When did you start painting and drawing?

I was around 4 years old and started drawing dinosaurs. I was so fascinated by them I planned to become a paleontologist and joined the National Audubon Society when I was 5 and began a fossil collection. Art really came natural, I could draw exactly what I wanted.. no lessons, very strange.  I did my first portrait (from a photo autographed by John F Kennedy) at 8 years old and from then I just drew everything in sight.

Where did you go to school?

I went to Jim Cherry elementary and was asked to create most of the posters, bulletin board, events art. Same at Cross Keys High (a good way to get out of class) and I continued to learn art in all mediums, although there were no computers then. A friend and I started our own line of comics with a Thor-ripoff character and a character called Manx. In 1969 I was selected for Governors Honors in Art for Dekalb County where I met Governor Lester Maddox and a very young Jimmy Carter. I attended an early version of Art Institute called Atlanta Institute for Professional Art.

Who first influenced your work and who continues to influence it?

Always liked Da Vinci as a Renaissance man and his human body drawings and portraits. Salvadore Dali was the biggest influence for me in Art School. And the Dutch masters had a real talent for depicting light and shadow.

Tell me about your time as a sign painter in Atlanta and working with the Turner family.

I applied as an Art Director but later became fascinated with hand-painting the giant Billboards using outdoor oil paint. Making giant Coke bottles, hamburgers, and 20 ft portraits!! I was featured on a local TV show called PM Magazine. It was great fun working there at Turner Outdoor.

Tell me about the prior CNN days with Marty Krofft and the gang.

I auditioned and got a job as an Entertainer at The World of Sid and Marty Krofft with several roles on separate floors. Minstrel, musician, Magic show, played in band and performed on stage with the Krofft characters. I used to get off work at 10pm and go bar hopping with my several (we called them midgets then) lttle folk. Performed for a KISS (without their makeup) private party, and entertained Idi Amin and his wife (along with the Secret Service).

What motivated you to buy and refurbish the Sac ‘o Suds?

“My Cousin Vinny” is among my top 5 favorite movies and my wife Cary saw that the Sac and property were for sale after years of neglect. It took a ton of money and a year and a half to refurbish and remodel the place. It’s now listed among the historic places in Georgia and was featured in an episode of Rectify last summer. Just learning the ropes on how to run a convenience store and it is not easy… but exciting.

How long have you been acting and doing impersonations?

Since 7th grade, where I was cast as Ed Sullivan in a school play. I won a talent show in high school as Elvis and it continued from there.

Who is your favorite character to impersonate?

Probably Austin Powers since it really comes natural and lots of fun. Elvis is a close second.

What recent films have you been in and what were your roles?

Foreground extra in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Last Vegas - played a Neil Diamond impersonator but the scene was cut. Anchorman 2- I was in the Emmy Award scene. Kill The Messenger - played a pilot of a drug runner DC3 plane and actually learned how to start the engine. Rectify - played the Sac O Suds clerk, but you never see me. Welcome To Yesterday - comes out in January, and just a background aging hippie. VH1’s Hindsight TV series - background gallery art collector.

Tell me about the early days at The Weather Channel.

There were no Macs, no computers, no internet…all graphics were done by hand and placed on a copyboard to be shot by camera. Later in 1982, we got the first Quantel Paintbox in the USA and won 26 BDA Awards the following year. Anything could end up on-air and usually did. The first couple years were incredible as we built the channel from scratch.

Why did The Weather Channel migrate to SGI workstations?

Mostly due to our partnering on some big projects with Silicon Graphics assistance. The more we utilized SGI workstations the more we needed applications to run on them like Flint, Smoke, Softimage, etc. And the paint programs were cheaper. Also Quantel had proprietary software that would not accept 3rd party applications...at that time.

Tell me about how you built an internal rebel mac unit transitioning from expensive SGI equipment to the lower cost Macs.

Mike Scearce actually pioneered the first Mac at TWC in 1986-87 and it took several years before the Mac was really ready for our broadcast. As the Mac and associated software (After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Cinema 4D) became more advanced, we finally made the switch after Y2K. Eventually, all hardware and software were transitioned to the Apple/Adobe products primarily for less cost and budgetary reasons.

Some say you snuck into ILM; I think I heard something about a phone booth in the middle of a deserted highway?

Yes, the talk was ILM was impossible to find or get into. So, after meeting an employee of ILM at a conference, a plan was hatched to find the place. Knowing only that it was near San Raphael, we started a road trip and stopped at a phone booth to call ILM. It wasn’t listed, so I persuaded the operator to get the number as I “had an urgent appointment and lost my directions.” I finally got in touch and said I had an appointment with the person I had met at the conference. They gave directions, but when arriving, it appeared to be an abandoned Optical factory. Upon opening the blacked out door, there I saw Star Wars storm troopers, matte paintings and knew that the mission was accomplished. We never got a tour.

Who is your favorite actor you’ve never met? Eastwood.

What is unique about this actor that makes him or her stand out?

He is a loner, delivers his own brand of justice, never afraid and a lot of guys wish they had the guts to be a character like he portrays. He has done it so well that he has become the icon for the lone gunfighter who comes to a lawless town.

You’re quite the rocker. Tell me about your music career.

First band in elementary school called Pathfinders (after the band the Searchers) and played all Beatles. Solo, duos, country band for 5 years with regional success, playing top country bars, radio shows and shows with Doug Stone, Billy Dean, Three Dog Night. Met Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1973, played on their breaks, became friends and actually followed them on tour, playing as opening act in places like Armstrong College Savannah. Now, I perform occasionally with corporate bands as a celebrity music impersonator.

Out of all the hats you wear which one is your favorite? Daddy.

Does anyone else in your family possess such a variety of creative skills as you do?

My daughter Debra is an artist (left-handed) and plays guitar, ukulele and piano.

When did you start painting and drawing? 

As early as 5 or 6. My Mother sent me to a Saturday morning art class because she didn’t want me drawing on the walls.

Where did you go to school? 

Paier School of Art in New Haven Connecticut. It was a school where the teachers were all professionals in the art and design business, from working in advertising, illustration and photography in New York to professors at Yale’s School of Art. I went to school for illustration.

What is your favorite medium? 

3 mediums I like: oils, watercolors and pastels.

What subject matter do you render? 

Mostly people. From figure drawing to fashion illustration to portraits.

Do you digitally alter your work? If so how? 

Up to a few years ago I didn't. I’d start a painting by drawing it out and then use paint or pastel to render. In the last few years I’ve used the computer to create my compositions and sometimes using different brushes in Photoshop and Painter, I’ve been able to recreate the painter style. I print the composition onto canvas and then complete the painting with traditional media like oils or pastels.

Who first influenced your work and continues to influence it? 

I like some of the old Masters like Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I also like some of the modern ilustrators like Robert Peak, Mark English and Bernie Fuchs, all who work with the human figure.

Who is your favorite designer you've never met? What is unique about this designer that makes him or her stand out? 

I’ve actually been fortunate to have met some of the big names in the design industry while working in New York. I met Paul Rand, Milton Glaser and a few others who's name I’ve forgotten. One of my favorite designers who I am fortunate to know is a female designer named Eileen Hedy Schultz. She was the first female President of the New York Art Directors Club and the first female to become President of the Society of Illustrators Club. She taught me a lot about the design business and was very giving of her time to teach design to young and upcoming designers. She taught at the School of Visual Arts (as did Milton Glaser).

What are your top three font families? 

Avenir, Bodoni and Adios Script.

Tell me about your New York experiences.

I started my career in New York. I worked for Cosmopolitan Magazine creating illustrations for the magazine and worked as a freelancer in the Marketing Department for a year (this is where I met Eileen Hedy Schultz). Then I got a job as an Art Director for a company that designed trade magazines. After the first year I was there, they changed the way they laid out the magazines (which was the traditional cut and pasting of printed copy and headlines, and creating a “rubylith” for where the photos were to be positioned) to an new way using computers (the original MAC Plus) using layout software (Pagemaker) and called the process “Desktop Publishing” The company was on the forefront of the Desktop revolution (1986) and I became proficient on all of the new software. After another year with the magazine company, I returned to New York and got a job with a Design firm who was among the first to use the new technology. This is where I excelled and was often used offsite to provide design and teach other designers the new technology.  Within 3 years, I had enough contacts to start my own business and worked in New York for another 10 years with different magazine and design firms as my clientele (Business Week, Fortune, Inc, Glamour, etc.).

Out of all the hats you wear which one is your favorite? 

Art Director and Designer. I love coming up with new ideas and seeing how they grow.

Does anyone else in your family possess such a variety of creative skills as you do? 

I have a large family (6 kids) and each of us, including my parents, have different creative skills whether it be playing a musical instrument, the culinary arts or some sort of artistic talent like painting, drawing, pottery. I am, however, the most right-brained person in the family.

Closing thoughts.

I’ve enjoyed my journey of learning the business and technical/creative aspects of both design and art. The skills I’ve gained by applying what I’ve learned through the years have taken me in several directions and by having access to mentors throughout my career, has excelled the process.

What kind of kid were you?

I was active, curious and imaginative. I enjoyed playing outside but also drawing and model building. I wanted to be an astronaut or a scientist when I grew up.

When did you get your first camera, still and video?

I got my first camera in the 6th grade for a field trip to Washington DC. It was a cheap, full auto 110 film camera. My first manual camera was a Yashica my dad brought back from Vietnam. I used it for photography classes in college.

Who were your heroes growing up?

Superman because he could fly, and Luke Skywalker because he was a Jedi. Both of them because they are good and do the right thing.

Did you ever think you’d be such a jack of all trades? Unlike most you’re quite good and well rounded. Some folks end up becoming watered down by trying to have their hands in everything.

I like to be good at whatever I do. Combine that with my curious nature and desire to learn and you get someone who likes to delve deep into a variety of things. As I’ve matured I do more easily recognize my weaknesses and when it would improve the project to hand part of it to someone who specializes in only one thing. I do think however that being well rounded helps me see the bigger picture when it comes to workflow and efficiencies that someone who only handles one component of a project could not see.

You’re quite a rebel. Why did you start Outpost Pictures, and what keeps you coming back for more every day?

I started Outpost Pictures with the belief that my experience on high end, high cost systems combined with affordable desktop software could provide clients with a great product at a reasonable cost. That’s not very ground-breaking today, but in 2000 when Final Cut was version 1.3, After Effects was version 3 or 4 and Premiere was a dirty word in the professional world, it was a bit radical. I keep coming back for more every day because every day is a new challenge. Nothing stays the same in this industry and even the solutions to various problems change as new camera formats, new techniques and new software becomes available.

You’ve become quite a colorist. Why is the grade so important?

The grade is part of the story. It can be the raw emotion in a shot. It can affect you in ways that you are unaware. On one hand, I think that color appeals to the musician in me. The color grade of a scene has the ability to affect you in a way you can’t quite define, just like music can move you emotionally for reasons you can’t explain. It is a completely visual way to communicate an emotion. On the other hand, color grading is a also a very technical process in terms of proper levels, gamma curves, and color balance. It is the perfect balance of art and science.

What can be accomplished through color correction that cannot be shot in camera?

In post, I can re-light a scene in ways that are impractical or impossible in camera. I can add subtle selective color shifts or windows that direct the viewer’s eyes to a particular part of the scene. I can put lights in actors’ eyes to change how we think about what’s going on in their head. I can enhance the director’s vision by adding to what he was able to get on set.

What was your most challenging shot whether it be tracking, roto, grade, etc.?

Different shots have been challenging for different reasons over the years. One that stands out was a tracking / roto / composite job for a University of Kentucky commercial. Just before the shoot, I'd shown the director some tracking work I was doing on another project using SynthEyes. He took away from that sample an assumption that now anything was possible in terms of tracking regardless of the situation. So, what he shot  had an RV moving through it as the camera panned and zoomed back. I had to completely repaint the side of the RV to make the regular RV look like the Univertiy of Kentucky RV. The problem was that everything in the shot was moving; the front and back of the side of the truck were never in the frame at the same time, the camera was both panning and zooming, and there were people walking in the shot. This probably 8 years ago, but it was a nightmare and was a matter of just hammering away at it until it worked.

How have cameras like the NX-1 from Samsung changed and elevated the game?

I think of this type of thing as evolutionary rather than revolutionary. There will always be another step towards “more”, driven by electronics manufacturers need to sell the next great thing.

Do any of the directors you work with still shoot on film?

Not a single one.

Who are some of your favorite directors and why, film or tv?

Spielberg - a great storyteller
George Lucas- Star Wars - duh!
Tony Scott- great action, sense of timing and use of color
Joss Whedon - integration of comedy into serious scenes

What tools have you used over the years that stand out to get the job done no matter what it took? This can be digital or of a practical nature.

Quantel Henry, Final Cut Pro, Mocha Pro, and Davinci Resolve

What’s next for Outpost?
Benevolent, world domination. OR ... we hope to expand into more markets, and plan to experiment with creating products from some of our services.