Objective
Continue to create, inspire and enjoy.
Experience
Successfully worked in the film industry as Art Director, Editor, Writer and Director since 1974.
This is a long story, so for anyone who has attention deficit, skip to the highlighted topic headings.
I started by studying Fine Arts Painting and by the end of the course found that as Warhol and Jasper Johns went off the wall, my interests also had shifted to cinema; and so I set out to learn the technique...
Starting out in the film industry as a production assistant and art director, working for Jamie Uys “The Gods must be crazy “and Daan Retief on a feature film “Die Rebel”. On completion of the feature I did some acting for “Funny People” as well as some freelance silk-screening before joining SABC TV and completing the 9 months BBCTV Television training course. This was a hands-on course on all the aspects of television production.
On completion of the training course I was accepted as a videotape editor and four years later,in 1979 won the ARTES gold award for best TV Technician of the year.
Trillion London then hired me as an editor and whilst in London we worked on Elvis Costello’s first video clip as well as Kate Bush’s Hammer horror, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody as well as concerts by Thin Lizzy, ELO and Debora Harry. The following year we opened Trillion South Africa, with myself as founder member and senior editor. In Trillion we pioneered off line editing with a time code / edge number calculator whereby we could transfer rushes to tape and then return to the exact frame for a final grading. This process is now an everyday occurrence, but in the early eighties it was cutting edge technology.
In 1983 Ashley Lazarus, an international commercials director, who I was editing commercials for, asked me to join his company as a commercials director.
So from 1983 – 1985 I was a commercials director for Cinévision Motion Pictures (South Africa) During this period besides shooting TV commercials, I also directed and helped to develop two 26 part documentary series on The History Black Art in Southern Africa, and Contemporary Black Artists.
1985 – 1988 Janice Botha and myself opened Freestyle Motion Pictures with the primary function of making commercials. Even though successful, in September of 1988 we decided to close Freestyle for various reasons so I moved to James Garrett & Partners (South Africa) as a Director and Janice moved to Cape Town opening the Coastal Connection.
For James Garrett besides filming in South Africa, I started doing more international work filming in Spain, Portugal, Botswana and Namibia. In 1990 whilst presenting a Portuguese Tourism Commercial in Lisbon Contraste Produçoes, Portugal made me an interesting offer, and I accepted.
After six months with Contraste, I decided to stay a while longer and in May of 1991, I opened Gideon Nel Motion Pictures (Portugal) with producer Carlos Keil. During this period we won various awards both nationally as well as internationally. In June 1994 however we parted our ways, and I was invited to join Nova Imagem as a Producer/ Director. Nova Imagem had a huge structure with studios, motion control and equipment. Running this structure as well as directing took its toll, so after three years of this I decided on a sabbatical.
1996 Relocating to Los Angeles with wife and a small baby, armed only with a tourist visa for three months with the intention to write, take workshops and hang out. After a while the thought of working came filtering back; so I applied for a green card and was awarded this after 8 months on Artistic Merit. Joining Steve Lewis at the Directors Network in Hollywood as a Freelance Director, I continued writing and taking workshops. In 1997 I directed my first project in the USA, “Aids Quilt” documentary for the State Department and won various awards. (see awards)
1998, we returned to Portugal to take care of pressing family matters, and I was invited to join Tangerina Azul as a Director. This relationship lasted seven years until I was head hunted by Montaini Films International.
Two years later, (2007 – Present) became a freelance director, not attached to any particular house and available to work anywhere.
Awards
Artes Gold Award. - Best Television Technician 1979.
Loerie Awards, South African Advertising Association. 1980 - 1989
Lanco Watches , Bop-T Barclays, Smart Centre Clothing, Portuguese Tourism, Pepsi.
ATKV Best Afrikaans TV commercial 1989
Cremora coffee creamer.
RTC Awards, Portuguese Advertising Awards. 1990 - 1999
Azeite Gallo Olive Oil, Vitalert Vitamins, Triumph International,
RTC Gold Portuguese Advertising Awards.
Long Listed for Cannes
Ice Tea “ It’s not cold enough”
London International Film Awards, London UK.
Amnesty International “ Barbed Wire”
Lever Brothers Best TV commercial World Wide, NY, USA.
Azeite Gallo
JWT World Wide, Best TV Campaign. NY, USA
Azeite Gallo
Aurora Award, Salt Lake City, USA Platinum (Top of the show) 1998
Aids quilt documentary (Filmed in Boston, Mass. USA)
Communicator Award, USA
Aids Quilt Documentary (Filmed in Boston, Mass. USA)
Short film “O Almoço” was short listed at the following national and International film festivals;
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Prague, Czech Republic.13ª edição do Curtas Vila do Conde, Portugal
New York International
Independant Film and Video Festival, NY, NY,USA,
Prague Short Film Festival, Prague. Czech Republic. Festival Imaginaria, Italy, Cinematexas 10, Texas, USA
Festival International de Films de Montréal. Montreal, Canada Indie Lisboa, Portugal Tangiers Short Film Festival. Tangiers
Education
Matriculation 1969
Fine Arts Painting 1974
Workshops/ Courses
BBC TV Television Training Course 1975
Computer Technology 1988
Maine Film & TV workshops 1995
Judith Western School of Acting 1996
Adobe Workshops 1997
University of South Africa 2002/4
Skills
Hobbies
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