Today I applied for some cool jobs, filled out lots of forms to claim back all the tax I payed in NYC, ordered business cards (for real), and went about collecting all the videos I’ve made over the past few years; a portfolio if you will.

I would have just uploaded them all to this blog, but if I ever need to show anyone my videos for work, I’d prefer them not to see the bullshit I put up here. However I did feel bad about leaving you (singular) out of the loop, so here’s the link.

So from now on, I vow not let a day go buy without doing some sort of ‘creative work’. I feel like I’m doing alright so far. I had the good fortune of having to churn out a lot of creative projects in college, but I can’t lose this advantage.

I’m back in Dublin now, and tomorrow I start a new internship, but if you want to do something with me in our spare time; a video, a script, a podcast or a painting, and you feel we have similar taste, let me know. Because something I’ve learned, independent of Ira Glass, is that it’s a lot easier to motivate each other as part of a group, than to do it alone.

I love Jay-Z jokes.

Here’s one more :

“If you like it then you shudda put a baby in it.” – Author unknown (possibly Chris Rock)

Screen shot from the documentary

As part of our degree in DCU, we are required to do a major project towards the end, fondly referred to as your thesis. Thankfully in our course, the option to do a ‘production thesis’ is made available to us, so Jane, Shauna and I decided to undertake a 20 minutes video. In the end we decided to shoot a documentary about my little brother Ciarán.

Ciarán is 12 years old and has a mental disability which means he cannot speak or communicate with us effectively. He is very mobile and loves physical activity, in particular, wresting with his brothers. He attends St Michael’s House Special National School in Baldoyle, where he gets looked after so well by the staff.

Our video was a 20 min long documentary about Ciarán’s life, his day-to-day routine and how he affects those around him. The documentary is a mix between key interviews with those closest to Ciarán, and lovely footage of Ciaran at home, at school and out and about (he’s very photogenic).

The documentary was awarded a first class honours, and has been very well recieved by those who watch it.

Due to the personal and sensitive nature of the documentary, we’re not making it publicly available online, but if you are interested in seeing it, please let me know as we have uploaded the video under tight privacy settings and we’d like to make it available to anyone genuinely interested in watching it.

So I like to think of myself of a budding video producer. A very vague term that could mean I’d like to work in either film or television, writing, directing, editing or whatever else.

So with the free time that I have, I’ve decided to do what I should have done a long time ago and collect all the videos I’ve ever been a part of, and make them presentable in one place, together at last.

Uploading video is tedious. I’m writing this from a Starbucks in Queens, because their upload speeds are 5 times faster than the connection we have at the apartment. I’ve been here for about an hour and a half and I’m still only on 22%. There’s a cinema across the road and, I’m tempted to just leave this video here uploading and going to watch a movie, but that’s probably a bad idea.

The video I’m uploading is the video that I made along with two friends for our thesis project in DCU. It’s a 21 minute long documentary about my little brother Ciarán. It won’t be made publicly available, because the internet is weird and there’s some pretty intimate bits in it, but if you’d like to watch it, get in touch and I can sort you out with the vimeo permission and all. Especially if you’re an employer or someone in a position to help me out, because it really is the best thing I’ve done. We got a freakishly high grade for it too.

So yeah, keep an eye out for that.

I’m going to New York on Thursday, where I won’t know many people.

Okay I’ll know a few, but there’s like 8 million people in New York and I’ll know less than 10, so this gives me a great opportunity to re-invent myself. Not that I’m unhappy with who I am but it might be cool to, I dunno, be the type of guy who wears a bandana or something.

I’ve done it before. In school I was the quiet, moody and sometimes bitter guy, but by the time I got to college I was the outgoing, annoying, friendly guy. There wasn’t many people from my school to pick me up on my sudden shift in personality traits.

And it worked. I loved the new me, and other people did too, and I made lots of friends and have had the best few years. But I feel like I haven’t changed costume in three years, because a changing room wasn’t made available to me.

But now I have an 8 hour flight to America. Who should I be?

I came across this mysapce page about a year ago and lol-ed, before instantly forgetting it and moving onto the next internet funny thing. But I remembered it recently and had to find it.

It’s inspired.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Songs About RTÉ Newscasters.

I think the fact that they haven’t done Anne Doyle is my favourite part.

If you’ve met me at all over the last 8 months, you’ll know that this year, I have been the chairperson of the DCU Media Production Society. It has consumed me, and I’ve loved every minute of it.
The cherry on top is that MPS was crowned Best Society in DCU, and most recently, Best Society at the BICS National Society Awards.
A nice finish to a wonderful year with some amazing people.