Initially, after I’d finished my Applied Science Degree (in Biology and Geology) and Post-grad (in Environmental Science), I pursued a career in science for several years, working, firstly, as a research technician at the University of Reading and later as a pharmaceutical scientist at Vectura Ltd, in Bath. After thirteen years of science roles I retrained as a broadcast journalist, in Grimsby. This involved on-the-job training working as a broadcast journalist, for a local cable TV station, namely Channel 7, where I was involved in gathering and presenting news stories for a weekly ‘magazine-styled’ programme called GTV and another, more college-led, monthly show, Insight. During my time in the North East of the UK I was given training on using cameras and editing, and taught about the legal aspects of journalism too.
During the last few years of my time at BCS I went part-time in order to co-write some film scripts with a friend who was the CEO of a visual effects company, based in Bristol. When he left that company I joined him to create a new company, which became Bazooka Bunny Ltd. Initially we were focused on post-production work, but during the last couple of years we have concentrated our efforts on AI upscaling, colourization, subtitles, dubbing, video repair and animation. My work at Bazooka Bunny entails managing projects, liaising with clients, sales agents and suppliers, drawing up legal contracts, video editing, proof reading, copywriting and scriptwriting.
After my training finished I was awarded a NVQ Level 4 in broadcast journalism and worked briefly for the Press Association as a sports news reporter, near Hull, and later at Leopard Films, in London, as a broadcast assistant. Shortly after this stint, I started working as a print journalist for the charity BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, in Swindon, where I remained for 13 years. During my time working at BCS I was involved in commissioning articles for a number of in-house publications including the membership magazine, ITNOW, the information security magazine, ISNOW, and the health informatics magazine, HINOW. I also regularly wrote columns for related publications Computing and Computer Weekly. In addition to commissioning and writing articles I also interviewed various IT experts, and filmed a number of these interviews and BCS events, both in the UK and abroad. I was also trained in the use a number of desktop publication software packages such as Quark and InDesign.
Additionally, in my spare time, I have run a number of genre film festivals in Bath, Bristol and Swindon, which have helped bring a plethora of independent filmmakers to the attention of fresh audiences and, alongside, have provided me with some useful film-related contacts.
