Biography

Robert was born in 1965 in England. He started his professional career as a cartographer whilst making slide shows and cine films in his spare time. In 1991 he returned to college to develop his hobby and took an MA in electronic arts and graphics at Coventry University. Here he created his first computer animation The Sleeper.

Between films he also works as a multimedia designer creating interactive solutions for numerous clients. He is a regular visiting lecturer at Coventry University and gives talks and tutorials at various colleges around Great Britain. He lives in London.

Work

In 1993 Robert was awarded an Arts Council of England Animate! grant to make End of Restriction, a five minute film created on a home-based Apple Mac that enters the world of a teenager boy living in an English village.

He completed Home Road Movies in 2001 for Channel 4 and the Arts Council of England National Lottery. Again created on a desktop computer, the film tells the true story of his father and their family car.

In 2003 he collaboration with Yousaf Ali Khan on the live action short Talking with Angels and produced the opening animated sequence.

At present Robert is working on his new animation Dead Air, which deals with how we cope with changes in our lives.

Arden Sutherland-Dodd represent him for television commercials.

His films include:

Home Road Movies, 2001, 12mins, 1:1.85, DigiBeta, 35mm Dolby SR Surround. A Finetake Production for Channel 4 in association with the Arts Council of England.

The real-life story of a shy and awkward father who desperately wanted the family car to make him a better parent.

The film is based upon the family folklore and memories of his children. After his death they realise that their first and only family car, once a luxurious chariot to endless holidays in paradise, had gradually become a painful vehicle of his affection.

Their dad’s struggle to be a loving parent had turned into a battle against rust.

The film presents family episodes using innovative and atmospheric computer animation combined with treated album photographs. The father, performed by Bill Paterson in live-action, is woven into this vivid family history.

“a truly breathtaking film” Museum of Modern Art, New York.

End of Restriction, 1994, 5mins, 1:1.33, BetaSP, 16mm. An Animate! film for the Arts Council of England and Channel Four.

End of Restriction enters into the suffocating world of a teenage boy growing up in an English village. It follows his bicycle journey through the stagnant scenery of his sleepy community where the only excitement is the daily non-stop express train that heads to London.

The black-and-white film mixes still photography and illustrations with animated 3D computer modelling.

“delightful and disturbing” John Wyver, Illuminations.

“mundane details and a melancholy atmosphere brilliantly evoke a claustrophobic childhood” Jane Giles, ICA.

“extraordinary…an uncanny monochrome vision of an English village” Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent.