Q: On your website, you confidently state that you like to create films for fun, and for money. Looking back, now being so immersed in the film making industry both as a hobby and as a profession, at what point in your life did you know this was the path you wanted to take? Have you always been a creative at heart?

A: I guess I have to pull the stereotypical card here - I stole my parents video camera when I was around 11 years old and started filming everything I could. Indiana Jones short films, cowboy duels, star wars miniatures… I’ve been fascinated with movies ever since I was very young… I would watch them over and over again in our Betamax player -- from The Thief of Bagdad to Ghostbusters. It has always been very clear to me, since I was a kid, that I wanted to be part of movie making in some way.

Q: Between your commercials and films, your work is quite diverse. What is your biggest source of inspiration? What do you believe gives you a creative edge over other editors?

A: Sources of inspiration come from my interests. I really like cars, I have a small collection and like to race them. So I think shooting cars comes naturally. Sci-fi is another very big interest of mine; I spent my teenage years reading Arthur C Clarke books and european fantasy comic books. A lot of my short films have either been sci-fi or had a cinematic edge bordering on otherworldly.

Q: You have been using VEGAS since the early 2000's, now editing with the latest VEGAS Pro. What features or tools do you gravitate towards the most in VEGAS Pro? Which features spark your interest to experiment with further?

A: I think I started with Vegas pro 2.0 back in 2000. Damn! 21 years ago! I remember thinking that this program was much more advanced than what I had been using before. And also very intuitive, within a day I felt very comfortable editing video and mixing audio in VEGAS. This was before any of the modern digital cameras we are used to now had come out, and obviously no DSLRs -- good old DV captured through a firewire cable. What I like about VEGAS is that I don’t need any special hardware - it works well on any PC. I can start editing on my laptop and move to my desktop. It is just so smooth and fast that it makes it a breeze.

Q: If VEGAS is your favourite software tool, what's your favourite camera and format to shoot in?

A: These days I have the luck of being able to work on commercials that have the budgets where I can choose whatever tools are best for the job. I’ve been shooting on Arri Alexa for the last 6-7 years as the quality and images it produces are highly regarded. Nothing rivals it. I also have a couple mirrorless cameras for run-n-gun type projects or where I need a smaller camera for certain shots. I currently shoot with a Fuji XT3, which is mindblowing for the price.

Q: Your latest project, One Minute Worlds, looks absolutely incredible. What’s the backstory on that? You mention editing on the go, is your post production workflow constantly evolving?

A: I wanted to make a series of shorts, shot in a way I have not seen on screen. Short, punchy, visually striking, but high quality. I had gathered some ideas over the years and got together with a friend, writer Phil Gelatt, and he wrote a couple of scripts for possible stories. One thing led to another, and I on-boarded Ruairi Robinson to also direct one of the stories - and we ended up in Iceland and New Mexico shooting the first three of the series. For editing now, I upload everything into cloud based storage. This gives me flexibility, and makes me feel safer because I don’t have to worry about constantly backing up the data. It also makes it easier because I can edit from any device…. on the go for example, and then continue editing at home without needing to backup files.

Q: As a successful creator, what words of wisdom can you pass down to editors that are just starting out? What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?

A: There’s no excuse now! Get out there, shoot, and start putting together projects! 20 years ago technology could be a barrier for new filmmakers. You had to shoot on film, which was laborious and expensive. Now, for a couple thousand dollars - you can buy everything you need to shoot a film. You could go out with a DSLR right now, and at the end of the day you will have a card full of footage that you can start editing and coloring into a film in your bedroom. It’s mind blowing.