This week we had Ian Cudmore from Chutney films in to give us our lecture in working in digital media. He was a little shy to start with but once he started to talk about his work he was really good. Everyone seemed really interested in talking to him during the lecture and Ian stuck around after for ages to chat to people and answer questions.
Ian originally studied industrial design in NCAD and then went on to complete his masters in Trinity doing their Digital Media masters course. He got started in working in film while and after he completed this course. Through friends he started doing promo PR videos for different musicians such as Lisa Hannigan and James Yorkston.
His main source of work comes from been a freelance editor and he talked a lot about working with RTE and how you go about getting jobs. The definite sense I got from this is that it’s all about who you know. Ian is friends with Maeve O’Higgins which got him a job editing her television series for RTE, and through the director of that he moved onto the series “The School”.
I think the most important thing Ian talked about was been organized. He was saying how many files he has to work with while editing and how important it is to have a correct filing system so you always know exactly where to find something. The other aspect of the work he talked about was how as a freelancer you can be doing nothing for a few weeks and then tonnes of jobs come in together and you have to be able to balance them out and try to plan as best you can. He talked about one of the biggest freelance editors he knows been booked nearly two years in advance!
Ian also encouraged us to try out as many things as possible to get exposure to different areas of media, and to enter any competitions or events that we have ideas for, as this is how you get your name known and meet people who work in similar fields. He showed us some of his shorts for RTE’s storyland series “We own the streets”, which he had made with some friends of his to try and win a commission on RTE.
Ian was really interesting and it looked like he is just starting out on his career so it gave me a really good impression of what is required when you work for yourself and the amount of dedication it takes.
