DEREK MEDDINGS |
Biography:
Date of birth 15 January 1931 London, England,
UK
Date of death 10 September 1995 London, England,
UK.
MEDDINGS: Well, I got into it by accident really, because when I came
into the
film industry, the only way I could get in was to do titles for pictures
and this
was really boring as far as I was concerned, since I had trained as an
artist. It
was actually Les Bowie who started me off by getting me a job with him
doing
matte paintings. This was really the job I wanted to do. I wanted to be
an artist
in the film industry. Originally I wanted to be in the Art Department.
Having met
Les I decided that the sort of work he was doing - matte paintings - was
the
type of work I wanted to do. When we started doing matte paintings, it
was a
highly skilled job, but people were afraid of mattes. They always remembered
the worst matte that they'd ever seen, so they would avoid putting mattes
into
their pictures if they could get away with doing it some other way. Now,
of
course, matte painting has become a very important part of the film industry.
With pictures like STAR WARS, they have to use a lot of matte shots and
very
good ones. At this particular time there were very few mattes on pictures,
so
in between doing matte paintings, we had to find something else to do.
Les
was also very good at doing miniatures and I would help him. That's how
I got
involved with miniatures. Although I do all types of effects, I seem to
have got
myself lumbered, for want of a better word, with just doing miniatures
on a
picture. On a Bond picture, I supervise all of the effects.
Biographical information from a interview that
you can red at:
http://www.ianfleming.org/mkkbb/magazine/81acm3.shtml
Another Derek Medding´s biography.
http://ufoseries.com/marketing/invasionBook.txt
http://tb1_5.tripod.com/dm.html
Supergirl`s director, Jeannot Schwartz talks about
Meddings.
http://www.oocities.org/hollywood/palace/3454/jeannotsupergirl.html
Filmography:
- GoldenEye (1995) (miniature effects supervisor)
Derek Meddings seated on a snow landscape miniature.
- The NeverEnding Story III (1994) (visual effects
supervisor)
- Cape Fear (1991) (miniature special effects
supervisor: The Magic Camera Company)
- Hudson Hawk (1991) (visual effects and miniature
supervisor)
- The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter
(1990) (visual effects supervisor)
- Batman (1989) (special visual effects)
- High Spirits (1988) (special visual effects)
- Mio min Mio (1987) (special effects) ( Mio
in the Land of Faraway)
- Spies Like Us (1985) (visual effects supervisor)
- Santa Claus (1985) (miniature effects director)
(visual effects director)
- Supergirl (1984) (special visual effects)
- Krull (1983) (visual effects supervisor)
- Superman III (1983) (additional model effects)
(uncredited)
- For Your Eyes Only (1981) (visual effects supervisor)
- Superman II (1980) (miniature effects supervisor)
- Moonraker (1979) (visual effects supervisor)
- Superman (1978) (model effects)
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) (special visual
effects)
- Shout at the Devil (1976) (models and special
effects)
- Aces High (1976) (special effects)
- The Land That Time Forgot (1975) (special effects
supervisor)
- The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) (miniatures)
- Live and Let Die (1973) (special effects)
- Z.P.G. (1972) (special effects)
- Fear Is the Key (1972) (special effects)
- "UFO" (1970) TV Series (visual effects director)
(visual effects supervisor)
A sample of Derek Meddings art work for TV Series
UFO.
- Doppelgänger (1969) (visual effects) (Journey
to the Far Side of the Sun) (USA)
- "The Secret Service" (1969) TV Series (visual
effects director)
- "Joe 90" (1968) TV Series (supervising visual
effects director)
- Thunderbird 6 (1968) (visual effects director)
- "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" (1967)
TV Series (visual effects supervisor)
- Thunderbirds Are GO (1966) (visual effects
director)
- "Thunderbirds" (1964) TV Series (special effects
supervisor)
- "Stingray" (1963) TV Series (special effects
director)
- "Fireball XL5" (1962) TV Series (special effects)
- "Supercar" (1960) TV Series (special effects)
- Dracula (1958) ( matte painting)
- The Crawling eye (1958) (matte painter/ miniatures)