Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire
On Show 2020
Adam O’Dwyer

I’m an editing major with experience in funded short films and corporates. Over the past few years I’ve been honing my skills as a storyteller while using Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro. I’m highly proficient in post-production workflows in an assisting and HOD capacity. In my 4th year I worked on several projects as editor, two of which were graduate films. Included in this showcase are photos of my work, a trailer for Sisters, my resume and showreel.

Grad Project 1: ‘Sisters’: In 1970s Ireland, teenager Meabh does whatever it takes to shelter her younger sisters from the harsh reality of their Catholic children’s home. I thoroughly enjoyed editing Sisters. It’s full of heart and drama. The pieces really fell together after a few months of moving scenes around and finding its voice. It’s a story that Ireland is not finished telling.

Grad Project 2: ‘To All My Darlings’: Adaeze and Nonso, after a recent miscarriage, have to deal with the trauma and stigma within their Nigerian-Irish community. This was my most difficult edit all year. Not only under lockdown circumstances but also in threading such a delicate story through powerful imagery. My goal during the edit was authenticity and keeping narrative focus on Adaeze.

My research into my dissertation contributed massively to how I approach sequences. I studied parallel editing/cross-cutting and its uses in film. Interrogating the experiments of early filmmakers added to my editing of the grad films. While I didn’t cross-cut in any of the final picture lock sequences, the affects of time manipulation bled into my work. Experiments by the early masters inspired the way I looked at developing performances. For example, inference through juxtaposition or subtext was one of Sergei Eisenstein’s crowing achievements in montage. My goal moving forward is to gain employment in a post-production facility as an assistant and gain mentorship in order to advance my storytelling skills.