From Pearl Harbour to Pinewood: the man who makes the impossible possible for James Bond, Lara Croft and Batman

When I was a kid, I used to watch TV shows like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. The model special effects really inspired me.

I got into the James Bond films around the same time and really wanted to work on them too.

I went to school with Alan Rintoul who introduced me to his dad, Ian. Ian's lifelong passion for films, since working as an apprentice projectionist in a cinema as a boy, had led him to making films in a mini studio in his garage.

Alan told Ian about my interest in film making and I then helped him a bit on his epic, Hour of the Eagle: a film about a Luftwaffe bombing attack on Rosyth docks on the Firth of Forth.

Then, on 29 Seconds to Zero, an ambitious film project reconstructing the battle of Pearl Harbour, I assisted him with the filming and added some visual effects shots.

By then, I was getting a bit more confident with the 16mm cameras (very popular with amateur movie makers at that time) we were using.

29 Seconds to Zero, which was screened on BBC Two, greatly influenced my life because Gerry Anderson, one of the creators of Thunderbirds, saw it and was impressed.

Meeting the creator of Thunderbirds

When I met him for the first time, I was able to show him some of my films and he seemed to be politely impressed. He kept referring to 29 Seconds to Zero in a very complimentary way, which was nice.

After I’d shown him my amateur work, I systematically kept in touch with him over the period of about a year and then when the time came, he offered me the job.

I began by storyboarding and concept designing craft before moving onto Special Effects Director on Terrahawks – my first professional job in the industry.

I worked for him off-and-on for over a decade designing concepts on commercials and other shows like Space Precinct – a television series broadcast between 1994 and 1995 combining many elements of Gerry Anderson’s previous series like Space 1999, UFO and Thunderbirds.

I designed the concept for the original flying car on Space Precinct, but it was felt that my original streamlined version didn’t look too police-car-like so it was modified to look more angular. I also designed the model precinct and the suburb.

That work was punctuated by work on feature films, my first being James Cameron’s Aliens.

Then, my first feature film as an overall visual effects Supervisor was Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie.

In the movie Lara Croft travels underwater to The Lunar Temple on an underwater bike. Logistically it wasn’t practical to take Angelina and other actors underwater to film this sequence, so I designed a dry for wet studio.

I used an old fashioned technique where you smoke up a stage and light it appropriately. Allied with CGI this created a convincing underwater environment.

On Lara Croft Tomb Raider, I became friends with Special Effects supervisor (who does all the real effects stuff on set) Chris Corbould, who had worked on 10 Bond movies from The Spy Who Loved Me to Die Another Day.

He put a good word in for me with the producers of Casino Royale.

When I met him for the first time, I was able to show him some of my films and he seemed to be politely impressed. He kept referring to 29 Seconds to Zero in a very complimentary way, which was nice.

After I’d shown him my amateur work, I systematically kept in touch with him over the period of about a year and then when the time came, he offered me the job.

I began by storyboarding and concept designing craft before moving onto Special Effects Director on Terrahawks – my first professional job in the industry.

I worked for him off-and-on for over a decade designing concepts on commercials and other shows like Space Precinct – a television series broadcast between 1994 and 1995 combining many elements of Gerry Anderson’s previous series like Space 1999, UFO and Thunderbirds.

I designed the concept for the original flying car on Space Precinct, but it was felt that my original streamlined version didn’t look too police-car-like so it was modified to look more angular. I also designed the model precinct and the suburb.

That work was punctuated by work on feature films, my first being James Cameron’s Aliens.

Then, my first feature film as an overall visual effects Supervisor was Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie.

In the movie Lara Croft travels underwater to The Lunar Temple on an underwater bike. Logistically it wasn’t practical to take Angelina and other actors underwater to film this sequence, so I designed a dry for wet studio.

I used an old fashioned technique where you smoke up a stage and light it appropriately. Allied with CGI this created a convincing underwater environment.

On Lara Croft Tomb Raider, I became friends with Special Effects supervisor (who does all the real effects stuff on set) Chris Corbould, who had worked on 10 Bond movies from The Spy Who Loved Me to Die Another Day.

He put a good word in for me with the producers of Casino Royale.