Biography
After graduating from university, Karl started as a runner in 1985 and worked his way up through the ranks of loader, focus puller, until getting his big break operating Stop Motion and Model camera on the 35mm theatrical features 'Hellraiser 2' and 'Nightbreed' for cameraman Harry Oakes in 1988.
He has been lighting since 1990 when he lit 2nd unit on'Hardware', since then he has shot short films, pop promos, TV dramas (such as 'Jim's Gift', 'The Big Game'), Channel Idents (including 86 of the award winning BBC2 Idents), hundreds of commercials ranging from Pizza Hut, Hitachi TVs, Haagen Daaz, Birdseye, Daewoo cars, Polycell, McDonalds, McVities, Halifax Building Society, Lego and Scalextric to name just a few, all for many of the top directors in the industry.
Recent features work includes 2nd Unit D.o.P on ' High heels and Low Lifes' for Dir. Mel Smith, 2nd Unit on'Swept Away' for Dir. Guy Ritchie and 2nd Unit on Mel Smith's last film 'Blackball', as well as 2nd Unit on 'Sex Lives of the Potato Men'.
Recent commercial shoots include work for Vauxhall (VX220), Sky FA Cup Promo, EuroDisney, Stella Artois, Hornby, Tescos and the James Nesbitt spots for Sky Premiership Plus. The Shammasian Brothers used Karl on their debut commercial for Bang and Olufsen using the revolutionary Arri Tornado camera to capture stunning images that subsequently won the brothers and Godmans their first Gold at Cannes for Best Newcomers.
Lately he has been concentrating on lighting short films including 'Birdlife', a 10 minute contemporary comedy shot on 16mm for Dir. Julian Burgess. 'Green', a very dark drama piece shot on High Definition for the experimental wing of Film Four (Film Four Lab) for Dir. Martin Pick at Bermuda Shorts and a whimsical comedy short for Dir. Tommy Collins (for the Irish Film Board) calledthe 'Phantom Cnut' shot on Digibeta but blown up to 35mm. All of which have been entered for all the short film festivals this year and are already garnering much interest and critical acclaim.
Karl believes that any cameraman worth his salt when asked should be able to produce any style of lighting from dark dramatic chiaroscuro to light high key comedy and every shade in-between, "I don't want to be pigeonholed into one type of work, I thrive on variety and a diversity of new challenges.'Filming is a team effort', I surround myself with a camera and a lighting crew of consummate hard working professionals and in doing so make the job of realizing the directors vision much easier".
You will find that whatever your shoot, Karl will bring fresh ideas, innovative lighting and operating, and an enthusiasm and ability second to none.