Paul Campion is an English/New Zealand film director, and screenwriter.

Life and career

Born in England, Campion studied

technical illustration Technical Illustration is illustration meant to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be components of technical drawings or diagrams. Technical illustrations in general aim "to generate expressive i ...

at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design. He began his career as a freelance illustrator and was represented by Folio Artists Agents in London. He created book cover illustrations for authors such as

Wilbur Smith Wilbur Addison Smith (9 January 1933 – 13 November 2021) was a Zambian-born British-South African novelist specialising in historical fiction about international involvement in Southern Africa across four centuries, seen from the viewpoints ...

and

Ben Elton Benjamin Charles Elton (born 3 May 1959) is an English comedian, actor, author, playwright, lyricist and director. He was a part of London's alternative comedy movement of the 1980s and became a writer on the sitcoms '' The Young Ones'' and ''Bla ...

. In 1999 he completed a Master's degree in

Computer Animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...

Bournemouth University Bournemouth University is a public university in Bournemouth, England, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992; however, the origins of its predecessor date back to the early 1900s. The univer ...

, and then moved to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

where he worked on

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

's ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, as a texture painter, creating digital textures for the

Balrog A Balrog () is a powerful demonic monster in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. One first appeared in print in his high-fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings'', where the Fellowship of the Ring (characters), Fellowship of the Ring encounter a Bal ...

Mûmakil In J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy ''The Lord of the Rings'', Harad is the immense land south of Gondor and Mordor. Its main port is Umbar, the base of the Corsairs of Umbar whose ships serve as the Dark Lord Sauron's fleet. Its people are the ...

, Fellbeast and

Shelob Shelob is a fictional demon in the form of a giant spider from J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. Her lair lies in Cirith Ungol ("the pass of the spider") leading into Mordor. The creature Gollum deliberately leads the Hobbit protago ...

. He then worked as a matte painter on ''

Sin City ''Sin City'' is a series of neo-noir comics by American comic book writer-artist Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in ''Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special'' (April 1991), and continued in ''Dark Horse Presents'' #51� ...

'', "

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I *Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...

", as a texture painter on '' The Waterhorse'' and the remake of '' The Dambusters'' and as a concept artist on '' X-Men: The Last Stand'', ''

Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian G ...

'', '' Clash of the Titans'' and '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''.

Short films

In 2006 Campion directed his first short film, the black comedy horror '' Night of the Hell Hamsters''. In 2008 he followed this up with the short science fiction horror film ''

Eel Girl ''Eel Girl'' is a 2008 horror science fiction short film written and directed by Paul Campion, in which what appears to be a sort of human- eel hybrid woman, being studied by scientists in a Naval research facility, takes revenge on one of the ...

'', featuring special makeup effects by Weta Workshop. In 2016 Campion directed his third short film ''

The Naughty List ''The Naughty List'' is a 2016 Black comedy short film written and directed by Paul Campion, about two American mobsters who come face to face with Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, and discover what it really takes to get on his Naughty or Nice li ...

'', based on a short story by author

Brian Keene Brian Keene (born September 22, 1967) is an American author and podcaster, primarily known for his work in horror, dark fantasy, crime fiction, and comic books. He has won the 2014 World Horror Grandmaster Award and two Bram Stoker Awards. In a ...

Feature films

In 2010 he wrote and directed his first feature film ''

The Devil's Rock ''The Devil's Rock'' is a 2011 New Zealand horror film produced by Leanne Saunders, directed by Paul Campion, written by Campion, Paul Finch, and Brett Ihaka, and starring Craig Hall, Matthew Sunderland, Gina Varela, and Karlos Drinkwater. ...

'', co-written with

Paul Finch Paul Finch is an English author and scriptwriter. He began his writing career on the British television programme ''The Bill''. His early scripts were for children's animation. He has written over 300 short stories which have appeared in magazines ...

and Brett Ihaka. Set in the Channel Islands during WW2, it tells the story of two New Zealand commandos who uncover a Nazi plot to summon up a demon, using a book of black magic.

Planned feature films

*'' Dark Hollow'' is a planned feature film based on the novel "Dark Hollow" by US author

. *''Kill Whitey'' is a planned feature film based on the novel "Kill Whitey" by US author

. *''Scorpion Raiders'' is a planned World War 2 feature film based on the true story of the

Long Range Desert Group )Gross, O'Carroll and Chiarvetto 2009, p.20 , patron = , motto = ''Non Vi Sed Arte'' (Latin: ''Not by Strength, but by Guile'') (unofficial) , colours = , colours_label ...

's Barce raid (

Operation Caravan Operation Caravan was a subsidiary of Operation Agreement under which four simultaneous raids were carried out against important Axis Lines of Communication positions in September 1942. The operations were against Tobruk (''Agreement''), Bengha ...

). *''Voodoo Dawn'' is a zombie feature film previously called "Lore of the Jungle", set in London, written by Paul Finch. Campion described the film as "set in London and involves black magic and re-animated corpses and it's designed to be a very fun entertaining Evil Dead 2/Dusk Till Dawn style film."

Filmography

Awards and nominations

*'' Night of the Hell Hamsters'' (2007) **

A Night of Horror International Film Festival A Night of Horror International Film Festival is a horror genre film festival that is based in Sydney, Australia. There seems to be some consensus that the event is Australia's premiere, and possibly only, horror film festival. In his monthly c ...

– Best Director **Vine Short Film Festival – Best Horror Film **Zompire: The Undead Film Festival — Audience Favourite **

Big Mountain Short Film Festival The Big Mountain Short Film Festival is a short film festival based in Ohakune, New Zealand designed to encourage and celebrate creative short film making and storytelling. Entry is free and open to filmmakers internationally, who are encouraged ...

– Audience Favourite **Tabloid Witch Awards – Honorable Mention **Terror Film Festival – Best Horror Short Film (nominated) *''

'' (2008) **

Brest European Short Film Festival The Brest European Short Film Festival ( French: Festival européen du film court de Brest) is a film festival dedicated to short films, happening every year in Brest, in the Brittany region in France. It has been organized by the Côte Ouest As ...

–

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

Cocotte Minute **Court Metrange Film Festival – Grand Prix **H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival – Best Short Film and Best Comedy **Tabloid Witch Awards – Honorable Mention ** Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival – Best Short Film (nominated) **Dark Carnival Film Festival – Best Short Film (nominated) *''

'' (2016) **One-Reeler Short Film Competition – Award of Excellence **Best Comedy Short Film – The Austin Comedy Short Film Festival, 2017 (nominated) **Best Screenplay – Short Film –

GenreBlast Film Festival The GenreBlast Film Festival is an annual event held in the Winchester, Virginia area that specializes in genre film. GenreBlast is the largest genre film festival in the Washington, D.C. region, spotlighting short and feature films that are ty ...

, 2017 (nominated) **Funniest Short Film –

, 2017 (nominated) **Best Overall Short Film –

, 2017 (nominated)

References

External links

Paul Campion's Official website
*
The Gnomon Workshop
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campion, Paul Alumni of Arts University Bournemouth Alumni of Bournemouth University English film directors English illustrators English screenwriters English male screenwriters Horror film directors Living people Matte painters People educated at Dulwich College Visual effects artists Year of birth missing (living people)