Something a little different today! Writer David A. Bossert chats with me today about his non-fiction architecture book, The House of the Future: Walt Disney, MIT, and Monsanto’s Vision of Tomorrow.
Bio:
David A. Bossert is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, and author. He received his B.A. from CalArts School of Film and Video with a major in Character Animation. As a 32-year veteran of The Walt Disney Company, he contributed his talents to The Black Cauldron (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), The Lion King (1995), Fantasia/2000 (1999), and the Academy Award©-nominated shorts Runaway Brain (1995), Dali/Disney Destino (2003), and Lorenzo (2004), among many others. See his entire filmology at IMDb. He is now an independent producer, creative director, and writer.
Bossert is a member of the CalArts Board of Trustees, Visual Effects Society (VES), Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in Pittsburgh. He has presented and lectured at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Salvador Dali Museum, School of Visual Arts, NYU Film School, Bowers Museum, Newport Beach Film Festival, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí (Figueres, Spain), Oscar Pomillio-Blumm Forum (Pescara, Italy), and at other venues and festivals. Bossert, a historian, is widely regarded as an expert in the realm of Disney animation art and history.
He co-authored Disney Animated, which was named iPad App of 2013 by Apple and in 2014 won a prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. In 2018, Bossert was awarded a U.S. Patentfor his invention Parallax Based Monoscopic Rendering and in 2020, he received an additional U.S. Patent for Varying Display Content Based on Viewpoint.
As an author, Bossert has published twelve books, numerous articles, liner notes, and program notes. His latest books are Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Visual Companion (2023, Disney Editions) and The House of the Future: Walt Disney, MIT, and Monsanto’s Vision of Tomorrow (2023, The Old Mill Press). Learn more at www.davidbossert.com
What do you enjoy most about writing?
What enjoy most about writing nonfiction books is that I get to document history and shine a light on individuals and topics that might otherwise be lost to history.
Can you give us a little insight into a few of works – perhaps some of your favorites?
I pour 150% into each book that I write, so I love them all!
What genre are you inspired to write in the most? Why?
I generally write creative nonfiction. It’s keeping with “write what you know!”
What exciting story are you working on next?
I am working on a Disney WWII book that showcases a little know aspect of the Disney artists contributing their expertise to the war effort.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I first consider myself a writer after my second book was published and I was working on my third. That is when I got a literary agent.
How do you research markets for your work, perhaps as some advice for writers?
I typically have spent several years or more researching a book project. This includes tracking down material in archives, museums, and private collections. At some point in that research process, it hits a critical mass and I start writing the book.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I type very quickly with only a few fingers. I never learned how to type properly but have my own system that uses my index, middle fingers, and thumb!
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I had always wanted to be an artist and ultimately became an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios where I eventually rose to a producer, creative director, and head of the Special Projects unit. I spent more than 32-years at Disney and then transitioned to writing fulltime.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Never stop reading!
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