Hello I’m Richard!
My last name is an awkward one: it’s pronounced “PUR” + “vis” or “pə́ːvɪs” if you really prefer modern IPA. I do many tech things that I freely talk about here, and many more film and writing things that I don’t really discuss.
I’m British but I live in the USA now as a dual citizen. Still single and no kids.
Happily partnered with Monica, who I met through a mutual friend.
Act 1: Exposition
1980 to 1998 – Formative years in the North East of the UK
1985 – First trip to the cinema. Peter Pan which helps instill a love for movies that persists to this day
1987 – First exposure to computing with my uncle’s ZX Spectrum, then my father’s Acorn Electron and later on the BBC Micro
1988 – Discovered plugging an Electron PSU into a Spectrum computer causes holes to appear in the circuit board and the magic blue smoke to escape.
1989 – First attempts at writing computer programs, first in BBC Basic and then later in 6502 assembler. None survive today. None of them did much.
Act 2: Rising Action
1990 – More school years. An extremely painful part of my life. I don’t talk about it anymore.
1992 – Start exploring early PCs and MS-DOS
1998 – Almost totally screw up my life. I was a barely functioning mess back then. Sorry S, D and many others but I’m not sure I can ever apologise enough.
1999 to 2001 – I scrambled to stay alive. The first seeds of making films instead of just watching start here thanks to a certain R.
Act 3: Climax
2001 to 2003 – Film school. I figured if you’re going to try and make one film, should really learn how to do it first.
2003 – Final assignment was a documentary piece that me and D called “One Night Stand-Up”. We literally disappeared for six weeks and handed it in early.
2004 to 2009 – Various contract short term IT jobs. I think I ended up in every city in the UK except Shrewsbury.
2007 – Landed a job at a (then) major UK publishing company. This role starts my Apple IT journey although if I never see Radmind again it’ll be too soon.
2007 – Wrote, directed, helped produce and financed Mayfly, my first short film. Post production ended up being part time until 2008.
2009 to 2011 – Worldwide Financial crisis.
2009 – Mayfly World Premiere at the Burbank Film Festival. Later that year Gold Remi Award winner at Houston WorldFest. Not bad for a first attempt.
2010 – Spectacularly mistimed attempt to get a feature film off the ground. “Forever and a Night” gets attention from the UK acting world and fails to raise a single penny in finance because HMRC clampdown on film finance due to various tax frauds. I went into “big boy” debt on this and spend next few years paying it off.
Act 4: Falling Action
2011 – Back to IT jobs. Notably in London this time. I move from being a support tech to a sys admin at this point.
2012 to 2014 – Time basically spent working, paying off debts and generally living like a miser.
2015 – Opportunity arose to work in Saudi Arabia. I learned a lot about Arabic and Islamic culture that I was previously ignorant of. I also didn’t know it at the time, but I met someone who became a friend who then inadvertently introduced me to my current partner.
2016 – Offered a job in Zurich, Switzerland. Went for six months, was there two and a half years. Learned a lot, earned enough to save like crazy. Started immigration process to move to US for the films.
2017 – First visa interview. It does not go well. (Blogged starting here).
2019 – Work various jobs, second visa interview and move to the USA. $20k on application and attorney fees paid off.
Act 5: Dénouement
2020 – Start setting up new life and film projects. Then the pandemic lands.
2021 – IT saves my bacon by allowing me to keep an apartment and a car during this extremely strange period in history.
2025 – Everything comes to a complete stop at the end of July. I’ve formulated plans but i’m still looking for the next opportunity. Various writing projects and far too many video games.
The rest is coming later …