Bizstartup.ie - NewsSnowluke to go with second Fran series

The first series of the mockumentary allowed cameras to follow the manager whose club hadn’t been in the first division in nine years, but despite the trials and tribulations, Fran remained optimistic things would change. They didn’t.

Since setting up in 2006, Snowluke has written and directed an award-winning Galway Film Centre/RTE short film, ‘Up for Air’ and is currently developing a comedy series for the BBC. Collectively co-founders Mark Hodkinson and Richie Conroy have also written 70 hours of television.

In 2009, they won the Innovate Media Award hosted by the Media Cube in the digital media incubation centre at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, where Snowluke is now based.

Starting small an effective strategy

“We started off small – writing, directing and producing a short film with a tiny budget. Once we completed that we felt we should try something a little bigger and that’s when we came up with the idea for Fran,” says Hodkinson.

“We financed and produced a pilot ourselves and it was then that a few broadcasters got interested. Ultimately, we chose Setanta and with them on board we received funding from the then BCI (now BAI).

“It has really worked for us to start off with short-form content and as we grew in confidence so our content could grow in length. We’d love to make a feature film in the future but recognise it’s important to learn how to crawl before you can run.”

Photo: A still from the 'Fran' series