Exeter SFX company wins King's Award

A Devon-based special effects company has been awarded a King's Award for Enterprise in the category of international trade.

Luminous, in Exeter, created special effects for a number of events including the UK Commonwealth Games and the Harry Potter and The Cursed Child theatre shows.

Co-founder Mike Badley, who has worked on special effects for James Bond films and movies like Inception, said an "awful lot of clever tech" was involved.

He said: "We are so proud of our brilliant team for the work they deliver. This award is a fantastic recognition of the dedication and innovation they bring to their work every day."

The firm was awarded the prize in recognition of its increase in overseas earnings relative to its size and sector.

Mr Badley told BBC Radio Devon he co-founded the company with Edwin Samkin.

"We produce special effects equipment for live stage shows or TV production or touring productions all around the world," he said.

"It involves quite a lot of engineering and coming up with new ideas to put on stage to entertain people."

The co-founder, who previously worked in special effects for films including Inception, Skyfall and The Dark Knight, moved to Devon in 2009.

"It wasn't easy to get started down here, a lot of driving back to London to work on other projects," he added.

Mr Badley said the company was "quite innovative".

"We have to be quite innovative because we get approached by production companies wanting something really strange," he added.

"We had one client who needed us to make someone's hands set on fire at the press off a button.

"It's like I'm playing with Lego every day, coming up with silly ideas."

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