It was a real privilege to work on a way to tell Arif's story as a way to open up migrant health issues. I collaborated with Meera Senthilingam on this project for the LSHTM. I wanted to use a snorricam style technique to capture the constant movement of migrants, and put Arif at the centre of the story.
I made a couple of short films for The Human Zoo on Radio4. One was the most viewed feature on the website that week. The plan was to make a 1 minute concept explainer/teaser for the radio show. It did really well on Facebook and hopefully brought in a different audience to enjoy this ace social psychology radio programme. I had to star in this video as well as direct, as the turnaround time was so tight. A lot of people thought my shirt was irritating, one guy said I looked like Stephen Merchant. I have a strange job sometimes.
How irritated do you get when somebody reads over your shoulder on public transport? Enjoy this short video of life's unwritten rules being broken...
Posted by BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Had a fun time filming this with the guys at Nature. A playful look at the green potential of driverless cars.
I directed this short film for Physics World looking at how light affects our health. I got to meet a professor who made a profound discovery about the eye, and a blind psychotherapist who completely changed how I think about light.
Additional Camerawork: Mark Billy Svensson, Cal Thomson
I directed a short animation about Malaria that was featured on BBC World News, you can check it out on the BBC website here
We won the Association of British Science Writer's award for Best TV Programme / online film.
Ace producer Lizzie Crouch wrote the script
Animation/illustration/hand acting help by the uber talented Patrick Koduah and Victor Opeyokun.
Here is a brief gif-based summary...
Mosquitos are developing resistance to our chemical weapons...
Scientists are working on a vaccine, but we don't have one yet.
It may be possible to infect the malaria parasite with a bacteria that stops it from reproducing.
It seems that simpler factors such design, landscaping and modifying buildings are perhaps our biggest weapons in the fight against malaria.
It's hoped that by understanding all of the features that affect Malaria transmission, we may be able to conquer it once and for all.
I directed a short animation about Malaria that was featured on BBC World News, you can check it out on the BBC website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32690123
Ace producer Lizzie Crouch wrote the script
Animation/illustration/hand acting help by the uber talented Patrick Koduah and Victor Opeyokun.
I got commissioned by Nature to direct and edit a film about epigenomics. The idea was that the human genome could be thought of like a music score. It isn't just changing the notes that change how the music gets expressed. We managed to bring a talented group of musicians together and make the piece come alive. CP Snow tried to claim science and art were two separate cultures, well roll over Beethoven... we spliced together a mash up to challenge that idea.
I'm a freelance filmmaker, writer, podcaster and some time photographer I’m looking for commissions, collaborations, grants and cool opportunities to make things. My typical beat is art, science, and music; via documentary, comedy, journalism, and education. My strength is in digging for the great stuff that hides in the spaces in between.
I have produced work for the Guardian, BBC, BMJ, Nature, The Southbank Centre, London Live, The Royal Institution, Universal and many others. I've worked in the Pacific Ocean, Mount Everest, in hospitals, theatres and mostly in my attic You can see a recent showreel here:
I also do multimedia consultancy, so if you want someone to come into your organisation to work on your digital strategy, help you tell better stories, or start you off in making multimedia of your own get in contact.
This was my 3rd year doing the wonderful 120 mile overnight bike ride. Such a fun bunch of people, doing a weird cool thing. I decided to make this little film about the event. See you there next year....
I shot/directed/edited this piece, with fantastic young artist T.J Owusu. You've never heard Beethoven like this before.
I got commissioned to make a piece for the Royal Institution about the search for life on Mars, I tried to mix it up a bit. One of the big discoveries is that of clay on Mars. This led me on to claymation, stop motion animation and lego Mars Rovers, as well as existential philosophy. I'm happy with how it turned out.
The Full Film
I got commissioned by the Royal Institution to make a film detailing the origins of Xray Crystallography.
It was a real pleasure and privilege to learn about the fascinating work of the father and son team who invented it, a technique that has contributed to 29 Nobel Prizes so far.
Interviewing Lawrence Bragg's youngest Daughter Patience was particularly cool, she was really inspiring, interesting, lovely, and baked me a pie, that's a powerful combination that doesn't happen too often.
It was great to take a somewhat hard to penetrate subject and break it down into its parts; telling the narrative whilst intertwining it with the science.
Hopefully I succeeded. It's my longest short film to date at just under 9minutes, 1/10th feature length, so who knows by this time next year...
Our trip to Everest Base Camp coincided with the 60th anniversary of Hillary and Tenzing making the first summit of Mt Everest. The Guardian and the Ri Channel commissioned me to edit a film from our footage detailing the extreme environment that the scientists are operating in, and the fascinating work they are taking on.
If anyone else wants to send me up a mountain to make a film I am open to offers.
I recently got to go to the Himalayas for a month to document Extreme everest 2: a research project looking at the effects of low oxygen levels. We started off with a group of awesome kids, and this is a feature we shot for Newsround. I was Director of Photography Greg Foot was the presenter and Editor and the multi-skilled mountain goat Nick Insley was on sound.
One of the last things we filmed in Nepal was this fun episode of HeadSqueeze looking at: whether humans could ever fly, does stress make our hair go grey, and what Pins and Needles actually are...
We made 12 of these in two days so it was pretty intense. LEARN TO FIRE A BRUSSELS SPROUT OUT OF A BAZOOKA and do HOMEMADE CANDY CANES These are all short films for kids, showing them how to make fun science experiments and games for Christmas. I did the filming, the editing was by Dermot at Big Bang Fair
I first heard about this condition during my psychology degree, many moons ago. When I heard about some new research happening at Imperial, I thought it would be a good thing to make a film about. Somehow this ended up with me meeting some lovely couples, a cool neuroscientist, getting a self portrait done and having an arm wrestle.
theaccompanying article is here
This is a slightly unhinged music video I made for Darren Hayman's new album Lido; all about outdoor swimming pools. This film is a bit different from my usual stuff, and it was almost all filmed on a GoPro which was a good experiment. Anyway it's a cool song, and a great album, and I would recommend checking out the Blog http://lidomusic.blogspot.com
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmezvXCKo7Q&w=640&h=360]
I was really excited to be commissioned to make this film. The artists and participants involved were ace, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The Midnight Run //
The idea behind the Midnight Run is simple, to negate the frenzy and hysteria of mass media and reality t.v. for actual reality; for the simplicity of walking and talking. To reclaim the streets and rediscover a city after dark, to inhabit its confines of glass, concrete, steel and structure, as a child does a maze; with as much innocence and wonder as is natural.
The Africa Utopia Midnight Run from Inua Ellams on Vimeo.
In the Midnight Run's motto, ‘star’ can be taken literally, or as a metaphor for the city, dwellers, in which case it takes on a beauty and importance:
The Midnight Run // Cause we can't see stars for fumes we turn to smashed glass, believing shards shine like constellations do.
It can be hard to get your head around particle physics, and the Higgs boson so we went to a festival, added spandex jumpsuits, audience participation and dubstep and I think it all makes sense now...
