Speaker 1: Oh Wimmo, Kelly Monk.
Speaker 2: Six, We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Let me
Speaker 2: tell you about Thon Davis. He's been on the show
Speaker 2: a few times before, but I got to remind people
Speaker 2: how big a deal he is. He's the founder of
Speaker 2: FONC and creative director. He was a celebrity judge on
Speaker 2: ABC's Battle Bots, an instructor at the Stan Winston School
Speaker 2: on shows including Superfan Bills, Nerd Alert, Cake Masters, Starter Kit,
Speaker 2: Painters Guild, and Adam Savage Is Tested.
Speaker 1: But Wait, there's more.
Speaker 2: In his three decade career, Fon Davis has worked on
Speaker 2: over forty feature films countless music videos. I'm talking about
Speaker 2: Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quest, Pearl Harbor, as well as the
Speaker 2: Star Wars, Terminator, Mission Impossible, and Jurassic Park franchises. That
Speaker 2: doesn't include his work in visual effects, working in the
Speaker 2: art departments on Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and
Speaker 2: the Giant Peach, Christmas, Carol, Mars Needs Moms, and The
Speaker 2: Matrix series. More recently, Fawn worked on Just in case
Speaker 2: You've never heard of these movies, Interstellar, Guardians of the
Speaker 2: Galaxy and Elysium, and they're probably another twenty that he
Speaker 2: can't tell us about because he's very secretive about his life.
Speaker 2: But it's always good to have Fawn Davison Studio, Fawn
Speaker 2: my friend.
Speaker 1: Hey doing man, I'm doing a good.
Speaker 3: I say that nervously because the entertainment industry is like
Speaker 3: a roller coaster as always.
Speaker 1: Well, I know this.
Speaker 2: The entertainment industry is always a reflection of how we
Speaker 2: feel about the economy, not how it is, but how
Speaker 2: we feel. If we're nervous about the economy, then a
Speaker 2: lot of companies will start to contract, They may lay
Speaker 2: people off, having nothing to do with the actual economic climate.
Speaker 2: But we know that entertainment usually is where we spend
Speaker 2: our disposable income.
Speaker 1: Yes, and if we're worried about the economy, we're going
Speaker 1: to spend less. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well and it's also right now, it's been you know,
Speaker 3: it's been all over the news, but the union negotiations
Speaker 3: that have been happening for like a year and a
Speaker 3: half now has affected a lot of what we do.
Speaker 1: We're doing okay though, I mean uh fon Co studios.
Speaker 3: Fortunately we don't just work in movies and television, so
Speaker 3: a lot of that has been really slow. That's starting
Speaker 3: to pick up just now because the unions have all
Speaker 3: ratified their deals. But we also work in theme parks
Speaker 3: and museums and education, all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 2: So if I were to best describe what you did
Speaker 2: and have done in your career, I can list the
Speaker 2: titles and I can say it's special effects, practical and CGI.
Speaker 2: But what is it the best way to describe, I
Speaker 2: will say the breath and depth of your career.
Speaker 3: I think it's the thread that kind of ties it
Speaker 3: all together as visual storytelling. You know, I specialize in
Speaker 3: unusual visual storytelling, but I specialize in visual storytelling. And
Speaker 3: I feel like that's like at the core of my being,
Speaker 3: you know. Even just walking through my studio, I feel
Speaker 3: like the space itself tells a story and it's designed
Speaker 3: that way, you know. So whether it's miniatures or creatures,
Speaker 3: or visual effects or even classes that I do, it's
Speaker 3: it's always visual storytelling.
Speaker 1: Now there are classes.
Speaker 2: You can go to the Stan Winston School and learn
Speaker 2: certain things you can you can learn about this in college.
Speaker 2: You can go to special trade schools and technical schools.
Speaker 2: I suspect when you started out there was none of that.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, absolutely none of that you would comb through,
Speaker 3: you know, all the different trade like books and things
Speaker 3: that teach you about carpentry or teach you about model making.
Speaker 3: But it was very rudimentary, hobbykind hobby grade stuff, you know,
Speaker 3: so nothing, nothing to the level that you can get.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: What was the first big movie that you were able
Speaker 2: to work on? Remember before Christmas was the first feature
Speaker 2: film I ever worked on. I was the youngest person
Speaker 2: on the crew, and it was the best foundation for
Speaker 2: the rest of my career that I could possibly imagine.
Speaker 2: Because Henry Seleck, the director, wanted to do everything in
Speaker 2: camera and not use any computer graphics or compositing or
Speaker 2: anything like that. Practical effects, yeah, all practical and all
Speaker 2: in camera, just optical. Like you know, if we wanted
Speaker 2: to add two different elements together back then there was
Speaker 2: blue screen, you could just composite those things together with
Speaker 2: optical printers. But we would actually rewind the film and
Speaker 2: shoot on it twice or three times, it depends on
Speaker 2: how many elements. So you would shoot a candle and
Speaker 2: then you would shoot a flame against black velvet.
Speaker 1: So video layering, is that a way to describe it?
Speaker 3: It's film, Yes, it's burning onto the same piece of
Speaker 3: film multiple times, once for each element.
Speaker 2: I didn't think you could do that. I thought when
Speaker 2: you did it on film, it's done. There's nothing you
Speaker 2: can do to add to it.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, as long as you don't develop it,
Speaker 3: you can keep exposing the film. That's and that's but
Speaker 3: that's what I mean. That's so many things that we
Speaker 3: you know, that I learned from working on that movie
Speaker 3: that I probably would have never had an opportunity to
Speaker 3: do outside of that that mandate that Henry Sellig gave us.
Speaker 3: We're going to be jumping around. But there's so many
Speaker 3: things I'd love to ask you. What is it about film?
Speaker 3: It's staying power?
Speaker 2: Why directors want to use it, you know, a different
Speaker 2: size of thirty millimeters or whatever.
Speaker 1: Why film? Why is it so special even today?
Speaker 3: Well, when you think about movies, it's, you know, it's
Speaker 3: a combination of every art form imaginable. It's it's the
Speaker 3: ultimate and collaboration, and it moves you at so many
Speaker 3: different levels. When you think about the music, and when
Speaker 3: you think about the visuals, and you think about the
Speaker 3: actor's performance, and just there's so many different ways to
Speaker 3: express yourselves creatively in a in a movie that you know,
Speaker 3: it's even even the stuff that has happens behind the scenes.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of concept art, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: costume design. There's just so many departments. I think that
Speaker 3: you can't help to feel the touch of every artist
Speaker 3: that worked on it.
Speaker 1: When you're given a script or direction or an idea,
Speaker 1: how does it go from that idea to inception?
Speaker 2: You do you have a director sit down with you
Speaker 2: and say, Okay, I need to have this starscape, I
Speaker 2: need to have these ships and this is what is happening.
Speaker 2: And do you take that idea and then realize it
Speaker 2: or you give it more information? It's it really, I mean,
Speaker 2: the answer to all these questions are usually it depends.
Speaker 2: But I would say frequently we we get a script.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we were brought in while they're still developing the script,
Speaker 2: but they have certain story points they want us to
Speaker 2: help them with, and we have multiple departments at my studios.
Speaker 2: So sometimes it's the costume, sometimes it's creatures. Sometimes it's
Speaker 2: it is the visual effects. So you know, we start
Speaker 2: with just trying to get the director's vision. What does
Speaker 2: the director want to achieve? What is the visual storytelling?
Speaker 2: We're trying to get a prop across, you know, what
Speaker 2: is the emotion we're trying to evoke from the audience.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of that kind of conversation that happens,
Speaker 2: and then we have to find a way to balance
Speaker 2: the schedule and the budget and physics to make that happens.
Speaker 2: Has there ever been a movie where you said, you
Speaker 2: came across the idea what they're asking the script? What
Speaker 2: have you? And you said, I cannot wait to bring
Speaker 2: this to life? Oh, all the time, All the time.
Speaker 2: I feel very fortunate to have the job that I have.
Speaker 2: I would stop short of saying I'm lucky, because I
Speaker 2: really work my butt off to get where I am
Speaker 2: and I continue to. But I do feel very, very
Speaker 2: fortunate to look forward to going to work every single
Speaker 2: Day's I feel like not everyone gets to experience that.
Speaker 2: So it's a really great place to be. But you're
Speaker 2: a nerd too. You were wearing an Ultraman Rising T shirt.
Speaker 2: You have a Rebel Alliance necklace. You know, where does
Speaker 2: it come from you? Personally? What is it you like
Speaker 2: to see? I like to be you know, when it
Speaker 2: comes to seeing movies, I like to be immersed in
Speaker 2: a movie.
Speaker 3: I like to forget I'm watching a movie. That's how
Speaker 3: I know I'm watching a really good movie. If it's
Speaker 3: if I'm not thinking about the costumes and the sets
Speaker 3: and all the things that I deal with behind the
Speaker 3: scenes and my colleagues deal with behind the scenes, then
Speaker 3: I know it's a good story.
Speaker 2: I know for me, when I'm listening to the radio,
Speaker 2: it's hard for me to not listen to it. As
Speaker 2: a radio professional, do you struggle with watching movies and
Speaker 2: not noticing the subtleties around the edges?
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 3: It takes a lot of attention to detail to do
Speaker 3: the kind of work that we do, and I've delved
Speaker 3: into directing in more recent years, which is really overseeing
Speaker 3: every department. So when i'm I look for all the
Speaker 3: things that could be wrong, because that's what I do
Speaker 3: day in and day out. I'm looking for what is wrong,
Speaker 3: what is wrong so I could fix it and make
Speaker 3: sure that that doesn't end up in the final result.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: So if there's something wrong in a movie, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: spot it.
Speaker 1: It'll take me out of the movie.
Speaker 3: And that's a bummer because I do go see things
Speaker 3: that I really want to enjoy.
Speaker 2: Special effects Legend. Fon Davis joins us in studio. He's
Speaker 2: Fon co creator and create excuse me, Fon co founder
Speaker 2: and creative director.
Speaker 1: He's joining us for two reasons.
Speaker 2: He has a new educational series on technology and fabrication
Speaker 2: with the Stan Winston School, and also a new program
Speaker 2: called Lego Bot Battles, And I can't wait to ask
Speaker 2: him about that as well, because I know when you
Speaker 2: are a judge on BattleBots, I just know all the
Speaker 2: fun that you had with that, so I assume this
Speaker 2: is going to be more of that fun. More with
Speaker 2: Fon Davis in just a moment, Later with Moe Kelly
Speaker 2: caff I AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Fon Davis joins me in studio special Effects, Wizard and Legend.
Speaker 2: He's very humble. He probably wouldn't want me saying that,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to say it anyway. He has more
Speaker 2: than three decades in the business special effects in various
Speaker 2: positions and art departments on all of the top movies
Speaker 2: across genres, and he's probably working on movies city. He
Speaker 2: always teases me that he's working on movies city he
Speaker 2: can't tell me about right now? Are you working on
Speaker 2: movies right now that you can't tell me about?
Speaker 1: Yes? See, but but I do.
Speaker 3: There's I can talk about fly Me to the Moon
Speaker 3: that's coming out now that now that's out now. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we did the astronaut suits for that movie.
Speaker 2: How involved was that? Trying to be as accurate as possible?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: It was. It was so many layers. The Ryan Nagatta
Speaker 3: came to us with the project. He needed help with
Speaker 3: it because he is an expert in making replica space suits,
Speaker 3: multiple different types. I've done all the research about NASA's
Speaker 3: history and the hardware and everything. He's gone to visit NASA,
Speaker 3: so he was He's probably the foremost expert in NASA
Speaker 3: space suits outside of the Space program.
Speaker 1: And he was the worst pretty legit. Yeah. So we
Speaker 1: worked very very closely with him.
Speaker 3: He would make sure that everything was accurate and everything
Speaker 3: was perfect for the movie.
Speaker 1: Do you ever slip up every now and then?
Speaker 2: Because I know you have to sign an NDA every
Speaker 2: single day, do you ever just slip up and say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: this happened today on the set.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I forgot I was supposed to say that.
Speaker 3: No, no, that would never happen. No, yeah, I've never
Speaker 3: slipped because it is so ingrained in our culture to
Speaker 3: keep h you know, it's it's you know, even like
Speaker 3: when like the most extreme example I could think of
Speaker 3: when we work with Apple and you're working on commercial.
Speaker 2: So we said that because the music we played at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the segment was used in the Apple commercial.
Speaker 3: Oh right on, yeah, yeah, yeah, So so working for Apple,
Speaker 3: they're they're the most extreme. Like when if you're doing
Speaker 3: a commercial for say a new iPad, you would call
Speaker 3: it the device on set. You would never refer to
Speaker 3: it by its name, so that when you go out
Speaker 3: to lunch, if someone is eavedropping on your conversation, you
Speaker 3: don't slip and say anything about the device. You would
Speaker 3: just other than the device device, so you just talk
Speaker 3: about the device all the time. And and you know,
Speaker 3: so that's the extreme that will go to. You know,
Speaker 3: we have code names for movies, you know, so, and
Speaker 3: I'm sure you've heard about that.
Speaker 1: I know that.
Speaker 2: I though usually the script will have a faux name,
Speaker 2: faux a fake name. Yeah, is that something that you
Speaker 2: just adopt then as on the crew. Uh.
Speaker 3: Usually the production company will assign one and then and
Speaker 3: then that's the way you refer to it from there forward.
Speaker 2: Do you remember any of them? Like the Matrix, you
Speaker 2: remember what that was called? I don't remember the I
Speaker 2: think it was burly Man. And then uh, oh man,
Speaker 2: I think one of the star treks was called the Corporation.
Speaker 3: You know, there there are names that would you would
Speaker 3: never connect, and a lot of times there were there
Speaker 3: names or words that could mean a great many things,
Speaker 3: so you just would never you'd never be able to
Speaker 3: guess it. It's very smart.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 2: One thing I love about what I do is I
Speaker 2: get the opportunity to talk to people like you, and
Speaker 2: they have this this uh, this treasure trove of stories
Speaker 2: and moments in their career which you may think nothing of,
Speaker 2: but it may fascinate me or anyone listening. Is there
Speaker 2: a particular moment which sticks out in your mind where
Speaker 2: something went very right or very wrong, or you had
Speaker 2: an interaction with an actor and special effects are something
Speaker 2: that would.
Speaker 1: Probably blow people's minds.
Speaker 3: Oh man, there are so many unfair Yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: it's fine, it's fine. The one that I've been thinking
Speaker 3: about recently. I don't know how remarkable this is, but
Speaker 3: it's just kind of fun trivia. Uh is the is
Speaker 3: because core Line just hit its fifteenth anniversary and Henry
Speaker 3: Sealet got the band back together. We made core Line
Speaker 3: up at like US Studios in Portland, Oregon, and I
Speaker 3: was in the art department. My job was to design
Speaker 3: a great number of the miniature sets for that movie.
Speaker 3: And one of the tasks I had was designing the portal,
Speaker 3: which was a very important element of the movie. And
Speaker 3: I just had one drawing of the portal that was
Speaker 3: a bunch of colored swirls to create this tube. And
Speaker 3: I was trying to figure out how I can manifest
Speaker 3: that into something physical, and I built a phone core
Speaker 3: box in my office with a hole in it, and
Speaker 3: I would test different materials to kind of mock up
Speaker 3: what that portal could look like and everything, you know, Henry,
Speaker 3: and then I would show it to Henry the director,
Speaker 3: and everything either looked gross or too organic, or too
Speaker 3: mechanical or too fabric like. It was just everything didn't
Speaker 3: have the right kind of ambiguous magic ice field. And
Speaker 3: so what I ended up doing was I wound some
Speaker 3: wire kind of in two transposing directions spiralink and attached
Speaker 3: it together and then sprayed it with a spiderweb gun,
Speaker 3: which is just hot glue. Because I was looking at
Speaker 3: the drawing and it was all swirly, so I just
Speaker 3: tried to achieve that in three D with sprayed.
Speaker 1: Practical effects though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the portal in the movie is is actually
Speaker 2: just hot glue, wow.
Speaker 1: Sprayed on the wire.
Speaker 3: It was the simplest solution in the end, but it
Speaker 3: took about nine months, I think, to arrive at that.
Speaker 3: Luckily we had the time, but it took me about
Speaker 3: nine months to land on something that looked good.
Speaker 1: And it was it was hot glue.
Speaker 2: Well, that is a perfect lead in when we come back,
Speaker 2: let's get into this new educational series on technology and
Speaker 2: fabrication with the Stan Winston School, and then also talk
Speaker 2: about this new program called Lego Bot Battles.
Speaker 1: Sounds great. It's Later with mo Kelly.
Speaker 2: My guest in studio is special effects wizard Fawn Davis,
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: We're live everywhere the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: My guest in studio is Fawn Davis, special effects wizard
Speaker 2: and legend. I'm talking about movies like Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quests,
Speaker 2: Pearl Harbor, worked on Star Wars series, Terminator, Mission Impossible, Jet,
Speaker 2: Jurassic Park, so many movies, so much history, so much expertise,
Speaker 2: and he's putting it all together. Faughn, you have a
Speaker 2: new educational series on technology, Yes, and fabrication with the
Speaker 2: stan Winston School. First tell me about the stan Winston
Speaker 2: School and then tell me about this series.
Speaker 3: So the stan Winston School is dedicated to the memory
Speaker 3: of Stan Winston, who's got a very very rich history
Speaker 3: of doing special effects for movies. His family, his children
Speaker 3: have put it together. And what they've done is they've
Speaker 3: the like the greatest minds in motion picture special effects
Speaker 3: and design and created this school where these professionals that
Speaker 3: have been in the industry for decades are sharing their knowledge.
Speaker 1: In these lessons.
Speaker 3: So it's it's pretty mind blowing when you see the
Speaker 3: If you go to the website stan Winston School dot
Speaker 3: com and you see the instructors, they all have these
Speaker 3: resumes very similar to mine, just lots and lots of
Speaker 3: big feature films, very successful careers and all willing to
Speaker 3: share the magic, the secret things that we do.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the case probably back in the day.
Speaker 2: Not only was there not the educational resource, I get
Speaker 2: the sense that people probably weren't as free with the information. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there was what we called trade secrets, right right, right, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like things have shifted.
Speaker 3: You know, the Internet has changed a lot in the world,
Speaker 3: and I think one of the really positive things is
Speaker 3: the Internet is connected people in a way that it's
Speaker 3: more of a community of artists and you know, uh,
Speaker 3: I think that you know, it's it's considered shameful to
Speaker 3: hang on to trade secrets. Now it's really our duty
Speaker 3: to pass these things on and to share this information,
Speaker 3: so for one, so it can continue past our generation,
Speaker 3: but also just to inspire people in different ways to
Speaker 3: get creative.
Speaker 2: You said Stan Winston's School dot com. Correct, Yes, who
Speaker 2: can be part of it? How can they get it?
Speaker 2: Give us some more information.
Speaker 1: Anyone can subscribe.
Speaker 3: They have deals all the time, discounts and things like
Speaker 3: that if you look for them and you just basically
Speaker 3: you subscribe to it and you have access to all
Speaker 3: the lessons on the website.
Speaker 2: It's all that rich history, tradition, knowledge, wisdom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's it's animatronics, it's stop motion, it's sculpting,
Speaker 3: it's to make an eyeball, it's you know, it's like wow,
Speaker 3: it's that in depth.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's very very in depth.
Speaker 3: And it's and it's all professionals, you know, in front
Speaker 3: of the camera talking to you as if they're across
Speaker 3: the table from you. So it's a very personal way
Speaker 3: to get the information as well.
Speaker 2: How do you think you mentioned iPhone, let's call it
Speaker 2: the device. How do you think these devices have changed,
Speaker 2: impacted or influenced what you do? We can, well, people
Speaker 2: can film a movie, not film, but record a movie
Speaker 2: on an iPhone tomorrow and with a sophisticated editing software
Speaker 2: it could be passable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in a large degree.
Speaker 2: How is that the technology advancement impacted what you do?
Speaker 1: Oh man? At every single level.
Speaker 3: Technology has to improved the quality of our work, sped
Speaker 3: up the you know, the efficiency at which we can
Speaker 3: do the work, and made it more accessible to indie
Speaker 3: filmmakers and younger people.
Speaker 1: You know, it used to.
Speaker 3: Be that just just to get film and develop it
Speaker 3: was the bar to entry for making a movie, and
Speaker 3: it was so prohibitively expensive for most people that you
Speaker 3: did not have people making content, and now there's a
Speaker 3: multitude of ways you can create content and express yourself. Uh,
Speaker 3: and there are multiple uh, you know, mediums for distributing that.
Speaker 3: So it's it's it's really blown the lid right off
Speaker 3: the industry in that way.
Speaker 2: You and I have known each other for a number
Speaker 2: of years, but I was more tickled than anything to
Speaker 2: see you be a part of the television show BattleBots,
Speaker 2: which I had watched since its very first show. It's bumped,
Speaker 2: it's jumped around on networks over the years, but I've
Speaker 2: always loved BattleBots.
Speaker 1: I look forward to it like the fall football season.
Speaker 2: So you got to actually see when I was competing, correct,
Speaker 2: And that leads me into the next part of our conversation.
Speaker 2: When I see that you have a new program called
Speaker 2: Lego Bought Battles with the Grant Imaharas Theme Foundation.
Speaker 1: Let me just get out of the way so you
Speaker 1: can tell us about that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, when Grant Imahara passed away, a group of friends
Speaker 3: and his mother created the Grand imahar Steam Foundation. There's
Speaker 3: been a lot of really really generous donations to the foundation,
Speaker 3: and we've launched many programs. The two newest is actually
Speaker 3: Lego Bought Battles, which is probably the most exciting, and
Speaker 3: then steam Star, which is another it's a way to
Speaker 3: connect uh young kids with uh steam education to get
Speaker 3: them excited about careers in you know, engineering and different
Speaker 3: areas of that different I guess fields that use steam
Speaker 3: science and technical yeah exactly, Yeah, but also you know creativity.
Speaker 3: You know that the difference between stem and steam you
Speaker 3: know is is uh the in between exactly. And this
Speaker 3: is all inspired by what Grant Imahara was uh uh
Speaker 3: interested in doing and what he did with his life,
Speaker 3: you know. So Battle of course one of those things
Speaker 3: that he and I had done together. And this was
Speaker 3: actually the brainchild of Michael Pearl, the president of the
Speaker 3: Grand Imaharsteam Foundation, And it's a program that basically kids
Speaker 3: can get kits and they started one hundred to two
Speaker 3: hundred dollars and build these robots out of Lego and
Speaker 3: control them just like you would a video game with
Speaker 3: a game controller, and they can compete. And part of
Speaker 3: what the Grand Imoharsteam Foundation is doing is sponsoring a
Speaker 3: lot of the kids that can maybe afford to get
Speaker 3: those kids. So if someone wanted to go to Grandemohara
Speaker 3: Foundation dot org and donate one hundred dollars or two
Speaker 3: hundred dollars. They can actually specify that they want to
Speaker 3: buy a bot kit for students, you know. So it's
Speaker 3: it's a really great program. It's a great way to
Speaker 3: get young kids.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: We focus on historically underserved communities, but I feel like
Speaker 3: they this particular program and other ones like it, really
Speaker 3: are farther reaching than that. That is our focus, and
Speaker 3: that's what we're going to be doing with the donations.
Speaker 3: But but I do feel like it's going to reach
Speaker 3: a lot more young people, you know, because the idea
Speaker 3: is to just get young people excited about steam and
Speaker 3: the different elements of steam and how you can you know,
Speaker 3: get your dream job, you know, u utilizing that that
Speaker 3: interest in that education.
Speaker 2: I'm envious of young people today, not just kids, but
Speaker 2: just young professionals because they have these tools, they have
Speaker 2: these these uh vats of information. Where while I was
Speaker 2: coming out of college, I wanted to work in the
Speaker 2: music industry and there was really no resource.
Speaker 1: There was no class to take, there was no school
Speaker 1: to go to.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like you tried to hunt for an
Speaker 2: internship and make your way from there.
Speaker 1: There was no roadmap or blueprint.
Speaker 2: Now, if you can envision a career that you'd like
Speaker 2: to work in, there's probably something a resource which is
Speaker 2: available for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm really proud to be a part of this kind
Speaker 3: of program and there are a lot of them, and
Speaker 3: definitely not something that you and I had as children, No,
Speaker 3: not at all, especially as a minority growing up in America.
Speaker 3: It's like, and if you're not in one of these
Speaker 3: neighborhoods that has the better public schools that could afford
Speaker 3: the good programs and things like that, you were really disadvantaged.
Speaker 1: You know, well, there was a cost of entry. Put
Speaker 1: it that way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, and that's one of the things that
Speaker 3: we're trying to eliminate.
Speaker 2: When we come back, I want to finish the hour
Speaker 2: with you because I want to just pick your brain
Speaker 2: just a little bit more, get into some of the stories,
Speaker 2: the experiences, some of the wisdom that you can impart
Speaker 2: because I know someone is listening who wants to be
Speaker 2: the next Fond Davis, and I want to make sure
Speaker 2: that we do our part to make that happen.
Speaker 4: You're listening to later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Fawn Davis closes out the show with Me in studio
Speaker 2: with me one of the legends in I would say
Speaker 2: special effects, visual effects, practical effects, and find I was
Speaker 2: prepping you during the break, I was curious if there
Speaker 2: were any moments which stick out in your career, maybe
Speaker 2: when I don't know, that time when Tom Cruise punched
Speaker 2: you or something like that.
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, I'm kidding, No, he doesn't punch hert No,
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. No.
Speaker 3: Actually, it's so funny because I was racking my brain
Speaker 3: trying to think of like, because we work really really
Speaker 3: hard and we test things. We test just redundantly until
Speaker 3: we know what when you show up on stage. You know,
Speaker 3: I always tell a story about a toothpick. A toothpick
Speaker 3: in the normal world is worth a fraction of a penny.
Speaker 3: But if you forget to bring that toothpick to set,
Speaker 3: it could be ten thousand dollars to send someone to
Speaker 3: the store because everyone is going to be very money. Well, yeah,
Speaker 3: because basically, what you go the way you got to
Speaker 3: think about it, or the way you have to think
Speaker 3: about it is if you send a pa to go
Speaker 3: to the store to buy a box of toothpicks because
Speaker 3: Tom Cruise needed one in his teeth for a shot.
Speaker 1: You forgot that toothpick.
Speaker 2: Now, the entire film crew, all the camera gear, the stage,
Speaker 2: everything that's being rented, you're burning like ten thousand dollars
Speaker 2: a minute. So if it takes someone ten minutes to
Speaker 2: go get a toothpick, you've now burned one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: That's becomes the most expensive toothpick ever. So the stakes
Speaker 2: are high.
Speaker 1: All right. Did you ever work with ILM? Yes? Yeah,
Speaker 1: ten years? Okay, for ten years. Not everything could have
Speaker 1: gone right all the time.
Speaker 3: I do have a well it didn't, but there were
Speaker 3: really minor things because again the stakes were high. Working
Speaker 3: at ILM at that time was like working on the
Speaker 3: Golden Gate Bridge.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Industrial lights, magic Lucas, go ahead, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I can't assume everyone knows sure.
Speaker 3: So you know, when you were working on the Golden
Speaker 3: Gate Bridge during the depression, you could see everyone at
Speaker 3: the bay to the bridge who would take your job
Speaker 3: if you messed up. And that's what it felt like
Speaker 3: to work there. Seventy five percent of the visual effects
Speaker 3: work in the entire world was being done at ILM
Speaker 3: at the time, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I would.
Speaker 3: I have a whole a technique that I call failing
Speaker 3: in private, And what that means is if I was
Speaker 3: assigned to do a task and I hadn't done it before,
Speaker 3: I would actually go home in my home studio and
Speaker 3: I would practice it so I could show up to
Speaker 3: work and look like a pro.
Speaker 2: So I'd fail in private. I was not afraid of failure.
Speaker 2: I just kept it to myself. How much time are
Speaker 2: you spending with directors? How much how much of a
Speaker 2: relationship do you personally develop with him or her?
Speaker 3: A lot of times on you know, it really depends
Speaker 3: on the project. I would say. When I was at ILM,
Speaker 3: there was very little interaction with directors except for George
Speaker 3: Lucas because he owned the company and he would just
Speaker 3: be around and he like, say.
Speaker 1: So cavalierly George looking just having me around. You know,
Speaker 1: he's kind of a legend in this business.
Speaker 3: When you work there, he's the owner of the company,
Speaker 3: so you know he would be around. He liked to
Speaker 3: be involved in things, he liked to see progress, so
Speaker 3: you would you would uh interact with him, but you know,
Speaker 3: I would say the later I get my career, and
Speaker 3: the more high high level, the more kind of pre
Speaker 3: production work that I do planning for movies, the more
Speaker 3: interaction I have with directors.
Speaker 2: You know, so it really depends on the project. Okay,
Speaker 2: let me just ask you. Yes, no, because I know
Speaker 2: you can't do specifics. Uh, Marvel movies in your bag? Yes,
Speaker 2: d C movies in your bag. No, you haven't done
Speaker 2: a DC movie?
Speaker 1: No? Interesting, Yeah it is.
Speaker 3: It's funny because I have a toy habit, so I
Speaker 3: buy toys and I what I used to do is
Speaker 3: I'd limit myself to only franchises that I've worked on.
Speaker 3: But now I've worked on so many franchises and you
Speaker 3: just happen to pick one of.
Speaker 1: Four that a really big franchise.
Speaker 3: D I have not worked on anything having to do
Speaker 3: with the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, you know.
Speaker 2: But that's about it, though the big franchises you've done Transformers, right, yeah, okay, Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know what breaks my heart is I actually haven't
Speaker 3: had a chance to work on any Tron projects.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: See, I'm a huge Tron fan, and these guys in
Speaker 2: the studio don't appreciate Tron like I do.
Speaker 1: It's a special effects dream. Yes, well it's just beautiful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's visually it's beautifully beautiful.
Speaker 3: It's stunning. I would love to I'm just putting that
Speaker 3: out in the universe. I would love to wat.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know some folks over at Disney I'm
Speaker 2: guessing yeah, but it's it's a very, very large company.
Speaker 3: You know, there's no one I can call and say, hey,
Speaker 3: hook me up? Can you like cant you like call
Speaker 3: George Lucas?
Speaker 2: I know he sold Star Wars, but I'm quite sure
Speaker 2: he knows like.
Speaker 1: Kathleen Kennedy or somebody over there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I've I've done work with Kathleen Kennedy,
Speaker 3: but I don't think I would.
Speaker 2: I would feel say no more. I don't want to
Speaker 2: get you in trouble. I would not feel comfortable calling.
Speaker 2: And also, like, if you want to call in a
Speaker 2: favor to someone that big in the industry, I feel
Speaker 2: like it should be bigger than hey, can you get
Speaker 2: me a job? No, but look, you have a lot
Speaker 2: of history in this business. It wouldn't be hey, could
Speaker 2: you get me a job? It's like, look, I know
Speaker 2: the getting ready to do tron aries, Tron three, I
Speaker 2: want in Yeah, well I think I yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think I'd go straight to the top with
Speaker 2: that request. And I'm working on it.
Speaker 3: I am, I'm asking around, but I like to just
Speaker 3: state it because I was at a convention once and
Speaker 3: they asked someone in the audience asked during a panel,
Speaker 3: what franchise haven't you worked on that you really wanted to?
Speaker 3: And I said Godzilla and no joke. Within three weeks,
Speaker 3: I got a call okay, wait, and I got to
Speaker 3: work on Godzilla here on caf I.
Speaker 2: Okay, because I know at least one hundred thousand people
Speaker 2: are listening ca IF I can be heard in fourteen
Speaker 2: different states terrestrially at night. It's the number one stream
Speaker 2: station on iHeartRadio app. I know someone's listening right now.
Speaker 2: Who can make this tron dream happen? Who's gonna speak
Speaker 2: it into existence? Von Davis Tron?
Speaker 1: And then I want some.
Speaker 2: Sort of finer speed when it's also oh yeah and
Speaker 2: we're ready.
Speaker 3: I mean, if they do anything like Tron Legacy. We
Speaker 3: just did costumes for a band called Living Tombstone that's
Speaker 3: on tour across the United States right now.
Speaker 1: Look it up.
Speaker 3: Their costumes illuminate in different colors, and we've I've I've
Speaker 3: got a proprietary wiring schematic that helps them be able
Speaker 3: to perform do action without breaking the connections. It's actually
Speaker 3: a bigger feat than it sounds like. I want to
Speaker 3: see you ready can do with a with a light cycle?
Speaker 3: Oh man, Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2: Fon Davis, we could do this all night very quickly.
Speaker 2: How can people reach you up? And want to make
Speaker 2: sure that they go uh and find out all this
Speaker 2: great information at the stan Winston School and also the
Speaker 2: grant Imahara Steam Foundation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so stan Winston School dot com if they look
Speaker 3: at Von Davis. I have a seven course lesson that
Speaker 3: is a new chapter will be dropping every six weeks
Speaker 3: and it covers CNC, three D printing, laser cutting, three
Speaker 3: D scanning, every type of technology we use in fabrication today.
Speaker 3: And it starts all the way. It starts from bidding
Speaker 3: all the way through how to budget, how to schedule
Speaker 3: into doing the actual green screen shot, and how it's
Speaker 3: composited in with CG. So it's a very very it's
Speaker 3: the biggest course that the stan Winston School's ever done.
Speaker 3: And then grant Imahara Foundation dot com is where you
Speaker 3: can find out about different programs that the Grand Imahar
Speaker 3: Steam Foundation is involved in, and you can donate to
Speaker 3: to not just buy battle battle kits for kids, but
Speaker 3: you can also donate to the foundation itself and just
Speaker 3: help with the scholarships and the different programs that we're
Speaker 3: doing with them.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And then if you want to just see what I'm
Speaker 3: up to, I'm at faun H Davis.
Speaker 1: That's f O n H d A v I s.
Speaker 3: On all platforms, and then at fun Coast Studios also
Speaker 3: on all platforms.
Speaker 2: Faun I Love You. We gotta go obviously, can't wait
Speaker 2: until we get to do this again. Awesome. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: always a pleasure. Kf I am six forty live everywhere
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