Kurt Nellis

Kurt Nellis joins me this week to talk about his career in visual effects and games. Kurt's credits include; Matrix: Revolutions, xXx: State of the Union, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and King Kong. Kurt shares his story and how he broke into the industry. He's worked at ESC Entertainment, ILM, and Weta Digital. A few years back, he transitioned to working in games at Bungie in Washington state. We discuss the state of the industry and the exciting fusion of visual effects and games.

Kurt and Yoda getting it done.

Landing on Mars.

This is the coolest thing I think I’ve ever seen.

Dave Carson

Dave Carson first got into movies as a kid watching the inspiring work of Ray Harryhausen in films like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. He joined ILM in the late 1970's to work on the original Empire Strikes Back as a model maker and storyboard artist. That initial job opportunity developed into a full-time position where Dave went on to work on numerous films including; Dragonslayer, Return of the Jedi, Star Trek 3, Goonies, Enemy Mine, Young Sherlock Holmes, Willow, Witches of Eastwick, Hook, Jurassic Park, Casper, and Titanic (to name just a few...). In the mid 1990's Dave served as Visual Effects Supervisor on the Special Editions of Empire and Jedi. He eventually left ILM and went to work at Electronic Arts where he spearheaded groundbreaking work bringing a visual effects and cinematic sensibility to multiple game projects.

Dave's career is a master class in the history of visual effects and the development of new techniques and tools. He approaches all his work with the eye of an artist and shares some great memories from his incredible career.

Dave in the creature shop at ILM sculpting a mask for Return of the Jedi.

Mike Corcoran

Mike Corcoran is one of the funniest people I know. He and I started at ILM around the same time in the early 1990's. Mike shares his story of becoming a creature TD and how he worked hard to maximize every opportunity. With great managers and mentors he's travelled all over the world working on some amazing projects including: Mission Impossible, Mighty Joe Young, King Kong, Tin Tin, Prometheus, Black Panther, and many others. Most recently Mike was hired by DNEG as Global Workflow Architect (Creatures). Mike and I have a bourbon infused chat about the old days, old friends, classic cars, music, and the often wild journey of an accidental career in visual effects. 

Mike and Darth sharing a moment.

Mary Payne

Mary Payne started her career as an intern at Skywalker Sound working with Randy Thom. She later came to ILM and worked her way up from computer graphics production assistant to lighting technical director. Today she lives, most of the time, in mainland China working as Executive Producer at BASE where she recently wrapped up work on their feature animated film, Wish Dragon. Mary shares how she worked her way up by diving in head first and learning new skills at every step.

Mary in the Technical Assistant trailer talking shop and helping to get shots across the finish line.

Young Mary way before her days at ILM.