I first met Norman Cates at Worldcon in 2011 when I was moderating a panel on the impact of the Lord of the Rings films.  Since Norm works for WETA Digital and had his first paying job in effects and prosthetic design with these films (those elf ears are all his!), his inclusion on the panel made sense.  What I didn’t know was how knowledgeable and passionate he was in general about the field, and when I started my series of professional presentations for my creative writing course at St. John’s University I immediately thought of him as a good choice…and happily, I was right.  In this clip Norm talks about what led him to WETA in the first place, then asks a few questions about my students’ experiences in creative expression.