From his humble beginnings as an office boy at age 19, Alan Parker worked his way up in the advertising business and began his career in earnest when he and partner Alan Marshall founded a production company to make industrial films and commercials. Between 1969 and 1978, Parker churned out over 500 television commercials, winning every major industry award, while also being cited as an important influence on both fashion and film style of that time. He adeptly used lighting, and his sense of drama as a feature film director has seemed to come as much from his early need to convey a message in