 John left the music business "following an ill-fated busking-trip to Paris with nine-piece kazoo band performing Motown numbers," and set about equipping himself to work as a film maker.A graduate of Newport Film School (formerly part of the University of Wales, Newport, now the University of South Wales), John won Best Fiction Film at the BP EXPO student film awards for his first short "Surface Tension" and the following year won Runner Up Best Screenplay for "Dando's Brilliantine" in the Fuji Scholarship Awards.On leaving film school, John made a further three short films under various schemes.