I've been playing Guitar for 20 years... yet have hardly improved. I've been trying to master Stairway for 15 of those years and it still sounds like the worst busker you've ever heard... Jimmy Page has NOTHING to worry about!
Still I love playing and try to write the odd song... ("odd" being the operative word most of the time)... and if I've had enough beer I'll even get it (the guitar) out at a party... Check out my Media Gallery for some videos of me playing and singing!
I have experience of working in both television production and post as a runner and researcher, but it has been in my spare time that I have developed basic film-making skills. I bought myself (well Mum and Dad loaned me the money to buy) a Sony Handicam about 3 years ago and started taking with me everywhere... My best mate Tom was in band called Mohair and I used to jump in the van with them and tour the country getting drunk and filming their gigs... Around this time I also got myself a copy of Avid Express and started to teach myself to edit...
Over the last few years I've made a bunch of mini-documentaries centered around holidays, parties and my (former) habit of streaking in public... mmm...
As well as pratting around shooting and cutting my sordid social-life, I'm proud to have completed a couple of proper(ish) music videos for independant artists like the rapper Micah Lei and me ol' muckers Mohair. Neither are going to put Michel Gondry or Johnathan Glazer out of business, but I was pretty pleased with my efforts... Check out my Media to see the results!
About 3 years ago I actually got paid good money to direct and produce a DVD user-guide for a range of home DJ consoles. They were a bit poo, but I think I made a reasonable job on a limited budget and managed to put the whole thing together; finding the presenter, camerman and crew; directing the action on the day; making sure the Client's brief was met and finally editing the whole thing.
It was around this time the idea for WT began to take hold, so I never took my film-making aspirations further... but I hope to one day!
I haven't done anything for years, but back in the day I used to be a bit of a performer... with a particular focus on musical theatre and opera... but also did a bit of telly like Grange Hill and a dodgy early 90's ITV soft-porn drama about a female football coach called The Manageress... (For you "Fact Fans" out there: it starred Cheri Lunghi, the chick from the equally soft-porn and incredibly smug Nescafe ads from the 80's....). I was a "second fan's son"... Never DID find out why I wasn't nominated for that BAFTA....
.... Anyway I digress. What I'm saying is that by nature and nurture I am a bit of a show-off. Don't know whether I'll tread the boards again, but I'll never forget that feeling of walking on stage right, feeling the heat from the lights, turning to the blackness where the audience are and bursting into heartfelt song... Sends a shiver up my spine thinking about it...
My commitment to the WT project over the last couple of years has been somewhat of an obstacle to my development as a film-maker and I suspect that maybe the case for somewhile yet... but the passion in me still burns to be involved in every stage of the creative process by taking a film from script to premiere... even if it's just in one cinema. The Rex Cinema in Berkhamstead ideally... I love that place!
