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The Eric Chu interview or how I learned to stop worrying & love the Cylons
Despite hectic schedules, I caught up with Eric for a few to chat a bit...we sat down (figuratively speaking) I in California & he in British Columbia & did a little talk through about Cylon's.....Battlestar....Life...Cylons....Basestars....Cylon's.
For those of you wondering who or precisely a what is an Eric Chu...well, I'll tell you....he is the designer of the not only the Basestars but the Centurions...& Vipers...and...well, you get it...from the Re-Imagined series.
Also he is of course the mighty Cylon God, so you might want to offer him up a sacrifice of metal goods...old computers...a tin can...possibly a toaster...to appease him.
The occasional tuna sandwich is nice as well...he also is a member of the Fan Club, so please feel free to pay homage to him on his page.
Shawn : So what brought you into graphic design? What motivated you?
Eric: I think I ate lead-based paint chips when I was young.
Shawn: Prior to doing Galactica, what were you doing?
Eric: I was doing storyboards for animated cartoons.
Not the good kind.
The "did-your-inbred-cousin-write-this-script?" kind.
Shawn: So how did the whole Galactica adventure happen?
Eric: It was a case of knowing the right people at the right time.
I just happened to know Gary Hutzel from working with him on A Wrinkle in Time, and he asked me to help him on Galactica.
However, at the time I had done very little in the way of technical illustrations and was just beginning to use the computer.
Knowing full well the magnitude of the opportunity he was offering me, I locked myself in my room for several weeks and forced myself to learn to draw spaceships.
I had all the Art of Star Wars books and Joe Johnston's sketchbook series, from when I was growing up, and I used them as training manuals.
Shawn: I'm sure that once the outline of the story was laid out you knew you had to do things similarly but then again differently regards design for the show...what were your thoughts?
Eric: My initial thought was, "we are gonna be lynched, and our lifeless corpses paraded to riotous fanfare in the streets."
Shawn: Did you feel some pressure to really change things up or strike a balance with the original look of the show?
Eric: There was considerable pressure to change things up and stay as far away from the original series as possible.
It was constantly mandated from SyFy that we show them "something that had never been seen before…" which is what clients generally say when they have no idea what they want.
The fact that anything in the show resembles the original series at all is a minor miracle.
Shawn: I think, an opinion, that anyone who "creates" feels a paternity for what they do....how about you?
Eric: They are ALL my children… I love them all, although the more unruly ones need to be kept in an abandoned fridge under lock and chain.
Shawn: Did you find that you had to evolve the basic designs as the storyline progressed?
Eric: Not to any great degree, but the opposite was true in the case of the Raider.
The design was based on a story point in the original script that was later abandoned. In the draft I read, the Raider (described as a 'squashed' Cylon) could make a 'kamikaze' run by jettisoning its wings.
The central fuselage could then continue towards its target as a nuke.
That meant we had to use a long cylindrical shape with a Cylon face on one end.
That's why our Raiders have the elongated head, somewhat like Giger's Alien.
As interesting as that might have been, the idea was excised for whatever reason, but the design remained.
Shawn: Speaking of evolution...what was your take on the "new" look for the Cylons...or the Basestars?....they seemed much more different than say the overall look of Galactica or the Vipers, for instance...
Eric: The Basestar was probably the easiest one to design. I just wanted to try a shape that was the complete opposite of a circle.
It was approved right away.
The Centurion, however, took a lot more work.
The only requirement was that they wanted it to have an impossibly thin waist to show that it couldn't be a "man in a suit".
We tried a lot of variations, but in the end, we discarded the bulky armored look and went with a smoother, more organic design that mimicked human anatomy.
That played well with the whole Cylon evolution idea.
Shawn: Do you find yourself sourcing to a point from other material....I will say that the concept of a "human" Cylon was pioneered in Galactica: 1980 & even the crescent Cylon raider showed up in Richard Hatch's "Second Coming" or at least a variation of it.
Eric: At the time, I was not aware of Hatch's project.
But yes, to a certain degree, many designs are sourced from outside influences. However, they may not be as obvious as a TV or movie reference. Inspirations can come from anywhere, and often do.
In the case of the Galactica, the ribbed look was influenced by a picture of metal vases I saw in a book of industrial design. It's always good to widen one's horizons and try new things, even if they may not be related to your work.
The more interests you have and knowledge you gain, the more believable your "imagined" visions can be.
Shawn: I'm sure it was a wild ride...and demanding...thoughts about your schedule with the show?
Eric: I had never been so scared in my life when I was doing these designs.
The responsibility was enormous!
I was brought on early in the production, even before the pilot had been greenlit, so the fate of the production rested, in part, on the visual direction we were taking.
If SyFy hadn't seen anything they liked, the project would have been cancelled.
People don't realize just how tenuous the life and death of these productions can be. Even during the life of the series, we were always looking over our shoulders.
Shawn: What are you doing now...projects afoot?
Eric: I just got married a few weeks ago (true), so my next project is a human/Cylon hybrid.
Shawn: Sneak question: what would you LIKE to do?
Eric: Call me a sentimental fool, but human enslavement has always been a dream of mine…
Shawn: Advice (I always ask this)....that you can give budding designers out there?
Eric: Drawing techniques that require the use of plutonium-239 or any other fissile isotope require proper protective gear!
Shawn: As the omnipotent Cylon God...what are your recommendations for mankind in general?
Eric: Submit peacefully, and your annihilation will be less… er… Accept your doom and your destruction will be… ummm…….. Eat more roughage.
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