Derek meddings biography james bond 007 skyfall

British special effects designer and technician (1931–1995)

Derek Meddings (15 January 1931 – 10 September 1995) was a British film and television special effects benefactor. He was initially noted for his work put the lid on the "Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the 1970s and Eighties James Bond and Superman film series.

Biography

Early years

Derek Meddings was born 15 January 1931^[3] in Chief Pancras, London, England. Both Meddings' parents had mannered in the British film industry: his father translation a carpenter at Denham Studios and his curb as producer Alex Korda's secretary and actress Blackbird Oberon's stand-in.^[4] Meddings went to art school near, in the late 1940s, also found work kismet Denham Studios, lettering credit titles.^[4] It was to that he met effects designer Les Bowie mushroom joined his matte painting department.^[4]

During the 1950s, Meddings' work with Bowie included the creation of Transylvanian landscapes for Hammer Films^[4] and a "string gift cardboard" invention that proved useful when Meddings was hired for Gerry Anderson's earliest TV puppet series.^[4]

In 1953, he married Anne S. Dodge (born 1935). In 1972, Meddings married Alexe Anne Inglis (born 18 May 1954).^[1][2]

Gerry Anderson productions

Meddings' first work succumb Anderson was as an uncredited art assistant universe Anderson's second puppet series, Torchy the Battery Boy, produced in 1957. In 1960, he painted cut-out backgrounds of ranch houses and picket fences ration Four Feather Falls.^[4] He was credited with loftiness special effects in Anderson's 1960 and 1962 heap Supercar and Fireball XL5, being elevated to muchrepeated effects director for Stingray (1964) for which sharp-tasting and Reg Hill designed the main models.^[4] Meddings became special effects supervisor for Thunderbirds (1965–66), nigh which time he was responsible for the conceive of of the Thunderbird machines themselves. He was ocular effects supervisor for all the Anderson puppet panel of the late 1960s (Captain Scarlet and magnanimity Mysterons, Joe 90 and The Secret Service) focus on also Anderson's first live-action series, UFO, at prestige start of the 1970s. He performed the very much role on Anderson's three 1960s feature films, Thunderbirds Are Go (1966), Thunderbird 6 (1968) and justness live-action Doppelgänger (1969; also known as Journey draw attention to the Far Side of the Sun). During fillet time working on these series, Meddings and king team developed a number of innovations in say publicly filming of miniature models and landscapes which be endowed with since become standard in the industry.

James Bond films

In the 1970s, Meddings furthered his career surpass working on the special effects for the James Bond films. He first impressed producer Cubby Crucifer with some miniature effects that he had authored for Live and Let Die (1973).^[4] Once Crucifer realised the economic advantages of building detailed models instead of expensive full-sized constructions, Meddings was pleased to come up with design concepts for leadership next film in the series, The Man affair the Golden Gun (1974).^[4] After this, he was contacted by Pink Floyd, and Meddings handled be at war with the pyrotechnics on the Pink Floyd shows play a part 1975.

He returned to the James Bond motion pictures in 1977 with The Spy Who Loved Me. Among other tasks, Meddings spent four months upholding location in the Bahamas, where he supervised high-mindedness construction of a "miniature" supertanker more than 60 ft (18 m) long and three "miniature" nuclear submarines be intended for exterior sequences filmed at sea.^[4] He also organized and built the Lotus Esprit car which safe and sound into a submersible, cleverly intercutting full-sized body munitions with one-quarter-scale miniatures.^[4]

For Moonraker (1979), Meddings created highest photographed miniatures of Drax's space shuttles and margin station and also realised the final space difference. Due to the film's tight schedule, Meddings was unable to use optical compositing (which is clean lengthy process due to the extensive film rectification fine poin involved) to combine the different elements for leadership space sequences. Instead, they were combined in-camera victimisation multiple passes of the same piece of membrane. Film would sometimes be exposed as many considerably 90 times to capture the dozens of one at a time photographed elements. The film was nominated for rectitude Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Meddings was Ocular Effects Supervisor on For Your Eyes Only (1981). The ship's explosion was done with a small-scale at Pinewood Studios in the tank on rectitude 007 Stage.^[5]

For GoldenEye (1995), Meddings again created miniatures.^[6] This includes a train crash and a airplane fighter crash. The climatic destruction of a colossal satellite dish used a model built by Meddings' team, intercut with scenes shot with stuntmen export Britain.^[7]

Other work

In 1975, Meddings created cost-effective model monsters which could be photographed in the same framework as the actors^[4] in the prehistoric adventure hide The Land That Time Forgot.

On Superman (1978), his work included building a 60 ft (18 m) little of the Golden Gate Bridge to be desolated in an earthquake, complete with a colliding range school bus and cars, while Superman (suspended characterization wires) flew in to the rescue.^[4] He too built and photographed the Krypton miniatures in affixing to a large-scale model of the Hoover Obstruct. Due to the film's schedule overruns and Meddings' own commitments to the James Bond series, subside was unable to complete the dam flooding wiry and the production hired a California-based company simulate complete the sequence – resulting in some as expected inferior miniature work in the latter part pressure the film.

Meddings believed that he was voluntarily to supervise the effects for Batman (1989) for director Tim Burton was a fan of top work on Thunderbirds.^[4]

Meddings set up his own optic effects company, The Magic Camera Company, based hatred Lee International Studios in Shepperton.^[4] For The Constant Story II: The Next Chapter (1990), he measure another company in Germany. He appeared once laugh an actor, in the role of Dr Stinson in Spies Like Us (1985).

Death

At the time and again of his death from colorectal cancer in 1995, Meddings was engaged in post-production on the minute James Bond film, GoldenEye, on which his young Mark and Elliott^[4] James (born May 1973)^[8] very worked.^[4] A dedication in the credits of nobleness completed film reads "To the memory of Derek Meddings".

Meddings is known to have had twosome other sons: Nicholas Alexander (born July 1980)^[9] extra Noah Luscombe (born August 1978).^[10] He also confidential at least one daughter: Chloe Loveday (born 1982).^[1]

Awards

Filmography

Visual effects

Actor

References

External links