8111

On the latest episode of 8111, Juan Luis Sanchez!! Juan-Luis worked at Industrial Light & Magic from 2001 to 2006. 

Just a few of his film credits include: Wonder Park, Paddington, Gravity (VES Award for Outstanding FX and Simulation), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Babe: Pig in the City.

Juan-Luis was great fun to chat with. He currently lives in Spain and continues to create amazing visuals for movies and television. Download or stream episode 69 to hear all about his professional journey!

This week on 8111, Nelson Hall. Nelson is that rare breed…a Marin native. Oh, and his birthday is on Halloween! Growing up he loved watching old movies on TV. He was captivated by the films of Ray Harryhausen and the Wizard of Oz. He always liked drawing and making things including several Rube Goldberg contraptions in his family’s living room.

He attended Sonoma State for a time and studied art. Still searching for a way to get into a creative job, he landed a job at the Printing Factory on Kerner Blvd. just two blocks from ILM. He transferred to San Francisco State (Go Gaters!) and continued his degree in art taking classes at night while working full-time.

Nelson’s speech 101 teacher, Diana Reese, gave him his first break. He’d given a speech on the art of visual effects and his teacher offered to introduce him to her friend, ILM model maker Marc Thorpe. That introduction led to some freelance work that eventually turned into a full-time opportunity.

Nelson has worked on numerous films including; Alive, Fire in the Sky, The Flintstones, Star Trek: Generations, Congo, Daylight, Flubber, Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace, Galaxy Quest, AI, Matrix 2 & 3, Attack of the Clones, War of the Worlds, Pirates of the Caribbean, Evan Almighty, The Cove, Pacific Rim, Elysium, and many others. 

Nelson shares a great story of his journey from Marin kid to traveling the world working on films, special events, projects for Disney, and operating R2D2. It was a blast to catch up with Nelson and hear his incredible story.  

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. 

On this episode of 8111, Maggie Oh. Maggie was an only child and grew up in Chicago. She was always interested in animation from an early age, thanks in part to Batman: The Animated Series. She attended MIT and studied computer science and electrical engineering as an undergrad. But she also took illustration, drawing and painting courses at MassArt. 

Maggie went to SIGGRAPH for the first time though a co-op project for the MIT Media Lab. After school she worked as an interactive programmer at a web company in Boston. She then decided to enroll at art school to earn an MFA. But she landed a Summer internship at Pixar and decided to drop out of art school to continue to work in industry and study independently online and though professional work. 

In October 2003 Maggie landed a job at ILM. She started in render support working in the trailer and had an interesting run in with a family of raccoons working the graveyard shift. She later worked as a technical director on films including; Star Wars: Episode III, Evan Almighty, Chicken Little 3D, Lions for Lambs, Lemony Snicket, Pirates of the Caribbean, and many others. She also worked developing the HDR pipeline. 

In 2008 Maggie left to work at the California Academy of Sciences to work on their first planetarium show. She then moved over to doing freelancing for various visual effects companies including Polygon, Cafe FX, Spy Post, and then Image Movers Digital. 

Then Maggie went to 343 Industries to work on Halo 4 & 5 followed by time at Microsoft helping develop the HoloLens. From there she spent a year at NVIDIA and then returned to ILM for a few years working with the ILMxLAB. Today Maggie is working at Google alongside Dan Goldman on Project Starline. 

Maggie is brilliant. Her career journey is a who’s who of high-end technology. Her love of working in the space where art meets engineering has guided her choices. It was great fun to chat and hear about her story. 

This week on 8111 the tables are turned and my hero/mentor Kim Bromley interviews me about my career and background. I grew up in the Los Angeles suburbs in the 70’s and 80’s skateboarding and going to the movies. In 1992 I earned my degree in Cinema from San Francisco State University.

That same year, I began my career at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic where I worked for nearly a decade in the company’s computer graphics division. For over 25 years I have worked around the world at the top visual effects houses; Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital in New Zealand, Tippett Studio in Berkeley, Sony Pictures Imageworks in Los Angeles, Warner Bros. ESC Entertainment in California, Brainstorm Digital in New York, and the Moving Picture Company in Vancouver. My film credits include; The Mummy, Twister, Star Wars: The Special Editions, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, Hellboy, Constantine, King Kong, Watchmen, and Jurassic Park: The Lost World.

Outside of Hollywood, I served as the Visual Effects Supervisor for American artist Matthew Barney's five-part Cremaster Cycle and the follow up experimental film, Drawing Restraint 9 staring Icelandic pop star Bjork.

I am the host of the 8111 (Eighty-one Eleven) podcast. Each episode is a conversation with a guest who worked at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic during its 40+ year history. Guests discuss their journeys and career paths, and how working at ILM changed them. I'm also the co-host of FX Guide's VFX Show podcast listened to by visual effects professionals, fans, and aspiring artists from all over the world.

Today I am the senior full-time faculty and Chair in the department of Communication Arts in the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. I teach numerous courses specializing in 3D computer graphics, visual effects, and the creative application of emerging digital technologies. http://mattwallin.com/

This week on 8111, Amy Young!! Amy grew up in Manhattan where her dad was a stage manager on Broadway. She spent a lot of time behind the scenes watching her father work and when he was busy, she was able to go see plays and musicals for free. At sixteen her dad landed a job as the manager of the Curran theatre in San Francisco. Amy’s mom was an emergency room nurse. 

They moved out to Marin and Amy finished high school at Redwood High in Larkspur. After high school she enrolled at College of Marin in the drama department. There she studied lighting, stagecraft, and theatre stage management. After college Amy was in a bad accident that derailed her goals of heading out of town and she wound up studying further at ACT and working locally through IATSE Local 16. 

She worked jobs all over town and eventually landed a long term gig on the electric crew at the San Francisco Opera. One day she got a call to head up to grip at ILM when they were working on Always. Brad Jerrell kept Amy gainfully employed for several years at ILM where she worked on many shows including; The Rocketeer (doing pyro), T2, multiple Star Treks, and costumes with Annie Polland on the Star Wars Special Editions. 

Amy returned to College of Marin where she enrolled in a fire science program and wound up lecturing around the area on fire safety. She worked with the Marin Shakespeare Company, ran the local space museum and solving problems at every turn. Today Amy is mostly retired and does volunteer work at schools, the local science museum, and in her community. It was incredible to talk to Amy and hear her story. 

This week on 8111, John Berton!! John was born in the midwest. His dad was a mathematics professor and his mother was a musician. John loved movies as a kid and, through his dad, had early access to computers. He learned Fortran in high school and was fascinated by the logic of programming. 

John attended Denison University and studied communications and even had his own radio program. For grad school he attended Ohio State and studied computer graphics with American artist and computer art pioneer Charles Csuri. His interest in film, music, physics, and programming led him down the path that would eventually lead to working in visual effects. 

After grad school John went to work with Charles Csuri at his new company, Cranston/Csuri in Ohio. They made some of the first early flying logos for HBO, CBS, Cinemax, and many others. John later went to work at Mental Images in Berlin. From there he made the connection to ILM where he came to work in 1989 on Terminator 2. John’s ILM credits include; T2, Men in Black, Star Trek VI, Hook, Death Becomes Her, Jurassic Park, The Mask, Casper, Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition, Deep Rising, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Men in Black 2. 

Since ILM, he has continued to work on films and television creating visual effects in projects including; I, Robot, Charlotte’s Web, Bedtime Stories, Krrish3, Godzilla, 13 Reasons Why, and Deep Water. John taught for a while at Drexel in Philadelphia and left when he had a chance to come work at Lytro developing light-field rendering. Today John is back working in visual effects on a project for Netflix. 

John was my Visual Effects Supervisor on Deep Rising and The Mummy. Working on John’s teams are some of my favorite memories from my time at ILM. He is absolutely brilliant, and  approaches his work with equal parts technological prowess and thoughtful artistry. It was awesome to reconnect with him and hear his amazing story. 

This week on 8111, Scott Leberecht! Scott grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio the middle of three bothers. His dad was an optician and his mom was an elementary school teacher. Drawing was always something that he was interested in, and good at.

He studied industrial design at University of Cincinnati with a goal of may be making toys for Kenner where he'd worked part-time as part of a co-op program. In school he met fellow ILM alum George Hull. And he discovered that ILM model maker Charlie Bailey had also attended his school years earlier. School set the path toward ILM.

At 24 Scott became an intern in ILM art department. The internship turned into a job where he would work for the next six years. Scott's credits include films like Flubber, 101 Dalmatians, Spawn, an un-produced Hulk movie, and Sleepy Hollow. With friends at ILM Scott made a few short films including the infamous "Spirit of Spawn" which you can see on YouTube. 

Scott left ILM and moved to LA where he went to grad school at AFI. He kept working on film projects as an art director to make money. After AFI he made his first feature film, Midnight Son. He was working at Rhythm & Hues when the studio went bankrupt at the same time it won the Oscar for Life of Pi. Scott made the film "Life After Pi" that explored the effects of the commodification of visual effects and how it destroyed many people's livelihoods. 

Scott wanted to make another film and wound up crafting the film "Spaz" which follows the career ups and downs of ILM's Steve Williams. The film premiered at SXSW 2022 and is in the process of being sold. 

Today Scott works at Valve in Seattle. It was a total blast chatting with Scott and hearing about his journey and his new film. There's no doubt another film in the near future. 

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. 

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.