Founded in 1975, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of production company Lucasfilm, has been a major player in the visual effects field. From what is shown in the first three Star Wars film to the pioneering work done Jurassic ParkWell, if you’ve seen an effects-laden blockbuster in the past few decades, it’s likely that ILM has been working on it in some form, shape or form. Car Lynwen Brennan, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Lucasfilm, sees the film directed by George Clooney The perfect storm as an important film not only for the company, but also for the history of visual effects in general.
I had the opportunity to speak with Lynwen Brennan at the Light & Magic docuseries press event, which explores the origins of ILM and its impact on the film industry, and can now be viewed in its entirety with a Disney + subscription. During our conversation, I asked Brennan what she considers to be ILM’s greatest technical achievement, be it a character, a creature, a ship, or just … a general effect. She began by saying the following:
There are so many of them and it is constantly changing and evolving. My simplest answer to this question is the last one we did because every day in this work we start thinking very early on: “How are we going to do that? Because all we offer is to solve a problem with the story or bring something to the screen that it’s in a director’s head, but we have no way of doing it. My favorite is what we just did, because then you get that euphoria of knowing you did it. Over time, I think these are often the ones we know be the hardest to do. So let it be water in Perfect Storm, because if you think back to when we were doing Perfect Storm, digital water wasn’t really a thing. And we shot a movie where digital water was the character main part of the movie and it had to be shot credibly. Everyone knows what water looks like. They don’t necessarily know what a monster looks like. So you can get by a lot more with a monster.
If you are not familiar with The perfect storm, the film (which some might consider one of George Clooney’s best) was based on the true story of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat lost at sea in the perfect 1991 storm. Of course, since it is not possible to recreate such conditions of life real, it was up to Lucasfilm to convincingly bring this violent water to life in a digital environment and make it work with footage shot by director Wolfgang Peterson and his team. Along with George Clooney, The Perfect Storm cast included Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Dian Lane and William Fichtner, The perfect storm was one of six films released in 2000 that ILM worked on, the others were mission to mars, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, space cowboys, sulk Yes pay later.
More than two decades later The perfect stormLynwen Brennan is still impressed with the quality of digital water in movies, but that’s not all she said about ILM’s results that stuck in her mind. She continued:
This is what comes to mind, that sense of relief when we finish working on this, at our current work on some of the digital human work we do. And then Stagecraft is another where when we agreed on a budget and after a while we didn’t know if we would be able to postpone it. Being able to walk into this volume and let your brain be so fooled never ceases to amaze me. So this is my favorite at the moment, everything we do in Stagecraft, because it’s really amazing how they push it forward with each series.
Stage Craft is the virtual production technology on set consisting of video walls originally developed for the Star Wars series the Mandalorianand has since been used in productions not only set in a galaxy far, far away, but also in Marvel films such as Thor: love and thunder and the next Ant-Man and the Vespa: Quantumaniaand DC movies like the Batman and the next black adam. These installations, also called “volumes”, have already caused a sensation (borrow The perfect storm) in the visual effects industry, and even knowing how StageCraft came together, Lynwen Brennan continues to be amazed at what this technology can do.
Lucasfilm’s next upcoming production is Star Wars series Andorand upcoming 2022 films featuring ILM’s work include Black Panther: Wakanda forever Yes Avatar: The way of water. For the latest on movies and TV, keep your eyes peeled on Gossipify.
Source: Cinemablend
Benjamin Smith is a fashion journalist and author at Gossipify, known for his coverage of the latest fashion trends and industry insights. He writes about clothing, shoes, accessories, and runway shows, providing in-depth analysis and unique perspectives. He’s respected for his ability to spot emerging designers and trends, and for providing practical fashion advice to readers.
