The Filmumentaries Podcast

Ian Hunter has spent four decades building miniatures, supervising visual effects and thinking like a filmmaker on some of the most demanding productions in Hollywood. In this episode, he traces a career that began in a garden shed with a punched-up piece of German black velvet and ended up — via James Cameron, Tim Burton, the Coen Brothers, and Christopher Nolan — on some of the most iconic scree...

In this episode I chat with visual effects supervisor, second unit director and digital pre-visualisation pioneer David Dozoretz about a career that traces the entire arc of how modern filmmaking shifted from analogue to digital — and how, somewhere in the middle of that shift, pre-vis went from a curious side experiment to a fundamental part of how films get planned and shot. David talks about gr...

In this episode, I chat with creature effects artist, puppeteer and digital pioneer Craig Caton-Largent about a career that arguably traces the entire arc of modern visual effects — from foam latex and animatronics to motion control, performance capture and full CG animation. Craig talks about growing up on a sheep and cattle ranch in Washington State, being captivated by the 1960s Batman TV show...

In this episode, I chat with model maker Jim Davidson about his journey from a dinosaur-obsessed kid in the 1970s to working on some of the most memorable practical effects sequences in modern cinema. Jim talks about discovering the work of Ray Harryhausen, and how seeing Star Wars at the age of 12 made him realise that visual effects could be a real career. We get into how a chance meeting with f...

Episode 147: John Duncan In this episode, I’m joined by model maker John Duncan, whose career spans nearly fifteen years at Industrial Light & Magic and includes work across Star Wars, Star Trek, Galaxy Quest, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix and more. John talks about his early fascination with building miniatures as a kid, making models out of paper and cardboard, and how that instinct t...

In this episode, I sit down with Don Bies – former Lucasfilm archivist and special effects artist at ILM – for a deep dive into his career and his time inside the Star Wars archive. Don takes me right back to his childhood in Chicago, where a viewing of the 1931 Frankenstein sparked a lifelong fascination with makeup effects and filmmaking . From experimenting with homemade prosthetics to building...

In this episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I’m joined by creature effects designer Alec Gillis, founder of Studio Gillis and co-founder of Amalgamated Dynamics Inc. (ADI) alongside Tom Woodruff Jr. Alec has spent more than four decades helping bring some of cinema’s most memorable creatures to life. After beginning his career working under the legendary Stan Winston, he went on to contribute t...

In this episode, I chat with Academy Award-winning sound designer Randy Thom about his journey from college radio to shaping the soundscapes of some of cinema’s most iconic films. We discuss: Growing up loving movies and discovering sound via college radio in Ohio Making a cold call to Walter Murch and landing a job on Apocalypse Now Early sound experiments at Skywalker Ranch Recording effects for...

This is a short bonus episode with a very specific purpose. Patrick Tyndall and I are in the middle of a GoFundMe campaign to get us back to Los Angeles to finish filming Not Your Average Joe, our documentary about legendary production designer Joe Alves. This episode is me explaining where the project is at, what we’ve already achieved, and why this upcoming LA trip feels so important. We’ll be i...

In this episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I’m joined by filmmaker John Campopiano and producer Jim Beller to talk about their new documentary, The Farmer and the Shark. The film centres on Craig Kingsbury, a farmer from Martha’s Vineyard who appeared in Jaws (1975), playing Ben Gardner, the local fisherman whose abandoned boat is discovered by Chief Brody early in the film.   From that small...

Jon's Kickstarter Link Summary In this conversation, Jon Spira discusses his new book 'I'll Settle for Nothingness: Conversations with Mike Hodges', detailing the genesis of the book, his friendship with the legendary filmmaker, and the exploration of Hodges' versatile career. The discussion covers many things including the making of 'Morons from Outer Space', the challenges of unproduced films, a...

Rob Spera is a film and television director, educator, and the author of Film/TV Director’s Field Manual: 70 Maxims to Change Your Filmmaking. With decades of experience directing features, episodic television, and theatre, Rob brings a deeply practical, human-centred approach to directing and leadership. In this conversation, we discuss: Why Rob describes his book as an “anti-textbook” The idea t...

In this episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I’m joined by Laurent Hopman and Renaud Roche, the writer and artist behind the acclaimed graphic novel Lucas Wars, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of Star Wars from a deeply personal, human perspective. Laurent shares his background as an entertainment journalist and how years of research, interviews, books and documentaries fed...

In this episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I speak with art director and supervising art director Dominic Masters, whose decades-long career spans some of the biggest films and series of the last 40 years. He grew up around movie sets thanks to his father, the legendary production designer Tony Masters (2001: A Space Odyssey, Papillon, Dune), and started his own journey at 19 when he spent eig...

In this episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast I speak with author and film historian Jay Glennie about his new book, The Making of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time ...In Hollywood. Jay has a real gift for pulling together people, memories and materials, and this book is packed with insight from the cast and crew, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Quentin himself. We get...

In this bonus episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, host Jamie Benning, that's me... talks with author and filmmaker John Walsh about his new book The Art and Making of Gladiator II. Walsh discusses how he was approached by Abrams Books and Paramount Pictures to chronicle the creation of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel, offering rare insights into the production design, visual effects, and creati...

In this episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I sit down with sibling filmmakers Claire and Anthony Bueno, the creative team behind Cleanin’ Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters - a feature documentary more than a decade in the making, and the definitive oral history of one of the most beloved comedies of all time. The Buenos spent years interviewing dozens of cast and crew members from the orig...

Episode 136: A Martha’s Vineyard special report on the Joe Alves Documentary shoot. This week’s episode is a little different. It is a behind the scenes update on our ongoing feature documentary about production designer and director Joe Alves (Jaws, Close Encounters, Escape from New York, Jaws 2, Jaws 3D). I take you through our trip to Martha’s Vineyard in June 2024 to capture Joe’s return to th...

Cinema historian Nigel Smith joins Jamie to explore the hidden history of London’s picture houses. In particular the Egyptian-style Carlton in Islington. Nigel brings these spaces back to life through stories, archives, and first-hand recollections. In this episode, Nigel and Jamie discuss: How London’s old cinemas became coffee shops, bingo halls, and churches The difference between “going to the...

In this episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I talk with James Kahn, the novelist behind some of the most iconic movie novelizations of the 1980s, including Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Goonies, and Poltergeist. James shares how a chance encounter while working as an ER doctor in Santa Monica led him onto the set of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, where he met Kathlee...

In this episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I sit down with Tommy Williamson, a visual effects artist, prop maker, and lifelong creator whose career spans more than three decades. Tommy has worked on films including Spider-Man 2, Sin City, The Mist, Dune: Prophecy, and the modern masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth. Tommy shares his journey from building paper-craft UFOs as a kid to working alongside G...

Episode 132 - Dave Barclay - My Life With Animatronics. Movies, Puppets and Beyond! At just 19 years old, Dave Barclay found himself stepping into the role of chief puppeteer for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. It was the start of an extraordinary career in animatronics and puppetry that would see him bringing to life some of cinema’s most beloved and memorable characters. In this episode, Dave t...

In this special bonus episode of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I take you behind the scenes of Propstore ’s upcoming Los Angeles auction, featuring some truly jaw-dropping pieces of movie history. I was invited to a press preview at London’s Dorchester Hotel, where I spoke with Propstore’s Tim Lawes (Director of Consignment) and Stephen Lane (CEO and Founder) about some of the headline items, includ...

In episode 131 of The Filmumentaries Podcast, I sit down with director Phil Hawkins to talk about his journey from a kid obsessed with Jurassic Park and Star Wars to a filmmaker directing commercials, indie features, and ambitious projects like Star Wars: Origins and the Sky Original Robin in the Hoods. Phil shares how he taught himself filmmaking as a teenager, cutting together VHS tapes and ropi...

Episode 130 – Laurent Bouzereau on “Jaws at 50” In this special episode, I catch up with the legendary documentary filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau to discuss his latest project, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, premiering Friday 11th July at 8pm on National Geographic and streaming the same day on Disney+ . Laurent, whose behind-the-scenes work on Jaws, Indiana Jones, and Spielberg has inspired...