CHRIS SAUNDERS

June 2008

"It's not wrong to want to do something differently - so persevere..."

Date & place of birth:
July 28 1966; Hersham, Surrey, UK.

Profession:
Director; XL Video UK.

Your first job after full-time education?
I was a pirate on Treasure Island... no, really! After I left college, at age 19, I decided I wanted to become an actor, so I started out by taking a seasonal job at Thorpe Park, working on one of the attractions, and being £100 a week to ‘rape and pillage’. It remains the best job I ever had! However, my first ‘proper’ job was in computer-assisted design. I’d studied photography and I wanted to learn how to use computers, so I got involved in CAD whilst working in the aerospace industry. I knew nothing about electronics or aerospace, but they had lovely computers with some fantastic test patterns on them.

How did the world of video rear its head?
During my period spent working with CAD, I worked for a company that was involved in the manufacture of Aston caption generators. I managed to blag myself a job with the BBC as a dyslexic Aston operator, which ended in 1987 when they rumbled that I couldn’t spell Welsh town names! My experience at the BBC was invaluable — I’d sit in studios, ask questions, and 15 blokes called Derek would gather around and give me all the answers I needed. I learned so much about video from them and it really set me up for my future career. I then left to join Theatre Projects, looking after video and slide projection, and making the transition from ‘vidiot’ — as I really was then — into learning how to be ‘rock’n’roll’.

At which point did Black Pig evolve?
That was a production company I started after working for Screenco and CT, and it served me very well for about seven years. The name carried on the pirate theme, because Black Pig was Captain Pugwash’s ship. In every episode, Captain Pugwash would get into all sorts of trouble; his crew would sort out his problems behind his back, and he would walk in and take credit for all the good deeds — a bit like me really!

If there’s one element of technology that has been responsible for taking creative video production to its current level, what would that be?
It’s got to be computer-based, non-linear video. The moment that we moved from tape and material was stored on hard drives, was when it all kicked off for me around 1995, when time-coded hard drives started to control everything. Suddenly you could hop around a computer and have instant access to anything. It revolutionised the business, and the progression to media servers and things like real-time slo-mo devices soon followed.

What has been the best example of creative video you’ve ever seen on a live show?
It would be hard to give a single example but, generally-speaking, everything U2 have ever done since their Zoo TV tour in 1992 has led the way in my opinion. They’ve constantly brought brand new approaches to the fore, and kept the industry on its toes by demanding new screen technologies that have gone on to become standards, after they’ve pioneered their use on the road. Some of the major TV awards productions, like the MTVs, are also responsible for taking video to new heights, such as integrating video into the stage floor... things like that.

Is there anything about the video world you would change?
If anything, I think people tend to underestimate and under-value the skills of camera operators and camera directors. As much as they annoy the hell out of me, it is a skilled job. Composing a shot, keepng it in focus and doing exactly what the director is telling you to do, all at the same time, as well as reliably looking after the equipment, is not a job for a truck driver. Sometimes, video directors will disguise poor camera work by heavily processing images to make them interesting, so I think true skill should be encouraged.

What do you do in your free time?
I bought a Methodist chapel in Cornwall seven years ago and after finally getting planning permission, I’m restoring it. I’m a big cinema fan and I also love spending time with my kids. I’m not terribly rock’n’roll anymore, especially since I got my hair cut.

Your ‘Desert Island Disc’?
Hunky Dory, David Bowie’s 1971 classic album. He was my idol as a youth.

What was the first gig you attended?
The Anti-Nowhere League at London’s Lyceum when I was about 15. The first big gig I went to was Bowie, a couple of years later, on his Serious Moonlight tour [1983].

What would be your advice to a teenage Chris Saunders?
It’s not wrong to want to do things differently, so persevere.