Nettles and Dock Leaves! by Ró

The following is an excerpt from the Tree Keeper journal of actress Róisín O'Donovan (pictured above) who plays Anna in the film! Thanks Ró - you're a star bar!

"So Paddy asked me to contribute a little something to the blog, so here I am a typin'. This is Róisin by the way, Ró if you're feeling lazy and I play the role of Anna in this amazingly wonderful film. I'm not enitrely sure what I'm supposed to be writing here but sure I'll have a crack at it anyway, em... so maybe I'll just give a brief account of how I got involved with these fabulous people and this great movie.

Well I'd worked with Paddy before on 'The Sign' and had a whale of a time dousing myself in blood and gore and when he was casting for 'Tree Keeper' he asked me to come in and audition for him. I loved the script and having worked with Paddy before I knew how dedicated, talented and fun he is to work with, so when he offered me the part I kind of exploded a little bit with excitement.

So here I am, part of a cast of wonderfully talented actors and an incredible crew, all of whom are incredibly lovely. Today we went and rehearsed some scenes out in the chink of nowheredom. It was BEAUTIFUL, everything in this film is beautiful, locations make my eyes pop out of my head time and time again.

Anyway we were wellied up trudging through nettles and dock leaves (and have you ever noticed how those guys always grow together, so when you get stung you have an antidote, isn't the earth just the smartest!) and we come across this oul' broke down ruin of a building and some even crumblier buildings, whip out the cameras and start rehearsing, testing shots etc.

Was nice 'cause Paddy suggested I keep a photo diary type thing, keeping in vein of Anna's photographic nature. Cute right! So he handed me a little digital camera and I snapped away a few little bits n' pieces (he might even be nice enough to pop a few of them up here?), unfortunately Ró is not as talented a photographer as Anna so they may be a little... botched, especailly when I move on to the darling Pentax, they'll deffo be more interesting than inspired. But, I'm loving that damn camera so I'll just take it as another adventure.

So once we got down to rehearsing we were literally rolling around in the muck, earthworms and woodlice all over the gaff, bruising knees and all! Was mad altogether but it worked. And before Tiny dragged us back to the real world we found such a beautiful little nook for one of my favorite scenes, was very emotional altogether! Of course we wont be putting up pictures of that now, sure that would just ruin it and we couldnt have that now at all!

Point is, regardless of the rain and the worms and the muck it was all great! Its nice being able to rehearse in these locations and get a feel for everything ahead of time. And all the colour of the countryside just glows on camera, really is so incredible. Anyway I'm off to learn some Japanese, I mean lines..."

Photos taken by Ró herself! (Except for the brolly one which was taken by Rupert) Hopefully we'll have more from Róisín soon!

Writer, Director Journal Excerpt 1

What follows is a short excerpt from my journal of the early days of writing the feature length script, 'Tree Keeper'. It is now May 2010 and the film is shooting this summer. 4 years ago I completed the first draft. Here are a few of my thoughts from that time (more journal writings will follow and will include my thoughts on the shooting process to come!).

Patrick O'Shea - writer, director, 'Tree Keeper'

‘Tree Keeper’ - A Journal, Feb. 5^th 2006

"Today is my last day in ‘The Koppie’, the home of Keith and Rosemary Dixon. I have just this moment finished the first complete, formatted draft of my new script ‘Tree Keeper’. The idea had been in my head for over a year. I started writing it at the start of January 2005 when I was house and dog-sitting for Snoo Sinclair (I have adapted Snoo’s novel, ‘Nott’ to a screenplay and we are currently trying to sell it - not easy - it’s a period drama, words that seem to whiff of the plague - or maybe bird flu would be a more modern analogy - when it comes to selling scripts).

Back to the Dixons. I have spent the last four weeks living in their beautiful house, which is just outside of the picturesque and unique village of Sneem in Co. Kerry (This area is actually where the ‘Nott’ script is set, but over two hundred years in the difference). My reason for being here is that Keith and Rosemary were visiting their former home of South Africa and I was asked to mind their numerous animals. There are three dogs, Reilly, Sam and Rosie, two cats, Minty and Tibby, two donkeys, Flossie and Mabel and a parrot, Pinocchio. I was certainly not short on company. So, in between feeding and petting dogs, cats and donkeys (no petting the parrot on fear of losing a finger) I have managed to write a script.

The idea for the script stemmed from walking in the forestry near my brother’s house in Leamlara, a small hamlet in North East Cork. It disgusted me the amount of rubbish dumped on a regular basis. I started photographing various piles and pieces of rubbish with the intention of putting together an anti-dumping exhibition. This led onto the creation of the character ‘Doire’ and the script itself.

Lately I have been reading a lot of Hemingway and his writing has influenced me a lot. The sense of impending doom and inescapable fate in Hemingway’s writing have brushed off on me and have shaped the ending of the script. I read D.H Lawrence’s ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ during last week and I was amazed to find so many themes in common with my own little story. It gives me hope to find my own thoughts reflected in a book by such a writer as Lawrence. I really like ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ and look forward to reading more of Lawrence’s material. It is a shame that this book was lent notoriety for the wrong reasons. Obviously sexuality and passion and their exploration are central themes in the book but it has so much more to offer. Still, its notoriety may at least lead to people picking it up for the sex and finding within its pages so much more to captivate them."

Welcome to the Blog for the Movie 'Tree Keeper'

‘TREE KEEPER’ is a gripping drama about a young man’s struggle to protect the woodlands he inherited from his father from being developed as a landfill site.

‘Tree Keeper’ is an independent feature film scheduled to shoot in Cork, Ireland, during the summer of 2010.