Mini Series Light & Magic - ILM DocuSeries (directed by Lawrence Kasdan)

Thanks, it'll have to wait for August 19 when I'm back from Europe! But yeah, excited about it. Though my GL fix is satisfied everytime I watch the video on my signature

 

An absolutely amazing docu-series. Some really emotional parts too. Toughest watch for me was Dykstra talking about why he wasn’t invited back for ESB. Star Wars wouldn’t have happened without him and he clearly wanted to come back for ESB.

 

I wonder how much the switch from stop-motion to digital on Jurassic affected Tippet, he downplays it but it must've been devastating, doing a dinosaur movie would've been his opus I would think.

 

Based on this documentary, it's pretty clear how devastating it was. Tippett didn't downplay it very much, I didn't think. He admits that the floor basically bottomed out on him.

But given that he was brought in by Spielberg to advise on how to give the digital dinosaurs the weight of the stop-motion ones, the blow was softened. I really liked that about Spielberg.

 

I was really moved by it. The "transition to CGI" narrative had that "innovators slowly, slyly but surely destroy the old ways" vibe to it, which is a cutthroat element of creative culture in a capitalist society that makes me a little uncomfortable (as I feel in a just society, innovation doesn't destroy, it builds upon). And for Spielberg to buck the pressure to be ruthless, and go out of his way to give Tippet the opportunity to play a role in Jurassic Park (and in a way that would improve the digital elements of the films) was a compassionate and courageous act, I thought.

 

Although now all the tools are used and the high tech is not only primary but used to enhance the models. It was an interesting juxtaposition to see John Knoll, one of the digital pioneers, building a practical model of the Razor Crest for an incredible shot in The Mandalorian and using the Volume to enhance the practical effects as well as the actor’s experience. Incredible.

I did appreciate Kasdan basically ending the documentary with Tippett’s story about his daughter being sad about giving up playing with toys and Tippett spontaneously telling her she didn’t have to. Talk about the feels!


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I was completely captivated by this docu series. I was very surprised by how John Dykstra was not offered a position at ILM despite all he did. He essentially spear headed the creation of all of the new camera technology that ILM used for the effects on SW. Sure, the team had only completed one shot (which really pissed off GL) but the team had spent a huge amount of time building the infrastructure... which Lucasfilm greatly benefitted from. Bottom line: incredible series on the development of special effects.

 

Yes, I think it’s reasonable to call Dykstra a pioneer and innovator of special effects, especially with the inventions of the DykstraFlex programmable camera. He made SW possible. What he was doing was impossible and he needed help. He started his own company and went to work on Battlestar Galactica with Dennis Muren. As I recall, Lucas sued the creator Glen Larson for copyright infringement. The ILM story is a great one.

It’s also crazy that Lucas created PIXAR and sold it to Steve Jobs, who worked with John Lassiter to create all that great animation. Is there anything that man hasn’t had an impact on regarding the modern film industry? I thought Favreau’s comparison to Menlo Park and Thomas Edison an apt one.


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I finished the series today! Good stuff. It became surprisingly fascinating a few episodes in.
Very fitting closing words by

Spoiler

Phil

as well!

 

Model builders still get to do a few things:

 

Yeah, it seems to me like it's just stop motion animation that's gone more or less extinct in major productions. Physical models aren't as common as they used to be, but they obviously still have their uses, even for fully animated movies!

 

It’s nice to have artifacts that can be seen, touched, observed and studied without necessarily having a degree in design and effects. Practicals are accessible. Software just doesn’t leave that kind of record. It’s legacy is opaque, esoteric and inaccessible. It’s alienating.

On the other hand it can look great, can be completely immersive and is limitless.

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I generally agree except for the inaccessibility point on digital. Digital creations are, for many today, far more accessible than physical stop motion artifacts.

 

That’s reasonable and let me clarify. In terms of digital, programs like photoshop have definitely had a democratization effect and are increasingly accessible to ordinary people. However, there exists a digital divide between places and people and within and between societies. The requisite hardware and software are not equally distributed, even before we consider the special knowledge required. Especially when we get into more complex software application.

On the other hand Tippet and his daughter can make stop motion characters with materials bought at a local craft store and film it with a camera in their basement. Thereby creating tactile artifacts that exist beyond a screen and are physically accessible.

I don’t even know if this makes sense, but in terms of the digital diffusion and boom around the world, agreed.


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Got ya. I just meant that it’s easier to find/ look at digital things vs. physical ones. But yeah. The making of physical models is something that the computer-averse can do, and there’s something nice about that.

 

This docuseries is delightful. It was much more than a behind the scenes special, it really was a documentary about the people behind the camera. And yes, Phil's stuff was very emotional, especially his message to his daughter at the end.

 

I really enjoyed this series.