Early Works (2003 - 2009)
Technically I started making films in 2003 and they contributed greatly to the progression and evolution of my later work. I wanted a personal, comprehensive and in-depth look at how I've crafted the videos and films, honed my style, what I've enjoyed (and not), my honest approach to this industry, my misgivings, my own personal development and where I see myself going after this chapter is effectively closed. As I've always said, how do you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been? Or some shit. It starts with a film called ROYAL FLUSH made as a 17 year old at High School.
Even before I started on the Advanced Higher Media Studies the draw to that department was the opportunity to film things. Starting with VHS then moving onto Mini-DV, documenting school events and finally writing scripts to produce. Other that giving me the opportunity to study Art for 6 years, school gave me the chance to follow through on something seemingly unattainable and I had been. But, back to ROYAL FLUSH, the most important single thing I've ever made that no one will ever really see (unless you really want to).
I'd contemplated uploading some video to better illustrate some of the things I enjoyed about this film, some of the shots I was able to achieve, the films overall style and coloring, use of shadow and light and it's influence of Film Noir, basically a 40s Hollywood Crime Film set in 21st Century Scotland, I thought better of it. Carrying the hallmarks; a disjointed narrative, a voiceover, the high contrast, low-key lighting, the ropey dialogue, the dark themes, the downer ending, the mellow soundtrack, mirrors, lamps in every shot etc, etc. Starring friends, rough costumes, shot with no due care over months, edited on a first edition iMac on iMovie, organised in a time without mobile phones, I made a 63 minute film, shot purely on one mini-DV tape, that was used, re-used and used again. The only surviving copy of the film, as I crashed the editing program at least twice, lost numerous amounts of footage, was what was transferred from the Mini-DV to VHS. It's the blueprint for any mistakes a young filmmaker could make, a filmmaker who had no formal training, no idea how to block a scene, how to direct actors, edit to pace, record sound but at its most basic, could shoot a shot, paint with light and frame it well. It's disastrous and embarrassing at points, I even see a few camera shadows because I refused to shoot the other way, and obviously couldn't move the sun from the sky. But, it was the beginning of the journey.
The idea that I did anything but this, as my initial interests lay in art, illustrations and comic books was that I had to focus on something as academically, I couldn't and wasn't capable of showing interest in anything other than the creative industries. From there, I hadn't done well enough to go straight to University from school and opted for College. Out of some blind luck, I would eventually go to University. Beginning on an Art course then swiftly moving onto a Creative Film course, I began making more films, namely of a much shorter length. During this time though, I was watching films, tonnes of them. I was reading books and absorbing all the information I could. Just to put into perspective, I was massively influenced by a variety of different media, namely painters; Caravaggio, Jack Vetriano, William Blake and Edward Hopper. This has rarely changed over the years as when I progressed from art, the main principles of framing and photography, adapting to the moving image, still applied. Same as with some of the films that have shaped the way I make mine; GOOD WILL HUNTING, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, THE 400 BLOWS, DRIVE, SE7EN, BLAD RUNNER, AKIRA, TOUCH OF EVIL, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, SPIRITED AWAY, PUNCH DRNK LOVE, CHASING AMY, OLDBOY, WITNESS, OUT OF SIGHT, ET, THE INSIDER, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, TAXI DRIVER, ENDURING LOVE, MAN ON FIRE, WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, MEAN STREETS, CASINO, 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, SEXY BEAST, YOJIMBO, NARC, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, ANNIE HALL, MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE, HARD BOILED, HANA-BI, LEAVING LAS VEGAS, TRAFFIC, ICHI THE KILLER, AUDITION, THE APARTMENT, TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA, THE WICKERMAN, COMING HOME, POINT BREAK, KILLING THEM SOFTLY, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, TRUE ROMANCE, LEY LINES, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK, STALKER, DO THE RIGHT THING, DONNIE DARKO, TRAINSPOTTING to name a few. I love the work of David Fincher, Roger Deakin, John Cassavetes and Akira Kurosawa and that's never going to change.
Looking back at some of the notable highlights, I hope people can see where the influences start and where they end. Also, if you look at the future work, you can figure out what has been retained and what has developed. The storytelling, or at least, the type of storytelling has changed from the purely superficial to support the visuals and that visuals should support a good story. Visuals were always my primary concern back then, hence why few of the films included actors and when they did, it felt more like a blessing than anything else. In the meantime, for the fact that it felt like making any one of these films took an inordinate amount of time and effort, the result of the films and their reception felt worth it, certainly during group screenings where the films, to be frank, stood out from my peers. ROYAL FLUSH was one thing but it was time to really experiment with what limited equipment I had.
Even the prospect of working with lights was a big progression in my mind and certainly, as I wanted to create certain lighting effects, they were essential. Now, I'd have access to gobo's and be able to easily create said effects but then, I was making shit out of cardboard and plastic with the cheapest means available. I wanted to make good looking stuff and that's not really changed. But mostly, my ideas and concepts were seemingly massive in scale and unfeasible to produce but still ended up being something like happy accidents. Probably the haste in which I was producing the films lent to the style that I adopted overall; in colour casts, the handheld, dutch angles and the overall framing. The DIY nature of the filmmaking hasn't changed either. Someone who operated with zero budgets and continues to do so, the haphazard, quick nature of the cinematography was bolstered by strong frames and strong colors. Everything was cheap, remains to be cheap, but it was never meant to look cheap. This early into the making of films, I didn't have the training to make the films notably better, I didn't have the opportunities in front of me to show the work to anyone outside of the peer's group. I wouldn't cry me a river but making these films on the limited resources we all had, was hard. It's miraculous that I'd made so many in that time, but that is what true passion for something looks like. Below are some very old and some of the sole surviving development sheets, scrapbook pages and storyboards from these very early beginnings.
And so, as a young filmmaker back then, stumbling through making film after film in education and helping with the making of many others, there's a few highlights and some, never will be seen pieces of garbage. It was all part of the learning process, but I have learned, I'm my own worst critic. From every film, I've eviscerated my own work in the hope that the next one will be better and that has been the case even up to now. The whole retrospective journey has been great to remind me that once, I able to just do something and not give a flying fuck about whether or not it would be good. I would say I have retained some of that cavalier attitude but I wish, going into work in 2018, I can be as experimental and courageous. As courageous as I was making my second long-form project, 7 INCHES. It was my last project in my home town before I moved away to study and it's the culmination of the work I had produced previously, how I had done and as a snapshot into my mindset, just where I was as a near 20 year old. I would say, going into University, the work I produced outside of the curriculum was the work I would take with me and to heart. I had tried to make more than the two films I finally put together; one being an animation called HEAVEN DOES NOT EXIST and a documentary (my first) called WHAT MAKES YOU? Much of my time at University was learning how to make films the way they are within the industry, basically being trained on how to cope outside of the education sector. The main issue with that the work felt more sedate and controlled.
Other than being one of the first award winning film I've made, it was one of my first animations. Again, I literally thrust myself into situations that I am completely unprepared for and off the basis of figuring it out, I go about it in the most unlikely and sometimes time consuming manner. I guess, the week I spent on HEAVEN DOES NOT EXIST paid off literally when it won a cash prize. Around about this time, was the boom in online video uploading and streaming, where it premiered on the now defunct icewhole.com. As much as it's simplistic style and message, that's still a theme that permeates my work, it remained one of my more controversial films. As much as I've always wanted to make a sequel to this film, it's also is one of my most successful. Hard to look back on from the back of making of so many projects that something as simple as a filmed flip-book has seen me garner the most exposure. Coupled with that was my one, and only serious take on the documentary genre, WHAT MAKES YOU?
Much like some of my favourite work, the strength of this piece is the fact it's a snapshot of my life and the world I inhabited. This was the very embodiment of this, taking the pulse of people of the time and the feelings of the time (be it 2007). But again, the excitement of the project, developed as part of a fund which saw me travel to cities in Europe to attend seminars and meet other International filmmakers. This was a personal expression that allowed the people in my life to express themselves and what they were passionate about. It was a project I felt warranted could be adapted into a feature project and certainly, gauging a wider variety of perspectives and personalities would expand on what was one of my most expansive and stylistic films. This holds a special place in my heart in that it has some footage and audio of my Grandmother who passed a few years ago.
It wasn't until the end of my tenure within education that I came to the decision, I wanted to just go out and experience the world for myself. The constraints I had placed on myself during this time, in the hope of coping within the professional environment I found to not be as useful. But as an unemployed creative who held placements at STV Creative in the advertising department, shot corporate videos for a media company as a freelancer and bummed between Glasgow and my hometown of Edinburgh working on short films as a director of photography, it took a number of years and the making of several smaller, experimental films to finally get back into working on my own work. At this time I was at my loneliest, whatever I made was as a complete soloist, without any real outlet and continuing to shoot on SD in a world where HD cameras (DSLR's) were being readily available. I was leaning on my older work to secure jobs. It was a dark period that involved much personal reflection and as someone who had spent all but his time absorbed in film, I lacked much in the way of life experience and that reflected in my work. It wasn't until after a number of projects that failed to get off the ground I had some decisions to make.
In the hope of writing something I could eventually turn into a production, I caught the attention of some actor friends and started meeting with them, some I'd known whilst at University. What came of those meeting started work on a TV show called THE JOB; a tale as epic and greater than the total of this post alone. Unfortunately, all that needs to be said, that after 7 years, it never left the development stage. I don't go into any further detail as I would rather not flood myself with disappointment. Regardless, other than figuring that many of the projects I had tried to development over this time had failed to become anything more than concepts, a friend approached me to spend an evening with them recording them performing a song for their upcoming EP. Now, seeing as I had met and tried to get another music video off the ground, one enough to make me think that I wasn't kitted out to make, the idea of this video was not a serious proposition. But what became of it was a music video in 2009 for SYLVANUS called "BRING THE RAIN".
So really, this is where it all begins (kind of). It's another two years before I make another music video but this counts in the 40 block. It's unpolished, not played to the track and shot on SD made up purely of layered shots and fakey "earthquake" effects. But, it was a music video. It was a completed project and it marked the beginning of something I wouldn't start taking serious for another 2 years. It was not like, during this time, I was unaware of music videos. During my time in education, we were shown the work of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Mark Romanek, Chris Milk, Adam Powell et al but it was never particularly viable. It was an expensive past time and open purely to the elite and interested as it involved getting to know bands and from my limited exposure, I was met with individuals at an early stage, I would never work with. For me, to move into making them on a consistent basis, at this time looking back, seemed impossible. Everyone around me, especially on crews working on other films, swayed me against the idea; it's nothing they would personally pursue here as there was no money to be made. I knew of others who were doing it but, shit me not, I didn't have the first fucking clue how to make it work for me. The way it did, was purely by accident. If I saw myself as haphazard in the making of my films, it was a totally different story with the music videos…