S.J. Evans

SJ Evans was born and raised in a small market town, Wrexham, situated in North Wales, UK.After learning his trade through attending numerous workshops with people such as 'Stephen Frears' (The Queen, Dangerous Liaisons), 'Ken Russell (I)' (The Devils) and 'Timothy Burrell' (The Pianist) SJ got his first job in the film industry near the top working as DoP on the feature film 'Seeing is Believing' in late 2001.From then he went on to work on Short Films, Music Videos, Television Programmes and a variety of Corporate projects in a similar capacity. However, SJ's own desire to create his ideas into films grew so much he decided to create his own production company in 2002 called Nikjaw Productions Ltd.His first decision was to direct, produce and even edit a short film he'd written earlier that year called 'The Invisible World'. Although technically it wasn't the greatest film ever made, the moving and sometimes harrowing tale of social attitudes towards the homeless gained SJ many admirers, impressing TV executives from both Argentina and USA to screen the short.The company went forward and produced a wide variety of projects including a commercial which had a successful two month screening on the SKY network and a fitness video which sold out nationwide. However it was SJ's love of short films that the company thrived on producing.The next two shorts 'Blink of an Eye' and 'Out of Reach' brought particular success and prestige to NikJaw Productions. In late 2002 'Blink of an Eye' was voted third out of over six hundred films from over forty countries at the renowned Foyle Film Festival and gained a special mention from the events organizers. Then in 2003, 'Out of Reach' (a prequel to 'The Invisible World') was nominated for Best International Short at the Irish Film Festival and though it wasn't placed, as Director, Producer, Writer and Editor SJ had great pleasure introducing the film to the enthusiastic Irish crowd. Both films have since been screened at various festivals throughout the UK, gaining positive reactions from whoever watches.The success of the shorts brought attention from many corners of the industry and SJ was eventually invited to become a member of BAFTA in early-2004 which he describes as "one of the proudest days of my life".After changing the company's structure to accommodate the very talented 'Sousila Pillay' and re-packaging itself as Pillay-Evans Productions, more success was soon to follow as the HD short 'Fate' and the remarkable 'Self' (in which SJ also made his acting debut) both were short-listed for the DM Davies award at the Welsh International Film Festival in 2005.In 2009 SJ started directing his first documentary, the feature 'Tattoos: A Scarred History'. The film had a successful screening in Cannes in 2010, receiving several international sales offers, and was released on DVD by 4digital Media in the UK & Ireland.SJ has just completed the feature horror 'Dead of the Nite' with icon Tony Todd and is due to direct the horror comedy 'New Years Evil' in late-2012. Show less «