Formed in 1975, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of the production company Lucasfilm, has been a major player in the realm of visual effects. The first three videos show what is possible. Star WarsFrom movies to the game-changing works done on Jurassic Park, if you’ve watched an effects-heavy blockbuster from the last several decades, there’s a decent chance that ILM worked on it in some form or fashion. Lynwen Burnan, executive vice president of Lucasfilm and general manager, sees George Clooney-led movies. The Perfect Storm as a movie that wasn’t just important for the company, but VFX history overall.
I had the opportunity to speak with Lynwen Brennan as part of the press event for the docuseries Light & Magic, which explores ILM’s origins and its impact on the film industry., and can be watched in its entirety with a Disney+ subscription now. During our chat, I asked Brennan what she considered to be ILM’s greatest technical achievement, whether that be a character, creature, ship or simply a general effect. She began her conversation by saying the following:
There are so many to choose from and the list is constantly changing. The easiest way to answer that question is the one I did the last time. Every day, we start from the beginning. ‘How we’re gonna do that?’We don’t have the ability to solve every story problem that comes our way. My favorite is the one that we’ve just done, because then you have that euphoria of knowing that you pulled it off. My experience has shown me that sometimes the hardest ones are the easiest to accomplish. It could be water in Perfect Storm. Because digital water was not a common thing at the time we were working on Perfect Storm. We had to make it believable that digital water was the main character of the film. Everyone is familiar with the characteristics of water. But they don’t always know what a beast looks like. A monster can help you get away with a lot.
If you’re unfamiliar with The Perfect Storm, the movie (which some might consider to be one of George Clooney’s best) was based off of the real-life story of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing ship that was lost at sea during the 1991 Perfect Storm. Naturally since one can’t recreate such conditions in real life, it was up to the minds at Lucasfilm to convincingly bring to life that violent water in a digital setting, and make it work with the footage shot by director Wolfgang Peterson and his team.Along with George Clooney, The Perfect Storm’s ensemble cast included Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Dian Lane and William Fichtner, The Perfect StormIt was one of six movies ILM released in 2000, the other being Mission to Mars, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Space Cowboys, PollockAnd You Can Pay It Forward.
After more than two decades The Perfect Storm’s release Lynwen Brennan is still impressed with how well the digital water turned out in the movie, but that isn’t all she had to say about the ILM achievements that stick in her head. She continued:
That’s the one I remember, the feeling of relief that we felt from the time we completed the work on it to the current work in digital human work that we’re doing. Stagecraft is another. When we agreed to take it on at a cost, we didn’t know how long we could put off. It is amazing to be able walk into the Volume and have your brain be fooled. I think that this is why Stagecraft is my current favorite. It really amazes me how they keep pushing it every series.
StageCraftThe on-set virtual production technology, which is made up of video walls, was originally created for the Star WarsSeries MandalorianIt has since been used on many productions, not only in a far-flung galaxy, but also in Marvel movies. Thor: Love and ThunderThe future and what’s next Quantumania: Ant-Man and The WaspDC movies are like The BatmanThe future and what’s next Black Adam. These facilities, also known as. “volumes,”Have already made waves (to borrow von The Perfect StormLynwen Brennan is a visual effects professional and has even seen StageCraft come together. She continues to be amazed at the potential of this technology.
The next Lucasfilm production is the Star Warsseries Andor, and upcoming 2022 movies that feature ILM’s work include Wakanda for Ever: Black Panther Avatar: The Way to Water. CinemaBlend is your source for all the latest news on TV and film.