Light & Magic ILM documentary series

[Laspector]

I'm really enjoying it.

I think the part I liked the most was Phil Tippet talking about figuring out the walking scheme for the AT-ATs. All these decades we've been seeing these discussions about Walkers and seeing that footage of the elephant walking. The assumption being their "walk" was based on the elephant walk. Phil said something like "no, throw all that out" and talks about the the Walkers always having a three point contact with the ground. For some reason, I found that highly fascinating and as I went back and actually checked it out, its true. There is never a shot with more than one leg off the ground, which animals don't do......All these years thinking it was elephants. LOL

The other part that I thought was fun was how as George was explaining stop-motion to Walter Cronkite, the guys were doing stuff that made no sense, just to make the interview look cool.

 

[jusdrewit]

It really is mind boggling the talent Lucas hired on that became legends, from Dykstra, to Muren, to Johnston, to McQuarrie, Peterson to Tippet and this isn't even talking about Burtt, or Freeborn or having possibly the greatest composer of all time compose your music. It might be the greatest collection of talent I've ever seen for film.

 

[swgeek]

I really enjoyed this documentary. It was great to see some of the early days of ILM that I hadn't seen before. I wish they would have interviewed more of the original people, Paul Huston, maybe old Grant interviews, they didn't talk to Steve Gawley at all. I do think Phil Tippett was one of my favorite parts of the whole doc.

 

[Kylash]

It was fun seeing some of their home movies, I’d never seen that stuff before. Like the stuff they made when they were kids.

 

[Jaitea]

Didn’t know that George pushed & paid for Joe to go to film school, what a wonderful guy

Also on BBC in 1977 there was a childrens television series with a character called Morph, who was a plasticine man who could metamorph into different things (animated by Aardman who later did Wallace & Gromit)
I know the film technique developed by ILM was the first to do it, but Morph was already a thing

J

 

[RodanAZ]

The other part that I thought was fun was how as George was explaining stop-motion to Walter Cronkite, the guys were doing stuff that made no sense, just to make the interview look cool.

I got the impression that they were trying to obfuscate the techniques they had developed, since it was going to be aired on national TV.

Great series. It's interesting to see GL's ongoing dissatisfaction with the end results, as they didn't match his mental vision, even though the rest of the world was blown away. Sheds a different light on his constant tinkering with later release versions.

 

[swgeek]

Unfortunately every change he made after the original made the movie worse.

 

[Jaitea]

I got the impression that they were trying to obfuscate the techniques they had developed, since it was going to be aired on national TV.

Great series. It's interesting to see GL's ongoing dissatisfaction with the end results, as they didn't match his mental vision, even though the rest of the world was blown away. Sheds a different light on his constant tinkering with later release versions.

Agreed, now I understand his tinkering

Absolutely fantastic series, makes me love George even more

J

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Didn’t know that George pushed & paid for Joe to go to film school, what a wonderful guy



J

I had never heard that either, I thought that was pretty cool. I think he's either just a genuinely nice guy or that and he recognized his talent and hope too keep him around that way.

I got the impression that they were trying to obfuscate the techniques they had developed, since it was going to be aired on national TV.

Great series. It's interesting to see GL's ongoing dissatisfaction with the end results, as they didn't match his mental vision, even though the rest of the world was blown away. Sheds a different light on his constant tinkering with later release versions.

Yeah I liked Ron Howard's reaction when Lucas said something like he only got 10% (I think) of what he intended on screen.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Also on BBC in 1977 there was a childrens television series with a character called Morph, who was a plasticine man who could metamorph into different things (animated by Aardman who later did Wallace & Gromit)
I know the film technique developed by ILM was the first to do it, but Morph was already a thing

J

In the 1983 movie 'Krull' the magician Ergo casts spells to turn people (and sometimes himself) into animals and they 'morph' from human to animal and back as an optical effect way before ILM did it with a computer in 'Willow'.

 

[Halliwax]

did i mention how disgusting Tauntaun fur is?

 

[The Terminator]

This is better than all SW content Disney has produced (minus Mando).
These are the folks that got me hooked on CGI as a tool.

Fantastic....
Also, Tauntaun's are cute.

 

[3DImpact]

This series made me long for a time machine - to be able to go back knowing what I know, knowing what we know of how it all came out and where's it'd go, and just be able to hang out with that amazing team in Van Nuys and just watch them and soak it all in. What an amazing privilege they had to bond together and be a part of that amazing family of creative genius.

Thanks to every one of them!

Dan

 

[The Terminator]

I also have to say that all the old BTS footage from 70's, 80's and 90's LOOKS AMAZING. Can't believe they actually remastered this footage.
The animatics/pre-visualisations, the concept art.
Wow.

 

[Psab keel]

I took a chance and watched this documentary. I enjoyed it, but what I got the most out of it wasn't so much what I learned from the series itself, but to be thankful for growing up in the era I did. Being part of the last generation before the information age, in a time when you could be a kid and not be expected to start growing up until you hit puberty.

 

[joberg]

When you think that SW was released less than 10 years after 2001 AS_O That movie influenced a lot of those artists we saw in that ILM documentary!
They pushed the FX into a more dynamic movement on screen and that made the rest of Sci-Fi movies Hollywood produced after that into another
realm. I loved the fact that GL was never the guy getting impatient or angry with those guys. "How can we do that shot?..It's impossible!"
GL's response: "Think about it and try"...loved that response

 

[Riceball]

This is better than all SW content Disney has produced (minus Mando).
These are the folks that got me hooked on CGI as a tool.

Fantastic....
Also, Tauntaun's are cute.

Tauntaun's what are cute?

 

[Pepperbone]

This is better than all SW content Disney has produced (minus Mando).
These are the folks that got me hooked on CGI as a tool.

Absolutely.
Lucas, McQuarrie and that initial ILM crew are why I'm here today.

And THANK GOODNESS for Lucas, Kurtz and ALL those behind the scenes who thoroughly photographed so many stages of production.

Few younger people realize that those were the days when rolls of film needed to be purchased, developed and printed. There was no such thing as taking a shot then checking it out to see if it looked good. There were no "posts". "Sharing" meant physically handing over a print.

Man, I miss those days so much.

 

[The Terminator]

Tauntaun's what are cute?

*"Tauntauns", hey you be nice, English isn't my first language How's your Swedish? lol

 

[HMSwolfe]

I’m only a few episodes in, but I’m really liking it. I’m sort of amazed so many of them are still alive!