Released today

A collection of abstract experimental compositions - with influences from ambient and soundtrack music.

All tracks are free to download and for use under a creative commons license.

Download the album and unlock hidden BONUS tracks.

 

Winchman - In development

I've just started work on a brand new TV series. I'm doing series outlines and a pilot episode now...

Can't say too much about it as the dog ate my script...

Stuff I'm writing at the moment...

The Aeronaut (Original script) - A feature film script in development. The first draft was chosen as an official selection into the 2010 Beverly Hills Film Festival and won a Van Gough award at the Amsterdam Film Festival 2010.  It tells the story of Frankie Newman estranged from his wife, and a virtual stranger to his teenage daughter.  When he discovers he has a terminal illness Frankie decides to follow his childhood dream:  To build and ultimately fly a homemade jet airplane right from his own back yard.  I am currently working on a new draft.

Accidental Death and Dismemberment (Original script) ­ A feature films script in development with Grand Pictures - shortlisted for the Untitled screenwriting competition at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2011 – a comedy about hitmen, mistaken identity, insurance scams and accidental death.

Tahiti (Original Scipt) – a very early stage idea for a feature film – set in Nazi occupied Paris it follows the story of Artus – a pimp who provides women for the German high command.  His world is turned upside down when he is blackmailed into working as a spy for the Allies. The story culminates with the notorious Vel' d'Hiv Roundup,  an operation aimed at reducing the Jewish population in Paris.

TV Drama Series - Something new - something exiting - can't say much about them now. Call back again in the future to find out!

Amber - Drama Series - In post production

Amber (4 Part Drama Series)

Amber is an innovative four part drama to be broadcast on RTE in 2012. The series centres around the disappearance of 14 year-old Amber Bailey, with each episode focusing on an individual who is connected to the case.The show plays with the chronology of events and the expectations of the viewer, creating a sense of unease throughout this post-Nama crime thriller that will keep you guessing.

Amber received €550,000 funding from the BAI’s Sound and Vision Fund earlier this year. Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan (Single-Handed, Into the Storm) and shot by IFTA nominated Peter Robertson (West is West, Inside I’m Dancing), Amber stars Eva Birthistle (Waking the Dead, Glenroe) and David Murray (Zonad, RAW) as Amber's parents. The drama is co-written by Gary Duggan and Rob Cawley.

ROB SAYS:

Death in absentia, especially when a body is never found is particularly difficult for those left behind.  A person has been missing for less than 7 years cannot be declared legally deceased or even given a proper funeral.  But this is not the worst part.  When a body hasn’t been found. Not knowing if your loved one dead with absolute certainty is painfully traumatic - there is no known end, no body to bury.  The importance of our traditions around death and the importance of having body became starkly highlighted as a necessary part of the grieving process.  This is something I have direct experience with.

I’m unusually lucky in that I got the opportunity to produce my own script. It’s a demanding right brain/left brain job, but it allows me to focus on every detail of the story which appears on-screen.

As the script and story is based on emotional truths, as we have progressed into production the focus has shifted onto the thriller/mystery element of the series. Amber is partly a whodunnit. There are clues embedded within the script with which perpetrators identity may be deduced. It’s also a howdunnit.

What happens to Amber is also something to be unraveled by the audience as the series goes along. Amber is structured so that scenes, which are shown in one episode, are revisited in another, and from another characters perspective. Sometimes the audience will be armed with a new knowledge, which will tell them about what is happening in the scene, which they previously wouldn’t have realized in earlier episodes. It’s a structure that hopefully audience will find intriguing and add a layer of entertainment, which takes people out of the human tragedies at the heart of each story.

Rescue 117 and Rescue 115

Rob Cawley, director of new six part documentary series ‘Rescue 117’ to be shown on RTÉ in September 2011, tells us how he spent six months working with crew of the Waterford based maritime rescue helicopter.
During this time he filmed over 20 rescue missions but first he had to undergo full training which made him the unofficial 5th member of the crew.
When RTE producer Janet Frawley phoned to ask if I was interested in the job of directing a new documentary series, which would follow the exploits of the rescue helicopter based in Waterford, it very much appealed to me.
During the alleged boom years so much of Irish television schedules had, to me become a nauseating array of programmes designed to show you how to keep up with and be better than the Jonse’s. Now that everyone was slip-sliding with the Smiths, genuine heroes on our TV screens could provide a psychological and spiritual boost which might help us cope and come together as a nation. Rescue 117 would surely do that.

I also had a more personal reason for almost biting Janet’s hand off for the opportunity. Earlier that year my girlfriend had lost her brother to the sea in County Clare. The support and assistance the rescue services, both voluntary and professional, had given to her family deserved to be applauded. Pointing a camera at some of them would go some way to indirectly thanking them for their passion and their compassion.
So, I was more than happy to accept the gig. My first meeting with the Helicopter crew was revealing. We were installing cameras into the helicopter itself, a Sikorsky 61N. Although designed in 1961 it’s still one of the most trusted helicopters in Search and Rescue worldwide. It has a sealed hull optimised for maritime operations and it was a big mechanical beast of a machine. There were to be 5 onboard cameras – one bullet camera in the cockpit, one in the cabin, one on each of the paramedic winchmens helmets and a fifth infra red camera which the coastguard already used on the outside of the helicopter known as a FLIR. Occasionally I would operate a sixth camera on board, during missions. On this my first meeting with the rescue crew they made it perfetly clear to me what they expected. I had to become one of the crew. Almost like a 5th member. This didn’t mean that I had to risk my life or to rescue anyone – it just meant that I had to learn how not to get in the way.

They started training me right away. In case of a call out I would have to learn to to put on my safety clothing quickly. This included a fire proof flight suit, an immersion suit to protect me from the freezing conditions of the Irish sea, a helmet, life jacket, and a communications systems. These alongside with the filming equipment, tapes and cameras, all had to be ready to go at a moments notice. Typically a helicipter had to be airbourne in under 15 minutes from an emergency call out – and these guys usually did it faster… much faster. If I wasn’t ready and safe I would stay on the ground. I had to learn how to avoid getting my head chopped off by the rotor blades.

Then there was what’s called the “Dunker” training. Located in the he National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) in Ringaskiddy this training is intended to prepare you for possible emergencies during over-water flights. The training involves being strapped into a metal “dunker” and simulates what would happen in a real crash. As in you get plunged under freezing cold water and rolled around upside down. To make the training realistic, you wear full flight gear, including flight suits, boots, and you are strapped in. The idea is to escape the hull 5 times without panicking or taking a lung full of water. Once I passed this I was cleared to go on missions with the helicopter crew.

The other aspect of being part of the crew was personality. There is no way you can be in a SAR base and display any signs that you think your job as a director is important. Any sign of ego would be merclilessly crushed under the boot of banter.

All told I spent 6 months with the crew of Rescue 117 and we filmed over twenty rescue missions. Despite having the constant annoyance of the lens of several cameras almost permanenty in their faces, they always ensured that I was safe and that I was made feel welcome… which is hugely important during the hours when you are waiting for the scramble phone to ring and you’re running out for a call out!

Rescue 115 the follow up series to Rescue 117 aired on RTE ONE in Autumn 2011

View some clips here

http://www.youtube.com/user/screenworksireland#p/a/u/1/_N3GJGy6iz8