Project Description

Name: Tom Ryan
Job title: Writer/ Director

What inspired you to go work in the Film Industry in Ireland?
All my life I’ve loved movies, particularly going to the cinema. The cinema has always been a second home for me. When I was younger I used to make short films with my friends on the weekends and that hobby quickly turned into a career before I knew it. Ireland is a great place to make movies.
All of the filmmaking courses in colleges around the country are so worthwhile and we’re lucky to have so many options to study film here in such a small island. Everyone here is so supportive of the arts and it’s such a nice community over here. I’m very lucky to be a part of the Irish Film Industry.

What has been your career path to date?
After college I moved to New York and got work as a camera assistant on movies such as ‘Dark Horse’ by Todd Solondz and ‘Shame’ by Steve McQueen. That led me to London where I worked on a few TV shows and commercials in the camera department and then back to Ireland where I worked briefly on ‘The Savage Eye’ and Vikings’.
At 25 I thought I take the leap and produce ‘Trampoline’ my first feature film as a writer/director. I was very fortunate that the movie took off and was recently picked up by US distributors. It is now available to stream online at seedandspark.com and indieflix.com. You can also purchase the DVD at trampolinemovie.com.

Who inspires you?
Lots of filmmakers inspire me. There are so many to mention but Sam Raimi would be a huge influence on me. I’ll always remember seeing Evil Dead for the first time. It opened my eyes to Indie movies and showed me that you don’t need to have a budget of hundereds of millions to make a movie. That was a huge moment of realisation for me as a teenager.

What does Copyright mean to you and your career?
Copyright law is very important. It’s only something that came to my attention after making ‘Trampoline’. It was a big learning curve for me and it’s very important to have ownership over something you worked so hard on. Going forward with future projects I’ll always choose with companies I can trust, copyright is such an important area for filmmakers.

Tell us a funny work story…..
When I got work on Shame I had no idea what the film was about prior to filming. As a camera intern I wasn’t privy to the script or anything like that and I didn’t want to annoy the crew by asking too many questions. I called my parents to tell them about my new job and told them to make sure to keep an eye out for the movie when it was released. After the first few hours on set it became very clear to me that the film wouldn’t by my parents cup of tea. That fact became painfully more and more obvious as the shoot continued so I made sure never to mention the movie to the family again after that.

What’s your favourite film?
Back to the Future would be my all time favourite film. It’s timeless and everytime I watch it I pick up on something new. It’s one of the most imaginative, creative and charming films I’ve ever seen and it’s never lost it’s effect on me as the years went by. It’s also very inspirational. I’d love to make something that inventive at some stage in my career.

Tom Ryan
www.trampolinemovie.com
+353 87 7608751