Behind the lens
MichaelFlannery
Filmmaker, founder, and the person behind the camera.
How this came about
The work changed first
After years of making wedding films, I wanted to build a studio that felt more like the work itself — considered, cinematic, personal and a little unexpected.
The films had been changing for a long time before the name did. Twenty years in, the way I shoot a wedding, and the way I cut it afterwards, had travelled a long way from where it started. What was written above the door had not moved at all. Monocle & Co. is the work catching up with itself.
So the studio stays small on purpose. I take a limited number of weddings each year, in Galway and across Ireland; I answer your first message myself, and I am the one behind the camera on the day. When a wedding is large enough that a second pair of eyes genuinely helps, I bring in a filmmaker I have worked with for years — not whoever happens to be free. You are never handed along to a production company.
The camera should feel like another guest rather than another performer.
On the day
What it is like having me there
Less a method than a set of habits, and the reason the films feel the way they do.
A proper conversation first
Before anything is booked we talk properly — on the phone, for as long as it takes. About the day you are actually planning, not the collection you might choose.
Learning the day before it happens
Timings, rooms, the walk between them, and the handful of people who matter most. Knowing all of that in advance is what lets me be in the right place without asking anyone to wait.
Direction only where it helps
Sometimes a word helps — where to stand, which way the light is. Beyond that, nothing is staged and no moment is asked for twice. Emotion that has to be manufactured never looks like the real thing on film.
Alongside your photographer
I speak to your photographer and your venue beforehand so we are not competing for the same corner. Two suppliers who have already talked are invisible; two who have not are a scheduling problem you should never have to see.
It is your wedding, not a film set
The day is not built around the camera. If a shot would cost you twenty minutes with the people who travelled to see you, it is not worth the twenty minutes.
Present, and knowing when not to be
I am not trying to disappear — I will happily talk to your guests, and often do. The judgement is knowing which moments want company and which want to be left completely alone.
The studio
Why
Monocle?
The name began much closer to home than the branding might suggest.
Monocle is a play on the sounds of two names — Monica and Michael. My wife and me. Say them together and the word is very nearly there already, and once we had heard it we could not unhear it. I am the filmmaker; Monica is the support, the sounding board and the occasional voice of reason behind all of it.
The coincidence was rather perfect. A monocle is a lens — something made to bring a subject into focus. It also belongs to another age: the elegance and the optimism of the 1920s, reinterpreted a century later rather than reproduced.
That felt remarkably close to what I wanted the studio to become. Classic filmmaking instincts, contemporary work, and a much more considered way of doing things.
Monocle & Co. is really the next chapter of twenty years spent making wedding films.
The process
From first message to final film
Enquiry
You send the date, the venue and a little about the two of you. I check the diary and come back personally — usually the same day.
Conversation
A phone call, whenever suits. We talk about the day you are planning rather than the packages you are choosing between.
Preparation
Timings, locations, the people who matter and the moments you would hate to miss. I speak to your photographer and your venue so nothing is a surprise.
The wedding day
I arrive early and work quietly among your guests, using the light that is there. The camera moves only when moving it improves the story.
The edit
Every frame is backed up twice before anything else happens. Then the day is watched back in full, more than once, and cut so the rhythm follows the emotion. Vows and speeches are given room to breathe.
Delivery
Your films arrive on a private, secure page you can share with anyone you like — and keep for as long as you like.
Enquiries
Tell us about your day.
Share whatever you know so far. A date and location are helpful, but you don’t need to have every detail decided.
Begin a conversation