ABOUT US

James Morris, Russ Russell, Brian Masterson and Miert Avis establish Windmill Lane, Irelands first world class recording studio and TV commercial post production facilities. Back then, Ireland was someplace that people with ambition left and everyone thought they were crazy, but from a long established culture of story telling, creativity & determination and a little bit of luck comes opportunity….

With state of the art post production for TV commercials now in Dublin, Windmill went from strength to strength both creatively and technologically.

The early 80s saw the launch of MTV & Windmill was in the right place at the right time. A very young U2 based themselves in Windmill Lane, and a decade of working with some of the worlds biggest music stars follows…David Bowie, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Thompson Twins, Bruce Springsteen, Status Quo, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Elvis Costello, Phil Lynnott, Lloyd Cole, Kate Bush and many many more. Ask your parents!

Do you remember the one with the lad coming home to see his Mammy, or lines like “Ah that’s Bass”, “You could put a bit of butter on the spuds Andre” or “Sally O’Brien and the way she might look at you”?

Classics. With a touch of Windmill.

Having opened offices in LA and London the next step was to open another post house and The Mill is established as the worlds first fully digital commercial post production facility.

Zoo TV threw Windmill a lifeline when plans to establish a TV station fell apart. Sadly, this rocky period also saw the famed recording studio part ways and relocate to nearby Pearse St.

So it was back to basics and doing what Windmill did best – helping talented people make classic TV commercials.

They say failure is good for success and Windmill bounced back as the driving force behind TV3, Irelands first fully commercial TV station.

1998 also saw the return of audio to Windmill Lane in the shape of Number Four, headed up by the legendary Paddy Gibbons, concentrating not on music this time, but TV & radio commercials and later audio for feature, drama and animation. The studio has grown steadily to become the largest of its kind in Ireland.

The MTV circus rolled into town in the shape of the EMAs and Windmill created the visuals for the show, broadcast around the world.

International campaigns for Guinness, McDonalds, Playstation, Heineken and many more solidified Windmills well established reputation for working with some of the biggest brands and best creatives in the world.

Windmill made the decision to move into film and TV in a big way and by the close of the decade it had seen collaborations with world class directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Jim Sheridan, John Boorman and Neil Jordan along with working with established and then emerging Irish film talents such as Paddy Breathnach, Damian O’Donnell, Robert Quinn, Brian O’Malley, Ian Fitzgibbon, Richie Smyth, Gary Shore, John Butler & Alen Gilsenan.

Windmill relocated to a new HQ on Herbert St. More on that below…

Windmill Lane VFX, Irelands first dedicated VFX company is established, collaborating with Luc Besson on Lockout. Notable shows that followed included Vikings, Penny Dreadful, Outlander, Rig45 and The Name of The Rose. Windmill’s dedication to working with independent film makers from all over the world and our expertise in Section 481, Ireland’s attractive tax break for international film & TV production has positioned us well as a partnering opportunity in terms of both creativity and production.

One of the most popular Irish TV shows ever, all five seasons of Stuart Carolan’s Love/Hate were finished in Windmill Lane seeing us collaborate on audio, colour, edit, VFX and titles, helping to realise a vision of Dublin’s crime world that went on to gain international popularity.

With the addition of VFX to its offering and a lot of hard work, Windmill’s foothold in the local & international independent film sectors grew stronger. John Crowley’s Brooklyn, Margot Robbie’s Terminal, Gary Shore’s Dracula, Jim Sheridan’s Secret Scripture, John Butler’s Papi Chulo, Lance Daly’s Black 47 and Neil Jordan’s Greta are just some of the projects were proud to have worked on in this time.

The advertising industry was going through a sea change with a proliferation of emerging digital, streaming and social platforms. Windmill like others embraced these challenges and played its part to ensure quality and sometimes controversial creative still cut through.

Whirligig is the marriage of our long established know how in content creation for brand and advertising with a roster of some of Irelands finest illustrators, animators, composers and experiential innovators.

Windmill Create brought us out from “behind” post production. As a highly collaborative, creative first offering, its aim was to broaden our creative bandwith & change the conversation around how, why & who we work with, crafting engaging content for any platform in an agile, bespoke & direct way.

The Siege of Jadotville, directed by Richie Smyth, one of Netflix’s first feature films with VFX, colour and delivery by Windmill Lane.

The Young Offenders is another hugely popular international Irish TV show finished at Windmill Lane

Windmill partners with Odeon to offer clients city centre theatrical audio mixing facilities.

Moving forward, we remain dedicated to seeking new ways of working with the creative media industry in sound and vision and responding to constant change as we explore bespoke, hub & virtual workflows & solutions such as cloud tech while maintaining a long tradition of quality output through creative partnership….