Hector Macleod is a dynamo. Owner of CG and post-facility Glassworks, he helped set-up Click 3X in NY when he was 27, and reckons post-production is all in the art.

border=0 /><BR></div> </p> <p> Hector Macleod has achieved much in his 40 years. He first broke into the post-production industry when he was 24, as a runner at the Moving Picture Company. He was a major force in setting up Click 3X in New York at 27, and secured funding to launch Glassworks by the time he was 30. And he’s very passionate about the role of art in 3D. </p> <p> “3D is fantastic because it’s a blank canvas,” he says. “You don’t start with something that has been shot as in compositing – in 3D there are endless possibilities.” </p> <p> Which is why Glassworks, famed for a whole award-winning range of work such as the seminal Bjork video All Is Full Of Love, likes to employ artists first and foremost.<BR> “Artists are everything,” says Macleod. “I think that almost 100 per cent of our operators have a fine art degree. And this is critical, as the technology is transparent, a tool. You can now put genuinely talented people in front of the software, and they can get their heads around it very quickly, and use it as an artistic tool. </p> <p> “An artistic background in 3D is more important than a technical background – so my advice to people getting into post-production and CG is to get a computer, and the software, and try to establish whether this is the channel for your creative abilities – for some artists, it doesn’t suit them, but for others it opens up a whole new world,” he adds. </p> <p> Yet breaking into the industry isn’t just about great skill – it takes a huge amount of work, as Macleod has discovered. He has the battle scars to prove it. </p> <p> “When I went to set up Click 3X in New York, I was very young and naïve – which I guess made it possible, as I didn’t feel any fear at all,” he says. </p> <p> “The only moment of fear I had was when I was on the plane, and I realized I was on my own, and I didn’t know very much. And, when I got to New York, the facility was about ten weeks behind being built – and we were meant to open in one month. So, I went straight into this war, which was a real learning curve, and the only way I knew how to deal with it was to crash on through, and we got it open it six weeks.” </p> <p> Yet it proved not just a trial by fire, but a real bedrock for Macleod’s future with Glassworks. Machines didn’t work, networks were flaky, and the first Flames needed software rewrites which involved drafting in the original coder from Discreet Logic. <BR> Yet it was a roaring success, says Macleod: “It was blinding – for the first year we printed cash.” </p> <p> With a child on the way, Macleod, now 30, headed back to the UK, where he had a business plan for creating Glassworks bubbling around in his head. </p> <p> The problem? The need for a cool one-and-a-half million quid to make it happen. Yet a fortunate meeting with the CEO of software company Eidos saw money pumped into the fledgling 3D and post facility, with Macleod opening Glassworks a little over six weeks after the deal with Eidos was inked. </p> <p> “What is interesting for Glassworks is that we are quite maverick,” says Macleod, who now owns the facility himself. “We are a small company, and we’ve always looked at things in a slightly different way – and what that has done is attract a lot of maverick directors to us – and you’re only as good as the directors you work with.” </p> <p> Early breaks came in the form of the George Michael Fast Love video for post-production work, and the company hit the 3D big time with its work on Frisk Fish, which saw a CG red snapper escape from a sushi restaurant. But, the most famous milestone was that Bjork video, which happened around three years into the life of Glassworks. </p> <p> “It was one of those projects where everything worked,” says Macleod. “Everything fell into place, and it was a milestone in post and music videos. It was a phenomenal project. I think we’ve done great work since, but those types of projects only come along every five years or so.” </p> <p> Yet he laments the over-use of CG, saying that when studios use it when it’s not needed, it can damage the entire industry. </p> <p> “I think it’s because they want to put all the bells and whistles onto something, and it’s a shame. If it can be shot, then it should be shot. Simple as that.” </p> <p> He’s as blunt with advice to newcomers: “Do not underestimate the importance of artistic standing,” he says. “And be prepared to work your nuts off, and don’t say nothing can ever be done. Ever. Nothing is impossible.” </p> <div id="otherBodyContent"><p> <br> </p> <p> <div class=inlineimage><img src= Print

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