I didn’t land in this world of filmmaking the conventional way...if there is such a thing these days.

I studied Biology in London and became an environmental consultant. I still love biology and environmental science but quickly got jaded in this job, writing environmental reports for corporations for whom embellishing their stakeholders’ newsletter was seemingly the only reason for their paper-thin veneer of environmental stewardship.

Outside of my job I spent every waking hour climbing, skiing, cycling, cradling my well-loved Nikon F3, and familiarizing myself with what was then a ‘new-fangled mini DV camera’.  My nerdy friend Kevin had what was known as a ‘firewire 400’ connection on his computer. It sounds quick, right? It wasn’t, yet I was smitten. I spent afternoons at his flat in west London editing clunky videos about my climbing trips in far off lands. Looking back at those blurry, interlaced videos, the only thing that still holds up is the music. I’m still a sucker for french hip hop.

I left the world of consultancy after a couple of years. I blame the success of a 2 minute mockumentary about 'buildering' I made as part of a BBC sponsored short film competition. While I dreamed up my next adventure filmmaking plan I split my time between mountain guiding, shooting early-era outdoor brand videos, and carpentry work, mostly at friends’ houses who took pity on my 'dirtbag adjacent' lifestyle. 

With the help of a British TV producer I did dream up an adventure that, as cliché as it may sound, kickstarted the rest of my life. Step one involved me remortgaging my little house (allegedly for the purposes of a loft conversion). Step two - I bought a tandem bicycle and a plane ticket to Prudhoe Bay Alaska. Step three? I set out alone with an empty back seat and 120 lbs of equipment to try and ride to the southerly tip of Argentina inviting random strangers onto the back seat to join me. The journey took me 2 years and landed me with hundreds of new friends and about the same number of hours of video footage. All that fiddling with early-era DV cameras paid off. A year after I’d finished the journey I was beginning to lose hope of ever making a film about this journey. Then, as if by magic, a gap appeared in ITV’s Tour de France TV programming...3 weeks of manic editing at long-since disbanded Ginger TV saw the completion of the award-winning documentary ‘Take a seat’. More important than any awards the film garnered was the confidence - or foolishness - it instilled in me to call myself a filmmaker. It also taught me that I prize intimacy above all else in the filmmaking process. These days I exist only behind the camera interacting as a DoP or director, with those that have a story to tell. If I have a choice I like to get close to the subject. If I’m close enough to really feel the experience, there’s a good chance that I can capture that feeling through the lens.