Jason Hillhouse
by Bird Boy
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. |
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.
