Martyn Pick

He directed the CGI film: "Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie" and the live action thriller/horror features "Evil Never Dies" and "Heckle". On Netflix/ITV's Robozuna he was Head of Story and Voice Director for 40 half hour episodes and on Netflix's "Kitti Katz" he was co-director. Credits include the 2009 film The Age of Stupid as animation director. London 2012, the promotional film for the 2012 Olympics; and the celebrated BBC promotional trailers for the Euro 2004 soccer tournament; and the Budweiser 2001 NBA commercials. Late commercials are for Thatchers Cider (2014), Magic the Gathering (2019) and Tata Steel (2022). A striking use of his animation/live action style was in sequences in the acclaimed feature documentary "Coup 53". He has applied his painterly filmic style in illustrated books on "Beowulf" and "Witchcraft" for Penguin. Pick studied film and fine art at Saint Martin's School of Art and the crossover of painting and cinema has driven his work ever since.

• Name — Martyn Pick • Occupation — director, animation director, live action director, • Website — http: www.martynpick.com Martyn Pick is a director and artist recognised for a distinctive fusion of live-action and animation. In feature films, commercials, and shorts he applies his fluid, cinematic storytelling working across pure live-action, computer, and hand animation. In recent years he has moved into features and TV series. He directed the CGI film: "Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie" and the live action thriller/horror features "Evil Never Dies" and "Heckle". On Netflix/ITV's Robozuna he was Head of Story and Voice Director for 40 half hour episodes and on Netflix's "Kitti Katz" he was co-director. Credits include the 2009 film The Age of Stupid as animation director. London 2012, the promotional film for the 2012 Olympics; and the celebrated BBC promotional trailers for the Euro 2004 soccer tournament; and the Budweiser 2001 NBA commercials. Late commercials are for Thatchers Cider (2014), Magic the Gathering (2019) and Tata Steel (2022). A striking use of his animation/live action style was in sequences in the acclaimed feature documentary "Coup 53". He has applied his painterly filmic style in illustrated books on "Beowulf" and "Witchcraft" for Penguin. Martyn Pick studied film and fine art at Saint Martin's School of Art and the crossover of painting and cinema has driven his work ever since.

Early animated films such as "Spectres" (1987)"Taboo of Dirt" (1988) and "Signature"(BFI New Directors Award 1990) were characterised by raw gritty charcoal drawing, wild fluid movement and brutal subject matter. At odds with dominant commercial cartoon style they were screened in art galleries, international film festivals and on television establishing his distinctive voice as an animator and filmmaker. Early commissions were for Rough Trade records, Siouxsie and the Banshees and David Byrne. In the 1990s working as a commercial director in Soho production companies Pick applied his style to many commercials, promos and TV idents. He began to introduce live-action performance, CGI and digital compositing into the expressionist flow of his animation. Clients included Mick Jagger, BBC, STV and the Rolling Stones. In the Channel 4 commissioned short film "PLAZA" (2000) which was screened at top film festivals including London Film Festival, Raindance and Edinburgh Film Festival. As well as his earlier shorts "Beat Poem" and "Signature" "Plaza" was screened at the prestigious Annecy Animation Festival. he created a tension between a savage animation subconscious and the placid live action reality that it shatters. In Campaign magazine that year it was in the top ten short films from around the world and it received the Process award for visual excellence. This led to the FilmFour commission "GREEN" which was his first pure live-action drama. "PLAZA" was also the basis of a commercial for Budweiser for the US which used the same abrasive mix of raw scratched animation corroding live-action. At the same time he directed six high profile sixty second commercials for the American corporation ADM through the agency FCB. These were a strong commercial application of all the experiments with integrating live action and CGI into fluid painterly hand animation. They received massive exposure on US networks and won the Gold Plaque for Animation at the Chicago Film Festival. In 2004 he directed his biggest ever job in the UK which was the BBC promotional trailers for the EURO 2004 tournament in which live-action of famous European footballers were treated in an eclectic mix of painterly styles. This received the Silver Promax award. Soon after he completed his first live-action commercial for the UK. In 2006 he worked as animation consultant on Brett Morgens documentary feature Chicago 10. In 2007 he started work as animation director on Franny Armstrong's climate change documentary feature The Age of Stupid (Spanner Films, Passion Pictures). In this he blended live action, CGI and matte paintings with a painterly, cinematic look. This award winning film was released to intense media interest and acclaim in March 2009. In 2008 he was commissioned by Film London and the London Development Agency to make "London" a five-minute film celebrating the capitals edge and diversity in the run up to the 2012 Olympics. This made particular use of a technique he had developed in the test film "Blythborough" where he painted directly into live action footage using digital tools, making the digital manipulation of live action more direct and spontaneous. The resulting film produced by Th1ng was premiered at the Beijing Olympics. In 2009 he directed a promo for U2.

Ultramarines: The Movie (2010) was Pick's first feature film as Director. Ultramarines: The Movie is a 70-minute CGI, sci-fi, thriller, set in Games Workshop's fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe and based around the Ultramarines Chapter of Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000). The screenplay was written by Black Library author Dan Abnett. Martyn worked in London and Cardiff directing pre and post production and in Montreal on the animation. Image Metrics in Santa Monica did the facial capture for the film. Shot at London's Abbey Road studios the film features the facial capture and voice acting of Terence Stamp, Sean Pertwee, Johnny Harris, Steven Waddington and John Hurt.

At Primefocus London he directed commercials including "Body Paint" for J Walter Thompson and one for an exhibition of J M W Turner's artwork at the National Gallery of Ireland. At The Unit he directed a much screened commercial for Thatchers Cider using an atmospheric refinement of his digital painting technique. In 2016 he directed the live action short horror film "Blue Moon" which premiered at Americas biggest horror film festival, Screamfestla, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. For "Magic the Gathering" and "League of Legends" he directed a series of live action commercials in 2019 and 2020. "Fulci Funhaus" is an art animation short film going back to Martyn's early wild metamorphic fine art style. It was screened at the Museum of Club Culture in Hull and part of the artists touring exhibition Empire. Which played at the Venice Biennale in 2018, the Cinema Museum in London and in Oaxaca, Mexico. In 2022 he directed an epic multi media short film for Tata Steel through JWT Mumbai, mixing cgi and live action with his digital painting. He reunited with Franny Armstrong from The Age of Stupid for the climate change short "Out of the Ashes" featuring the noted academic Rupert Read. After its release in October 2022 the film was viewed on various platforms and in selected cinemas by two thirds of a million people. In illustration he has done many book covers including a cover for "Engine Summer" for Orion and endpapers for an exclusive limited edition "Wheel of Time" hardback for Little, Brown Book Group. For Penguin books he illustrated the Ladybird books "Witchcraft" written by Dr Suzannah Lipscomb, and "Beowulf" by Dr Janina Ramirez. This was a great opportunity to really explore a rich vision with strong writers and serious historical content.