After being banned from the piano in primary school, I sneaked on it and learned how to play by ear. From the age of 5 or 6 I was always obsessed with music, film, art... anything, really! Even old cigarette adverts were creative genius!

Pointing cameras at things began with puppets, with my brother and I being silly using our grandad’s state of the art VHS camera. After a few years of borrowing that, our dad bought a HI-8 camera, similar in picture, smaller in size. We filmed everything, including a rock band I was part of as a drummer; family events; the usual stuff, but we always wanted to make it some sort of ‘show’.

Inspired by James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ and his previous films, I decided as a teenager it was about time to tackle my own feature. The script was diabolical, the weather was too cold (like the water in Titanic!) and editing with two VCR’s that never hit the mark was practically impossible. We gave up, time passed, technology improved, and we focused on music.

I learned photography to film my own self-portraits. Yep, I guess you could say I share some of Ed Wood’s interests, although I'm not so much into wool. I also had to film my own music videos. DV cameras and DSLR’s came along, computers edited videos, so it was time to tackle features again, starting with ‘The Granary’, and then ‘The Bastard Sword’ and so on, as listed here.

The desire to make movies has always been coupled with a desire to write music for film. I figured nobody would ever hire me to score a movie, so if I made the movie then at least I could do it however I want. This has become part of my process now, which I love because it affects the way I edit and hold shots – knowing the music in my mind as a moment is drawn out for the melodies to take place. Instead of the usual system of bouncing off separate departments, both the edit AND the music are integrated from birth within the same kernel. This process has enabled me to achieve a higher level of cinematic intimacy during moments which may otherwise have been cut short and lost.

My films and their music have won several awards for which I am very grateful, combined with the fact that I have never so far ever had a budget. The average feature has cost my pocket around a few hundred pounds. Hopefully someone will see the potential and invest in some of the many, larger stories untold, so that I can unlock my fuller potential as a film-maker!

Whatever happens, I still believe you can tell a good story without much money. The definition of art – in my opinion – is to express one’s self through a LIMITED means. By having infinite money, one has virtual unlimited means, and the collaboration of mean-average opinions becomes tailored to the masses in order to only make more money. At that point, it ceases to become ‘art’. That is something that could never bring me creative joy.

Thank you for taking the time to read my biography!