It’s our great honor to got the opportunity recently to sit down and talk to Eoin Macken, the star of NBC’s ‘The Night Shift’. Eoin talked to us about ‘Leopard’, which he wrote, directed and co-stars in. It is about to hit VOD and Osiris Entertainment this movie.
Hi Eoin, it’s very nice to meet you. Would you like to tell us a little bit about ‘Leopard’?
Leopard fixes on two separated brothers Tom and Jack, who are cold-shouldered by the Irish village they live in. Jack returns after 5 years with the sudden and unexplained death of their father and the brothers are immediately at odds with one another. Jack’s presence pushing Tom’s loner mentality into a dangerous psychosis and opening an old wound with the locals as to why he originally left. Things take a surreal turn when they find a girl apparently left for dead in the moors and Tom becomes wildly obsessed with looking after her. What follows is beautiful, tragic and bizarre, as the brothers search for a resolution to their past and their relationship to one another in this mesmerizing tale of love, violence and redemption.
Wow! Leopard sounds like a fantastic story. I m looking forward to catching that one.
Would you like to share with us how you got into filmmaking?
I began making films immediately after I finished college, with a DP friend of mine, Danny Katz, and we made our first film ‘Christian Blake’ together. I learnt everything from editing, to cinematography, lighting, sound (using an old DAT recorder), grading and writing on that film. Then I studied cinematography in college and began experimenting further with photography and other indie projects, learning more each time. The short film ‘Dreaming For You’, that I made in Los Angeles when I was 23, and is on YouTube, was the film where I did everything myself and really began to understand the basic tenets of film making.
That’s a great journey, it is good to be able to go back and revisit where it all began for you, thanks for sharing that.
Though acting has been paying the bills, was filmmaking always the goal?
I love acting. Acting is still the goal. Filmmaking is something I have always loved doing, and it compliments my acting. They all feed into each other, and I consider it all part of the same beast.
Which filmmakers have you admired over the years?
I have always loved Kieslowski, Wim Wenders, Tarantino and Almodovar. But literature, acting and photography has influenced my desire to make films just as much. It’s part of being involved in creating a story.
You have chosen some amazing people to look up to.
Did any of them especially – indirectly or directly – influence Leopard?
Wenders film ‘Paris, Texas’, and the Steinbeck film ‘East of Eden’, were immediate influences from the style, tone and exploration of character.
How personal a story is it?
It’s not personal at all, it’s a story that evolved from a conversation with Tom Hopper and developed as we talked about the two brothers, Tom and Jack.
What was the most difficult part of making the movie?
Probably releasing it. It’s exciting to conceive an idea, and to physically make it, then finish it, but it’s an arduous and difficult journey getting a film released, and we have had a hard time with some decisions that in hindsight didn’t aid the film.
Its interesting to hear about this side of filmmaking, reflecting back on your film in that way.
How long did it take from conception to the final edit to make it?
Probably about a year and a half. But it was a beautiful year. Getting the edit down on-screen and then having music written for it is a beautiful feeling.
There is no better feeling than seeing your idea all the way through to the finished product.
What else does the future hold for you?
I am working on two projects, a road movie with influences from True Romance, called Abilene, set in Albuquerque and Texas, and the adaptation of a book called ‘Here Are The Young Men’, to shoot in Dublin.
It’s good to hear you keeping very busy. Good luck with those projects and the release of Leopard. We wish you the best of luck.