Derek Meddings

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Derek Meddings
BAFTA Michael Balcon
Award (1979)

Derek Meddings (15 January 1931 – 10 September 1995) was a British film and television

James Bond and Superman
film series.

Biography

Early years

Derek Meddings was born 15 January 1931

Alex Korda's secretary and actress Merle Oberon's stand-in.[4] Meddings went to art school and, in the late 1940s, also found work at Denham Studios, lettering credit titles.[4] It was there that he met effects designer Les Bowie and 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 and 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 with Anderson was as an uncredited art assistant on Anderson's second puppet series,

miniature models
and landscapes which have since become standard in the industry.

James Bond films

In the 1970s, Meddings furthered his career by working on the

Cubby Broccoli with some miniature effects that he had created for Live and Let Die (1973).[4] Once Broccoli realised the economic advantages of building detailed models instead of expensive full-sized constructions, Meddings was encouraged to come up with design concepts for the next film in the series, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).[4] After this, he was contacted by Pink Floyd
, and Meddings handled all the pyrotechnics on the Pink Floyd shows in 1975.

He returned to the James Bond films in 1977 with

nuclear submarines for exterior sequences filmed at sea.[4] He also designed and built the Lotus Esprit car which converted into a submersible, cleverly intercutting full-sized body shells with one-quarter-scale miniatures.[4]

For

Academy Award for Visual Effects
.

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

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

Other work

In 1975, Meddings created cost-effective model monsters which could be photographed in the same frame as the actors

The Land That Time Forgot
.

On Superman (1978), his work included building a 60 ft (18 m) miniature of the Golden Gate Bridge to be destroyed in an earthquake, complete with a colliding scale school bus and cars, while Superman (suspended on wires) flew in to the rescue.[4] He also built and photographed the Krypton miniatures in addition to a large-scale model of the Hoover Dam. Due to the film's schedule overruns and Meddings' own commitments to the James Bond series, he was unable to complete the dam flooding sequence and the production hired a California-based company to complete the sequence – resulting in some visibly inferior miniature work in the latter part of the film.

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

Meddings set up his own visual effects company, The Magic Camera Company, based at Lee International Studios in

Spies Like Us
 (1985).

Death

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

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

Awards

Filmography

Visual effects

Actor

References

  1. ^ a b c Findmypast / genesreunited
  2. ^ a b http://directors.findthecompany.co.uk/l/5941098/Alexe-Anne-Meddings[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Young, Cy (13 September 1995). "Obituary: Derek Meddings". The Independent. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cy Young (14 September 1995). "Obituary: Derek Meddings". The Independent. London.
  5. ^ Derek Meddings. For Your Eyes Only audio commentary. For Your Eyes Only – Ultimate Edition, Disk 1: MGM Home Entertainment.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  6. ^ Making It Small in Pictures: Derek Meddings. MGM Home Entertainment.
  7. ^ Martin Campbell, Michael G. Wilson. GoldenEye audio commentary. MGM Home Entertainment.
  8. ^ "MEDDINGS MAGIC LIMITED people - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
  9. ^ "Nicholas Alexander MEDDINGS personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
  10. ^ "Noah Luscombe MEDDINGS personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".

External links

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