Irish Film Institute -The Cherishing by Liam Ryan

The Cherishing by Liam Ryan

The IFI and The Irish Film Board present the After ’16 Collection – a creative response 100 years after the 1916 Rising through a series of nine short films. The full Collection is available to view now on the IFI Player.

Here, Production Manager Liam Ryan writes about the challenge of putting together the production for The Cherishing.

As soon as we got the Green Light from the Irish Film Board myself and Producer Dave Leahy immediately rolled into pre-production. We are extremely fortunate to have a regular group of collaborators for our productions so I immediately started rounding up the usual suspects in terms of crew. Visually our cinematographer JJ Rolfe was amazingly practical in his approach. Costume designer SJ Ffrench O’Carroll had her work cut out in terms of populating the tenement but we were blessed with a terrific cast thanks to sterling work from Louise Kiely and Thyrza Ging. Right down to smaller parts/day players (Granny in sweet shop was a particular scene stealer).

Location was key. The tenement, and realising Dave Tynan’s vision for a “lived in” genuine setting for the film was vital, but also a huge challenge. We were competing with many other productions set in around the Rising for the centenary in tandem with period shows such as Ripper St and Penny Dreadful who had much deeper pockets than we did. We managed to secure the Debitor’s Prison and come to an arrangement around the Penny Dreadful shoot schedule so as not to clash. OPW were very generous and helpful.

The sweet shop scene was a studio build believe it or not. The “action” was carefully choreographed under the watchful eye of stunt coordinator Peter Dillon. Overall I have the fondest memories of the shoot and it all seemed to run like clockwork barr a final night studio load out in heavy rain . But a wrap party pint in Fallon’s soon made up for that. A really great team of people I cannot wait to work with again.

Liam Ryan, Production Manager on The Cherishing. 

Watch the full After ’16 Collection, including The Cherishing, on the IFI Player site here. 

The After ’16 Collection was funded by the Irish Film Board. 

IFI CINEMAS TODAY


The IFI is supported
by The Arts Council

Arts Council of Ireland