'Industrial Light and Magic' Press Conference Recap at Star Wars Celebration
“Light & Magic” Panel and Press Conference
As a part of the ongoing events at this year’s Star Wars Celebration, a press conference for George Lucas’ visual effects company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) was held on May 27th, 2022. A panel was previously held (covered by us here) which announced the upcoming debut of the new Disney+ documentary series, Light & Magic, that will give audiences a behind-the-scenes look into the legendary company. Moderating the panel was ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan, and she was joined by executive producer Ron Howard, LucasFilm Executive Vice President and General Manager Lynwen Brennan, and visual effects artists Joe Johnston, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and Rose Duignan.
The conference began with Crossan inquiring about how busy the company must be and asked for insight into any upcoming projects. “Lucasfilm alone keeps ILM very busy,” Brennan began. “Then, of course, we continue to work for other Disney and Marvel projects as well as at other studios . . . we have like twenty of our projects going on at one time . . . and every single one of them is always doing something new.” Crossan then spoke to Howard about what it was like to return to ILM, spoke on the love for his film, SOLO, and asked him to elaborate on the visual effects invented for the film. “As far as the the sort of love for Solo, of course it's incredibly gratifying. And it means a lot to the cast, a great young cast who put their heart and soul into the movie . . . it means the world that somehow the film resonates with Star Wars fans, that's all everybody hopes for,” Howard said. Regarding the developments in technology, it started in the Millenium Falcon. “It wasn’t three sixty volume, but we had LED screens for the jump into into hyperspace. And we had that generated on the screen. So we got got lots of shots in camera, which I think is the key to stagecraft, the fact that you can put your actors in ‘real’ virtual worlds. So they're not reacting to a blue screen outside the cockpit, where now they have that acceleration of that moment. And then now with the entire volume they really feel that they're on different planets and they can react in a way that is harder to do when you're in a sea of green, and I think that's the most important thing—it's incredibly innovative technology but it allows a story to be told in a more authentic way, I think.”
During the panel, the story behind naming the character of Admiral Ackbar was a highlight for the audience. Crossan asked if there were any other character-naming anecdotes they could share. Tippett began, “Tony Mcvey [and] George [Lucas] wanted Jabba to have a little pal and so Tony Mcvey designed this thing . . . and Tim—I forget his last name—a puppeteer, he was one of the Henson guys . . . and we’d gone out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. And we had quite a few beers and my tennis shoes had become undone and I bent over and I was trying to tie them. And it was like oh, they're in a knot and I said something like my salacious, my shoelaces, shoe lace, sue-laces, it was like, that's a name of a character! So we told George. And that turned into Salacious R. Crumb.”
The making of E.T. was briefly touched upon as we approach the 40th anniversary of the film, and Muren reflected with nothing but fond memories, despite some initial challenges. “You know, for ILM, it was this small little show, you know, a couple other big shows were going on, we were literally in the corner of the big warehouse we were in, without much space. Everything was done in a small scale, we made miniature trees for the forest when the ship is landing and the bikes are landing and all,” he began. “But the spirit of the movie came through when Steven [Spielberg] was directing it, and I was on the set by it- so it was just fun. And serious, but very fun and magical. And I think that carried through to us working on it with these constraints to be able to do it and we’d try to keep the spirit of of fun and adventure . . . But what a surprise it became a huge film. I remember seeing it at a cast and crew screening—I’d seen an early version of it at Steven’s house without sound [and] temporary music. And I didn't get it at all, because you could hear the mechanical parts of the mechanical E.T. moving . . . and then I thought, “Oh, I hope this is going to work.’ Then when I saw the screening of it, I came out thinking [that] there's no one that will not love this movie. And my mother saw it just afterwards and she said, ‘This guy could shoot the phone book . . . give him anything and he’ll make an emotional, positive movie out of it, and so true.”
Brennan talked about what makes working at ILM special, from the family environment that Lucas helped create (even by starting a daycare at the company to allow employees to have their dream jobs and their families too), to programs they’ve initiated to help people break into the industry, or to the levels of inclusion they’ve created to bring in artists from all walks of life. “I think that there is a sense of, if you're not a computer graphics wiz, that that there's no place for you in visual effects.,” she begins. “But actually we have fine artists, we have sculptors. Yes, we have some actual rocket scientists and computer graphics persons, but we also have fashion designers. It doesn't matter what your talent is, there is a place for you in the visual effects business.”
“And that's what I love about it. There's so many different kinds kinds of talents, so many different kinds of characters and there is a home for you.” -Lynwen Brennan
The conference then turned to taking questions from the press, which included questions about the development of 3-D printing technology and how that has aided the visual effects process, what inspired them to create a behind-the-scenes show, and what kind of new technology developments have piqued their interests as a company. “I would say a lot of A-I technologies,” Brennan said. “You know, figuring out how we can automate and really get more natural reactions from characters that we make. On stagecraft, for example, when we use our real-time technology to populate the scenes, there are happy accidents that happen when we're using that technology, because it is running and it's running live. And that just like in real practical filmmaking, there's things that you can't plan that happen on stagecraft that are just naturally generated through the real time-tech. That's what I love. It's it's finding that new way to do things that are actually repeating traditional techniques but there are things that you can't plan. That’s what I'm really excited about right now.”
Johnston jumped in to add how even through technological advancements, story is still the heart of it all. “Personally, I don't like it when somebody comes out of a theater and says, ‘Wow, what great special effects.’ You know, because that to me means you weren't fully engaged in the story that some director is trying to tell. I believe that effects should be used sparingly and there shouldn't be one more effect in a film that you don’t actually need. It should be about telling the story at the bottom of it all.” Muren added, “I think we do a little more investigations to what reality is visually. Because I think a lot of the effects work is just falling short. And if it just can notch up a little more, it’ll be more real and to go to what Joe is saying, then you're more into the movie. Not that everything has to just look real. But if you're trying to make something look like in the familiar environment like that, the closer that gets so then you can add your fantasy, but when you do real, then the experience will be stronger and the emotional reaction will be stronger.” Tippet also had thoughts on this subject, stating, “I never really aspired to real. And maybe because a lot of it is because you can never achieve that, it's only going to be a simulation. So to use the imaginative process and be theatrical and make things hyper-real. Because you're in a dream. You're in a cinematic dream. And to . . . cull them from another dimension of imagination, put them into this thing, so that you trick the viewer’s mind, in a way. It it is real in their mind because it is new, you know. But it's not like, you know, real. And so reality is a very mercurial thing.”
The questions from the press continued, touching on subjects like anecdotes from the days on the early STAR WARS sets, filmmaker’s long and current struggle to work with studios to fulfill their visions, and the money that directors like Lucas or Francis Ford Coppola will funnel from their own bank accounts just to get the project made. When asked about how to choose which effects should be digital versus practical, everyone had great perspectives to share. “I think we have a constant banter within ILM and Lucasfilm [what is the] best tool for the job, right. And so it all comes back to what is the emotional connection you want to make in the scene and what's the best way to get that,” Brennan began. “How do you get the the best performance out of the talent on screen, and then how can you best execute the moment that you want to tell in the story? And so different tools do that better. There are moments in The Mandalorian where Grogu is a puppet and adorable. And we can achieve the story quite well with a puppet. And then, you know, have that interaction with the actors on the screen and have that immediate response. And then there are times when you can't do it practically and you have to do it digitally because of the action that needs to take place. And that's where you see the magic, I think, within ILM—the fact that they're able to get get that emotional feeling and living and breathing response within a digital character. That just happens to be the right choice to make for that particular shot. So it's a constant conversation with the director, with the visual effects crew, with the practical crew. And as to what is the best best approach that's going achieve that moment.”
Howard added, “For me, it is that possibility of kind of whatever is in your mind, whatever is in the mind’s eye, you have a much better chance of actually realizing that. But there are some other practical factors. Being able to help suggest an environment on an exterior shooting day, you may not quite get the feeling that you want. But digital effects can help you sort of complete the image, in a way. Or if you only capture it for a fleeting period of time but you must finish the scene for practical reasons that day- you can go ahead and finish and have a much better chance of actually creating the continuity . . . better for cinematographers to light, better for actors to be able to interact with, lean against, and so forth. So all of those kinds of decisions come into play and then there's the question of money. Because sometimes it's a huge savings to do it digitally or sometimes it's a huge savings to find a location that already exists. And make a small extension of build physically. So, you know, it's just as you said, right tool for the job.”
Lastly, when a question was brought up about the new generation of filmmakers—such as actor and director Bryce Dallas Howard—it circled back to Lucas’ original vision for the company. “You know, Martin Scorsese, once said, ‘If you want to know the future of filmmaking, go visit George Lucas at Industrial Light and Magic,’ which I thought was such a compliment. Because George Lucas set out to revolutionize the process of filmmaking. And that has been done.”