Shore Leave 2018

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

X-Men actor – Shawn Ashmore interview

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Shawn Ashmore is a Canadian actor best know to comic book fans as iceman of the X-Men film series. He’s done horror, drama and animation work. I spoke with him at Shore Leave 2018.

0:57 – Shawn talks about he started acting as a hobby with his twin brother when they were kids. At age 14 he decided to take it seriously.

2:33 – He feels that a well-written script has done most of the work for an actor. He likes to break down scripts and create a personal history for the character if it’s not done already. He used music to inspire him in roles. Costumes also help him create the feel of the character.

4:38 – All the leather superhero costumes really adjust how he approaches a character. He also played Terry Fox who was a famous Canadian runner. Wearing his running outfit was emotional for Shawn.

6:49 – Shawn was an X-Men reader so he enjoyed being on the film. He felt a chill when he saw Patrick Stewart in the wheelchair and it felt like X-Men.

8:49 – Stand By Me was the film that made him want to be an actor. Lawrence of Arabia, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and lassic horror films have inspired him. He’s a fan of storytelling and great characters.

10:57 – He’s always found fans who’ve liked works of his that he might have felt didn’t reach the level he wanted it to.

11:39 – He watched a lot of Next Gen and wanted a transporter.

13:21 – He’s on twitter and instagram.

 

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: Shawn Ashmore

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: X-Men, movies, marvel comics, horror,

Sci-fi actor – Aron Eisenberg interview

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Aron Eisenberg is an actor and filmmaker who is probably best known to sci-fi fans as Nog on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He and I spoke at Shore Leave 2018 about acting.

1:01 – Aaron talks about how he first got into acting at the age of 17. He just did it for money at first then loved it. He had two auditions for Star Trek. His first big success was Horror Movie.

3:36 – Any role he takes on, he feels he needs to show the honesty of the role regardless of whether its genre or drama. He actually worked as Mickey Mouse at Disneyland in the past.

5:11 – Aaron talks about doing mask work. He mentions things he needed to do to work in prosthetics.

6:49 – He talks about his voice acting work on a Star Trek video game as Nog.

7:52 – He’s a big fan of Penn, Pacino, Rourke, and DeNiro. Those are his role models in acting. He got to work with Sean Penn in Colors.

9:51 – He loves Altered Carbon and Yellowstone. He also would love to be in Orville. He’s on twitter and facebook under his name, Aaron Eisenberg. He’s doing a webcast show with Garret Wong called the Alpha Quadrant. They talk about DS9 and Voyager.

 

Links of interest

TheAlphaQuadrant.com

https://www.facebook.com/aron.eisenberg

https://twitter.com/AronEisenberg

 

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: Aron Eisenberg

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, actor, star trek, DS9, deep space nine, Colors, Horror, Movie, Disneyland