Via Starwars.com:
STARWARS.COM TALKS WITH THE EFFECTS VETERAN ABOUT MAKING REAL TAUNTAUN INNARDS AND MORE!
Many of us have grown up watching the television show Mythbusters, learning quite a bit from Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, and the rest of the crew. For those to which science does not come easily, they made it understandable and fun; helped mold open but critical minds, and provided a lot of pretty awesome explosions. From cheese cannons to underwater blow darts, Mythbusters tested not just myths, but the limits of our imagination. And, of course, we can’t forget those few particular experiments that brought a galaxy far, far away a lot closer to home. In just two epic episodes, the Mythbusters team took on some of the most famous Star Wars events: The team saw if they could dodge stormtrooper blaster fire, take advantage of higher ground, and spend the evening inside a tauntaun…and maybe find out if they do really smell as bad as everyone says. With the end of Mythbusters‘ original run still fresh in our minds, StarWars.com had a quick chat with the beret-wearing buster about his start in the special effects world, what one thing he’d like to create from the Star Wars universe, and the future of the Hyneman.
And just to be clear: Don’t try this ( i.e., anything you read) at home.
StarWars.com: Let’s begin with the beginning. What drew you to the world of special effects?
Jamie Hyneman: After working as a charter boat captain and dive master in the Caribbean for a number of years, I decided it was time for a change. I figured I should think carefully about it and research my options. I made lists of interests and priorities, spent a lot of time in the library reading about anything that seemed like a possibility, and decided special effects was the way to go. It embraced a wide variety of disciplines, was very hands on, was creative, involved working with a variety of people, and was not that repetitive. The end product has the potential of reaching a lot of people, also; if, for example, you do sculpture as fine art, it might get put somewhere that people will see it, but sculpture in movies, like an alien done as an animatronic puppet — that might get seen by millions. So I went about getting my foot in the door in NYC at a couple of different shops, liked the work, but wanted to do more in movies. So I moved to San Francisco, knowing that there was a thriving cluster of FX houses that had popped up there after Star Wars. I only worked for a short time at ILM on one commercial. I have a lot of experience, like your dad (Mark Walas) and uncle (Chris Walas) do, with animatronic puppets, and they brought me in to help on a rush project. In the Bay Area at that time there were a lot of artisans like myself that worked on a freelance basis and either I would hire them at my company M5, or ILM would, and so we had a fairly tight-knit community. It was in all of our interests to support the freelancers because we relied on them and the skills they had, as they were unique.
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