Last week, Donavan shared his skills and passion for film production with the next generation of movie crew through Into Film’s ScreenWorks programme, which is funded by Northern Ireland Screen. This free career experience workshop series gives young people aged 14-19 unparalleled access to industry professionals across all five screen sectors – Film, Television, Animation, Gaming and Visual Effects.
“Working on Gladiator 2 was a once in a lifetime experience. The scope and spectacle of this film was truly awe-inspiring and it’s something I will never forget,” he said.
He told the young people at the ScreenWorks session how he came to be a grip, one of the film industry’s lesser-known professions.
After completing a degree in Media Studies at Ulster University in Coleraine in 2009, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do and in the midst of the recession at that time, he took a job in a video rental shop in Cookstown. He eventually took a job at Belfast City Airport working in the bar as he searched for other opportunities.
“I was so lucky as just then a trainee scheme with Northern Ireland Screen came up and there were a number of departments offering placements on Game of Thrones in 2014. I’d never heard of a grip before but I researched it and decided that’s what I really wanted to do,” he said.
Over the past ten years later, he has honed his skills and has worked on The Northman, Overlord, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledor, Line of Duty, Succession and Blue Lights.
On the job, he learned about the role of the grip which involves helping to set up anything that the camera goes on whether that’s a tripod, dolly on a track, a crane or even rigging onto a car. Recently, he was setting up equipment on a boat between Rathlin and Ballycastle for Greg Davies’ sitcom The Cleaner.
The grip and camera operator work as a team with direct briefings from the director and in close proximity to the actors. He explains that the job is quite physically demanding and there is a great deal to learn about all the equipment and how it works in relation to the camera.
During the ScreenWorks session, he took the young people through their paces with a hands-on experience working with the equipment and rigging up a car.
Sean Boyle, ScreenWorks lead, said: “The key to our programmes is getting access for the young people to industry experts like Donavan with his wealth of experience and love of the industry. It’s important to us to highlight all the jobs within the screen industries and the grip department is often over-looked as a career option.”
Donovan said his only regret is not starting his career earlier as he can’t imagine doing anything else.
“There’s a fantastic camaraderie among the people who work in the screen industry in Northern Ireland and we all help each other. In fact, it was through a colleague that I was asked to work on Gladiator 2. It’s very important for the young people to learn about working closely with others and building a network who like working with you,” he said.
Taking opportunities offered through ScreenWorks could be the first step in a young person’s journey into the industry. This year there have been 31 different work experience sessions for young people through ScreenWorks and there are still many coming up, including topics such as story development, virtual production, music composition for screen and costumes creatin.
There are also two summer projects – a week-long Game Jam creating an original video game and location management and sustainability.
ScreenWorks is run by educational film charity Into Film with workshops running in a variety of locations.
Donavan is pictured at Panavision Belfast with Cara from Friends School Lisburn and Aaron from Belfast Royal Academy learning how to work the equipment on a film set.
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