MARS 2022

I was invited back this year to MARS 2022 as an alumni. The conference this year was held at the Ojai Valley Inn. It was another amazing and inspiring year with some old friends and lots of new ones.

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.