About Us

Creative Vandalism is:

“Jack of all trades, master of some. At my heart I’m a storyteller, a writer. For a while I thought I was just a filmmaker, but I soon discovered that I was limiting my stories by tying them down to just one medium. I’m still very much a film maker in my mindset, but I dabble in illustration too. I’ve been drawing longer than I’ve been filming come to think of it… anyway the important thing about me is that I write stories and I started Creative Vandalism as a means of telling those stories…

“I first came up with the concept for Creative Vandalism in 2014, I was in college doing my A levels at the time. I’d always wanted to be a filmmaker, and as my tastes broadened comics and video games became part of that dream. I think what inspired me to go down the whole independent, DIY route was not only my germinating left-wing, anti-cooperate politics, but Peter Jackson’s 1987 schlock-fest Bad Taste.

“While the film has a reputation for being a trashy “so-bad-it’s-good” B-movie, my filmmaking brain saw a masterpiece. The plot, the dialogue, the camera work, the sound, yes it was all very low budget and amateurish, but you could tell that this was a master at work. Someone who had passion and talent for storytelling. Someone who had worked for three years, filming in his spare time with friends from work, doing everything themselves. That’s what I wanted to do.

“I never liked the idea of getting a job at some big company, to slowly climb the career ladder and one day make writer or director, and maybe, someday, get my big break. I have ideas now, why not make them a reality… now?

“Looking at the media industry in its current form, with the many advancements in technology that have made it easier and affordable to just do it yourself, there’s been a massive surge in indie creators getting their work out there and being successful. The big businesses: Hollywood, the AAA game industry, major publishers, are all becoming obsolete, and as we move further and further into this hyper-capitalist society, they are becoming more predatory in their business practices. It’s time for an independent media revolution, and I want to be a part of it.”

Follow Darcy on Twitter and Instagram.

For old film work, visit Creative Vandalism’s secondary YouTube channel here.

“I grew up with a dad who shot to fame as the first entry on the independent UK charts when they first opened and a fixation on the Kevin Smith film ‘Clerks’. As a result, I’m a big believer in the do-it-yourself independent ethos. I have spent years playing bass in bands as the opening act for big artists but always found that there was a push to be more ‘marketable’ if we wanted to get a record deal, and that it was infringing on my creative freedoms.

“From there I decided that I was going to do things in my own fashion- haphazardly and by the seat of my pants. When I met Darcy at university, I found a kindred spirit. We were both sceptical of the pressure to enter ‘tHe MeDiAaaa iNdUstRy’ and to slog our way as runners for projects that were not creatively inspiring until eventually someone somewhere someway maybe might give us a chance to be a somebody.

“Screw that, we said. Let’s just do our own thing, and let our own self-produced work speak for itself with no outside big wigs to force us to make things we don’t want to. Why should we follow an outdated career path when in this modern and technologically connected world we can reach out to audiences that are interested ourselves? We can be bold explorers of a new realm of creative freedom, working alongside talented fellow collaborators for the love of storytelling!”

Follow Molly on Twitter and Instagram

For Molly’s other work, visit her personal YouTube channel here.

Frequent Collaborators:

Roger has been working with us since 2019, primarily doing special effects work for our upcoming web series The ‘Stew. Being a naturally funny guy, we let him write gags for it too.

“As the oldest member of the Creative Vandalism team, I remember a time before computers and the interwebs, a time where if you wanted to create a visual effect, you bloody built a thing you could hold, ideally blow up, and stuck it in front of a camera with film running through it. In other words, what is now known as practical effects, as opposed to pushing pixels.

“But visual effects, or VFX for short, isn’t all about risking limbs and fingers with small but potentially maiming quantities of explosives, enjoyable as that is. Models, or miniatures as they’re known in the trade, made it possible to blow up a zeppelin or bomb Pearl Harbour on cue, guffaw as Tokyo crumbed for the umpteenth time beneath the clodhopping feet of another rubbery monster, and cheer as the White House exploded. Painting on glass magically restored ancient Rome, took us to the forbidden planet of the Krells and gave us Kane’s Xanadu. Stop-motion breathed life into real looking objects or animals, to tragic matchboxes to tragic lovelorn apes savage tyrannosaurs. Puppetry and animatronics enabled us to ponder Yoda’s wisdom, thrill as Captain Nemo battled a giant squid, and made our stomachs heave as dogs turned inside out in the Antarctic.

“All these and more, and the men who created them, have influenced me all my life. Names like Willis O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen, Derek Meddings, Les Bowie, Albert Whitlock, Rob Bottin, Stan Winston, Stuart Freeborn, to me these (and more) were, and remain, larger than life, way more interesting than the film stars whose names adorned posters and magazines. And as an inveterate tinkerer, I had to have a go myself, starting on creaky experiments on Super8 film in the 1980s, then after a long interval, starting again and taking advantage of (yes, I admit it) computer technology: digital cameras and editing software.

“And so during the last few years, I’ve blown up model buildings, animated strange monsters, built and operated weird belly creatures, and made even weirder politicians from rubber.

“This is where Creative Vandalism comes in: a faintly luddite, anarchistic collective dedicated to imagining and realising mad things in a mad world. If you want ultra-slick eye-popping production line CGI, go elsewhere. If you want guerrilla filmmaking with a pleasing old-school sensibility, dive in…”

Follow Roger on Twitter, it’s all he has.

To see Roger’s vast array of puppets, miniatures and other special effects, visit his personal
YouTube channel here.

Nic first worked with us all the way back in 2014, scoring the soundtrack for Darcy’s debut short film Eaten by Aliens, a homage to Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste. He’s composed several tracks for the test footage we’ve shown for The ‘Stew and is currently set to compose the score for the full episodes when they release.

Nic has lived in 5 countries and been a guitarist in both a Death Metal and a Reggae band. He works full time in Renewable Energies, however Nic has never let go of his passion for music, specifically score music. Nic mainly uses guitars, analogue & modular synths, sound database for ethnic and orchestra sounds and digital effects. With a home studio in a laptop, Nic can compose and edit on the go!

If you like any of the music Nic has done for us and would like him to score one of your projects, you
can email him at Nico.wall@icloud.com!