Pulse College Participates in Innovative College Fair

Pulse College are delighted to announce they took the innovative decision to be the sole Irish participants in the largest online college fair, College Week Live 2010. This innovative 2 day fair which took place on the 24th and 25th of March enabled Pulse College to engage with students from all over the world promoting Ireland as a place to study and Pulse College as a multi media centre of excellence.

Pulse Announces Short films to be Translated onto the Big Screen

Pulse College is delighted to announce the two film treatments by Mark Symmons and Paul Mahon from the full time Film Diploma course, have been chosen to be produced into short films. This is part of Pulse College's ongoing commitment to hands on practical experience on all of their courses. We talk to the successful duo to find out the philosophy behind their concept and the plans that are in place to take on the mammoth task of getting their short films on to the big screen.

Diary of a Leonardo Intern from Naomi Macleod

With Pulse College receiving Leonardo funding for the second year running, Pulse News jumped on the opportunity to get the inside story on what it is like to be an intern in some of the UK's most exclusive recording studios. Naomi Macleod was placed in the Idyllic Leeders Farm Studio and tells us all about her experiences of late nights, Hungarian metal and tea making!

"I am Naomi Macleod and I was lucky to get the opportunity to work in the breathtaking Leeders Farm Studios in Wymondham as part of my Leonardo placement. Norfolk is about 2 hours north of London. I flew to Stansted airport on the 28th of March, very excited, if a little nervous!"...

Greg Magee Guest Lecturer Profile

In this month guest lecture profile, we get a unique insight into the world of multi award winning sound producer Greg Magee. With an Irish Film & TV Award for Best Score under his belt for work in Winters End, he is also responsible for composing and producing all the music for The Fairytale. The Fairytale is a 26 part multi-award winning animation series, based on the stories of Hans Christian Anderson, which was broadcasted in more than 90 countries. We are delighted that he managed to find time to share his industry knowledge and his passion for all things music related with Pulse news.

Q1: You started your music training with the Royal Academy, was music always of interest to you from a young age?

I guess I've always had a huge interest in music. I didn't start formal lessons until I was ten, because it wasn't practical to start flute lessons until that age!

Pulse Graduate and Award Nominated Sound Engineer Dominic Lawrence, talks to Pulse News

In this month's student success section, we profile Dominic Lawrence, a graduate of the Pulse College's Sound Engineering Diploma course, who is currently working as a sound engineer for Brown Bag Films on many of their award winning projects. The highlight of his career to date is his credit for dialog recording on the Oscar nominated short film Granny O'Grimm's. We delve deep and find out what it takes to become a successful sound design engineer and what life is like working on such prestigious high profile projects.

Q1: Background: Who you are, where you're from, where you are now?

My name is Dominic Lawrence, I'm from Cork and currently work as a Post Production Sound Engineer for Brown Bag Films, Dublin. I've been responsible for the sound design and mix of all the long form series produced by Brown Bag over the past 3 years, these include "Olivia" Season one (52x11 minute episodes, currently sold to over 120 territories worldwide), "Noddy" (52x11 minute episodes, currently airing: UK - Channel 5, France - France 5/TF1, and Germany - Nick Jr). Other credits include dialog recording for the Oscar nominated short film "Granny O'Grimm's, Sleeping Beauty", Crap Rap special "Tidy Towns and Tangerines" (1x25min, RTE), Grabby Bag (12x5min, RTE) and dialog recording/sound design work on various commercials.

Improvements to Section 481 increases Ireland's competitiveness in Film Industry

The recent improvements to Ireland's tax incentive scheme, Section 481 for film and television production, has dramatically improved Ireland's competitive position as a film location. The ceiling on qualifying expenditure for any one film has increased from €35 million to €50 million and projects may now derive a benefit of up to 28% of their Irish expenditure.

Ireland has proven to be an excellent co-producing partner for the European Film Industry and is a renowned international production centre with a wide range of financial incentives. Through the Celtic Tiger, the country has developed state of the art facilities, stunning locations and the availability of award winning cast and crew.

ICT Report Highlights growing need for Creative's in Ireland

A recent report undertaken by Enterprise Strategy Group has highlighted the current gap that exists in Ireland between the integration of creative learning and business skills. It shows the need for Ireland to encourage creative thinking and skills throughout the educational spectrum. The aim is to ensure that it engages people from an early age to become involved in the growing multimedia creative industry. By developing these critical skills early this should help minimise the need for 'catch-up' strategies for this rapidly expanding sector in the future.

Board Scannán announces its submissions for Short Shorts scheme

Bord Scannán na hÉireann / The Irish Film Board is delighted to announce a call for submissions for the next round of the successful Short Shorts scheme. The new deadline for the scheme is Friday May 7th.

The Short Shorts scheme has funding for up to seven, 3-5 minute films and aims to encourage the making of very short films that are innovative, provocative or in some way risky and rule-breaking. A unique feature of the scheme is that the films must now conform to a particular genre or theme chosen for each year. In 2008, Short Shorts had to be musicals; in 2009, they had to be films with no dialogue. This year's Short Shorts, whether live action or animated, must adhere to and explore a theme, which is: Ireland, I Love You or Grá mo chroí í Eire.