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 wher...

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, Barro...

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 ...

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...

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 d...

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 Americ...

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 fam...

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 maki...

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 ...

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 hi...

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 Sto...

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...

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...

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 program...

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 a...

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 Coll...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...