Interview - Alec Gillis and Lance Henriksen

At Crypticon 2015, we got some time to talk with special effects designer Alec Gillis (Aliens, Tremors, Starship Troopers) and actor Lance Henriksen (Aliens, The Quick and the Dead, Millennium, Mass Effect). These two have been working with practical effects for decades in genre-defining movies, and we discuss the role of physical, tangible costumes, props, creatures, and structures in the age of CGI and green screens.

Be sure to catch Harbinger Down, a new all-practical effects independent film written and designed by Gillis and starring Henriksen - their love letter to the golden age of sci-fi horror. Thanks so much to Dan Akerlund with Extreme Hardcore Nerds for the camera work on short notice, and the Crypticon staff for making space for us. And thanks again to Alec Gillis and Lance Henriksen for being accessible, chatty veteran warriors of some of my favorite seminal works of art and pop culture.

Don't miss Henriksen's single-sentence thesis on digital effects at the end of the interview.