Dinosaur Museum, Drakensburg National Park, South Africa 2019/20
At last! I am obsessed by travelling on the most fascinating continent – Africa. 33 trips, including 12 lengthy motorbiking safaris including twice across the Sahara. In 2019 I was asked to add some 3D and storytelling magic to the proposed dinosaur museum in the Drakensburg Mountains of Kwa-Zulu province. I’ve made two visits to brainstorm with the creative team, and help them solve design problems as they occur. With my absolute love of all things African, this has been a delight! I hope they invite me back for the fit-up!
Civil War Museum, Kenosha, USA 2013
For the Civil War Museum, I was co-creator – with my friend and colleague, Bob Noll owner of Boston Productions, with whom I have made a winning creative team on several occasions – and art director for a 360 degree film. We used the open air museum at Old World Wisconsin as our major location, dressing it with the cooperation of the museum. Filming in 360 degrees brings many unusual challenges…
North Charleston Fire Museum, Charleston, USA 2013
In a small theatre, the challenge was to tell a story of fire protection and readiness to children. I devised a turntable with projection screens, scenery that transformed from bright and clean to a burned out wreck and the complete front of a real fire engine, with flashing lights ablaze!
Museum of the Bible, travelling exhibit, USA 2103
Boston Productions called me in to devise an exhibit about the writing of the famous ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’, that Lincoln believed had the means to change the course of the Civil War. I designed a Pepper’s Ghost – old Victorian theatrical ‘smoke and mirror’ magic, to tell the story. We were contracted with just six weeks to produce the whole exhibit. Built in the Boston Productions studio, we could experiment and test as we worked and filmed the characters. We achieved it all in less than five weeks, before installing it in its first location in Colorado Springs.
Smugglers’ Story, Brixham, UK 2012
A walk-through attraction telling the story of smuggling in Devon. I created caverns, secret passages, smugglers’ cottages – and as centrepiece to the large beach scene, I obtained an aged clinker-built boat from a bonfire heap in a boatyard and redressed it as a wreck filled with rum barrels, with sail for projection. Cost of the major prop? One bottle of malt whisky to the yard owner! Sometimes it’s just being able to see the scenic opportunities of old rubbish that creates the magic!
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