The company developing new long-format TV in Munster
Jim Robinson and Mark Kenny of Great Island TV Productions.
It’s been a busy few months for the Great Island production plans following its official launch in March, as writers and creatives in Munster answered the call for possible story ideas.
Founders of the new television production company, Mark Kenny and Jim Robinson, have welcomed the large number of potential ideas sent their way for consideration as drama and entertainment series.
“Indeed, we are very pleased with the response from writers in Cork and the wider Munster area since our launch in March,” Kenny explains.
“We are looking to build our production slate, and already have 14 series in development.”
Great Island will develop long-form TV drama, as well as a number of animation series and unscripted formats. Its medium-term plan is to increase the number of people directly employed by Great Island to 20, with the prospect of additional production jobs created on an ongoing yearly basis.
Company chairman is Shemas Eivers, an experienced tech entrepreneur who is also the chairman of Cork’s Boole Investment Syndicate. Given its current concentration on a number of scripted drama series, Great Island has also employed a new head of drama development, Amadeo Nikoli, who has experience in European lead co-productions and is a graduate of the Netflix masters programme in drama development.
“With Amadeo’s help we are able to distil material more efficiently than before and make related decisions much quicker. That said, it is an involved process, and we do want to be fair to writers as well.”
So far, the Great Island slate is weighted more toward comedy and drama, while also developing animation and documentary projects.
“The original intention of the company was to be more drama-centric. Drama coming out of Ireland has been very strong in recent years, going back to the series.
"Also, the streaming market has opened up possibilities for producers as well, and drama would be the predominant offering there. So it does make sense for Great Island to concentrate of drama currently.”
Having created and produced a number of popular TV shows in the Caribbean, Kenny believes Cork is an untapped market full of talented writers, actors and creative.
“We really want to bring that to not only an Irish audience but a much wider global market. The locations in Cork are ideal for TV production and in the main have previously been unexploited.
"There is such a varied landscape with a vibrant cosmopolitan city location as well as rural, coastal and mountainous regions. It really has it all.
Ultimately, Kenny and Robinson are also looking for an opportunity to open a large-scale TV production studio in Cork. A recent report by Grant Thornton estimates a production studio in Cork would lead to the creation of 180 direct jobs, in addition to 160 indirect positions.
In the meantime, they have secured a studio space in the Marina Commercial Park to serve their current smaller-scale production needs.
Great Island has received €100,000 in funding from Enterprise Ireland to aid in the development of its slate and build out the company’s potential.
“We have had great support from CorkBIC, South Cork LEO and Enterprise Ireland, with the latter investing in us and bringing us on their High-Performance Start Up track. We have been successful in finding angel investors for our Pre-Seed round.
"We were accepted to participate in the new Prep4Seed programme and are now ready and actively searching for seed investment, with a view to getting matching funding from EI.
One key area the founders are concentrating on is integrating artificial intelligence across all their creative and project management processes. To underpin their research into this area, they have taken on a UCC masters intern to develop workflows and production pipelines utilising a complete array of AI tools and processes.
Robinson, who has a PhD in engineering and previously owned a software company, says: “AI is set to have an enormous impact on the TV industry and we are currently in the process of examining the potential impact it will have and how we operate ourselves.
"It’s a very exciting time for the sector and I have a strong interest in this area given my own background in technology.”
Having spent extensive period of their respective careers in France and the Caribbean, Kenny and Robinson returned to Ireland and immediately saw the opportunity for a production centre in Munster.
"With the excellent rail and road network, the airport, and the fabulous locations available, it seemed very strange to us how there had been no development of the industry here at all. We saw it as an opportunity that the south seemed to have been left completely behind.”
Currently located in Cork’s Marina Park, the compact company studio is suited to these early days of the fledgling venture.
“We used the space for testing out one of our formats in 2022, and it meets our current needs. In terms of our larger scale studio, our research has shown that we need to find a site that works as a retrofit, rather than the prohibitive costs associated with developing a green field site.
"In the same way that Troy Studios in Limerick was re-purposed from a computer factory, it makes sense that we look at sites where the basic infrastructure is there already.”
Intent on making its initial mark in the drama sector, Great Island will then set about the larger task of developing a permanent studio space.
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