Ask Adam Savage: Was There Creative Freedom Building Models at ILM?

What is the rarest model Adam saw while working at ILM? When building a model for a production like Star Wars, was there a certain amount of creative freedom or was there a very strict plan Adam had to follow? In this live stream excerpt, Adam answers these questions by Richard Cooke and Rob Langridge, whom we thank for their support. Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam questions and watching exclusive videos:

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[JFREY]

Adam Savage, a perfect hybrid of Beaker and Professor Honeydew.

[Yodah]

"Go to hell, just send it to me and I'll re-do it" is such an goddamn mood 😂. I love it.

[joshusthegreat]

I love the passion that shines through on every ILM story, no matter what it is about.

[Morbos]

I was really confused at first because I knew Adam couldn't possibly have been old enough to have worked on ET! Finally I figured out there must have been updated graphics for some newer release.

[peterjamesfoote]

“Weirdly Meditative Model Builder” now there’s a T-Shirt idea!

Adam, I don’t often comment but this was an amazing episode. It makes me wonder if you’ve ever had a dream piece or concept of a model that you’ve never built that you could do for your Tested audience.

While you were a model builder did you happen to run into Don Bies? He came to ILM from the South Side theater community. One of his great achievements out here was the face of Frankenstein’s monster for a production of Frankenstein out here.

He built a face for the monster played by John Covert that was an incredibly realistic prostheses (?) of John’s face with the top layer of skin cut stripped off so that you could see all the muscles underneath the monster’s skin. An incredible piece of horror that I think got him his first job at ILM.

I always admire people who have the eye-hand coordination and talent to do art works or models. I think that’s part of the reason I’ve followed you since the first episode of Mythbusters aired.

Thanks for the wonderful look behind the scenes at ILM.

[michaelpipkin]

When you can just gloss over finding Obi-Wan's cloak underneath your desk, you've got a cool job.

[kidsnosleep]

Weird vibe here. Pulled up ET last night and watched it with family on NewYear’s eve as son’s girlfriend had not seen it before and didn’t get my “ELL..…I…OTT” joke. Such a good film.

[radol]

It's interesting to me that model description pretty much perfectly translates to area of programming - you get some requirements/concepts to follow, but there is still creative freedom in figuring out how to do it and implementation details. Even timeframes of typical tasks are similar.

[pumirya]

Happy new year and thanks for the videos.

[tomhorsley]

I'm reading about apocalyptic rain in San Francisco today. Hope the shop and home are dry!

[vzmkitty]

Mark Rober recently made a video about an egg drop from space where he revealed that while planning he accidentally tried to invent a precision guided missile. Oops! Did you ever run into situations like that on Myth Busters?

[WolfGirlCasey]

Man, I wish I could do arts n crafts with Adam, lmao. All those fun creation toys and tools. Most I have is a Dremel, a heat gun, and a soldering iron.

[davidfly]

“The model got dropped… off” my head snaps to attention. I thought the story was taking a turn.

[chriswheatley]

I'm a commercial plumber and I think it's the same way with creative freedom. If you show you can oay attention and be consistent. Than than you get creative freedom.

[nelsonc]

Adam Savage is an Alien sent to earth to teach and humor us humans! A treasure sent from the Heavens! Thanks Adam for sticking around!

[ProjectCambrian]

I've a question for Adam, and it goes with the theme of this video. Well Partially anyways.
His answer can be simply just talked about or he can have a little fun and Make something to demonstrate his answer.
When it comes to Updating a particular Design for say a Ship for an existing franchise, what Rules are imposed and what rules or Guidelines do you follow Yourself for staying within a specific Franchise "Recipe".
A great example is the Lightsaber he built recently. Its Unique in its design but Instantly Recognizable as the item.
For me a Fail would be the Sentinels from XMen Days of Future Past.
Both past and future versions to me, aside from some Purple in the Past Sentinels bits, they looked Nothing like the Sentinels from the comics and cartoons.
This Really Bugged me because that original Large Purple and Grey Sentinel design is iconic. That pink face a Inhuman Mockery with a deep booming mechanical voice, passionless, emotionless has Yet to be realized.
As a fan I call it The Squint Test.
Are there examples where for Adam this has been a tight or loose Balance between Recipe and Creative Freedom when making something for a Franchise?
How Important is this to you being both a Fan of so many pop culture franchises and having been working in the industry?
Are there examples where for You as a fan the Squint Test Hasn't passed or could have been better?
Not in some throw shade way, nor to cause drama or anything, just something that Didn't Quite make the grade, took you Out of the Story.
And this can be for Two reasons or more, the two that come to mind are the Specific thing takes you out or how it's used or Because you've worked in the industry and know so many tricks and secrets that your mind just Analyzes and figures it out as a reflex and accidentally takes you out of the moment.

[SophiaAphrodite]

I still believe Adam was the secret bidder of the animatronic E.T. that went up for auction.

[kap]

The mothership was at universal Orlando for a really long time as part of the earthquake attraction. No idea what happened to it when it closed.

[briancensner]

Did you ever finish your Ecto 1mode fr eagle moss?. If not are you planning on finishing it soon on camera?. If not can you show it off when it is finished?. Also when will the next R2 upgrade/repair video come be coming out?.