Episode 13 -- Mark Craig

Mark Craig, director of the extraordinary documentary film The Last Man on the Moon, joins us for a great conversation about his career and the legendary Gene Cernan.

*This is our first truly international episode, as Mark joins us from his home in England!

*A British kid who loved James Bond films? Who would've ever guessed?

*He drew all the time as a child, and once he graduated from art college, he eventually specialized in motion graphics for BBC 4. That turned into directing small live-action pieces, and he was on his way.

*Born in 1959, he got caught up in the space program like so many other children of the time.

*One night, his father took him into the garden, pointed at the moon and told him that two men were walking on its surface. Little did Mark know that he would meet several moonwalkers, and get to know one particularly well.

*Mark discusses his interest in Formula 1 racing, and how documentaries on drivers Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Jim Clark helped pave the way for Last Man on the Moon with Mark Stewart Productions.

*Mark isn't quite up to speed on NASCAR ... yet.

*The first contact between Mark Craig and Mark Stewart was a literally a cold call, Craig contacting Stewart and introducing himself, basically looking for a job. What's the worst that Stewart could've said? No?

*Before Mark had finished Gene Cernan's book, he'd emailed the publisher to get in touch with the former astronaut in an attempt to get the ball rolling on a documentary. They met for the first time in London just a couple of months later, in the summer of 2007.

*It was that December, when Mark met some of Gene's friends and family in Washington DC, that he began to understand who the former astronaut was later in life.

*Gene's ex-wife Barbara, daughter Tracy and longtime friend Fred Baldwin add amazing life and perspective to the film, and that's just the way Mark wanted it.

*Suggestion Number One for working with Gene Cernan? Be on time!

*Mark had NEVER met a moonwalker as the elevator doors slid open at the appointed meeting time with Gene ... and there stood Gene AND Alan Bean!

*Gene Cernan and sound engineer Crispin Larratt, a match made in Heaven ... or not!

*The amount of time Mark spent with Gene ... and the memories Gene shared ... allowed the director to get to know his subject quite well, and better than many of his other projects.

*David Fairhead edits Last Man on the Moon before going on to direct Mission Control, and he and Mark experience some tough give-and-take moments in determining the film's final cut.

*Mark's toughest cut from the film ...

*Mark's reactions to the first public viewings of Last Man on the Moon were more of a professional sort, rather than emotional.

NOTE: Thanksgiving is next week in the United States, so there will be no new episode of Go, Flight: The Podcast, but we shall return the week after!