A multi-project branded documentary collaboration with Rubicon RAW, exploring what it means to be a force of nature through surfing and mountain biking across the UK.
Rubicon RAW | BE A FORCE OF NATURE
ABOUT
LOCATION: United Kingdom
This body of work brings together three branded documentary campaigns created for Rubicon RAW as part of their Be A Force Of Nature platform — RAWsome Waves, RAWsome Trails, and Beneath The Surface.
Spanning surf and mountain biking culture across England and Scotland, the films explore the relationship between athlete and environment; where performance, identity, and nature intersect.
Across multiple short-form films, the campaigns follow world-class athletes including Ben Skinner, Lucy Campbell, Lachlan Blair, Ellie Turner, Katy Winton and Tassy Swallow.
Each story is rooted in lived experience, capturing not just physical ability, but the mental resilience, discipline, and emotional clarity required to operate at the highest level.
Visually, the work blends cinematic documentary with a mixed-media approach; combining ground-based cinematography, FPV and aerial drones, underwater footage, POV action cameras, archival material, and retro textures. This layered aesthetic mirrors the unpredictability and energy of the environments themselves, creating a tactile, immersive viewing experience.
Designed as high-performing branded content for sport and lifestyle audiences, the campaigns position Rubicon RAW at the intersection of culture, performance, and nature, while showcasing a story-led, human-centred approach to commercial filmmaking across multiple deliverables.
“That feeling of being alive comes from being close to dying.”
Personal Reflection
This collaboration felt like a natural meeting point between where I started and where my work has evolved to.
Before moving into documentary and commercial work, I spent years making action sports films; learning how to capture movement, energy, and instinct in a way that felt immediate and real. These projects brought me back into that world, but with a different lens. Less about the action itself, and more about the people inside it.
What interested me wasn’t just what these athletes could do, but how they think, how they respond to pressure, and what their relationship is with the environments they place themselves in. Whether it was surfing in Cornwall or riding in the Scottish hills, there was a shared thread — this constant negotiation between control and surrender.
Each project came with its own challenges. Unpredictable conditions, shifting environments, tight timelines. You can plan as much as you like, but ultimately you’re working with nature, and that demands adaptability.
In many ways, the process mirrored the subjects themselves. You respond, you adjust, you find something honest in what you’re given. And the mixed-media approach grew out of that. Different formats, textures, and capture methods allowed us to build something that felt closer to how these experiences are actually lived — fragmented, sensory, and physical. Not overly polished, but intentional.
Looking back, what stays with me isn’t the scale of the campaigns, but the mindset behind them. The idea that being a ‘force of nature’ isn’t about dominance—it’s about awareness, respect, and presence.
That’s something I’ve carried forward into everything I’ve made since.
