MATT CLYDE: 1968-2008

"Lovin' life"

IN THE pressured world of filmmaking, with its long hours and large egos, a sense of perspective can be rare. Matt Clyde was a lighting technician who had a keen one. When colleagues around him were feeling the heat, Matt was often known to talk them down and maintain his cool. He was renowned, both on set and off, for his even keel, friendliness and great generosity.

Matthew Hamish Clyde was born in Sydney but grew up in Campbell in Canberra, third of the four children of Jeffrey Clyde, a surgeon and later GP, and his wife, Elaine, a nurse. Matt was a natural performer, always quick to see the opportunity for playing a prank on an unwitting family member or classmate. At school he acted in student productions and, with his confidence and charisma, enjoyed a popularity that continued throughout his life.

After finishing school at Dickson College, Clyde moved to Sydney. As many ex-Canberrans do, he developed a love of the ocean and settled on the water, considering his home to be the stretch of coast from Bondi to Coogee. He found work in event lighting, rigging kilometres of fairy lights through birthday parties, fashion parades, television advertisements and corporate functions.

This on-the-job training led him to a long career in the Australian film and television industry, and he worked on many of the biggest films shot in Australia. His production credits include Moulin Rouge, the Australian-made Star Wars films, The Matrix trilogy and Superman Returns. He had just finished work on Baz Luhrmann's Australia when he died, aged 40, from a brain tumour that he had been fighting for some years.

Clyde had many talents, both practical and artistic, but music was integral to his life. In his twenties he taught himself to play guitar, and formed the band Luminous with his friends Andy Gordon and Jeremy Butterworth. In the mid-90s they enjoyed a year-long residency at BBs bar in Bondi, where friends recall Clyde surrounded by admiring fans and women. He wrote and recorded his own songs, not with his eye on fame, but for his own pleasure.

In 1999, on an entrepreneurial whim, Clyde designed and printed a run of T-shirts with his motto "Lovin' Life" worked into the Coca-Cola logo. This motto became something of a philosophy for him, particularly after diagnosis of a malignant brain tumour in December 2002. Despite surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy over five years, Clyde never allowed the tumour to define him or the way he lived.

Even in the hardest of times, Clyde's capacity for one-liners remained. When he was in hospital earlier this year waiting for surgery, he was asked by an anaesthetist if he had any allergies. "Yeah. Neil Sedaka," was his deadpan reply.

Clyde became a volunteer for CanTeen early last year, and had hoped to continue working with young people living with cancer. He also cared deeply about the environment and inspired others to get active. On film sets he was part of a campaign to organise dissenting voices from the film world to protest against the Gunns pulp mill proposal in Tasmania. He also specified biodiesel for film generators in an effort to lower carbon footprints and tried as much as possible to reduce waste on set.

In 2006 Clyde was reunited with Sofie Jacovides, after a hiatus in their relationship of more than 10 years. They lived with her two children in Clovelly and he wrote the song Second Chance, which described the sense of home and belonging that he felt with Sofie.

Clyde was admired in his community, and he became an example to many of his friends and people further afield on how to live life well - with appetite and positivity. The mattyclyde website was set up for the duration of his stay in hospital and was flooded with tributes and messages for him, a man remembered for his beaming smile and generosity of spirit, a "diamond geezer". Clyde died at the peak of his life; in his last years he had travelled the world, found abiding love and was thinking of a radical change in career.

He leaves his legacy of "Lovin' Life" to his family, friends, community and all who knew him. In his honour, Building 28C at Fox Studios, his headquarters for several years as Best Boy in the Rigging Electrics Department, was officially renamed the Matt Clyde Building in May this year.

Matt Clyde is survived by Sofie, his parents and his siblings Ian, Gillian and Nic Clyde.

Thomasin Litchfield

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