Master of Puppets

YESTERDAY (Monday August 31), an up-and-coming director from Trillick revealed his award-winning short film to an exclusive audience for the first time, when ‘Mr Baker’s Wonderful World’ was screened in IMC cinema in Enniskillen.

At the age of of 22, most of us struggle with simple tasks like making our beds and remembering to eat, but Raigain Grainger has demonstrated maturity and talent beyond his years, bringing together a 40-strong crew of masterful musicians, dynamic dancers and professional puppeteers to create his most recent work.

In the film, Jim Baker, a children’s television presenter, gets dragged into the world of his own show after learning that the studio is cancelling the program. Trying to process this information, Jim is thrown into a musical adventure with his onscreen puppet gang where he struggles to come to terms with the fact that this may be the end of ‘Mr Baker’s Wonderful World’.

“It’s my best work so far,” said Raigain, and his confidence isn’t without foundation.

“We have have picked up awards at Paris and New York International Film Festivals, Los Angeles Indie International Film Festival, Rome Film Festival, and Cannes International Short Film Festival. So it’s going really well.”

But as flattering as critical opinion may be, it doesn’t compare to
getting the seal of approval from a veteran within your field – unfortunately, Raigain is yet to receive this… Not!

The guy who directed Ghostbusters and Bridesmaids, or Paul Feig as he is known around the house, sent Regain an email so exalting in its praise of Mr Baker, that by end of the email, the keyboard had been almost been short curcuited by floods of Raigain’s tears.

But this shouldn’t be a surprise! The last three films Raigain has produced with Atril Pictures (his production company) have attracted big viewing figures from behind the Amazon Prime paywall. However, in a kind of anti-Hollywood spirit, Raigain is refusing to be beguiled by the financial charms of commercial cinema, instead opting to gift his new film to audiences around the world for free on Youtube.

“My last film, Rois Des Chevaux, has now been watched for over one million minutes (primarily in Japan and Czech Republic, for reasons mysterious to Raigain), but I wanted everyone to get the chance to see Mr Baker without any barriers. The reason I decided to put this one on Youtube is because I want as many people as possible to see my best work.”

In his latest film, you get to understand more than a little about Raigain’s musical influences – the three original songs in the film pay homage to some of his defining favourites such as Bowie. Abba, James Brown and Oasis.

From today you’ll be able to watch ‘Mr Baker’s Wonderful World’ on YouTube.

But don’t stop there. Type his name into Amazon Prime and enjoy his other three films!