On the latest episode of 8111 I talk with “Optical God” Jon Alexander! Jon grew up in Ohio. As a young person he loved the Wizard of Oz. He recently retired from ILM after 38 years (and change). 

During the Vietnam era Jon’s lottery number came up. While serving he learned the value of building good relationships and working across rank and experience. This knowledge and experience helped him be successful in his career in visual effects. 

Later, Jon attended a few universities where he considered majoring in engineering. He eventually landed at Ohio State where he earned his undergraduate degree in Cinema. He made numerous short films there and shot film for the football team. 

In 1980, Jon moved to Los Angeles and landed a job working for a small company called Calico Creations doing motion control work. In 1986, Jon was hired by ILM to come work in the animation department on Howard the Duck. He later worked in the optical department where he became expert on the MC (motion control) optical printer.  He transitioned into digital composting where he worked on all manner of film projects, special projects, simulator rides, you name it. 

Jon is a great storyteller and his career mirrors the technological development of visual effects from the analog age to today. It was great to get to talk to Jon about his incredible career. He’s one of my all time favorite former co-workers. 

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 over two 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 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 some 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 list of credits are amazing and 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). 

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/

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.