The Order
Tagline
It’s a matter of loyalty.
Logline
As an IRA man is driven into the woods where his executioners await, he reveals some secrets that spur a crisis of conscience in his captor.
Full Film on Vimeo
Winner for Best Screenplay at the Largo Film Awards 2016
Set in the fag end days of The Troubles, ‘The Order’ tells the story of Sean, a member of the IRA, who has betrayed a fellow IRA gunman to the British Army, the worst of all sins. As the film opens, we see Sean being driven through some woods by an IRA member, Maureen, to meet his executioners. Driver and passenger are old friends, and it’s a stomach-turning job for Maureen to be tasked with driving Sean – literally – to his death.
Not far away, IRA men, Tom and Mulligan, wait for Maureen to arrive, chatting desultorily about Sean’s betrayal and the order they’ve been given to execute him for his transgression. Having had their morning coffee, they break camp and head off to dig a grave deep in the woods…
I began an assembly just days after the shoot was wrapped. My dad and production manager Nicholas Penrake then joined me on the edit, and we had a rough cut two weeks before a date for pick-ups, which enabled us to plan for a few extra shots and extend our coverage.
Director Matt Browne then came to view what we’d got and was meticulous in combing through it, frame by frame. (He is a Virgo) But to his credit, he left nothing unchallenged.
Finally locked off, we booked ourselves in at The Mill with colourist Oisin O’Driscoll. He produced a grade which we are very happy with. As we approached Christmas, an American composer came in to work on the score and by late January, we had a pre-mix.
Early March, we were nearly done, and by now fiddling with the foley for breaking twigs and gun shots, when we realised there was something wrong with the last few seconds of the edit: the breaking twig sound was in the wrong place. We’d dropped it in over the wide, the last shot, when the three men turn their heads, but in doing so, we’d diluted the impact of this crucial interruption. The interruption had to come over the strongest image we had showing Sean in imminent danger, not over the wide when we’re looking at the backs of three men. So we shifted the breaking twig to come in earlier, and suddenly the whole final 10 seconds fit together.
It’s gratifying when you choose to take a second look at something you thought was locked off and find that with a tiny shift, you’ve managed to fix something, make it sweeter. It’s so easy, when you get to month five in post, as we had, to be tired of the whole job and merely surrender to the desire to have it done and dusted. Just goes to show, it always pays to keep thinking, even till the very last few frames of your project.
This post wouldn't be complete without mention of the film's successful entry to the Belfast Film Festival 2017.
✨Click here for the full movie.✨
Cast
Sean Trevor Murphy
Maureen Pamela Flanagan
Tom Jeremiah O’Connor
Mulligan Pádraig Lynch
Crew
Written/Produced by Matthew Browne, Nicholas Penrake
Director of Photography Jack Reynolds
1st AD Nicholas Penrake
Editor Shiona Penrake
Composer Ken Weissman
Sound Recordist Jon Newell
Makeup Artist Carly Guy
Camera Assistants Ivor Churchill, Ben Ogunbiyi
Clapper Loader Ben Hodder
Runner Sam Parkes
Colourist Oisin O’Driscoll
Sound Mix Paul Stevens