Brendan Canty is a filmmaker and photographer based in Cork. Known for his work on music videos for Gavin James, Dermot Kennedy and Hozier, Brendan has recently directed his first short film ‘Christy’ and is currently working on his first feature film.

‘Las Luminarias Festival, San Bartolomé de Pinares’, Spain

Where did you spend lockdown?

In my hometown of Cork City. I just moved back here right before the lockdown.

Did you have access to a work space during this time? If not, how did you continue to create work?

I have a little office setup in my new home but to be honest I work from all over the house.

Can you talk through your work process? 

A lot of my work at home these days is just prep work. Which includes pitching to win jobs, writing treatments / scripts and planning for shoots and lots of zoom meetings.

Did you experiment with any new materials or methodologies?

I became better at delegating tasks during this time and realising where my strengths are – bringing in specialists to help me work on jobs. 

Given the limitations and restrictions of the last few months, did your art making process change at all?  If so, do you think this will continue to change how you will make art going forward?

It changed the landscape of how we work for sure. We will no longer have to travel for every single meeting now as it has become socially acceptable to join most meetings via zoom. Some of the zoom meetings I had during this time would have definitely required me to have flown to London previous to all of this. I think the process will become much easier and much less time consuming because of this time OR it will designate more time to the art itself.

‘Dermot Kennedy Shoot’ for ‘Island Fires and Family’ video on Inis Mór.

Did you have any projects during this time that went ahead?

I have been very lucky to have had a number of projects during this time. 

I made a TV commercial for Failte Ireland (Ireland’s internal Tourism body) right before travel was allowed again encouraging people to pack up and explore Ireland.

‘Ireland, make a break for it’, 2020

I also made a music video for Dermot Kennedy, where he runs through the empty streets of Dublin back to the Olympia. The idea being that one day we’ll get back to doing what we love.

Do you have any upcoming projects?

I’ve worked on a bunch of content for Dermot Kennedy (that’s not out yet) and have been developing my first feature film. Which are both very exciting for me.

All photographs were provided by Brendan Canty. To see more of Brendan’s work visit his website and Instagram.