Before the days of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), film makers would use the skills of model makers to create the miniature worlds needed for the storylines of the films. How else could King Kong have climbed up the Empire State Building, or the incredible space adventures of the sci-fi films of the 1960s and 70s have happened; or The Whitehouse destroyed in Independence Day?

One man who knows all about model making for the movies is Mike Kelm, who with wife Jenny are known to us all as Kastlekelm Miniatures. Mike has spent all of his working life in the movie industry. It started with sign writing, then making 3D models and props, this led to becoming Art Director, and now he is a concept modeller working between designers and film directors communicating the ideas of the people making the sets and the props into tangible models that film directors such as George Lucas can see for themselves.

Mike, who lives in the Cotswolds with Jenny, loves his job, and when he’s not building conceptual models for the latest production he’s working on, he’ll be creating something magical, or maybe surreal or maybe something quite down to earth, for his own enjoyment or to sell at the next dolls house show. The room boxes he makes range from granddad’s workshops and scientific laboratories to Steampunk dungeons. He’s currently working on a very exciting project which he describes as a very, very self- indulgent fantasy project. So, watch this space!

Talking about his work, Mike describes himself as a ‘communicator’. “I’m a concept modeller. I make models of anything and everything. Film set designers will come up with ideas which could be anything – an entire spaceship, a cockpit, anything. The concept has to be communicated to the film director, and this is where I come in. I make that conceptual model so the director can see it and see how it functions. It’s easier to make suggestions for changes when it’s a scale model rather than the real thing. And because I’ve been doing this so long and I’m trusted, I’m usually given a free hand to interpret those ideas. I get the chance to make some very elaborate and fantastic things.”

Chatting about how he got into this line of work, Mike explained, “I was working as a graphic artist for quite a few years, then in the early 90s the company I was working for went bust, so I went freelance. I got a chance to work on the film, Indiana Jones as a signwriter – that is creating all the 1930s posters you see in the film, the German graphics, such as the big propaganda posters and so on. Then I got to do signwriting on some Bond movies – The World is not Enough and Golden Eye. During these years I learned how the film industry worked and what everyone did. But I was sign writing.

“There was someone I knew working as a model maker on Star Wars, so I said that actually I was a good model maker – so they gave me a try. Within a few weeks I was given a job as a full-time model maker for the film industry!”

Mike has worked on numerous movies over the years, Gulliver’s Travels, Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars – The Phantom Menace, Aladdin, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Wonder Woman, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and many more.

 

As time went by, Mike was promoted to senior positions including Art Director, but his heart wasn’t really in the management side of things, he much preferred the hands on, creative work. He said, “I didn’t want to be hunched over a computer, I wanted to be making things – because of my experience and background I could produce anything.”

However, with CGI taking over, one of the last movies to use models was Harry Potter, with the making of Hogwarts which was built at about 1/24^th scale. Mike added, “That was a fantastic, elaborate model, but they are a thing of the past. They are just not made any more. It’s all CGI.”

So, Mike’s work changed to making concept models and he would often find himself sitting in on meetings with George Lucas, going through ideas and conceptual models, with Lucas putting a red X on any bits of the model he didn’t like.

Mike learned long ago that making models for the film industry is very different from making models as collector’s items. For one thing, mostly they are made from polystyrene and thin timber. And they are there for a practical purpose rather than being kept as works of art. At the end of the production, his work will generally end up in a skip! He said, “It’s not unusual to see 6-9 months of work ending up in the skip. But so long as it serves its purpose and does what it’s supposed to do, that’s what counts.

“I remember working on a Medieval Hall interior that was mean to have a giant who smashes up the inside. So, the actor smashed up the interior, and there was a whole series of re-shoots, so we’d have to take out all the smashed things and replace with new ones – again and again! But you take pride in the model doing what it was made for. It’s not meant to be kept – it has a job to do, it’s there for a purpose.”

One particular model he is proud to have made is the Orrery in Dark Crystal, which was a mechanical contraption located in character Aughra’s observatory. It represented the heavenly bodies in a solar system and their movements.

Working in the movies isn’t all glamour though! “In the 2004 Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy starring Martin Freeman we had to make the toilets for the Vogons who were real baddies and totally disgusting and horrible. Their personal hygiene was not good, and we had to make it even worse which we did by squidging lots of horrible stuff around them!

“That was a crazy film to work on, crazy things happened. The characters turned into woollen toys, everything turned into flowers – and we had to build the lot!”

But creating effects is what the business is all about, and millions of movie goers are glad that he is doing what he’s doing!

See more of Mike and Jenny’s work at Kastlekelm Miniatures: https://www.facebook.com/dollshousefantasyminiatures/

https://kastlekelm.wixsite.com/kastlekelm

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