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?
