Jason Hillhouse
by Bird Boy
Fans will recognize Jason Hillhouse as the moderator during recent
commentary and special feature sit downs for the various DC Classic
Collections Boxed Sets. Hillhouse has been on board with the DVD
releases since the very first BTAS disc and continues to work on the
upcoming features as well. The World's Finest was able to sit down with
Jason Hillhouse for an in-depth Q&A session.
For those that only know of you from the DC Animated special features,
what’s your job at WHV entail?
I actually work for New Wave Entertainment. Warner Bros. is one of our
clients. My department produces special features for them (and other
studios) on a bunch of titles, including, for our purposes here, the
animated DCU discs.
My official title is “Producer”. I actually have wound up doing a
little bit of everything under the sun. Writing, acting, hosting…that’s
part of what makes a job like this so great! Every project is different.
However, most of the time my face isn’t on camera, but sometimes it is.
I have worked on a variety of your favorite DVDs and probably some
you’ve never heard of.
How did the lucky break of being the one to interview some of the key
animated DC Universe creators come about?
Here’s the short version of a long story, bear with me. One of my
first jobs in LA was managing a comic book store in Burbank (House of
Secrets, still go every Weds when possible). This also happened to be
the store where lots of the guys wound up shopping since it’s so close
to the studios (before WBA moved) and the owner is a great dude. So, I
met a bunch of people, like Bruce, Paul, Riba, Butch and so on, there.
I, like any red blooded American, was a big fan of the show and they
were kind enough to “tolerate” my particular brand of jackassery. I
suppose I amused them, kinda like a pet monkey. You’d have to ask them.
Fast forward to where I wind up at New Wave and I am fortunate enough
to become involved with the DCU DVDs back in the single disc, four
episode days (pop up trivia anyone?). I get the gig in part because I’m
a geek, in part because I already knew the guys anyway and someone
apparently thought I knew what I was doing (still debatable).
It’s obviously not just me that works on these discs. There are a
couple of other producers that I work with (Jonathan Strailey, in the
early days and now, for the last couple of years, Scott Devine) and our
APs and so forth. Anyway, people bought the discs, so WHV asked us to
keep cranking them out and here we are.
How do you decide which questions make the cut when interviewing the
creative team of the shows?
It depends on several things. Mainly, we ask ourselves these
questions: What specifically are we trying to accomplish in the piece?
Do we have a good foundation to the piece? What are some of the in depth
directions we can go in? If I ask Bruce that question for the 100th time
is he going to throw a chair at me (again)? Really the biggest editor of
all is time. How long will the interview be? How long is the piece
supposed to be? How long do we have before delivery?
The goal, what we have really tried to do, is to make the special
features interesting, informative and entertaining. Now, that said, in
the case of the DCU titles, we work for WHV and the good folks at DC
have approvals as well. So, it’s not just a matter of our mouths to
God’s ears and the fans eyes. Sometimes things work out better than you
think; sometimes it’s not as good as you wanted. We have ideas and,
also, influence to a point. Lots of parties have vested interests in how
this all goes down. Especially with these properties. And they all
listen. They may not agree with us, but they listen. They hire us for a
reason. For example, we pleaded the case for there to be season box sets
for…well, for a long time. Now, I’m not gonna sit here and take credit
for the fact that they finally came out, because it’s not our decision,
but they listened. Finally, we get a trial balloon and you can tell, I
think, on the first Batman season set that we weren’t sure that we were
going to get to do any more like that, so we threw that monster doc on
there that covered a bit of everything. It’s a good doc, but if we had
known that we were going to get to do more, we might have spread it out
a bit between the sets and gotten a bit more in depth. That’s what we
tried to do on Superman, but it’s been a bit more hit and miss.
We have parameters we have to work in. It’s show business. We can’t
just do whatever we want. There are budget concerns, talent
availability, delivery schedules and other time constraints and so on.
And lawyers, always lawyers. God bless ‘em, they make the world go
‘round.
I kind of look at these projects in particular as a bit of a time
capsule. In ten years, what is the info that will be the most relevant
and interesting about these shows? And if someone doesn’t know about
these guys or these shows, let’s educate ‘em! Hopefully, we can still do
that and still make it interesting for the hardcore fans who scour the
1,700 message boards daily and already knew why Aquaman had to lose his
hand. Ideally, at the end of it all, it would be cool to be able to have
all the episodes on your shelf and a variety of features and
commentaries about your favorite shows. That’s the goal. Forget what I
wrote seven paragraphs ago. That stuff is true, too. But that’s the real
goal. And to make money. And to have a lasting record of Dan Riba
dressed up like a gorilla dressed up like Flash. And to give BT a
t-shirt that says “I buried Paul” on it. That’s the goal.
How does the dynamic change between doing a commentary, and doing a
regular roundtable discussion?
It’s a funny thing. Essentially, speaking for the person being
interviewed, doing interviews is one thing, doing commentaries is
another thing and the round table discussions were kind of the hybrid of
those. If I’m doing an interview, with let’s say Riba, I know what we
are trying to cover in the features so we talk about that, but he has to
state things a certain way so that we can edit it together. If I ask a
ten minute question about Batman and Wonder Woman from the “Brave and
the Bold” episode and he answers “Yes”, then that doesn’t do us a lot of
good because there is no context. All we would have to use is my man Dan
saying “Yes”. While that may be random and hilarious, it wouldn’t make
any sense. So, you have to work it to look more like a monologue while
feeling like it’s an on going discussion and then have the other people
you interview be able to talk about similar things to have stuff to cut
together.
Commentaries are cool because you get a few of people in a room and
they feel like they don’t have to carry the whole thing by themselves
and they can argue about what really happened and play off of each
other. Of course, if there are TOO many people then it gets jumbled or
someone doesn’t get to talk much or whatever, so it has its own
challenges. You also have to be fairly specific with these commentaries.
Not always screen specific, but at least generally specific to the
episode. It amazes me when you get one person in to do a commentary by
themselves, especially for a feature. Cause that’s a lot of talking.
Especially if you try to make it wall to wall. And this is coming from a
guy who, obviously, can talk. It’s harder than you think.
The round table is actually kind of nice. Once you get over having to
see me, the guys can open up about more topics and interact with each
other and not have to worry about answering in a specific way. They can
just answer a question “Yeah”. It’s a bit more of a natural way to have
a discussion. Of course, every person is different, but with this group
of folks, I don’t think silence is a big problem!
It’s no secret that a lot of DCAU buffs aren’t big fans of you on the
special features (something I’ll chalk up to some deep-rooted feelings
of jealously). Any words you care to share with the loyal DVD buyers?
Ok. Ok. What do I want to say? You know what? In all honesty, first
and foremost, I want to say, “Thank you”. We wouldn’t be able to do this
stuff without you and your support and passion for these shows.
Seriously, the basis for all of these things comes down to what we can
do for the fans. Bruce and everyone who works on the shows are very
involved and concerned about that. More than a lot people that I have
worked with and more than what most people would even expect. Not to
paint him out to be an old softy, but Bruce, and really everyone
involved, is very proud of the work and they really want to do right by
their fans. We (at NWE) want to do right by the fans and the creators
and DC and WB. But it starts with the fans. Again, we can’t please
everybody, but there is time and thought put into these things because
we all really do care and we really are all fanboys at heart. And if you
are still reading this interview at this point, and you weren’t one of
us already, then you have crossed over to the dark side of fanboydom
too. Zod bless you.
Speaking of Zod (and I often do), I almost wore my Zod t-shirt for one
of these things on camera, but it was nixed. I believe there will be and
should be repercussions.
Meanwhile, back to the point. As far as my on camera involvement, it’s
funny, Marvin, our WHV guy, came up with the idea to have me sit in for
the commentary for “House and Garden” and film it. Just to give it a
different twist. As Bruce Timm will attest, the guys do get tired and need a
jolt every now and then. Keep in mind that they usually record most of
the set commentaries in one session. Even Bruce runs out of things to
say. I have heard people complain that they don’t do commentaries for
every episode, but it ain’t easy. You don’t want to have a bunch of dead
space, but you don’t want to go off on too many tangents and have people
be like, “Say wha’? Who’s Zod?” Anyway, it just kinda worked out (since
I knew the guys, know the show and am a big fan and just ridiculously
lucky) that I would sit in to give a bit of a different perspective.
Marvin laughed at the time and said, “They’re gonna like you or they’re
gonna hate you.” And I guess he was right on both counts. Some people
have been very complimentary, some have, uh, not been as complimentary.
Believe it or not, I would say that it has skewed more toward the
positive side. And believe me, there are some folks who take great
pleasure in making sure I hear the negative stuff.
I think my favorite
comment so far was the link someone sent me to the Toon Zone message
board where someone from Costa Rica’s sister thought I looked like the
Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. I’m not even sure what that means! I spent a
considerable amount of time trying to figure it out. Was it a fat joke?
Is it because I’m white and happy? Was she hoping I would just blow up
on camera? I still don’t know. And I like that I don’t know. Seriously,
like with reviews or anything anyone says about you. I just don’t get to
high and don’t get to low. Do I wish everyone liked me? Sure. Do I wish
all of the reviews I have gotten for my work were great? Of course. But
that ain’t gonna happen no matter what. Some folks like me on the sets.
Some folks don’t. And some folks think I look like the Stay Puft
Marshmallow Man. I think it’s cool that someone in Costa Rica even knows
who I am and has taken time to see some of my work and to comment on it.
That’s really cool.
Bottom line is we’re just trying to have fun and get some info out
there. I really do try to take a back seat and let the guys go. And with
the round table stuff, they do go. Those things could be half an hour
each easy. Most of the time, we talk a bit about what we’re going to
talk about before and then just hit it. I like to think that it’s better
than when you see someone be interviewed by someone who has NO IDEA what
they are talking about. I’m no James Lipton, but I ain’t Joan Rivers
either!
With the commentaries, we really just wing it. The guys always say, “I
wish I’d watched the show some more before” but sometimes it keeps it a
bit fresher. Now, it wasn’t my idea to disappear Mxy style at the end of
the one video commentary, but that really makes me laugh. The guys were
shocked I didn’t know how to say my name backwards. I was equally
shocked that they so readily did (Bat Bed indeed). But I love the fact
that we disappear and it looks like Riba turns into a piece of popcorn.
Perfect for such a corny bit (sorry, couldn’t help it).
The bottom line (really this time) is that it really is a privilege
for me to get to work on these things and that goes for all of the
pieces, not just the ones where I’m on camera. I don’t take it lightly,
but I just try to have fun (and I don’t have to try very hard to have
fun with these guys and these shows). It’s a real treat. I appreciate
people taking the time to give their thoughts in reviews and on message
boards and for taking the time to watch. Some of the things have worked
out better than others, but if you like it or don’t, it’s better than
being bored, right? It’s cool when people have approached and said nice
things, but it’s also cool when they have questions or criticisms, as
long as it’s not just, “Hillhouse! You suck!” Then I have to wonder why
they think I suck or what I did that sucks. Thought out criticisms are
better. But I’m really a fairly nice guy. Ask my wife. Or Dini. Don’t
ask Butch.
During some of your initial work on the extras, the "Bat-bed" joke
became a recurring gag. So, just how big of a Batman fan are you?
Although at my expense, I have to admit that Paul and Bruce’s comment
was a brilliantly timed, unrehearsed bit of comedy. Yeah, I made the now
infamous mistake of mentioning the fact that I had a custom made
Batmobile bed in college to Bruce and Paul over dinner one night and
there you go. Hey, I always wanted one, like a race car bed, when I was
a kid and so when I got my first apartment, I was like if not now, when?
We tried to find a picture of it, but for some reason we just haven’t
been able to. I can’t imagine why…ha, ha.
Also I will go on record and say there are pictures of me dressed as
Supergirl (with some members of the JLA and Geoff Johns as Robin)
floating around. I’ll let that sink in for a second. You’re welcome. And
now, before the comments start, it was for Halloween and I will say in
my defense that I’m not the only guy on the roundtable who has dressed
like Supergirl (presumably for Halloween). Not that I would name names…
ANYWAY, I’m a huge Batman fan. My office has no fewer than a couple of
dozen Batman figures and the wall is adorned with a framed and
autographed pic of Adam West (in costume), framed copies of Batman #404
(Year One, Pt 1) and Dark Knight Triumphant both signed by Frank Miller,
and original cell of a big ole Frank Miller looking Batman head from the
Animated series, a framed autographed DVD from Hamill and Conroy, oh,
you get the point.
I grew up on my Dad’s Batman and Spider-Man comics. When I was lucky
enough to interview Denny O’Neil, I told him that he taught me how to
read and I said the same thing to Stan Lee. It’s true. I mean Dr. Seuss
helped a little, but it was all about comics. Big, big fan of the TV
show (something that Tucker and I have in common). When I was a kid, my
big punishment was that I wasn’t allowed to watch the Adam West show for
a week and it was a pretty effective punishment too, especially if they
hit the cliffhanger on a Friday because I was like, “DUDE! Now I’ll
never know how he gets off that giant BBQ spit!” It didn’t matter that I
had seen them all over and over, but I still wanted to know! The Batman
show was where it all clicked for me in terms of the type of job I
wanted to have. This was before Star Wars (which just cemented it), but
with the Batman show, I realized that I didn’t want to be Batman; I
wanted to be Adam West. Here was a guy who got paid to pretend to be
Batman. That was his JOB! That’s all I wanted to do is get paid to make
stuff up and pretend. And Mom said all of those comics wouldn’t amount
to anything...and, I guess if you read the message boards, some would
argue she was right.
I have to say again that I have been so incredibly fortunate to be
able to work on some of the projects that I have worked on. It’s Gumpian
luck. Again, if you read the message boards, that may be a pretty good
comparison (I actually tried to make that point at the beginning of the
“Mxy” commentary, but I jumbled it up. See, we do all of that stuff in
one take as much as possible). Especially as a Batman fan, but really in
general, I have just been incredibly lucky. On Batman related projects
alone, when I think about the fact that I have talked with Bruce, Eric,
Paul, Allan…all of those guys. I have talked with Adam West, Julie
Newmar and so on. ALL of the folks that were kind enough to help out on
the big Legends of the Dark Knight history piece that I did for the
first Tim Burton Batman disc and all of the cast and crew that we talked
to on that whole set. The piece I did on the comics for the Batman
Begins disc put me right in front of Jim Freakin’ Lee while he sketched
stuff for the ALL STAR book. I’ve seen Bruce Timm draw. I’ve talked
writing with Frank Miller and Denny O’Neil. I’ve geeked out with Kevin
Smith. I sat right next to Joel Schumacher while he did the commentary
for BATMAN AND ROBIN. I mean, GOOD LORD! The rest of my professional
life is going nowhere but straight down no matter what I do. That is
just a taste of the Bat Dream. And that doesn’t even mention some of the
other projects I’ve worked on. I interviewed Ozzy Osborne at his house.
Good times. I got to work on Clone Wars and Episode Three. I won’t bore
you with my whole life’s work, but the point is I have really lead an
amazing fanboy life.
So, yes. I guess you could say I’m something of a fan.
On the deleted storyboards for the “Batman” (Burton, ’89) DVD release,
you voiced Robin alongside Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hamill
(Joker). Were you able to record alongside them or did you dub it in
later?
There were three separate records that I was present for. Wow. That
was a badly worded sentence. So was that one. Let’s start again. Mark
came in to read the narration for the Legends of the Dark Knight piece
(Batman ’89 disc) for me and then recorded the lines for his part on the
storyboard thing. Unbelievable. You wouldn’t believe this guy. Amazing.
Takes direction on the fly and just gives you all kinds of options. So
talented. And to actually see him do the Joker live is something I won’t
ever forget. Kevin was in New York, so I phone patched into the booth
from LA and we worked his lines that way. So, funny to hear him have a
normal conversation in the Batman voice. He was really great. Kevin has
it down, you know? The dude is Batman. I was a bit of an afterthought,
but I jumped in and tried my best. That piece is really all about them
and that was one of our cap tips for the fans of the animated show and
Batman in general. One of the Producers here, Constantine Nasr, really
wanted to include the storyboards and we thought that was a fun way to
do it. Hopefully, folks dug it.
Being a Batman fan and working at WHV gives you easy access to other
behind the scenes information fans would rarely get a chance to see. Are
there any great behind the scenes tidbits that got left on the editing
room floor?
There is tons of stuff that doesn’t make it. That doesn’t mean it’s
always good stuff, but we generally shoot or record a lot of stuff.
Sometimes there are time constraints or whatever, but we try to get as
much in as we can. When we interview people separately for the talking
head pieces, people may repeat each other, so we pick and choose how
that goes. As with anything there can be some “off the record” moments
or I may know about some things or see some things ahead of time, but,
for the most part, it all comes out eventually. I saw "Starcrossed"
forever and a day before it came out, so mum was the word. But once it
came out, it was out. That said, in terms of the DCU projects, these
pieces and the commentaries could always be longer. We have had to lose
good sound bites before because we didn’t have stuff to cut it with or
any coverage or maybe people give two different versions of stories. But
we put in the best of what we can.
I haven’t officially produced any of the pieces that I have appeared
on camera in. That’s Scott. I have given my two cents here and there and
obviously we talk, but it’s mainly his call on what stays and goes on
those (at least before it goes out for the various rounds of approvals).
Now a bunch of the other docs and commentaries that have appeared on
these discs over the years, I have had a producorial (is that a word?)
hand in, either solo or working with the other guys I mentioned earlier.
Not the pieces I appear on camera in, though. Side note: you know the
table that we are sitting around on Inside The Justice League on Season
1? It’s half of Dr. Evil’s table. Really. I made some comment about it,
but I think it got cut. I have no idea where Scotty came up with that
thing, but it ruled. Many jokes made that night, mostly inappropriate
ones about various “Mini Me’s”. The Batman Beyond set came from Martha
Quinn’s apartment. Not really. I just made that up. But if you saw it,
you know what I’m talking about. And to clear this up once and for all
(people have really asked me and I’ve seen it in print), no, that was
not really Paul Dini’s apartment in the “Mxy” commentary. Paul has a
very nice house, a very nice wife and two sock monkeys (one of which is
very nice).
One thing that I have sitting here in front of me that we wanted to
put on the STAS disc is a blown up version of the comic page that Bruce
drew where all of the comic strips are guys that work on the show. We
mentioned it in the commentary when it popped up in the episode, but we
wanted to show it in detail. It’s pretty funny. To me at least. Now that
I think about it, maybe we stuck it on as an Easter Egg. I forget. Now
everyone will really hate me. I’ll get back to you on that. I’m back.
No, it didn’t make it. I wish it had.
I also don’t think that I can overstate how great the people involved
with these shows have been in terms of making time to participate and
help out on these sets. All the way from the beginning. They don’t have
to do it. They want to and they really have all been tremendous in their
efforts. We have all been very fortunate to have had the turnout and
care that they have all given to these projects. I mean it. It ain’t
hard to compare these discs to other things where no one shows up and
they are just filling holes. We really wouldn’t be able to make the
discs what they are without them. And thanks to WHV for putting them
out. And, obviously none of this would be possible without Zod.
How much material are you given access to? For instance, are
copies of recording sessions, auditions or table reads ever among the
stacks of videos?
Um, this is a bit tricky, so pardon the double speak. There are some
things that exist and some things that we wish existed that don’t. Wow.
That was annoyingly cryptic. OK. Most everything we can put on, we do.
Things like “JL First Mission” or the test thing that Bruce and Eric Radomski did when they were first developing the show (we called it
“Dark Knight’s First Night” on BTAS v1, I think) are real treats.
Unless, Bruce, Andrea and the others are holding out on us (and they’re
not), there really aren’t that many Holy Grails that have been hidden
from us.
By the way, Andrea has been such a great resource for us and would
make a legitimate run at the title of the nicest person in Hollywood.
She has so many great stories and is just so energetic and positive. She
has just been very gracious with her time. Everyone has, but I just
wanted to give her a shout out. So, I did. There. Yay, Andrea!
WB is great about hooking us up with model sheets and storyboards that
we use. I tried to do a whole piece on the storyboards on the JL disc
(that wound up on the JL season 1 set) that would appeal to the (then)
kids demographic those discs were “aimed at” as well as show off some of
the storyboards for the older (rabid) fans. It really was just an excuse
to show some of the storyboards.
Basically, know this (and this goes for most DVDs, I would imagine):
Most of the time, it isn’t that we didn’t think of it, you know? The
guys that did the Top Gun disc did a really good job, but it wasn’t like
they just forgot to get Cruise in for a commentary. They didn’t read a
review and go, “Now THAT would have been a good idea!” There are reasons
that sometimes things or people don’t get on. I was working at the
He loves lamp too. |
company that did The Lord of the Rings discs while that was going on (I
was working on some stuff for the first Spider-Man movie, told you I
was Forrest Gump) and that was unbelievable in terms of all
of the stars
(figuratively and literally) aligning. Most discs don’t have all of that
go that way. And you know, when you think about it, most discs don’t
warrant it. I’ve heard some people say that there was too much stuff on
the Batman Box Set (or Anthology or whatever it was finally called). I
don’t agree, but there can be a point where, for some things, it can be
a bit of overkill. There are only so many angles you can look at a lamp.
Don’t get me wrong, I love lamp, but c’mon. (I don’t even know what that
means other than I just wanted to say I love lamp. Sorry.) The point is
we try to pack these things with as much as we can, but everything we
get doesn’t always make it onto the disc. We do usually try to do at
least one Easter Egg. Don’t ask me where they are. I can’t ever find
them. Of course I couldn’t even navigate the menu for Batman Begins,
so what do I know?
Before your work goes into the Avid for editing, how much material is
usually filmed?
It really depends on a lot of variables. For example, the 5 or 10
minute featurette that I did for The Batman Season 1 set had maybe 5
tapes (2 ½ hours) of interviews and then another ½ hour of images that
we had weeded through and then motion controlled. Most of the time, we
have quite a few tapes to sift through.
Were there any features you wanted to include on any of the releases but
were unable due to time constraints or other issues?
Sometimes we have ideas of what we want to do that just don’t work out
for a variety of reasons. One that springs to mind, for example, is
Scott and I had been talking about doing a Kirby piece for forever (for
STAS), but it hit some snags and so we made sure we got the points
across in other ways. Bruce really hit on it in the commentaries, for
example, so it’s there, but not the Opus we envisioned.
And, for the record, Glen Murakami and James Tucker make me laugh.
That’s more of a general note, I suppose. But you want to talk about
deleted material…
Any juicy tidbits for upcoming set special features you can let loose?
You know, if you had asked me that a while back, I would have said
that Kirby thing. These things change constantly, no matter how you try
to plan. I wasn’t going to be on the upcoming JL set, but I had to (I
know, twist my arm) jump in last minute. My apologies to the folks that
are distraught by that news. If it makes you feel better, Butch Lukic
threatened to punch me in the head (again), but that got cut out of the
piece, which was for the best. We later hugged, but that wasn’t filmed
(and that’s probably for the best as well). Now he really is gonna punch
me in the head. And some would argue that that would be for the best.
So, my lips are sealed for now. Oh, fine. Something that I’m happy and
excited about is that it has finally worked out to get some of the
actors more involved this time. There! A bit of a hint that may be old
news tomorrow.
The World's Finest would like to thank Jason Hillhouse for his
participation in this Q&A.
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