peter, and has two other children Cathal (10) and Leanna (8).
'He says his actors were also brilliant, and Muinteoir Edel in his school and has to share the award with them, and is was also a family affair as his granny supplied the costumes, and his dad supplied the camera equipment and the lights.'