Sam is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer based in Tokyo, Japan. Starting out by shooting music videos for friends bands in Oxford, he quickly developed an eye for an interesting angle and started receiving offers for work. After 4 years of shooting by himself, he quit his job to go freelance and never looked back.

He moved to Japan in 2016, began to learn the language and immerse himself in the culture. His work covers a wide variety of topics, from arts and music to sports and nature. Whether it’s features on dance scenes across Japan for Resident Advisor, breakdancers for Red Bull, sake breweries in the deepest darkest countryside or documenting the latest installations for TeamLab, Sam has a passion for getting great coverage and using it to tell stories.

With over 8 years of experience as a freelancer he has become accustomed to shooting as part of small teams or fitting into a larger commercial style shoot. His work has been featured on the likes of Netflix, Apple TV, NBC (US), BBC (UK), Three Now (NZ) and many more. His work as director for Resident Advisor won the Digiday European Marketing & Advertising Awards 2019 for the Best Branded Content Series. In October 2023 he shot ‘Mirador’ for NHK, which was shot and broadcast in 8K.

As well as his own Canon C500 mark ii package and DJI Mavic 3 Cine, he is used to working with RED, Arri and Sony cinema cameras. He now has N3 level Japanese and is very, very slowly working his way towards N2. When he’s not making films he can be found making dreamy, ambient music with his project Hanegi Koen.