Your story matters. You don’t have to tell it alone.

I’ve been stuck where you are.

Here’s what I learned along the way.

1. Age nine

   It started with the family camcorder

   I was nine when I picked up our family camcorder. I filmed my friends, my family, our pets, anything I found exciting. Before long we were remaking James Bond in the back garden.

   School wasn’t easy for me, and making films was where I felt I belonged.

   

2. My teens

   A year’s work that won nothing

   As a teenager I talked my friends into all sorts for my films. Filming in the freezing sea at night in the middle of winter. Spending a night in a goat shed. I still don’t know why they put up with me.

   I spent a year on one short film, entered it into a youth festival and won nothing. I was devastated and nearly gave up. The next year I went back with a new short film, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and it won Best Film and Best Director.

3. Age nineteen

   No film school. An attic in Wales.

   I didn’t go to film school or university. I paid for my own ticket to the UK to film behind the scenes on a feature film in Wales. The production couldn’t afford to house me, so I slept in the insect-ridden attic of one of the sets.

   At one point I had 50p in my bank account and worked as a nanny to pay the rent. Those film sets were my film school.

   

4. The Eagle Huntress

   A year of emails for one yes

   I wanted to work on The Eagle Huntress, a feature documentary, so much that I emailed and called the director for a year. Then he sent me to Mongolia as second unit director, with a camera and a sound recordist.

   I filmed with a nomadic Kazakh family in the Altai Mountains, and the film went on to be nominated for a BAFTA.

   

5. One Breath

   The hard drive went in a drawer for two years

   I found a freediving couple on Instagram and put all my savings into making a film about them. On the second day of filming, something unexpected came up for the couple, and we had to cancel the rest of the shoot. At the airport they handed me a hard drive of old footage. It went in a drawer.

   What got it out again was asking for help. An editor and I found the story on paper before we touched the edit. That film became One Breath, about the couple’s attempt to dive to 100 metres together on a single breath. It has screened in more than 100 cities.

   It’s why I teach people to find the story on paper first, and why I don’t think anyone should do this alone.

   

6. 2021

   The community I wish I’d had

   After years of making commercials for big brands, I wanted to get back to films that mattered to me, and to help other people make theirs. So I started Documentary Film Academy.

   It’s the community I wish I’d had when I was starting out. Today I teach and coach first-time documentary makers all over the world.

I didn’t learn any of this at film school. I learned it by getting stuck and finding a way through. I’d like to help you find yours.

“He doesn’t just teach you, he shares his journey with you so it feels less overwhelming as you know he’s faced the same challenges too.”