Biography

Because I work as my own Editor, I use a technique called 'Shooting the edit', I know what coverage I will use and not use as I have already edited it on paper or in my head. So I just shoot what I am going to use in the movie.

I started when I was 12 with a super 8 camera in 1980. I saw ET in 82 and decided I had to be a filmmaker and just started shooting, all through high school and then film school in the USA.

I have used live animals in all of my animal centric feature films and I have made four(4) now. I have worked with dogs, bears, wolves, lions, hyena, giraffe, cobras, and of course...elephants!

Using a real animal is key to making these films, one could use computer generated animals that is true. However, you'll never be able to program into a computer the unpredictability of a living organism. The elephants used in this movie are great performers and did so many "unscripted" things that made it into the movie. These are moments that would have been lost using computer generated elephants. Real animals also look much better on screen and are timeless, whereas computer generated animals start to look dated after five years. Think of the Black Stallion made in 1979, it's as powerful today as it was in 1979.

Yeah, it was important for me to have the audience feel that there was a definite bond between the boy and the elephant. ... I think that the advertising for documentary projects have failed on this subject because people haven't been able to make an emotional connection with elephants yet through cinema. A documentary doesn't really do that. And the 30-second spots for World Wildlife Fund don't really do that. They're good, and it's a great idea. But my idea was to take it to a whole new level.