ROBERT BOVILL

Member: Society of Motion Picture and Television Art Directors since 1982, with over thirty years of experience as a professional Art Director in television and film.

 

HISTORY:

Six years after graduating from prestigious Lowell High School, in San Francisco, including one year traveling around the world through Asia, studying Mandarin Chinese, at Yale in China, then through Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, following with Southern and Northern Europe, Robert returned and obtained his double liberal arts degree in Biology and Theater Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1976. (14 years later Robert returned to UCSC and taught “Art Direction for Film and Television” in the same classroom he attended when he was an undergraduate.) He followed that with postgraduate work at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in ’76 and ’77.

 

EARLY CAREER:

His television career began in San Francisco in 1977 as a Production Assistant on "Sharon, Portrait of a Mistress," a Paramount Television Movie of the Week starring Mrs. George C Scott. He then worked on a "Colombo" project with Trish Van Devere, her stage name.

 

His working relationship blossomed with Trish and he was hired for two years as a reader and Assistant Producer with Van Devere Productions in Los Angeles. In 1979 Bovill worked on "The Changeling" starring George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere.

 

In 1980 Bovill was a Set Designer for "Battle Beyond the Stars" working with James Cameron (Titanic).

 

That same year, as a designer and production coordinator Bovill helped make Tony Duquette's dream of a special exhibit for the bicentennial of Los Angeles, "Our Lady Queen of the Angles," a stunning triumph.

 

As Assistant Art Director, Bovill helped establish the highly successful television sitcom, "The Facts of Life" in its first full season of 1981-82.

 

After living and experiencing six years of Hollywood, Bovill returned home to the San Francisco Bay Area and immediately began working in the model shop of Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic on the Academy Award winning film "Return of the Jedi" as a model builder.

 

MID CAREER:

In 1984, Production Designer, Geoffrey Kirkland (Fame, Midnight Express, Shoot the Moon, The Right Stuff) called Bovill to help him design "Birdy”, directed by Alan Parker. For six months Bovill drew over 100 sheets of production working drawings and helped supervise the bi-coastal construction of scenery for this very well received feature film. "Birdy" won the very prestigious Special Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival in the spring of 1985.

 

In 1987, Bovill Art Directed "The Wash" for American Playhouse and in 1988 was the Art Director of a three million dollar 10 minute HDTV short subject for Lucasfilm, "Sparky and Charlie's Amazing Adventure," shot by Hiro Narita.

 

Another project came up in 1988 when Touchstone Pictures brought "Beaches" to San Francisco. As Second Unit Art Director, Bovill was a member of a design team that received an Academy Award nomination for Art Direction.

 

In 1989 Bovill began a four year relationship with AMPEX producing and designing once a year, their very successful Betacam set and live show for the huge NAB National Association of Broadcasters convention.

 

Then in 1990 he was asked to design the "Mornings on 2" set for KTVU-TV which won Bovill a Gold Broadcast Designers Association Award, and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Set Design. The sets look and feel was so far ahead of its time it lasted ten years in an arena where sets last three years if you’re lucky.

 

1989, Bovill trademarked “Vertical Video” trying to convince news directors to accept an untried concept, turning video screens on their side. In 1996 the idea is taken back east by NBC executives and launched behind Brian Williams on MSNBC’s primetime news show. Now the vertical screen is a ubiquitous element of contemporary news.

 

In 1992-93 Bovill helped KIRO-TV in Seattle with his innovative design for their open newsroom concept of presenting the news. He managed a $2 million, 9000 square foot project. To help Bovill the station recruited Kent Stowell, the Artistic Director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet, for creative choreographic consultation. Incredibly, the 3 million dollar project was completed in a mere four months.

 

For a change of pace, Bovill took time in 1995 to design a Union Square clothing boutique in San Francisco.

 

Bovill's next project was to design the basic sets for a Saturday Morning ABC children's show called "Things That Go Bump in the Night" produced by Danger Productions in Brisbane.
He also worked to develop the first computerized interactive public information kiosk for Pacific Bell.

 

Working with the Discovery Channel, Bovill developed the look for two very successful long running shows, "The Next Step" and "The Know Zone", again being nominated for an Emmy Award.

 

In 1996, Bovill designed and built a challenging, rule breaking, yet wildly successful Newsroom centerpiece for Tektronix and their NAB/97 booth.

 

He designed the set for "Uncommon Knowledge," a national talk show produced by Stanford's Hoover Institution. Many of the conservative guests claimed it was the nicest interview set they had ever been on. This set lasted an unbelievable 11 years!

 

In 1996, Bovill designed the set for the first annual "CNet Awards Show" and had an ongoing project with The Oracle Channel to develop a modular set system to enable different producers multiple variations on a common home base set for Oracle's 24 hour information channel.

 

Also in ‘96, for Ziff Davis, NBC, and Microsoft, Bovill designed and managed the miraculously quick design and construction of a prime-time show called “The Site” that helped launch MSNBC. Bovill shared his Vertical Video idea with an NBC executive and he took it back east and applied it to their anchor news program. After years of trying to get it accepted it was now being copied everywhere. “The Site” was nominated for an Emmy Award.

 

CURRENT CAREER:

For the millennium in March 2001 Bovill Executive Produced 32 hours of live web-casting from Mardi-Gras in New Orleans. Broadcasting from a balcony on Bourbon Street and airing bands like “Hooty and the Blowfish” from the famous blues club, Tipitina’s, he had over a million hits from many satisfied browsers.

 

From ‘98-'02 Bovill developed a residential building in Sausalito that literally had termites flying around in it when he purchased it. Bovill turned it around and made the eyesore of the block, the pride of the block. His neighbors loved him for improving views by going underground with his utilities, exchanging set-backs, and so on. This address is 109 Filbert.

 

Robert’s pride of ownership from 2000-2004 was 501 Bridgeway, which was a 120 year old Victorian, built by a Sea Captain on the waterfront in Sausalito. Again it was a project that was a mess left by a previous owner, who for 25 years did very little, and what he did do, was horrible.

 

Three new kitchens, 4 new bathrooms, new walls, new floors, and special 6 layer paint finishes applied by Bovill, and this place was unbelievable. Bovill wrote his critically appreciated screenplay “The House of Pearl” based upon the stories he heard from previous tenants who had lived in the building and from his own historical research.

 

At this time Robert is a partner in Mix Entertainment Holdings, developing television, film and real estate projects. He wrote the treatment for Clive Cusslers “Oregon Files” that helped persuade Mr. Cussler to give MIX the authorization to convert his books into television, film and gaming products.

 

Robert has a deep respect for the past and a strong eye for the future. Over the years Bovill has maintained a reputation for having a phenomenal eye for even the smallest detail that might help bring a project that much closer to perfection.

 

Wanting to participate in larger more environmentally conscious projects led Robert to return to school in 2004 and receive an MFA in Interior Architecture and Design, where he designed “SOLAMID” a 2 million square foot environmentally “green” elective surgery and recovery resort.

 

Bovill is seeking a collaborative design environment to help solve environmental design issues.

 

Home Office:
141 Junipero Serra Blvd.
San Francisco, California
Tel. 415-681-8026
Fax 415-681-0697
Cell 415-713-2626
e-mail - robert@bovillcreative.com