Granted unparalleled access, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan takes viewers on an adventure behind the curtain of Industrial Light & Magic, the special visual effects, animation and virtual production division of Lucasfilm. Learn about the pioneers of modern filmmaking—whose work inspired the entire industry of visual effects—as we go on a journey to see George Lucas’ vision brought to life.
In an age when complex visual effects are accessible on smartphones, where stunning images can be rendered on the fly in video games and where movie-quality VFX are seen on television shows, to dive back over 40 years to another era of visual effects, in a tin building in Los Angeles that regularly hit 100 degrees (hence the much-needed slip-and-slide outside) filled with a wretched hive of talent and ingenuity is genuinely refreshing. The six-part documentary series LIGHT & MAGIC, brought to us by director Lawrence Kasdan and a production team including long-time Lucasfilm actor and director Ron Howard, lifts the lid on how that ragtag band of effects mavericks came together through friendships, working relationships and good fortune under the eye of John Dykstra to not only create these timeless special effects, but build the equipment that made them possible.
The first episode, ‘Gang of Outsiders’ kicks off with a who’s who of legendary Hollywood names. George Lucas of course, Ron Howard, Lawrence Kasdan, Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Deborah Chow and James Cameron underline why ILM is THE go-to VFX house in the movie industry – and so it is – but the series quickly sets out its stall. We’re going back to the early days as Lucas developed his space fantasy and scoured Hollywood for an effects house to bring to life his vision, realising quickly that no such house existed. As Lucas says, ‘I like speed‘; luckily so did John Dykstra. In Dykstra, Lucas found a well-connected man with a love of cars, physics and photography who could do everyone’s job; the perfect man to bring together the earliest ILM effects team for The Star Wars.
Avid followers of Star Wars know this crack team well – Dykstra, himself a student of Douglas Trumbull on 1973’s Silent Running, Richard Edlund, Joe Johnston, Lorne Peterson, Phil Tippet, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston – legendary names in the hall of visual effects, but then green as grass to the rigours of making a major motion picture. Their hunger and can-do attitude would see them working insane shifts to make Lucas’ vision come to life.
Key to this dream was the development of the Motion Control system, built from scratch. Using the legendary Dykstraflex and the utilisation of VistaVision cameras not used since The Ten Commandments, these jack-of-all-trades hot-rodded these venerable cameras into usable shape, much like the designs of Colin Cantwell were a jumping off point to create the hot rod Rebel ships and factory fresh Imperial vessels. With the creativity of Joe Johnston and the intimidating but inspiring images of Ralph McQuarrie, inspiration was certainly not in short supply.
There are stories here long-time fans will know well, but they’re told in such a fresh, personal, vibrant way it all feels new. Hearing Joe Johnston explain how he created a new version of the Millennium Falcon (aka the ‘Pork Burger’) – we’ve heard it before, but told anew, with all his illustrious Oscar-winning colleagues telling their own tales…it’s engrossing beyond words. All of this, a fascinating, sun-soaked, glue-gunned preamble to Lucas returning from the soundstages of a drought-blighted England in 1976 to be presented with only two completed effects shots for a film that was meant to premier in six months time….
It’s safe to say, anyone watching this debut episode will be gripped, and eager to see what comes next. We know the results of their labours; Star Wars would go on to win six Academy Awards, with a seventh Special Achievement Award given to Ben Burtt for sound design while the film would define the late 70’s and change the face of cinema forever, in a multitude of ways. Star Wars is legend, but this series is about Industrial Light and Magic, and the story of ILM deserves a Special Achievement Award all of its own.
- Hardcover Book
- Mark Cotta Vaz (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 328 Pages - 10/01/1996 (Publication Date) - Del Rey (Publisher)
