The Evolution of Motherland Points to the Future of Creative Service

Two multi-award winning production companies announced today their unification under one brand, Motherland. Motherland and sister company, Event Junkies, have joined forces and pulled in leading industry talent to create one of Ireland’s most progressive production companies for the production, post-production and delivery of film, commercials, online content and music videos. 

CEO Ross Killeen comments “We are a hybrid production company. We’re talent driven and have always had craft at the heart of everything we do. Our industry has evolved so much in the past few years so we wanted to embrace this and build a single entity which is as agile as it is creative. To fully embrace this evolution we decided to refresh our brand as it really felt like we were bringing something new to the market”.

The two companies (both founded by Ross Killeen) have always worked side by side but as separate entities with two different offers to the market. Motherland is best known internationally for its emotive story-telling and award-winning commercials and films including ‘99 Problems’ and ‘Love Yourself Today’. In Ireland it has worked with the biggest agencies in the country. Event Junkies was an early disruptor to the video production market and went on to produce best in class video content for the Irish and international market from the off. Event Junkies clients include Google, Dropbox, Jameson and Red Bull. Together, as Motherland, the company will offer world-class content for every screen and all staff from Event Junkies will now work for Motherland.

Motherland has a clear market offering to produce best in class films, commercials, content and music videos. Post-production is also a key offering from Motherland. They employ full time editors and VFX artists to provide a full service from production through to post-production and delivery of content for any screen.

Motherland have recently produced the IFTA (Irish Film & Television Academy) nominated feature documentary, Love Yourself Today, which screened in theatres across the UK and Ireland last year. They also represent a plethora of international directing talent, such as recent signing Rachel Carey (‘Deadly Cuts’, The highest grossing Irish film of 2021), Kathryn Ferguson (‘Nothing Compares’, which premiered at Sundance festival in January), commercial directors Finn Keenan (Just Eat, Discord and Nike) and POB (Sky, Allianz and Jameson) along with emerging talents like Sam McGrath, Hugh Mulhern, Ellius Grace and Tara O’Callaghan.

Echoing the internal transformation Motherland has undergone, a new brand logo and website has been designed to underline the company’s evolution. Evoking nostalgia for the early digital age, the new logo is a font originally designed in 1999, a time synonymous with change. With the imperfect printing of the logo offering a natural human touch, the fresh design officiates Motherland as digital natives who skilfully blend human emotion into their work.

Leading this new offering are some of the industry's best known creative specialists, producers, in-house directors and editors together under the stewardship of CEO Ross Killeen and MD Steven Courtney.

Steven Courtney, MD of Motherland, adds: “It’s truly exciting to play my part within such a progressive and forward thinking company. Our entire team has worked incredibly hard over the past two years to rethink how we approach every aspect of creative and production. How audiences consume media is evolving at lightning speed and we now feel we have a company that can sit at the forefront of this evolution.”

Motherland welcomes Margaret Levingstone and Anthony McCaffery to the team as new head of production and head of post-production, respectively.

Margaret Levingstone ('Mags') joins from Rothco, part of Accenture Song, where she was head of production for eight years. Bringing a wealth of experience and vital agency know-how, 'Mags' will be overseeing every aspect of production across the many platforms that Motherland works on. 

Margaret Levingstone, head of production says: “I’m excited at the opportunity. When I met the guys I knew they were different. Craft, creativity and culture are at the core of everything Motherland does; coupled with an ambitious and disruptive vision for the future of production”. 

With over 20 years of experience, working with some of the top post houses in the world, including The Mill, RayGun, Untold Studios and Brown Bag to name a few, Anthony McCaffery will lead up the post-production team, managing and evolving the entire post production arm of Motherland. 

Head of post production, Anthony McCaffery, says: “We are a production company with a fully integrated post team. This allows us to support the Director and client the whole way through a project. We're uniquely placed to have an overview of the full scope of a project and its many deliverables. We treat every platform as part of the core creative rather than an afterthought. We apply the same level of care whether the audience is going to see our work on TV or on social media. There are so many deliverables required for a commercial campaign and Motherland can provide everything under one roof.”

Ross Killeen, CEO of Motherland, comments: “We are creative people and we love working with creative people. Our roster is diverse and carefully curated to represent directors whose craft we admire. We want to make more films, more commercials and continue to do the best in class content we’ve always done. Change is good and I’m excited to bring everything under one roof and to work with Mags, Steve and Anthony on the next phase of our journey.”

You can watch Motherland's reel here.