LEIGH TOOK |
Biography.
Leigh Took has worked in the industry
since 1978, starting as an apprentice in Pinewood’s matte painting department,
working on films such as "Warlords of Atlantis", and "Clash of the Titans"
under matte painter Cliff Culley .
“I was fortunate enough to get
a trainee position with the matte department at Pinewood on a film called
Warlords of Atlantis (1978),” explains Leigh, “with a chap called Cliff
Culley, who was one of the very few matte painters around in those days.
I first got involved in miniatures working with Ray Harryhausen on Clash
of the Titans (1981), making up little miniature sets, shooting them and
combining those with matte paintings. All on film, using color separations
and breaking film down to make new negatives, with a lot of in-camera effects
creating things that you couldn’t normally achieve on a set. In those days,
we would use front projection, back projection and latent image shots as
well. It was a whole time of experimentation. Obviously, being before the
digital age, it was all optical. We were constantly coming up with new
techniques of how to achieve effects all the time. People such as John
Dark and Kevin Connor were making films like Arabian Adventure (1979) and
Warlords of Atlantis back-to-back. It was a good era for getting to experiment
with effects and making models – to keep production costs down really.”
As well as being one of a handful
of traditional matte painters in the world, he has accumulated over
25 years’ experience in the supervision of miniatures, optical and digital
effects on feature films, TV, commercials and pop promo’s.
After working for several years
with the great special effects grandmaster Derek Meddings on films such
as "Batman", Leigh set up Mattes and Miniatures, embracing the advancement
of any digital technologies and tools that would assist their work. The
base at Bray Studios includes a matte studio, motion control, model and
special effects workshops, all of which work in conjunction with their
own digital facilities at Pinewood, combining traditional film techniques
with digital post production
Filmography:
- The Mutant Chronicles (2008) (model
effects supervisor)
- Inkheart (2008)(miniature supervisor:
mattes & miniatures)
- Stardust (2007) (miniature supervisor:
mattes & miniatures)
- Highlander V: The source (2007)(miniature
supervisor: mattes & miniatures)
- The Da Vinci Code (2006) (model
supervisor: MMAD)
- The Descent (2005) (visual effects
supervisor)
- Naina (2005) (miniature supervisor:
mattes & miniatures)
- Ella Enchanted (2004) (miniature
supervisor: mattes & miniatures)
- Solid Geometry (2002) (TV) (animator)
- "The 10th Kingdom" (2000) (mini)
TV Series (visual effects artist)
- Guest House Paradiso (1999) (visual
effects supervisor)
- Lost in Space (1998) (supervisor:
digital matte painters)
- Batman (1989) (matte artist:
visual effects unit)
- The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) (matte painter)
- Octopussy (1983) (matte
painting assistant)
- Clash
of the Titans (1980) (matte painting and miniature assistant)
- Arabian adventure (1979) Matte
paintin and miniature assistant)
- Warlords
of Atlantis (1978) ( matte painting assistant)
To see some more samples of his
work, visit his web site: http://www.mattesandminiatures.com/index.asp