Bags of Talent
They're one of the great success stories of the Irish entertainment industry, with two Oscar nominations and a slew of high profile commissions to their credit. So how come you won’t see the work of BROWN BAG PRODUCTIONS on RTÉ?
Alisande Orme, 14 Jul 2010
Established by two "art school dropouts" in 1994, Brown Bag Films has gone on to enjoy the kind of success that founders Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O'Connell could never have imagined (much less their lecturers at Ballyfermot College). Gaffney, a self-described "animation obsessive", has perhaps the best piece of college memorobilia ever on his office wall: the letter telling him he was being thrown out of Ballyfermot, framed alongside the one from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences telling him that Give Up Yer Aul Sins, Brown Bag's 2001 animated short, had been nominated for an Oscar.
In the 16 years since the production company was founded it has won numerous international awards, as well as two Oscar nominations, the second for the brilliant Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (2008). They've also picked up international commissions from the BBC, Nickelodeon, and now Disney Junior, who've hired them to make their newest show, Doc MacStuffin'.
Bearing in mind the success they've already achieved, what are their ambitions for the future?
"We would absolutely love to move into feature films," says Gaffney, "but we'd like to do that in parallel with a meaty kind of TV business as well. It's all about the content, and still caring what the kids want to watch. I'd hate to just be doing shows for co-production value. I'd love just to find out the kids who watch our stuff are happy with the work that we do."
What does he think makes for a good animated show?
"Respect for the audience is essential. Most people say, ‘Oh I have an idea that'll make a good cartoon'. They have no respect for their audience. You've really, really got to know what's in a kid's brain, to know the difference between a three and a half year old boy and a five year old girl. And you need total respect for those differences."
As the Oscar nominations demonstrate, Brown Bag have an excellent international reputation. Their work is shown all over the world, though not on our own channels, something that irritates Gaffney.
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