A video produced as part of Dungloe’s entry into The Bank of Ireland National Enterprise Town Awards became a massive hit. Here’s how it happened.
A video production company from Donegal recently hit national and international headlines with a film it produced about the town of Dungloe. The video (below) went viral and soon after its release the company secured a lucrative deal when it was asked by Riverdance to travel to China with their ‘Heartbeat of Home’ dancers on an international tour.
“We made a spy movie trailer for a film based in Dungloe that showcases the sense of community collaboration, Dungloe’s enterprising spirit and its character.”
“As soon as it went online people from all over Ireland and overseas began sharing, including Daniel O’Donnell himself (who features briefly in the video).”
About the filmmakers
Re-Act Productions is a small media company based in Donegal. Re-Act was founded in 2016 by Ciaran McCann who invited his life-long friend Shaun Doogan to join the business as a co-owner.
“We pride ourselves on being innovative and different,” says Doogan. “We create videos that break the mould of corporate media content people are used to seeing online or on TV.
“We feel as though it makes a lot more sense to create engaging content that people want to watch over and over rather than annoying, infomercial advertisements that we’ve seen time and time again.
“We aim to do this by creating content that is humorous, original and most importantly; unique. Memorable content is our goal.”
“After the video went online, we were immediately flooded with requests from businesses, musicians and even tourism boards to create video content for their social media.”
How the viral Dungloe video came to life
“A while ago we created a video for the Mary From Dungloe Festival for the Dungloe Mary; Caroline O’Donnell. The video was a comedy skit featuring Caroline in a Rocky-style montage of her training to be a Mary. Caroline used the video as her talent on the night of the crowning.
“The video got shared thousands of times on Facebook after it was broadcast on TG4 and helped Caroline go on to win the Mary from Dungloe festival. The Dungloe Community Network saw this video, and Crona Bonner came to us to ask if we could come up with a video idea to showcase the town and its ‘Spirit of Enterprise’ in the presentation for the Bank of Ireland National Enterprise Town Awards.
“We had three weeks to create the video from start to finish. We felt the idea of making a movie trailer was a good way to cut from place to place, and business to business. We knew we had to create something the judges wouldn’t see from any other town, so we went with the idea of making a spy movie trailer for a film based in Dungloe that showcases the sense of community collaboration, Dungloe’s enterprising spirit and its character.”
“Every project we do it opens the door to more, even bigger projects.”
The Daniel O’Donnell effect
“The reaction to the video was extremely positive and overwhelming. As soon as it went online people from all over Ireland and overseas began sharing, including Daniel O’Donnell himself (who features briefly in the video).
“We were contacted by Today FM, The Irish Mirror, Donegal Daily, Donegal Democrat, The Irish Examiner, BBC Radio Foyle, Donegal News, The Donegal Board and many more. This is the first time we’ve really been given time and space to work on a project, and we were thrilled with it, and it has opened doors for us and given Re-Act Productions and indeed Dungloe a lot of attention.”
“We are flying to China to work on a video featuring the cast of Heartbeat of Home.”
Going to China with Riverdance
“The Bank of Ireland National Enterprise Town Awards project gave us a chance to show what we could do with help from the community and with zero budget in just three weeks.
“We managed to do a lot with very little, and it seems with every project we do it opens the door to more, even bigger projects.
“After the video went online, we were immediately flooded with requests from businesses, musicians and even tourism boards to create video content for their social media.
“A big surprise for us was being asked by Riverdance to travel to China with their ‘Heartbeat of Home’ dancers on an international tour.
“We are flying to China to work on a video featuring the cast of Heartbeat of Home, and we will be there for two weeks. This is a huge opportunity for us to showcase our skills and to open yet more doors for us in the future.
“We hope to one day create our own short feature films with a budget and crew behind them. We’ve always loved filmmaking and making people laugh and for us to be given a chance to do that for a living is amazing.”
