277: Joe Alves - Working Man’s Hollywood

Movie Meltdown - Episode 277

This week we sit down with one of the most interesting guests we’ve ever had… Joe Alves. He’s an artist, production designer, art director, second unit director, sculptor, director… you name it, if it’s related to bringing a movie to life – Joe’s probably done it. He’s best know for his work on the “Jaws” series of films, but over the years he’s worked on some of the biggest movies in Hollywood, including Forbidden Planet, Torn Curtain, Mutiny on the Bounty, Sleeping Beauty, My Fair Lady, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Starman, The Sugarland Express, Escape from New York and so many others! Joe is a fascinating man with a phenomenal work history… and work ethic.

And as we discuss shooting scenes of the shark in Joe’s pool, we also mention… working at Disney, Josh Meador, working with Hitchcock, An American in Paris, rotoscoping, John Cassavetes, sculpting the shark, I got nominated for the NAACP Image Award, I’ve got these young people that I want you to meet, John Carpenter, Portugal, the Id, junior set designer, the left to right shark, Harry Dean Stanton, Hayward California, Mad Men, Moby Dick, Lea Thompson… so cute… so charming, Ken Russell, French impressionist paintings, rendering each frame, Mr. Newman has to eat his asparagus with gloves, 300 storyboards, stealing Antonio Gatti’s architecture, you’re late for the training program, I say… the shark worked or you wouldn’t have been scared, Korean veterans, more shark… more shark… more shark, what wasn’t easy was dealing with the producer, the gas station was supposed to collapse,  Louis Gossett Jr., we were at the top of the Twin Towers, edgier Alice in Wonderland,  the shark made all these funny noises, Debra Hill, production design, Steven Spielberg, racing formula one cars, Fire Down Below, that guy got nominated for an Academy Award… and he’s putting posters up, drafting, two thousand pounds of weight to pull the barrel down, shooting in 3D, Steven Seagal showed up late… didn’t have his lines and Eisenhower invading Normandy. 

“The idea that the shark never worked… it was all nonsense!”