Paul Dickson
“Soon after leaving college I got my first job as a designer in a small graphic studio in Leeds. But at twenty-two my youthful indecision could not keep me pinned down and my need for adventure led me to London where a friend of mine got my foot in the door as a runner at Glassworks. When I found out that I was going to be doing coffee and all of the other stuff that goes with being a runner, I wasn't super excited. Here I was in London, skint and without any direction so I couldn’t be picky.”
“When I first arrived at Glassworks, I was very wet behind the ears on the whole post production process and what was involved. But in the end, coming to work for Hector Mcleod and the team there, turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. And I have never looked back since! It was a relatively new company with an awesome crew of people that seemed almost as excited to have me there as I was to be there.”
“After a month or so making coffee, Hector soon worked out it would be much safer for his clients if I was in the machine room. When I came to Glassworks the whole company was expanding and taking over new floors with a whole bunch of new Flame suites going in. I helped the guys do some of the setup for the expansion, so I began to entertain the idea of a career as an engineer.”
“After this introduction to the post business, Hector came to me and needed a decision on what I wanted to do next, giving me the option of becoming an engineer or training on Flame. I was leaning towards engineering, even though I had been longing to get on one of the Flame boxes. I really wasn’t too sure at that stage which direction to go. Hector gave me the opportunity to attend a two week course in digital broadcast engineering at Ravensbourne which I passed with flying colors. But despite that success, when I returned to Glassworks I realized my true calling and I made up my mind to take the Flame path.”
“So from that time on, the typical start to being a compositor began, archiving the Inferno / Flame suites, Roto, simple comps, cleanup, taking on some small jobs in the evenings as favors and then moving onto days, shadowing the Flame artists. I was hooked once I got onto the Flame and I never looked back.”
“I have a lot of time for Hector at Glassworks, he really got me started in my career, and had the patience to help me in the early days while I explored my options. There are a few of us that worked for Hector who have gone on to become successful around the World. Even today, Hector is awesome! And I think secretly proud of what we have all managed to achieve.”
“I guess I was at Glassworks doing TVCs and music videos for about six years. I then met my wife, who was Hector’s P.A at the time, and also a New Zealander! Then one day a Flame artists from Digital Post in New Zealand, came to freelance at Glassworks. My wife really wanted to go back home after we married, so I essentially swapped my job at Glassworks for the one at Digital Post. At this time, Digital Post were very commercial heavy and just looking to get into their first feature film.”
“I had just finished working on the movie ‘Perfect Creatures’ at Digital Post when I moved over to Oktober; they had just finished working on ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Boogeyman’. They were doing some really great commercial work and probably had the lion’s share of the commercials market in New Zealand. I had a great time working with those guys and got the chance to work on some awesome projects.”
“I then tried my hand at freelancing for a couple of years, where I got a really good mix of commercials, documentaries, film and then TV. However, it wasn’t until I returned to Digital Post that I fell into the full fray of doing long form. I started working on ‘Legend of the Seeker’ and a vampire film called ’30 Days of Night’. Then Starz came with the first ‘Spartacus’ series.”
“I have worked on the 'Spartacus' series right through its visual evolution. Starting when it had a ‘300’ style implemented, right through to the last series, which was very photo-realistic. I was a real fan of both looks and really enjoyed working on all of the different seasons. Like any long running series, there was an evolution in both the look and production approach. Each art director had a different vision and style, which made this series hugely interesting and exciting to be a part of.”
“The cool thing with 'Spartacus', is that the art directors would set the direction and then leave us alone to do our bit. So whatever your personal compositing style was, you would get an opportunity to have that live in that series!”
“It was while I was working at Digital Post that I met Greg Flannagan. We were among the lead operators from the inception of the Spartacus process, evolving along with the show as it progressed to its third installment “Vengeance”. We started Cause+FX in 2011. Using our network of other boutique studios and creatives to collaborate with, we were able to scale up to allow us to continue to participate in such a huge project becoming a primary vendor for the final season “War of the damned”. We were grateful to be trusted with some of the most epic scenes, killing off some of the main characters including Spartacus himself. Cause+FX has allowed us to take further ownership of the work we enjoy. I guess you could say that our starting Cause+FX is about being master of your own destiny.”