The life and death of ideas.

So its been a while... (I feel obliged to start each post like this!)


I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about why I do what I do because exactly a year ago today I was in the North West of Australia filming chemical tank cleaning operations for an oil and gas service provider! - glamorous I know! Here's a pic to prove it! :

And then 5 years ago today I was shooting a commercial in New York (had to attach classic pic!) :

In-between these 2 incredibly different and yet strangely similar shoots I have had the honor of meeting and working with some of the most incredible people on earth. I've laughed until my sides have hurt, i've cried with friends at the horrors of what we are filming and I have been lucky enough to experience and see some of the most beautiful sites on earth.

I have been involved with over 2500 productions and along the way shot over 800,000 stills which take up ALOT of hard drive space!

I know a little about very very many things if you want me to tell you how to steer a nuclear submarine your asking the wrong person but I could tell you the front from the back! and I can definitely tell you the best way to keep the fine sand of the Sahara out of those nooks and crannies in many different types of cameras! (usually using gaffa tape)

But if someone 10 years ago said I would be doing this I would have said they were crazy! I was all set for a fine art/ life of crime! and somewhere along the way I discovered I liked business and I liked creating films and then I also liked money- or food either one but both are ideal. And with that for a while I seemed to loose my ideas, the creativity I had didn't disappear it was funneled into mechanical and technical solutions to problems that I found fascinating. I got really really into equipment and how/ why it works in certain situations, and then started working as a producer which meant I left the ideas to the creatives - the ideas people, while still trying to figure out how to work wonders with tiny budgets and outlandish dreams (mainly from the people with the budgets).

But just recently those ideas have been coming back and I realized that the ideas didn't die just the enthusiasm to see them exist had faded slightly!

So right now things are exciting - I have a son who is incredible and he has a large part to play for this resurgence in my enthusiasm for ideas - I have been spending as much time as I can with him and the way he sees the world (he is 9 months old) is just incredible - the playfulness in the way that he looks at others and the unending love that he has for everyone is pretty amazing! But for me the joy that he finds in discovery and play have really reignited my love for ideas which is pretty epic!

Soooo  long live Ideas and I am definitely going to try and see the world more from his view point as I want to explore again!