The Revolutionary and The Inevitable
07 January 2008Steve "Spaz" Williams. A director of dozens of great commercials. Feature film work, too. Works out of San Francisco, California-based Hoytyboy Pictures with long-time executive producer Clint Goldman. A technical problem-solver with talent, "Spaz" has both his right brain-left-brain combo engaged in a never-ending ongoing discourse. Call him 'williams the Revolutionary' and 'williams the Inevitable.'
Interviewing "Spaz" (his nickname of many years), Williams is like drinking 100% Kona coffee on an empty stomach. For the first ten minutes you listen, then you start making infinite connections. Twenty minutes later you feel the rush and leave with both sweaty inspiration and confident, inside knowledge about where the world of commercials, films, entertainment, and the internet are all headed. His mind can work the small details as well as see the broad picture.
"Spaz" Williams feels his best work is still ahead of him. His longtime partner and producer, Clint Goldman, agrees. "Spaz" has truly hit his directorial stride," says Goldman. "He is the consummate pro now and can handle live-action comedy and dramatic dialogue along with the animation and complex effects that he is known for. He's especially adept at merging the live and effects worlds together as he has done recently for clients like Bell, AT&T, Diet Dr. Pepper, Havoline, BMW, Remington, and others."
"Spaz" is again busy directing spots these days. Five years ago he was directing commercials with Goldman out of S.F.-based Complete Pandemonium, then got a call from Disney. It was an offer to direct a new animated film titled, "The Wild", an offer "Spaz" says, "was too good to refuse." Goldman would be his producer. The project would consume both men for the next few years - four to be exact. Complete Pandemonium, their commercial production home, dissolved during that time. "We were really busy doing some great spot work, then we went off to do the feature," Williams says.
To the outside world, all seemed great. The movie opened to great reviews and did well at the box office. But "Spaz" was not happy with the process. "We had no idea that making the movie was page 87 in the battle between Disney and Pixar," Williams says. "Disney wanted to prove that they could do computer animation with or without them," he adds. "I wanted to do something outrageous with the film. "The Wild" - and the marketing of "The Wild" - got lost in the process. We didnullt take sides, we were naive in thinking we were just doing a movie." Ouch.
As it turned out, Disney and Pixar eventually came together and Spaz canullt say enough about how impressed he is with Pixar's work. "Ratatouille" was awesome (he's a big fan of director Brad Bird) and so was "The Incredibles." Williams doesnullt mince words when explaining the reason for Pixar's incredible string of feature film success. "The animators are the ones writing the stories and doing the animation. That makes all the difference."
Which brings us back to the unfiltered world of "Spaz."
There was "Spaz" Williams the Revolutionary, the anti-geek graduate of Sheridan College. The young turk that worked out of Toronto's Alias Research (now Alias/Wavefront), training the first real computer graphics people at Industrial Light & Magic. His work while at ILM is the stuff of legend. His watery "pseudopod" for James Cameronulls film, "The Abyss" got him started in the digital ILM fast track. His eye-ball popping work on the feature film, "The Mask" garnered him an Oscar nod. His digital-scanning prowess in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" took digital cloning to the next level and made ILM the epicenter of great CGI. Spielberg saw Williams' demo T-Rex and decided then and there that ILM would do the dinosaurs for "Jurassic Park." Computer graphics became the story. "Spaz - the man who helped create the buzz around computer graphics, started dissing how the technology was now being used. Williams soon left ILM and hooked up with director Mark Dippe (also an ex-ILMer) to work on the movie "Spawn." Dippe handled the directorial duties while Williams supervised the effects and served as second unit director. Of this time, Williams says, "The movie got me out of ILM and allowed me to do something cool."
So, Williams the Revolutionary, who helped put CGI on the map, also became one of the first to downplay CG's importance. "At best, we can only replicate nature," says Williams. "First we started with replicating animal motion, but that was only the beginning. We wonullt be happy until man can truly replicate himself, which, as I have been saying for years, is inevitable."
Fast-foward to 2008 and Williams the Revolutionary has morphed (remember that CGI term?) into Williams the Inevitable. "Computer graphics is great, it has its place and its impact is seen everywhere," says Williams. "But we've come full circle, back to the place where the story is the most important thing." Not surprisingly, Willams embraces the new topsy-turvy world of how all this technology fits together and funnels itself through a pipeline that includes commercials, television, internet, iPODS, YouTube, Facebook, virals, feature films and dozens of other outlets being launched almost daily. "It's exciting. I still view my work as taking millions of little colored round ball bearings and creating something with them," he says.
Williams believes certain things are inevitable. That actors will be replaced by digital talent agencies, where people will have their essence(s), or attributes captured, used, and compensated for as negotiated. Those attributes will be used in the production of commercials, feature films, virals, etc. "There are a lot of issues to be worked out, but it's inevitable."
Now back at Hoytyboy, Spaz has a vision for his wants to do next. Something that brings him back to being Willams the Revolutionary. Hoytyboy recently signed animation guru/pioneer/Ren 'N Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi for spot work. Williams wants to hook up with Kricfalusi on a project. It might be a spot, a feature film or an internet piece. For his part, Kricfalusi is fascinated with taking his animation work into the realm of the computer. "We want to do something together that's technically nutty," says Williams, laughing. Everyone here at Hoytyboy just wants to do great work -- and make it the best."
