The technician and photography graduate taking music videography by storm

What was the highlight of your time as a student?   

A tricky one to answer! In terms of my time on the course, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy writing the dissertation as much as I did. I normally prefer making work over dissecting it academically (fortunately my coursework was mostly hands on and practical.) But I found a subject that really interested me and to my surprise, it came out ok.  

In general, I suppose my personal highlight during that time was finding a group of likeminded artists who I could make music and videos in collaboration with. We used to party on the beach a lot then, that was fun too! 

I want to explore new techniques and styles with each project to keep it interesting for myself. This helps expand the areas of knowledge that I can then pass on to students

As a technician, what types of projects do you support students with, and what do you most enjoy about supporting emerging creatives?   

I’m a technician on the Falmouth Campus, mostly dealing with Fine Art and Drawing students, but really supporting any Falmouth course. I’ll work with students on a wide range of practices, mainly within video, photography, sound, installations and a bit of interactive media.

As the students on the Falmouth Campus are for the most part not coming from an audiovisual tech-heavy background, I love that for a lot of them these areas are relatively new and unexplored. It means they bring a fun and playful attitude to this new area of their work, which is something I always strive for in my own. And while it’s my job to teach students how to use the equipment properly and safely, I try to encourage this approach.  

You write, direct and edit music videos, and have worked with the likes of Katy J Pearson, The Golden Dregs and your old band Holiday Ghosts. What does your creative process for creating music videos and films look like?  

With music videos it’s always about responding to the song emotionally. I listen to the track on repeat and go off an instinct for what I think will be an interesting visual match (and not look too naff.) I think a lot about film when I’m drafting a new treatment and approach each music video like a mini movie.  

When it comes to shooting, I like to work with small run and gun crews, and while I’m always thinking about composition and planning individual shots, I try to embed a lot of movement and rhythm into the whole process because I think it shows in the final “product”. The outcome is not always polished or slick but hopefully contains some interesting ideas. 

How do you go about balancing all the different elements of your creative practice?  

I want to explore new techniques and styles with each project to keep it interesting for myself. This helps expand the areas of knowledge that I can then pass on to students. Sometimes a workshop will inspire an idea for my own work and sometimes it’s the other way around. I make music, paint, design, write and all these things inform one another.  

The most important thing for me to stay energised artistically is to consume as much film as possible, that’s number one; I can’t get enough of movies and watching them always spurs me on to make my own, whether the film was fantastic or trash.  

Check out more of Charlie's work as dinomoves

Find out more about Photography BA(Hons)