Art and Sci-Fi interviews – FULL CONTACT NERD

Sci-fi tv show book – “The World of the Orville” (Titan Books, 2018) – Jeff Bond interview

Jeff Bond has written multiple books on science fiction shows and movies. He was executive editor of Geek magazine, Senior Editor at CFQ, and he writes about film music for the Hollywood Reporter. We talked about his recent book on the show The Orville.

0:52 – Jeff talks about how he got into writing a book on The Orville. He’s been a sci-fi fan since he was a kid.

4:01 – Jeff talks about how Star Trek has become it’s own genre.

5:47 – Jeff talks about how the producers of The Orville were not trying to make a

Galaxy Quest kind of show.

10:03 – Jeff talks about the tone and goals of the show. The producers drew from Star Trek TOS and the Twilight Zone.

13:08 – Jeff talks about the actors and acting in the show.

16:29 – Jeff talks about how good Adrianne Palicki is in the show.

21:00 – Jeff talks about Seth as the captain of the ship and the set of The Orville.

23:59 – Jeff talks about how they did the casting and how they’ve brought in a lot of people who have worked on various Star Trek projects.

27:19 – Jeff talks about how he organized the book and his interviews with the production people on the show. The book is sort of a “making of” and also a bit of a technical manual for the show. Jeff talks about how the ship was designed.

33:13 – Jeff compares the show to Star Trek TNG.

35:45 – Jeff talks about the show’s budget and also the design of the set, lighting, costumes, and make-up.

42:06 – Jeff talks about technical differences the show has from other tv shows.

44:43- Jeff talks about the writing process for the show.

57:05 – Jeff talks about the design and music of the credit sequence.

58:39 – Jeff talks about the music on the show.

Links of interest

https://titanbooks.com/9462-the-world-of-the-orville/

https://twitter.com/lazymodeler?lang=en

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Jeff Bond

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, television, The Orville, Seth MacFarlane, spaceships

Star Trek graphic designers – Michael and Denise Okuda interview

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Michael and Denise Okuda worked as graphic designers on Star Trek The Next Generation. They’ve also worked on a number of other Star Trek media projects and have written various books on Star Trek. In my intro I say they wrote a book on Star Trek but in fact they’ve worked on many Star Trek books that are popular among fans.

2:09 – Michael Okuda talks about he first got involved in Star Trek. Denise Okuda started as a registered nurse before she got into Star Trek graphic design.

4:24 – Michael talks about how he approaches his work. You don’t want to create designs that draw the audience eye away from the cast.

6:29 – Denise was video coordinator for Star Trek Deep Space Nine.

8:29 – Michael talks about the difficulty of the graphics associated with alien languages.

10:12 – Michael was always inspired by Saul Bass especially for his ideas of Corporate Identity Design.

12:09 – Star Trek has always been on the cutting edge of the technology of graphic design.

14:13 – Denise noted that the less money a production has, the more creative designers have to be.

17:56 – Michael loves the design of the Apollo module.

19:31 – Filmmaking is a team effort and the designer is working for someone.

21:29 – Denise talks about the large Star Trek prop auction that she and Michael helped with. Michael talks about some Star Trek II ship miniatures he found in a box.

26:09 – They talk about their current projects. Michael Okuda is working on a Clint Eastwood project.

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Michael and Denise Okuda

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, art, graphic design, Star Trek, The Next Generation, Star Trek II, ship models, The original series, costumes, Saul Bass, Roddenberry, Max Headroom, Undiscovered Country

Cartoon development – Bob Camp interview

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Bob Camp is a cartoonist and cartoon developer who co-created the iconic Ren and Stimpy Show. He worked for Rankin Bass, Marvel Comics, Warner Brothers and has worked on numerous well-known animation projects. He currently teaches Visual Arts in NYC. I spoke to him about his past work, inspirations, process and future goals at the 2018 Great Philadelphia Comic Con.

1:26 – Bob Camp got into animation in the 1980s while working at Marvel Comics. He started with Thunder Cats and other Rankin Bass shows. Then he moved to LA to do animation full-time when Rankin Bass closed down.

3:29 – Bob isn’t an animator and is self-taught in everything he does. He considers himself too lazy for animation. He studied film in school and then did caricatures and portraits for rodeos and such. He met Gary Holgren who got him into comic art for Marvel Comics. He inked for John Buscema and then was doing fixes on just about every Marvel comic while he was there.

6:18 – In LA, he worked for the studio Deke who [doing] did Captain Planet and Inspector Gadget. Bob worked on an animated Alf series and then a Ghostbusters piece.

7:35 – Then he began working on Tiny Toons for Warner Brothers. He began doing other work and then worked on Your Gang and Ren and Stimpy were minor characters in that show. Then they teamed up with Nickelodeon and began doing their cartoon show. Ren and Stimpy started as a theatrical cartoon.

10:59 – Bob was inspired by the cartoons from the 1940s that were created for theatrical release. Those cartoons were for entire families.

13:44 – The reboot of Ren and Stimpy poisoned the well of the original series. Ren and Stimpy could have gone on for a longer time if it hadn’t had the troubles they had.

15:59 – Bob is an actor and did a bunch of the voices for Ren and Stimpy. He’s in the Screen Actors Guild. His favorite part of creating cartoons is the development. He likes show running too. He also likes to fix scrip ideas.

18:09 – Bob teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He teaches storyboard creation and critiques his students’ work as if he were the director. He likes taking ideas and making them better.

20:20 – Bob likes using Pinterest to inspire himself. The images there give him new ideas.

22:19 – The comic business is tough though. It’s a hard and stressful life which you need to love.

23:49 – He’s been inspired by Bob Camplett, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Harvey Kurzman, and a slew of others. He loves the Three Stooges.

25:19 – Comics are an incubator business for movies. The artists don’t make the money. The studios and the executives make the money.

27:43 – Bob has a sci-fi epic project he’d love to do. He has a little kid show that takes place in New York he’d like to do. He has lots of ideas and plenty of sketches.

28:59 – Bob said the way to succeed in this business is to just start making films and don’t wait for money. Get a youtube channel, teach yourself the skills you need. Do it yourself. You don’t need college.

30:17 – He’s on Bob Lab Studios on facebook and instagram. Michelle Fire is his partner and she has sites on facebook and instagram.

Links of interest

https://www.facebook.com/boblabstudios/

https://boblabshop.com/

http://boblabstudios.com/

https://twitter.com/boblabstudios?lang=en

https://twitter.com/michelefire

For more of the podcast “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guest: Bob Camp

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: cartoon, art, animation, rankin bass, ren, stimpy, nickelodeon, marvel comics, john buscema, ghostbusters, alf, tiny toons, crazy