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Lets talk all things Star Wars
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Somerset
Sr Member
My cousin (who must have only been 22 at the time) worked as one of the many compositors on TLJ, contracting for one of the SFX houses. His 'big scene' that he worked on was... the one where Leia uses the Force to make her way back inside the ship (aka Leia Poppins). Now no matter how derided that scene might be, it's probably still a great feeling to have worked on a major motion picture like that, and would have been good for his 'portfolio' or 'resume' (whatever they call it in that industry).
That said, he's never tweeted about it (and only told me after I pried it out of him at a Christmas party).
That said, he's never tweeted about it (and only told me after I pried it out of him at a Christmas party).
How does that work? I was under the impression that FX and digital artists that work on these movies were employed wholly in house at ILM? I know there are different departments within ILM that handle different effects depending on the needs of the work, but I wasn't aware some of these things get contracted out. I know other studios might use multiple FX houses depending on their budget and resources, but I thought Lucasfilm was self contained and that was the reason why George was able to maintain his autonomy outside the Hollywood system by being totally self sufficient. I'm genuinely asking because I have no idea how that works.
Lightning
Master Member
I have absolutely no knowlege on the subject but, based on that story, it sounds like Lucasfilm, without George, isn't as militant about in-house work and even they max out their capacity sometimes.
I know the early rotoscoping for the lightsabers in the first Star Wars was handled by an artist outside ILM but that was also at the beginning, and I thought after that point the effects were handled internally. It's just curiosity on my part because I'm not in the industry.
Riceball
Master Member
Now a days, big effects heavy movies are just too big for one effects house to do all the work, even ILM. Part of the reason is that big effects houses like ILMs will have multiple projects on their plate and probably don't clear their calendars to work on just one film, not even if it's Star Wars.
(I was typing this and Riceball beat me to it)
The SFX industry has changed a lot since the 1970s/80s, or even since the early 2000s.
Today the big tentpole movies farm out the work to many SFX houses. The studios got into the habit as they were doing more CGI shots and rushing to meet brutal release dates. Nowadays some of the SFX houses have specialties. This place removes green screen from shots for compositing. That place does cosmetic touch-ups on actors. Etc. Some of it is done overseas.
The SFX industry has changed a lot since the 1970s/80s, or even since the early 2000s.
Today the big tentpole movies farm out the work to many SFX houses. The studios got into the habit as they were doing more CGI shots and rushing to meet brutal release dates. Nowadays some of the SFX houses have specialties. This place removes green screen from shots for compositing. That place does cosmetic touch-ups on actors. Etc. Some of it is done overseas.
ghostryder
Legendary Member
‘Star Wars’ Editor Marcia Lucas Slams Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams: ‘They Don’t Have a Clue’
Marcia Lucas was "furious" when she saw Han Solo and Luke Skywalker killed in Disney's "Star Wars" trilogy.
www.indiewire.com
Marcia‘Star Wars’ Editor Marcia Lucas Slams Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams: ‘They Don’t Have a Clue’
Marcia Lucas was "furious" when she saw Han Solo and Luke Skywalker killed in Disney's "Star Wars" trilogy.
Finally someone with some clout is saying the same thing the fans have been saying! That's what really ticks me off any time you complain about Rey as a character online and people say "Oh yuck a girl in Star Wars, I can't watch it!" or you're misogynistic, etc. Having a female character is no problem for most SW fans. We love Leia and there's a reason Mara Jade and Jaina Solo are two of the most popular EU characters. I'd argue Mara might be THE most favorite EU character. It's not because we hate women, we hate poorly conceived stories!
That is interesting, I read that ILM did do the rotoscoping. And ILM had to build a computer to do it, the computer was so large they had to rent a separate garage to work out of, because of the size of this machine
Wonder if my story is bullsh1t
Where can I learn more about this? Kind of disappointed that what I have always been under the impression is wrong
Does anyone know or have heard of ILM building a computer for something and it was so large they rented a garage for house it?
I distinctly remember the clip, and they had a black and white photo of the garage and men building was at the time was large hard drives
They even gave the example of the size of a floppy drive back then, and then the men holding the drive which had to be 4ft x 4ft
Perhaps that was in reference to the custom built computer system they had to make to do the space shots. I do recall seeing lots of mentions about them having to hand craft the computer systems to be able to computerize multuiple passes to be able to composite the spaceships with the starfield and other elements for the battles.
HeartBlade
Sr Member
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