Being as I haven’t blogged in a while I thought I’d take the opportunity to round up what I’ve been doing over the past year and to keep everybody up to date. My new year’s resolution is to keep the headjar site and my twitter feed more regularly up to date, but I’m expecting that things will change as soon as the next big project starts and I find myself knee deep in work and bound by non-disclosure agreements.

2009 started slowly but turned out to be an extremely good year. Having made the decision to abandon assistant editing in late 2008 and focus on finding more jobs as the main editor, the traditional lean media winter was always going to be doubly tricky, but in January I started work on the excellent short film ‘If I Should Fall Behind’, directed by the supremely talented Morgan Bushe of Dublin’s Fastnet Films.

The atmospheric 15 minute film, named after the classic song by Bruce Springsteen, was funded by Filmbase and RTÉ, with prints provided by the Irish Film Board. It follows haunted father John Neeson (Paul Roe), his wife Sharon (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) and son Lawrence (Shane Murray-Corcoran), around the Dolphin’s Barn area of Dublin as they struggle to come to terms with a recent tragedy and their familial responsibilities.

The film, which was edited around myself and Morgan’s busy work schedules, was finally completed in the summer, and in October 2009 was selected for the Times/BFI 53rd London Film Festival. To see my work on a 35mm print at such a prestigious festival so close to home was a real thrill and was a great opportunity to show friends, family and colleagues some of the work I do. Going forward in 2010 we hope to see ‘If I Should Fall Behind’ in many more film festivals around the world and I’ll try and keep you updated as to where and when it’s showing right here.

On the topic of film festivals, as many of you will know I was honoured to be able to attend the Cannes Film Festival this year, and to write about it on this blog. At the festival I made many great friends and contacts and look forward to working with them in the future.

Following work on the Irish film, I have edited a number of commercial projects in 2009, including the ‘Super Contemporary’ strand for Beefeater Gin and the Design Museum, and an Anti-Smoking viral for Parkville Pictures.

In August through till October I worked on ‘George Michael: Live In London’, taking over from esteemed live music editor Brian McCue on this amazing live concert film. To work with such established talent was a real thrill, and it was also my first job using the very excellent LightWorks editing system, something I only came to try last year, having always wanted to work with the system. The film was shown in theatres in the US in December and is available now on Blu-Ray and DVD in the UK. Grab a copy now!

Of course as always, there are a number of unreleased projects I’ve worked on over the past year which I can’t yet talk about, but there will be more information soon. 2010 is already shaping up to be a very exciting year, having already started editing yesterday, when I cut a promo for ‘I Love Your Hair’ by DJ Marble, which we’ll be doing the online edit and grade on shortly, after which I hope the video will be up online somewhere for you all to see.

I’m about to start work on a much overdue new showreel to replace the last one, as I’ve done an awful lot in the past two years that I really need to show to new clients! There are also a number of exciting projects tentatively lined up that I’m very excited about. Watch this space for more news…

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2010 in which I look forward to working with you, socialising with you or even just chatting about obscure features of Final Cut Pro on Twitter. Have a very happy new year!