Biography  -  CV  -  Filmography

Quis Ego Sum

Biographically speaking I started at a young age in the late nineteen-seventies with hand-drawn cartoons which, while I didn’t know this at the time, was less about cartoons and more about learning to storyboard. Inspired by the then hugely popular Pink Panther and James Bond film series I created characters who were clumsy secret agents and incompetent spies, fighting evil doers with lots of gadgets. Such is the mind of a thirteen-year-old. Mad Magazine inspired me to draw full length parodies of Star Wars, The Spy Who Loved Me and others. My draughtsman skills may have been limited, but in the years before VHS the act of drawing entire feature length films from memory proved to be a great training exercise.

In 1982, having just turned 17, I wrote and staged Andrea Mack, a modern day semi-musical English language adaptation of Andromaque by Jean Racine, using lip-sync and contemporary songs to accompany the florid text. Andrea Mack was inspired partly by the 1978 television adaption of Dennis Potter’s Pennies From Heaven, and partly by Jonathan Miller’s 1982 production of Verdi's Rigoletto set against the backdrop of New York’s Little Italy in the 1950’s.

In 1983 after final exams and a stint with the West Surrey College of Art and Design’s film program, I went to work as a stage technician at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on a pre-West End preview run of Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard directed by the great British filmmaker Lindsay Anderson. In 1984 I moved to London to work as a stage technician on, amongst others, a new revival of Gower Champion and David Merrick’s production of 42nd Street at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and as a stage electrician on Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria. These were extraordinary, state of the art environments filled with the most talented artists of the day and just being there was a unique experience.

After three years of working “backstage” while shooting short 8mm films, creating visual experiments and never-to-be-seen music videos, in 1987 I made the 15 minute film: Headsounds. It was shot on a Sony8 video camera and edited with a Sony8 video player using only the play, record and pause buttons. No pre roll, no preview, no ability to accurately sync sound to picture. This last limitation rendered the film “silent”, even though scenes had been played out with scripted and improvised dialogue. The soundtrack was assembled on a Yamaha M3TX 4-track and had to be manually mixed and recorded to picture in one take; if the sync was off I had to start over.

In 1990 I moved to Rome, Italy and in 1992 I made two documentaries for RAI that I recorded in Kashmir, India on the simmering civil war and its impact on the region. As anything bigger than a camcorder was a no-go in Srinagar it was shot on a SonyHi8, the quality looks pretty ropey today, but it was a big deal in 1992.

After four years in the United States working film production and becoming an expert on the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, in 1998 I returned to Rome where I have been working consistently in production and post production for satellite and cable television, home video and theatrical.

As far as “what kind of projects have I worked on” is concerned, the list is long and varied and represented to one degree or another across this site. A majority of the work here is promotional, but everything has a construct and story behind it; and everything has been approached with great empathy for the material, what it is in and of itself, and how best to frame it for the primary exhibition platform.

For me every job is different and each needs to be addressed on a case by case basis. There is no “one size fits all”, and that applies to subject matter, project type, clients and directors. Everyone is unique, everyone wants something “different”, everyone has less time than we would like, everyone has an eye on the budget, everyone argues about what they think they are after.

Do I have a personal style? I would say “as clean, linear and smooth as possible”. Unless there is an explicit purpose to doing otherwise, technique should support the story without drawing attention to itself. That does not mean to exclude any particular technique or style per se, but nothing should be front and centre for its own sake. The audience is not supposed to sit there thinking about the writing, the editing, the graphics or the audio. They should be immersed in the “experience” whether it is a promotion, an entertainment or factual. An eighty minute program, film or documentary on any given subject can be “fast paced”, “measured” or “interminable” depending on intentions and talent. Trying to say too much is just as bad as saying too little, and the trick is to hit the right number of notes, at the right time at the right tempo over any given duration. The goal is always a symphony, not a cacophony.

The one theme that unites all my work is simple: to create an original perspective, to tell a good story and tell it well, to allow collaborators their say, to eschew arrogance - but not passion, to recognise the importance of seeking excellence rather than mediocrity and to do it all on time and on budget. If that sounds over-ambitious, well at least it's a good place from where to start.

C.v.

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Since 2007 I have been managing creative and post-production services for clients including NBC Universal Global Networks Italia, Endemol, Sky Italia, Fox Channels Italy, RAI (RadioTelevisione Italiana) Lucky Red Distribution, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and others.

As a director / creative producer I have 25 years of experience in documentaries, short films, short formats, marketing campaigns, channel branding and promotion; recognized with various creative nominations and awards.

As a professional editor I have worked on multiple platform for almost every type of production. In tandem with the video I specialize in music editing and sound design.

My most recent project is "Django & Django" by Luca Rea, a 77' documentary in which Quentin Tarantino takes a look at the career and personality of Sergio Corbucci, "the second best spaghetti western director in the world". Presented in the Official Selection [out of competition] at the 78th Venice Film Festival 2021.

In 2019 I edited Fellini of the spirits written and directed by Anselma Dell’Olio, a 100’ documentary that, for the first time, tells the story of the spiritual and supernatural “unseen world” of legendary Italian director Federico Fellini. The documentary was selected for Cannes Classics 2020. This was my second collaboration with the director following our film Marco Ferreri: Dangerous But Necessary an 80 minute documentary selected for the Venice Classics section at the 2017 Venice Film Festival, winner of the 2018 Nastro d’Argento for Best Documentary on Cinema, and winner of the 2018 David Di Donatello Award for Best Documentary.

From 2005 - 2015 I covered the Venice Film Festival for NBC Universal Global Networks Italy (in 2009 for Fox Channels Italy), conducting hundreds of interviews and managing content for broadcast.

From 2005 – 2014 I wrote and produced A Journey Through American Cinema for NBC Universal Global Networks Italy. This was a series of 10-15 minute mini-documentaries based on my long form interviews with Sydney Pollack, David Lynch, Sidney Lumet, Terry Gilliam, Kevin Costner, Jim Jarmusch, James Ivory, Tim Burton, Meryl Streep and others.

With the artist Andrew Leslie Hooker, in 2005 I filmed, animated and edited a special concert video installation designed to create scenic space for a new live interpretation of Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking of the Titanic, at the Teatro Malibran for the 49th International Festival of Contemporary Music, Venice Biennale. The work was revisited in 2007 for a performance at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.

I do not categories myself as a so-called “preditor”. In this day and age there is nothing unusual about one person producing and editing a piece alone. However there is a world of difference between a “preditor” and editing for a director, or directing an editor. I understand both jobs, the differences between them, and I am able to perform both either separately or combined.

This perspective enables me to evaluate a project from concept to delivery, and to effect pre-emptive damage control in the three-way collision between creativity, technology and budget.

With the exception of the promos for Orbit, I edited and sound designed all the work on this site myself, but I believe that even when working with other editors the style of the piece remains recognizably my own.

Notable projects include the 2014 oral history documentary “A Car with Two Engines“ on director Franco Brusati and the making of “Bread and Chocolate”; the 2010 documentary “Francesca... Viva la vita” presented as a work in progress in the Venice Days section at the 67th Venice Film Festival; the 2005 installation for Gavin Bryars’ “The Sinking of the Titanic” presented at the 49th International Festival of Contemporary Music, Venice Biennale; and two documentaries on the civil war in Kashmir, India broadcast by the Italian State television RAI in 1993.

Although I was born and educated in the UK, I have worked in Norway and the United States and I am currently based in Rome, Italy where I have been living permanently since 1998.

Languages

Mother-tongue English. Fluent Italian. Good working knowledge French. Extensive experience with multi-language projects including Arabic, Chinese, German, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

Software

Avid Media Composer DaVinci Resolve Adobe Photoshop / Adobe After Effects / Adobe Premiere Pro

Points of Reference: Top 10 Lists Personal choices of the films, documentaries and series that have impressed and influenced.

Films

1. Nostalghia - Andrey Tarkovsky (1983)
2. Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola (1979)
3. Cat People - Jacques Tourneur (1942)
4. 37°2 le matin - Jean-Jacques Beineix (1986)
5. The Best Years of Our Lives - William Wyler (1946)
6. Touche pas à la femme blanche - Marco Ferreri (1974)
7. Remains of the Day - James Ivory (1993)
8. Die Blechtrommel - Volker Schlöndorff (1979)
9. Cabaret - Bob Fosse (1972)
10. Delicatessen - Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro (1991)

Documentaries

1. Shoah - Claude Lanzmann (1985)
2. The Act of Killing - Joshua Oppenheimer (2012)
3. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould - François Girard (1994)
4. The Fog of War - Errol Morris (2003)
5. Visions of Light - Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy, Stuart Samuels (1993)
6. How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) - Joe Angio (2005)
7. Bowling for Columbine - Michael Moore (2002)
8. Harlan County U.S.A. - Barbara Kopple (1976)
9. When We Were Kings - Leon Gast (1996)
10. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse - Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola, George Hickenlooper (1991)

Television

1. I, Claudius (1976)
2. The Wire (2002)
3. The West Wing (1999)
4. Six Feet Under (2001)
5. Westworld (2016)
6. Deadwood (2004)
7. The Queen's Gambit (2020)
8. Breaking Bad (2008)
9. Band of Brothers (2001)
10. PBS Frontline (1983)

Filmography

Lucky Red Srl. Home Video Special Content

Creative Producer / Director / Editor

• Il Divo (2008)
• The Wrestler (2008)
• La Prima Linea (2009)
• Io, Don Giovanni (2009)
• Machete (2010)
• The Kids Are All Right (2010)
• Made in Dagenham (2010)
• Silvio Forever (2011)
• The Bling Ring (2013)
• Philomena (2013)
• Fading Gigolo (2013)
• Natural Resistance (2014)
• Bread and Chocolate (1974) (2014 restoration)

Ciak 2000 Srl

Editor / Supervising Editor

• Cinecittà - The history of Cinecittà Studios, from the foundations to high definition (2000) 30'
• Claudia Cardinale: A girl already a woman (2000) 100’
• Türkân Şoray: The camera is my love (2000) 100'
• Francesco Rosi: The search for truth (2001) 100’
• Israel - Between Heaven and Earth (2002) 160’
• Giulietta Masina: A great little lady (2002) 40’
• Alberto Sordi: Dear Father... I'm going to be a famous actor (2002) 100’
• Virna Lisi: Metamorphosis of a woman (2003) 100’

Alchemist Films UK

Director / Photography / Editor / Sound Design

• A Long Long Way To Go (1985) 4'
• Better To Have Lost In Love (1986) 4’
• Wire (1986) 6’
• Headsounds (1987) 15'