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ABOUT
- Reasonably Shorts is the official home of multi award winning filmmaker Ian Lawton.Have a look around. Watch some video's. Listen to some music. Read some nonsense twittering.If you are interested in working with Ian or want Ian to work with you, head on over to the contact page and get in touch.Below are some links to Ian's movie sites:You can rent my movie here for only 99c
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Info
- Summary
Coming from a background in animation for television and short film, I am currently working as a freelance producer and editor for television. My knowledge of animation filmmaking techniques has been an invaluable asset to my work in postproduction.
My eclectic workload covers anything from drawn animation, commercials directing, radio advertising, documentary to short film, as well as corporate video and also music videos. As a screenwriter, I have been short-listed on several occasions; have doctored scripts for advertising, copywriting & movie trailers. My work has also been screened in many International Film Festivals.
I am a member of the Irish Screenwriters & Playwrights Guild.
I am an alumnus of Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Screenwriting course.
I have worked producing promotional content for television broadcast, one of which earned a prestigious Shark Award for my campaign for the US TV series: Friends for Channel 6 in 2007.I'm represented by McFarlaine-Chard Associates.
As well as producing and directing corporate documentary I have also set up and run an Audio Video department for one of Irelands leading publishing companies, producing in-house web video content and advertising as well as producing Radio campaigns for their numerous publications.
I have produced, written & directed several short films, two if which are being developed into feature films.
I have produced & directed a plethora of music videos & continue to do so when commissioned, along with a multitude of other video related work.
Recently completed the pilot episode of a new comedy entitled Garda Confidential.
Currently in Production of a short thriller entitled Just Trust Me, shooting in West Cork.
Also an intimate drama entitled Coma. Based on a script shortlisted by The London Screenwriters Festival in 2012 & featuring music by German composer Nils Frahm.Specialties: Directing, Editing, Screenwriting
Experience- 1994 - PresentOwner, Director. / Reasonably Shorts
Producer of Music Video, Corporate Video, Radio & Television Promotional Content, Short Narrative Film, Screenwriting.
Post-Production a speciality
- 1994 - 2009Owner, Director. / Reasonably Shorts
Creative Director
- 2006 - 2008Producer/ Director/ Editor / Intermission Studio
As producer/editor at Intermission I produced & edited promo content for the station Channel 6.
I also produced & directed many corporate video's & advertisements as the in house Director.
Education-
1990 - 1994DLCAD Dun Laoghaire Collage of Art & DesignDiploma in Design Communication (Film & Animation)
- IADT Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & TechnologyB.A. Degree (Hons) in Filmmaking
- Nagle College
- Scoil Stiofan Naofa
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Interests:Film Rock
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Videos
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Posts
by James Random.
This guy has done a couple of posters for me in the past.
I like the cut of his jib me.
- Press
Nice to get a mention in the Harmlessnoise blog on entertainment.ie.
Good write up on the Large Mound project.
Can be read here.
EPK I made for Large Mound documenting the halfway point of their Another Year of Rock album project.
I may have been offline for quite some time and updates, tweets etc have been non existent, but that is not to say I haven’t been busy “behind the scenes”.
Above is a one sheet to help promote the film Back to Mine.
I took the photo’s one night at the phone box down the road.
I got funny looks as drunken locals passed by on their way home as I wiped fake blood off the telephone and my step daughter went through copious wet wipes to get her hand clean.
Quite a bit of subtle photoshop trickery was employed to piece together the perfect image from several “takes” - The most obvious being the removal of the Eircom logo and replaced with a “Dial 999” logo instead.
Some of you may remember the promotional image with a similar logline called Till The Night Closes In. Well this is the same project. Its just that the name has changed as the story was written & the original concept for when it was called Till The Night became null and void.
Photoshoppery was “done” by the photoshop guru amgd.net
There is also a basic website set up for the project.
Early days yet, but you know, this kind of stuff helps.
I also got some great tips & advice from someone I met on Twitter who does this kind of thing professionally.
It got the thumbs up from her, hope you like it too.
PS There is a reverse, I’ll post that some other time.
Why not me? Why not? A guy can get anything he wants as long as he pays the price. What’s wrong with that? Stranger things have happened.
Rupert PupkinSo I thought I’d share a great and simple method of achieving smooth slowmotion from HDV footage shot at 50 interlaced frames per second.
Shutter speed is important too. 120 is grand or else you get some serious flicker.
I was hoping to go the Cinema Tools route but 50i actually runs at 25 frames per second, just as interlaced fields not full frame.
So then I found JES Deinterlacer. Something I had a long time ago, but never really used it.
I was just going to convert 50i into 50p & then extend the clip by double, but with the JES app you can create whole frames from the separate fields individually thus doubling your frame count but not your frame rate and viola! 50% slowmotion without any frame blending or interpolation!
And best of all, it is smooooooth.
Goodbye Twixtor, Optical Flow and all those other million year render time hungry methods (not to mention digitally estimated & created artificial frames).
Can’t believe it was so easy.
Only way I’m doing slowmotion from now on.
Until of course I get my hands on a variable speed film camera.
Thats me tucked away on the bottom left & my Fig Rig.
Finally getting into working on this video for The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock.
Of course I’ve had my fair share of technical nightmares thus far. I just wouldn’t be me if I did.
Very rarely do I play it safe when I make a music video. Its always an excuse to experiment for me. And this one is no exception.
I’ve yet to get any actual editing done, I’m still on the assistant work stage. (Jesus, I’d kill for an assistant). A whole day spent troubleshooting a slowmotion workflow.
Think I’ve finally nailed it.
I’m sick to death of doing frame blending style slowmotion. Optical flow, digital inbetweens. Nothing ever looks as good as proper ramping slowmotion like I did in my first ever music video back in 1995. Which was shot on super 16mm using an old clockwork Bolex camera.
This video kinda harkens back to that but in the digital realm.
Including some stop motion sequences.
So I’ve shot at a high frame rate and messed about with the shutter speed & hopefully I can create a decent slowmotion without having to render anything for a million years.
Fingers crossed.
In the cinema the other day I asked the lady at the desk would they be showing Kung Fu Panda in 2D.
She said she doubted it as they would probably make more money from the 3D print.
(I went to see the disappointing Rio instead as it was in 2D. (I was with my kid))
Anyway, I beg to differ.
Adding this to “the list”.
Great premise for a documentary.
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.
- For 6
Been out of action for the last couple of days due to some awful gastro bug thing.
Not on.
Hard to be productive when you’re in bed asleep.
Had my first “meal” in two days about an hour ago. So far so good.
I’ve been living on 7up, need me something solid.
Course the wife thinks its great that I’ve lost a few pounds, but hay, there are better ways.
I tried tapping at the keyboard this afternoon, but nothin’ doin’
I think I wrote an entire sentence. And not a great one at that.
Hope to get my shit together before tomorrow.
No way am I missing Yo La Tengo in Dublin.
No idea why I’m even posting this blog post… good night internet.
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Kurt Vonnegut JrAnother great quote from the Joe Eszterhas book The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood.
It is as follows:
Give ‘em music lessons.
Screenwriter Nick Kazan: “The next time someone reads your script and either really hates something that you know works or makes cavalier and foolish suggestions… perhaps you should ask them: Did you ever hear a song for the first time and hate it and then two weeks later find yourself singing it?”
- Progress(ish)
Made some fairly decent ground today.
Wrote some jokes that had me hurting with laughter.
Not bragging, but damn they worked.
Just spending time fleshing out the characters before I delve into the Everest that is the plot.
I’m hoping to get a fairly decent package together in the next few weeks.
But making time for this showreel edit & music video project.
Enjoying myself for the first time in ages.
Of course it will be back to the fear & self-loathing again this time tomorrow.
Par for the course what?
- oh bla di, oh bla da
Breakthrough day in terms of the script.
I was told I sacrificed character for plot in the last script I wrote & today I spent a lot of time developing the characters for this new script.
Plot has always been my Achilles heel & spent a lot of time sweating over it in the last script. I guess I sacrificed character as a result. I didn’t let it bother me as I was writing a genre piece & didn’t think it mattered all that much. But as I wrote I took the characters a lot more seriously, but not enough perhaps.
It needs another pass, but I’m letting it stew for a bit before I broach that again.
So, having said that, I’m enjoying getting to know my characters today without even thinking of plot. Not yet anyway.
This is for a TV show where the characters are everything.
You have to love them.
You let yourself fall in love, even when you don’t plan to… thats when things become real and not just words on a screen.
And yes, it can break your heart.
Last film of Laurel & Hardy c.1956
This home movie was filmed in c. 1956 at the Reseda, California home of Stan Laurel’s daughter, Lois. It features Stan Laurel and his wife Ida Laurel, Oliver Hardy and his wife Virginia Jones, Andy Wade (who shot the film), Stan’s daughter Lois, her husband Rand Brooks and their children Randy and Laurie.
‘In 1956, Oliver Hardy lost more than 150 pounds, resulting in a complete change of his outward appearance. In September 1956, Oliver suffered a major stroke, which left him unable to speak and confined to bed for several months. At the beginning of August 1957, he had two more strokes and slipped into a coma from which he never recovered. He died on 7th August 1956.’
- Open CultureAmazing home movie footage of Laurel
Wow, Oliver is barely recognizable.
Took my camera up to Tara hill today.
A few good shots, not many. Too hungover really.
This is my boy, I snuck up on him from the other side of a wall.
Wish my old macbook was working properly, I’d love to take this into Aperture & play with it.
Bed early, busy day the morrow.
Good night internet.
Photo © Ian Lawton 2011
Cant help staring at Joel’s footwear during this.
Can’t see if Ethan is wearing the other one…
And seriously, they couldn’t spring for a couple of extra microphones?
Happy 100th Birthday Vincent Price.
To celebrate I’m watching one of my all time favorite films, the original & best adaption of I Am Legend. The magnificent The Last Man On Earth.
Watch it here if you like, but I’m turning off all the lights and watching it on DVD.
- All in a days work...
Had a bit of a breakthrough today both in the concept of the music video and in the TV show.
It was very kind that the songwriter confided in me as to what the hidden meaning in the song was and really inspired me to do it justice.
I’ve been experimenting with different techniques today in how I’m going to realize this video. Its a very low budget yet again, but the solid idea I have for its look coupled with this experimental technique that is yielding some interesting results thus far has me really looking forward to getting stuck in.
As for the TV show. After my chat the other day my head has been ripe with new ideas and excitement in how I should tackle this project. I still feel I need a writing partner for this one & I’m not going to let that need disuade me from pursuing it. I came up with a great plan of action today while working on the music video concept stuff.
All good.
A lot of stuff to get wrapped up before the weekend. In Dublin again tomorrow for more chin wagging.
Head down n’ stuck in next week. Big time.
Sometimes life is merely a matter of coffee and whatever intimacy a cup of coffee affords.
Richard BrautiganFound my old CD of Old Ramon. Its been on repeat play in the car for the past week.
Hadn’t listened to it in years. Like bumping into an old friend. Old Ramon.
I’ve a lot of time for David Fincher. He’s one of my favorite directors.
I’ve always enjoyed his use of technology as a tool, and how he does it so subtly yet it enters the public consciousness without them knowing.
How many adverts have echoed the effect first used in the opening titles of Panic Room?
I like the cut of his jib both artistically & professionally.
Having said that, I’ve yet to watch both The Social Network & Benny Button. (Despite them being the most played scores in my iTunes library)
- Touch Me I'm (Not) Sick
Intended to hit the ground running after yesterdays productive script meeting today but fate had other plans.
My wife & step-daughter both woke up extremely ill putting the kibosh on their plans for the day.
I was looking forward to the house to myself to get stuck into some decent work now that I’m newly energized from yesterdays meeting.
I ate in Dublin yesterday and escaped whatever upset their stomachs, as did my son who didn’t eat any dinner.
Having said that, the unscheduled daddy/son day was a blast and looks like the girls are on the mend. (I’d LOVE a day in bed too (would almost be worth getting sick for)).
In other news it looks like the video shoot has been put back till the 11th…
Was looking forward to shooting something. Even a music video. Just to clear my head from all this writing. Sure another fortnight’s not going to kill me.
Working on a showreel piece for a new business venture too.
All will be revealed soon.
- Pennies Dropped...
Spent the morning with a screenwriter acquaintance tearing apart the script for Back to Mine.
It was more or less a script editing consultation wrapped up in a meeting of two film geeks talking about films.
He’s a good guy and very generous with his time. A good man, and thorough.
It was brilliant just to be able to speak with another human being out loud about the script. Writing is such an enclosed hermit-like existence, so solitary that one can become tired of ones own opinion.
Even the act of talking out loud about the problems in the script, giant pennies dropped as I was talking and the problem was solved before I had finished the sentence.
Its great to be sparked off by another humans enthusiasm for your creative endeavor.
We took a break & he watched The Other Marty which he hadn’t seen yet. A great response. I should really make more of an effort with that project. After all the effort for finally getting it complete, I think it deserves an audience.
That is next on my agenda.
This has become a real “Dear Diary” post.
Ah sher.
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Albums
- 14 tracks
DownloadTHE OTHER MARTY COLLECTORS EDITION DIGITAL RELEASE MUSIC COMPOSED & PERFORMED BY THE VIDEO NASTY WITH EXCLUSIVE BONUS REMIXES BY CORRUGATED TUNNEL COLIN J MORRIS NEOSUPERVITAL LMD64 THE VIDEO NASTY Vs ANTHONY MACKEY SONGS BY LARGE MOUND This album is a free download to promote the short film The Other Marty Please visit www.theothermarty.com for more info. www.reasonablyshorts.com-
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Tweets
- RT @dvdrepairtips: The Video Editing Software Daily is out! http://t.co/l20K4ekMQO Stories via @rshorts
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CONTACT
- PHONE: 00353 86 3314093
- EMAIL: IAN at REASONABLYSHORTS dot COM
- SKYPE: REASONABLYSHORTS
- TWITTER: @RSHORTS
- ABOUT ME: IAN LAWTON
