Ammonite: Founder Interview with Rob Casey

How did Ammonite Studios begin?

I started Ammonite back in 2018 because I was in quite a fortunate position that I was working on a few shows at the same time, as a freelance associate lighting designer. 

Myself and an associate video designer were very much in the same boat. Together we realised that we were trying to do too many shows at the same time, and not giving any of them the attention they deserved. So we came up with the idea of starting a company to try and ensure that we could look after the shows that were in front of us, as well as the shows that were happening in the next six or twelve months. 

It meant that all of those shows would get our attention in person because we could start to take some of the skill sets that were in the role of the associate lighting designer and the associate video designer and push those into multiple personnel within the company.

It started in 2018 and since has grown progressively through to where we are now. We now take on much more of the holistic view of the production, looking after production management and technical direction of shows. 

Taking that same ethos that we had when we started, that actually the role of the associate lighting designer or the associate video designer was one that actually was completed by multiple skill sets that could be done across two, three, four, five people.

We think the same thing is true of production management, and that the same person who has an in-depth knowledge and an in-depth skill of budgeting doesn't have to be the same person that's got an in-depth knowledge of steel wire rope gauge for set pieces. 

We take the fantastic team we've got here, all of whom have cut their teeth in various different creative industries. It allows us to take on larger scale projects that are more technical with a huge range of skills we didn’t have before.

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Go to our Instagram @ammonite.studios to watch the full interview.

By Grace McCaffrey