Hello, Nice to meet you.
Beginnings
I grew up in Christchurch, the third largest city in New Zealand, with my two parents and an older sister. Before I truly discovered a love of cinema I found music and more specifically guitar and even more specifically jazz guitar. Being the early 2000s, there was plenty to choose from when it came to guitar-heavy pop and rock music from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to Green Day. So I was spoilt and surrounded by other young people with similar interest.
A little while after this I met a close friend and long time collaborator Ben Chils who, in our first year of high school, had been making his first feature film ‘Robin in da Hood’. I guest starred as Darth Vader in a scene shot in Lyttelton (also famously a location for Peter Jackson’s film starring Michael J Fox The Frighteners 1996). The rest is history. We went on to make a short film inspired by our favourite films at the time (Anchor Man, Zoolander) and quickly started to be recognised for our work and talent.
This group of friends came to be known as Oldschool Cinema, which was our official production company identity as young teenagers. We went on to make numerous short films mostly written and directed by Ben then produced and filmed by me. The image below shows me on the left filming a tracking shot of Ben, on the right as part of a schools competition we used to enter.
This group of friends was also very musical, so when we weren’t making films together we were writing and playing music as ‘The Producers’ - a 5 piece funk pop rock group. It was a great time of exploration and experimentation and we were lucky to be given the support and encouragement to pursue these passions.
During my study towards a Bachelor of Musical Arts (2010 - 2011) we had the Christchurch earthquakes. It was a pretty intense time and a terrible thing to happen for such a small city. However, what I took from that experience is that people can be super resilient, creative and supportive. I often hang onto this feeling whenever I feel dread or overwhelmed by the terrible things happening in the world. Ultimately people can still be connected, we can choose that.
So I had a bit of a pivot during this time and became involved in a lot more community-focused projects, spending less time in a practice room alone with my guitar. I started running a monthly concert series from 2013 - 2016 called Chambers Sessions, I managed a creative maker and event space called Exchange Christchurch and I slowly drifted away from film and music. At the time, this didn’t feel like I was losing purpose or passion, I was just following my nose and sometimes I wonder if this is what I wanted or if I was being too easily led by opportunities at the time.
Either way, it was a hugely satisfying time in my life and I learned a lot and worked with many different people. This is the part of the story when Maria comes in. We had known each other since high school and worked together during uni. I played guitar in a musical that she was acting in. At one time, she had a crush on me that wasn’t mutual. At another time, I had a crush on her that wasn’t mutual. Our paths never quite aligned. Until they did. And the rest is basically history.
And I guess what I’m writing about is history so… Maria had been living in the UK and was visiting family one summer and we ended up going on a date. I asked her out formerly… over text… And we did the long-distance thing for 6 months when I then moved over to the UK. That was in 2015 and during my time in the UK I gradually found my way back to filmmaking and this time I had a partner in crime, Maria. But it wasn’t so simple, it took a good 5 years of still being lost, finding odd jobs and ways to make a living before I reconnected with my purpose and I guess my proxy, myself.
…and here we are. The point in which my very brief story doesn’t come to an end but comes to a ‘…’
Falling Films is the culmination of all of our shared experiences in life. The things we love, the lessons we’ve learned and the skills we’ve developed. This has been my abridged version of the history I bring to the table whenever I meet a new contributor or start a new project, so thanks for reading.
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