Transcript AAF_HM_S1E3_Jason

Jason: [00:00:00] If I went from Scenic to doing Ripley's to then I was just strictly sculpting foam to now, um, painting and making props for the circus. So it's stuff I never thought I'd be doing.

Malaika: Welcome to Happy Medium, a podcast where artists make art on the spot. While creating art with host Me Malaika Hollist, we chat on topics like the days of doodling in their diary, how self-love gave them confidence, or on building a successful art career using only old boxes. This podcast made by W U S F Public Media is about one's journey to finding self through a creative medium.

Malaika: Jason was clear in his pursuits. He knew he liked art, saw his talent in it, and followed that passion. Along the way, he honed his craft as a student at [00:01:00] horror makeup icon, Tom Savini school for makeup and special effects in Pennsylvania. Jason also worked to help create Disney's Star Wars land, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

Malaika: In this episode, we chat about the art of special effects and how believing and taking a chance on yourself can lead you right where you want to be.

Jason: Hello, I'm Jason Smith. I'm an artist for Felt Entertainment, um, and a special effects artist, uh, by trade.

Malaika: So thanks for being here with us today.

Jason: Of course,

Malaika: We're painting by numbers today, everyone, and we are making a fruit ensemble, I'll call it.

Malaika: And here it is. The issue we're having, which we've been having during the season, is we don't have the right colors for this fruit. It was an accident by the store. We will not say the store, but um, we're working through it. So you said you do special effects. Mm-hmm. So how did you get involved in that and what gravitated you towards that in the first place?

Jason: Um, so I, I, uh, went to school for that [00:02:00] in, uh, Pittsburgh, outside Pittsburgh at, um, Tom Savini. Uh, he has special effects school out

there. Okay. Um, so I, I was working just normal jobs in Ohio and I've always been artistic and doing stuff on my own. Mm-hmm. Um, so I decided to try my hand at, uh, doing that for a career. Um, so I moved out to Pittsburgh to Okay. To do that and pursue that.

Malaika: So what do you think, what about, you know, special effects do you think you like, like why, why do you think that was the thing you were into?

Jason: Um, I think it's 'cause I grew up watching, um, star Wars nonstop, uh, and, and, and other sci-fi films, um, especially Star Wars and, uh, I've always just liked the, the creatures and, and costumes and, um, how they can make something real that didn't exist before.

Jason: Yeah, yeah. Um, so I've just been super fascinated with all that kind of work. Uh oh, [00:03:00] okay. Since I was a kid.

Malaika: Off topic, but I just recently watched Star Wars for the first time, like in the past two months. I watched all the first, the first six. At least. Okay. And now I feel, I feel, I feel so much more a part of society.

Malaika: I didn't realize how much I was missing. And I'm, I'm in on all the jokes now. How would you describe special effects?

Jason: Um, I guess there's a ton of different avenues. There's, uh, you know, some people do. Um, prosthetics and makeups. Mm-hmm. Um, which could be, um, as simple as like an old age makeup, um, for a commercial.

Jason: For a movie. Yeah. Um, there's, um, creature effects, so you're making, um, creatures and, and, you know, bust and displays. Yeah. Um, so it, it kind of depends on what the, the, uh, movie or show or whatever calls for, which is nice 'cause. You're never doing the same thing. Right. Um, twice, rarely. Um, so that makes it fun for me.

Jason: I [00:04:00] like, I get, I get bored quickly, so I like to have things change up. Constantly changing. Yeah. Always something new.

Malaika: Um, and being challenged probably. Mm-hmm. Because you're not making the same thing twice, really, ever.

Jason: Exactly. Yeah. It's something, something new to. You know, put your mind to every day. Um, which is great.

Malaika: So you've been doing art, I assume, for a long time. What kind of art were you into when you were a teenager?

Jason: Um, I used to, uh, I painted a bit more when I was younger. Um, Like elementary school, we had painting classes. Yeah. And, uh, you know, simple elementary school stuff. But it was fun and, um, I excelled at it.

Jason: Uh, I had a, I had a painting in a art gallery at our local, um, college. I. Um, when I was like eight years old and I just made stuff just, it was like a table. Yeah. With a vase and flowers, and I put like, zebra stripes and tiger. So my mom likes zebras and tigers, so I just went off of what I knew and, um, [00:05:00] it, you know, the teacher really liked it and showed her friends and, um, so then I, I painted.

Jason: A, a little bit, um mm-hmm. But in my teenage years, I got more into sculpting, um, with clays. Mm-hmm. And, uh, so I did a bunch of art classes in high school, was pretty much, um, all art classes. All art classes. Yeah. My senior year,

Malaika: We hope you are enjoying Happy Medium. Our podcast is made in collaboration with W U S F Public Media, Arts Axis Florida and the N P R Network. Arts Axis Florida is your online destination for finding content on all things are going on in your area. Go to Arts Axis, that's A X I S florida.org to learn more and find all Happy Medium podcast episodes.

Malaika: You went to school for graphic arts, so tell us a [00:06:00] little bit about that. You graduated and you decided you wanted to go to school for that? How did you make that decision and what was it like? Like what did you learn?

Jason: Um, school was awesome. If you're an artist and you're always hanging out with art students or you're a football player, you're always hanging out with other people.

Jason: Passionate. You know, it just really makes it, um, it just

Malaika: feeds into it. Yeah. In the best

Jason: way. So that was great. 'cause we were in this town called Monessen, Pennsylvania, and it's about 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. Mm-hmm. And there's nothing there. It used to be a booming like, you know, iron work town, and now there's nothing but the school and like a subway.

Jason: Um, so you had, it was just like you hung out and you did art. And, um, if you really wanted to get out of doing art, you could drive into a town.

Malaika: That sounds kind of like a nice little bubble to be in for a few years.

Jason: It, it was, and the instructors were great and you learned a lot and. Um, they had a lot of friends from the industry come in.

Jason: Um, 'cause it, you know, Tom Savini, he is like the godfather of horror and [00:07:00] stuff, so he, okay. He'd show up and he'd have friends and, Um, people from Los Angeles come in, um, and, um, kind of give you real world, uh, expectations of where you're going with Yeah. With this career path and that kind of stuff. What were some of your courses like?

Jason: Yeah, we had a bunch of, we had, you know, regular sculpting, um, but there was beauty makeup as well if you were into that. Uh, my favorite was, was, um, page to screen where we took, um, a concept and we went from start to finish of making a full like student film. Um, okay. So it was like, what are we gonna do?

Jason: And we ended up doing a, a, a giant robot versus like a monster attacking a city. Okay. Um, so then it was, alright, we need a model crew to make little model, um, And sets. Mm-hmm. We need a monster crew to make a monster. We need a robot crew to make a robot's, uh oh wow. Suit this like me suit. That was just a guy of suit, but it, [00:08:00] it, it looked good, you know?

Jason: And, um, but it was awesome 'cause then you see, you know, start to finish how it's gonna be on a movie set or wherever you go, commercials. Um, so that was a lot of fun. 'cause then you're, it was just hanging out, it felt like, yeah. You were, you were doing. Your career already.

Malaika: Um, so you, so you came up with the concept, figured out how to make it, and then you made it as well?

Jason: Yeah. Made it and then, um, for like a whole semester. Yeah, it was a whole semester. Mm. And that was so cool. Was that was definitely my favorite. Um, 'cause it put everything into the other thing was it put every. Other, uh, class into that workshop. So yeah, we had a mold making class. Mm-hmm. Um, well now we need to do molds for this.

Jason: So you're taking those experiences and those skills from the other classes and putting it and seeing how it works in the big picture with. With the,

with everything, you can definitely, you know, go on YouTube and learn stuff. Sure. Right. But to have the experience of being there, um, [00:09:00] you don't have, you know, our, the director Jerry Gergely, he, um, he worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer back in the day.

Jason: Uhhuh. He's Uhhuh. Done a ton of stuff in the late eighties, nineties. Um, you don't have him in your basement Right. When you're working on stuff, you know, and giving pointers and advice and, uh, it's to be in the environment is really what, what set it apart for sure.

Malaika: Right. You've worked at Ripley's, you've worked at Star Wars World. Mm-hmm. Um, can you tell us a little bit about that, those experiences and what were the most exciting and challenging parts of working in those environments?

Jason: Yeah. Um, Yeah, so I did, uh, right outta school. I, um, was like, well, Los Angeles is not for me in that kind of hustle bustle. Yeah. So I, I, I moved down here.

Jason: There's the theme parks down here. So I did a lot of stuff for Disney. Um, back in 2016, we had Avatar World opening up. We had, uh, toy Storyland coming up. Uh, Star Wars obviously mm-hmm. Was a big one. [00:10:00] Um, Halloween Horror Nights. So, um, it. It was just, it's everyone's competing down here. Okay. So it was a mecca for, for doing that.

Jason: Um, which was great. And then I, yeah, I was able to get into Ripley's, believe it or not, uh, it has their headquarters down here. Um, so I was able to get in, uh, lucky enough to be like one of four. There was four of us artists there. Mm-hmm. Um, making stuff for the museums. All over the country. Um, so it was a nice transition from doing, uh, scenic, uh, you know, big, big facades and props and stuff.

Jason: Yeah. To doing, uh, uh, more mannequins and Okay. And, and displays and, um, more custom stuff that's not, um, as regulated as Disney's stuff. Right. You know, they're very particular about what they,

Malaika: So they were like more detailed?

Jason: Yeah. Yeah. A little more, um, Detail and a little more, um, I guess attention to detail for [00:11:00] doing these closeup mannequin yeah.

Jason: Displays rather than these giant, giant facades.

Malaika: Like when you first started out, was it difficult or was it just like something you enjoyed and figuring out the challenges as you were building?

Jason: Truthfully, if I, if I had went off of being scared mm-hmm. My, the, a couple days before my orientation for school, I was super scared.

Jason: Yeah. And I was like, I called my mom. I was like, I don't know if I can do this. It's, my friends are back home. I miss everything. I know. Yeah. And, um, but then I wouldn't have done anything I've done and now I've made. Star Wars land, and, which is like the coolest thing I've ever done, for sure. Yeah. 'cause that's my like, passion.

Jason: That's your favorite. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's just, there's so much. Um, I wouldn't have gotten to experience if I didn't step out, step outta my comfort zone, zone, just try it out. Mm-hmm. Star Wars world's pretty cool because it's Star Wars, so it's, and there were definitely times where it, it gets stressful and there were times where I.

Jason: We're going to work. And I feel like, oh, I didn't, I don't even wanna look at it today. Don't, yeah. Like, it's [00:12:00] making me, it's never ending. It's making me not love what I love. Yeah. Uh, just 'cause it's stressful and it's, it's always a rush.

Malaika: Your, your work aligns with what you're passionate about. Mm-hmm. Um, what, what helped you to stay focused on kind of following this dream and sticking with special effects and not, you know, Getting distracted by like, oh, I should be doing these certain types of things.

Malaika: You know, sticking with the art world.

Jason: I think it was just, I just knew what I, I wanted to do and what I could do. Um, mm-hmm. I, I could probably go to school and learn to be an accountant if I really, really put my mind to, but I, I wouldn't have enjoyed it. So I guess it was more so what, what do I want to do every day?

Jason: What do I enjoy doing? Even right now, you know, we're, we're building all this, um, Stuff for the circus.

Malaika: Okay. Yeah, that was actually my next question. I was gonna say, okay, what are you, what are you currently working on?

Jason: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So at Feld we, we own, um, Barnum and Bailey Circus. Okay. And, um, we [00:13:00] do Disney on Ice.

Jason: Uh, the Marvel Universe Live a bunch of. A bunch of shows, um, you know, and stuff that travels all over the world. So right now we have a big push with, uh, circuses coming back. Mm-hmm. Um, and, you know, no animals and that kind of stuff. So it's a total re-imagination of re-imagining of the, the original circus style.

Jason: Right. Um, so it's just making a ton of stuff for that. Yeah. Um, painting. With these beautiful bright colors and stuff. Yeah. Um, so again, it, you know, it's stressful, but I'm like, it it's a fun job. Yeah. So it, it could be, you know, could, things could be worse. It could be a lot worse. Yeah.

Malaika: What is some advice that you would give to some, you know, younger teens who wanna get into maybe special effects or they wanna get into art, but they're kind of waffling on whether they think they can do it?

Malaika: What's some advice you would give them?

Jason: Um, I would say, you know, practice, which everyone says, practice what you wanna do. Um, think [00:14:00] about, um, where you want to, um, end up, uh, what you wanna end up doing. Um, yeah, and you can always, and the thing is, the biggest thing I would say is that, um, don't, don't stress about it.

Jason: Like you might get into it and go, I wanna do, I wanna, I wanna paint, I wanna be a painter. Yeah. And you could do that for two or three years and go alright. Well now I wanna sculpt and go and sculpt, you know, switch it up. I went from scenic to doing Ripley's to then I was just strictly sculpting foam. Right.

Jason: Um, to now, um, painting and making props, um, for the circus. So it's like Right. Stuff. I never, all over the board. Yeah. Stuff I never thought I'd be doing.

Malaika: How would you describe yourself today?

Jason: Me from 10 years ago would be amazed by what I'm doing now. Right. Or what I've done. Me today, I would say is definitely grateful that young me took the chance to do this.

Jason: Yeah. Um, 'cause it's been awesome.

Malaika: You today is proud [00:15:00] of young you

Jason: for Yes. Getting in there. Yeah. And then young me. Yeah. I would definitely be proud of who I am today. Um, getting to do all this and see all this stuff. Um. I'll travel to other states and, um, like I got to go to Jamaica to work on stuff.

Malaika: Well, thank you for being on the episode today and guys, we will see you in the, the next one.

Malaika: Thank you for listening to Happy Medium. You can find more info about the guest and other episodes in the show notes below, or go to our website, arts axis florida.org. Thank you to our sponsors, Community Foundation Tampa Bay, building a vibrant, prosperous community through transformative vision, leadership, and philanthropy at cftampabay.org.

Malaika: And the Gobioff Foundation supporting human rights organizations and the Tampa Florida arts community at [00:16:00] gobiofffoundation.org. Lastly, thank you to P R X for consulting on this podcast, the Arts Axis Florida team, and the Florida Department of State Divisions of Arts and Culture for making these episodes possible.

Malaika: Copyright 2023 W U S F. Public media

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