ABOUT ME

I began my filmmaking journey by making short dramatic film sequences at around the age of 14, and was often inspired by the teen drama TV shows I'd be watching at the time. Exploring the various techniques that can be utilised to illicit certain emotions, especially from a technical standpoint, encouraged me to start being analytical and critical when watching film and TV, so I could start learning to better my own films.

"I want my films to be expressive, but formal"

This is something that I stand by. I have a strong respect for formal elements of film, and want my films to be watchable for a large, general audience, therefore I restrain myself from creating work that is too pure and experimental, as it may not be entertaining. I like to follow the basic rules of film but add my own creative flair in a subtle way so that my films are entertaining and familiar, while still delivering an artistic twist when I can. This is my primary motivation, to make entertaining content that's cinematic and unique in its own way.

Aged 16, I made my most expansive and realised piece yet, called 'Polars'. It explored mental illness in a modern, progressive format, that innovatively played with visual elements to convey the bipolar characters complex and magnified emotions. This involved using non- candid lighting techniques, using a wide angle lens to present the characters societal alienation, and overlapping, disorientating audio techniques. This film was a rewarding and educational experience for me, and was a vital accomplishment to help me start on my upcoming film, 'Nighthawk'.

Nighthawk is a psychological thriller that will look at an array techniques inspired by the likes of Stephen King, that will help convey the weird and new emotions one would feel after killing somebody. This film will see the protagonist descend down a path of chaos and violence, as the guilt starts to crush him and weighs on his conscience. It will be experimental, but will still conform to norms so that the content can be digested by a general audience.

I believe that this is the best, most pragmatic way of being artistic but successful in film, as everyone wants to have fun and make new and interesting work, but unfortunately certain film rules should be recognised so that everyone can enjoy the film, and then you can start to thread in your own auteur style and have fun with it.

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My interest in cinematography

My burning interest in cinematography over the past couple years of my filmmaking journey has critically influenced the way I watch and make film. Whenever I watch films, I’m always trying to figure out what lens is being used, the composition, and what lighting choices have been made to illicit a certain emotion and manipulate the audience in a specific way. While I do appreciate greatly all other elements of film as I understand how important each one is to make a finished piece, cinematography is the key to orientating the audience without them even knowing it if you’ve done it well. This is a great power to have, as other than poor quality sound, “poor cinematography” is what will result in audience members tuning out quickly. I use poor cinematography in quotations as I believe there can’t really be poor cinematography in terms of techniques used, but can have poor value if the techniques are not rendered effectively or in tune with the narrative, which would mean it adds nothing to the audiences understanding of the story. It is important to be able to understand the visual story a narrative is trying to tell in correlation with the storyline itself, as cinematography is an opportunity to add depth to your story and weave in all sorts of subtle nuances. 

In terms of cinematographers who influence me, I wouldn’t say there is one. I think it is rare for a cinematographer to have a consistent, iconic style which you can recognise in all their films, except for auteurs like Emmanuel Lubezki, which is because the type of cinematography you use on each project should adapt according to what the story is and should be solely focused on complementing the narrative, not about the individual cinematographer. I am more inspired by individual film looks themselves, with some of my favourites such as ‘The Social Network’ (2010) and ‘Moneyball’ (2011) both using perfect, soft lighting setups to make a clean and professional look, with other film looks I like utilising more experimental and aesthetic techniques such as ‘Mid90’s’ (2018) and ‘Good Time’ (2017). Different styles fit different projects, with the smooth and cinematic look of films like The Social Network in place due to the film following a true story, so the cinematography should be true to life, however, films like Good Time using obnoxiously bright neon lights contrasted with the grainy and grungy city to create the “heist movie on acid” look, as quoted by the directors. I try to absorb and understand the cinematography used in the variation of films I watch so when I make my own films, I always have ideas in the back of my mind as to how a scene could look, what works and what doesn’t, and what could fit the genre that I’m making. 

In some of my work showcased on the home page, my narratives tend to focus on volatile, ostracized and troubled individuals which is why through my cinematography I tend to alienate them from the audience, nearly always using an ultra- wide angled 16mm lens, still, static shots and often under exposed or silhouetted lighting. This is really to show how lost my characters are in their often very disturbing circumstances, and how they dwell in isolation as their problems are insignificant to the world. It has been said that this is my auteur style, but again, I was simply tuning the cinematography with the story I wrote, making it far more effective overall. To put it in to perspective, my music video, pockets, is loved by many even though the cinematography was very poor, with extremely grainy and flat footage. However, this was done on purpose as the song is about being a loser, so giving the video a home-made vibe connects the video to the music and the performance so much more, as it’s as if this character in the video can’t do anything right, not even get good footage as he drifts around town, even sitting on a swing like a child. The shots of his friends are often distorted or silhouetted as again, it’s like he doesn’t really have any friends, they’re just random bodies that he’s with that artificially fill in his loneliness. 

This proves my previous point that there is no such thing as bad cinematography, it’s just crucial that no matter what it fits with the story you want to tell. There is beauty and importance in all cinematography, so I try to be open minded and allow all films to inspire me in some way or another as it will inevitably help my understanding and will help me to create strong and supportive cinematography in future.