To encounter Ian Emes is a bit like meeting a secret member of the soon to reform Monty Python鈥檚 Flying Circus.
Except he鈥檚 part of another British institution from the 1970s 鈥 Pink Floyd.
It was Ian鈥檚 animated artwork that helped to make the song Time such a memorably visual, as well as aural, part of The Dark Side of the Moon.
Like Monty Python and The Beatles鈥 Sgt Pepper, it was a very British but international way of looking at things.
And it launched him on a career path where he can now claim to be 鈥渙ne of the few filmmakers to have come out of Birmingham鈥.
Now, 40 years after his major breakthrough, Ian is back in his home city with an exhibition at Millennium Point.
鈥淚 still think I鈥檓 at the top of my game with a lot of things happening with new technologies,鈥 says Ian, now 64.
鈥淚 think you can do a lot of your best work in your later years.
鈥淎rtists should get better until they drop.鈥
After four decades in London, I wonder if he鈥檚 realised he鈥檚 been missing the city enough to want to move back to his roots?
鈥淥n a normal day, I don鈥檛 miss Birmingham,鈥 he says.
鈥淏ut coming back, I do feel nostalgic about it.
鈥淪eeing parts I remember... Chester Road, Erdington, Aston... and looking at how it has changed.
鈥淥zzy Osbourne is about a year older than me. We must have knocked about a lot of the same places and I鈥檇 be very curious to meet him.
鈥淗e鈥檚 definitely from my neck of the woods.
鈥淚 used to cycle around so much and have fond memories.
鈥淚 am not sure that I would consider moving to Birmingham now, but I do like the new energy.鈥
Perhaps if the world was like it is today, Ian might never have left at the end of his student days.
鈥淎n artist then was someone who would come to paint your house and I think that feeling is still strong,鈥 he muses.
鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 much interest in artists but, nonetheless, the city seems to be very vibrant and much more 鈥榳ith it鈥.
鈥淚 like the way things are going. Birmingham seems to be proud of itself. More confident, and expecting to be recognised.
鈥淚n the 1970s, there was a little art world and that was it.
鈥淚 would go to eastern Europe in the communist era and wondered why cities like Bucharest, Budapest and Prague would seem familiar.
鈥淭hen I realised they were like Birmingham.
鈥淚 think the city needs something like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao... a fantastically accessible piece of architecture where everyone can see it.
鈥淚f only we could do that with confidence, but you need visual people (with artistry) in power to pull it off.鈥
Ian鈥檚 big break came from a mixture of having the determination to be nobody but himself 鈥 and serendipity.
鈥淚 was using Pink Floyd鈥檚 music to accompany my films when I was at college,鈥 he says.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know anything about copyright and, to be honest, never thought anybody would ever see my films.
鈥淚 just used to show them at parties.
鈥淚 made a film called French Windows in 1972, using One of These Days from the Meddle album.鈥
After graduating in 1972 from what is now part of Birmingham City University, Ian鈥檚 first job was working in Wardour Street in London for Hungarian filmmaker John Halas, whose Animal Farm (1954) pioneered full length animations in Britain.
鈥淛ohn said 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 you send French Windows to the BBC鈥檚 rock show, The Old Grey Whistle Test?鈥
鈥淲hen it was screened, Richard Wright (Pink Floyd鈥檚 late keyboard player) saw it and got in touch with me.
鈥淚 arranged for Pink Floyd to see a preview on Wardour Street in London.
鈥淚 thought I was going to be in trouble for using their music but they were very nice.
鈥淪teve O鈥橰ourke (Pink Floyd鈥檚 late manager) then asked me to do the Time sequence for The Dark Side of the Moon.鈥
Ian wasn鈥檛 asked to design any Floyd album covers because the famous Prism one for The Dark Side of the Moon had already been done by George Hardie from Hipgnosis.
But making the Time footage was the kind of break most people dream of, never mind the first animation student at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design鈥檚 Gosta Green site in 1972.
鈥淭here were no teachers teaching animation so I taught myself!鈥 he reveals.
鈥淚 worked out how to break everything down, frame to frame.
鈥淚t was all done by hand using an Oxberry Rostrum Camera and it was very mathematical Click. Click. Click.
鈥淚t would take two months to make a four-minute film.
鈥淚 would put the film inside a can in the dark and post it through Royal Mail to London to be developed and wait a week for it to come back in the post.鈥
A father of four, Ian鈥檚 journey through life has been shared by his still-teaching wife Patricia, whom he met when she was delivering copies of The Birmingham Post to his house when she was 14.
鈥淪he was my own paper girl!鈥 he laughs.
鈥淚 had seen her around and one day when I was about 15 or 16, I was in Erdington High Street standing outside Mothers (nightclub) waiting for my date who didn鈥檛 turn up.
鈥淚 saw Patricia walking down the road with her long blonde hair and said... how about a date?鈥
鈥淎ctually, I said: 鈥極i, blondie!鈥 which was not very nice鈥.鈥
His parents wondered where his career was going.
His father, Ronald Walter, was a policeman based at Steelhouse Lane, a Police Federation secretary and a trainer across four Olympic Games for the British canoe team, going out to Rome and Tokyo.
Mum Barbara, divorced, was a housewife who now lives in Jersey.
鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 understand (my work),鈥漵ays Ian.
鈥淢y father wanted me to be an Olympic canoeist. Or, possibly, a policeman
鈥淚 am one of the few filmmakers to have come out of Birmingham and it was like I was on the other side of the Earth to them.
鈥淚 was technology minded and would have loved computers, but I tried to make films as fine art.
鈥淭he Royal School of Film and Television turned me down because they said my work was 鈥榯oo sculptural鈥.
鈥淏ut that probably would not be the case now.
鈥淚f I鈥檓 going to continue exhibiting (at places like Millennium Point), I want to take a site-specific approach.
鈥淭o first see what a space is like and to see how I can use it.
鈥淚 enjoy exhibiting and bringing out things which I had forgotten and using physical spaces through which people can experience the work.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an introduction to movement. You are not going into a cinema to sit in front of a film which has a beginning, a middle and an end after 90 minutes.
鈥淚 like narratives where you can walk through and between sequences.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a kind of still cinema and a bit more sculptural.鈥
Ian has directed four of his own movies, including the Birmingham-set Knights & Emeralds, and many TV commercials for the Sir Ridley Scott (Blade Runner / Alien).
His videos have included The Chauffeur, for Birmingham band Duran Duran in 1982, and The Wall: Live in Berlin, a 1990 performance led by Roger Waters and starring Rupert Everett and Marianne Faithful.
Ian has also worked with Paul and Linda McCartney and Mike Oldfield.
He鈥檚 also proud 鈥 but realistic 鈥 about having been Oscar-nominated and a BAFTA winner for his own short film Goody-Two-Shoes (1984)
鈥淎wards ceremonies are not a measure of quality, they don鈥檛 tell you whether it鈥檚 a good film or not,鈥 says Ian.
鈥淎t the Academy Awards, I met Jack Nicholson and told him 鈥業t鈥檚 only a statue. Everyone should be just happy they are making films鈥.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 do all of that networking thing. It just wasn鈥檛 in my bones.
鈥淪ome people design their career decisions. I鈥檓 sort of a free spirit.
鈥淲ith film, I find the narrative storytelling is quite limited.
鈥淎nd with every (filmmaking) experience, I have struggled with the restriction of having to have a narrative.鈥
Why didn鈥檛 he become a major director himself?
鈥淚 determined my own destiny,鈥 he says.
鈥淚 would not change anything and my career seems to be redefining itself.
鈥淚 adapted this idea that 鈥榯here鈥檚 no such thing as a wrong decision鈥.
鈥淔ilm directors are a breed and I don鈥檛 think I am that animal. I think I have concluded that.
鈥淚 spent a lot of time in the US, but I didn鈥檛 stay there. It鈥檚 the best decision we ever made to keep our children grounded in England.
鈥淭here鈥檚 this idea that Hollywood is heaven and inhabited by gods and people were saying 鈥榓re you going to come?鈥
鈥淚 found it to be a really horrible place and didn鈥檛 ever enjoy being there.
鈥淧ink Floyd could never have existed in Los Angeles. And I don鈥檛 think Monty Python could have either.鈥
* Ian Emes will be giving a free public talk, Shooting the Moon, at Birmingham City University鈥檚 Parkside Building, 5 Cardigan Street, Birmingham on December 11 from 6.30-8pm. To register visit and search for Ian Emes and Birmingham. For further details on Ian鈥檚 current exhibition at Birmingham City University, visit:
