What drives and inspires your work? An exploration of beauty in its multiple forms and a desire to project visceral experiences to my audience. Those are the key elements that inspire me and I try to maintain throughout my work. Though the level of exploration varies massively depending on the nature of the film and client. Can’t have people fucking in the Sombrero Galaxy for a Banana Republic ad… Is that sometimes a struggle between your own artists and professional vision and the idea that the client may want as well? Constantly. In the end you have to make a decision whether to make an honest living from your craft or only create for arts sake.
Why do you enjoy the medium of film and your focus on using dreams/nightmares/ fantasy elements in your art? For me film is the ultimate. I love music/sound and photography though the marriage of these has the ability to spark something next level. Tarkovsky and Kubrick are examples of almost mystic creative mastery. They have the ability to make films that can compel and haunt over an entire lifetime. Sometimes I have such intense dreams that make no sense in the realm of our conscious reality though feel completely logical within the dream. This and the existential fascinate me. I feel that dreams are still a completely unknown entity. Skeptics may explain these visions purely as the brain processing imagery though I don’t buy this. I believe that as humans we are still in such a naive stage and that in the future we will discover multiple planes and levels of perception. I believe dreams will then be of a far greater significance. “Nightmares” and “fantasy” I’m particularly drawn to. Whether pure horror or sexual desire these are for me the most exciting areas of the subconscious. Do you keep a pen and paper or Dictaphone by your bedside then to make sure you note down your dreams when something truly fascinating has happened in a dream? I wish I did. It’s an ideal that everyone should do. No one does.
Where do you generate your ideas from? Ideas come constantly, could be anywhere. I jot them down on my Iphone notes then write them up at my studio or at home. 10 Issue 6 www.NoctisMag.com
Do you have a place you like to wander or a corner of your home where you mull and muse over things? Getting out of London always helps. The Seaside. Kayaking. Whilst running. I’ve recently developed a habit of picking up old photographs at boot fairs. I find it fascinating to look at intimate photos of people who are dead and gone with whom I have no connection whatsoever. Picturing who they were and what this precise moment in time meant to them has given me some vivid “daydreams”. How does your creative process work? Do you storyboard, draw or dictate?
I’m very visual in my approach. Whilst an idea is forming I will scan pages from books, tear apart magazines and trawl the Internet looking for imagery. These images are accompanied by a brief synopsis that I then develop. Music videos are notoriously quick turnaround which will sometimes only allow a matter of hours to churn out a video treatment, whereas personal projects can grow more organically over months or even years as is the case with a script that I’m currently working on for my first short. Without wishing to give too much away (spoilers!) would you like to tell us about your film idea a little?
It’s premise is extreme heightened states of consciousness that as human beings we all occasionally encounter. Moments from the intimate to the epic. Raw. Unsettling. Ultimately, I hope, Inspiring. On a more practical note, what bits of kit could you simply not do without when making films or do you have a lucky charm maybe?
My Duffy ring seems to be standing me in good stead. And finally what tips do you have for any aspiring film-makers reading this?
Work harder than anybody else. When I was younger I thought I was talented and I was impatient. I wanted everything now. I’ve learnt that most talent is acquired through dedication and hard work and not god given. I’m a million miles from where I want to be in my career and I’m cool with that. It takes time. Words Greg Swaby