DRAMA | DUMBO/CAPTA I N MARVEL
I started working as a camera assistant at the National Film School
the National Film School and then got a job at Samuelson, where I prepped jobs as a camera tech. I got my union ticket, and my first job was with my dad on the World Cup football in Mexico in 1987. I was always keen to light and operate and would turn down paid work to shoot something for anyone who asked me. It didn’t matter, as long as I was photographing.” Davis has five children, and most are connected to the film industry in one way or another. “Dora is an actress, while Finley is the only academic in the family, studying Engineering and Maths in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Roman, at the age of 12, has a film career and is one of the main characters in the upcoming Jojo Rabbit , Gibley is the storyteller and Hardy, the other twin, is a brilliant draughtsperson and artist, so I am starting a film dynasty,” he laughs.
single man travelling around the world,” he recalls. “I was a bright kid at school and got sent to Westminster City Grammar School, but the school system in the UK doesn’t cater to kids who are creative and want to move into the arts. It caters to one particular type of academia; if you like memorisxing maths and science tables, great, but if you are creative, the school system is not for you. Secondary school completely failed me. I used to pretend I was going to school, then change into my skateboarding clothes and skated all day long. I was a good skateboarder.” Davis is too modest to mention he was a skateboard star who featured in films, commercials and skateboard magazines. “What I learned is you can be good at something if you work at it. I’d skate every day – and it was good for me to learn that. My daughter, Dora, is a young actress and she discovered she had talent for something. She, too, learned you can achieve something if you work hard at it.” He continues: “I always had an interest in photography, I was always taking stills and developing and printing in our darkroom in Norland Square. My brother and I would photograph and make skateboard films for ourselves and our group. I remember worked at a building site when my Dad called from NYC and said, ‘Come on over here, I’ll get you a job as a trainee, you’ll get some work experience.’ And that was it for me. Later, I went back to England, went back to school at West London College and redid my exams. I started working as a camera assistant at
RIGHT There are certain techniques that are used if CG characters physically interact with the actors
32 DEF I N I T ION | APR I L 20 1 9
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