In his dream, the clockwork cinéast discerns the fragrance of Eastmancolor and detects the ‘tick-tick-tick’ of sprockets as he delights at the slithering snake of celluloid that slips between his digits like seaweed. He recalls the days when time was counted in 24ths of a second and 40ths of a foot and regulated by the tension of a spiral spring. His secret vocabulary includes parallax view, contrast ratio, T-stop, lumens, circle of confusion. He still remembers how to calculate depth of field using a tape measure and a well-thumbed copy of The Cinematographer’s Handbook. These may all be redundant faculties and skills in the digital age but, like theory is to a musician, essential to appreciating the art and meaning of a work.
I have been a writer, a film maker and an academic for more years than I care to admit to. I’m now retired from regular paid work and live in Canberra, Australia, where I enjoy the luxury of grandchildren and an occasional game of golf. This is my personal web site, which displays some of my wares: samples of my writing, a few of my short films, and an occasional blog which covers whatever I’m obsessed by at the time (you’d be surprised).
