Ask Adam Savage: ILM Hiring Practices and Prop Policies

[@tested]

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[@pudgeboyardee32]

I've worked in a lot of shops but yours would be the one I would wish to work in most. Too few machine shops let guys like me make real art. You live the life we all wish to have. I implore you to share it with as many people as you can, to open your shop to them and show them the way. Nothing has ever made me as happy as creating and solving and many more could share that feeling under your watchful eye, guided by your encouraging voice.

[@J_CtheEngineer]

“It’s pretty clear that you shouldn’t go home with the props, that’s pretty clear. It’s also pretty clear that you should be going through the trash” hahahaha

[@holograMMarXIV]

I reject your reality and substitute my own∵

[@turpskadey]

It's not that contradictory, "don't take the props" but "if a thing is thrown in the trash, yeah, take the trash!"

[@knightsmith8788]

Drinking beer and kicking a foam block around with ILM model makers sounds like the coolest Friday ever...

[@BurkeMakesStuff]

Abso. F&@king. Lutely!

[@kingjames4886]

"this is a long way of saying I might have luke's jedi robe."

[@murrayboyton8779]

Your Mr Bean Avatar is perfect for this comment :D

[@DragonGateDesign]

He said it went back into archives

[@murrayboyton8779]

@@DragonGateDesign you're right he did, I still liked the comment though, it made me smile.

[@TheKungFuCrocodile]

@@DragonGateDesign did it though😁

[@nobon1800]

Hey people at tested.com, thanks for the subtitles ! I love exercising my English by watching Adam speaking about very interesting subjects

[@nobon1800]

@@kruleworld Non I think that it's just that it's kind of quickly made to deal with time schedules. If it was yt algorithm, words would appears one by one and be a loooot more wonky (especially when there's machine noise). There's little mistakes but it's still very good compared to a lot of channels in which there's no subtitles.

[@ieuanhunt552]

I agree with Tom Scott. If a KZbin channel is if certain size they should employ an editor to write closed captions

[@philiphopper4885]

This channel is such a gold mine. I thank Adam so, so much for sharing his knowledge, stories, unbridled opinion, literally anything. Adam is a gift to the internet and a gift to curious and inquisitive minds everywhere. I am so hopeful for the future purely because channels (and humans) like this exist sharing themselves to us for free, from the love of the very thing they are sharing. It's just a beautiful thing to see when it all comes together like this.

[@tangyorange6509]

I’ve been binging all these videos and am loving the daily clips

[@JonatasMonte]

I'm reimagining the Droideka's colors and at a impasse between the gorgeous mesmerizing metal color and a cockroaches' shell.

[@jambay4785]

side note, I want to let you know that you are an inspiration for me to keep crafting. Thank you and all those that you work with to show me how I can improve my work.

[@SierraLimaOscar]

"Metric and Imperial stuff, it all looks like it's the same dimension, but it ain't" - anybody who ever had to adapt one to the other nodding vigorously.

[@AndrewBlack343]

Flashbacks to a very painful 5/32" vs 4mm issue from many years ago. 5/32" is 3.969mm and is close enough that it gets in about four threads before it snaps off.

[@ieuanhunt552]

Remember when a billion dollar satellite crashed because NASA uses Imperial and the European company that made it used metric and someone messed up the conversion.

[@SierraLimaOscar]

@@ieuanhunt552 I'm not sure if that really happened. As far as I know (from diff. articles) NASA only uses metric in their operations for exactly that reason - metric is much more robust when it comes to unit conversions (kilo to mega to mili), and even within metric conversion errors still happen - so imagine the nightmare of doing it in imperial or even worse in a mixed environment. I would really like to hear a knowledgeable confirmation about which units are being used in NASA.

[@douglascampbell9809]

Now imagine working in a factory that uses both at the same time. I'm did it for about 8 years. Blueprints were in metric. Hardware was in both metric and imperial. It was stupid.

[@fionafiona1146]

France had 200+ official measurements before napoleon set a price on standardisation of everything imaginable

[@GrymmsPlace]

Am I the only one that feels that they should be bringing popcorn to any and all of these fascinating reminisces? Love it.

[@SomeRandomPerson]

@4:36 "most of it is drudgery". That's true of pretty much every jobs - there's cool and interesting parts to many(lots?) of jobs, but you've gotta also take the less interesting parts with it.

[@boy638]

Appreciate the unsung hero that is the person who puts English subtitles in all these videos.

[@shiraleeana]

How exactly is Adam’s memory this good? All the detail in all the stories. It’s magical. And also such great narration. Thanks for sharing them all. It’s been amazing.

[@Joseph-C]

I imagine if you were working alongside your own heros for five years you'd remember those days pretty well too.

[@derek-iy6ch]

Funny how it's the opposite of "thats above my pay grade"

[@wobblysauce]

Not many get to be in a situation that is below my paygrade...

[@alexzoin]

Thanks for all the great videos, Adam. It's so appreciated. I feel like I have learned so much from you over the course of my life. Usually don't make comments like this but I usually don't see videos like your's.

[@bhagyesh_adesara6959]

Big fan sir

[@colemiller8832]

Loving the daily videos. I usually wake up at around 7:15 and there will be a new story from the life of Adam savage I get to watch before work

[@tested]

Thanks for the comment! It means a lot. We're trying!

[@rcs368]

Feeling spoiled with all the videos. Thank you so much! Fascinating, entertaining, and informative. That's hard to beat

[@MichaelJirochVisualArtist]

You know, it doesn’t matter what he talks about, because he makes everything he talks interesting.

[@timparsons3565]

10:23 Adam getting "Funky"

[@cosmicrider5898]

Oh thats what he said??

[@lexigold8448]

We need a gif

[@RightOnJonCrane]

Working on R2 is off the charts amazing and I can see the excitement in your face when you talk about it! Right On! 👍😃

[@rickgreer7203]

I'm thinking its this shot: www.starwars.com/video/r2-d2-repairs-royal-starship

[@Joe___R]

I hope you put all your model maker & mith buster stories in a video book some day since one of the best things about your story telling is seeing & hearing how excited you are to tell them & the props you grab are a great adage as well.

[@docbrown7916]

My brother studied film and video in college we're both interested in practical effects and the work needed in movies to make the story work on screen/tv, always cool to hear how it's done and the stuff done, as always, keep up the good work and thanks to all crew who make the magic happen.

[@jublywubly]

A few years ago I was either at OzComicCon or Supanova, in Australia. A costume-maker lady from WETA was doing a Q&A session, when someone asked the same question about film props being thrown away. She said something along the lines of they're so strict that they can't throw out or take home props (even rejected ones) or fabric used in costumes. They can't even take home tiny off-cuts of fabric that wouldn't be useful to anyone.

[@Mr.2E]

This has got to be one of most intriguing episodes. I love hearing stories like this. Thank you for sharing.

[@bflaminio]

When Adam says "most of the work is drudgery, but every now and then you get to do something fun" -- that's basically *every* job.

[@rayvoorhies7180]

I remember the small prop locker for our college theatre. Every item had been carefully assembled based on the script. Two characters share a soda in a scene. The glasses were carefully washed, stored and there were 2 six packs of soda for the weeks run. The prop mastrer was responsible for that scene. He/she checked the prop sheet every evening before the performance. Had every item organized based on the opening scene until the end.

[@nccyr1]

Great question and I very much enjoyed listening to the answer. I didn't know about 32ten studios and I visited their web site for more info, not because I want to work there (although it would be nice) but more because I love to learn about these people and how they create magic.

[@smallshoplasers8785]

I find it amazing how many people have a major problem with metric or imperial. I just run both and have both sets of hardware. Our shop is imperial on the floor, so the last connection on a metric machine is an adaptor fitting to switch it to the nearest imperial connector. We have tags on the machines to indicate which hardware is to be used for repairs, because mixing hardware is intolerable.

[@jakestrickland1323]

YES!!! ANOTHER AWESOME VIDEO FOR US TO LEARN!!!

[@cartechmiller9674]

Hey Adam you've helped inspire me in a lot of ways and I thank you, I'm a fan of alot of your work 🤙

[@JonatasAdoM]

"It went back into the archives"

[@trenthawkins]

I think once any company gets sufficiently large; the value of looking through their trash goes up because (to the company) what they are throwing out are rounding errors. I work at the laborer end of the crop science division of a much larger company; and some of the stuff they throw out would blow the minds of anyone working with strict budgets. Sometimes they decide "we don't want/need this fridge(/steel cabinet/whatever anymore" and if you have a way to transport it? it's yours. One of my coworkers took everything he could for a while - and then sold it on kijiji (eventually they caught on and politely asked him to stop reselling). One time they ordered a whole bunch of wire rolling racks, and after we were done making shelves; we had a whole bunch of corner posts left over.... straight into the dumpster (and annoyingly; we could have used those the following year. but ordering new is cheaper than the storage space... on paper).

[@em30142]

Currently in school for design praying to get work at ILM. :) There's this issue I have about constantly designing on different mediums/platforms and often having to relearn how to code a certain language or sculpt techniques/use programs. It's nice to hear the term generalist used in the industry, feels like that's definitely where I am.

[@rdoetjes]

When I did this indie movie, I came from a Hollywood production and before that commercials and TV. And I was initially sort of lost because this indie director didn’t have an art department and there was no supervisor and so there were no perfect requirements as to what to make. One shot required a “post apocalyptic wasteland oh and no waking dead stuff no cars, no buildings”. But it’s an XMas drama/horror so I created a Snow wasteland but it wasn’t cinematic. But usually this cinematic vision is created by the art director and translate to me by the supervisor. And I felt so lost initially. But then I thought: “why would I need exact specs? You also work as a software freelance, you never get specs you need, you create proof of concepts and show ideas and ask specific questions to get the spec from the customer’s subconscious or collective conscious”. And despite it being a small movie it became the coolest VFX job ever, because the director trusted me and co-worked with me to create our vision. And I miss that freedom and creative spirit now in all other VFX jobs. And majority of the work is cleanup from poor production practices. The amount of times I have to remove a microphone and even whole camera from a shot, is idiotic. Productions have become so short that they don’t even care to do it right in camera because FIX IT IN POST. It’s not really a fun business anymore. And the same thing happened in IT. Back in the early 90s us engineers were the gurus and the company had a question and we would program it and build hardware if needed. In the mid 90s more and more specs came to be limiting creative input. And now it’s more boring conveyor belt work, where you seem to do the exact same things every project but with a different language or OS. And because you’ve basically worked through many iterations before you know what the designers and managers overlook because you had those situations. And always they say: “not applicable here, it makes it too costly, stick to the plan”. And low and behold, those morons do run into that situation and give me my own solution back to implement and think it’s there’s. It’s fucking frustrating. So I have no idea what to do. I’m a bit done with VFX and software/IT has aways been there as well many VFX for me is writing software to make pipelines more efficient. But the reason I went into vfx 11 years ago, because I was fed up with IT. Maybe I should become a composer, music is the only thing I keep coming back to and adore; ironically the only thing I’m not good. I’m just mediocre at best.

[@MayimHastings]

This was so hilarious. The “FOOK FOOK!” part killed me 😂 Thank you, Adam for sharing all of this awesomeness!

[@GuanoLad]

Don Bies went on to work in Sydney Australia on the next episodes, still on droid duty, with my friend Justin, who has similar stories about just trying to figure out how to get Artoo to do stuff.

[@george3660]

did they try yelling at the droid?

[@elsnowblow]

So I recently worked with Don Bies, Micheal Lynch, Mike Jobe, Larry Tan and many others from ILM. And love hearing these stories about them. It's pretty awesome!

[@wsflco]

An old ILM model maker once told me to never build anything that won’t fit in a dumpster. Good advice that I remembered throughout my effects career.

[@Ontheroad13]

I don't know why, but the motion you made while describing R2D2's movement's made me bust out laughing.

[@rbaile508]

LMFAO "on Fridays, we would play a game where we would all stand around in the parking lot drinking beer and kicking around a big chunk of styrene, we called the game block" the fact that this was such a regular occurrence that the game had a name is amazing.

[@MenacingBanjo]

R2 repairing the ship was a scene from Episode I, yes.

[@hullinstruments]

Not sure if you’re into atomic:nuclear history but it would be cool to see you replicate some interesting artifacts from that era. Maybe something like the demon core and bricks/equipment used in those experiments. Or a cutaway of fat man/little boy bomb model… showing all of the inner workings… Something like that would be really cool.

[@TwistedShrapnel]

I've seen the scale panel from the Death Star at Kreysler and Associates. It's a kit bash of fishing rods and stuff! I love it!

[@i_laced_those3928]

Watched on,e of your vids while I was taking a test. And I passed. Don’t know how but I did. It’s a miracle

[@JonatasAdoM]

II is the episode R2 flies. I is the episode he goes outside for a quick walk.

[@sinebar]

Wow! Renshape. That's a material I'm very familiar with. I worked in a model shop as a Mastercam Programmer and made many parts on a CNC milling machine from renshape and ren plastic. I hated that renshape because it was so messy but the ren plastic machined so nice. Now I spend my time at a CAD station creating models for 3D printers.

[@webmonkees]

When I worked prepress and layout, you can bet the cutoffs for that photo-quality proof were filled with tiny arts. Did not get caught, but was too weird for them, twice. I freelance weird now.

[@dr.arnoldibarretajayme812]

Why are you not working for ILM anymore ? Why did you leave ILM ?

[@chamoo232]

Probably because he got the opportunity to do Mythbusters. That show started in 2003. Star Wars Episode 2 came out in 2002.

[@seththetechguy]

Thanks for the advice

[@jeffreylunger]

Why did you have to change over the air hoses? Why not just use metric equipment with adapters where needed? It's not like they're unavailable here.

[@bestcreations4703]

This is helpful even to me as a programmer/engineer I plan on working at nasa and I’ve been building this high tech room mapping ai scale version of the perseverance rover and I’ve been trying to make it look as close as I can while also adjusting for things I need it to do and this video confirms the reasoning I have for building the rover that I’d be demonstrating my ability to take a design and adapt it and work around issues I have but sticking to the material I feel like what you said about what as a supervisor you’re looking for can be applied to many different roles and it just made me happy to know that I’m going down the right path

[@timetravellingbunny3952]

Work on your written communication skills. Find a period or two.

[@RandomStuffGarage619]

Somebody please make Adam going THOOK! THOOK! into a gif lol

[@Jefbracke]

Priceless advice, thank you!

[@NightWolfx03]

I've pondered how much interest there would be if I were to say get my hands on old control panels from machines and things and wire up the indicator lights and things, say to rent or barrow them to out as props.

[@dgenr8s]

great advice for up and coming artists!! emulation shows understanding and ability to make someone else's vision come alive

[@NrdCool]

I'm not a maker but I love these stories.

[@willmfrank]

Round about seven minutes in, Our Mr. Savage mentions a magazine with a photo of himself and Mr. Belleci at work. Just yesterday I was going through my collection of reference material and came across a September 2002 issue of FineScale Modeler magazine, with a Special Report: "Star Wars Episode II Brian Gernand talks about Attack of the Clones" On page 57 there are four photographs. One is captioned ""From left: Aaron Haye, Tom Ehline, and Grant Imahara work on a Dexter's Diner model." Another shows a guy identified as "Steve" Belleci... ...Uh... "Steve" ...?

[@RandomStuffGarage619]

I'm eagerly listening with 110% of my attention. ILM or prop making anywhere or disney imagineer are my dream jobs.

[@scottcampbell96]

All workplaces benefit from a mixture of generalists and specialists, not just model shops. Companies that don’t have generalists can’t adapt and companies without specialists can’t get much work done.

[@brickrelief]

Thanks for the great videos. The stories are fantastic!

[@RandomStuffGarage619]

My problem is, I take too long to finish a project. This goes all the way back to art class as a senior in high school. Mr Disney (yeah I know, no relation) said I have a perfectionist style that keeps me from meeting deadlines. I still have unfinished projects on my bench right now, 23 years later lol

[@chamoo232]

I'm the opposite. I get so excited and want to finish that I sometimes feel disappointed I rushed things and skipped steps that would have made the final result better.

[@BROON71]

It sucks that the ILM shop no longer exists..

[@timetravellingbunny3952]

CGI and 3D printing are making model making skills less marketable.

[@CurtisCrafts]

I've been binging through these ask Adam videos any time I'm sitting uploading my own build videos. Great way to pass time.

[@OrAngeAnArchy]

So, your saying R2-D2 comes in Metric and....Imperial *queue Darth Vader theme* >

[@flick_shot_5625]

i wish model shops were still a thing. it sounds like a dream job for me. i love making things (heck i build so many models i dont have space)

[@RandomStuffGarage619]

Awesome story about the Droidekas. I always thought that was a cool paint job and now I know WHY.

[@CarboniteDreamer]

that was an awesome story and lukes robe really holy cow. officially jealous.

[@Ashmoleon2006]

i remember seeing dvd extras on episode one where they complained about how difficult it was to get R2 to work properly

[@dustingammon9858]

That’s what made grant and the other techs look like magicians, they fit so many little operations and functions, I’m sure the main hero one weighed 300 pounds all together

[@Ashmoleon2006]

@@dustingammon9858 right? it sounds very very complex

[@zhyperzero9586]

Thx for the advice ill stay on your channel

[@karlaelia4275]

Hey there. I know that this comment has nothing to do with what you guys are talking about in this episode but I’ve always wondered about the Walker scene in Empire strikes back where the speeder wraps around the wire and the Walker falls. Would that actually be possible? Isnt the walker be too strong? Does the strength of the wire matter? Or does it matter not the strength of the material but rather how many times have wrapped around? Just some thoughts. Hopefully you can help out. Thanks love the show :-)

[@jordonfreeman166]

Adam, I wanted to give you some information regarding one of the myths you tested on Mythbusters: Talked into landing. For anyone who hasn't seen the episode, the myth was that a plane's pilot and co-pilot are incapacitated, and a passenger is talked into landing the plane by Air Traffic Control. There is a grain of truth to this myth: United Airlines Flight 232 did have a passenger in the cockpit, but he was not flying the plane, he was controlling the controls of the engines, plus the passenger was a DC-10 Instructor, and the plane flying as United Airlines Flight 232 was a DC-10, also the cockpit crew was not incapacitated. This plane still crashed on approach, though a large majority of the passenger survived, and was featured on the Canadian TV show "Mayday" as the episode "Impossible Landing". This shows appears on Smithsonian Channel as "Air Disasters". All the information you need to find out about more about this accident is on the internet and in this TV show on the Smithsonian Channel.

[@GRW3]

These days we refer to it as SAE, not Imperial.

[@epicn]

Adam, you're awesome

[@pocket83squared]

Replication can be one of those skills, like painting, that you're just forced to develop along the way whether you like it or not. It has not been something I've personally enjoyed 100%. When I was a kid, I remember making a retail-quality raccoon Mario, copied meticulously from clay in emulation of the MCD's Happy Meal toy. It didn't satisfy for some weird reason. Of course we're all wired differently, but the satisfaction gained from replicating somebody else's work has not been quite the same as even the smallest success following something I've designed myself. No offense intended to you great modelers out there; I _do_ get it, but my inclination has been to prefer playing with toys that nobody else plays with. Gotta be some kind of selfishness. There is that one thing though-that awesome feeling you get after having seen an object that you want and then making it. As an example, the hidden package Tiki statue in GTA III: I loved the shape, and I wanted one, so took screenshots of it and sculpted it. Maybe the reason the replication feels so right in this case was borne of its lack of physical existence. Though the idea was there, the thing was not yet. But now it is. Ahh, completeness. Some strange impulse, the necessity to make, no?

[@EvilAnarchy]

Wait.. so does that mean theres an archive somewhere where they have like old props or even backup props from movies and tv that might never be seen again? Cuz if so i will sell my book collection and feel the shelves with props..... Seriously though im not on the patreon can someone ask?

[@pjsines4705]

Did a thermal detonator just roll into the shot at the end?

[@SaitoGray]

Nah, it's just a rock.

[@forgotn42]

I really hope Adam wore the robe before he gave it back. lol

[@jeromethiel4323]

All jobs are mostly drudgery. But we do them because we want to get paid. But also for those rare occasions, where we get to be superman. Where you walk into the room, and just solve a problem. Then get to stand with your cape waving in the breeze. THAT's why you love your job. Otherwise, it is just drudgery. Ain't nobody got time for that! ^-^

[@zhyperzero9586]

Big fan sir 😉

[@Doug-89]

I was taking a drink and watching closely at 10:20 to see what he was going to demonstrate, and now I have soda coming out of my nose.

[@RM_VFX]

I'm sure you signed a contract though similar to the one I've signed at every studio I've been (including ILM), stating everything you do at work belongs to them, and you'll return all materials and property to the studio when you leave. That said, I would've been sooo tempted to just quietly put that garbage bag in my backpack... 😈

[@budmartin8297]

Your last line broke me up.

[@radicalxedward8047]

I use metric despite being born and raised in America cause I don’t have to work with other people on anything I make. Now that you have your own shop, how come you don’t just switch to metric?

[@charlie9ine]

Canada is semi metric, I lived and worked in the EU for ten years. Metric is master

[@bsmakes8123]

I've seen that shirt in other videos. Anyone know where to buy it?

[@mythdusterds]

Phantom Menace is where R2-D2 fixes the Queens Silver Starship.

[@rickgreer7203]

I think its this shot: www.starwars.com/video/r2-d2-repairs-royal-starship

[@Harrysreptarium]

IM HERE

[@Syberz]

RIP ILM Model Shop. I didn't know this, now I'm sad... it's the end of an era. :'(

[@jmurphy6011]

I wonder if we will ever get the full story on credit card hacks now that he isn't under contract to Discovery.

[@charlie9ine]

I know I’ve said this before. I really enjoy all of your builds and sharing your experience. I’ve been at this longer than you. I’m not saying we are on the same plane but we probably are in our worlds. Google John Blackford. CGI, Robotics, Music, Man from the future. Believe me you will not regret it

[@Jeerin_]

If the ILM prop shop doesn’t exist anymore then who makes the props for the movies and tv shows?

[@chamoo232]

They still have prop shops but it's not ILM anymore. A lot of things are outsourced as well. I know that the helmets for the transport troopers that we saw Bill Burr and Pedro Pasqual wear in one of the episode of Mandalorian are replicas of Rogue One shore trooper helmets made by a company called Anovos. The Luke/Rey lightsaber we see in the sequel trilogy are Graflex replicas made by Roman Props. There comes a point where it's easier to get the stuff from 3rd party who make replicas and already have molds and expertise than ask the prop shop to build something from scratch.

[@Jeerin_]

@@chamoo232 i saw roman say that he didn't actually make the graflex for the movie, instead it was like a gift that someone ordered for some executives or something along those lines. But that really sucks that they outsource stuff like that

[@timetravellingbunny3952]

Outsourceing and then CGI and 3D printing are making model making skills less needed and less marketable.

[@Jeerin_]

@@timetravellingbunny3952 yea, i know its a dying field. I really wish it wasn't though

[@chamoo232]

@@Jeerin_ For the Ep 7 or 8 I heard they used vintage graflex but for the reforged Rey version of Episode 9 it was 100% identified as a Roman Props by the owner of KR sabers who saw the screen used prop in person. someone also ordered a bulk of Roman's thermal detonators over a year ago and coincidence... a lot of thermal detonators were in that same Mandalorian episode when the pirates try to blow the truck. Better to go the easy way and get replicas for stuff like that so the prop guys can focus on the stuff they can't outsource like the Grogu puppet. That thing supposedly cost 5 million.

[@kedrickswain6509]

and supervisors like that are the difference between star wars and firefly or the expanse...

[@RandomStuffGarage619]

8:15 what... the... no wonder you quit drinking lol Now I want to rummage through YOUR trash!! Hahaha after a game of block of course ;)

[@oldbrasso808]

"You shouldn't go home with the props" Or don't admit to it on KZbin until its too late to matter!

[@DETHMOKIL]

I think we just might have missed a much bigger question. what does Adam think of ILM no longer having a model shop.

[@timetravellingbunny3952]

My thought is, CGI and 3D printing are making model making skills less needed and less marketable.

[@bobfg3130]

9:10 Episode 1.

[@thedevilinthecircuit1414]

This is a re-upload. Weird! I remember this story from three weeks ago.

[@chamoo232]

It's part of a live stream. I says it was recorded in December.

[@tobiash1753]

So you are saying, there is a way we can actually hire, THE Adam Savage himself?