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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

Fantasy Flight Games game producer – Molly Glover interview

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Molly Glover is a game developer for Fantasy Flight Games. I spoke to her at Escape Velocity 2018 about how she got into the business, her inspirations, the gaming business and what she does in the field.

1:15 – Molly Glover talks about how she first got into game development. She started in games sales. She then moved into development and production. She started as a geeky child who played a lot of games.

3:50 – She did LARPing when young and as an adult she got more into it including Arkham Horror.

5:30 – She read a lot of large novels when she was young. Stephen King was an influence.

7:20 – When she worked in sales, she dealt with some people who didn’t think girls understood games well enough and preferred dealing with men. But things have gotten better in the last few years.

9:05 – She’s a big Star Wars and Marvel fan. She also likes Asimov and Star Trek.

11:50 – She used to be on Citadel BBSs and played those games like Legends of the Red Dragon.

12:50 – There’s a lot of narrative in games now. There are a lot of young people in gaming too.

16:50 – The average person can find good educational games on Amazon or local game stores. There are a lot of brick and mortar game stores. People can also write to the game manufacturers to get games.

19:20 – Talking to people at conventions and just playing games are good ways to get inspired for new game development.

20:10 – She always wanted to be able to teleport.

21:50 – We discuss gamifying game production itself. Non gaming industries should try to gamify their workplaces.

 

Links of interest

Fantasy Flight Games – https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/index/

 

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: Molly Glover

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, board games, arkham horror, game development, educational games, Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, Fantasy Flight games, Cosmic Encounter

Game of Thrones and Star Wars actor – Ian McElhinney interview

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Ian McElhinney has been a stage and screen actor for close to 40 years. He’s done a wide range of roles including acting in both the Star Wars franchise, Krypton, and in Game of Thrones as Barristan Selmy. We talked at the 2018 Great Philadelphia Comic Con about acting in general, how he got into it and how he does his work, and also about his work specifically in Star Wars and GoT.

1:30 – Ian talks about how he got into acting. He started at University trying to study something serious. He was getting a degree outside of Boston, Brandeis, and they had a theater degree. He decided he loved acting too much to not get a theater studies degree.

3:55 – He went back to the British theater and taught for a few years. Then he went back into the gaming game and had to get an equity card. At age 30, he went back to Northern Ireland to work as an actor in Belfast.

5:56 – He did a lot of screen work that reflected modern Irish politics and he was often put in a box. He had more freedom on the stage.

11:00 – Ian discusses what its like playing a character in sci-fi and fantasy including the Game of Thrones.

14:50 – Wearing a knight costume gave an Ian a different sense of movement. Wearing armor and wielding a sword gives one a new sense of weight and such. Props can give you a new sense of how you relate to others.

17:20 – Ian loves being on stage and getting the feeling of having connected with the audience. He’s also started enjoying rehearsing a lot more.

19:42 – Ian addresses how he approached his roles in Star Wars and Game of Thrones.

20:30 – Ian loves acting and will keep doing it as long as he can.

21:40 – He was in a Ken Brannaugh production and he met Jack Lemmon. He had always been a big fan of Jack and loved working with him. It was the only time he did a fan thing and he asked Jack for a favor.

24:50 – He had to give up science while in school because the system required one to choose science or the arts. But he really liked science and misses having learned it.

25:55 – He’s more of a fan of gritty dramas rather than sci-fi or fantasy. However, as a child he would have liked to be able to fly and enjoy the freedom and sensation of flight.

28:18 – Ian believes that apart from entertaining people, actors can help people think outside the box and to broaden their minds.

30:00 – Ian has a twitter account @serianmc

Links of interest

https://twitter.com/SerIanMc

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: Ian McElhinney

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, art, artist, barristan selmy, game of thrones, star wars, rogue one, General Dodonna, sci-fi, acting, props, Belfast, Ireland, Brandeis, Krytpon, Superman