ABOUT NMFX

Being creative isn’t just a choice but has always been a part of who I am. Something not defined just by the finished product but throughout the entire process of creating something which didn't exist before. Being able to take a ‘blank page’ and produce something that someone else wants or finds value with

When I was young I was always trying to be creative. I wasn’t a naturally gifted artist so looked for different ways to express my creativity. I remember my father bringing home the Spectrum ZX81 and I started to learn BASIC coding but soon realised I didn’t have the patience to get too far into this. After spending several hours typing away just for the computer to blink my name on the screen and change colours things were a little frustrating. I could see the potential of the computer but the technology wasn’t where I could really create what I wanted, explore or develop easily.

Fast forward to 1995 when a friend introduced me to Adobe Photoshop 3 and suddenly I could start using a computer to be creative.  The Youth theatre I was part of needed posters for their shows designing so I set myself the challenge of learning how to do this. This soon included editing images and photographs and soon compositing as I explored what Photoshop and other design packages could do.

After a few years compositing and editing photos for posters and programmes that other people had taken, trying to correct problems with the photos and generally make them look as good as I could, I decided it might be worthwhile picking up a camera and trying it. My grandfather was a keen photographer and had a good SLR and although film was expensive he had some spare rolls of film that he let me practice with and so I began to teach myself about photography. After working as a lighting designer on quite a few shows, using artificial placed light to suggest locations, moods, feelings etc to an audience the conversion to capturing light for a single moment frozen in time was something I found quite natural. Not only that but seeing light through the camera lens allowed me to show things that were impossible on stage. I could capture the rain falling and the shutter open and close so quickly that it perfectly captures each individual drop as if frozen or I could capture light over a longer time and show the trail of light moving or an ocean wave softened in a dreamy smooth way.

Video equipment and editing software, once only available to professionals with large budgets gradually became more affordable and available and I soon was asked to start recording shows and other live events. I could take what I had learned capturing light for single frames and extend this into multiple frames a second and with home computers becoming so much more powerful I was able to edit from the comfort of my home office. Of course, just recording and editing videos wasn’t enough, clients wanted titles and extras and I started to add extra skills to what I could do with video including starting to learn about the mystical and arcane secrets of visual effects.

Around this time I also started designing websites, firstly for myself and the theatre where I worked and then other people wanted sites creating for them. Now using Blocs 4, great website design is easier than ever and anyone who wants a website, whether personal or business can have one and with social media being dominated by algorithms, a website is the best way to get your message in front of the people that you want to see it.

I currently live in Yorkshire, UK


Neil Myers