Your style varies a lot from piece to piece. Are there any defining Paul Baguley signatures that people could identify?

I like to reinvent and challenge what I do as often as I can if I have a signature in what I do then it would probably be that I like to keep a sense of humour in everything and this can be on a subtle level such as the way something is edited to the downright silly.

How long do you get to work on most pieces, say the James Bond BAFTA piece?

How long things take really depends on deadlines. Just this week I've done a dancing scientist and a talking (not lipsynced) mudskipper and they took about two and a half days. They are far from perfect but they will only be used for a couple of weeks before the next lot take over so for throwaway they are hopefully okay and as long as they make me laugh then that's okay.

I can't really remember how long the Bond thing took but I think it was about two weeks from start to finish (this includes programme styling, end credits, captions, etc.) - I'm normally doing more than one thing at a time so I never keep an exact record of how long it all takes.

Are the Record Breakers images for the programme that used to be hosted by Roy Castle?!

Record Breakers was originally hosted by Roy Castle. The 30th and last year that I did was hosted by Fern Cotton, Jez Edwards and Shovel (from the pop group M People). They are the bods in the title. On Record Breakers, additional design and compositing was done by Paul Kavanagh.

Before you go, have you got anything groovy for our readers?

I've got a few models that might be of some use. Generally I get very little time to lavish on the characters and things that I need to build and most are really specific to a need that is a one-off, but I've enclosed a few things. As I like the beach there are some shades and a surfboard. A subpatch heart shape for all of you romantics (and TV designers around Valentines) and a skateboard. The jeep I made for Record Breakers as it was really the first big thing that I modelled and I like the tyres. Also a Christmas tree - what with Santa due and all that - it looks much better with Sasquatch or Sas Lite applied. The presents on the tree all had VT in them if you think they look a bit strange...

Windows	Macintosh
Zip	StuffIt
2.28 MB	2.16 MB
For non-commercial use only

Cool! Thanks for these Paul!

Lastly, what advice would you give someone looking to freelance, or work from home?

If you are looking to work from home or freelance try to have a regular income from a steady client. Keep on top of all the boring accounting stuff. Have fixed hours (as much as possible anyway.) Keep in contact with clients and colleagues you can get a lot of work that way and colleagues can help when the load gets tough. Have more than one computer. Get, if you can, a broadband connection. Don't overextend yourself it's better to turn work down than to turn in a pile of pants or miss a real deadline.

Stay off the PlayStation and don't go to the supermarket on Mondays as it might be quiet but all the food went at the weekend. Tuesdays are better.

Thanks for the sage advice Paul! :) You can see more of his excellent work on TV if you are in the UK, or at his website, which is due to launch January 2004.