Garry Maddison
"My granddad was a very keen photographer and kindly gave me a couple of his 35mm cameras, which lead me into shooting b&w. I think my love for b&w photography helped me to better understand the technicalities behind it all. I think b&w was brilliant for learning about exposures, shutter speed, aperture and that sort of thing. Once you understand something, then it becomes a passion for the rest of your life."
"Shooting still photography was like a family past time for us. Having the Kodak factory just down the road from where we lived in Harrow, meant everyone was into photography. My first introduction to filmmaking, probably came through my father’s cousin, Keith Laidler, who’s a documentary filmmaker and author."
"Keith was always off to exotic places, like the wilds of China, where he was one of the first to capture wild pandas on film. As kids, we were always hearing of his incredible adventures shooting all of these nature documentaries in far off locations. It must have influenced us all, as my sister is now a fine arts painter and my brother is in VFX. My mother was always painting and getting us to make things with our hands which also influenced me. So I guess there was probably some ‘creative drift’ across the whole family!"
"My big awakening came while I was working at the video rental chain - Blockbuster. During the slow times in the middle of the week I would take the promo trailers off the in store monitors and watch everything from foreign language to arthouse movies. What I was truly fascinated by were the directors commentaries. Hearing the backstory to each film, really opened my eyes to the possibilities of filmmaking. I was really taken by the obsessiveness that goes into these sorts of things - and that really appealed to my own obsessive nature."
"At the time, I was studying performance arts and media at college. I have always enjoyed writing and I found that play writing came naturally to me. Although I love theatre, I soon found that writing for that artform started to restrict me in the sorts of things I wanted to explore."
"I was wanting to include motion images within my plays, which seemed a little too progressive for my senior lecturers. I just loved the technical nature of editing and film, and very quickly found that I had a new direction. Because I had started off studying a performance arts degree, I tried to incorporate my new interest with performance design. This blending of different narrative experiences seemed to give a more epic feel to my plays. Although the audiences seemed to love this progressive approach, the lecturers didn’t."
"After university, I felt that film was where my path should be. Like everyone else in this industry, I served my time as a runner. While at VTR, I was forever running back and forth to Camden where the film lab was. I was completely fascinated by film processing, which probably stems from my early interest in b&w photography."
"So when a job came up for a neg developer at I-Lab, I jumped at it. This was an incredible experience, as I was total immersed in film processing, film stocks and the different chemical treatments. After a time, I was given the night shift, which turned out to be a turning point for me."
"After I had finished developing the film each night, I would drop it into the various dailies colourists. Having a genuine interest in film, they would often invite me to hang around until morning. Before long, I was helping to rack up the film on the telecine and was doing some basic grades on the Davinci 2K. All that experience came by simply dropping off film to the post houses! It’s funny how one thing leads to another when you are happy to do things, simply because they are fun."
"That’s how I came to work at Pepper Post in my early days. That was a great little boutique shop where everyone knew everyone. As an assistant colorist, I started to learn what it was like to work with directors and DoPs. In my last job working nights, you never got to see anyone, let alone a director!"
"Because I had come from a film lab, I would often get to work on the film grading jobs using a DaVinci 2k. Most of the senior colonists were all on digital systems by this time, so I would do everything they didn’t want to do. After a time, I found myself doing my own sessions with my own clients, which I just loved. However, I was only an assistant colorist at Pepper and there were no further openings."
"When Prime Focus came to me with a colorist’s gig, I immediately jumped at it. The only catch, was that it was in the archival department working on WWII combat footage. As it happened, most of this footage was b&w, which was right up my alley. Having had a love affair with b&w since I was kid, this seemed the perfect job for me."
"Working with b&w all day long, meant that I was able to really hone my skills. By working on the basics day after day, I found that I was starting to perfect my technique. I guess this role really appealed to me, because the medium already seemed so familiar. It’s always nice to step into something that you already understand!"
"It was about this time that Prime Focus, then pulled together the D.I, commercials and archive departments into one group. So it wasn’t long before I was pulled across to help out on TV commercials, promos, music videos and a number of short films."
"It’s during this time that I got to work alongside of colorists like Vic Parker and Tom Russell on ‘Age of Heroes’ and ‘The Retreat’. However, one of the stand out experiences for me, was working with Chief Creative Director and senior colorist, Tareq Kubaisi on Joe Wright’s ’Channel’ film featuring Kiera Knightly. It was all shot on 35mm and I was just blown away by how well that thing could look. It was just simply stunning. It was a beautiful example of film at its very best."
"After cutting my teeth on a whole bunch of TV commercials, I suddenly found myself working on Ed Sheeran and Lewi Whites music video for ‘Young Guns’. This project went really well for me, so I thought I would try my hand at freelancing. By this stage, I knew a lot of people in the industry, so it went pretty well right from the beginning."
"About two months in, Double Negative then called me looking for colorist to work on the VFX grade for Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight Rises.’ They were looking for someone with a solid background in film."
"It’s funny how film has been a constant theme throughout my career. I have always enjoyed being knowledgeable about film, because I have a deep respect for what it is and what it looks like. I never thought for one moment that my passion would benefit me in the way that it has.”
"The funny thing, is that while I was at Prime Focus, I felt that my experiences in film kind of held me back. It seemed that everyone had gone the digital route leaving me to do all of the film work. Because of that, I would always getting the job of running the film suites! So when Chris Nolan was looking for someone who specifically had film experiences, it felt really good. It felt like film had come to help me out a bit!"
"Working at a place like DNeg is like a dream come true. There are so many seriously talented people here all working on the most incredible films. The highlight of my professional career was working on the VFX grade for Chris Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’. This wasn’t a dreamy kind of scfi, this was something very real that was fact based as much as it could be."
"Paul Franklin, our VFX supervisor worked very closely with Kip Thorne an theoretical physicist to make sure the mathematical modelling made the black hole and star fields as close to fact, as possible. What the VFX guys achieved is truly breathtaking. We all felt a responsibility with this film, knowing that this would be the first time that anyone would see a realistic simulation of a black hole."
"It is not often that you work on a film that changes the way the scientific community and all of humanity see the world around them. What Chris Nolan and the whole team have achieved is totally breath taking and unique. There is something special that comes of working with such incredibly talented people everyday."
"Who would have though that my passion for b&w photography as a child, would one day see me working on films such as ‘Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘Interstellar’ for someone like Chris Nolan. It has been an incredible journey, that’s for sure!"