Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Ben Spillane 

BA [Hons] Film + Television Production

A directing major and editing minor graduating from the National Film School. A creative, story-driven director and filmmaker that likes to juggle the absurd and the unsettling, explore and subvert horror and comedy genres, and is a highly collaborative member of any crew with a broad range of creative and technical skills. Currently working as an assistant director and freelance videographer. Based in Dublin and Limerick.

Major in Film Directing / Minor in Editing

This year I worked on multiple projects as a director, as well as crewing on many other short films and projects. I worked on pre-production for my proposed graduate horror film My Dearest. I completed my short, self-starring comedy The Bins which is about to enter festivals, and edited fellow director Martha Lovett Cullen's graduate film One Last More. I worked closely with my editor Annie Walsh and cinematographer Jamie Dixon to create the best films we could, and under the circumstances, achieved just that. I improved my skills in working with actors, found my voice as a writer, and honed my technical skills as an editor.



The Metanarrative Use of Fairy Tales in Pan’s Labyrinth

This thesis covers writer and director Guillermo Del Toro's uses metanarrative structure within his film Pan's Labyrinth in order to emphasize the importance of fairy tales. It defines what a fairy tale is, uncovers a metanarrative as a fairy tale exists within a fairy tale in Pan's Labyrinth, and how Del Toro uses this to not only convey the importance of fairy tales to the film's main character Ofelia, but also to children in general as a means to coping with and truly understanding a cruel and unwavering real world. It breaks down the different interpretations of a metanarrative, and it's effectiveness in conveying Del Toro's love for equally beautiful and violent fairy tales.