podcast

David Dozoretz spearheaded the pre-visualization work on the Special Editions and the first two Star Wars prequels, as pre-vis effects supervisor. He is such an immense talent and has such incredible passion for his work, so it was a real honor.

This is such a fun episode, a deep dive into what it was like to be working at Skywalker Ranch … while they were literally changing how movies we being made forever. (Also stick around for a John Knoll egg toss picnic story.)

To see more of his work (including the effects reel from The Phantom Menace we were talking about), head to his website: https://www.daviddozoretz.com/

Chris Bartlett is not only is the official “Media C-3PO”, but also has had numerous roles in these first two seasons of The Mandalorian, including bounty hunter Q9-0 and the flute-playing Kubaz from the very first episode.

His story of turning his cosplaying and costume-building hobby into a profession is super inspiring, and his stories of working with people like Anthony Daniels, Carl Weathers, Werner Herzog …and Barack Obama, are such a delight. You’re going to love this one.

Industrial Light & Magic digital artist and compositing supervisor Todd Vaziri has worked on every Star Wars movie since 2002, beginning with Attack of the Clones.

Whether for the prequels (including the final duel on Mustafar), the sequels (figuring out the feel of a modern Star Wars movie), the spin-offs (helping to bring Tarkin and the Kessel Run to life), theme park rides (including Star Tours and Rise of the Resistance), or Stephen Colbert’s Green Screen Challenge, Mr. Vaziri’s passion for movie-making is evident in his every shot, and in his every answer on this episode,

I’ve wanted him to be a guest on Talking Bay 94 for such a long time, and man, it was so worth the wait.

Make sure you are following him on Twitter: @TVaziri … he is truly one of the best people to follow, period, on that app.

This Friday, at 7:30 PM Central, we will be live again on Scener.com, breaking down Episode 4 of The Mandalorian Season 2. This will be every Friday night this season, with me and special guests pausing rewinding and analyzing every shot and, thanks to Scener’s technology, you’ll be able to watch seamlessly alongside us!

Head to scener.com/talkingbay94 to set a reminder for this Friday and I’ll see you there!

Today is a very special roundtable episode with three incredible Star Wars authors, all of whom contributed to the just-published From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back anthology.

Joining me is Delilah S. Dawson, also the author of Phasma and Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, John Jackson Miller, who previously wrote Kenobi and A New Dawn, and Tracy Deonn, who might be a newcomer to writing for Star Wars, but whose story about the Dagobah Cave in this book blew me away.

Thank you as well to Del Rey for setting all of this up. From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back is now available: https://amzn.to/2IneBFN

• Delilah S. Dawson: https://www.whimsydark.com/
• John Jackson Miller: https://www.farawaypress.com/
• Tracy Deonn: https://tracydeonn.com/

The writer of Rogue One, Gary Whitta, returns to the show to talk all about his latest Star Wars story … Rogue Two.

What follows is an in-depth dive into his piece in the just-published From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back, a further discussion on the importance of hope in Star Wars, and a look at what else he’s been doing since the last time we spoke, especially Animal Talking!

Head to his YouTube and Twitch accounts, so you can check out Animal Talking, and everything else he’s doing, for yourself.

This Friday, at 7:30 PM Central, I will be live on Scener.com, breaking down Episode 3 of The Mandalorian Season 2. This will be every Friday night this season, with me and special guests pausing rewinding and analyzing every shot and, thanks to Scener’s technology, you’ll be able to watch seamlessly alongside us!

Head to scener.com/talkingbay94 to set a reminder for this Friday and I’ll see you there!

Dave Dorman is one of the greatest Star Wars artists of all time.

Since the early days of the Expanded Universe, Mr. Dorman’s art has been some of the most iconic images of a galaxy far far away. From Dark Empire to Tales of the Jedi, Dark Forces and beyond, it was a real treat getting to dive in a little bit more into his process.

As you know, we don’t typically release episodes on Saturdays … but this is a special episode, brought to you by our friends at Coolwaters Productions, who are currently doing an autograph signing with Harrison Ford. After the interview, we are then joined by Coolwaters President Derek Maki for about 15 minutes worth of a Ford Signing Q&A.

(And there probably won’t be an episode this Wednesday, just knowing what Tuesday night has in store and my mental headspace, so I wanted to make sure this at least was published now!)

Here’s a direct link to the exclusive Indiana Jones print we were talking about, as well as a ton of other options for the Harrison Ford signing: https://coolwatersprods.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9&products_id=2158

BLIND LTD‘s work as a London-based creative studio designing user interfaces for movies, whether it is for James Bond or The Dark Knight Trilogy (or, especially, Star Wars) is simply incredible.

What makes Star Wars feel like Star Wars? This episode dives deep into that question and I enjoyed it so, so much.

This Friday, at 7:30 PM Central, I will be live on Scener.com, breaking down Episode 1 of The Mandalorian Season 2. This will be every Friday night this season, with me and special guests pausing rewinding and analyzing every shot and, thanks to Scener’s technology, you’ll be able to watch seamlessly alongside us!

Head to scener.com/talkingbay94 to set a reminder for this Friday and I’ll see you there!

SHE has spoken: Misty Rosas, performance artist for Kuiil the Ugnaught, from The Mandalorian, is on the show today.

Misty’s story is incredible and her talent is unmatched, so I hope you enjoy her stories about getting the role, working on set, and listening to Nick Nolte’s lines every night, as much as I did. More topics include:

• Her first professional role … at Disneyland!
• Working with Stan Winston Studios on Congo as a Gorilla Artist.
• Stunt work on movies like Hunger Games – Catching Fire and Van Helsing
• The audition process for Kuiil, as well as the costume built by Legacy Effects
• Working within The Volume, especially with each director (Dave Filoni, Deborah Chow, Rick Famuyiwa)

Make sure you are following her on Instagram, @MissMistyRosas

Upcoming interviews include pre-pro legend David Dozoretz, the geniuses at BLIND Limited, and author of the Glove of Darth Vader series: Paul Davids.

And, this was a secret, but starting next week, we’ll be doing live video recap shows for The Mandalorian every Friday night, partnering with our friends at Scener. More info to come, but I cannot wait.

The first time anyone caught a glimpse of the now infamous bounty hunter was in the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special.

Yep. That one.

We talk to Boba Fett‘s animator, the great John Celestri all about it: how Lucas got involved, what their inspirations were, and just a ton of great stories. Some other topics include:

• Growing up wanting to be an animator (and being self-taught)
• Getting involved with Nelvana (known for Ewoks and Droids), as well as how George Lucas first heard about the studio through Cosmic Christmas
• Inspirations for the short ranging from Heavy Metal magazine and Moebius to Clint Eastwood

You have a week, as of this publishing, to help with Mr. Celestri’s Kickstarter and get that Boba Fett sketch for yourself: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johncelestri/john-the-animator-comicx

For even more Lucasfilm animation stories, check out Skytalkers’ incredible 3-part deep dive about animation: https://skytalkers.com/2020/07/25/star-wars-animation-1978-2012/