Jon Billington
I was born in Devon, England in the 60’s – just a couple of years too late to be old enough see the Sex Pistols live. This is something that to this day continues to be much more of an issue for me than it should be. JUNE 1987: Graduated from Canterbury College of Art with Bachelor of Arts (with Honors) Degree in Architecture JUNE 1993: Achieved a Post Graduate Diploma (with Distinction) in Design for Film and TV from Kingston University, London. AUGUST 1993: My first employment in the film industry was not as a Set Designer or Art Director but Driver for 4 times Oscar winning Production Designer John Box on the location based film Black Beauty. John, as well as entertaining me with endless stories of his days working with David Lean, introduced me to his Art Directors – who took me onto their next film, the $70 million slight disappointment that was Judge Dredd. Not a film to display prominently on your resume, it did however introduce me to Production Designer Nigel Phelps who would later become both a close friend and mentor. Between 1994 and 1997 I worked as a Set Designer and Art Director on a number of films within the British Industry including The Fifth Element, Eyes Wide Shut, Richard III and Titanic. In late 1997 I received a phone call from Nigel Phelps asking me to fly to Mexico to oversee the drawing and build of an underwater town set which was to be shot in the tanks at Rosarito for the Neil Jordan film In Dreams. This job kick started a chain of films which Nigel and I worked on together, him as Production Designer and me as Art Director including The Bone Collector, Pearl Harbor, Troy, The Island and Transformers 2. |
In between these Feature Film projects I Production Designed a number of commercials and music videos, some of which can be viewed on this site. In 2000 I relocated from London to Los Angeles after meeting my wife on Pearl Harbor. In 2001 I received a phone call from Mark Mylod who was Directing Ali G Indahouse and wanted me to Design the opening dream sequence set in LA. Three years later we ended up together again in Alaska and The Yukon shooting The Big White and then in 2010 in Boston on the Anna Faris comedy, What’s Your Number? In 2011 I briefly jumped back to Art Directing as Nigel was heading to England on World War Z. A zombie movie starring Brad Pitt and shooting in London sounded too good to refuse. In 2012 I returned to London to Production Design the Additional Photography which turned out to be substantial – a new opening and an entirely new third act. Contact
Resume |
Feature Films: Production Design
As Supervising Art Director
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As Art Director
As Set Designer
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Music Videos & Commercials as Production Designer
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Music Videos & Commercials as Art Director
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