The gears meshed perfectly when Alex Jaeger took the position of Art Director for the new film, Transformers. Take an education in automotive design and prototyping, add 12 years experience at ILM and a passion for anything made with a metal plate, and the fit is perfect to launch what is bound to be the next big franchise in film history. In spite of the impending success (and it’s not the first time), Jaeger is the most gracious and unpretentious of people who can still laugh at himself, and is a real pleasure to talk to.
Growing up in the small town of Clarion, Pennsylvania, Jaeger spent much of his time watching “really bad SciFi movies just to gleam what ideas they had; good ideas, just executed really poorly.” In high school Jaeger was known as the class artist, and his parents encouraged him to explore his talent. “My dad was a doctor growing up. I took a look at how long he went to school and said, ‘Eh, no thanks!’ Plus I didn’t want people’s lives to be at stake. If I mess up here, no one’s going to die… which I thought would save my hair, but apparently didn’t.”
After studying automotive design in Detroit for two years, he realized it just wasn’t all he had hoped for. That was when he learned about ILM and the FX industry, through Joe Johnston’s sketchbooks on ‘Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi,’ Syd Mead’s work on ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘2010,’ and the work of Ron Cobb. Jaeger transferred to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he made up his own curriculum to have the skills needed to work at ILM, including prototyping, taking an idea from a sketch to a physical three-dimensional prototype.
Additionally, Jaeger researched others in the field, writing to them for feedback on whether or not he could make a living. “What I knew then of an artist was somebody who lives in a cruddy old loft in New York trying to sell a painting here and there. When I discovered the field of industrial design, I thought here’s a field that allows me to not only do artwork, but it’s practical artwork. I looked around, and didn’t just go into it blindly and said, hey, I’m going to be an artist. I actually looked for fields that would utilize the skills that I would need.”
The change in direction was kismet. Jaeger graduated in December of 1994, and by February of ‘95 was hired to work in ILM’s model shop. He worked there for a year, occasionally helping out the art department with storyboards and concept art. Jeff Olson, head of the model shop who knew Jaeger wanted to move to design, showed Jaeger’s portfolio to John Knoll, prompting both to approach Jaeger with the position of Art Director on ‘Star Trek: First Contact.’ Jaeger choked, and accepted the offer. He was 21 years old.
“It was definitely a trial by fire, because I knew there were a lot of people who had gone through the proper channels and slaved their way up, and were looking at me with these heated eyes, saying, ‘Who are you and why are you doing this? We’re just waiting for you to fail!’” A little over a year passed when the art department threw him a birthday party. “Mark Moore, my art department manager, saw the “2” and the “3” on the cake and said, ‘Hey, aren’t those backwards?’ and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Aren’t you 32?’ I told him, no, I was 23, and he said ‘You are so fired!!’”
But Jaeger has only begun to explore his boundaries. Opportunity has circled around again with Jaeger art directing ‘Transformers,’ a prospect I noted to be a perfect fit for his passions. “Yeah. I think a lot of people have said that to me,” he chuckled. I can see why.