#126 Mark Anthony Austin Promises No Disintegrations

Announcer 0:00

I'm looking to sound like you know what's going on in the world pop culture, social strategy, comedy and other funny stuff. Well join the club and settle in for the Jeff Dwoskin show. It's not the podcast we deserve. But the podcast we all need with your host, Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:16

All right, George, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. And you got this show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 126 of the podcast. I've got great news for you, everybody. I'm making an announcement we're changing the name of the podcast is gonna be the same awesome podcast, it's gonna have a new name coming in a week or so you'll know there'll be a new introduction to the podcast. It's gonna be real cool, but it's gonna be all the same podcast just a new name, new artwork, everything just kind of freshen it up kind of give it a name that reflects more with the show is all about your life. Good. Jeff. Doesn't Live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show reflect what the show is all about. Not really. I love the name and why when I love it, it has my name. And but when I reach out and show people they're like, is it live? No. We tape it live, but it's not the Oh, is it focused on Detroit? No, I just happen to be from suburb of Detroit. Right? Oh, and who's this Jeff Dwoskin. That's me by date on. Anyway. So we're coming up with a cool name. That way when you tell all your friends, which I know you're telling them now, but it's a mouthful right now, right? But you know, tell your friends I'll be easier for them to go That sounds amazing. Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads up that's coming up. You'll see everything kind of change. And I am looking forward to rolling that out to you.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:43

But in the meantime, I got amazing guest for you. Today. It's May 2, we got May the fourth biggest Star Wars Holiday in the in the galaxy coming up. Then of course, Revenge of the fifth coming up later this week as well. What better way to celebrate Star Wars than with Mark Anthony Austin. That's right. Star Wars special editions very own Boba Fett is here with us today, Mark Anthony Austin. That's right. He's going to talk to us all about working with George Lucas and his experience working on Star Wars special edition mark is a pre visualization expert. So this one's going a little behind the scenes as well. It's a very fascinating discussion. Mark's going to talk about some of the amazing movies he's worked on. I can't even rattle them all off there's so many but Ready Player One War Horse X Men Days of Future Past Thor The Dark World eyes the great and powerful The Avengers, Casper, I mean, it goes on and on. So he's gonna give us some real cool behind the scenes insight into how movies are made. So there's you're gonna love this discussion that's coming up in just a few minutes. Did I mention he was Boba Fett? I did okay, cuz that's really cool. It's really cool that he got to be Boba Fett.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:03

Anyway, I hope you all love my conversation last week with Bernie Kopell as a special jewel in the crown for me, loved him on the love about course loved him. I get smart. He just shared story after story after story. And of course that completed my trilogy of Love Boat interviews, Isaac, go for doc boom all here on the podcast, topped only by my own accomplishments of pazzi Ralph mouth and Mrs. C all being on the podcast. I would also like to point out that the main cast of Night of the comment have all been on the podcast, Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney. I'm starting to form an entire collection of people that have been on things. So I hope you're enjoying the ride. So definitely check all those out. Everything is of course available at the website, Jeff is funny.com and any podcast app you love.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:00

hope you continue to enjoy the bonus episodes which pull from our live show crossing the streams. Last Thursday, we had another bonus episode with some great TV binge watching suggestions. You can join us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, join along chat along with us or you can just wait and I send it directly into your ears via this podcast stream pick your boys in.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:26

I do want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here at this lovely podcast and that's how we keep the lights on today's interview sponsor Fagan associates, the makers of carbon freezing technology. That's right. If you're looking for carbon night freezing look no further than fig and Associates. They get an Associate's now utilizing state of the art gas technology. Hibernation sickness is a thing of the past. Do you need To get your mother in law from one place and the galaxy to the next and only at lightspeed will do sounds like you have no one else to turn to, but fig and associates are Moulton Carbonite flash freezing has never been easier. Keep your mother in law safe and quiet the entire journey knowing you can rest easy that vegan associates uses only their peers anti bein matter. That's right, vegan associates your premier partner for Carbonite phrasing when you need it the most. All right, well, that sounds amazing. Advances in technology are always welcome, aren't they? I only wish I knew someone who could use some Carbonite freezing technology. Wink wink wink.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:45

All right, well, I guess it's time to share my interview with Mark Anthony Austin with you special edition of the podcast where we go into this special edition of Star Wars and a whole lot more. You're gonna love my conversation with Mark Anthony Austin. Get ready for an amazing behind the scenes look at movies and hear from the man who got to play Boba Fett himself and fulfill a lifelong fan dream. Everyone, Mark Anthony Austin and enjoy.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:13

Alright everyone, I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest visual effects guru actor animator, we love them as Boba Fett and Star Wars Special Edition. Welcome to the show. Mark. Anthony Austin. Mark, welcome to the show.

Mark Anthony Austin 6:30

Good to be here. Jeff. Good to be here.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:32

This is exciting. You've got a such an interesting background. I know what the big thing is Boba Fett and Star Wars special edition. But let's let's build up to that a bit. I wanted to kind of the whole visual effects pre visualization like what does that mean? Even like what is what is your job?

Mark Anthony Austin 6:51

My job is now it's basically pre visualization pre visualization is if you can imagine how expensive it is to have a crew turn up you know, for a film just having everyone there is an army of people. And so with an army of people kind of being paid an hourly wage to hang around. It's no time to really experiment and directors really want to experiment a lot more they want their movies to stand out from the pack and so what we do is pre visualization pre visualization we quit previous because it's such a metaphor previous previous we didn't previous is we create the movie set in the computer we create the cameras we go by the directors preference of lens kit some directors love 27 millimeter lens some directors hate 35 millimeter lens you know you find that the lens preference or lens kit you shoot this expensive scene on your computer you know roughly animated set get all your shots worked out and then they can take the previous to the Set Show everyone what the shot is going to be know exactly what the height of the cameras that lens on the camera is how far the actor is in front of the camera. Everything's worked out in 3d so they can reproduce it without any wasted time on the day of the shoot. Essentially, Spielberg said it saved him $10 million off of Waterworld when he made for the world's just for the previous $10 million dollars it saved him for like not having that army hanging around for all the time that you want to try something out and we can try out we typically create we kind of shot creators with cinematographers, we typically create two shots per day. That's how fast you have to work it's just getting as you want to get as much animation in front of the camera because the animation of what's in front of the camera informs the camera what to do. So that's the whole reason we have to animate it the way we do wasted animation I was thought that our previous animation would be on like the bonus DVD, you know the bonus clips or bonus features. And so the very first previous I did in 2009 was for after Christmas it was a animated Christmas movie. And I really thought that when I got the DVD or the blu ray that I would be able to see you know, some of my behind the scenes work but I guess it's a taboo thing they don't like to admit that previous even exists. In Hollywood one day, one day we will get our reveal but that's essentially what I've been doing since 2009.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:20

So in the War of the Worlds scenario where you're working with Spielberg you guys are given the script How much does he kind of inform you before you make those initial 3d renderings of the shots and then is there a back and forth where he'll be like Oh, I didn't like that. Yeah, okay, let's have the war the world guy come in from the left. More

Mark Anthony Austin 9:39

Yeah, I joined the company wins the previous after all the worlds but it just was like the big quote that everyone was kind of parade around. I didn't get to work with Spielberg on Warhorse and Ready Player One and Casper but for previous Warhorse and Ready Player One and a Warhorse we're really lucky to actually be able to work on the universal Up to 100 yard walk from Spielberg his office. So pick up our laptop, take the latest version of the sequence to his office sit at this table and he would give us notes and say, you know, maybe we should go wide on this lens or maybe we should throw 100 mil lens on this to really kind of blur out the background and isolate or flattened the subject. There's a lot of to and fro with the director. Sometimes the director isn't involved. Sometimes it's the effects supervisor. I much prefer it with this the director because the director has the overall say of what pictures should look like. And so I'm trying to read the director's mind and show him some kind of semblance of what the movie The he wants to make looks like.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:41

So how much of the movie is the previous guys doing? The director just imitate? Maybe that's why they don't talk about it because the director is just imitating your work.

Mark Anthony Austin 10:49

It depends on the movie, usually. I mean, if you look at my IMDb, it's like I've got 50 movies on there. It's usually the most expensive movies, the movies that involve a lot of overlord effects, or involve a lot of people or like the Avengers I worked on the Avengers pretty extensively I worked for about a year on Avengers so we were working on a lot of sequences but much better than having all of those stars that cost an arm or leg to have just hang around. We got to work out all the sequences with the Avengers in the computer so that they can say okay, we don't need that person that person that we just need Hawkeye Black Widow for the shots Dempster not today. So they can budget and organize and shoot everything much more efficiently because they have essentially a blueprint of the movie to follow.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:39

A while back, I talked to Joe ALFS. He designed the shark in Jaws and he was showing all the storyboards and talking about all the visualization work that he did with Close Encounters of the Third Kind Is that like the old old archaic way to do it, and that this new previous is sort of like the new way to do that all this type of stuff for the movies, because like was Jaws he had all this stuff drawn out. It was like,

Mark Anthony Austin 12:03

Yeah, well, we know we have computers so in the computer, one person can orchestrate a whole shot that the whole like I said, it's an army of people that make a movie so one person can orchestrate the lighting the effects what happens in the movie the camera No, single handedly. And so it's very much become it's something you could take home with. You have basically the movie in your computer. We work pretty closely with storyboards. I much prefer starting with a storyboard because the storyboard answers 50% of the questions asked, and so I always start with storyboards. I have to draw a line at cameras that are not realistic cameras not practical cameras. I always tried to make my previous so that a practical team can go in there set up the track for the dolly Dolly the camera along it and get that shot that I've set up but you can't go for like fantastical shots where the cameras doing this or these crazy moves. That's like a CG shot. I don't particularly like those shots whenever I'm forced to do when I have to point out to the director okay, you realize you cannot shoot this practically this is going to have to be a CG sharp use of visual visual effects for the camera itself. You know, you can't take a real camera and shoot it's 99.9% of the time we try to stick as much as we can to the boards but then we're hired to deviate from the boards that were hired for that experimentation that director wants to try so we will problem solve a lot of time like there's one shot I did in Warhorse Vic shot that wanted it it was a shot shot within the trench and the warhorse jumps over the trench runs alongside it as we dolly back tries to jump the trench again fails falls into the trench with us. We're backing up we're backing up and it writes itself and runs past camera we have to kind of work out how we're gonna shoot this well. I think they had for that movie Seven different horses playing the part of the hero horse one was really good at jumping in one was good at laying in water, which is the thing of horses apparently don't like doing one was good at just kind of like trotting or going from A to B correctly. And so they had this whole army of horses, there was one horse that jumped over one horses run alongside when the horse jumps this way, they had to switch to a mechanical horse to fall into the trench. And that's why they end up using mechanical horse or practical horse or whether they use purely CG. I'm not sure on that day, we just set it up so that we said you're going to have to do something because a real horse you can't check into a trench I'm sorry, but that particular shot when I was darling back and after that the horse go past I went you know in my virtual set, I went through the wall of the trench. Oh my god, you know, like in a computer game video game. So I said to Spielberg, you know, we can't actually practically get this shot because they were building in the trenches in Surrey in England while we were working on the shots. So they're actually building the older sets. So he said well, I really want shot. So if you can draw on the blueprint, a dugout that you can pull the camera back into to pan with it, then I'll send it as drawing all the blueprints, and they sent the blueprints to England at some poor guy had to like change the set to accommodate this camera for this one shot. That's the thing I love is the thing I love about, I used to be an animation where you'd be focused on one shot. And now I work in previous where we're focused on a sequence. So it's how these shots cut together. Most of the time nowadays for Netflix, I actually edit all the shots together, I give them my version of the Edit, it goes to the editor, he either use it or fine tunes it, but we're literally making the movie in our homes now. That's fast. Also security, security,

Jeff Dwoskin 15:45

I get mad. You're not emailing the file. So no, yeah. So that's, that's fascinating, though, because that's like you were saying the money that could be saved, you figured out ahead of time, this needs to be built, otherwise, they would have been on set and everything probably would have had to stop. So like

Mark Anthony Austin 16:00

wasted, they would have to pay those people for the day, send them home, shoot stuff or shooting for the set until they make the alteration then shooting on the set would have resume. So all that time out, they got to pay people so they're gonna be hanging around in England can't go back to America or wherever Europe or wherever they came from. I think most of the costs were actually British in the show, they have to be on the set, if the live on the set, or near to the set for the duration of the shoot. So yeah, it's very expensive. For one day of practical shooting with a large cast and a lot of set. How did you

Jeff Dwoskin 16:33

get into animation and then eventually, this higher end reverses?

Mark Anthony Austin 16:38

I got into it. Because I literally got to the end of college and my college teacher, I did this general art course. And they said, What do you want to do out of all the stuff you tried. And I originally wanted to be an illustrator. So I said, you know, I've always loved animation. She's like our older eyes. And we don't offer animation, you're going to have to do some storyboards and see if you can get in to a college that can teach your animation based upon your storyboards. So that's how I got into animation. When I came out of college with my degree in animation. This is before the internet is very hard to get job yet to take your VHS, get on the London Underground, go into London, walk to the studio, ask them if you could leave it with them for four days. And you have to come and pick it up and take somewhere else. You know, here we can just send a link of email to everybody. So it was very hard to get a job. I was a year and a half as a bartender before I finally got a break. But I got my break in commercials. So I started doing commercials in England and Europe for five years. That's how I got into animation. And then brief version is that the company I was working for closed down, they'd been going for 35 years. They were tired, they closed shop, I was out of a job. And luckily it worked out that ILM offered me again, it took a chance on me to teach me the computer and they were animators to learn the computer is faster than taking the tech guy and trying to teach them animation, which takes years. So you can spend three years teaching a tech guy animation or you can take a 2d animator teach them this computer software, which is user friendly and intuitive. And in eight weeks, get yourself a computer animator. So that's what they did for Casper because this is before they were now you watch a movie you see an army of computer animators, you know the credits credits go up and it's just five rows of just names going up and up and up. It's all the animators so computer animators now different story back in the 90s. There was nobody that had done a lot of the nobody nobody had at that point created a movie where the computer character was the hero. So Casper was kind of groundbreaking because of that reason. That's how I got into animation. And that's how I got into animation in movies in a nutshell.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:47

I loved Casper. i What were some of the we were responsible for a particular ghost or I

Mark Anthony Austin 18:53

was the animation lead for Kasbah and Phil Robinson was the animation lead for the cosi trio.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:58

I love it. Alright, so you they take a chance on you, Mark? Yeah, the you don't just get like the little person in the corner. You got Casper and Casper. That's it?

Mark Anthony Austin 19:07

Well, at the end, it put us all into a training course. And I'm trying to cause as well as learning the computer software that they had, and game you know, and trying to help develop the ILM software because we've developed software during that movie for lip sync and stuff like that. When we were doing this improv classes, MIME classes, they're looking to see who they want to have leave the group. So I was luckily chosen from the group and like I said, another guy Phil Robinson, who sadly passed but he was a great great, great animator and a great director. So one of my first responsibilities was to go in on the weekend. Actually, they wanted to fast overtime on the weekend, drawing Kasbah his most happy or Kasbah is most said extreme face expressions has been doing an O shape and OSHA kept doing m and m or p or R all the face shapes was my first job.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:00

Do you get to know any of the cast other than like the director? I think Spielberg executive produced Casper right

Mark Anthony Austin 20:06

yeah, so as my first interaction with Spielberg was over like a satellite transmission satellite feed, but the only actors that came in Christina Ricci didn't come in this is one of her first movies it's just after Addams Family was like a second big movie. She didn't come in the I can't remember her name the lady who played Kerrigan

Jeff Dwoskin 20:25

Cafe Marathi. All right. Yes, she

Mark Anthony Austin 20:27

came in. She was a hoot. This is my first kind of exposure to Hollywood actors. It's a very, very unique experience. But then you know, working at ILM was great because you'd have like Robert Redford through the studio or you'd have Sean Connery walk through the studio is I felt like I was being paid to be on vacation when I worked on

Jeff Dwoskin 20:48

that is awesome so what what came next Star Wars special edition?

Mark Anthony Austin 20:52

Yeah, do it was during Casper white in the middle of Casper that I managed to get asked if I would do the blue screen shoot for Boba Fett that came before new home so it's during Casper that I did the December of 1994 in Casper around from January 94 to June of 95. And that's when I started new house special edition so as well as jumping the soup I got to I got given because I've been the lead for Casper I guess and done an okay job they'd given me the creatures they say you're gonna be charged with creatures. John Knoll was going to take the spaceships Steve Williams is going to take Jabba the Hutt. But all the other creatures are going to be on you as at what other creatures are there. They're just not Java. They said well, we had Dewbacks one toes scurry is fake stormtroopers fake char was land speeders. Okay. Well, it sounds like a lot. Okay. Sounds fun. Yeah, sounds fun. Get to. I mean, I love always love dinosaurs. The first thing I have to do is come up with walk cycles for evac, and the ronto. And the scarier ronto. And the scarier we're actually Jurassic Park for loss of rep term bracket saw with the skin taken up a new skin put on really, they wanted to recycle the inner skeleton or the control control re for the bracket solid. And we learned the hard way that you can't just slap on a new skin because where the skeleton is within inside of the creature, it's very important to get those pivot points of where the bones are correct, because otherwise, if your bones are too far to the back of your neck, you're gonna get a lot of movement upfront for a little bit of movement in the back end. So if you look at a shot where they wanted the router to rear up nightmare shot to enemy because of so much your counter animating, we learned a lot of lessons on both Casper and knew what not to do,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:37

what not to do. So when they decided to put Boba Fett into Star Wars, how did they come to choose you?

Mark Anthony Austin 22:47

I just was really lucky is one of those cases of being in the right place right time. Because I told you I was working commercials, right working commercials and like six months before the we closed shop. I got to meet my boss's son in law. He come over from America and met this is them this guy, guy Hudson, got to meet guy Hudson end up going out for drinks as you do in London straight to the pub of the night club had a a night out with my boss's son in law from America. We showed his son in law good time out of the town. And that was that he went off. So I took him up to ILM my very first day. It was actually the weekend I went in the weekend before my first Monday had someone showing me where my desk was stuff like that. It took me in and in walks guy Hudson. Oh my god, what? How did you did? What? Oh, I thought you knew I work for Ilm. Now. I would have remembered if you told me a detail like that. So he said, Oh, it goes well, you're very lucky because I know the guy that runs the archives done these. He's a good friend of mine. And you'd be at a big Star Wars fan big Boba Fett fan. I bet you'd love to go to the archives. And so he my boss's son in commercials in England was my in into the archives in America at Lucas ranch. Got to know Don V's they knew I loved the suit when they needed someone to just press up in the suit for a summit at the ranch of Skywalker Ranch. Some of 94 He said he gave me the opportunity to try the suit on he did stipulate that if I didn't fit the flight suit is everything's attached to actually the Swedish flight suit that's underneath everything but with that said if you don't fit that in a flight suit, you can't do it and we'll find you another character but you know, I was hoping hoping praying that the flight suit with zip up and literally was for me that that Cinderella slipper moment where

Jeff Dwoskin 24:40

did you not eat for a week beforehand, did you?

Mark Anthony Austin 24:42

Oh, yeah. Well, actually they asked me You said you're gonna have to come along sometime. I went the very next day with a very nice lunchtime this summit. So I've got to live my dream which was where the actual suit for hours and pretend to be Boba Fett. I mean, how fast

Jeff Dwoskin 24:58

it's fine being in a costume. Mesonet especially when people can't see your fan love

Mark Anthony Austin 25:02

being a costume. I've always loved being a costume. I've got to do some it associates several had a second one. And then on the heels of that they needed someone to jump in the suit for the blue screen shoot. So I'd send an email to the producer saying, Look, I can't tell you who told but a little bird told me that you're going to need someone's jumping in the suit for blah, blah, blah. I just happen to fit the suit if you need services. I basically pushed my way into

Jeff Dwoskin 25:29

you hustled, you hustled to get it done that

Mark Anthony Austin 25:31

I like hustled to become a bounty hunter.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:33

It's an interesting scene. I remember as a kid having oversized Star Wars comic books that were written before Jabba the Hutt was edited out of that movie out of the original Star Wars. So in these original books, the guy was just a big Husky guy, right? And he was in these I mean, they soon it soon disappeared. You know, they tried to erase whatever they can erase. But I told her I remember that. So it was always interesting to me when they were going back to do the special editions. Oh, they have all this footage and they're putting it back in and

Mark Anthony Austin 26:04

well it did. But it didn't have Boba Fett in it. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:07

Boba Fett? Well, that was something they must have just decided, oh, let's let's let's put him in and then it can be in the whole trilogy.

Mark Anthony Austin 26:14

Well, he was even designed when they shot this was 1976 when they shot the guy in the bear skins. The Irish guy. Boba Fett wasn't even a designer at that point. And you know in between New Hope empire that the design this character they were going to make a whole army of the finalized on the suit, they realized too expensive to make a whole army of these guys, let's just have one as a battlefield. And that was the creation of Boba Fett

Jeff Dwoskin 26:40

was that before or after the Christmas special that no one talks about? Because there were there was a whole segment in that with Boba Fett?

Mark Anthony Austin 26:47

Yeah, I think it was, I think it was after. But the christmas special. This is a rite of passage in itself. If you can, you have to make it through there without stopping or pausing. If you can make it through Christmas special. You are true.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:01

That is true. It is. Certain elements are easier to get through than other elements like the Boba Fett cartoons, and a part of it is much easier to get through. Yes, if you're out there, and you're a Star Wars fan, put yourself to the test. It's on YouTube. So what was it like shooting this whole? How did they kind of put this all together and make the decision eventually like alright, let's make let's put this version of Java in there. Let's get Boba Fett in there. Like how did they? I didn't even film something like that. I mean, I know they can do amazing things. But it was just like, Well, it all starts with storyboards. It's just the whole process of George Lucas reimagining the movie to make it more like oh, I'd make it now I wanna make it now how I would have made it that is

Mark Anthony Austin 27:43

always starts with storyboards. The first thing I ever saw was the storyboards. And actually the storyboard showed Java on a repulsive slate of running on a repulsive sled. The reason they took the repulsive sled out is because with his height, and the repose ahead, he'd be much higher than Harrison Ford's eyeline. So they thought I was gonna be offered the sled, and on the ground, to be the same eyeline got it, but the repulsive sled was a great idea if they'd done repulses that they might have not done the whole, I saw that I was only involved with the creatures, you know, so I just had the plates that involve the creatures I didn't know what other things are gonna do. I saw them in dailies, like I saw them change or color corrects the Wyoming's when they blew up, the original flames were pink, pulling the colors out for the blue screen, it had suddenly enhanced them with yellow flames and all the shots that they shot in the desert, they had to come up with his pantyhose filter, because on the visual footage, George pulled a pantyhose across the end of the camera to knock back all the details so that you couldn't like look and see a Phillips screwdriver head or something. So we had to recreate a digital version of that kind of make our shots match. But older shots started as stories. So you got to see everything, storyboards, and decisions were made based upon those storyboards. That one shot they had, it was storyboarded is one where the sort of bizarre walk in side the Dewback. But this shot was set up so that the opening of the shot started with like this new back, but its tail sticking out in camera. It was the most ugly, ugly shot in the world. And all it did was in front of the camera, and it just walked away up the hill, stormtroopers start going walking on either side of it. And so if George Lucas wants this shot, then I have to at least block it out. So I blocked it out the speed. I thought we'll do that we'll be moving. And then I did an alternate shot where there wasn't storyboarding, where had the storm shoot photo on the Dewback. Looking into cameras, he got to the face of the do back and then he goes come on guy and pause around in a coaching round and then they go off and it cuts. Luckily George preferred my alternate version to the body of the region. So like I said earlier, we always like to start With boards, but I don't like to feel like I'm inhibited by the balls. Part, the function of a storyboard is to clearly show you, Jeff, do you look at the storyboard set and exactly what the shots gonna be. It's not to make it the best it can be, it's just to be very clear and what the shot is. So our job is to take the balls make it still as clear, but try and get the best shot, we can try and use either camera lenses or the setup or the movement of the camera to add to the shot plus the shot, as we call it.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:30

How much did you work with George Lucas during this entire process?

Mark Anthony Austin 30:34

Not as much as I'd like to because he was always very protected by his kind of bubble of people. I called him his Yes, men. Whenever George came to ILM to make an announcement St. George's come in, stay at the corridors. Don't bug George stay away. So it kind of like they tried to kind of vinegar water tried to separate the two, I think mainly because in the past, he was pounded by Star Wars fan questions and mobs and stuff and he probably just got fed up with it.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:04

Right. He's like he's in charge.

Mark Anthony Austin 31:06

He got fed up with it. But you know, the bubble takes it too far. Right. He's

Jeff Dwoskin 31:10

there to reestablish his vision. And

Mark Anthony Austin 31:12

yeah, the bubble has to allow people like me in to help him. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, no, I agree with that. And took a couple of times where I had to cover to break through the bubble. So he gets to speak to him one on one. And we've discussed, you know, discuss the Dewback shot, because up until then, he seemed kind of bit like whenever you see George on any kind of media, he seems a bit disinterested. It'll be preoccupied, like he could be somewhere else happier somewhere else not being in front of the camera. People ask him questions. He was like that in real life as well. And so it was funny when I brought up the idea of an alternate shot suddenly kind of like was engaged like,

Jeff Dwoskin 31:52

right, there's someone actually paying attention and wants to even make it better. Yeah,

Mark Anthony Austin 31:55

well, whatever he says he could say something that makes no sense. Like it's post marmalade jam, or something that someone said, great ideas. And so he was surrounded by that, I think if you're surrounded by that, it must affect you. And so when I came along, and kind of like challenged him about or instead of this shop in the Dewbacks, but how about we have this was more like having to be coaxed into the same cut point. And suddenly he was engaged in so it was really cool. Those moments, I wish we had more. Like I said, You were kind of like, isolated from him. Most of the time we talk like we're talking now over back then it was iron at transmission or satellite transmission. And in the middle of the screen would be the dailies at the bottom of screen would be a small kind of sliver showing a camera look at us. top of the screen would be George in his San Anselmo house, and Rick McCallum at the ranch. And so you have a very separate schedule most of the time, because he was busy writing his ideas for the prequels. Got it. That's what he was busy doing and you're asked to do it as a special edition wasn't as high a priority as prequels were. So that's why he would wouldn't come into the studio, he'd do it via zoom,

Jeff Dwoskin 33:08

was was introducing some of these new technologies into the original trilogy, sort of a precursor to get him like trying to just see how some of these new things might work on episodes. One, two, and three.

Mark Anthony Austin 33:22

Yeah. Unfortunately, it took making a trilogy to the overuse of computer effects to realize the error choosing that much computer effects over practical so we learned the hard way. And unfortunately, the prequels were what we've paid to learn that lesson. So the sequels have learned that lesson sequels were much more using CG where CG was obviously a better fit using practical were practical was obviously a better fit. And so finally, I thank goodness for that. Maybe I contributed towards his decision to make CG so much dominant factor in those prequels. I don't see how I could think he's gonna decide what to do. I don't think I've got any influence over that. But there was a shot that I did. It was a shot outside the cantina that do back here had a stormtrooper dismounting, jumping off and see Threepio and Artoo in the foreground. And when I showed it to George, he was like, Where do you get the footage from? of the Stormtrooper? And I said, actually shot some reference. So he made Tom Kennedy, the producer for the special edition. So you got a stepladder he'd go through so I want to do your four steps like a four step. Okay. And jump down, it held on to Step level and jump down and that was by reference. So I showed this to George and he was like that, that looks I thought that was real. So maybe I contributed towards him.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:49

So we can blame you for I don't know hope

Mark Anthony Austin 34:52

not. I hope not. I hope not. I just want to do the best animation. I could wait to be like a real Stormtrooper. So

Jeff Dwoskin 34:59

I think that is issue that I had with the prequels, in terms of the over animation, like you were mentioning was that it at some points, it became like a cartoon like it was it was almost too surreal. Like if they had just kept it within the rules of how they were doing the practical thing might move, then I could then it probably wouldn't matter to me if it was CG or not CG. But there was like something Attack of the Clones, or they were our See, Threepio was like flying all around. And it was just like, it was so non practical that it just it didn't feel like it even was the same series to me personally.

Mark Anthony Austin 35:34

But you have to remember, because we're looking back in history and looking back at the prequels. But if you rewind to the mid 90s, when computer animation was in its infancy, and I would never have foreseen just how overused CG is at that time. We were trying to fill the holes with CG, how like the way that they use matte paintings? I'm sure sure. They're trying to fill in the gaps with CG we had to but you know, rely on practical within it. Maybe he was using the prequels, or sorry, the special editions as a testing ground? I don't know.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:08

I appreciate the idea of them trying to push the limits and all that kind of stuff. I thought in that sense. I thought it was it was very cool. So a couple questions for you. I know multiple people have played Boba Fett over the years. Does the Star Wars fandom embrace all of you?

Mark Anthony Austin 36:25

Not equally now. You know, because Jeremy's always gonna be Boba Fett, right? He will forever be perfect. It's all assumes both fair to me. And I wouldn't ever want to feel like I don't deserve any part of what he deserves. He's my hero. And that was one of the best things about I never realized when I jumped in the suit as well as jumping the supersonic huge fan. I didn't look forward 15 years and think, Oh, I might be at conventions with my heroes. Just having to hang out in agreement with Jeremy for an hour over coffee. is heaven for me is always going to be Bowfell I think now, I guess 10 is Boba Fett.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:04

Right, right?

Mark Anthony Austin 37:05

I'm never going to be a 10 I'm never going to be a Jeremy. I just count myself as the luckiest Star Wars fan on the planet. So I actually got to be my one hero. And it wasn't like a kind of like Boba Fett, but like a whole bunch of other things. I was obsessed with Boba Fett. And my ILM desk was this kind of Boba Fett shrine. Everyone knew me as the Boba Fett guy. Whereas like people like Tim and Jeremy, a, they've done a lot of roles in a lot of movies. And this is just as another role in another movie for me is all I wanted to do is, it's a different mindset going in. No, I

Jeff Dwoskin 37:43

totally, I totally understand the other boat effects

Mark Anthony Austin 37:45

in some ways. So I cost myself as any kind of equal to those guys. Those guys are actors. I'm just a fan that was lucky enough to live his dream.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:56

Yeah, I came, it must have been super cool, too. I mean, so like to be Boba Fett. I mean, that is the armor is the coolest thing I've ever question. So when they change the name of the ship from slave one, I don't want to necessarily get into that discussion. And that aside for saying it, but some of the presses or things that I read where you got into it with Disney fans over having an opinion? What do you think the fandom is like now? Versus then? Because I think in all the different fandoms there's like this self entitlement that's kind of evolved over time. And I know you kind of kind of gets kind of thrown into it and had to tussle with that. What was that? Like? I mean, I What was that experience like to then

Mark Anthony Austin 38:40

it's funny that you, you can try and have an online presence and be positive and keep your everything I think on my on my media is I try and be positive. But someone asked me my opinion. First, I was reluctant to say because you never know what arguments it's going to spark. But in the end, you know, it's an opinion. It's only my opinion, like, all your questions to me on this show. I'm just giving you my opinion. So my experiences, and everyone else is entitled to their opinion. I'm respectful for everyone else's opinion, they can have them. But when I'm asked my opinion, and I say it, you shouldn't penalize me for giving an honest answer. And so my honest answer was basically, that slave one the one made the whole difference is two types of people in the world. Star Wars fans and people that don't know Star Wars. Am I wrong? No, you're right. Great. You ask a Star Wars fan? What slave one? They'll tell you. Purposely should you ask someone that doesn't know Star Wars? What slave one? Maybe I don't know. What you mean. Slave? No slave one. The one frozen. I don't know what it is. What is that? It must be the name of something because there's capital S is well, they have a capital S on the one must be the name of something. So I couldn't understand why you And also it was its character in a galaxy far, far away that they're pretty clear about the beginning of the movie.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:08

Was it say, a galaxy far, far away? Yeah,

Mark Anthony Austin 40:11

not this one. not this not this planet, not even this solar system name this galaxy. And so everyone's kind of like trying to make a connection between slave one and everything associated with the word slave on this planet. It's like, why make that connection that no one's made in 40 years? Nobody but you have made this connection. And once Disney made it, it was out there and it's never gonna go away because it's already there. So I felt kind of angry at Disney for making something of nothing. And now everything is affected by it. Like even this conversation where we're talking about this thing that happened. It's gonna be here forever. And I just felt like they had tainted something I loved. Like I grew up loving Boba Fett. I grew up loving Boba Fett ship and for them to like, just kind of taint it just kind of make it this taboo or controversial name. Like it wasn't a commercial controversial name. It was Boba Fett spaceship.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:07

Sorry, I didn't. I was trying to steer nada. I was trying to like more just like what it was like to kind of go mano a mano with the fans and like some of that, oh, yeah, the thing is that

Mark Anthony Austin 41:17

this is what I say to the fans, is that you know, okay, let's change it. Let's change the world so that everybody has the same opinion as you. So imagine you got up in the morning and everyone you interacted with every day all day has exactly the same values and opinions that you have. I have a drive me insane. That world, the fact that we are all diverse is the great thing about the human race, you know, it's not like you compare us to any other mammal, you look at any other mammal orangutangs, we are so much more diverse than orangutangs. Every other mammal, they're making an ad, attaching this negative thing to it, whereas it should be positive. I'm very grateful that we are as diverse as we are. I'm grateful for hearing other people's opinions. I had opinions about the book of Boba Fett. I had a gripe after Episode One went on the podcast and I griped like, Man, if I was Boba Fett, I would just take my helmet off completely strange, cantina bar, actually, the container bar picks that hold off, but it bothered me. And then it was pointed out to me. Yeah, but he's spent so much time with the Tuscan Raiders, that he doesn't feel as reliant on his armor, as he did in individual trilogy. I buy that I buy that. It's not like my opinion can't be swayed. So I love hearing other people's opinions. So when someone said that I was like, yeah, it makes perfect sense is not as dependent as he used to be on his armor because he lived for so long without it with the pastels. I love hearing other people's opinions. When I do a con. And I'm signing, I always ask the person I know I love Boba Fett. Why do you find out they're they're kind of in a in the workers what clicks for them? Most of the time? It's either the coolness or the costume or the presence that you have a presence on screen. That's usually the two winning things. But everyone has. Yeah, everything was talking about how the self entitlement came about. And I think it's because of the internet. Because if you think about before internet, there wasn't this entitlement that people obviously have is the voice in it. Right? A lot of people would murder me said how could you do that special edition? I think if anyone on the planet has the decision, hey, you know, I want to change some stuff is the Lucas. I mean, nobody else no one else if someone else had said it to me, I would have been the world. But when George Lucas says, You know what, I want to change this, this and this to my vision, which is blah, blah, blah, then I'm like, Well, you're the person that can has that right? To change your own stuff. I'm all for it. So I'd rather help you make it the best that I can then say no, you know, I don't want anything to do with it. And then they'll hire somebody else to do so this is very Joe Rogan calls them the recreationally outraged. But people that enjoy Hokkien found that the poke holes in the overuse of CG and then the same people complain that oh, there's a guy on the back of the set on the mandolin and the jeans on but which do you want? It can't hate everything. Which one do you want? Come on, you're gonna get easter eggs with live action practical shoots, you're gonna get clinical sterile nurse with overuse of CG I mean, right you can't win it's yeah, the same people complain about both.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:37

I just want to go back to the day where you just the movie comes out you watch it you enjoy it. You wait for the next one. Yeah, yeah, I watched a 20 minute breakdown of the new Doctor Strange to trailer the other day. It's like every second they're like this is they have 15 minutes on every three seconds of video to him. Dr. Strange how was working with Sam Raimi, you worked with him on it. The great powerful denture.

Mark Anthony Austin 45:01

Yeah. And actually you get to work with him that much. When I worked on that show, I got to work with him much more on a small kind of movie pitch he did in 2016. The thing is that they wanted everyone to go up to Detroit. That's where you are. Right? Yeah, that's, that's why they made us the grand powerful. And so it was hard is hard to set those kind of jobs because I'd hate being away from my family for four months. But that was the ask. So it worked out that in previous, the guys that didn't have a family, the guys that just had an apartment, they were I'll sign up for six months in Australia, paid for, whereas I was kind of, so I worked for Sam Raimi, but remotely, I will send in my work from Los Angeles to Detroit. Got it. But I did get to work with him much more closely on the show was called after party it was called. That's that's when I got to meet him. And he actually signed but he's signed the art of book. That's cool, I think credit in the movie. And so he wrote a nice thing in the front of that saying, Thanks for all your hard work was tough I did for that show was I did a lot of stuff with the flan babbles Cheshire, and I actually did it so when they grabbed Linda Goodwitch when he grabbed her one grabbed her with his hands and the other grabbed her with his feet. It was much more creepy. The bamboo grabbing her with his feet flying, but they opted I guess, the gist of what's on that and the flying monkey.

Jeff Dwoskin 46:27

Very cool. What are you working on now? You're at Netflix now? Yes.

Mark Anthony Austin 46:30

And Netflix just finished my second movie working for them. The movie is gonna be going on for another year after I finished but it's Ultraman I love Japan. It's an anime the thing that hooked me because I've watched a set of 50 movies. So when this is an anime movie, oh my god, I love to work in the anime. This is different style cinema. Graphically, a different way of filmmaking much more stylized Partway into working on this movie. I did point out I was like, you know, we're making it to Hollywood. We'll make it like we were a Hollywood movie, we should start to think about injecting those anime moments we kind of stretch the background or kind of have things walport That time slowed down, or just the use of camera, the relationship in the camera, the subjects usually changes. So there's stylize moments.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:26

Very cool. I'm looking forward to that. I love doctor man growing up that was like, come home, turn on. Whatever one of the five channels we had at that point and watching Ultra man, that's awesome.

Mark Anthony Austin 47:37

I did actually work on ultra man once before you did because he was originally supposed to be in Ready Player One. I changed the SWAT team for Gundam, I think but when I did the previous it was a fight between Mechagodzilla Ultra man and I enjoy

Jeff Dwoskin 47:53

Spielberg took all his references out of that movie didn't Hey, like any of Spielberg movie reference that I've read that

Mark Anthony Austin 48:00

I'm not sure when I was working on it. So there's no way they can make this movie because it's too many IPs in assuming licenses have never How can I ever make this movie I really didn't think it was going to be money. A surprise when you finally get pushed for

Jeff Dwoskin 48:12

a mark. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I can't thank you enough. This was a lot of fun.

Mark Anthony Austin 48:17

Cool. It's been fun. Spending my Sunday morning talk to you. Yeah, like an onion.

Jeff Dwoskin 48:21

I know. They gotta talk about but I will do it another time. I want to be respectful of your time. Very cool. Thank you so much. All right. How awesome was Mark Anthony Austin. No disintegrations please, I can't think of a better way to celebrate May the fourth Revenge of the fifth and just your general love of Star Wars. Then diving into a little behind the scenes Star Wars conversation. It was so fun. It's so cool when someone can fulfill a dream loving Star Wars loving Boba Fett being able to be Boba Fett and a movie so cool. So cool. And let's face it who's cooler than Boba Fett? All the Mandalorians are pretty they're pretty hot right now. They're pretty hot. All right, well with the interview over that can only mean one thing that's right it's time for a trending hashtag from the family of hashtags at hashtag or round up follow us on Twitter at hashtag round up download the free always free doesn't cost a penny hashtag round up app get notified every time a hashtag game starts play along with us and one day one of your tweets may show up on live from Detroit or whatever the new name of the podcast is and fame and fortune. A will await you. Today's hashtag is a special one it comes from sci fi tags which is a weekly Game On hashtag roundup dedicated to sci fi tags. They bring it every Saturday. This hashtag in particular is extra special #ILoveStarWarsBecause and why is it extra special you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked. It's extra special because Mark Anthony Austin actually guest hosted with sci fi tags for this hashtag which trend to top 10 in the United States. That's all right at Boba Fett anh s e at Marc's Twitter account anyway, so. So Mark was part of this hashtag sci fi tags led the charge as a host game account bringing all the love to Star Wars with hashtag I love Star Wars because tweet your own. Tag us at Jeff Dwoskin show. We'll show you some Twitter that let's read some reasons that people love Star Wars.

Jeff Dwoskin 49:57

I love Star Wars because lightsabers make everything better. That is so true. I love Star Wars because it took itself seriously enough to support the story. But never so seriously that you didn't feel you're able to relate with the characters so true. I love Star Wars because of sassy droids. They were sassy. I love Star Wars because it's an inspiration. Strong people don't put others down they lift them up Darth Vader philanthropist I love Star Wars because every moment is amazing. Take it all in. I love Star Wars because of the dark side

Jeff Dwoskin 51:29

is always won in the crowd. I love Star Wars because it changed my life. The lessons of the six films are universal and its heroes are an inspiration. Thank you George Lucas, artistic storytelling genius and all the EU authors artists who followed in his wake and expanded upon his mythos. I love Star Wars because of the fear this princess took control of her own rescue. smart, witty, calm and clever. Princess Leia was a badass Damn straight she was. I love Star Wars because it's not Star Trek. Right? someone's gone for brownie points. These are all amazing #ILoveStarWarsBecause tweets. And here's another one. See if you can guess who this is from #ILoveStarWarsBecause well, because I'm in it for one reason, but I loved it way before that miracle happened. That's right. That's from Marc Anthony Austin himself. And our final #ILoveStarWarsBecause tweet. I love Star Wars because when done right? It brings people together. It unites humanity across ethnic lines, color lines, generations and geographies. Done Right. It brings joy to millions every decade. There you have it, folks. A bunch of reasons, with still a million more out there on why you should love Star Wars. That's right. Thank you sci fi tags. Thank you, Mark. Anthony Austin.

Jeff Dwoskin 52:59

Well, the hashtag over and the interview over I can only mean one thing. Ads, right? Episode 126 has come to a close I can't believe it just kind of flew by then it I guess that's what they say happens when you're having fun. Hi, well, you guys celebrate May the fourth and Revenge of the fifth responsibly all right. Don't go using your lightsabers in places you shouldn't be the lightsaber and be safe out there. I want to thank my special guests Mark Anthony Austin. And of course, I want to thank all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

Announcer 53:41

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. Catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai