Fifty-three years of looking. Thirty of getting paid for it.
ONE LIFE, MEASURED IN FRAMES.
Canberra to New York to Sydney. A senator's son and a sculptor's son, a swimmer, then twenty-three years in New York learning how television gets made. Now back home, pointing cameras at people who go all in.
Canberra
Born 16 November 1972 in Canberra to John Knight — a senator — and Karla Knight, a sculptor. A house with politics on one side of it and art on the other.
Red Hill, and a lot of laps
Canberra childhood. Red Hill Primary, family trips to the States, and swimming — every day, to state and national level, very young. My father died in 1981. A lot changed for us after that.
A different person returns
High school, and a stint living in Ohio in 1985 — prime Michael Jackson and Eddie Murphy, and a basketball picked up along the way. I came back to Australia a very different person.
Graduated from McDonald College of Performing Arts, worked at McDonald's for three months for $3,000, and moved to New York at eighteen. It was meant to be an adventure and then home. I stayed twenty-three years.
Acting, film school, MTV
A year at the Lee Strasberg Institute, then the decision to make films instead — and a place at Hunter College, CUNY. Out in 1995 and straight into MTV, first cutting promos, then production coordinator on MTV Sports.
Five years at MTV, then Nickelodeon to launch a new digital sports channel for kids. Went to the 1999 World Series and ended up on the field when the Yankees won.
Producer · editor · director
Freelancing as producer, editor and director across MTV Networks. Then the move into advertising — Omnicom, then WPP.
My son Kes was born on 11 November 2008. Everything changes.
New York, with a small person in it
The Kes years. Still at WPP, still in advertising, and a whole different set of priorities. We moved home to Australia in 2014.
Loom Creative · JKnight Vision
Home. Loom Creative, and then JKnight Vision. Kes becomes a teenager. Less interest in polish for its own sake, more interest in what's real.
More to come.
