Derek Meddings

Derek Meddings was a British film and television special effects designer, initially noted for his work on the "Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the 1970s and 1980s James Bond and Superman film series. Meddings' first work with Anderson was as an uncredited art assistant on the puppet series, Torchy, the Battery Boy (1959). Later, he painted cut-out backgrounds of ranch houses and picket fences for Four Feather Falls (1960). He was credited with the special effects in Anderson's series Supercar (1961) and Fireball XL5 (1962), being elevated to special effects director for Stingray (1964) for which he and Reg Hill designed the main models. Meddings became special effects supervisor for Thunderbirds (1965), during which time he was responsible for the design of the Thunderbird machines themselves. He was visual effects supervisor for all the Anderson puppet series of the late 1960s and Anderson's first live-action series, UFO (1970). During his time working on these series, Meddings and his team developed several innovations in the filming of miniature models and landscapes which have since become standard in the industry. In 1979, for his work on Superman (1978), Meddings was awarded a shared Special Achievement Award for special effects by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and shared the Michael Balcon Award of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).