Ryan Connolly (presenter)

Ryan Connolly

Ryan Connolly, From Film Riot, Sep 2013
Nationality American
Alma mater Full Sail University
Occupation Writer, director, and presenter
Known for Film Riot
Parent(s)
  • Judith Connolly Sr.
  • Timothy Connolly Sr.
Relatives
  • Josh Connolly (brother)
  • Tim Connolly (brother)
  • Emily Connolly (sister)
  • Ondrea Connolly
Website
Official website

Ryan Connolly is a writer, director, and presenter best known for his internet television shows Film Riot and Film State.[1][2] He works with his brother, Josh Connolly, and with Bruno Vieira, Arris Quinones and Todd Bruno. His show Film Riot is a collection of YouTube videos about filmmaking techniques and has just under 634,000 subscribers as of March, 2015, and is affiliated with Revision3.

Early life

Connolly attended Full Sail University's film program, where he met many of his future collaborators.[3] After graduating from his course, Connolly was employed to produce advertisements and product videos for companies including Dell and Alienware. He also founded Triune Films, a production company under which he became involved with multiple film projects. Through his work with other production companies, he became friends with Eric Kessler, who lends equipment to Connolly for use and review, and for whom Connolly presents Pimp Your Productions.

Film Riot

Connolly was first noticed by Revision3 when he began making Making the Film, a YouTube show documenting the process of producing a movie. They approached him, and pitched the idea of a higher-budget version of the same premise. Connolly signed up to their team, and began producing Film Riot. The first episode was released on May 27, 2009, and made available on both the Revision3 website and the Film Riot YouTube channel.

Structure

The content of the show is geared towards low budget filmmakers, with sections explaining how popular effects can be achieved on a low budget. Episodes usually begin with a short sketch, sometimes making up part of an ongoing serial across multiple weeks. Connolly then describes how the sketch was produced, focusing on one or two specific elements of the production. This may be part of preproduction, filming, or post production. Footage filming behind the scenes of the sketch is shown, along with screen captures of Connolly compositing, editing, or processing the footage to produce the desired outcome. Connolly narrates throughout this, describing his method, and alternative methods for viewers with different equipment or software. The subject of the episode is usually the result of a viewer request, sent via email, Twitter, or Facebook. As such, the content of some episodes changes between weeks, and little information is given about upcoming features.

In some episodes, Connolly reviews equipment or software. His choice of items to review generally reflects the audience of Film Riot, being aimed at low budget filmmakers. Equipment Connolly purchases for use in Film Riot is also subject of many of his reviews, as is hardware he is loaned or rented for other projects. Some of this equipment is beyond the price range of his viewers; he notably reviewed the RED Epic camera used to film Losses. Early tutorials on effects and editing featured Connolly's editing suite of choice at the time, Final Cut Pro. After releasing an unfavorable review of Final Cut Pro X, the newest version of the editor, Connolly switched to using the Adobe Creative Suite. He regularly includes reviews of plugins for this software in episodes, as and when they are used in tutorials.

Film Riot Mondays

In the early years of Film Riot, Connolly began uploading episodes of Film State to the Film Riot YouTube channel. Later Film State became a separate entity, and Film Riot Mondays was introduced. Episodes are shorter, less resource-heavy, and take less time to produce than their standard Film Riot counterparts. The first episode was made available on July 5, 2011.[4] The majority of these episodes consists of fixed camera footage filmed in a physical studio, rather than the chroma-keyed studio used for Film Riot. This speeds up production, and significantly reduces post production effects work.

A prominent feature of Film Riot Mondays episodes is "Ryan's Mail Sack", where Connolly answers a range of short questions about the content of Film Riot, films, or general subjects. These questions are submitted by viewers, and Connolly selects ones that fit a similar theme.

Other series

Film State

Connolly presents Film State, an industry news and review programme created by his brother Josh. The show follows a weekly format, and was launched in March 2011 by Revision3. Alongside news and rumors regarding the film industry, Film State reviews trailers for upcoming films and those being released on DVD and Blu-ray.[5] To celebrate the 85th Academy Awards Film State held their own awards ceremony. Fellow internet celebrities announced the winners of each award, who were chosen through a public vote.[6] In December 2013, Connolly announced that Film State would be put on an indefinite hiatus due to other commitments. A farewell episode was broadcast on December 31, 2013.[7]

Pimp Your Production

Pimp Your Production, an internet series created/ produced by Eric Kessler, is also hosted by Connolly. Similar to Film Riot, the program focusses on more professional filming techniques, and therefore utilises more expensive equipment and techniques. The show follows a much more sporadic release schedule, with a total of 8 episodes being released since its launch in April 2011.[8] Connolly features some of the effects shown in Pimp Your Production episodes on Film Riot, where he explains alternative, cheaper techniques that can be used to achieve a similar outcome.[9]

Short films

Connolly runs Triune Films, an independent production company. Through it , he has released three short films.

Tell

Tell is a 2012 psychological horror film written, directed, and edited by Connolly. It is loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story "The Tell-Tale Heart".[10] The production of the film was the subject of many episodes of Film Riot, and many of the Film Riot crew also worked on Tell. Compared to Connolly's earlier work, Tell took a longer period of time to write and produce. It is significantly longer than his earlier shorts, and required 8 days to film.

References

  1. ↑ Royal Palm Beach filmmaker and YouTube star builds his career far from spotlight, by Staci Sturrock, in the Palm Beach Post; published October 11, 2011; retrieved March 17, 2015
  2. ↑ What Do You Do When Your Funding Falls Through? PROXiMITY, by Michael Murie, at Filmmaker; published December 5, 2013; retrieved March 17, 2015
  3. ↑ "Hosts > Ryan Connolly". Revision3. Retrieved 2013-04-08.
  4. ↑ "Surround Sound in Film!". Film Riot. Episode 108. 2011-07-05. Revision3. Retrieved 2013-03-20.
  5. ↑ Josh Connolly (2011-03-15). "The Premiere of Film State". Film State. Revision3.
  6. ↑ Josh Connolly (2013-02-24). "Film State Awards! - 2013". Film State. Revision3.
  7. ↑ "film states farewell". Film State. 2013-12-31. Revision3.
  8. ↑ "Pimp Your Production". Kessler U. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
  9. ↑ Ryan Connolly (2013-05-02). "how to Freeze Time Cheaply!". Film Riot. Revision3.
  10. ↑ Connolly, Ryan. "About TELL". Triune Films. Retrieved May 26, 2012.

External links