Just Saying

CREDIT: Original Post by The Gathering Ireland, 19 January 2013

Dave Tynan is a London-based Irish director whose work generally includes short films and commercials. His most recent short Just Saying was shot over two nights on the streets of Dublin city in early December 2012.  It has struck a chord with many since being uploaded to YouTube and within a few days has had over 300,000 hits. To watch Just Saying click this link or watch it in the header above.

So Dave, we loved Just Saying. Tell me about its inception. 

I started writing it over two years ago before I left Dublin and now it has become this emigration thing, which was never the focus but I guess it tends to elbow its way into the conversation regardless. But regarding its inception, I find that a weird question because it kind of is what it is. There is no subtext to it. It’s just a bloke throwing out all this stuff but I guess in hindsight it is the push and pull of why you would go and why you would stay. It’s a weird thing if your mates go and you stay or if you stay and your mates go. It is confusing and I think it should be confusing, unless you dislike the place you’re from. Even living in London, I hate those people who say Dublin is so parochial. Of course Dublin isn’t London, no one is arguing that it is and there are things, so many things, that you definitely miss. I think ambivalence is good. I think you should want ambivalence in any piece of art. Not to call it art, that’s a bit wanky. Ambiguity is fine. The conflicted viewpoint is its strength not its weakness.

“Conflicted” is a good description. The film appears to be a dichotomy of both love and frustration towards Dublin and Ireland in general. Which one do you think wins out in the end? 

I’ll put it to you this way, we put up the text online and it had been there for almost a year on a couple of blogs. And when I first went home to make it, he didn’t get on a boat. [The narrator is seen getting on a boat at the end of the film.] But after a few chats with the people involved we decided that you can have that ambiguity when it’s just text but a film needs a bit more resolution. But only up to a point. And the most important thing is when he gets on the boat, he looks back.

So the boat at the end means he leaves Ireland?

Yes it does. But it’s not that I am trying to create ‘them’ versus ‘us’ thing. The line about his mates leaving, if you think it’s an accusation then you can’t read an actor’s face. He doesn’t look happy. There is a lament in that. And, yes, he goes too, but he is not entirely happy about it. He is still conflicted.

You used Fundit, a crowd funded website to make this film. How receptive in general do you think the Irish are to supporting its young creative people? 

I can’t really make any sort of sweeping statements about that. Honestly, most of the cash still came from my mates. There were some random Joes and I love them even more but if you were trying to crowd fund a bigger project you would need a lot more random Joes. There were times I tried to get funding and didn’t, but in hindsight it meant I worked on the script and made a better film in the end. I would say, though, things are definitely happening at home. There are so many creative people really having a go at it. And that’s brilliant.

A lot of commentary recently has mentioned one really positive effect of the recession has been a lot of growth in Ireland’s creative community. In your experience did you find this true? 

There is definitely silver lining stuff. The cloud is still half your mates live in Melbourne but yeah, it’s not dead. There is stuff going on.

You, yourself have just moved to London. Was the monologue in this film based on your own experiences? 

I guess so. I like the quote, ‘all writing is submerged autobiography.’ This is probably less submerged than most. I mean, the idea, it’s a bloke at the end of a night but it’s also the end of 50 different nights and not necessarily all his own nights. It’s dense and there is a lot of stuff there. For example, there are a few different geographical references and they don’t necessarily tie up. He talks about Camden St and Portmarnock Strand. I mean, I like Portmarnock Strand but it’s not where I would go if the sun was out. You can’t say that it is an every man thing but you’re trying to take in a wider sense of stuff. Most of it came from the couple years after leaving college when I was arsing about.

At one point the narrator says “London and Sydney swallow your mates,” have many of your friends left Ireland?

Well, a third of my year from school live in London. So it’s there, you can’t ignore it. Of course there are people staying and there is bravery in that as well. It’s brave to go somewhere new but it’s brave to stay as well. But if you can’t round up a load of people to go to a pub on a Friday evening something is up. That’s weird.

As 2013 is the year of The Gathering, how important is it to reach out on a personal level to all the people who have left?

Yeah, it is, undeniably. I think if the Gathering helps a third-generation Irish-American living in Boston return to a tiny village in Mayo then that can only be a positive thing. And if some small businesses benefit, how could you have a problem with that?