Industrial Light & Magic
May 19, 2015 10:21 AM Subscribe
“Well, stop-motion as a process is extinct.”
No one told Nick Park or Tim Burton, thankfully.
But yeah. They invented the industry. I've always loved that the building they happened to buy was Kerner Optical ... because eventually they were fiddling at the pixel level.
posted by tilde at 11:28 AM on May 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
No one told Nick Park or Tim Burton, thankfully.
But yeah. They invented the industry. I've always loved that the building they happened to buy was Kerner Optical ... because eventually they were fiddling at the pixel level.
posted by tilde at 11:28 AM on May 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
Not surprisingly, they gloss over the fiduciary reason for the sale of the "computer division" that became Pixar. Howard the Duck was such a flop (see the "featherers" note in TFA) that Lucas went further into debt and had to sell that portion as a part of the restructuring.
posted by mfu at 11:48 AM on May 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by mfu at 11:48 AM on May 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
These are the kind of web stories instapaper was made for :)
posted by JoeBlubaugh at 11:50 AM on May 19, 2015
posted by JoeBlubaugh at 11:50 AM on May 19, 2015
Someday, I hope, Marvel will make a new version of Howard the Duck, and you’ll see it could be a good movie. A digital duck will make that thing work. -- Lucas
Oh, George, have you learned nothing?
posted by bondcliff at 12:10 PM on May 19, 2015 [10 favorites]
Oh, George, have you learned nothing?
posted by bondcliff at 12:10 PM on May 19, 2015 [10 favorites]
...why do you have to nudge the scroll wheel four times before the words actually show up...
Because they're doing usability wrong?
posted by cosmic.osmo at 12:20 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Because they're doing usability wrong?
posted by cosmic.osmo at 12:20 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
But it's the Spielberg quote that is the second-to-last quote in the article that sort of sums up everything for me: "I always thought that if ILM had run the space agency we’d have colonized Mars by now."
And even if we didn't colonize Mars, ILM could certainly make it seem as though we had. Isn't that right, moon landing skeptics?
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:32 PM on May 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
And even if we didn't colonize Mars, ILM could certainly make it seem as though we had. Isn't that right, moon landing skeptics?
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:32 PM on May 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
...why do you have to nudge the scroll wheel four times before the words actually show up...
Because people don't run adblockers on phones and tablets, so those appear in the stats they pay attention to as the most valuable users, and phone/tablet users can "throw" the page scroll instead of wheel-wheel-wheel, so they then optimize the design to maximize the above-the-fold to full-screen. The combination of business decisions and the magazine-mentality.
posted by rhizome at 12:53 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Because people don't run adblockers on phones and tablets, so those appear in the stats they pay attention to as the most valuable users, and phone/tablet users can "throw" the page scroll instead of wheel-wheel-wheel, so they then optimize the design to maximize the above-the-fold to full-screen. The combination of business decisions and the magazine-mentality.
posted by rhizome at 12:53 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
"I always thought that if ILM had run the space agency we'd have colonized Mars by now."
"Chris Impey says that if the U.S. were pumping more money into the space program, the sci-fi fantasy would be well on its way to reality. 'I think we might actually be living on the moon and Mars', Impey tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross."
settling for plato's cave?
posted by kliuless at 1:01 PM on May 19, 2015
"Chris Impey says that if the U.S. were pumping more money into the space program, the sci-fi fantasy would be well on its way to reality. 'I think we might actually be living on the moon and Mars', Impey tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross."
settling for plato's cave?
posted by kliuless at 1:01 PM on May 19, 2015
If you're interested in the history and technologies behind (pre-digital) ILM, I can't recommend this book enough: Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects. Actually the final chapter is devoted to digital effects as "the next big thing", but the most advanced example they have is the stained glass knight from Young Sherlock Holmes.
posted by brundlefly at 1:55 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by brundlefly at 1:55 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
...why do you have to nudge the scroll wheel four times before the words actually show up...
Slow wipe. ILM trademark.
posted by eriko at 2:09 PM on May 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
Slow wipe. ILM trademark.
posted by eriko at 2:09 PM on May 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
“Well, stop-motion as a process is extinct.”
No one told Nick Park or Tim Burton, thankfully.
Or the folks at Laika Productions ( "Coraline", "ParaNorman", "The Boxtrolls"), although original founder Will Vinton ("California Raisins") ain't doing so well.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:14 PM on May 19, 2015
No one told Nick Park or Tim Burton, thankfully.
Or the folks at Laika Productions ( "Coraline", "ParaNorman", "The Boxtrolls"), although original founder Will Vinton ("California Raisins") ain't doing so well.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:14 PM on May 19, 2015
Interesting stuff, but the format and overall disjointed nature of it is infuriating. I have seen oral histories put together much better in the past, so it's not a requirement of the style.
posted by wierdo at 2:58 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by wierdo at 2:58 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
ILM gave us Duff's device, but I'm not sure if that's an argument for or against the company. :-)
posted by A dead Quaker at 5:27 PM on May 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by A dead Quaker at 5:27 PM on May 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Argh, that was Lucasfilm. Never mind...
posted by A dead Quaker at 5:30 PM on May 19, 2015
posted by A dead Quaker at 5:30 PM on May 19, 2015
There are really interesting histories surrounding special effects pre-ILM and leading into Star Wars. One story is that the reason that 2001 (1968) shifted the planet from Saturn to Jupiter is that they could not figure out how to realistically depict the rings. Douglas Trumbull, the special photographic effect supervisor on 2001, didn't give up on Saturn and solved the special effects issue for Silent Running (1972). If you watch 2001 and Silent Running, it's no shock that he also worked on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and then Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). From there he worked on Blade Runner (1982), which also has very deliberate and often slow paced special effect flying objects. He's also the father of today's trend towards 60 frames per second.
Apparently Trumbull actually turned down an offer to do the special effects on Star Wars (1977) due to other commitments. As for ILM, well, Trumbull suggested that since he was busy, Lucas use his assistant, John Dykstra, to do Star Wars. The rest is history...
posted by Muddler at 6:04 PM on May 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Apparently Trumbull actually turned down an offer to do the special effects on Star Wars (1977) due to other commitments. As for ILM, well, Trumbull suggested that since he was busy, Lucas use his assistant, John Dykstra, to do Star Wars. The rest is history...
posted by Muddler at 6:04 PM on May 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Walter Murch and Douglas Trumbull... Were I to read their names as often as Spielberg and Lucas...
posted by lazycomputerkids at 12:16 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by lazycomputerkids at 12:16 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Cue the Lucas haters in 3,2, 1...
posted by zooropa at 12:29 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by zooropa at 12:29 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Unless you hate special effects, practical and digital, and all the spin off successes of ILM, this is one of those things that no one should be hating on Lucas for. Ironically, it's ILM's very inability to allegedly create the world(s) that Lucas wanted which resulted in the Special Editions, which began the Lucas hate.
I have always had this impression that ILM has a singular plain white hallway with countless doors down its two walls. If one opened any door, something incredible would be happening behind it, and one could spend an eternity simply opening and glancing through doors for more than a lifetime of wonder.
posted by Atreides at 6:56 AM on May 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
I have always had this impression that ILM has a singular plain white hallway with countless doors down its two walls. If one opened any door, something incredible would be happening behind it, and one could spend an eternity simply opening and glancing through doors for more than a lifetime of wonder.
posted by Atreides at 6:56 AM on May 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
« Older "My silences had not protected me. Your silence... | the temperature of a freshly killed snake Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by royalsong at 10:47 AM on May 19, 2015 [2 favorites]