Graham's Blog

Ian Cudmore and Chutney films

Our third speaker was Ian Cudmore who works as a video editor. I really enjoyed this lecture as video editing and shooting is something that I am very interested in.  The fact I was out the night before for my birthday did not make it a comfortable lecture but it was very interesting.

Ian worked as a free lance editor but has at one stage or another worked in many areas of digital media.  Although he works free lance he stressed the fact that it is still alot of work if not more work when working for yourself.

After leaving college Ian was very lucky and found some work in an unlikely place. He managed to get in touch with a Scottish musician that he was a fan of called James Yorkston. Ian was shocked when he was asked to film for James’ EPK (electronic press kit). Ian gladly accepted and went to Scotland to start work. He shot many pieces including interviews and live footage of  James and edited down into a short piece that was to be sent away to James record label. This sounds like something I could see myself doing as I am just as interested in music as i am film.

Ian has done quit alot of stuff like this and has made a bit of a name for himself while doing so. He has worked with alot of musicians including Lisa Hannigan who i’m sure everyone at this stage has heard of.

Ian also did a bit of work for RTE on a comedy pilot.

My favorite part of Ian’s talk was when he was talking about his current project. He was working on episodes for the RTE storyland competition. I have being following the storyland competition since last year so this got my attention. He showed us one of his episodes which I and the rest of the class seemed to really like and it is something that I have being keeping up with since.  I would recommend his show “We own the street” to anyone and recommend that they vote for it in the competition. It is very funny and very well shot/edited.

Overall my experience at this lecture was not great but that had nothing to do with Ian’s lecture but more so my own fault from the night before. I really liked Ian’s lecture and was really impressed with his work. He has made a name for himself and is continuing to produce really high quality work.