This week, just a brief announcement about going on hiatus. I'm undergoing treatment for leukemia and its taken me outta the normal daily world for a while. I plan to be back sometime in early Spring. I've got lots of great interviews lined up for the future. Thanks for all your support and please stay tuned.
David Dozoretz
This week on 8111 David Dozoretz. David grew up in Arizona. He is the creator of ZAFARI, a children's animated TV show on NBCUniversal/Dreamworks TV and the first TV show rendered exclusively in Epic's Unreal game engine.
An ILM and Lucasfilm alum, David also founded Persistence of Vision, a leading feature film pre-visualization company that produced work on films such as Star Wars, JJ Abrams' Star Trek and Mission: Impossible series, X-Men and many others.
David and I were interns at ILM at the same time. His career has been nothing short of amazing and it was great fun to catch up with him.
David on the right with TyRuben Ellingson in Japan on business circa 2010.
Josh Pines
This week on 8111, Josh Pines!! Josh grew up in Long Island, NY. His father was a celestial mechanic (aerospace engineer) and his mother worked as a probability and statistics professor at Hofstra. He was the youngest of three with two older sisters.
As a kid, he spent weekends going with his parents to Manhattan exploring the museums, attending operas, movies, and music venues. He played classical piano growing up and set his sites on a music degree at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. When that didn't work out, he wound up going to the Cooper Union where he earned a degree in electrical engineering.
He played in several bands during college and really enjoyed electronic music. He connected the exploration of electronic music to other elements in engineering (sound waves, time varying signals going through circuits, Fourier analysis, signal processing, etc.) Everything he was interested in related to music suddenly seemed to have a direct connection to image making. After graduation he stuck around campus for a few years teaching film classes.
Josh first began working in visual effects at MAGI in 1982 at the tail end of their work on "Tron" and went on to lead the computer graphics division at R/Greenberg Associates in NYC. Later he supervised film effects and film recording at Degraf/Wahrman in Los Angeles.
Josh was then hired by ILM where he supervised the film scanning/recording department for more than 10 years, and worked extensively with both traditional and digital cinema technologies. He has received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has credits on several feature films. Today he lives in the Bay Area and often commutes to LA for work.
Josh is still looking for a clown based solution for several problems facing industry. There is no denying his brilliance, his wit, and great sense of humor. I'm forever a fan. It was a super fun chat catching up with Josh and hearing his story.
Frank Gravatt
This week on 8111, Frank Gravatt!! Frank was born in the San Francisco Bay Area. He began sculpting clay models at a young age. Horror movies, both old and new, have always been a fascination of his and Frank started sculpting monsters, and working with makeup to create the faces he saw in the movies.
In his early career he began working at various retail chains until he landed a job in maintenance at Industrial Light & Magic. While working at ILM he brought his clay models in to the office for his coworkers to see, and soon landed a job making clay horses for Hallmark. From this point forward Frank went on the path to eventually be hired as a digital effects modeler and supervisor. His first movie was Casper (1995).
His first credited movie was Mars Attacks! as a digital modeler. Frank went on to create for movies such as Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, several Harry Potter films, Van Helsing, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and War of the Worlds.
He was nominated for a Visual Effects Society (VES) award in 2003 for "Best Character Animation in a Live Action Motion Picture" for his work in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). He was nominated again, and won, a VES award in 2012 for "Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture" for his work in Rango (2011). Frank was again nominated for "Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture" in 2014 for his work in Pacific Rim.
He has since worked on movies such as The Revenant, Captain America: Civil War, and Transformers: The Last Knight. Today, Frank continues to live in the Bay area with his five amazing kids and fiancée Trudie. It was a blast to reconnect with Frank and hear his incredible story.
Scott Ross
Scott Ross joins me this week to talk candidly about his time at ILM and Lucasfilm and his four decade career in entertainment and technology.
A native of New York City, Scott began his career in Media Studies at Hofstra University where he graduated with a BS in Communication Arts in 1974.
During the 70’s Ross toured with numerous bands such as the Miles Davis group and The Allman Brothers Band. In the 80’s Ross was General Manager of Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic. In 1991 Ross was named VP of the LucasArts Entertainment Group, which was comprised of Skywalker Sound, LucasArts Commercial Productions, LucasArts Attractions, Editdroid/Soundroid and ILM. Most recently he was the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Digital Domain, Inc., one of the largest digital production studios in the motion picture and advertising industries.
Scott is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (EMMYS).
Jeff Light
This week on 8111, Jeff Light! Jeff grew up in Lima, Ohio. His dad was an attorney and his mom kept Jeff and his three sisters mostly out of trouble. He loved theatre and movies as a kid and was inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey which he saw the Summer before Jr. High. He bought a Yashika LD6 Super 8 movie camera and began playing with filmmaking and visual effects.
He was pre-med at University of Cincinnati for his first year but it just didn’t make his heart sing. He changed schools to Ohio State University where he earned his BFA and MA degrees in Photography & Cinema. He stuck around after his MA and taught animation to students. From there he worked at Cranston Surrey Productions doing motion graphics. Always curious and working to address needs on specific jobs, Jeff began learning programming and digital image processing.
Lincoln Hu gave a presentation at SIGGRAPH and Jeff connected with him afterwards and was told to put his resume and materials together for an interview at ILM. He was first hired to work in the Scanning department on Terminator 2 in December of 1990. His background in film and programming were a perfect fit for the time when ILM was in transition from analog to digital. During his years at ILM Jeff taught Unix classes, composited on Hook and Death Becomes Her, technical direction on Jurassic Park, and was later tasked with helping develop and create the motion capture department.
He went on to work at Dreamworks for a number of years and later served as the Chair of Visual Effects at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Today Jeff is back in California working on his own projects and keeping his finger on the pulse of the industry.
Jeff is a true renaissance man. His innate curiosity, love of cinema, problem solving skills, and overall enthusiasm make him a great teacher, and a fascinating interview. It was so fun to talk with Jeff about his life and creative passions.
Leah Anton
This week on 8111, Leah Anton. Leah was born on a dairy farm in Northern Minnesota and moved to the Twin Cities shortly thereafter where she grew up. Her mother worked as a nurse and also took art classes. At the age of five Leah’s mom took her to a life drawing class and it sparked a lifelong love for art and drawing. Throughout middle school and high school Leah was a self described “art kid”. She experimented with painting on a large scale, doing murals, working with airbrush, and exploring photography.
Leah attended Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) as an undergrad and continued honing her skills. While continuing to paint she began to spend more time doing photography. After college Leah moved to New York City, working at Grey Advertising and freelancing at a design studio doing photo assistant work connected to architecture.
After a few years in New York, Leah moved back to Minnesota and landed a job working at WCCO on the PaintBox. Her ability to draw was the hook that landed her the gig and she quickly learned the technical parts of the system. From there she started freelancing in post-production houses around the country doing ad work and sports graphics.
After a freelance stint in Portland, Leah was on her way to Baja for holiday and stopped to visit friends in San Francisco. She wound up landing an entry level job at ILM doing wire removal on Hook. After about six weeks, the job ended and Leah got a call from a friend at CBS to come work the Olympics in France. When she came back to California she worked for the start-up company 3DO and was later hired back doing painting and composting at ILM where she worked for the next 18 years.
Today Leah lives in the Bay Area, continues to write, and working doing photography. It was so much fun talking with Leah and hearing her story.
Endla Burrows
This week on 8111, Endla Burrows. Endla (whose first name is Estonian) was born and grew up in the Bronx. Her mother worked as a nurse and her dad worked in multiple jobs in the city including working as an elevator operator in a high rise. Endla loved watching tv as a kid and would often sit with an encyclopedia by her side so she could look up anything that she saw or heard and didn’t understand.
Endla’s boundless curiosity and thirst for knowledge served her well in school. She was often able to learn subjects quickly in an autodidactic modality. She attended the University of Pennsylvania where she earned an undergraduate degree in English. During her time at U. Penn, Endla also joined crew and became an avid rower. An injury sidelined her rowing activities and she soon discovered what would become a lifelong passion for rugby.
Endla attended film classes at Temple University (while earning an MBA) and loved the process of filmmaking. She made a number of films, including a documentary on women who play rugby. She landed an internship at WHYY and got an opportunity to work on a short film with Director Tamara Jenkins.
Endla moved to California and eventually landed a job working at ILM as an assistant to Charlie Clavadetscher. She absorbed everything and quickly made herself invaluable. She eventually became the head of the training department and changed the way ILM onboarded new employees and helped connect the dots across departments and programs within the facility. After about seven years, she moved on working at Digital Domain, the Jim Henson Company, and as a Producer at Mokko Studio in Montreal. She's currently earning her MFA in film and writing her own stories.
Endla is amazing. Her curiosity, intelligence, sense of humor, and passion have propelled her career forward at every turn. Through listening and observation her unique insights and empathy helped make ILM a success in those early days of massive growth. It was so much fun to catch up with Endla and hear her amazing story.
Daniel Jeannette
This week on 8111, Daniel Jeannette. Daniel grew up near Normandy. His parents both worked for the Dutch company Philips, where Daniel worked during the Summer to save money to buy a Super 8 camera. As a kid he was always interested in drawing, in part from his love of comics. While at the same time, he had a natural mechanical inclination born from his interest in motorcycles that he would both ride as well maintain.
He attended the Gobelins school and studied animation. During his French military service, Daniel worked in the film/video division along with his other duties. Afterwards he got a call from an old school friend to come work doing animation cleanup on a television program. After a long five years working as an apprentice, Daniel finally got a chance to work as a full blown animator in Spain.
A motorcycle accident in Paris kept Daniel from returning to Spain and led to an opportunity working for Disney. He then moved to London to work for Spielberg on American Tales until 1994 when he was invited to come work at ILM.
Daniel’s credits include; Jumanji, Dragon Heart, Jurassic Park 2, Mighty Joe Young, The Mummy, Van Helsing, Happy Feet, Where the Wild Things Are, and many others.
Today, Daniel lives in Los Angeles and works freelance as a VFX Supervisor, Director, Animation Supervisor, and consultant. It was a blast catching up with Daniel and hearing his amazing story.
Corey Rosen
This week on 8111, Corey Rosen. Corey answers the question of “what would an 8111 theme song sound like”. Corey grew up in Rochester, NY. His dad is a children’s dentist and his mom is a teacher. He’s the middle child of three brothers. As a kid he went to sleep away camp in the Catskill mountains where they put on plays. Theatre became a permanent fixture in his life.
Corey gravitated towards filmmaking as a kid, remaking some of his favorite character driven films with friends from the neighborhood. He went on to study Radio, TV & Film at Northwestern University. Corey worked as a producer on a student comedy TV show called “Stinky’s Pub” and there he learned a number of skills. After his sophomore year he worked as an intern at Jim Henson studios and Comedy Central.
The following year Corey applied to the LucasArts internship program and was accepted, in part via a shared interest in golf by Lisa Vaughn. He interned in the scanning and optical department in the Summer of 1993. Corey was in a near fatal car accident on interstate 580 and kept working at ILM from his hospital bed. This led to a full time job that lasted for the next 12 years.
Corey and Scott Leberecht created their own short films at ILM including the Sprit of Spawn and the Sprit of Sleepy Hallow. These fun short films led to an opportunity to work as a writer developing original projects for Lucasfilm Animation. He then returned to doing cloth work as a TD and started to feel like it was time to move on.
Post ILM he has worked at The Orphanage, Image Movers Digital, and now at Tippett Studio writing theme park ride films. Corey recently wrote a book called, “Your Story Well Told” in connection with work he’s done on The Moth on NPR. It was great to reconnect with Corey and hear his story.
Corey Rosen in the orange shirt with the other creature TDs in the “House of Pain”.
Marty Brenneis
Marty Brenneis’ nickname, “Droid” comes from the following axiom; An engineer builds one and then you get a droid to build 99 more.
Marty grew up in Berkeley attending Berkeley High School. He was part of the student stage crew helping put on full blown productions. He basically grew up in the business with his mom working doing hair and makeup, and his dad working as a still photographer.
Marty saw Star Wars at the Coronet theater in 1977 and knew immediately that he’d one day work for Lucasfilm. He went on and earned a two year degree in electronics. His brother John was then working at American Zoetrope and they needed a wiring “droid”. So Marty came in to help, and that gig led to an opportunity to come to ILM wiring blue-screens. It quickly became self-evident that Marty was highly useful in the new growing Northern California studio.
Marty’s credits include; Apocalypse Now, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dragonslayer, ET, Star Trek 2 Batteries Not Included, to name only a few.
If you ever worked at ILM on Kerner, you knew who Marty Brenneis was. In many ways, Marty epitomizes so much of the ILM work ethos and culture. He’s a human Swiss Army knife and the ultimate creative problem solver. It was so much fun to chat with Marty and hear his story.
Jeff Mann
Jeff was born in Southern California. As a kid he took apart the family lawn mower to build himself a go-kart. He loved the hotrod culture and grew up in a very “American Graffiti” time. He always liked drawing and started surfing around age fifteen. After high school he worked for about 18 months at Lockheed Aircraft working on C5A Delta planes. In 1968 Jeff packed all his belongings into his VW bus and shipped it all to Hawaii where he spent the next year until he ran out of money. He then sold his VW and flew back home and moved up to the Bay Area to attend art classes at the College of Marin.
From there he went to San Francisco State University and studied with the realists like Robert Bechtle. He also did some design for the theatre program and made some short animated films exploring various modes of expression. After graduation with a degree in painting and drawing he moved up to Sausalito where he started working on boats. He helped restore and old 1910 tug boat and then worked on numerous projects with the crew he met there. He lived on a houseboat for a time and eventually wound up renting a 2000 square foot building on the Napa Street pier. He built it out to have a living quarters, an artist studio, and a boat building shop.
His friend acquired a 1910 Danish cargo ship. For six years Jeff and a crew worked on getting it fully sea worthy with the goal of circumnavigating the globe. They ran all kinds of shake down cruises with the boat and Jeff eventually had accumulated enough time at sea to qualify for a Coast Guard captain’s license. He had a whole career ready to go at sea, but decided that wasn’t his path.
In 1981 Lorne Peterson hired Jeff for a three week model building gig. He wound up working at ILM for the next 24 years. Jeff worked in numerous capacities on films like Star Trek 2, Poltergeist, ET, Return of the Jedi, Young Sherlock Holmes, to name just a few. Jeff later became a senior staff member and helped oversee the company’s massive growth and the transition to working digitally.
Today Jeff lives in Ojai, California where he maintains a studio practice, showing his work in shows and galleries. It was a great time chatting with Jeff and hearing about his amazing life and career.
Julija McDowell
Julija grew up in Canada. As the oldest sister she often helped take care of her siblings. Her mother, who worked as a travel agent, instilled a deep sense of creativity and “making”. As a family they wouldn’t buy Christmas presents for one another but would make presents. She attended a preforming arts high school where people were literally dancing in the halls. Julija was more interested in the visual arts and after high school followed in her aunt’s footsteps pursuing a degree in graphic design and advertising.
After graduation she landed an entry level gig at an ad agency she wasn’t crazy about, leaving after a few months. She went back to working as a lifeguard. Around the same time Julija started working as a fashion model. That opportunity allowed her to travel all over Europe, eventually living in London and working at Harrod’s as a perfume girl. One night she was watching a tv program on Channel 4 about animation and she decided to go back to school to study animation.
Julija returned to Canada to attend Sheridan. Her first contact and mentor was Wayne Gilbert, who also later went on to work at ILM. For her senior project, Julija and lifelong pal Jenn Emberly, teamed up and made a short animated film that got into numerous film festivals and set the stage for a successful career.
Julija and Jenn were hired as an animation team to come work at ILM. They packed up a car, driving from Toronto to San Francisco, and went straight to work on Jumanji. Julija worked at ILM for ten years on numerous projects including; The Mummy, Mars Attacks!, Men in Black 2, and others. She also did work for The Orphanage and IMD on additional projects.
After starting a family, Julija started her own small business where she developed an app and curriculum for parents to engage in educational projects with their kids 6 and under. Shortly thereafter, Julija and her family decided to move to Australia where she started Tinker Tank, a brick and mortar educational maker space offering experiential, kid driven, project based learning.
Julija is an inspiration and the work she’s doing with Tinker Tank is so important. It was great fun to catch up with her and hear her story.
John Stillman
John Stillman is a Bay Area native. As a kid, he played baseball, soccer, and football. He earned a bachelor's degree at UCLA in Design. Shortly after graduation John travelled around Europe landing a job in Prague where he worked as a Production Manager and Associate Art Director for Prognosis, an English language newspaper.
After a year or so abroad John came back to California and applied for a job at Industrial Light & Magic working as a production assistant. He wound up working there for the next seven years eventually working as a lighting technical director. John’s ILM credits include; Speed 2, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Deep Rising, Sleepy Hallow, Mission to Mars, and Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace (to name just a few).
After his first stint at ILM John went to work for a startup called I-Beam with some pals from ILM. They commuted each day from Marin to Palo Alto in a stretch limousine they bought as a group. When the start up went bust, John moved back into visual effects working at Giant Killer Robots, Weta Digital in New Zealand (on Return of the King), at Image Movers Digital, Atomic Fiction, and eventually back for a second stint at ILM for four more years (The Avengers, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
Shifting gears John decided to go back to school, moving across the country and enrolling at MIT earning a master’s degree in Integrated Design. Today John lives in Boston working full time as the Principal Tech Artist and Developer at PTC. When he’s not at work he’s an awesome dad to his two kids, coaching little league, soccer, and even hockey. John is an amazing artist and technician. He’s been a great friend for over 25 years and it was a blast catching up with him.
Kim Smith
Kim Smith is an artist in the truest sense of the word. She was born in NYC and grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her father was a very successful illustrator. At an early age, Kim was very interested in archeology. She combined her interest in science with a natural affinity for art and creativity. She attended Syracuse University and studied art. Her initial interest was working as a studio artist. Kim was also interested in cartography and the way in which maps developed so differently across different cultures and periods of history. After school she travelled to France and lived with relatives speaking French daily and continuing to explore her creative impulses.
Kim later moved to California where she worked at Sotherby’s as an assistant in the print department. Her French language skills and her artist’s background proved highly useful during her time with the auction house. From there Kim went to work building models for theme park rides. It landed her “in the studio” full time getting paid to do work for commercial projects.
After honing her skills Kim landed at ILM where she worked for decades doing both traditional and digital work. Her film credits include; Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, The Hunt For Red October, Back to the Future 3, Dreams, Rocketeer, Star Trek 6, Hook, Death Becomes Her, Alive, Forrest Gump, Jumanji, Star Treks: Generations and First Contact, Mars Attacks!, The Mummy, Star Wars Episode 1 and Episode 3, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pacific Rim, Ender’s Game, to name just a few.
Our wide ranging conversation explores Kim’s background, the life of an artist, the pros and cons of analog vs digital, and the creative problem solving required for working in visual effects. Kim is an amazingly talented, thoughtful, gifted artist, and all around super cool human. It was great fun to chat with her and hear her story. I think we definitely broke some new ground for the show in our chat.
Trish Krause
Trish grew up in Montreal, Quebec. Many ILMrs may remember her as Trish Schutz. She grew up the youngest in her family with two older sisters. Her mother was a creative influence with painting, drawing, and sewing throughout Trish’s childhood. Her dad was a dentist. Trish attended Catholic school and after high school she took her first animation and art classes. She later graduated from Sheridan College in Ontario for computer animation.
In 1986 Trish went to SIGGRAPH in Boston at the recommendation of a teacher and discovered a realm of possibilities of ways to put her degree to work. Her first job out of school was working independently for about 8 months doing animation for education videos teaching math (also a favorite subject in school). A former animation teacher from Sheridan came knocking on her door encouraging her to apply for an internship at PDI. In 1993 she left Canada to work at PDI/Dreamworks in Santa Clara, California.
In 1994, after her internship Trish applied for jobs at Pixar, Rhythm & Hues, and ILM. She got a job offer from ILM to come work on Casper. Trish’s ILM credits include; Casper, Mars Attacks!, Spawn, The Phantom Menace, ET: The Special Edition, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Jurassic Park III, Pirates of the Caribbean, to name just a few. After about 9 years ILM, Trish returned to work at Dreamworks in Redwood City where she worked on Shrek 2 and Madagascar fulfilling an interest in working on fully animated features.
After the birth of her first daughter she decided to work freelance and worked for ILM and The Orphanage on different projects in a 911 capacity without the need for a full-time commitment. With the arrival of her second daughter she worked for a time at Tippett Studios. In 2009 her vision started to falter slightly and a following cataract surgery she left the business.
With her mother’s passing Trish decided to answer a calling to completely change careers and become a nurse. After going back to school, Trish is now an RN working full-time helping people in (from my POV) one of the most noble and selfless pursuits. Today she lives with her family in the Bay Area and brings her infectious positivity, kindness, and her keen animator’s observation skills, to her work as a nurse.
On a personal note, when I started this podcast I was so excited to eventually talk with Trish as I find her mid-career shift to be absolutely inspiring. Her story is a great life lesson for anyone who wants to shift gears.
Christopher Townsend
Chris grew up in the UK. As a young man he travelled to China and worked numerous odd jobs while exploring. His background in graphic design helped him land opportunities to work in creative ways doing motion graphics for television news. His boundless curiosity and wanderlust took him all over China, Singapore, Thailand, and even Australia.
With passion, enthusiasm and dedication he eventually landed a job at Industrial Light & Magic where he worked for more than a decade as an artist and supervisor. Chris’ ILM credits include; Congo, Mission: Impossible, Daylight, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Ang Lee’s Hulk, AI, and The Island (to name just a few).
In 2007 he left ILM to work with first time director and former ILM VFX Supervisor Eric Brevig on Journey to the Center of the Earth, the first ever stereoscopic motion picture shot and released digitally, Chris continued working as a freelancer on numerous films including; The Wolverine, Ninja Assassin, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Captain America: The First Avenger.
He was nominated for a BAFTA and an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on Iron Man 3, oversaw nearly 3000 shots on Avengers: Age of Ultron and was the overall supervisor for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as well as Captain Marvel. In 2015 he was given an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree by his alma mater, Coventry University.
Chris’ enthusiasm for his work is self evident. His career continues to expand with his latest work as the Marvel VFX Supervisor on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings. It was great fun to catch up with Chris and hear about his amazing career.
Chris publicity still
Eric Brevig
This week on 8111, Eric Brevig. Eric grew up as an only child in West Los Angeles. He loved going to the movies growing up and he made his own short films with kids from the neighborhood. His mom worked at a bank near 20th Century Fox and one of her clients got Eric a set visit to The Towering Inferno on the day they blew up the building. It was an eye opening experience. He went on to attend UCLA for film school and earned a Master’s degree where he made a complicated short film involving stop-motion monsters and live action.
After school Eric worked as an intern for the camera union. The internship exposed him to all kinds of opportunities working for a short stint at Apogee and Universal Heartland which was doing work on the TV series Buck Rogers. He worked for a time at Doug Trumball’s while they were working on Blade Runner. While there he met Rocco Gioffre who went off and started Dream Quest Images (with Scott Squires, Hoyt Yeatman, Fred Iguchi, Tom Hollister and Bob Hollister). They needed a matte cameraperson and Eric was the right fit for the job. He worked on Lost Boys, Scrooged and other films as VFX Supervisor.
After working on Total Recall for Dream Quest, Eric was hired by ILM to come work as Supervisor on Hook for Steven Spielberg. Eric worked at ILM for fifteen years on some massive projects. Over the years he's worked with filmmakers like Spielberg, Michael Bay, Roland Emerich, Barry Sonnenfeld, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, James Cameron, and Frank Oz (to name a few).
Eric’s visual effects credits include; The Abyss, Total Recall, Hook, Disclosure, The Indian in the Cupboard, Men in Black, Wild Wild West, Pearl Harbor, The Island, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and many others. As Director he’s made the films; Journey to the Center of the Earth and Yogi Bear. Eric’s enthusiasm for filmmaking and visual effects is infectious. Along the way he’s been helped by others and he’s payed it forward helping people he’s worked with, promoting colleagues on films where he’s been a key decision maker. It was great fun to talk to Eric and hear about his amazing career.
Alex Laurant
Alex was raised by his mom in San Francisco. She was a fine art painter and art has always been a part of his family. So he’s always drawn since his was a little kid. He watched late night monster movies and scoured the local news stand for every magazine on movies he could find. In school he and a friend made stop motion animated films of their own inspired by Ray Harryhausen. He saw a presentation by Linwood Dunn at the SFMOMA and it set his trajectory for the future.
Alex attended CCAC in Oakland for college and focused on illustration and graphic design. He freelanced for several years after school working as a graphic designer just as things were moving from analog techniques to digital. A gig working for a company in the South Bay doing multimedia presentations led to work doing a kind of story boarding and animation combining several of his skills and connecting him to working in the digital space.
Alex moved onto another company and became and art director and eventually a manager/team leader working on multi-media “edu-tainment” projects. He was leaning new things everyday and building a set of skills that he’d use for years to come. A chance meeting at an art supply store with another art director Michael Brumsfeld from Colossal Pictures eventually led to a job at ILM.
Alex worked as designer and visual effects art director on multiple films at ILM including; Star Wars: Special Editions, Saving Private Ryan, The Mummy, Mission to Mars, Minority Report, among others. After eight years Alex left in 2004 to work in games at Electronic Arts in London.
Today he continues to work in games. Alex is a great artist, a kind human, and thoughtfully shares his journey. It was great fun to catch up with him and hear his story.
David Tanaka
David Tanaka grew up in the Bay Area. As a kid he was fascinated with a small hand cranked toy you could look into and watch Super 8mm film. He later took that toy apart and began making his own short films with friends. He wound up earning a degree in film from UC Berkeley. A visiting artist lecture with Ease Owyeung inspired David to begin looking for ways to get a job at ILM. After several tries he landed an internship at ILM working in the group that did amusement park rides (now defunct). He later moved over to the Art Department and eventually landed a full-time position as an assistant VFX Editor.
While at ILM David helped create a program that allowed employees to propose and make small independent projects. David went on to make a number of PSA for organizations like Swords to Plowshares. Others in the company made music videos, short films, spec commercials, and experimental art films. David worked at ILM for fifteen years.
His next job was working at Pixar for the next decade or so cutting trailers and marketing material for the company. David has continued to work as a freelance editor and creative for numerous clients. He also has been giving back through teaching and his work with the VES (Visual Effects Society).
David is an incredibly talented, kind, and thoughtful human. While he mentions others who helped him along the way, so many of the people I’ve talked to for this podcast mentioned David as having been critical to their successes. It was a pleasure to catch up with David and hear his inspiring story of creativity, tenacity, and generosity.
