Exclusive Interview With Marie Bryan

Marie Bryan is an Irish professional visual artist and debut film maker. Meet Me on a Rock exemplifies her enthusiastic nature and ambitious concerns. Having experienced high levels of action and drama all her life, energy fizzles in her work, as it does in her daily life. She is happy to share the positive energy. Widowed sadly and dramatically in recent years, she has now found her soul mate and energetic match in Joe Rynne. His charisma inspires Marie's performance.

Marie envisages the introduction of a religion as a very high art form. In this microfilm, she allows Draoi Buí Draoi Cróga Draoi Scéil: Solar Alien to tell his story. His coming will start the party to end all parties. There are echoes of Catholic beliefs here, as benefits the short format: a truly original religion would be without the potential for associative fun and comedy. Fun and comedy are a priority for the Director. Performing herself, she allows spontaneity to bring its sparkle, its surprise. She invites people to laugh at her moves, as they relate to her efforts to launch a rocket which has no engine. The idea of an everlasting birthday party is the fun wish of the Director. The apparent lack of alien life, due to the lack of water in other star systems led the Director to the idea of sending some water out, in water bomb balloons. The balloons, being yellow, gravitated immediately towards the sun. Unlike Icarus, their journey is successful: the sun's thirst is quenched, and He grants Earth both a sunspark and jerky rotations. Armageddon is looked upon lightly, by the Artist/Director. If it's God’s doing, the SunGod's doing, it's gotta be good.

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• In order to undertand the value of your piece, we would like to know more about the mind behind the process. How would you define your personal experience with cinema as a director? Could you tell us an experience or moment that change or challenge you?

I am a debut director. This is my first public film. I have not watched cinema in a decade, due to emotional trauma. Likewise TV, radio, music.

As a five year old, I was assaulted about 50 times a day. The assaults were well-known, and nobody spoke about it. When I experienced inter-personal abuse again in recent years, trauma resurfaced. I am by nature both wild and original. I will not be stopped by others. I will be myself. Intense energy: I can give it, but I cannot take it.

I wish to contribute to the world with fun and with ideas. I wish to contribute entertainment. My personal life is good now, and I am in a position to share. I enjoy good humour. Given that my exposure to stories is limited – I cannot stand reading novels either – it is evident that my personal fiction resources are greatly magnified. I have a very strong imagination, and an uncanny reach for apt metaphors.

Often in my life, escape was the order of the day, and now escapism comes naturally. This film is all escapism.

• We would like to know more about the how and why of this interesting approach for this film. If you had to name three key concepts to help everyone understand and enjoy more this film, what would they be?

  
  

Reared a Catholic, I have fancied myself as the bride of Jesus. Here, I play out my fantasy with natural zest, as I am newly in love with my cameraman, Joe Rynne, and delighted with – and fond of - my yellow steel solar alien. I created an alien who was decidedly fictional - he resides on the sun - and I equated him to a sun God.

I query Earth sustainability value, and I query drastic measures taken to prevent change. Here, I pull the plug on things, in a leap of Faith, resulting in a displaced equator and a pulse-revolving Earth which causes daily continental submergence. The result here is both good and bad: it is change.

I joke about our technological capability. The requisite rocketload of balloons will not fly, and I resort to the local airport in the end, having tried all else. Science fiction has often employed ideas which are not practicable at the time, but great advances have been made in recent decades, and humankind can now effect massive events.

• How has the process of creating the characters been?

I have performance traits like Charlie Chaplin. I am a natural entertainer. I am willing to act the clown, to perform a witch dance, to act up, unvited, in public spaces, for film.

The story is my fantasy. The film was not pre-devised. It was filmed very fast before dusk one day, and my dream prevailed upon editing. The film is my subconscious: it is about my dream self. I fabricated a yellow steel sculpture, named Draoi Buí Draoi Cróga Draoi Scéil: Solar Alien. The Irish language translates as Yellow Druid Brave Druid Druid of the Stories, and this name is inscribed on the steel sculpture in the ancient Celtic Ogham script. A druid, he is old, omniscient and omnipotent: Godlike, in ancient culture. Painting the sculpture yellow made him attractive to me, and I obtained his irresistibly cute voice by using Dark Lord editing functions, on a high pitch.

I wanted his voice to travel through space: I wanted it set apart and penetrating.

• Can you tell us any difficulties you had during the filming? And what was the most valuable thing you learned making this movie?
  

We waited two weeks for the sun to shine in Winter Spiddal, Ireland. We got a late afternoon opportunity: two hours before dusk, and we had to dash! It worked for us. The entire effort was a frenzy. The props were transported to locations, against the clock, giving an adrenalin rush even before the action. First takes were the order of the day: the sun was setting on us. The crooked and shakey camerawork gives the viewer an idea of how we felt, the panic, the intensity. This fits the film perfectly, and it describes me, the main character X. Speed suits me, as a writer, director,

actress. I learned that my furthest fetched fiction is autobiographical yet again. I have a deep interest in original thinking, and I will research it further as I create more film.

• How has your team's synergy influenced the project's outcome?
  

Celebrating love, like a teenager, I pranced before my cameraman. With great excitement, we filmed unplanned in public spaces. As audiences gathered, we were thrilled to keep our focus and not to laugh. The energy is in our relationship right through, as we both lead very busy, highly productive lives. The sparkle between us brought out a lively performance from me, and an exhibitionist thrill added: I am new to performance. Joe, who now has an IMDb qualifying award, is a dairy farmer, and it is he who made my film happen. We were both overwhelmed with work, and he just grabbed that rare sunny afternoon, and said we would do it. We are proud of what we created together, and we will do more. We are both interested to explore and invent fiction.

• Could you tell us more about your experience in film? How did you get started in this field?
  

I am a second year art student. In first year, I created Donutless Beach, which, beginning with a damaged Earth, is about my travels as I leave the Universe. It is seriously unsettling, until I land on a beach with a donut: the Donut is the globe, projected onto a very large torus, with Ireland and New Zealand taken out, for the hole in the middle. The film refers to magnetism, gravity and climate change, but emphasises the significance of the impending world water crisis. The comedy comes so fast, one does not have time to laugh at the jokes, but the viewer is satisfied, if a little

shocked, after the thrilling watch, and abrupt ending.

Both films begin with extensive art research. Both films are the culmination of months-long interdisciplinary projects, where I immerse myself in research and creativity seven days a week, honing my film theme.

• Did the film meet your expectations? Share your thoughts on the production, the competition area, their reach, and how you achieved them!

They say everybody has a story. Meet Me on a Rock is pure autobiography. I have created a self-portrait, with the help of Joe Rynne. This was unexpected, and I wish to explore further the nature of fiction and of originality.

I am very glad the film is compelling and entertaining to others. It is my wish to bring

entertainment. I entered it for two film festivals, and quickly received about 5,000 emails offering submission fee waivers and discounts. Since submitting to many in early April, I have won about thirty top awards, mostly for Best Short Film.

I resolved to test the film’s reach, and entered for Academy Award qualifying and other top qualifying festivals more recently. I await success, after being passed over by three of them, to date. I remain positive, aware of the niche element that is the slapdash production techniques, which is part of this authentic unique expressionism.

I had something to say, with immediacy, and some viewers listen intently. I dont think I‘ve quite begun a new religion.

• Can you tell us something about your next job?
  

I am interested to explore fiction and originality, through space and religion related scenarios. I might like to do a film ‘of the Big Bang’. I challenge myself to write a religious conversion script, sufficient to get everybody converted to drinking Coca Cola.

I am interested in what is outside of the Universe, and I would like to explore this in film. Before the Big Bang also qualifies.

My next work will be based again on several months of multi-disciplinary research and creativity. I would like to include my Solar Alien again. And as a locale, I have the rocky hilly Burren area in Ireland in mind, and the ancient Dolmen in particular. The peaks of the Burren and the Atlantic foreshore also beckon.

• Follow on Social Media!

https://www.instagram.com/mariebryanartist/

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Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you!

We will be attentive to your next jobs! 

MADFA® I Press Team

Madrid Film Awards®

www.madfa.es