Derek meddings biography james bond 007 games
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OBITUARY: Derek Meddings
The work of Derek Meddings thrilled millions of moviegoers, yet only a small percentage could actually name the man responsible for the special effects of the James Bond films of the 1970s and Hollywood blockbusters like Superman (1978). Within the industry, the reverse was true: American film-makers came to Pinewood Studios because of the international reputation of British technicians, and Meddings was one of the best.
His father had been a carpenter at Denham Studios and his mother variously Merle Oberon's stand-in and Alex Korda's secretary, but it was not until the late 1940s that Derek was able to use his art school training to get a job there, lettering credit titles. The first break came when he met the special effects man Les Bowie on a commercial, and joined his matte painting department.
During the Fifties Bowie and his new recruit created Transylvanian landscapes for Hammer Films, where limited budgets necessitated a "string and cardboard" invention that proved useful when Meddings was hired for Gerry Anderson's earliest television puppet shows. From painting cut-out backgrounds of ranch houses and picket fences on Four Feather Falls (a western format), Meddings moved on to design the models for Stingray (1965) with Reg Hill, and was the
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Derek Meddings Biography
27th June 2009
Born on January 15th 1931, Derek Meddings grew up with filmmaking in his blood; both his parents worked at the famed Denham studios. At the time, this was the largest soundstage facility in the UK and here his father worked as a carpenter and his mother as a producer's assistant and often an extra or stand-in. In the mid-1940s, Meddings enrolled in art school and in his spare time came to work at the studio assisting in the creation typography for film credits. At Denham, he met the Canadian special effects expert Les Bowie, and fell in love with film effects. Bowie took a shine to Meddings and offered him a job in the matte painting department of his effects crew. Meddings contributed to a series of Hammer Horror flicks, painting the Transylvanian hillsides for the iconic backdrop of Hammer's Dracula productions. Amongst the crew, Meddings learned quickly that to be a great special effects man he would have to learn how to perform some amazing tricks on a shoe-string budget. It was this methodology, and talent, that caught the eye of Gerry Anderson. |
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