Carrigaline’s Max Cummins was crowned Ireland’s Junior Young Filmmaker of the Year

By Tara Maher

12 year old Max Cummins was crowned Ireland’s Junior Young Filmmaker of the Year with his stop-motion film ‘Random Stories’.

Max, a sixth class pupil from Holywell National School attended the award ceremony hosted by Fresh Film Fest in Limerick two weeks ago. 

Max’s creation ‘Random Stories’ was inspired by a number of events from his own life. 

Max compares filmmaking to making art, and was drawn in after seeing people making their own videos on the internet and he wanted to join in.

He is always observing and watching what other creators are doing, taking notes to see how he can improve his style.

“While there are tons of steps needed to make a video, I'll break them down into the big ones.” Max told The Carrigdhoun, “First is writing, after a few days of coming up with ideas, once I feel confident enough to make a full cohesive script, I get writing.”

Max Cummins

“Then, when it's done, I show it to a few people to make sure it's understandable & good quality.”

“Secondly, I do voice acting. I try not to be shy when I'm voicing because I do my best when I'm completely going at the lines.”

“Then I edit the best takes together and add background music. Finally is the animation, which is by FAR the most time consuming. For the video I made, the 5 mins of animation took about two months to make. But, it's incredibly rewarding to have a completed project.”

Winning such a prestigious award at a young age has been a dream come true for Max. 

“To me the reward means that young people's art is being treated seriously instead of something that often gets brushed to the side. It was incredibly kind of Fresh Film to create the whole event, and I'm honoured that they thought my video was the best.”

Max has a bright future ahead of him, and is enjoying the unexplored territory that comes with creativity. 

“I’d say expect the unexpected,” Max revealed.   

“Doing what people expect of my art makes me feel like my creativity is getting restricted, so I just do a little bit of everything. With my art, I make whatever is interesting to me, which can be literally anything.”