070 - Ash Thorp - Deconstructing The Film 'Lost Boy'

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• published: 29 Nov 2016
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Episode 70 - Ash Thorp Interview Allan McKay interviews Ash Thorp, a graphic designer, illustrator, artist, and creative director for a multitude of media, including feature films, commercial enterprises, and print.   Ash has worked on graphics for Ender’s Game and Total Recall, as well as contributed to the design concepts for Spectre, Prometheus, X-Men First Class, Call of Duty and others. His first directorial debut started with the assembly of an international team for his Ghost in the Shell tribute, as well as the main title for OFFF Barcelona 2014. In 2015, he was requested to assemble an international team of designers and create the title sequence for FITC Tokyo. Later that year, Ash co-directed “Ares -- Our Greatest Adventure”, a promotional trailer for the feature film The Martian. Alongside with co-director Anthony Scott Burns, Ash created a concept short film Lost Boy, based on Ash’s graphic drawings. In this podcast, Ash and Allan about the entire process -- from pre- to post-production -- “step by step, frame by frame”.   Show Notes: Visit http://www.allanmckay.com/70/     Links: Lost Boy: https://vimeo.com/188650521 Ash Thorp’s Website: http://ashthorp.com/info Ash Thorp’s IMDb Page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4500808/ Ash Thorp’s Company Learn Squared, Inc.: https://www.learnsquared.com/   [-1:40:29] Allan: The origins of Lost Boy. It’s been a long journey. Do you want to talk about how it actually began? Ash: It started about 3 years ago. ImagineFX Magazine reached out to me to do a piece in their magazine. I was flattered. It was reassuring that I was on the right course. I asked them what I should draw. The theme was superheroes. I wanted to do my own Punisher but my wife advised me to do my own idea. She is always pushing me. [-1:39:01] I created the name Lost Boy because there were only so few windows on the sign inside the drawing [for the length of the title]. I didn’t attach a story at that time. [-1:38:21] I like to work organically and use the muse and the inspiration from the things that I love. I’ll binge on all kinds of things -- comics, novels -- until my own thing comes out, and then I twist it. [-1:37:38] My career was becoming more successful by that time. I loved helping other people with their projects, but I felt that I was missing out on what I really wanted to do: which is make my own stuff. So I decided to make my own thing. [-1:37:10] I started drawing every night. I shared those drawings with [my friend] Anthony Scott Burns [who is a director and visual effects artist]. He thought it was awesome, so we started forming a narrative. It went crazy from there. [-1:34:34] Anthony suggested we make our own comic book. [-1:34:21] Then I started developing another film called Spiral. I was having my own artistic Renaissance. Then Mischa Rozema and Jules Tervoort (from PostPanic Pictures, in Amsterdam) reached out to me to help them with the title sequence for their short film Sundays. They asked if I was developing anything at that time. I said I was. [-1:33:20] They asked me to put something together and pitch it to them. Anthony and I put together a pitch packet for Lost Boy. Mischa and Jules basically signed the dotted line right there and became our partners.   [-1:32:15] Allan: As artists, we’re always intrigued about how people work, what kind of pitfalls they fall into. Ash: I’ll do my best to paint an honest picture. [-1:31:37] We had to get the legal involved. I’m very keen on keeping the rights to the IP (Intellectual Property). Amsterdam has a different legal ramifications, and this is an American property. We needed to make sure we spoke the same language. Anthony and I own the rights and are co-creators of Lost Boy together. [-1:31:01] For me, it’s important for us to retain the creative on everything! Not that anybody would have bad intentions. Even Anthony and I have a contract together.   [-1:29:50] Allan: I agree, it’s such a critical thing. No one thinks of the legal stuff until shit hits the fan. The more prepared you are in the beginning (even when you’re an artists and you don’t want to think about the business stuff), the better. I’ve seen so many friendships go to shit. You partner up but if you don’t have that comfortable conversation in the beginning, that means there are no bounds set. By having those discussions and setting the responsibilities between you, you’ll be very clear and feel good moving forward. [-1:27:49] Ash: I grew up studying George Lucas and all those guys. When you make your own world, you have to share it. But those boundaries are really important. It was very important that Anthony and I retained the artistic rights. PostPanic was going to produce and help facilitate all the things that are needed (and they did an amazing job!) and Anthony and I would work to get the film...