Ian Emes

After training at Birmingham College of Art, Emes' career began as a painter, sculptor, and kinetic artist.[1] In 1972 his experimental animated film French Windows[3] (set to Pink Floyd's One of These Days) was shown on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, bringing him to the attention of Rick Wright and subsequently Pink Floyd.[4] The "french windows" film was included as part of the box set, The Early Years 1965–1972.

Emes became the first filmmaker to create synchronized moving images for Pink Floyd. He laid the foundation for the band's future visuals and still remains influential to this day,[5] his graphic style evident in the large-scale digital animations used in Roger Waters' The Wall concert projections.

In 1974, the band commissioned animations of "Speak to Me", (the cardiogram and prism) "Time" (the flying clocks) and "On the Run" (twin towers explosion) by Emes to visualise The Dark Side of the Moon.[2]

His work is featured in the Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition,[2] the first international retrospective of the band. Presented by the V&A, Pink Floyd and Iconic Entertainment Studios.

During the late seventies, Emes created film sequences for numerous other musicians, including M.C. Escher-inspired animations for Mike Oldfield's In Concert Tour in 1980 and The Oriental Nightfish for Paul and Linda McCartney,[1] which received a Short Film Palme d'Or nomination at Cannes.[6] His Camden studio became world-famous for its ground-breaking visuals and in 1980 Emes was cited as Britain's foremost animator, his achievements celebrated in a Retrospective at the National Film Theatre (1980). Collaborations with musicians continued, notably, The Chauffeur for Duran Duran starring Perri Lister, and The Wall – Live in Berlin (1990), which was Roger Waters' first solo performance of the album, attended by the then largest concert audience of all time.[7] The interpretive film by Emes starred Rupert Everett, Ute Lemper and Marianne Faithful, and included sequences of the Marching Hammers projected onto the remains of the Berlin Wall.

Concurrently Emes diversified into live-action, writing and directing short films, amongst them the ballroom dancing comedy Goodie Two Shoes (1983), produced by Jeff Katzenberg then of Paramount Pictures, for which Emes received an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA Award.[8]

A career in film and television followed, including the series How to Be Cool starring Roger Daltrey, adapted by Emes from the book by Philip Pullman (author of The Golden Compass), Streetwise starring Andy Serkis (1989), and The Invisible Man (2000) for Universal Studios.[9]

In 1987 Emes wrote and directed his feature debut Knights & Emeralds, produced by Sir David Puttnam for Goldcrest Films and Warner Brothers.[10] Television movies include the cult film The Yob (1987) for The Comic Strip starring Keith Allen,[11] The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas[12] produced by John Landis and the critically acclaimed Deadly Summer (1997).

In the mid-nineties, Emes became an in-house director for Ridley Scott at Ridley Scott Associates.[1]