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 Permanent Resident since December 27th 2019. Still single and no kids.
I was setting up my life again in the US when the pandemic happened, so I’m “staying safe” for now. Triumph over various adversities etc.
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 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.
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.
The rest is coming later …