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DeanCato

  • Production designer
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Dean Cato was a production designer for several TVNZ dramas, including Inside Straight, Roche, and The Fire-Raiser; he was art director on 1983 feature Strata. With Steve La Hood and James McLean, he established Story Inc in 1997. Dedicated to visitor-focused spatial narratives, the company designed museums, exhibitions, and pavilions for two World Expos. Cato now teaches at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts.

Screenography

Ake Ake: B Company Remembers
2001 Narrator Television
The Fire-Raiser (TV movie)
1986 Designer Television
Timothy - performed by The Chicks
1985 Production Designer Television
25 Years of Television - Part One
1985 Designer Television

Biography

After an unsuccessful location scout around Timaru and the Wairarapa for 1986 kidult drama series The Fire-Raiser, Dean Cato was among the production team who decided on Upper Hutt instead. Shooting in those rural locations would have brought up the cost of accommodation, left them a long way from support, and required many special effects shots.

“There's always a client, there's always an end user, there's a viewer, a visitor, call it what you will. But if we keep our visitors at the forefront of our minds, then we're going to have a successful project.”

— Dean Cato

Related images

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Designer Dean Cato on the Whitemans Valley set of The Fire-Raiser. The show was set in 1915 in the fictional, Nelson-like town of Jessop.
Photo courtesy of The Upper Hutt Library Heritage Collections, originally published in The Upper Hutt Leader, 19 August 1986