Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Thomson.
Tim, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m a filmmaker, creative director, media artist, and theater designer who has worked in Houston since 1989. I got my start prior to that by going to school and working in the television industry in Corpus Christi, Texas, and I was always one of those pre-internet film geeks who made monster movies in the backyard with my parents’ Super8 film camera… upon moving to Houston in the late 80s I worked freelance and on staff for a few video and film production companies in town. Eventually, that led to my current day job, so to speak, where I serve as a Creative Director for Media at Staging Solutions Inc., a 25-year-old national large-scale event and experiential creative design and production agency. For the last 20 years, I have been able to combine my love for theater, live experience AND film and video production to tell unique stories for a living.
But at the same time, I have been fortunate to also be involved in a myriad of other artistic efforts that make up the vast fabric of whatever you’d otherwise call the Houston “scene”… in the early 90’s I was part of an independent video crew that made a number of music videos for Houston underground bands like The Pain Teens and Truth Decay, and directed a few indy underground video features like NO RESISTANCE (1994), which just recently was rereleased as a collector’s edition Blu-Ray by Saturns Core Video, OCN and Vinegar Syndrome – see here: https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/no-resistance-saturns-core.
For a little while in the late ’90s, I was also part of the experimental electronic music duo dr:op:fr:am+e, which released a full-length album on Austin’s Monotremata records n 2001.
It was around then that I became very involved in local theater, and since 1999 have been doing sound and video projection design for Stages Theatre, Infernal Bridegroom/The Catastrophic Theatre, Mildred’s Umbrella, Classical Theater Company, DiverseWorks, Dominic Walsh Dance Company, choreographer Rivikah French, and more. I have been a company member of The Catastrophic Theatre since 2008 and have also served as a board member. Most recently, for example, I designed the sound for Catastrophic’s production of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, directed by Jason Nodler and starring Tamarie Cooper, which closed last week at MATCH. I have also been working with Tamarie Cooper on her classic summer musical comedy shows, a Houston tradition, since around 2005.
And, along with my spouse and partner Norma Thomson, I’ve been involved in numerous arts benefits, activities, and functions around town, including being a part of the original TedX Houston production team since its inception in 2011. In 2011 I was also named one of Houston’s Top 100 Creatives by the Houston Press.
Norma and I have a daughter who lives in Vermont, 2 cats, and continue to collect midcentury kitsch, weirdo movies, and comic books.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have been VERY fortunate to be able to do the things I have done, with the people I have been able to collaborate with. Of course, it’s never a smooth road for anybody but I consider myself very fortunate.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Staging Solutions?
I really covered it in the synopsis earlier, but Staging is a pretty unique company on it’s own, coming from humble Houston roots 25 years ago and becoming a nationally-known event company. The gist is, we craft experiences that bring value to brands and engage audiences. Whether the experience is a live event, presentation, media content, or creative strategy, what we do creates connections between our clients and their audience, providing In-Person & Virtual Events, Video Production and Experiential Marketing.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I’m still an avid reader of books, primarily horror and SF fiction, but also books about the history of cinema, particularly genre and independent, underground movies from decades past. I couldn’t live without both the Criterion Channel, the world’s greatest collection of premiere cinema masterpieces, and Shudder, which is definitely the best-curated collection of horror and other genre weirdness ever. I also still subscribe to the print version of Fangoria.
As far as podcasts, I regularly listen to 99% Invisible (but doesn’t everyone) and also a big favorite of mine is Cautionary Tales, which I think has one of the best “oddball stories from history and what we can learn from it” vibes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stagingsolutions.com/tim-thomson/
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tim-thomson
- Other: https://www.vimeo.com/stagingsolutions
Image Credits
Main photo by Michael Schneider.
Images from Catastrophic Theatre productions (dark silhouette in front of projection screens, the cast of Tamarie Cooper Show in front of set and screen) are by Anthony Rathbun.
The rest are courtesy Staging Solutions Inc.
