About Me

I've always been interested in video. From a young age I'd ask my parents about what I'd seen on TV and their answers only fuelled my interest. I'd often play around on my father's computer with Windows Movie Maker and Stick Figure Animator, making videos for fun. Being able to use a computer so proficiently from a young age was key for my future, unbeknownst to me.

Two years into secondary school I realised a career in the media industry would suite me well. After finishing my GCSEs I studied a Film & TV BTEC at college, understanding that my academic weakness would only hinder my progression had I pursued A Levels.

In college I was able to get hands-on with hardware and software that was far closer to industry standard, some of which I still use today. I improved my time management skills, learned how to edit videos to higher standards - previously being entirely self-taught - along with an improved understanding of the film creation process, from pre-production to finishing, which also helped drive my interest in computers and technology further forward. That understanding of how hardware and software impact the film creation process - and seeking efficiencies as a result - was important to me.

I studied Film at Southampton Solent University. During my three years there I produced many short films for my degree and extra curricular activities, as well as other less serious videos for my YouTube channel. Everything I created helped me understand filmmaking in different ways. The academic deep-diving into more advanced film theory was beneficial and highly advantageous when given the opportunities to put it into practice in the form of more short films and my Final Major Project.

After finishing university - with a 2:1 - I was offered the opportunity to intern at Girl&Bear - known then as VCCP KIN - for two weeks. After a one-week stint in the Post Production department I was taken on as an Edit Assist full time. 18 months later, I was promoted to MCR Supervisor. Several years later, I am now the Technology Manager where I combine my love of video and passion for technology to ensure the “making” departments of Girl&Bear are operating at maximum efficiency.

Where to Find Me

Bluesky

A stream of my consciousness.
Views are my own, obviously.

BandCamp

My bygone era of music creation.
Previously only on Google Play Music.

YouTube

Another view into my past.
Now a home for my older videos.

A more professional me.
Perhaps I'm open to something new.

My Personal Highlights

Everything's A Miracle

In my time not working - both out of hours and during downtime - I spent hours recreating something I first made back in my college days; a kinetic typogrpahy music video for a song I adore.

This was part of my own creative development, forcing me to work smarter and efficiently, whilst simultaneously allowing me to hone my skills in After Effects and other applications from the Adobe Creative Suite.

Closing Statement

For more than a decade I experimented with samples in various (basic) DAWs to create what I called music. It was always just another creative outlet for me and was never meant to be anything more.

In early 2017, I decided I was going to stop creating music. To sign off, I grabbed a load of my personal favourites and spent hours upon hours remastering them to create Closing Statement.

Steptax

My main hobby and focus outside of work is on Steptax. It started as a home-built, home-run server to host a TeamSpeak server for me and my friends to use but slowly grew into a larger network of devices.

While the physical server has since been taken out of service, its spirit lives on in a small home lab running from my home. I now develop and host services like Discord bots and websites - including this one - for fun.

Cloud Archiving Workflow

We chew through a lot of media at Girl&Bear. Storing it all along with all of the associated project files can turn into a nightmare if not properly managed, and doing this on a reasonable budget is its own challenge.

I was a key part of a small team that came up with Girl&Bear's new cloud-first archiving solution which we achieved at a fraction of the budget initially forecasted. We are continually optimising this process to make it even better as we grow.