Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to another episode of Below the Line with What Went Wrong,

where we interview the incredible artists and storytellers that you don't often hear from,

responsible for some of the most interesting movie magic to grace the screen.

Today is no exception as we are speaking with a veteran of the creature design and

practical effects industry, and that is Alec Gillis.

Alec Gillis came up under Stan Winston and Roger Corman.

He co-founded the Oscar-winning Creature Effects Studio Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated,

and he currently runs his solo studio, Studio Gillis.

He has worked on or designed nearly every monster under the sun,

our sun and alien sons alike,

from graboids to werewolves to xenomorphs to predators and

so, so much more, and I'm not even including some of the directors he's worked with.

So without further ado, we hope you enjoy our conversation with Alec Gillis.

And action.

Alex, if you can, please describe your job as if you're explaining it to a three-year-old or, as you know, working in the film industry to your parents or somebody who does not work in the film industry.

What do you do?

Well, I am broadly, I could be called the character creator, and the tools that I use are more traditional tools, animatronics, special makeup, specialty costumes.

We do props as well.

I have another company called ProMocana that builds

miniatures, miniature spaceships and things like that. So it's anything that it has to do with,

in my heart, a character, because a spaceship could be a character, that we create through

more traditional practical effects means.

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