James Hancock
“My Dad is a chartered accountant and my Mom also works in a similar business management role. They have always been supportive in my ambitions to pursue a non conventional career.”
“I went to school at St. Johns College in Southsea, UK. University wasn’t really for me. After leaving college to pursue a windsurfing career I did an open university course in business studies which was mostly course work. I split that work between Maui and back home in Portsmouth. School and education was obviously very important but I really got a sense of life once I started to travel.”
“Once I became a professional windsurfer you are effectively your own business. The same as a freelance filmmaker, I didn’t get any coaching and was very much learning from experience. From my travels through windsurfing, I picked up a camera and started to film my trips. I always loved film and I had the opportunity to edit some video for a windsurfing dvd. It was a learning process more than anything and is what separated doing things for fun and work. From there I began to film different things, some corporate stuff, some real estate, anything to make money really. But really I just wanted to film sports stuff, so I sold my car and bought a water housing and drone along with attaining a commercial drone license. I was very much a one man team and just wanted to be able to do everything myself.”
“Around 4 years ago I was top 10 on the PWA World Tour and broke my leg playing football with my friends after the first couple of events. This put me out of competitive windsurfing for a year. This was a year where I ended up transitioning more into the film side of things. I then went onto producing films in Maui, hanging out of helicopters and swimming amongst waves. I still got to windsurf but I loved the responsibility to deliver some videos in a sport I loved so much. After that I became an ambassador for Lumix where I have continued to work on a variety of projects.”
"Both my parents were and are always supportive. I think if they were going to be ok with my quitting college to fly to the other side of the world to pursue a dream then they would be ok with anything!”
“I guess at the start it the biggest influence was Brendan Pyatt from Umi Pictures. That was really like film school for me. I learned a lot of the technical side and was given the tools to produce and learn. Looking back it was really important as it is easy to pick up a camera or to buy some software. But to be able to know the best way to approach projects and work with the tools was something different. Back then it was Final Cut Studio and was a different entity. We were working on projects that were filmed with 5 or 6 different cameras. It was a steep learning curve at the time to know how to do everything correctly. Since then my biggest drive is being blown away with peoples work. I think that is what influences me the most. When I get emotionally connected to something that I have watched, I think about how I can ever be good enough to be able to produce something to that level. I then try to learn and just do my own thing from there.”
“A lot of what I have done, especially in the beginning, was for experience and to learn. The more I could do the more experience I gained. I was lucky enough to have another career in windsurfing that allowed me to float in and out of projects. I had no real bills to pay and was on the road a lot. If I had to work out where my next money was coming from then it would have been a different story until now.”
“Now I find myself busier then I ever have been, which is a good thing I guess. My fiancé Rebecca and I are expecting our first child pretty soon and I am in the editing room near to home. I’ve had to move out of my home office for it to be a nursery. I spent a month in Hawaii a couple of months ago filming all the footage for a 2019 campaign which requires a lot of post production, that’s pretty much what I’m taking care of at the moment to free up a bit of time for fatherhood in the next months. After that I’m pretty fired up for some new projects. There will certainly be some exciting stuff with Lumix and I’m in the process of starting a film production business. So there is a lot going on, but all pretty exciting.”
“I would like to focus on a bit more collaborative work than doing a lot on my own. I’m getting to the stage where I have to prioritize things and with the right team of people I think it is better than doing everything yourself. There is stuff that I suck at and others I’m better at and there are some incredibly talented guys out there who will be able to all contribute to making amazing films. So with the right people by your side the final vision will be better. And for me that is all that matters.”