Simon Mulvaney
“The most influential elements of my childhood came in two parts - the first time I picked up a video camera and the first time I put on a pair of inline skates. Both of these seemingly small events played a huge part in my development as a teenager, as I spent most of my free time inline skating with friends, capturing our urban adventures on video and spending hours upon hours editing and re-editing the footage, using a basic copy of Pinnacle Home Studio on my family computer.”
“My Mum and Dad had a lot of different careers, whilst I was growing up. During my early life, my Mum was a receptionist for the Ministry of Defence, before leaving that to create and sell salt dough ornaments at craft fairs. Eventually, she became a receptionist at a school where she stayed for the majority of my teenage years.”
“My Dad was a used car salesman for a time, working long hours. Those long hours encouraged him to go to university as a mature student, to complete a degree and a teacher training course, eventually finding as a learning mentor, helping high school students who struggled to engage with the traditional structure of the education system. Both my parents are still married and are now retired; spending most of their time traveling around Europe in a van.”
“As a kid, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do as an adult. My parents saw filmmaking as something that I spent a lot of my free time doing, so supported me fully on my journey towards turning it into a career. Although, that did come with it’s fair share of warnings, towards how difficult it would be to make money in a creative field.”
“I went to a high school called Calday Grange Grammar School, which you have to pass a test at age eleven to gain entry to. Somehow, I managed to pass that test, along with a lot of my closest friends. The school itself was great, but it was very traditional in it’s approach to education. The closest subjects to film were ‘Fine Art’ and ‘Theatre Studies’, for which I constantly submitted films. Even though, in hindsight, filmmaking had nothing to do with the subjects!”
“I went to Staffordshire University, which at the time, lured me in with the fact that they were offering a Bachelor Of Science degree in Film Production, instead of the usual Bachelor Of Arts degree. During the university's open day, they proudly proclaimed to a lecture hall, filled with 17 year old children, that in the film industry, nobody will take you seriously, unless you have a BSc degree. Little did I know, that nobody in the film industry would ever even ask or care whether I had a degree or not.”
“University was great for making connections with people, that would lead to my first opportunities in the professional world of film, but ultimately, if I were to give any advice to somebody thinking of getting into the industry, it would be to start at the bottom and learn on the job, or pick up a camera and go your own way. My degree was Film Production Technology BSc. It mainly focused on the scientific and mathematical practices of filmmaking such as, how encoding and camera sensors work. It didn’t focus too much on the creative side of filmmaking; that was something I would have to learn for myself.”
“For me, there were multiple stages of entry into the industry and I still am yet to enter my specific industry of choice, which is feature and serialised documentary.”
“When I was in university, I made a lot of skateboard, inline skate and BMX films for various brands. I would hire camera gear from my university and create short films for skateparks and brands, for which I’d get paid next to nothing. But I was just happy to have projects to work on.”
“When I left university, I got the opportunity to travel the world and create a feature-length inline skate film called ‘Ground Control’. This was an incredible experience for me and although I made no money, it lead to a number of commercial and creative opportunities further down the road. During that time, I supplemented my income as a camera operator for a wedding production company, a DOP on low-budget commercial projects, editing anything and everything I could get my hands on and creating corporate videos.”
“In 2014, The Gate Films reached out and asked if I’d be interested working with them full time, as a commercials director. It was at this stage, that I began to work more consistently with larger crews and post production facilities, on a huge variety of different projects. At the time, I didn’t know what specific medium of film I wanted to go into, so having this huge variety of projects was very influential in helping me to learn where my skills and weaknesses lay, as a filmmaker.”
“In 2017 I left my full time position, as an in-house director at The Gate Films, to become a freelance filmmaker/director and travel the world, to discover who I was, as a filmmaker. It was at this time, that I shot ‘Annapurna Sky’, ‘Under The Rope’ and ‘The Hand Of India’, which all managed to find a fairly large audience online, leading to most of the opportunities I have today.”
“I’ve been inspired by thousands of other filmmakers and artists, but the biggest influences in my career have been the people who have given me opportunities, based on very little, other than they like me as a person and believe that I can achieve something.”
“First of all, it was my parents, who encouraged me to save enough money for my first camera and editing software, as well as allowing me to cut my films on the dinosaur that was our home computer. Then it was a local skatepark called Rampworx, who would pay me small, yet hugely appreciated amounts of money, to shoot event videos for them, leading me to have a foothold in the action sports industry. Then, it was my good buddy Kyle Shephard, a comedy director from the UK, who I began making films with at the age of 12. Kyle introduced me to the world of commercials and allowed me to start turning my passion into an actual career, that paid enough money to support myself. James Shannon at The Gate Films, for teaching me how to deal with big commercial clients and the skills required to work with large production crews and post production houses.”
“Most recently, it’s been my agent, Lowell Shapiro at Black Box Management, who reached out, after my film ‘Under The Rope’ was selected for a Vimeo Staff Pick and has helped me to gain the knowledge, confidence and direction, to pursue a career in the world of feature and/or serialised documentaries.”
“My first job was behind the camera desk at a UK based retailer called PC World. When I began working in the film industry itself, I did so as a freelance one-man-band filmmaker - coming up with the concept, shooting and cutting everything I worked on. This is something I still enjoy doing today, but only for projects that require an intimate, gorilla style, such as ‘The Hand Of India’.”
“Most of my film projects used to be made up by commercials. However, I’m now trying to find more of a balance between my paid and passion projects. This approach allows me to try out new things and become a better storyteller in the process.”
“Manchester in England, is the place I currently call home. It’s the UK’s second city, as far as the media and creative industries are concerned and living there has played a huge role in my career. The city has a vibrant creative community and is small enough for me to often leave the city, to find inspiration in other pockets of the UK. It provided me with enough work opportunities to improve creatively as a filmmaker, but doesn’t have the relentless ant nest vibe of bigger cities. However, most of my commercial projects now come from international brands, agencies and clients, which requires me to travel the world and be location independent with my work.”
“In the future, I would like to create at least one film that has a small impact on the world. I’m not sure what form that will take and it’s an ambitious goal, but I believe that through honesty, integrity and vulnerability, it can be achieved. Other than that, I’d just like to be content with who I am and loved by those around me, in a community that gives me purpose.”