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Mike Seymour, Jason Diamond, and Matt Wallin discuss the visual effects in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part 1”. Listen for free on FX Guide.
This week on 8111, Dan Goldman. Dan grew up in Colorado where his mom worked as a teacher and his dad, a physicist. He enjoyed drama as a young person and acted in plays in both jr. high and high school. When it came time to head off to college he chose Brown for a degree in Theatre.
Fate intervened his freshman year when he was assigned an academic advisor who was a well known computer science professor from the School of Engineering. By the time his sophomore year rolled around, Dan had transferred to the computer science program at Stanford and decided to pursue drama on the side.
In 1992, his sophomore year at Stanford, he landed an internship working in the Computer Graphics division at Industrial Light and Magic. That internship later turned into a full-time job where Dan worked for the next 12 years, eventually as a CG Supervisor. Dan’s credits include; The Flintstones, Mission Impossible, Men in Black, The Phantom Menace, Galaxy Quest, & Attack of the Clones, among others.
Dan then decided to return to grad school for his PhD in computer science and enrolled at University of Washington. He worked part-time at ILM while also working on his dissertation. When school ended he went to work at Adobe Research for the next decade where he helped develop numerous projects including what would become “content-aware fill” in Photoshop.
Today Dan works at Google on the team developing the exciting Project Starline. It was a blast to reconnect with Dan and hear his story. Talking with Dan you can’t help but admire his boundless curiosity & enthusiasm for tackling complex problems. His drive and positive outlook are infectious.
Dan Goldman during his ILM days doubled as Jango Fett for VFX inserts.
8111 is back from hiatus this week with Fon Davis! Fon was born in Vietnam. His dad was in the Air Force and in 1975 his family moved to California. As a kid he was always interested in working with his hands and making things. He loved science fiction films and making models.
One of his first jobs was at (Colossal) Pictures where he worked with Henry Selick. When Selick left to make Nightmare Before Christmas Fon joined the team at Skellington and stayed on through James and the Giant Peach. While working there he met several people from the ILM model shop including Steve Gawley.
Shortly after Skellington he landed his dream job in the ILM model shop where he would work for the next decade. His credits include; Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quest, Pearl Harbor, Star Wars, Terminator, Mission Impossible, Jurassic Park, Interstellar, and Guardians of the Galaxy (to name only a few).
Today Fon lives in Southern California and works with his team at Fonco Studios. It was a blast to chat with Fon and hear his story. He is, no doubt one of the nicest guys in the business.
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.
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