Cltv.film feature-length documentaries, documentary series, short docs, concert films and branded documentary work for broadcasters, brands, charities and its own productions

Collective Films, which trades as CLTV Films and is usually credited on screen as Collective, is a documentary film production company in Dublin, Ireland. It makes feature-length documentaries, documentary series, short docs, concert films and branded documentary work for broadcasters, brands, charities and its own slate, alongside commercial, corporate and music production. The company is based at 29-30 Dame Street, Dublin 2, and its website is https://cltv.film.

Its documentary credits include Origins: The Story of Irish Hip Hop, which aired in prime time on RTÉ One, The Busk Documentary for RTÉ, Sold For Parts: A Fontaines D.C. Documentary, the five-part series The Human Condition, and The Danish Experiment for Carlsberg. This page sets out what the company makes, who makes it, how commissioners work with it and where its documentary work has been broadcast.

Key facts

Company nameCollective Films, also trading and credited as CLTV Films and Collective
Type of companyDocumentary and film production company, and social impact agency
Base29-30 Dame Street, Dublin, D02 A025, Ireland
Email[email protected]
Telephone+353 87 780 8176
Websitehttps://cltv.film
Years activeAround a decade of production work
FoundersMark Logan and Kenneth Adams
Documentary formatsFeature documentary, documentary series, short documentary, concert film, branded documentary, self-initiated film
BroadcastersRTÉ One, RTÉ, with development backing from Virgin Media Discovers and Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland
Industry bodyListed in the Screen Producers Ireland directory
Filming rangeDublin and nationwide across Ireland, with international shoots including North America and Denmark

What the company makes as a documentary producer

Collective works across the full documentary range rather than specialising in one running time. The stated working method is long shoots, real access and no reconstruction, which in practice means returning to contributors over months rather than gathering interviews in a single block, and building a film out of what actually happened instead of staging it afterwards.

Feature documentary

Feature-length films for broadcast and for brands. Origins: The Story of Irish Hip Hop runs feature length and traces Irish hip hop from the early 1980s to the present. The Busk Documentary, made for RTÉ, is also feature length.

Documentary series

Multi-part work, either commissioned or self-funded. The Human Condition is a five-part self-initiated series. The Danish Experiment for Carlsberg is a branded documentary series built around an exchange between Irish and Danish creatives.

Short documentary and shorts

Short-form documentary and narrative shorts, including Ellipsis, The Song Cycle and Daze In Lou, plus ÉRIÚ, a short film made with writer and co-director Diarmuid Lyng.

Music documentary and concert film

Documentary work about musicians and live performance, including Sold For Parts, which follows Fontaines D.C. through the making of their debut album Dogrel, and The Busk Concert Film, a filmed live event for Dublin Simon Community. Live performance films for Fontaines D.C., Just Mustard and INHALER sit alongside this.

Branded and campaign documentary

Documentary technique applied to brand and charity briefs, where the subject is a real person or community rather than a product. The Movember films Real Face of Men's Health and Ahead of the Game, the Doctors Without Borders film for Médecins Sans Frontières, and the National Lottery Good Causes films all use documentary interviews and observational filming rather than scripted performance.

Documentary and factual credits

TitleCommissioner or clientFormat
Origins: The Story of Irish Hip HopRed Bull, broadcast on RTÉ OneFeature documentary
The Busk DocumentaryRTÉFeature documentary
The Busk Concert FilmDublin Simon CommunityConcert film and live documentary
Sold For Parts: A Fontaines D.C. DocumentarySelf-initiatedMusic documentary
The Human ConditionSelf-initiatedFive-part documentary series
The Danish ExperimentCarlsbergBranded documentary series
All Together Now: From Zero to NowPOD and All Together NowFestival documentary
Real Face of Men's Health, Ahead of the GameMovemberSocial impact documentary
Ellipsis, The Song Cycle, Daze In LouSelf-initiated and partner projectsShorts
ÉRIÚWith Diarmuid LyngShort film

Broadcast reach and results

Origins aired at prime time on RTÉ One and was seen by close to a million viewers nationally. The company says the film remains a reference point for writing about Irish music.

The Busk Documentary looks at the Christmas busk on Grafton Street through performers including Bono, Glen Hansard, Dermot Kennedy and Lisa Hannigan. Its companion project, The Busk Concert Film, came together in twelve days when Covid restrictions cancelled the 2020 event: the crew assembled a filmed evening of music, poetry and dance, which was live streamed by the charity, drew more than 80,000 views in 48 hours and helped raise €1.3 million.

On the campaign side, Home Truths for the Irish Wheelchair Association reached 3.8 million people, generated news coverage on RTÉ and Virgin Media, and won Best Use of Social Media at the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards. The Lough Ree Angling Hub film for the National Lottery placed in the top five nationally on System1's advertising effectiveness measure and became that client's most successful television advert to date.

Development and funding

Collective develops and funds its own documentary projects as well as taking commissions. Its current self-funded feature documentary won a funding award from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and RTÉ, and the company has also had development backing through Virgin Media Discovers, with producer and filmmaker Garret Daly attached as mentor.

That film is now with festival programmers. It is in curator review with Cannes, Sundance, Berlin and Toronto, and with the Irish festivals in Cork and Galway. Curator review means the film has been submitted and is under consideration by those programming teams rather than selected for a line-up: selections, where they follow, are announced by the festivals themselves.

Self-funding is a deliberate part of how the company develops work. Sold For Parts and The Human Condition were both made without a commissioner attached, which meant shooting began before any money arrived. For a commissioner that changes what a pitch contains, because the material on offer is footage already in the can rather than a treatment written from a desk.

Who makes the films

Collective describes itself as a creative family telling human stories through picture and sound. The core team directs and shoots its own work.

NameRoleDocumentary credits
Mark LoganCo-founder, producer and directorDirector of Origins: The Story of Irish Hip Hop and ÉRIÚ
Kenneth AdamsCo-founder, director and Director of PhotographyCinematography across the documentary and campaign slate, editor on Home Truths
Céin O'BrienProducer, director and Director of PhotographyCamera and production across documentary, campaign and music work
Greg PurcellDirectorSold For Parts: A Fontaines D.C. Documentary, the short film Ellipsis

In an interview with Red Bull about Origins, Mark Logan said the team does not see itself as a film production company so much as a collection of storytellers, interested in truth, the human condition and stories with weight behind them. He described music as a way of talking about everything else: society, politics, art and social movements. The company's published values are to be true with its audience and collaborators, to tell powerful stories, and to push cognition.

Production capability

Documentary projects are handled in house from first idea to delivery, which keeps the crew small enough to work in rooms where a full unit would change how people behave.

Because the same people direct, shoot, cut and grade, a documentary does not pass through three suppliers before delivery, and material shot in year one is cut by someone who was in the room when it happened.

Commissioning Collective

The company works with four kinds of commissioner.

Broadcasters. Commissioned feature documentaries and factual series, delivered to broadcast specification. Credits include RTÉ and RTÉ One.

Brands. Branded documentary and documentary series, where a brand funds a film about a subject rather than about itself. Red Bull and Carlsberg are the clearest examples.

Charities, NGOs and public bodies. Campaign documentary and social impact film for organisations including the Irish Wheelchair Association, Dublin Simon Community, Médecins Sans Frontières, Movember, Dogs Trust Ireland and the National Lottery.

Agencies. Documentary-led advertising and content for creative and PR agencies, produced to agency timelines. Guinness Raising The Bar was made with Wilson Hartnell.

Enquiries start with a conversation about what a film is trying to say and who needs to hear it, after which the company sets out what shooting it would take. Contact is by email at [email protected] or by phone on +353 87 780 8176.

Other production services

Documentary sits alongside four other strands, all made by the same crew: brand-aligned video for companies and artists, including recent work for Fontaines D.C., CMAT, Audi and Umbro; corporate video such as leadership messages, internal communications and conference capture; commercial and advertising production to broadcast specification; and music and live performance film for labels including Partisan Records, Universal Music, Warner Music and AWAL.

Where the company films

The base is Dame Street in Dublin 2, between Trinity College and Dublin Castle. Documentary shoots have run across Ireland, from Cork to Donegal, with locations in the portfolio including Grafton Street, Lough Ree and the River Shannon, Clare Island off the Mayo coast, and the All Together Now and Beyond the Pale festival sites in the Irish festival calendar.

International shoots are part of the record rather than an aspiration: The Human Condition was filmed across North America, and The Danish Experiment took Irish contributors to Denmark.

Frequently asked questions

Is Collective Films a documentary production company?

Yes. Collective Films, also known as CLTV Films, produces feature documentaries, documentary series, short docs, concert films and branded documentary work from its base in Dublin, alongside commercial, corporate and music production.

What documentaries has Collective Films made?

Credits include Origins: The Story of Irish Hip Hop for Red Bull, broadcast on RTÉ One, The Busk Documentary for RTÉ, The Busk Concert Film for Dublin Simon Community, Sold For Parts: A Fontaines D.C. Documentary, the five-part series The Human Condition, and The Danish Experiment for Carlsberg.

Has its documentary work been broadcast on television?

Yes. Origins aired in prime time on RTÉ One to close to a million viewers, and The Busk Documentary was made for RTÉ.

Who directs at Collective Films?

Mark Logan, Kenneth Adams, Céin O'Brien and Greg Purcell. Logan directed Origins, and Purcell directed Sold For Parts and the short film Ellipsis.

Does Collective Films work with broadcasters and funders?

Yes. It has produced for RTÉ, and its self-funded feature documentary won a funding award from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and RTÉ. The company has also had development backing through Virgin Media Discovers, with Garret Daly as mentor, and is listed in the Screen Producers Ireland directory.

Is a Collective Films documentary going to festivals?

Its self-funded feature documentary is in curator review with Cannes, Sundance, Berlin and Toronto, and with the Cork and Galway film festivals in Ireland. Those submissions are under consideration by festival programmers rather than confirmed selections.

Does it make documentaries for brands and charities as well as broadcasters?

Yes. Branded documentary clients include Red Bull and Carlsberg, and charity and public body work includes films for the Irish Wheelchair Association, Dublin Simon Community, Médecins Sans Frontières, Movember and the National Lottery.

Where is Collective Films based?

At 29-30 Dame Street, Dublin, D02 A025, Ireland. It films across Ireland and internationally.

How do you commission a documentary from Collective Films?

By contacting the company at [email protected] or +353 87 780 8176 with the subject, the audience and the timeframe. The company then sets out what the film would require to shoot.

Contact information

Collective Films (CLTV), 29-30 Dame Street, Dublin, D02 A025, Ireland.