Turning fifty in 2022, I realised I was going to be the same age as Harrison Ford was when he played Dr Richard Kimble in the 1993 thriller The Fugitive. This was a film that I became synonymous with to my friends and colleagues for my Harrison Ford impersonation in the famous interrogation scene.
...So I just had to do one final glorious impression!
Colour ⁄ 4k ⁄ 16:9 ⁄ Duration 4” ⁄ 2022
The nations film students were invited to produce a 15 second film sting with the theme of Movies and Mobiles to be shown at the beginning of each screening at the film festival. The film had to communicate the message ‘Please turn off your mobile phone’. It had to be original, innovative and entertaining. I decided to recreate the opening of one of my favorite childhood films.
Although we did not win, the sting was screened in cinemas during the film festival run and across the country
Colour ⁄ Super 16mm ⁄ 16:9 ⁄ Duration 30” ⁄ 2003
Two IRA assassins hold out in a graveyard waiting for their target to emerge when an innocent young boy appears, stirring the their emotions in very different ways.
This was our first proper filming exercise at the NFTS where we had to interpret a scene from an unknown film.
Colour ⁄ Digi-Beta ⁄ 16:9 ⁄ Duration 4’30” ⁄ 2002
Marcus is continually abused by his boss but this morning he has had enough. Finally he sees the light and dares to give up his material life in the city for the spiritual freedom of the countryside.
This short was a symbolic interpretation of the renewed freedom and identity I felt, having fled into the Devonshire countryside from a particularly bad experience working on a film called Esther Khan. It was shot on a SONY digital 8 camera and edited on my new iMac DV SE using the very first version of i-movie and cut to an instrumental track from a friend's band.
Colour ⁄ Digital 8 ⁄ 4:3 ⁄ Duration 4’00” ⁄ 2000
This is a trailer for the feature film adaptation of the Scottish legend William Wallace, not to be confused with the much over-rated and inferior Hollywood multi-oscar winning version directed and starring the Australian/Scottish actor Mel Gibson.
Shot on location in Newcastle and Bournemouth, starring Kent based method actor Del Gibson, Braveliver is a historically accurate social drama about a man passion for alcohol and independent drinking.
Colour ⁄ Hi 8 ⁄ 4:3 ⁄ Duration 3”00’ ⁄ 1996
This was a competition to re-enact scenes from Star Wars and for me to express independent filmmakers struggle against the Hollywood system. The 'force' became the 'Lucas' and the 'Empire' became 'Hollywood'. The entry was successfully published in Computer Video Games magazine in 1993, but the prize (a tour around Skywalker Ranch) fell through.
In 1997 Rick McCallum, the Producer of the prequels saw the film and told me I could go to Skywalker Ranch anytime. In March 2005, I finally got the tour. We continued our homage producing a 10th anniversary special edition, re-mastering the original video 8 footage and adding digital effects. The film now has over half a million views on YouTube.
Colour ⁄ Video 8 ⁄ 4:3 (1.85:1 Masked) ⁄ Duration 13”00’ ⁄ 1993
Adapted from his short story, this psychological horror about a man's obsession with fear fascinated me. I shot the film in black and white to hide my poor lighting skills, using derelict buildings as locations that had little or no electricity. As the film was mostly set at night I had to use a portable generator at the expense of the sound. Despite this I managed to create some genuinely dramatic scenes, creating a film noir look by using hard light with the grainy desaturated image of video 8.
Unfortunately due to moving north to go to college, I was unable to complete the film, only ever being able to offer a trailer and some edited scenes. In 2009 I was disappointed to see an appalling film adaptation. I would have loved to have made a version closer to the graphic novel and set in the UK.
B&W / Video 8 / 4:3 / Duration 35'00" / 1991
The race is on! Captain Kirk and his familiar crew are on the hunt for 50 kilos of Klingon narcotics, stolen by two rouge crew members of the Enterprise. Following them back to the planet Goofy, Kirk and Spock attempt to confiscate the narcotics before the Klingons find them, knowing that if they can hand the drugs over to the Federation, Kirk will be promoted to Supreme Intelligence Commander.
With sharp witted comedy dialogue supplied by Tom, this was our first watchable film. Don't forget to watch our outtakes reel for some Late 80's nostalgia.
Colour ⁄ Video 8 ⁄ 4:3 (masked to 1:85:1) ⁄ Duration 35”00’ ⁄ 1990
An American / Australian family living in a suburb of Los Angeles, New South Wales, suddenly find their lives threatened when THE SLAYER arrives....
Struggling to keep his Australian cousins entertained over the summer holidays, Tom called me up one morning and asked me to bring round my camcorder. By the end of the day we had made this surprisingly humorous and completely improvised slasher ⁄ death metal short.
Colour ⁄ Video 8 ⁄ 4:3 ⁄ Duration 11”00’ ⁄ 1990
Corporal Hicks and Ripley wake to recieve a distress signal from a small space-pod, but as the two lost marines board, the ship is drawn towards a black hole and they are forced to crash land on a seemingly deserted colonised planet.
As the crew rush to repair the ship, Ripley mysteriously disappears and it is soon clear the Aliens have taken her. Hicks deploys a desperate rescue mission only to see it go horribly wrong. Armed with a flame thrower and explosives, he takes his revenge on the alien nest, before escaping the planet alone.
Colour ⁄ VHS, VHSC, Video 8, Super 8 ⁄ 4:3 ⁄ Duration 30”00’ ⁄ 1989
Teenage buddies, Steve Stratus and Murray Mandate are suffering the most horrific dreams. Realising Freddy Kruger is trying to murder them in their nightmares; they go to his grave on a deserted quarry to find it empty. The only way to destroy him now is a bucket of holy water.
Another spoof mocking the Nightmare on Elm Street films, shot in a day with a rented VHS camera from Visionhire. Like our first spoof, we accidentally recorded over the last fifteen seconds of many shots and nearly had nothing to edit with. Fortunately we had the opportunity to shoot some 'pick-ups' a few months later, when Tom hired the camera out again for personal use.
Colour ⁄ VHS ⁄ 4:3 ⁄ Duration 15”00’ ⁄ 1988
When Captain Kirk is murdered by the Klingons, the crew of the Starship Enterprise rush to the planet Goofy to find some 'Oofle', an illegal drug that can bring their captain back to life. But can they smuggle it through intergalactic space customs?
An appalling spoof of the original TV series shot in one day on a hired VHS camera. The story makes absolutely no sense partly due to our terrible writing skills and partly because the VHS camera wound back 15 seconds every time you stopped recording, erasing the last fifteen seconds of what you had previously shot.
Colour ⁄ VHS ⁄ 4:3 ⁄ Duration 20”00’ ⁄ 1988