Jackal Films

Jackal has had a very  busy month! We have just been to the Give Me Direction Screenwriting conference, which this year focussed on comedy. Apart from Dublin being the most brilliant place to hang out, the sun was shining, and there were the most exciting special guests at the event, Jackal also got to show some of their favourite short films in their career to date. We thought we’d died and gone to Jackal heaven (which is actually a line from ‘The Jackal‘. A song which anyone who owned an ‘Acid Jazz’ compilation in the mid 90s should know all too well).

Exciting fellow speakers included Bobby Farrelly of Farrelly Brothers fame, who gave the most brilliant interview, the gist of which was ‘don’t let your stuff get watered down’. Jackal was entirely inspired by this, coming from the genius that brought everyone ‘Dumb and Dumber’ and ‘Something about Mary’. We actually wished that we could have this written on a piece of paper for future use, maybe if in emergencies in meetings with commissioners. It could be very useful as a kind of ‘Farrelly-Approved Special Comedy Pass’. We met Bobby later and, astonishingly, he duly obliged us in this request. And this is what he wrote…

‘To whom it may concern. Please (for the love of Art) do not make these lovely ladies water down their films, to make them more “vanilla”. Thanks for your co-operation.”

Signed Bobby Farrelly

We have now had this  tattooed onto our heads, and photocopied 500 hundred times and laminated, in order to be handed out amongst the other attendees of the conference. We shall now be called ‘The Untouchables’, because we deflect all criticism of our scripts due to a fine protective green comic film which these passes endow us with. There were also great chocolate cookies in the tea breaks.

We were asked to attend by the hilarious Sharon Horgan, who also did a Q&A with us after we showed a few shorts: ‘Sticks and Balls’, ‘Birdhandler’, ‘LoveSong’, ‘Making It With Pam’ and some bits of our pilot ‘LifeSpam’. We were actually quite overwhelmed by the response. We got general feedback from attendees that they felt that what we were doing actually seemed tangible and it inspired a lot of people to do the same, especially as aspiring or starting out filmmakers. We like that and it made us happy. We’ve been asked to go back and do a workshop with new screenwriters. It will really be no hardship to go back to Dublin…

Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong were also interviewed and gave some great insight into working with Chris Morris and how they started writing ‘Peepshow’. It seemed like there wasn’t really enough time for them to talk about all the stuff they have done/are doing. Again, brilliantly inspiring and interesting. Nicole Holofcener talked about her approach to scripts, and her response to criticism/pressure from financiers to conform. We watched her new film ‘Please Give’, which was funny and touching and really a quite refreshing voice.

There were so many comforting overlaps in approach to comedy from all these talented people. Surprisingly, both Bobby and Nicole have a very free approach to the way they work and don’t plan their scripts in advance. Jesse was saying that although they do plan their scripts, they don’t tend to take screenwriting books too seriously. (It seems this is the eternal question: whether to use these books as your bible or not.) It really confirmed to Jackal that we are doing the right thing, following our instincts and making things that make us laugh, and not worrying too much about convention. And I have to say I was surprised how much laughter there was at every single Jackal film we showed. Especially as a couple of the films have never been shown to a cinema audience. Bobby Farrelly was saying that he and his brother do test screenings of various scenes, and they always go with the laugh. He said that often the studios would be applying pressure on them to take out an element which they found ‘odd’ or ‘not helping the plot’, but as soon as they saw this particular element bringing the house down with laughter, they would accept it. He said that comedy was different to drama in that you need to be wrong-footed or surprised as an audience member in order to truly let go and laugh. Encouraging stuff for weirdos like us.

Tags: Alice Lowe, Bobby Farrelly, Chris Morris, Comedy, Dublin, Dumb and Dumber, Four Lions, Give Me Direction, Irish Film Board, Jackal Films, Jacqueline Wright, Jesse Armstrong, Nicole Holofcener, Peepshow, Please Give, Pulling, Q&A, Sam Bain, Screening, Sharon horgan, Something about Mary, The Farrelly Brothers