The Post Post Podcast

Leigh Lahav co-writes, directs and animates hilarious and charming animated parody sketches on her popular YouTube channel “OnlyLeigh”. Most known among her sketches are “Frozen is the new Black” and “A stranger things Christmas”, both have reached millions of viewers.

Leigh’s journey of creating her own brand and style, finding her fanbase, moving to LA and gradually focusing more on becoming a writer-showrunner, is what made her an incredibly interesting and insightful guest.

Apart for her own journey, we also talked about the changing nature of “pop culture” over the last few years, with the explosion of streaming content providers, and her prediction of where it might go in the future. We also briefly discussed the role sex plays in her career opportunities.

“Nowadays it’s a little harder to find stuff to parody, because not everyone is watching the same things. 20 years ago everyone watched the same sitcoms [...] There’s so much content on so many platforms that it just kind of divides by small groups of people, you don’t get the show that everyone watches anymore.”

Relevant links:

Leigh Lahav’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKDgu_ybsj4sGbeAr-ZquGg

Frozen is the new Black:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NefqXlOmPPA

A Stranger Things Christmas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XPpm-igsRE

Leigh’s Patreon page:

https://www.patreon.com/onlyleigh

Leigh on Tumblr:

http://leighlahav.tumblr.com/

Leigh on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/leighlahav/

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

Stay tuned for episode 13, featuring Till Nowak, a multi-disciplinary CG artist and director, who currently does world-building for Hollywood's biggest blockbusters. Hope to see you next time!

Tomek Baginski is the Academy Award Nominated director of FALLEN ART, and executive producer of Netflix's upcoming THE WITCHER fantasy series.

Tomek stopped by my place in LA to record this episode just before boarding a flight back to Budapest, where he’s executive producing the highly anticipated Netflix series THE WITCHER, starring Henry Cavill (the show is rumored to be Netflix’s answer to HBO’s GAME OF THRONES).

But his journey into this lucrative role can’t be more unique. He started out as a director of animated shorts, quickly becoming a national figure in his native Poland when his first animated film, CATHEDRAL was an Academy Award nominee for best animated short film in 2002. His second animated short, FALLEN ART (2004) is one of my all-time favorite short films, and contributed to my appreciation of animation as a serious storytelling medium. His last fully-animated short was THE KINEMATOGRAPH in 2010.

It was also a turning point for Tomek, who’s ambition to tell bigger stories lead him to slowly migrate to live-action.

His next short, the live-action AMBITION was commissioned for the european space agency in 2014. It starred Aidan Gillen (Little Finger from Game Of Thrones).

“...and I thought, okay: I can be one of the 3,000 directors here in LA, and there will be no difference between me and the other guy, or I can be this guy who visits sometimes and has strange accent and weird look, and I might be remembered. And at some moment when somebody will be looking for a director to cover some work in Europe than I can come in handy, because there are not that many people with the skills and knowledge I have from this town living there. It was a very long term idea, and I wasn't sure it would work. But luckily it worked.”

In this episode we talked about how the success of his early short films paved the way to becoming a prominent commercial director in Europe, and why he ultimately left animation and went on to master a completely different skill set.

We talked about the importance of not over-relying on his most demonstrated talent, and the renewed sense of accomplishment when he finally sold a pitch without showing a single image.

We only had an hour to chat but we packed so much into it, I really think this episode is a must-listen for anyone who’s an aspiring filmmaker worried about the challenges ahead.

Relevant links:

AMBITION (2014) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H08tGjXNHO4

FALLEN ART (2004) -https://www.platige.com/project/feature/fallen-art/

THE KINEMATOGRAPH (2010) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnX1QOmZs3o

KATHEDRAL (2002) - https://youtu.be/msIjWthwWwI

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

Stay tuned for episode 12, featuring Leigh Lahav, the creator of animated mashup parodies like “Frozen is the new Black” and “A Stranger Things christmas”. Hope to see you next time!

Dan Sachar is a prolific Israeli filmmaker who juggles between directing, cinematography and VFX supervising.

As a visual effects supervisor and 2nd unit director, one of his recent shows is FAUDA, which streams on Netflix worldwide. His name-baring VFX studio won the Israeli Academy Award for its work on the second season, and his 2nd unit directing contribution includes many of the scenes featuring "Captain Ayub", one of the most striking characters of the series.

As a director, Dan has released 3 sci-fi shorts, with the most recent one being LAST OF YOU. They all had a successful festival run. His last one won best Sci-Fi and Judge’s choice award at Comic Con and Best Director at Shanghai International Film Festival, among many other awards.

“ I wish I could be able to direct and also be a VFX supervisor and artist because I feel really comfortable in the studio, but I really love the set as well - as a director. I love being behind the monitor and working with actors. I think it’s the perfect mix which I really hope to do in the future as well.”

In this episode we talk about how we first met - when our short films competed against each other in a short sci-fi film contest, and how our paths crossed again when we collaborated with the same people.

He told me what it was like to direct one of FAUDA’s most compelling and complicated characters, Captain Ayub.

We discussed how shorts should be perceived as their own form of creative expression rather than just a step in the way towards long-form entertainment.

And we noted how crazy post-production schedules can get in Israel, and how small the VFX industry is there. Which at one point forced Dan to on-set VFX supervise two of Israel’s biggest shows that were shooting at the same time.

We also mentioned other interesting directors, like Denise Bilvenue and Wes Ball. Wes was my guest on episode 8 - which I highly recommend listening to if you haven’t already.

Relevant links:

Dan's directing website:

http://dansachar.com/

Dan's VFX company website:

https://www.dansacharvfx.com/

FAUDA on Netflix:

https://www.netflix.com/title/80113612

More links and show notes are available at the post-post podcast website: https://www.thepostpostpodcast.com/blog/episode-10

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

Stay tuned for episode 11, when I’ll be hosting director, writer and executive producer Tomek Baginski, to talk about his long road from directing award-winning CG shorts to executive producing the new Netflix series WITCHER.

Doron Mayer is a seasoned animation professional and author of the recently published book - WORKFLOW (available on Amazon).

In this week’s episode, I speak with Doron about his expansive 20 years of industry experience spanning from 2D to 3D animation, directing and supervising story teams on animated TV shows and feature films, and about his passion for teaching - which ultimately lead him to publish his book. You can find it on AMAZON, and you can learn more about it at www.theworkflowbook.com.

Relevant links:

WORKFLOW - official website:

http://theworkflowbook.com/

WORKFLOW - facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/theworkflowbook

Images and Videos are embeded in the podcast website.

Check them out at https://www.thepostpostpodcast.com/blog/episode-9

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

Stay tuned for episode 10, where I’ll be hosting Netflix's FAUDA's visual effects supervisor and 2nd unit director Dan Sachar, and talk about his impressive career and streak of award-winning, VFX loaded, Sci-Fi shorts.

Wes Ball made headlines when shortly after uploading his post-apocalyptic short RUIN on Vimeo, he signed a development deal with FOX, and simultaneously was asked to direct the first film in the MAZE RUNNER film franchise. Following the success of MAZE RUNNER he stayed on board and directed the second and third episode in this epic trilogy. He is currently working on his next film, THE MOUSE GUARD.

“...I wanna stress that there was no agenda that ‘I need to be a director and this is how I can get people to notice me, to give me a director job,’ it wasn’t that at all, it was very much just that I had a yearning inside to make something, and show it to people [...] to see if they like it.”

Wes and I talked about his thesis film, Work In Progress, which combines live-action and computer animation and won a student academy award. And why, despite getting Wes some attention ten years earlier, he didn’t manage to leverage it the same way that he did with Ruin.

We talked about what Wes learned during the long gap between the two shorts and what made him decide to make another short ten years later.

We also talked about what it was like to suddenly transition from being a work-from-home CG artist to directing a multi-million dollar feature film, and what technologies Wes believes new filmmakers and VFX artists should be focusing on nowadays to prepare for an inevitable industry insurgence.

Relevant links:

Ruin short:

https://vimeo.com/38591304

Maze Runner trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64-iSYVmMVY

Maze Runner Death Cure trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-BTxXm8KSg

Work In Progress:

https://vimeo.com/12778010

In search of humans teaser:

https://vimeo.com/6764653

Show notes:

Bad Robot - J.J. Abrams’ company

https://www.badrobot.com/

Adam (short film by Neil Blumkamp, rendered in realtime on Unity3D):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXI0l3yqBrA

The title image for this episode courtesy of Wes Ball.

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

@akinsevgor

Stay tuned for our next episode, when I’ll be hosting Doron Meir, an animation director and story artist, and talking to him about his own passion project, his new book titled WORKFLOW.

Kert Gartner is responsible for some of the most popular VR game trailers out there - for Virtual Rickality, Job Simulator, Fantastic Contraptions and many others. He also creates traditional game trailers and graphics packages for gaming festivals. Before finding his way to this unique niche he worked as a VFX artists at Frantic Films.

In this episode we talk about why we both like to document and share our experience in blog-posts, lectures and podcasts, and what we value about this process (this episode in itself is a direct result of Kert publishing detailed posts about his experimentation with mixed-reality).

We also talk about the switch from working at a big VFX company to becoming a one man operation and the pros and cons of both lifestyles.

And we talked a lot about new and old technology, both in VFX and in VR, and how corporate greed often stifles innovation and it’s often up to individuals to set out and push innovation forward, when multi-million dollar corporations not only sit idly by, but keep a huge talent potential locked in golden chains (my own interpretation).

Relevant links:

Kert’s website:

http://www.kertgartner.com/

Virtual Rickality game trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsCGXcpa3Qw

Show notes:

Kert’s mixed-reality blog post:

http://www.kertgartner.com/making-mixed-reality-vr-trailers-and-videos/

Kert’s mixed-reality video essay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=224&v=b8bSeLca130

My mixed-reality production largely inspired by Kert’s work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd0kYFUvIcY

My blog post about mixed-reality:

http://www.outpostvfx.com/blog/2017/7/15/mixed-reality

Winnitron:

http://winnitron.com/index.html

Frantic Films:

http://franticfilms.com/

Derek Lieu:

https://www.derek-lieu.com/

Fabric Engine (discontinued):

https://vimeo.com/133021867

The title image for this episode courtesy of Andrew Cochrane.

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

@akinsevgor

Andy Cochrane is an immersive media pioneer, independent director and content creator, who has become one of the few go-to guys for big brands who are looking to experiment with emerging mediums such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Interactive Video, and pretty much any conceptual endeavor that stretches the boundaries of what we know as “traditional” digital media.

He worked on virtual reality projects, video installations, live events, and interactive mobile & web apps for clients like IBM, Intel, Google, LG, The USA series MR.Robot and the city of Las Vegas.

Most of his projects have a level of novelty to them, and can be seen as technical experimentations - promising to keep challenging his knowledge and technical skills and involve a heavy amount of R&D.

Prior to that, he worked for the VFX company Mirada, where he transitioned from a visual effects person to the vague title of “Digital / Interactive director”.

In this episode we talk primarily about emerging digital mediums, mostly virtual reality, and Andy’s realistic viewpoint on the future of that technology, both near and far. We also talk about what attracts andy to these kinds of projects vs. more traditional VFX work for big block-busters.

And what he thinks has happened in the last few decades to the filmmaking dream.

Relevant links:

Andy’s website:

http://www.andrew-cochrane.com/

Mirada:

http://mirada.com/

YouTube 180 playlist (Watch with mobile devices or VR headsets):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU8wpH_Lfhmu_kk955BFwvV0yT0PEcenA

Gravity film trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiTiKOy59o4

Last thing, if you like this podcast, feel free to let me know. Leave written comments on whatever social network you found this on. And I especially want to hear suggestions on how to improve it, or who to invite as a future guest on the show.

The title image for this episode courtesy of Andrew Cochrane.

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

@akinsevgor

Stay tuned for our next episode, when I’ll be hosting Kert Gartner, who makes Indie Video Game Trailers and VR Trailers, and was among the first people to use Mixed Reality as a promotional tool for VR experiences.

Uzi Mor is an LA-based VFX supervisor and VFX artist who worked on high-profile music videos for artists including Will.i.am, Coldplay, Black Eye Peas, Maroon 5, Fergie, Wyclef Jean and more. He also worked on several TV promos and viral videos.

Prior to relocating to Los Angeles, Uzi was the co-creator of VFX and gaming-focused YouTube channel, THERE IS A CANAL. Thanks to a series of highly popular videos, the channel grew to more than 52 thousand subscribers - no small feat for a niech channel in 2011-2014.

In this week’s episode (which was the first episode recorded for this podcast), Uzi and I talk about the early days of YouTube, and the difficulties of creating videos for the platform in its earlier days, when it grew and evolved in a rapid pace.

We reflect on Uzi’s passion for video games like War Of Worldcraft (which he would play during his weekend vacations from his army services as snipers instructor), and how the game’s groundbreaking cinematic trailers, created by game-developer Blizzard, inspired Uzi into studying computer graphics in the first place.

We also discuss the liberating experience of creating original content out of sheer passion and enthusiasm, and how Uzi used that experience as an opportunity to grow as an artist once that endeavor became unsustainable.

Finally, we talk about the difference in mindset between being a visual effects services provider and being a director, and the sacrifices that every working director has to make over and over again.

His breakout YouTube video, Battlefield 3 EPIC Real Life Battle (2011).

https://youtu.be/wwnMfvfPQQE

There Is A Canal YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnSJnytTrg8InDTRd58C3kA

His personal website is at https://www.uzimor.com/

During the episode we also reference:

WORLD OF WARCRAFT CINEMATIC TRAILER:

https://youtu.be/vlVSJ0AvZe0

The title image for this episode was created by Uzi Mor.

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

@akinsevgor

Next week I'll be back with Episode 6 featuring Andy Cochrane, a pioneer and a leading creator of interactive and immersive content. Get ready for a deep dive into current and futuristic VR technologies!

Aaron Nee is a talented and highly motivated multi-disciplinary artist, who is currently writing and attached to direct (along with his brother Adam Nee), Sony Pictures’ HE-MAN: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE film, and the duo are also currently penning Warner Brothers’ MINECRAFT.

He was first introduced to me as a talented motion graphics designer, and I had the fortune and pleasure of witnessing him shift his focus back to an earlier passion (that I wasn’t even aware about originally), and turn his wildest dreams of becoming a big-budget director into reality through hard work and strategic series of forward-focused choices that he discusses and analyses in this episode.

His (latest) breakout film is BAND OF ROBBERS (2015). Here’s the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNqzzjZzc4g

And the short teaser he made as part of his pitch for the Bumblebee movie is available here:

https://vimeo.com/203792308

His VFX company website is http://www.growmdp.com

During the episode we also reference:

Gareth Edwards’ MONSTERS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njeofv4dr9Q

Neil Blumkamps’ ALIVE IN JOBURG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNReejO7Zu8

The title image for this episode was created by Aaron Nee.

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

@akinsevgor

Next week I'll be back with Episode 5 featuring Uzi Mor, an LA-based VFX supervisor and creator of an early VFX and gaming focused YouTube channel, THERE IS A CANAL.

My guest, Tomer Eshed, directed three of the funniest animated shorts I’ve seen:

Our Wonderful Nature, which is about the water shrew’s secret mating habits:

https://vimeo.com/26632368

Flamingo Pride, which is about the only hetrosexual flamingo in a flamingo pride parade:

https://vimeo.com/62085792

And The Common Chameleon - which is about a chameleon with an insatiable appetite.

https://vimeo.com/167910027

Tomer’s currently directing his first feature length animated film in Germany, DRAGON RIDER, produced by Constantine films. Our conversation covered a wide range of topics, including:

- Why go for realistic CG animation, and how his stories could only be told that way.

- How he uses technical challenges to motivate his crew.

- How he went from releasing his thesis film into being offered to direct a feature film.

- The unique opportunities Germany offers to short film directors.

- Working in a distributed production structure.

- How overlapping stages (story and animation) can be bad but also good to a project.

- Why it is okay to cry from time to time.

The title image for this episode is from The Common Chameleon by Tomer Eshed.

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

@akinsevgor

Next week I'll be back with Episode 4 featuring Aaron Nee, who along with his brother Adam, is attached to direct Sony Picture’s new “MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE” franchise reboot, as well as write Warner Brother’s MINECRAFT.