Craig Barron

On this episode of 8111 I talk with Craig Barron. Craig is an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor, entrepreneur, and film historian with a groundbreaking career spanning decades. He has contributed to visual effects on more than 100 films and served as a founding member of the Visual Effects Society. Barron also spent nine years on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors and was co-chair of the Science & Technology Council.

At just 18, Barron joined Industrial Light & Magic during the "Star Wars" era, contributing to classics like The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. He later co-founded Matte World, an Emmy-winning studio that evolved into Matte World Digital, known for its innovative visual effects in films such as Batman Returns, Zodiac, Hugo, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for which he won an Oscar and BAFTA in 2009.

Barron co-authored The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting, an award-winning book chronicling the history of matte painting. A dedicated film historian, he frequently lectures for AMPAS and Turner Classic Movies, collaborating with sound designer Ben Burtt to showcase the artistry behind classic films like Modern Times and Forbidden Planet.

In recent years, Barron has worked as a visual effects supervisor at Tippett Studio and now serves as Creative Director of Magnopus, a cutting-edge visual storytelling company based in Los Angeles.

It was a genuine pleasure to talk with Craig about his incredible career. 

Erik Jensen

Erik Jensen grew up in New Jersey. As a young person he loved monster movies. For a time he considered pursuing a career as a veterinarian. But when his friend Chris Walas moved out to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the movie FX business, Erik wasn't too far behind. 

In Hollywood Erik worked on several low budget horror movies honing his skills and making connections. It was a small community and led to working with Rob Bottin on multiple projects, including John Carpenter's 1982 remake "The Thing". Erik worked in both production and as an artist. 

Erik's work landed him a job on Dragonslayer at ILM where he would work on multiple projects for more than 20 years. HIs amazing list of credits include; Young Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek IV, Ghostbusters II, Star Wars: Episode 1, Space Cowboys, AI, Peter Pan, Star Wars: Episode III, and Jarhead. He also left ILM to work at Skellington on The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. 

He later worked at TraumaFX building realistic task trainers for both human and K9 simulators for emergency medical training. Today Erik is retired and lives with his wife being an active grandparent. It was great fun talking with Erik about his life and incredible career (which is obvious as this is a long one).  🇳🇴

John Bell

In this episode of 8111, we talk with John Bell, a New Jersey native who developed a passion for drawing and cars in his youth. To earn money as a kid, he and his brother sold his car drawings at dragster races. This passion led John to the Art Center's Transportation Design program. After graduating, he joined GM's Advanced Concept Studio in Detroit.

John's career expanded further when he moved to California to work as a conceptual artist at Atari Games. By the late 1980s, he began a twenty-year intermittent tenure at Industrial Light & Magic, where he collaborated on films like "Star Trek IV," "Innerspace," and "Back to the Future II & III," earning an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA. In 1991, he became the Art Director for "Jurassic Park."

Post-Jurassic Park, John explored new avenues at Nike as a Senior Designer, diversifying into footwear, clothing, graphics, and branding. He later returned to Northern California to create concept art for films such as "Men in Black," "Mission Impossible," and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence." His work extended into production design for Dreamworks’ "ANTZ."

John then ventured into video game design at Electronic Arts, contributing to titles like "Freekstyle" and "Dead Space," and freelanced on animated films including "Cars" and "The Penguins of Madagascar."

He later returned to ILM, working on Oscar-winning films "Rango", "Pirates IV" and "The Revenant." John has also collaborated with multiple clients including Nike, BMW, and Samsung. His broad portfolio spans film, gaming, automotive design, product design and advertising, showcasing his remarkable artistic talent. John is awesome and it was a real pleasure catching up with him and hearing his inspiring story.

https://www.johnbell.studio/

Stephen Rosenbaum

On the latest 8111 I catch up with Stephen Rosenbaum!!! Stephen grew up in Los Angeles and always loved building things. As the youngest of three he thought he'd likely follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor. But in 1977 he saw Star Wars and the seed was planted. While attending Berkeley he enrolled in the College of Environmental Design and began working in the nascent field of computer graphics. 

Stephen decided to stay in Northern California after college and landed a dream job as the first TA (Technical Assistant) at Industrial Light and Magic in 1989. Under the guidance of Doug Kay and George Joblove he honed his skills, developing software tools and scripts for managing files. The team was small and the opportunities were omnipresent. 

In those early days Stephen shared an office with John Knoll and they worked together to present some of the first digital composites. With the successes of The Abyss, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park (among others) Stephen became the Computer Graphics Supervisor on Forrest Gump. In 1995 he won the VFX Oscar alongside Ken Ralston and George Murphy. 

When Ken Ralston left ILM for Sony Imageworks, Stephen joined his mentor and began working as a Visual Effects Supervisor on Contact. Stephen list of credits is impressive; Indian in the Cupboard, I Robot, The Waterhorse, Avatar,  and he's been nominated for the VFX Oscar three times. 

Most recently Stephen served as the Visual Effects Supervisor on the impressive Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air. It was great fun to catch up with Stephen and to hear about his amazing journey. I cannot wait to see what he works on next. 

John Knoll and Stephen Rosenbaum at ILM in the late 80’s or very early 90’s.

Classic Cinefex photo from Jurassic. Stephen at the computer, Stefen Fangmeier pointing, and Dennis Muren supervising.

Judith Weaver

On the latest 8111 I catch up with Judith Weaver!!! Judith grew up as a self-described “Airforce brat” moving around with her parents from post to post. She spent several formative years in, Colorado, the Philippines, some time on the East coast, and settled for a time in Ohio. Judith was the oldest kid with two younger brothers. In middle school she discovered a love for drama and acting in the theatre. After high school Judith was determined to live in a bigger city and headed off to American University in Washington DC where she earned a degree in political science.

After college she moved to Philadelphia and shared an apartment with an old pal. She eventually landed a job as the receptionist at a video house called Video Smith. She quickly learned the business and became an indispensable part of the team. She worked as part of the video crew backstage providing footage for CBS at LiveAid in Philadelphia.

After working for a few years at Video Smith she set her sights on getting a job at ILM. It was the height of the video era and the beginning days of HD. She moved to NYC and got a job doing industrial videos. Then an opportunity arose to work as a production manager at 1125 doing HD work for “out of town client” ILM. She worked closely with Scott Squires and Bruce Nicholson for weeks on end while they were working on an early HD project for Dentsu. A short time after that gig ended, Judith left 1125, packed her bags and moved to California to get a job at ILM.

Within a few months she was brought in to work as the animation coordinator on the Back to the Future sequels in 1989. Judith wound up at ILM for the next sixteen years working her way up to a top producer for the company. Her credits include: Back to the Future Part 2, Ghost, Joe vs The Volcano, Terminator 2, Hook, Death Becomes Her, Jurassic Park, The Flintstones, Dragonheart, Star Wars Episodes 1&2, The Perfect Storm, Space Cowboys, & War of the Worlds (to name only a few).

Judith left the business just as her kids were entering middle school to be a full-time parent. She says it was both the hardest and the easiest decision to make. Judith is a force of nature. Her enthusiasm, positivity, energy, and boundless curiosity serve as the engine that propelled her career to the apex of visual effects just as the industry was transitioning to the modern era. Judith is the best and it was an absolute blast to talk with her and hear her story.

Don Bies

This week on 8111, Don Bies! Don grew up in Chicago and discovered a love for movies at an early age when he first saw Frankenstein. He became fascinated with movie monsters, monster make up, special effects, and filmmaking. He loved pouring over the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland.  

After high school, Don considered college but eventually decided against it and worked in the local community theater doing set design, prop design, directing and even some acting. 

A family connection led to a friendship with another Chicagoan, Keith Edmier, who was making his own monster makeup and film likeness make-ups. They both corresponded with Dick Smith (the Godfather of modern makeup effects) and drew inspiration and encouragement from him to pursue working in film. 

Don soon moved out to California where he landed his first job working on David Cronenberg's remake of "The Fly" with Keith Edmier for Chris Walas.  While there he became good friends with Jon Berg, John Gazdik, Michael Owens, and Howie Weed. Through Jon Berg he met several people at ILM. In 1987 Don was hired to operate R2D2 for Lucasfilm publicity events. Don later headed up the Lucasfilm archives for seven years working alongside Nelson Hall and Grant Imahara. 

When George began making the prequels, Don went to work on set for all three films and even did a stint in the ILM model shop. Today Don works for KGS making highly realistic  trauma training manakins for military and first responders.  Don Bies is incredibly creative and a truly autodidactic problem solver. He's had an amazing career and it was an absolute blast to talk with him. 

Alia Agha

This week on 8111, Alia Agha!!! 

Alia was born in Damascus, Syria. Just before the age of 2, her family fled Syria and moved to Lebanon. After a time there, they boarded a ship and travelled to Brazil where they lived with Alia's mother's family. A few years later they emigrated to the United States and moved to Anaheim, California. 

Growing up Alia loved art and spent hours making models, drawing, sculpting, and watching movies. She attended an all girls school and continued making art and going to the cinema. Her and her friends loved silent films and even dressed up like their favorite movie stars. 

After high school she went off to San Francisco State University where she studied studied Cinema. The expense of filmmaking was a challenge so she transferred to UC Berkeley and earned her undergraduate degree in writing with an interest in writing for film. 

A chance meeting at a party led Alia to an opportunity to become the receptionist at Industrial Light & Magic. After a year at the front desk she moved to work as a production assistant on Back to the Future 3. After a few years she left and went to work at Skellington as a production coordinator on Nightmare Before Christmas. She returned to ILM after that project wrapped and worked on Star Trek: Generations and Wolf. 

Alia later went to work as a rotoscoper on Congo, Twister and 101 Dalmatians before transitioning to work as a 3D camera matchmover on Mission: Impossible. She worked on numerous projects and then had the opportunity to go work on set for Galaxy Quest. She's worked as a matchmover for 29 years. 

Today Alia lives in Portland and working on a project for Laika. Alia's family life story is incredible. She's a great storyteller and it was fantastic to have the opportunity to catch up with her.

Michaela Calanchini

This week on 8111, Michaela Calanchini Carter! Michaela was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Bay Area. She is the second youngest member of a huge family with seven brothers and sisters. Incredibly shy growing up, she found community playing soccer and a creative outlet in photography, which had been a hobby of her father’s.

She attended UC Santa Cruz where she studied fine art photography. She took a semester leave, travelling with a friend to Africa. It was a journey that wound up having a profound impact on her personal beliefs and world view. After a really cool senior show, Michaela graduated and travelled to Thailand.

Back home in the Bay Area she landed a job working for CP Shades in Sausalito. The company was expanding nationally and she traveled around the United States opening new locations and training employees.  But her heart just wasn’t in the retail trade.

In 1996 Michaela jumped at the opportunity to work as a production assistant at ILM on 101 Dalmatians. She would go on to serve as a PA on Flubber and The Phantom Menace as part of the Knoll team. But after working on The Perfect Storm (ironically) she decided to move out of production and into a more creative discipline. With the kind and generous support of Jack Mongovan and Susan Kelly she transitioned to roto/paint. Michaela worked at ILM for fifteen years before leaving on disability after a long struggle with RSI.

Michaela and I discuss family, being a parent, work life balance, the importance of good friends, and the difficult pain of loss. Michaela is a fun, brilliant, and empathic person. It was fantastic to reconnect and hear about her journey through ILM to today. 

Bruce Buckley

This week on 8111, Bruce Buckley. Bruce grew up in Toronto. As a kid, he loved going to the drive-in movies with his family. Art was a clear area of interest in childhood as he enjoyed drawing and making things out of plasticine.

Bruce attended Sheridan for college where he studied art fundamentals. His primary focus was photography, shooting both 35mm and 4x5. Commercial photography was exciting and he wound up doing lots of studio work and architectural photography.

After earning his degree, Bruce took a job with the Canadian government woking with microfilm. There he discovered computers and became curious about the possibilities of using them to make art. After nine years there Bruce returned to school to study technical illustration.

In 1987 he went to NAB where he met fellow Canadian Steve Williams who was at the conference presenting with Alias. This meeting eventually led to a job opportunity working for Alias support doing training for clients and traveling the world to places like Columbia, Korea, and Europe.

A phone call from John Berton in 1993 brought Bruce to ILM. At ILM he went to work right away on films including; Casper, Dragonheart, and Congo helping to develop systems and tools to make the artist’s work move seamless. In 1995 Bruce was headhunted away by Disney to come work on Dinosaur. Bruce’s credits include; Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Incredibles, Monster House, Beowulf, Scott Pilgrim, Tree of Life, John Carter, Prometheus, Fate of the Furious, Kong: Skull Island, and Deadpool 2, to name just a few.

Today Bruce teaches at the NY Film Academy. It was great to get to chat with Bruce about his amazing career in the industry and hear his insights.

Juan-Luis Sanchez

On the latest episode of 8111, Juan Luis Sanchez!! Juan-Luis worked at Industrial Light & Magic from 2001 to 2006. 

Just a few of his film credits include: Wonder Park, Paddington, Gravity (VES Award for Outstanding FX and Simulation), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Babe: Pig in the City.

Juan-Luis was great fun to chat with. He currently lives in Spain and continues to create amazing visuals for movies and television. Download or stream episode 69 to hear all about his professional journey!

Nelson Hall

This week on 8111, Nelson Hall. Nelson is that rare breed…a Marin native. Oh, and his birthday is on Halloween! Growing up he loved watching old movies on TV. He was captivated by the films of Ray Harryhausen and the Wizard of Oz. He always liked drawing and making things including several Rube Goldberg contraptions in his family’s living room.

He attended Sonoma State for a time and studied art. Still searching for a way to get into a creative job, he landed a job at the Printing Factory on Kerner Blvd. just two blocks from ILM. He transferred to San Francisco State (Go Gaters!) and continued his degree in art taking classes at night while working full-time.

Nelson’s speech 101 teacher, Diana Reese, gave him his first break. He’d given a speech on the art of visual effects and his teacher offered to introduce him to her friend, ILM model maker Marc Thorpe. That introduction led to some freelance work that eventually turned into a full-time opportunity.

Nelson has worked on numerous films including; Alive, Fire in the Sky, The Flintstones, Star Trek: Generations, Congo, Daylight, Flubber, Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace, Galaxy Quest, AI, Matrix 2 & 3, Attack of the Clones, War of the Worlds, Pirates of the Caribbean, Evan Almighty, The Cove, Pacific Rim, Elysium, and many others.

Nelson tells a great story of his journey from Marin kid to traveling the world working on films, special events, projects for Disney, and even operating R2D2. It was a blast to catch up with Nelson and hear his incredible story!

Pat Sweeney

Pat Sweeney, or is it Mike Sweeney? There's really no way to be sure. Pat grew up in Manhattan Beach, California. He is an identical twin. Pat went with his brothers and sisters to the local catholic school and loved watching old movies on tv growing up. He saw all the Harryhausen films, King Kong, and was a fan of the original Star Trek.

For college Pat knew he wanted to study film. He enrolled with his brother Mike at Loyola Marymount University in their film and tv program. While in school he got a chance to try various roles and even made a few short films.

After college Pat was working at a car rental place to make ends meet when his brother Mike got a job as a production assistant at a fledgling visual effects company in Van Nuys that was working on a little movie called Star Wars. Shortly after that Pat was hired by Rose Duignan to work as a night watchman.

After the Star Wars team moved up to Marin for Empire, Pat came to work as a camera assistant at Apogee on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. From there he went to work for Roger Corman on Battle Beyond the Stars where he worked with a young James Cameron. He worked for several years in Los Angeles and when a call came to come work on ET at ILM in San Rafael he took the leap.

Pat worked at ILM for 25 years shooting elements for major effects sequences in Return of the Jedi, Temple of Doom, The Hunt for Red October, the Pirates films, the Transformers, and so many more. During my time at ILM Pat would often be in the motion control stage in D-building solving problems and shooting elements. He has a great sense of humor and it was always great fun to work with him.

It was so much fun to catch up with him and hear about his incredible career. Why do dinosaurs make bad pets?

Maggie Oh

On this episode of 8111, Maggie Oh. Maggie was an only child and grew up in Chicago. She was always interested in animation from an early age, thanks in part to Batman: The Animated Series. She attended MIT and studied computer science and electrical engineering as an undergrad. But she also took illustration, drawing and painting courses at MassArt.

Maggie went to SIGGRAPH for the first time though a co-op project for the MIT Media Lab. After school she worked as an interactive programmer at a web company in Boston. She then decided to enroll at art school to earn an MFA. But she landed a Summer internship at Pixar and decided to drop out of art school to continue to work in industry and study independently online and though professional work.

In October 2003 Maggie landed a job at ILM. She started in render support working in the trailer and had an interesting run in with a family of raccoons working the graveyard shift. She later worked as a technical director on films including; Star Wars: Episode III, Evan Almighty, Chicken Little 3D, Lions for Lambs, Lemony Snicket, Pirates of the Caribbean, and many others. She also worked developing the HDR pipeline.

In 2008 Maggie left to work at the California Academy of Sciences to work on their first planetarium show. She then moved over to doing freelancing for various visual effects companies including Polygon, Cafe FX, Spy Post, and then Image Movers Digital.

Then Maggie went to 343 Industries to work on Halo 4 & 5 followed by time at Microsoft helping develop the HoloLens. From there she spent a year at NVIDIA and then returned to ILM for a few years working with the ILMxLAB. Today Maggie is working at Google alongside Dan Goldman on Project Starline.

Maggie is brilliant. Her career journey is a who’s who of high-end technology. Her love of working in the space where art meets engineering has guided her choices. It was great fun to chat and hear about her story.

Matt Wallin

This week on 8111 the tables are turned and my hero/mentor Kim Bromley interviews me about my career and background. I grew up in the Los Angeles suburbs in the 70’s and 80’s skateboarding and going to the movies. In 1992 I earned my degree in Cinema from San Francisco State University.

That same year, I began my career at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic where I worked for nearly a decade in the company’s computer graphics division. For over 25 years I have worked around the world at the top visual effects houses; Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital in New Zealand, Tippett Studio in Berkeley, Sony Pictures Imageworks in Los Angeles, Warner Bros. ESC Entertainment in California, Brainstorm Digital in New York, and the Moving Picture Company in Vancouver. My film credits include; The Mummy, Twister, Star Wars: The Special Editions, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, Hellboy, Constantine, King Kong, Watchmen, and Jurassic Park: The Lost World.

Outside of Hollywood, I served as the Visual Effects Supervisor for American artist Matthew Barney's five-part Cremaster Cycle and the follow up experimental film, Drawing Restraint 9 staring Icelandic pop star Bjork.

I am the host of the 8111 (Eighty-one Eleven) podcast. Each episode is a conversation with a guest who worked at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic during its 40+ year history. Guests discuss their journeys and career paths, and how working at ILM changed them. I'm also the co-host of FX Guide's VFX Show podcast listened to by visual effects professionals, fans, and aspiring artists from all over the world.

Today I am the senior full-time faculty and Chair in the department of Communication Arts in the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. I teach numerous courses specializing in 3D computer graphics, visual effects, and the creative application of emerging digital technologies. http://mattwallin.com/

When I fell in love with my best friend Chrissy.

Amy Young

This week on 8111, Amy Young!! Amy grew up in Manhattan where her dad was a stage manager on Broadway. She spent a lot of time behind the scenes watching her father work and when he was busy, she was able to go see plays and musicals for free. At sixteen her dad landed a job as the manager of the Curran theatre in San Francisco. Amy’s mom was an emergency room nurse.

They moved out to Marin and Amy finished high school at Redwood High in Larkspur. After high school she enrolled at College of Marin in the drama department. There she studied lighting, stagecraft, and theatre stage management. After college Amy was in a bad accident that derailed her goals of heading out of town and she wound up studying further at ACT and working locally through IATSE Local 16.

She worked jobs all over town and eventually landed a long term gig on the electric crew at the San Francisco Opera. One day she got a call to head up to grip at ILM when they were working on Always. Brad Jerrell kept Amy gainfully employed for several years at ILM where she worked on many shows including; The Rocketeer (doing pyro), T2, multiple Star Treks, and costumes with Annie Polland on the Star Wars Special Editions.

Amy returned to College of Marin where she enrolled in a fire science program and wound up lecturing around the area on fire safety. She worked with the Marin Shakespeare Company, ran the local space museum and solving problems at every turn. Today Amy is mostly retired and does volunteer work at schools, the local science museum, and in her community. It was incredible to talk to Amy and hear her story.

John Berton

This week on 8111, John Berton!! John was born in the midwest. His dad was a mathematics professor and his mother was a musician. John loved movies as a kid and, through his dad, had early access to computers. He learned Fortran in high school and was fascinated by the logic of programming. 

John attended Denison University and studied communications and even had his own radio program. For grad school he attended Ohio State and studied computer graphics with American artist and computer art pioneer Charles Csuri. His interest in film, music, physics, and programming led him down the path that would eventually lead to working in visual effects. 

After grad school John went to work with Charles Csuri at his new company, Cranston/Csuri in Ohio. They made some of the first early flying logos for HBO, CBS, Cinemax, and many others. John later went to work at Mental Images in Berlin. From there he made the connection to ILM where he came to work in 1989 on Terminator 2. John’s ILM credits include; T2, Men in Black, Star Trek VI, Hook, Death Becomes Her, Jurassic Park, The Mask, Casper, Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition, Deep Rising, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Men in Black 2. 

Since ILM, he has continued to work on films and television creating visual effects in projects including; I, Robot, Charlotte’s Web, Bedtime Stories, Krrish3, Godzilla, 13 Reasons Why, and Deep Water. John taught for a while at Drexel in Philadelphia and left when he had a chance to come work at Lytro developing light-field rendering. Today John is back working in visual effects on a project for Netflix. 

John was my Visual Effects Supervisor on Deep Rising and The Mummy. Working on John’s teams are some of my favorite memories from my time at ILM. He is absolutely brilliant, and  approaches his work with equal parts technological prowess and thoughtful artistry. It was awesome to reconnect with him and hear his amazing story. 

Scott Leberecht

This week on 8111, Scott Leberecht! Scott grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio the middle of three bothers. His dad was an optician and his mom was an elementary school teacher. Drawing was always something that he was interested in, and good at.

He studied industrial design at University of Cincinnati with a goal of may be making toys for Kenner where he'd worked part-time as part of a co-op program. In school he met fellow ILM alum George Hull. And he discovered that ILM model maker Charlie Bailey had also attended his school years earlier. School set the path toward ILM.

At 24 Scott became an intern in ILM art department. The internship turned into a job where he would work for the next six years. Scott's credits include films like Flubber, 101 Dalmatians, Spawn, an un-produced Hulk movie, and Sleepy Hollow. With friends at ILM Scott made a few short films including the infamous "Spirit of Spawn" which you can see on YouTube.

Scott left ILM and moved to LA where he went to grad school at AFI. He kept working on film projects as an art director to make money. After AFI he made his first feature film, Midnight Son. He was working at Rhythm & Hues when the studio went bankrupt at the same time it won the Oscar for Life of Pi. Scott made the film "Life After Pi" that explored the effects of the commodification of visual effects and how it destroyed many people's livelihoods.

Scott wanted to make another film and wound up crafting the film "Spaz" which follows the career ups and downs of ILM's Steve Williams. The film premiered at SXSW 2022 and is in the process of being sold.

Today Scott works at Valve in Seattle. It was a total blast chatting with Scott and hearing about his journey and his new film. There's no doubt another film in the near future.

Dawn Martin Mirkin

This week on 8111, the "not shy" Dawn Martin Mirkin! Dawn grew up in Florida and left for California the second she could after high school. In San Francisco she quickly found a place to live and started working as a hostess at Perry's restaurant on Union Street. She quickly became invaluable instinctively sorting through complicated scenarios with well known guests.

A TV production class at the College of Marin connected all the dots and Dawn knew she wanted to work in the field. She got an internship at GGP where she worked on a program called "A Road to the Oscars". This led to an opportunity to work on multiple Olympics at numerous locations around the world.

Dawn came to work at ILM in 1994. She worked as both a tech and eventually a supervisor running satellite dailies with clients, editorial work, digital video support, and unending complex problem solving.

Dawn has worked in numerous capacities at other facilities including, iBEAM Streaming, Link TV, MediaScape, Idea Asylum/ABC, Sony Picture, Disney's Image Movers Digital, and the Cameron Pace Group as Media Supe on Cirque Du Soleil 3D.

Today, Dawn and her husband Craig live in Marin. It was a blast catching up with Dawn and hearing her story. Her self confidence and "can do" attitude make it clear that there's little she couldn't take on and figure out.

Ellen Pasternack

This week on 8111, Ellen Pasternack! Ellen grew up in Long Island. As a kid she was an avid reader. She was the youngest person in her town to get a library card. As a young adult she earned a degree in anthropology from SUNY Buffalo in three years time and thought seriously about going to law school. But in 1975, a good friend was traveling to California and Ellen decided join the adventure. In sunny Los Angeles, Ellen quickly landed a job working as a temp secretary at Burbank Studios (now Warner Bros.). She’s worked in the movie business ever since. 

Ellen went to work in the publicity department reading all the scripts of the films coming out at Columbia. She worked as the assistant to the head of marketing. When Ellen's boss, Elizabeth Landon, made the move from Columbia to Fox, Ellen came along and was promoted to Jr. Publicist. While at Fox she met Sid Ganis who was the publicist for Lucasfilm (which would come in handy a few years down the road). 

Ellen later moved over to Tri-Star Pictures as a Publicity Manager. But within a year she left Tri-Star to work as a Unit Publicist working directly on productions. She worked on several big projects including; Rainman, Born on the Fourth of July (where she even appears as an extra!), The Doors, Class Action, Joy Luck Club, Mrs. Doubtfire, and several others. She also moved up to the Bay Area during this time. 

In 1994, new tax incentives started to drive production out of the state. Wanting to stay in the Bay Area, Ellen landed the job at Lucas Digital as the in house head publicist. She worked closely at LDL with Miles Perkins and Nagisa Yamamoto. Ellen would work out of ILM for the next 12 years leaving just before the move to the Presidio. Working freelance she did work for the Visual Effects Society, Pixar’s Renderman, The Orphanage, Tippett Studios, Rainmaker, and Method Studios. 

Today, Ellen continues to live in Berkeley. For the past several years she’s worked on the awards campaigns for multiple studios and streamers. It was fascinating to hear about Hollywood publicity and the often complex, important work she does for the industry. Ellen is brilliant, thoughtful, kind, and great fun to chat with.

Ellen Pasternack with Ron Kovick while working on the Oliver Stone film “Born on the 4th of July”, based on Mr. Kovick’s life.

Euan Macdonald

This week on 8111, Euan Macdonald! Euan grew up near Edinburgh, Scotland the middle brother of three. His father was an architect and also loved cartooning. His mother taught yoga and wrangled the three boys. They had a ZX Spectrum computer in the house growing up and Euan played games and did some rudimentary programming. He worked to help his dad on projects mapping structured space and experimented with making videos from image sequences generated on the computer.

In school he was excited to pursue animation and computer graphics. After school Euan went to work in London at a company called Digital Pictures. He also got am opportunity to attend SIGGRAPH 1990 in Dallas as a student volunteer. He continued building his skills and his reel which landed him a full-time job at Industrial Light and Magic as a Technical Director.

At ILM Euan worked on numerous films including; In the Mouth of Madness, The Mask, Disclosure, The Lost World, Dragonheart, Episode 1, Harry Potter 3, and several others. Euan's skillset quickly landed him in the role of CG Supervisor. He had a fun experience on Dragonheart where he met fellow Scotsman, Sean Connery. When the film premiered in the UK Euan got to hang out with Connery and introduce his parents to the original 007.

After more than a decade at ILM it was time for a change of pace and Euan headed to Vancouver to work at Electronic Arts. The transition to games was exciting and challenging. He continued to build new skills and expanding his roles with each move. Sometime later he returned to Marin to help set up the new studio at Image Movers Digital and worked for a time at The Orphanage.

Today Euan works for himself on multiple exciting start ups. His ventures have included developing creative toys, mobile AR applications, games, VR, NFTs, and original content. Euan's drive, enthusiasm, and creativity have kept him always busy with new ideas, new projects, and new opportunities. It was so much fun chatting with Euan about this life and career.

© Matt Wallin. All rights reserved.