Ben and Irune’s time at Edinburgh Napier
Ben Sharrock and Irune Gurtubai are both double alumni of Edinburgh Napier. They studied MA Film, 2012, and returned to undertake an MFA Advanced Film Practice at the University's Screen Academy Scotland, graduating in 2015.
Prior to joining ENU, Ben studied Arabic and Politics and Irune studied in her home community in the Basque Country, Spain.
Ben:
“I had to submit a film as part of my application, but I didn’t have anything to show. I remember finishing my undergraduate exams on a Friday and making my first short film on the Sunday with some borrowed equipment and my parents starring as the actors. Fortunately, the film was well received, and I was offered a place. It felt like the perfect first step into a career in filmmaking in my home city.”
Irune:
“I have such great memories of my time as a student at Edinburgh Napier’s Screen Academy Scotland. We were a class of only eight students, which was ideal to study film. We received the best personalised attention from lecturers and tutors, but it also worked extremely well when it came to making our short films and being able to collaborate on each other's projects.”
“I remember doing a module with 16mm film. It was a group exercise, and I was assigned to be the Clapper Loader. My main job was to unload and load film into the camera. It is a fiddly job that requires a certain amount of dexterity which I don’t possess. Long story short, my fingers were too fat to get the film in and out and I almost ruined the entire film. Sorry Bjorn! That was the lowest grade I got on the whole course!”
Ben Sharrock
The journey from Edinburgh Napier to award-winning filmmakers
Ben and Irune’s career journeys have been interwind since meeting at Edinburgh Napier. After graduating they both separately moved to Dubai and spent a year working in advertising before returning to ENU a second time to study MFA Advanced Film Practice. Since then, their rise has been meteoric.
Irune:
“Ben Sharrock and I teamed up to shoot our graduation short together, Patata tortilla, and we saw an opportunity to shoot the feature film version of it. Pikadero was really well received at international film festivals and was theatrically released in various European countries. That put us on the map for funders, financiers, and industry professionals, and gave us the opportunity to develop our next feature film, Limbo.
“The start of the Limbo development period only required my attention part time, so during those years I worked at a production company in Spain and at the sales and distribution company, Altitude Film Entertainment, in London. Limbo started to require more and more of my time towards the end of the development process and I eventually did that full time. We started the project in 2016 and ended up releasing it at the Cannes Film Festival in 2020 - just in time for the pandemic! Despite the lockdowns and all that ensued, the film did brilliantly in the festival circuit and was released by MUBI in the UK and Focus Features worldwide. Ben and I continue to develop and work on film and TV projects through our production company Caravan Cinema, which we founded in 2014.”
Ben:
“In many respects, the MFA at Edinburgh Napier was our launch pad into a career in film. Our graduation film Patata Tortilla won two BAFTA New Talent Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay and Pikadero premiered at the prestigious San Sebastian Film Festival a few months later.
“Receiving the Cannes Selection in 2020 was a standout moment for me. It has been an ambition of mine from the very beginning to have a film in the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival and it was a long road getting Limbo from script to final completion. It was a dream come true and a major slice of validation that was much needed while we were in lockdown during the pandemic, with an uncertain future ahead of us. Going a little further back than this I also have to mention when we got Pikadero into the San Sebastian Film Festival. We felt like we had no right to make it into an A list festival with a zero-budget film straight out of University. I had to pinch myself.”
What does an average day look like for Ben and Irune?
Ben:
“As a writer and director, I have vastly different work patterns depending on what phase of production I am in. At the moment I am a writer and my days, for the most part, involve getting up and starting early to write or if not, think and make notes for around 4-6 hours. It must be the first thing I do in the day without any other distractions. I will then try and get some fresh air and exercise by either walking or cycling and finish the day by watching a film or TV series or looking for inspiration through other means. There are lots of other things, like emails and meetings, that then have to be fitted in around my writing schedule."
Irune:
“No day is ever the same - it depends on which stage of the process we are at with each project, whether it is development, production, post-production, or distribution. It can involve reading what Ben has written and giving feedback or just talking through ideas; talking to financiers and different industry partners to stay in touch and up to date on projects; going location scouting; interviewing crew for the film; attending auditions to look for cast; being on set; completing paperwork, such as admin and accounts; watching the latest cut of the film; and more.
"There are many challenges I have had to overcome in my career. I’m lucky that I’ve always had the support of my family, otherwise I would have never made it to where I am. One of the most difficult things in the beginning was the lack of money: Pikadero was a no-budget, self-funded film, which meant we didn’t get paid. I had to survive on savings and for a while I had to do quite a patch work of different jobs in order to pay the bills."
Irune Gurtubai
Away from the day job
Irune:
“I love photography. I have always been into cameras and used to take pictures with a DSLR but moved to film a few years ago. I’m now about to start developing my own film - let’s see how it goes!”
Ben:
“I like to mountain bike, swim, walk my dog and spend time with my family. I used to play a lot of sport, but I’m saddled with injuries. I still get a lot of enjoyment out of watching films especially in the cinema and I find cooking and cooking programmes very therapeutic.”
“Do the work. Things take time and energy. If you stay in the saddle for long enough every day, over a prolonged period of time, you’ll probably get somewhere.
I took my first step into a career in filmmaking at Edinburgh Napier and to receive this recognition from the university means a huge amount. Making films is hard work and requires a lot of drive and motivation. Being given this honour helps keep the fuel going to carry onto the next peak.”
Ben Sharrock