John Bell

In this episode of 8111, we talk with John Bell, a New Jersey native who developed a passion for drawing and cars in his youth. To earn money as a kid, he and his brother sold his car drawings at dragster races. This passion led John to the Art Center's Transportation Design program. After graduating, he joined GM's Advanced Concept Studio in Detroit.

John's career expanded further when he moved to California to work as a conceptual artist at Atari Games. By the late 1980s, he began a twenty-year intermittent tenure at Industrial Light & Magic, where he collaborated on films like "Star Trek IV," "Innerspace," and "Back to the Future II & III," earning an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA. In 1991, he became the Art Director for "Jurassic Park."

Post-Jurassic Park, John explored new avenues at Nike as a Senior Designer, diversifying into footwear, clothing, graphics, and branding. He later returned to Northern California to create concept art for films such as "Men in Black," "Mission Impossible," and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence." His work extended into production design for Dreamworks’ "ANTZ."

John then ventured into video game design at Electronic Arts, contributing to titles like "Freekstyle" and "Dead Space," and freelanced on animated films including "Cars" and "The Penguins of Madagascar."

He later returned to ILM, working on Oscar-winning films "Rango", "Pirates IV" and "The Revenant." John has also collaborated with multiple clients including Nike, BMW, and Samsung. His broad portfolio spans film, gaming, automotive design, product design and advertising, showcasing his remarkable artistic talent. John is awesome and it was a real pleasure catching up with him and hearing his inspiring story.

https://www.johnbell.studio/

Stephen Rosenbaum

On the latest 8111 I catch up with Stephen Rosenbaum!!! Stephen grew up in Los Angeles and always loved building things. As the youngest of three he thought he'd likely follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor. But in 1977 he saw Star Wars and the seed was planted. While attending Berkeley he enrolled in the College of Environmental Design and began working in the nascent field of computer graphics. 

Stephen decided to stay in Northern California after college and landed a dream job as the first TA (Technical Assistant) at Industrial Light and Magic in 1989. Under the guidance of Doug Kay and George Joblove he honed his skills, developing software tools and scripts for managing files. The team was small and the opportunities were omnipresent. 

In those early days Stephen shared an office with John Knoll and they worked together to present some of the first digital composites. With the successes of The Abyss, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park (among others) Stephen became the Computer Graphics Supervisor on Forrest Gump. In 1995 he won the VFX Oscar alongside Ken Ralston and George Murphy. 

When Ken Ralston left ILM for Sony Imageworks, Stephen joined his mentor and began working as a Visual Effects Supervisor on Contact. Stephen list of credits is impressive; Indian in the Cupboard, I Robot, The Waterhorse, Avatar,  and he's been nominated for the VFX Oscar three times. 

Most recently Stephen served as the Visual Effects Supervisor on the impressive Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air. It was great fun to catch up with Stephen and to hear about his amazing journey. I cannot wait to see what he works on next. 

John Knoll and Stephen Rosenbaum at ILM in the late 80’s or very early 90’s.

Classic Cinefex photo from Jurassic. Stephen at the computer, Stefen Fangmeier pointing, and Dennis Muren supervising.

© Matt Wallin. All rights reserved.