Dromahair's Sleeping Warrior Productions honoured at awards ceremony
Dromahair based film production company 'Sleeping Warrior' were recently hailed by members of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) at a recent awards ceremony in Puerto Rico.
The involvement of Patrick O'Rourke and Jim King in focusing on the golfing industry began when they were contacted by Jon Kiger, director of membership and media sales with TurfNet, the leading online community for members of the golf course maintenance industry.
TurfNet had developed several films focusing on golf courses around America and when they decided to film in Ireland, Sleeping Warrior Productions were chosen to take care of the filming,editing and producing. Such was the success of TurfNet's trip to Ireland in 2008, they returned earlier this year for more filming, which will be online from September.
Speaking to Patrick and Jim about their success, both reflected on the experience fondly.
"It was a little bit out of the box from what we normally do," commented Patrick who added, "It's a big market, they run this website which basically connects coursekeepers.
"You might think that's fairly minority but there's 16,000 golf courses. The industry is horrendously big in terms of the money it turns over. It's quite a serious industry. They connect with them and they also have an online channel where they are making videos which is about exchanging information and having a bit of craic as well.
"When you think about it if a course keeper has a potential disease somewhere on his course he hasn't got long to nail it before he loses his golf course. So another man somewhere else in the world can tell him how to nail it. We do a lot of that in the videos. When you get in to the science of it, it's pretty amazing."
Such was the success of the partnership between Sleeping Warrior and TurfNet it is hoped there may be a third collaboration next year, with Jim joking, "We're trying to get him to do 'TurfNet goes to the Algarve'!"
When asked where the name 'Sleeping Warrior' originated from, Patrick explained that it is partly due to the ability he formed to sleep anywhere on movie sets and also due to the 'sleeping warrior' mountain which can be seen from the studio.
Due to the wonders of modern technology a three way conversation in the Sleeping Warrior studio quickly became four as Jon Kiger joined via Skype. In fact modern technology has been key to the partnership between Sleeping Warrior and TurfNet.
"Broadband has changed our lives, we only had landline before that. We couldn't have done any of the work with TurfNet without it. We used to drive around the country showing people previews now we can upload it and send a low-res version. You can work from anywhere in the world," commented Patrick.
When asked how he first made contact with Sleeping Warrior Productions, Jon explained, "I visited their website and I saw some of the work that they had done and some of the samples on the site and I thought they would be ideal for the job.
"We were also excited about bringing an Irish theme and flair to the video project rather than looking like it was done by Americans over there."
To give an indication of how successful the partnership between Sleeping Warrior Productions and TurfNet was, TurfNet scooped nine awards at the recent TOCA awards with the series 'TurfNet goes to Ireland', claiming four of those nine awards.
Patrick also gave his recollection of how contact was first made with Jon and the speed with which the project progressed.
"He was looking for production companies in Ireland in 2008 and it all happened pretty quickly when we got back to him. He said he'd be in Ireland in two months. He wanted to start in the south but we talked him into starting in Enniscrone which worked out quite well.
"The reason it went down so well, is it's completely different to what the Americans do. All the stuff shot over there is very antiseptic, with a plastic rock and roll soundtrack, lovely landscapes and an interview with a guy with shades on. We went at it a little bit differently.
"We used 3D graphics for all the links, shooting a golf ball around Ireland on a 3D map and that joined the tour together and we used buggy cams driving around having crashes! We were having a laugh and at the end of each piece putting out-takes in."
As Jim said, "You have to lighten this stuff because it's heavy!"
Speaking of the working relationship he developed with Sleeping Warrior Productions, Jon explained "I believe we actually only talked on the phone once before meeting up at the airport and they didn't know what to expect from this crazy American. I knew that technically they could do the work because they had already done a sample from Strandhill and I was delighted that it looked so great and so different and really reflected the Irish culture. I had a feeling based on the sample, the video was going to be a great project.
"I think when we got together and started asking technical questions, it was a wonderful pairing. From that standpoint we complimented each other very nicely.
"The nice thing is Sleeping Warrior have had a big influence on the things we do over here, we try to make it more humorous.
"To have such good work and technical expertise in writing and production it was a real pleasure. It's proven to be a good business relationship."
When asked how working with Turfnet this year compared to last year when they met for the first time, Jim explained, "We should get through the editing a lot quicker this year because we know what we're dealing with. It was in at the deep end last year.
"We filmed in May, then there was a five minute teaser which was an excerpt from the various courses, and then every two weeks from September 1 they put up a new episode, 11 or 12 minutes long.
"We have 60 hours of footage from this year and we have to get that down to about 40 minutes and this September it will be going up on TurfNet again."
For further information on Sleeping Warrior Productions see www.sleepingwarrior.com and for further information on TurfNet visit www.turfnet.com
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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