Richard Purves is No Dick

Posted in Friends of trippin'
November 17th, 2009 by Devi Snively (The Directrix)

richard renny smI met Richard Purves at the Burbank International Film Festival.  I seem to recall among my first words to him were, “I’ll take a look at yours if you take a look at mine.”  I was referring, of course, to our respective films that were screening on the same day.  We’ve been friends ever since.

richard devi graveyard smHe had popped across the pond (from the U.K., that is) with Alex Parsons, his composer.  Kenny and I spent a fun afternoon with these delightful Brits, sharing filmmaking war stories and what-not.  It’s always a bit of a crap shoot befriending somebody at a fest before you see his film, because there’s always the chance you’ll wind up in the awkward position of seeing his film and not liking it and having to come up with something positive to say on the spot.

Fortunately, Mayfly absolutely blew me away.  Talking to Richard beforehand, I was expecting sort of a quirky, amusing Sci-fi satire or parody due to his wry sense of humor (for example, his state-of-the-art cell phone has this feature that makes it into a toy gun with various gunfire sounds which he’d use to “shoot” people – real and imagined – as we got into impassioned discussions about the challenges of being a struggling artist.

However, I was dead wrong about his film.  It’s quite elegant really.  Intelligent and heartbreaking, simple yet poignant.  It features really great performances and looks far more expensive than its limited budget would suggest. So let this be a lesson to us all – never pre-judge a film by its filmmaker.

I’ve since met up with Richard on 2 more occasions.  He traveled to London to catch a screening of Death in Charge at Sci-Fi London, then again to Whitby to our screening at the Bram Stoker Film Festival – how supportive is that?  I won’t divulge the premise to his next film, but based on the pitch he shared, I’m most impressed.  Keep an eye out for this talented director.  I suspect he’s gonna freak us all out (in a great way) real soon – yay!

Please introduce yourself.

Greetings!  I’m Richard Purves, a 30-something year old struggling broke filmmaker who moonlights as a contract IT engineer.

How did we happen to meet?

Our actual first meeting is a little hazy for me but for certain it was at the 2009 Burbank International Film Festival.  It was my first festival with my first film getting its world premiere screening so I pretty much was running on adrenaline for the entire time.

I remember this force of nature help me round up people for my premiere screening and being extremely grateful that she did.  Later on I found out her name was Devi and we swapped business cards.

What were you doing then?

World Premiere Screening of my sci-fi short film “Mayfly”.

What are you doing now?

I’m trying to find some sort of 9-5 job to pay the bills as I co-develop my feature film script.

How would you describe your work?

Harsh? Unforgiving? Nah, I’m not going to try. I’ll let the audience decide.
So far it’s been pretty positive.

Who/what are your artistic influences?

James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Darren Aronofsky

What is your major goal in life?  How are you planning to achieve it?

To get my US visa, move out there permanently and make feature films. I’ve got a couple ideas on the boil and one script in serious development right now. I’ve got meeting(s) arranged next Jan with various people in L.A.

What do you think of film festivals – what are the benefits?  Drawbacks?

I like them generally. It’s a good chance to see films, meet people and generally hobnob about. I just wish it wasn’t such a lottery to pay for entry and maybe get in. I also wish I had more frequent flyer miles to make traveling less expensive!

What else should people know about you?

I’m completely insane? I think you have to be to even think about a career in this business. I’m also highly motivated and probably one of the most ambitious and competitive people you might meet.  I’ve had to be just to get this far.

One Response to “Richard Purves is No Dick”

  1. Devi you give me too much credit! There were plenty of others behind my short film who had big contributions. Alex Parsons did a fantastic score, N. Andrew Scandrett helped develop the underlying story and producer Richard Reay got the entire thing off the ground. They are the main three people responsible for my film turning out the way it did and I couldn’t have done it without them.

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