What was the most interesting thing you had to design when you were working in the movies?
Coming from mostly a very low budget film world, as a designer you’re also an art director, you’re the lead man, a painter, you’re wearing a lot of hats.
One of the most challenging things was to try and give each project its own unique look within the confines of the budget and a time schedule that didn’t always allow anything much out of the ordinary. That was always a challenge and something that was fun.
If you looked at it as a challenge rather than a hurdle, you’re always able to come up with something or use it as a learning experience. "Well that didn’t work and I’ll try something else next time" or "That went really well, I’ll use that next time as a device".
So each film, video, commercial, movie of the week, became a stepping stone and a learning situation as to what I enjoyed, what I thought were my strengths, what I realised were my weaknesses, and what I felt I could capitalise on to more effectively create myself as a designer that could fill a niche.
