Mr Caulton, who is "as local as you get them", has lived in Queenstown his whole life, save a brief stint in Dunedin, where he studied for a BCom - "I thought that was a waste of time."
After returning to Queenstown, Mr Caulton landed himself a job on the television series White Fang, the turning point in a career that now sees him making a full-time living from the film industry, involved in both television advertisements and feature films.
"I . . . started as a runner, like some of us do in the film industry.
"It's being a dogsbody in a way . . . that was my first job and from there I got into gripping and pushing the dolly around."
However, it was stills photography where Mr Caulton's passion lay, and after looking at the options on set, he made the decision to use his love of photography and become a location scout.
Travelling the length and breadth of New Zealand, Mr Caulton has, over the years, compiled an extensive library of location shots, based on images overseas directors want to use in commercials.
After establishing himself as a location scout, he moved further up the ladder, and is now primarily involved in planning and producing commercials for companies based in New Zealand and offshore, with his main market in Korea.
"I've got their trust and that's a big thing within Korea.
"Once you gain their trust, you become part of their family."
His tasks now are wide reaching, but one of his main roles is to work with government departments, ensuring permits and visas are in place and taking care of the logistics.
"It all depends on what they want to do, whether they want to dig up a road, or blow up a car.
"It's where we can do it and where, legally, we can do it."
Mr Caulton is now one of a new generation of a core Queenstown crew, comprising others like him who started at the bottom and have worked their way up.
It's this core group who are ensuring Queenstown stays high on the list of locations for commercials and feature films and it is also this crew who can take a large part of the credit for making filming one of the top industries in the resort - based purely on how much money one commercial can drop quickly in the town.
Take, for example, the recent Kia Mohave car commercial filmed in Queenstown and Milford over four days.
Mr Caulton said the budget for that advertisement alone was roughly $700,000.
Of that, close to $500,000 was injected directly into the Queenstown economy through accommodation, crew hire, rental cars and restaurants.
"To them, sometimes money is not the object. It's about getting the product aired as quickly as they can.
"A lot of the [budget] is time and equipment - the agencies have to get the cars flown over here and that's $20,000 per car."
However, it's not just the financial impact which is having a positive effect on the resort, it's the tangible benefits left here after every shoot.
All of the "stuff" created for the Kia commercial stayed in Queenstown, including a custom-made bucket designed to create a waterfall.
"That's the cool thing about a lot of [the jobs].
"They'll come to town, hire all our crew, build stuff, make stuff and at the end say `do what you want to with it.
'"We do get the benefits in that way. We can recycle parts or use them again for other shoots."
Mr Caulton reckons Queenstown is in a great position looking forward, but locals need to understand the film industry in the resort and the region is no longer domestically based.
"I've seen [Queenstown] grow from a little tussock town.
"We're dealing with international directors, producers, clients . . . who can shoot commercials anywhere in the world if they want . . . but being a nice little international town with amazing locations within hours, with great accommodation, food and entertainment, the airport, we're in pretty good stead as an international town.
"That's the main thing you have to realise . . . when people are here, we've got to make sure they get the best service possible.
"We have to give that little bit extra to do a really good job, so they'll go home and say `I've just been to New Zealand and it was fantastic'."
However, there is one aspect of filming which can occasionally become annoying, Mr Caulton said.
The film industry is faced with restrictions on filming in certain areas, particularly on Department of Conservation land.
"We have to come up with a way of [working around that].
"We try and do low impact activities to give a government department money.
"I understand looking after and conserving our land, but when we have tourists entering the national parks and there are not enough rubbish bins, they're staying in campervans with no toilets . . . we provide everything.
"As crews, we're very aware of this and we always ensure we look after and maintain the land we're allowed on.
"We'll just go [to an area] because it's a beautiful image, we're not going in there to wreck it."
One thing is abundantly clear about Mr Caulton - he loves his job.
"You've got to realise within the film industry it's not cut-throat, but very come and go.
"If you really want to do something, you can always do it," he urges.
"Aim above just being a runner - there could be the next Peter Jackson come out of Queenstown. If you've got the right goal or target, just go for it."
