Dead Medium

Download: Migrant Fictions (54 Megs)

Migrant Fictions is an ambitious new drama project, bringing together the talents of a diverse group of immigrant writers to capture their experience as émigrés to Ireland. German-Polish writer / director Dominik Turkowski developed five short drama scripts through workshops with writers from the immigrant community. Their stories capture the varied experiences of newcomers to Ireland. This project provided the opportunity for immigrants to articulate their experiences in their own words, through five short radio dramas. These dramas were devised collectively by the migrants themselves, and connect in profound and mysterious ways that reflect with humour and humanity what it means to be a migrant in Ireland today.

We’d like to thank world famous film and videogame composer Craig Stuart Garfinkle who kindly donated his compositions to the project.

The Writers

The plays were written by a talented and diverse group of Migrant Writers. The writers were Dalia Smelstoriūtė, Özgecan Kesici, Dominik Turkowski, Tina Brescanu, and Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan.

Producer and sound designer was Gareth Stack.

Check out the shows complete Credits.

The Plays

Experience 5 ten-minute dramas on travel, isolation and the tension between tradition and modern lifestyles. 5 stories sharing perspectives on  love and family, of acceptance and prejudice, of frustration with the bureaucracy and profound questions between home and adoptive culture.

In profound and mysterious ways they reflect with humour and humanity what it means to be a migrant in Ireland today.

Girl On A Plane

Elif, a German born Kazakh girl, is travelling home to meet her father. Elif is studying biochemistry in Ireland, but has dreams of becoming an actress. Dreams her traditionalist father thinks are beneath his daughter. Will she go her own way ?

Howling Walls

Robert has inherited a valuable collection of paintings – the work of his well-known >artist mother Margaret Owalska, a Polish migrant to Ireland. At an auction shortly after his mother’s death, Robert is interrupted by a man who is claiming ownership of his mother’s work.

Talk at Me 

Aysegul, a Turkish migrant working in Dublin, meets her boyfriend for coffee. Really Aseygul wants to address her VISA worries, but she has to deal with the reality that her boyfriend is more interested in expressing his own opinions than listening to her problems. Asysegul has been rejected by the bureaucracy of the employment permit programme. Will she have to return to the unstable political situation in Turkey ?

Eat In or Take Out 

Egle, an elderly Lithuanian woman travelling in Ireland for work, heads to a restaurant to meet Jonas. Jonas is in Ireland working eighty hour weeks to save up money for his wife and child back home. Together they talk about life and while a new friendship unfolds, Egle is also facing the sudden ending of a long lasting romance.

I Belong – Tina Brescanu

A young Swedish girl Pernilla, falls for Carrick, a charming Irish musician on a hot night in a Swedish town. Following him back to Ireland, Pernilla must deal with the realities of working in Ireland, crank callers, and a rude elderly lady she cares for, Peig. Gradually Pernilla and Peig develop a mutual respect and become fast friends. At the same time, pressured by Carrick to join him living in isolated Connemara, Pernilla is pushed to take a tough decision..

A new podcast in which two writers attempt to develop a film in real time, with no preparation.

Featuring Gareth Stack & James Van De Waal.

Download: Let’s write a film – Episode 2.

Previous episodes.

A new podcast in which two writers attempt to develop a film in real time, with no preparation.

Featuring Gareth Stack & James Van De Waal.

Download:  Let’s Write A Film.

Photo submitted to the Flickr group Macro Mondays for the “Turquoise” theme.

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Download: Getting into the Game Documentary

Getting into the game is a new documentary aimed at kids who play games. Video games. Kids who play videogames and wonder maybe, possibly, perhapsily, if they’d like to make them. Growing up I remember getting those magazines full of strange impenetrable symbols that promised – if you could just type the whole book into your computer, without making any mistakes – you’d get a brand new, completely free game. These days games are everywhere, but they’re so damn fancy they can seem impossible to learn how to make.

This documentary will help open the lid, just a crack, to see what lies inside your favourite games. We’ve brought together people from every corner of the industry – artists, coders, indies, musicians, gamejammers, and developers of every age.

Featuring interviews with..

The programme is divided into five segments, each one looking at a different part of making games.

Learning the Art

We visit cutting edge computing research laboratories at DIT and IT Carlow and tour exciting games development technology.  Lecturers and students explain the skills students should be building outside the classroom if they’d like to study videogames in college. Students tell us about their love of games and how they got into making their own.

Getting Covered in Jam

At DIT a group called ‘Global Gamecraft’ host ‘game jams’, competitions where anyone (over 18) can help make a game in just a few hours. Game Jams are an excellent way to develop the technical, artistic and collaborative skills sought by the games development industry. Jams are a fun and friendly way for young people to get a taste of game development. We speak to competitors and organisers like Vicky Lee, and provide a glimpse of the excitement and accessibility of ‘homebrew’ game development

Creating Havok

Modern videogames simulate exciting and realistic physics. The most impressive game physics ‘middleware’ software in the world comes from an Irish company founded by graduates of Trinity College. Havok are an industry leader employing dozens of artists and programmers. We speak to staff at the company about the day-to-day work of making one of the key technologies underpinning some of the most exciting and popular videogames.

Independent Heroes

The independent game development community is a thriving segment of the industry. We speak with leading Irish indie developer Terry Cavanagh, creator of hit games like ‘Super Hexagon’, about running his own studio. Terry explains how new distribution methods make it easy for anyone to sell their homemade game on the internet. Independent game development is a part of the industry that is particularly important to present to second level students – since it can be used to develop skills, or even start a business while at school.

We try out virtual reality in the company of Bryan Duggan of DIT, exploring DEEP, the anti-anxiety game from Owen Harris. Deep uses unique breathing sensors, soothing music and a beautiful polygon virtual environment to teach deep breathing relaxation techniques.

We hear from David O’Reilly, animator and creator of fictional videogames for use in Hollywood films. David gives us a glimpse into a self-directed career involving art, graphic design, and filmmaking.

Coder Dojo

Coder Dojo is a place for kids to learn how to make games, websites, and even robots. Started in County Cork, the Dojo movement has spread worldwide. Amazingly, Coder Dojo events are completely free! If there isn’t a coder dojo in your area, you can even start your own. We meet some of the kids who are making coder dojo the coolest place on earth.

Getting into the game was produced by Dead Medium Productions. The programme was developed, researched and presented by Gareth Stack and James Van De Waal.

All the music and sound effects used in the programme are listed here. Many of them are available for you to use for free in your projects under a creative commons licence. This documentary is available to download and share for free under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence, it can be played in class or emailed to your students. Use it and share it! Go make some games!

Download: The Wedding Tree

The Wedding Tree is an audacious new radio drama, set in the aftermath of an accident at an Irish nuclear power plant. In the wake of the disaster, fire officer Cian Mitchell is confined to hospital. Tormented by his injuries, Cian finds unlikely comfort in the company of Philips, an elderly English patient. Philips, a retired air force officer, delivers a series of interconnected tales drawing on everything from the golden age of Hollywood to Ireland’s historic mistreatment of women. The play explores mortality, storytelling, and the interconnectedness of all things. This is a tensely paced, meditative piece of radio theatre that plays with the medium, moving from drama to storytelling and back again.

This was my first time working with the incredibly talented, award winning sound designer Brendan Rehill. Brendan’s work captures the power and presence of natural sound to build rich, captivating audio worlds. For this drama he constructed an aural voyage that takes us from the heart of a nuclear reactor to the gizzards of a dying man.

The Wedding Tree was produced by Dead Medium for Newstalk. The programme was written and directed by Gareth Stack, and sound design was by Brendan Rehill.

The cast were: Mitchell – James O’Connor, Philips – William Brady, Surgeon / Mrs Mitchell / Nurse – Aislinn O’Byrne, Rory – Sebastian Connellan.

Theme music and incidental music by Roger Gregg.

‘The Wedding Tree’ was broadcast Saturday 12th August at 8am and 10PM  GMT on Newstalk 106 -108FM.

The programmes was made possible by a grant from the Sound & Vision fund. Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.