“Build Me Up”

Director Biography

Steve’s filmmaking journey began in 2015 when he was the BTS photographer on an indie feature film. From there, Steve went on to work on multiple features, documentaries, online content and his own animated films. He achieved a First Class Honours degree in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes in 2017. Later that year, Steve directed the animation on Ready or Not, a Channel 4/Random Acts project shot at the NFTS. Subsequently, Steve spent a year in the Museums and Heritage sector as an Assistant Producer with Spiral Productions, a respected production company in London. This saw him write and edit scripts, direct teams, create and edit animatics and storyboards and oversee the commission and production of animation for national and international clients.

These skills proved invaluable in Steve’s MA in Directing Animation at the NFTS, where - in addition to directing and animating his own films - he provided voiceovers, character voices, character design and masterclass photography across other school projects. Having completed Build Me Up, Steve has turned his attention to writing a series based on the film, and recently completed work on a commercial project for Blue Zoo.

Director’s Statement

We always said we’d ‘go big or go home’ with this movie… And then the pandemic happened. Which made us all the more determined, especially with our primary themes of loss and family bonds amplified by the lockdown and the consequences of Covid-19. Several people on the crew were struck down with it and lost loved ones to it, but we were able to put our emotions into the animatic; in turn, that fed into the animation, sound, music and more.
We put our all into Build Me Up, as did everyone involved. The end result is a testament to their hard work, and to those original themes that we stayed true to exploring. The impact of 2020 both inside and outside the NFTS drove us to deliver a film that ultimately chose to celebrate the people we love; near, far and beyond.