Film-making is an ideal medium for me. It involves all the things I’ve loved since I was a kid – photography, writing and day-dreaming.
Originally from New Zealand, I'm now based in Sydney, Australia. I've wanted to make films ever since I can remember, but it was a long time before I felt ready to try my hand at it.
I started writing stories before I can even remember. At the age of six, I wrote my first play. It involved murderous gangs, earthquakes and knife fights. My teacher at the time (bless her) had the whole class perform it, despite the fact it made absolutely no sense. It was a huge buzz and I’ve been trying to get things out into the world ever since.
Here are some of the other films I've made along the way:
June Again
My very first feature film. Completed in 2019 and due to be released in cinemas in Australia and New Zealand in May 2021.
June Again is a comedy starring Noni Hazelhurst (A Place to Call Home, Ladies in Black), Claudia Karvan (Love My Way, The Secret Life of Us) and Stephen Curry (The Castle). It was made in Sydney with production company See Pictures and is being distributed in Australia/NZ by Studio Canal.
In the heartfelt comedy June Again, a twist of fate gives no-nonsense matriarch June the chance to bring together her estranged children, save their ailing family business and rekindle an old flame.
The Mind Job
My biggest and longest (and most expensive) short film production, The Mind Job, is a 16 minute comedy short. A sort of anti-romantic comedy. The film was well received, screening at several film festivals around the world, including a ranking as one of L.A. Weekly’s ‘Ten films you must see’ from the 2013 L.A. Comedy Shorts Festival. Its biggest success, though, has been online where it featured on shortoftheweek.com and was picked up for the front page of Vimeo. It’s spawned distribution deals, podcast interviews, Hollywood interest and a large online following. Watch it here:
The Pool
In 2010, during the making of The Mind Job, I took part in New Zealand’s 48 Hour Film Festival, a competition to create a film from scratch in just two days. Over 600 teams were involved and our team, comprised of the four Winlove brothers, took third place. We also received Peter Jackson’s personal ‘Wild Card’ award. You can watch it here:
The experience of making a film in two days, while being halfway through the two year process of making The Mind Job was an eye-opening one. They’re both films I’m proud of, and creatively they’re not worlds apart, despite the massive difference in time-frame and budget. This is where the seed for 12:12 was first planted. It doesn't have to take two years to make a short film.
Coming Clean
In 2009 I made Coming Clean. It went on to play at several international film festivals. It's also played on Japanese television, perhaps surprising when you see who the main character is. This was my first serious effort in film-making, a great learning experience that also took two years to complete. You can watch it here:
The Falling
I really have to mention a little film that kicked off my film-making career. Made for the Sydney Film Festival’s mobile short film competition in 2007, the film had to be one minute long and shot on a mobile phone. Video quality at the time was terrible – you can count the pixels on one hand – but perhaps it’s another example of ideas triumphing over technology.
The film won the competition and screened at the closing night of the Sydney Film Festival in a packed State Theatre. It was an incredible buzz and sent me off on a film-making adventure that will continue ’til I'm an old timer. It’s silly, it’s lo-fi, and you can watch it here:
You can also view some of my photography here.
