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About me
I'm an independent filmmaker, based in Bristol, UK, with a showreel that includes quirky comedy shorts, naturist documentaries, a multi-format music video, and some animated mayhem. My most recent project is the silent comedy short Molybdenum Mystery.
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It all started in 2000 when I took a foundation course in feature filmmaking at Panico Studios, London, taught chiefly by former members of the Monty Python crew. A year later I purchased my first digital camcorder and soon began making videos for charities and artists. In 2005 I made my first fiction movie, a short black and white silent comedy. The chance gift of a small plastic toy mouse made me venture into stop-frame animation. My short film Clockwork Mouse meets Robot 7, that I made entirely by myself on Super 8 for about £50, screened in four different countries and scooped an audience award at Szeged Super 8 Film Festival 2009. |
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Over the past decade, many independent filmmakers have switched from ciné film to digital formats. In blissful ignorance of this trend, I turned the other way. While my first movies were made digitally, I was always keen to take up the challenge of using more traditional film technology. I quickly established myself within the Super 8 filmmaking community. In 2010 I was a member of the jury at Cambridge Super 8 Film Festival. In recent years I began to combine my passion for filmmaking with my naturist lifestyle. Since 2009 I co-ordinate the then newly launched British Naturism Media/Filmmaking Group that has so far made two short documentaries, both shot by myself on Super 8. I also covered the Bristol World Naked Bike Ride 2011 on ciné film.
For more information on my filmmaking see: |
Photo by Paddy Uglow |
Like many other independent filmmakers, I have found that 'making films' and 'making a living' tend to be two very different concepts. Hence why, over more than seven years, I have sustained myself with a day-time job in financial administration at the University of Bristol, most recently within their Faculty of Arts. In defiance to my Monty Python upbringing, I have recently started to study for a formal accounting qualification with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Much of what I do is informed by my Quaker spirituality. Having been brought up Roman Catholic, I converted to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) at the age of 20. For a short while, I drifted away from Quakers, feeling drawn towards existentialist atheism and, later, Buddhism. Around 1997/98 the emerging Experiment with Light movement played a significant part in making me return to Quakers. In 2004 I set up the website for Experiment with Light which I maintain ever since.
Photo by Hannah Sampson |
On the academic front, I hold an MA degree in Political Science from the University of Heidelberg and a research MPhil degree in Quaker Studies from the University of Sunderland. I also researched and wrote a book about the history of Chelsea Methodist Church that was published in 2003 under the title A Ministry of Open Doors - Chelsea Methodist Church since 1903. I always like to expand my creativity. In recent years I took up stills photography and resumed my long-abandoned practice of playing classical guitar. Both these activities have already been fruitful for my filmmaking, in the form of production stills and original guitar scores for several of my short films. Other than this, I'm also a keen reader of literature, especially de Beauvoir, Camus, and Zola. One of my ambitions in life is to get through Zola's entire Rougon-Macquart cycle in the original French (I've accomplished 9 books so far, another 11 to go). |
This page was last updated on 27 December 2011