Originally from South Africa, where he enjoyed success as a Vert skateboarder while studying Art and Design, he immigrated to the UK in 1993. Putting his academic studies to practical use, Rory became involved in post-production for TV and film. While deeply fascinated by the manipulation of images, Rory was also stimulated by their actual creation. So, applying his understanding of the still (photographic) image to the moving image, he sought to take charge of the movie camera himself in order to manage both production and post-production processes. As a director, cinematographer, editor and colourist, Rory founded the production company Mine Films with producer Diane Bolt in 2002.

Offering a holistic service to deliver a complete audio-visual product, Mine Films has been involved in TV commercials, music videos, documentaries and feature films at the very highest end of digital filmmaking. Mine Films is credited with owning the country’s first RED ONE™ 4K camera.

Rory’s purchasing of “the world’s most advanced camera system” is true to his artistic interest in the creation and manipulation of the recorded image. And although he concedes that the digital revolution is a double-edged sword for filmmaking in that it has facilitated an increase in both high and low quality products, he’s confident that such democratisation within a hitherto esoteric artform will compel the “better” filmmakers to strive for even greater artistic achievement.

The technology-led potential for over-subscription to roles within the filmmaking community—coupled with increasing budgetary restrictions within the British film industry that are due, in part, to the relative cheapness of the digital medium—adds further weight to his insightful motto that “creativity blooms within confines”.

In effect, Rory aims to bring a film (i.e. celluloid) discipline to the realm of digital filmmaking in which the rigours of celluloid (e.g. lighting, shooting ratio) have supposedly receded. For him, it’s the innate restrictions of filmmaking—such as those imposed by environmental and human factors (which don’t tend to exist in other art forms)—that provide the surge of adrenaline when they’re overcome. During the production phase, filmmaking is often composed of a series of “problems” that must be solved, so it’s the collaborative effort of all involved that Rory finds so rewarding: the feeling of achievement and the communal sense of ownership of the audio-visual end product, which, hopefully, satisfies the client!

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