WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Looks at Industrial Light and Magic 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios, 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.800 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.720 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:18.520 How Stuff Works and I heart Radio and I love 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.640 all things tech. It's done, and my friends, not for 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.520 the quister. That's a different show, but a time for 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:31.480 another classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally published 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:36.080 November two thousand twelve, and it is titled tech Stuff 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:41.159 looks at Industrial Light and Magic, one of my favorite 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.480 companies looking into just because they were responsible for so 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:49.720 many memorable moments in cinematic history. Let's listen in Sitting 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.600 across from me as usual is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.920 Hello from a podcast from long long ago and far 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:59.440 far away and far far away. I am pretty far 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.920 out there. So yeah, we wanted to talk today about 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:09.120 a special visual effects studio named Industrial Light and Magic. 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.480 And the reason why we decided to cover this particular 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.240 topic is that, well, Industrial Light and Magic is part 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.080 of h Well, it's one of the many things that 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.600 George Lucas created, including things like Lucasfilm, and that's been 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.679 the news recently because that's the recording of this podcast. 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.679 It has not been that long since Disney announced its 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:35.319 intention to acquire Lucas Film for the parents ly sum 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:40.720 of four point zero five billion with a B dollars 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.399 all stocks, mostly all of which apparently will be donated 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.520 to George Lucas's educational charity. Right, Yeah, it's pretty phenomenal. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.760 George Lucas back in two pledged that he was going 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:57.760 to dedicate his wealth to philanthropic endeavors mostly due uh 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.200 to um are mostly towards education, which kind of it's 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.200 nice and it shows that he's following in the same 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:09.919 sort of vein as other notable rich people and philanthropists 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.480 like Bill Gates. Yeah, and that's not really what the 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.200 the podcast is about. We're not talking about George and things. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.560 But I did want to throw that in there simply 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:22.080 because that was a a pretty amazing thing to do. 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.280 Everyone would do that, very cool thing to do. Uh. 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.040 It almost makes me not want to criticize him for 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.760 some of the decisions he's made. Well, I think it 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.440 gives us a picture of who he is as a person, 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.280 and although he does see himself, I think as a 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:44.440 as someone who is empowered to revise things that were 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.240 previously released, and then that that that does infuriate a 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:50.840 lot of people, among other things that he's done. But 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.440 you know, I get the sense to that, Hey, he's 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.440 not a bad guy. Of course, that's what he wants 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:59.239 us to think. But come on, come on, how who's 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.120 going to go to the extent of of donating the 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:05.080 majority of their wealth to education in order to convince 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:07.040 the world they're not a bad guy. He's clearly a 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.280 good guy. Yeah, I would say so. So he's a 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.000 better guy than I am. So so well, well done, 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:16.839 Mr Lucas. But but yeah, I mean he's he's also 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:21.760 the same kind of person that is driven creatively. He's 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:28.119 he's willing to come up with complete new uh businesses 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.880 to support his creative habits, we might say, even though 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.760 we may not necessarily agree with them. I would I 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.480 would say personally for me that you know, his heart's 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.240 in the right place. He's trying to create a good 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.200 story and it doesn't always pan out. You got you 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:47.200 gotta remember back, all right? So he founded Industrial Light 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.880 and Magic in Yes, now, that's two years before the 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.760 release of Star Wars and New Hope, one of the 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:59.360 best documentaries ever to be made. Well he um as 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.680 a filmmaker. His his filmmaking career began before that. Um, 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.720 but he you know, American Graffiti wasn't exactly m A. 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.160 It wasn't as it wasn't a positive experience, wasn't. It 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.880 wasn't a special effects driven masterpiece. You know, it was 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.839 a very good film. I liked it, but um, you know, 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.520 it wasn't. It wasn't the kind of film that George 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.400 Lucas has come to be known for. He made a 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:29.240 super effects blockbuster, which many would argue that he is 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.839 responsible for, and in part due to industrial lite and magic. Really, 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.400 the the two people I think who are responsible for 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:40.039 the blockbuster special effects extravaganza are Lucas and Spielberg. And 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.320 of course Spielberg has had quite a bit of involvement 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.280 in uh several of Lucas's endeavors. But anyway, yeah, he 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.400 so he founded this visual effects company, and it was 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:54.120 probably because Lucas he knew he wanted to do things 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.400 a certain way, and in order to do that, he 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:03.080 wanted to lit his dependence upon other companies as much 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.520 as possible. So he started to make stuff. He said, well, 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.720 there's no visual effects company out there that is going 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.920 to do the stuff I need to have done, so 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.159 I'm going to make it myself. And uh so he's 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.520 kind of a hacker. Yeah, it really is a lot 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.960 of ways. And and this was all due to necessity. 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.360 You know, he wanted to have as much control over 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.880 the project as possible in order to do that, and 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.920 then that he had to build all this stuff, and 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:30.960 so he set out to do it, and that's exactly 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.359 what he did. It's kind of amazing. Well, there's a 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.720 you know, the industrial line. Magic has been responsible for 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:42.400 many different advances in movie making technology over the years. 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.560 Back in nine, one of the first things they developed 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:53.000 was the Dixtra flex camera system that's named after John Distra, 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.640 who was actually the lead designer on this camera design. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.800 Uh and it's it was made because if you if 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:00.960 well it's kind of hard to say, like if you 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.160 if you saw the Star Wars and New Hope back 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.320 in its cinematic release version, this is pre special addition. 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:12.719 All the effects there for things like the ship battles 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.000 and stuff, all the all the ships, all the the 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.760 Death Star stuff, all that was made with practical effects, 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:26.920 practical miniature models. That so, so the X wings going 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.680 through the Trench and Death Star. That was all done 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:35.159 with managers. So this is pre computer generated special effects 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.599 in that sense. Yeah. And the sound too, the the orchestra. Uh, 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:41.919 would you know they would put these models on the 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:43.720 dolly and then the orchestra will be on the dolly 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.680 behind them playing the music. No, let's going a little 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:48.880 too far in there, Chris, But but this long way 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:51.680 to go for a bad joke. This this camera, This 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.960 camera was special because in order to get the effect 0:06:56.080 --> 0:07:00.520 that Lucas wanted, he wanted the spaceship scene to look 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.279 like um, like dog fights, like airplane dog fights from 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.120 World War two movies. Yeah. And and the reason that 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:12.440 those uh that that film, uh, and we're talking about 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.000 existing film. The reason that that film is so effective, 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:20.880 I think is because it's been it was shot by 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.840 another airplane in the air at the same time as 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:28.520 a dog fight. And this this motion control photography that 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:34.720 I LM developed for this UM used uh, basically was 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:39.040 using cameras that moved in with the spaceship models, so 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.080 it appeared that you were flying in the in the 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:46.520 dog fights between the different fighters or the Millennium Falcon 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.880 and the tie fighters. So it was there was a 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.080 real sense of movement right right. The camera was mounted 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.800 on a crane, and the crane was mounted on a 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.720 Dolly track, so they don't do a Hello Dolly joke. 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:06.119 I didn't any worry, Okay, So anyway, so the crane 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.000 can move back and forth along this track, the camera 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.080 could could move in various ways to adjust the pitch 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.680 or the tilt of the of the camera's angle so 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.680 it could follow the motions of the miniature and make 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:25.000 it you have this this really swoopy effect where like 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:29.160 Chris was saying, you're following the action very closely, and uh, 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.120 it was a necessity for him to achieve the effect 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.520 he wanted. So he builds this thing. Actually he puts 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:37.600 John Dixtra in charge of it, and John and his 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:41.200 team built it. I call him John Smart. Uh, and 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.240 they they shoot the movie and in nineteen seventy seven, 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:50.000 Star Wars New Hope hits theaters and becomes an amazing success. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.880 And the two movies that that really launched the era 0:08:55.040 --> 0:09:01.079 of blockbuster summer hits were Jaws and Star Wars um 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.559 and uh. You know what you get when you come 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.200 up with a new kind of special effects technology. An 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.120 Academy Award. Yes, they won that for Vision Visual Effects 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.720 in nineteen seventy seven. John Steers, I think of him 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:19.760 as Dike Strit, John Dikest, Richard Grant, Grant mckewn, and 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.720 Robert Blackock. I can't keep saying any of their names. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.920 I'm just gonna call him the guys they're all John now, yeah, 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.160 it's a matter of fact. They also got a Special 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.720 Achievement Award in nineteen eighty Visual Effects. Right, but before 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.040 we get to nineteen eighties, something happens in nineteen seventy 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.480 nine that I want to talk about something, something special. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.280 There was a special division formed in nineteen seventy nine 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:45.800 and Industrial Light and Magic. That division was called the 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:51.760 Graphics Group. Uh, specializing in computer animation and effects. Wait, 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.040 I feel like I should know who these guys are. 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.200 When we get to nineteen eight six, it'll all become clear. 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.480 But yeah, in nineteen seventy nine, the division, the Graphics Group, 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:04.400 forms an Industrial Line Magic. That division will become incredibly 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:08.800 important and influential and uh, but oddly enough, their most 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:15.440 influential days will be after they leave Lucas Film and 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.880 Industrial Line Magic. So moving on, uh, nineteen eighty that's 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:24.120 when Empire Strikes Back the second greatest documentary. Actually, I 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.120 think that people would argue that's better than Star Wars 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.400 most people. You know, I actually prefer a New Hope 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.800 to Empire, but I really love Empire too. It's just 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.160 one of those things where you know, a New Hope 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.400 really resonates with me, but Empire is great. So Empire 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:43.160 Strikes Back comes out. They do win the Special Achievement 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.840 Academy Award for Visual Effects for that. The nineteen one 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.400 Indiana Johnes and Raiders The Last Start Comes Out. Now, 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:55.560 that was another UH the project that UH had Spielberg's involvement, 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.240 and they won the Academy Award for Visual Effects for that. 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:04.120 They also made a movie Did you ever see Dragon Slayer? Okay, 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.319 so I saw Dragon Slayer back when I was a kid. 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:08.720 Dragon Slayer is a fantasy film, and it's pretty much 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:10.720 what you would think it is. It's a story about 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:15.480 a young hero who UH sets out to slay a dragon. 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.240 It's a little more cop kid and that, but that's 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:22.320 there just yea. So they designed a new kind of 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.640 filmmaking for this as well. They decided that there's a 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:32.200 problem with working with practical effects for monsters that are 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.560 um the go beyond like something someone in just a suit, right, 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:38.439 Because one of the things you could do is you 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.680 could do stop motion animation to create a monster effect, 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.400 because it's it's it's hard to build a giant monster 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.880 so and it it really it's hard to make it 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.160 look right. It takes a lot of work. If I've 0:11:53.200 --> 0:12:00.280 shown my kids older monster movie bits, and it's kind 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.800 of easy to on the one hand, when you grew 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.280 up with pre I l M movies and technology and 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.120 and Jonathan and I probably barely qualify for that. But 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:12.480 you know, you look at some of the old monster 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.360 movies and you could see the zipper marks in the 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.720 costumes and the older stuff. You don't you're not freaked 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.679 out by that anymore. But you know, the practical effects 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.040 um could be done very very well, and even when 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.120 they're done very very well, it still doesn't have the 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.680 same effect that the newer ones do, right, And it's 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.600 just it's it's just weird to think about now. But yeah, 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.160 I mean, looking at the new stuff, it looks so 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.560 very very real. Yeah, well, back then, you know, with 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.679 the practical effects, that's pretty much all they had at 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:48.600 their their disposal. At this point back they developed something 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:53.160 called go Motion and Go Motion. Uh. The way that 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.040 they explain it on the Industrial Light and Magic website 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.360 is that it worked by fusing quote both electronic and 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.080 mechanical opponents into a device that could record the dragon 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.000 in Dragon Slayers movements based on an animator's design and 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.280 play them back so the camera could capture them as 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:15.319 they occurred. So the reason for this is because if 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:17.960 they if they were to do it in traditional stop motion, 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.880 there'd be no motion blur when something moves quickly, because 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.600 because all you're doing is just taking a bunch of 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.800 individual photographs really of objects that are not in motion, 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:32.800 and then you're playing them back to make it look 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.960 like the object was in motion. To get motion blur, 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.680 the thing actually needs to be moving. It helps, but 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:45.360 that's not how stop motion works because the name stop Anyway, 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.080 it was an interesting development. It was something that they 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:54.000 had um created two again to meet the needs of 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:59.000 the project that without having to you know, completely reinvent everything. 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:05.000 Two they they got another Academy award. Um I'm not 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.720 gonna go through every Academy award Industrial Line Magic has 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.280 won because that would be ridiculous. But they got it 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.719 for one of my favorite films as a kid growing up, 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:18.840 which was Et the Extraterrestrial. Yes, I loved this movie 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.960 as a kid. I think I must have seen it 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.240 three or four times this summer that it came out, 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.240 and I probably cried my eyes out every single time 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.160 I watched it because I'm a SAP. I'm gonna sap 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.360 all my life. I still am a SAP. I probably 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.320 could watch ET without crying now, but back as a kid, 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.800 there was just no hope. Um. But anyway, that that 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:45.280 was another very popular film made by h. Lucas and Spielberg. 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.200 So uh, and of course we should point out, uh, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.080 Lucas's involvement in some of these films is more of 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.560 a kind of advisory sort of role. Industrial Line Magic 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.640 worked on lots of projects, not just lucasfilm projects, which 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.160 is why you know E t s an Eblin project, 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.720 not lucasfilm. Well. I wanted to point that out too, 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:09.200 that it would have been easy for George Lucas to 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.520 restrict Industrial Light and Magic to working on his films. Yeah, 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.520 but then we would have hardly any of them because 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:17.800 he didn't do very many. Well, I mean that's that's 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:19.600 part of it. But I mean he could have he 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:24.600 could have done say, uh, the Indiana Jones films and 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.520 the Star Wars film stuff that he was intimately more 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.720 intimately involved with, um, you know, the projects that he 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.080 and Spielberg worked on together in some capacity. But he 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.160 you know, they decided to spend this off into its 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:42.360 own company, and in doing so they made I would 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.000 argue that they made film richer for it. I mean 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:47.960 you could say that, you know, working on on Star 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:52.920 Trek two, um, you know, and one of the greatest 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.640 documentaries ever made it Ever, We're gonna take a quick 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.480 break right now and we will come back with more 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:10.240 about industrial light and magic. So you might say, well, 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.360 you know, start there, there's this whole Star Wars versus 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.840 Star Trek, which I think is silly anyway, um personally, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.680 but you know they you might say, well, you wouldn't 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.840 necessarily you might want Star Wars to be the dominant 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.800 uh science fiction space franchise. You know, why would you 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.600 let him work on Star Trek. Well, I think, like 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:36.200 I said, it really populated film with the DNA of 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:38.960 industrial light and magic and made them the powerhouse that 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.280 they are now. Um, And yeah, I mean they got 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.680 a nomination for that too. Um. They did other work 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.680 for other of the Star Wars and Star Trek films 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:51.960 and going through You could see this in their the 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.680 timeline on the Industrial Light and Magic website. Um but yeah, 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.560 they really and they got involved in stuff. Now you 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.080 would say, also, these films are going to be heavily 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:08.359 dependent on uh special effects, and you would expect that 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.879 to be so. But um on other stuff like um, 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:13.600 you know you would see it too, for things like 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:15.720 Back to the Future, the Back to the Future franchise, 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.560 but he also worked on the Industrial Line. Magic also 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.400 worked on stuff like Out of Africa and Young Sherlock Holmes, 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.639 stuff that had special effects. But some of this stuff 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.320 is less special effect driven. The special effect the special 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.200 and special effects in this case is making it look 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:40.240 photo realistic rather than looking fantastic. Yeah, um yeah, I 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.960 agree the UH and and you know, there are other 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:45.800 analogs we can compare this to, like the wett A 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.920 Workshop which did all the work for the Lord of 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.320 the Rings movies, and the Hobbit has also done work 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:57.720 for other other production companies. That's so they have done 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:02.800 designed for lots of stuff, not just the Peter Jackson production, 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:06.320 So there are other similarities there. I'm glad you mentioned 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:11.520 Young Sherlock Holmes. Inive I l M achieved something no 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.639 one had done before. They created the first computer generated 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.480 character in a film, fully computer generated character. Uh that 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.320 stained Glass Man, Stained Glass Man from Young Sherlock Holmes. Uh. 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.600 In this case, what's happening for those of you who 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.040 have not seen Young Shelock Holmes, which is a pretty 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:32.399 good movie that's slowly paced, but it's I enjoyed it. Uh, 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.479 it's It's got a lot of cute references in it 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:39.119 that clue you into the man that Holmes will become 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.720 and actually the man that Watson will become as well, 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.119 though it really messes up their ages anyway. Uh, there's 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.639 there's this The plot involves this stuff, this substance that 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:54.240 causes people to hallucinate, and they hallucinate these terrifying visions 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.920 that drive them to essentially suicide. And in this particular case, 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.919 it's a character who is looking he's in a building 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.400 with stained glass windows, and one of the stained glass 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.879 figures comes to life, jumping out of the window, and 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.159 it's a night that is made out stained glass that 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.760 stalks the guy. So that's the scene. And that was 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.640 the first use of a computer a fully computer generated 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:22.240 character in the film Who's Stalking Nice. So in idea six, 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:27.399 here's where the spinoff happens. That um that I mentioned. 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.560 So back in seventy nine they had the Graphics Group Division, 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.160 and eighty six Lucasfilm spins off the Graphics Group Division 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:40.960 as its own company, with a healthy dose of funding 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:46.040 from a certain Mr. Steve Jobs who had kind of 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.160 lost his job. Yeah, he was, he had a gig 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.159 and then they cut him loose. Yeah, he he just 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.480 founded Apple and then got pushed off to the very 0:19:55.640 --> 0:20:00.680 edges of that company and essentially they kind de fired 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:05.040 him without saying he's fired. And then he said, all right, 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.400 I guess I'm going and he left. And then but yeah, 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.119 he poured in a great deal of money to the 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:17.359 Graphics Group, which became Pixar. So Pixar at this time 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:22.200 was again really kind of pioneering computer graphics, computer animation. 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:27.560 It would of course be several years before um Pixar 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:33.680 would enter in it's uh, it's long and fruitful relationship 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:38.080 with Disney. Yes, so, but that that did have its 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.960 you know, start way back then, and yeah, they were. Um, 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.399 of course they weren't what they are now. But you know, 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.000 and you might say, I can't believe that George Lucas 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:51.240 allowed this to happen. But at the time it probably 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.320 wasn't so clear cut. It was very expensive to do 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.560 what they were doing, and there there were there were 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:00.520 no clear indicators at that time. I mean, or hardware 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:02.080 wasn't what it is now either. It would be a 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.280 good long decade before you start to see this really 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:11.800 kind of payoff, But boy did it. So. Industrial Line 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.679 Magic entered in with a partnership with a little company 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.560 called Kodak, which, uh, of course has seen some hard 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:22.320 times recently, but Kodak and I LM produced the first 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:29.000 high resolution film input scanner. Now this was important because 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.960 what I could let you do is digitally scan film, 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.160 then you could edit it with a computer, and then 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:40.040 you would print it back out onto film. And uh, 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:44.560 you wouldn't have to do all those edits manually using 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:48.960 the traditional methods of cutting film and editing that way, 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:53.040 So it gave a lot more versatility to the editing process. 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.679 And you guys may not be aware of this, but 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.280 it really is true that films are made in the 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:03.919 editing book that you can shoot hours and hours and 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:08.640 hours of footage of actors doing lines and and uh 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:12.760 and running around and explosions and whatever. But until you 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:14.600 get into the editing booth and put it all together, 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:16.919 you do not have a movie. And in fact, I 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:23.280 have seen evidence of amazing films coming from what you 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:28.400 would imagine to be um worthless footage, and it's all 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.760 due to a really creative editor finding ways to make 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:35.800 something interesting when before, like you might watch a sequence 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:39.280 that originally was twelve minutes long and you think, wow, 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:42.600 this is unusable, and then an editor gets ahold of 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:44.320 it and cuts it down to like seven and a 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:49.680 half minutes, and suddenly it's phenomenal. And so uh, this 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:52.760 is one of those important developments in the industry. Now, granted, 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.680 this is only important as long as film remains a factor, 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.439 and of course that doesn't always hold true. We've got 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:01.160 a lot of ditch old productions out there. In fact, 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:03.600 almost everything is digital now. Yeah, and now of course 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:09.280 uh thanks to who was that anyway? Um foreshadowing h Yeah. 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:14.159 Although this device used charged couple device UM image sensor, 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:17.280 it was not a digital camera in the way that 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:20.320 we think of now. You know, this was a scanner, 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:22.800 so it was you know, you you you, you did 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:26.000 use a film camera first and then use the scanner 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:28.680 and then it would again put film out, so that 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:30.879 you know, the projectors, the projectors and the projectors we 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:34.080 use were film projectors. They weren't digital yet, so uh yeah, 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:37.480 going fully digital was not a viable option at this point. 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:42.080 UM nine nine they created the first computer generated three 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:46.600 dimensional fluid based character. And boy, how many fluid based 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:51.159 characters I have loved in the cinema over the years. 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:55.640 I can't think of any right now, apart from the 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:58.879 alien water creature from the Abyss, which is what this 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:01.760 is talking about now. I saw, well, I don't know 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:04.520 if you if you argue that the terminators being sort 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.159 of liquid, okay, yeah, and we'll get to the terminators 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:09.040 as well, but yeah, I guess so so the T 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:13.960 one thousands, that's really higher so liquid metal? You know, no, 0:24:14.119 --> 0:24:17.439 it was. I remember I saw The Abyss in the 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:20.800 theater and I remember not thinking as much of the 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:23.600 plot as I would have liked to have, but the 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:26.760 effects were amazing. The effects were amazing, and I still 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:31.680 remember watching, Um well, I shouldn't I suppose I shouldn't 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:35.680 give away one spoiler, but the pseudopod actually gets um 0:24:36.080 --> 0:24:39.520 it's it's a movie that came out in Okay, spoilers 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:42.840 don't apply anymore. When the door shuts and cuts the pseudopod, 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:46.159 I's got to that point yet. I just get to 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:48.480 the point where the doors open and the pseudopods right there, 0:24:48.480 --> 0:24:49.879 and it's friends, and I thought they were all going 0:24:49.960 --> 0:24:54.159 to have a picnic. And so the pseudopod when it 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:58.560 gets cut, turns into real water and four floor. Um. 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:02.440 Just it was amazing, It was fantastic. Yeah, And that 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:04.040 that was one of those challenges. I mean, there are 0:25:04.040 --> 0:25:08.280 several things that have been challenges for computer graphics artists 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:12.240 to recreate in a photo realistic way. Water was one 0:25:12.280 --> 0:25:15.840 of them. Fire is another one. Hair is a big one. 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:19.919 So there are a lot of fire, a lot of 0:25:20.000 --> 0:25:25.119 challenges that that that various people working on computer graphics. 0:25:25.160 --> 0:25:27.679 I've had to try and find a way of of 0:25:27.720 --> 0:25:30.760 designing so that it has that realistic feel on camera. 0:25:31.280 --> 0:25:32.800 And of course Pixar was doing a lot of this 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:37.000 too around the same time. So in ninety one they 0:25:37.040 --> 0:25:40.520 created the first computer graphics main character. This is the 0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:42.879 one you were referring to the T one. Yes, that 0:25:42.960 --> 0:25:46.280 was in ninety one and in Terminator two Judgment Day, 0:25:46.280 --> 0:25:50.280 which I remember. I liked it a lot when it 0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:53.040 came out, and as the years go on, I start 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:56.400 to change my opinion on that, mainly because of my 0:25:56.520 --> 0:25:59.400 love for the first film, even as schlocky and goofy 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:02.760 as it is um because they kind of totally changed 0:26:02.760 --> 0:26:05.520 the tea character Terminator character in that one anyway now 0:26:05.560 --> 0:26:11.119 need too. They won their twelve Academy Award for Computer 0:26:11.160 --> 0:26:15.600 Graphics Work, which is pretty amazing. They also had the 0:26:15.640 --> 0:26:21.120 first time they with human skin texture computer generated human 0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:23.520 skin texture. This was for the movie Death Becomes Her. 0:26:24.400 --> 0:26:29.840 Did you see that, Alan, No? I have great effects 0:26:30.200 --> 0:26:33.479 and it's an interesting concept, but I don't know, just 0:26:33.560 --> 0:26:36.879 did not click with me. But but again, people, the 0:26:36.920 --> 0:26:40.959 effects were amazing, so that's undeniable. The actual film, however, 0:26:41.240 --> 0:26:46.720 it left me a little cold. Death Becomes Her It's stiff. Hey, 0:26:46.760 --> 0:26:49.520 it's Jonathan from the President again here to say we're 0:26:49.560 --> 0:26:52.119 gonna take another quick break and then come back to 0:26:52.240 --> 0:27:04.840 conclude our episode about industrial light and magic. There wasn't. 0:27:04.840 --> 0:27:08.120 It was a short time later when they actually created 0:27:08.200 --> 0:27:14.000 a character that seemed to breathe with skin, muscles and texture. 0:27:14.160 --> 0:27:17.040 This is a Jurassic Park. Now. Jurassic Park was one 0:27:17.040 --> 0:27:19.440 of those movies again that when it first came out, 0:27:19.560 --> 0:27:24.159 I remember that people were just completely stunned with the 0:27:24.240 --> 0:27:28.120 quality of the of the digital dinosaurs, and that those 0:27:28.119 --> 0:27:31.639 movies you would watch scenes and you'd think, Okay, that 0:27:31.720 --> 0:27:35.280 had to be practical. They must have built a giant 0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:38.879 robot dinosaur for this scene. And then most times that 0:27:39.000 --> 0:27:42.880 was not the case. It was all computer generated from 0:27:43.000 --> 0:27:45.040 today's standards. If you were to go back and watch 0:27:45.119 --> 0:27:49.000 Jurassic Park, I say, it largely holds up, but there 0:27:49.040 --> 0:27:52.000 are definitely bits where you'll think, Okay, I can kind 0:27:52.000 --> 0:27:54.680 of tell that's computer generated. Apart from the fact that, yes, 0:27:54.720 --> 0:27:58.160 we know that dinosaurs aren't walking around right now. Beyond that, 0:27:58.400 --> 0:28:01.320 I can tell its computer generated. Uh, And there are 0:28:01.320 --> 0:28:04.879 a couple of scenes that are more obvious than others. 0:28:05.160 --> 0:28:07.879 But you gotta thank you know, for for nine it 0:28:07.960 --> 0:28:10.440 was a pretty phenomenal achievement. And like I said, it 0:28:11.040 --> 0:28:15.879 more it holds up more than it doesn't right now. Again, 0:28:16.080 --> 0:28:20.160 another short jump to a film where they did their 0:28:20.160 --> 0:28:27.520 first computer graphic photo realistic hair and fur. Yeah, and uh, 0:28:27.600 --> 0:28:30.560 it's interesting because they had a great model to work 0:28:30.600 --> 0:28:34.120 from with Robin Williams, who is probably the haryest, furiest 0:28:34.160 --> 0:28:38.160 man on the planet. You're looking at me, funny, that 0:28:38.240 --> 0:28:40.720 was a that was a joke. That was a joke. 0:28:41.360 --> 0:28:43.920 He's a hairy man. But that's a joke. Make jokes 0:28:43.960 --> 0:28:48.280 about that. They created the effects for all these computer 0:28:48.360 --> 0:28:51.880 generated animals, and these animals were supposed to look not 0:28:52.640 --> 0:28:56.560 They were supposed to like almost a slight fantasy version 0:28:56.760 --> 0:28:58.640 of the real animal, because the idea was these were 0:28:58.680 --> 0:29:02.840 all generated on this magical board game, and so it 0:29:02.920 --> 0:29:06.480 wasn't They didn't need to look exactly like the real 0:29:06.560 --> 0:29:08.960 world version of those animals. They need to look a 0:29:09.000 --> 0:29:13.040 little hyper realistic, but not so much as to be distracting. 0:29:13.120 --> 0:29:16.760 So that was the goal they had for that film. Um. 0:29:16.840 --> 0:29:22.080 They also created, uh, the first synthetic speaking character with 0:29:22.200 --> 0:29:25.720 distinct personality, so how they word it on their timeline, 0:29:25.720 --> 0:29:29.720 That would be Casper from Casper the Ghost which uh, 0:29:29.760 --> 0:29:33.840 good ghosts. I did not watch, but now these were 0:29:34.480 --> 0:29:36.120 This was a case where you're talking about a computer 0:29:36.160 --> 0:29:40.040 generate character that not only appears on screen but has 0:29:40.240 --> 0:29:43.560 a large, an important presence in the film and has 0:29:43.600 --> 0:29:48.000 to be able to convey emotion and meeting and motive. Uh. 0:29:48.080 --> 0:29:52.000 And so that's you know, that's more challenging than creating 0:29:52.080 --> 0:29:54.240 something that looks real. You have to have something that's 0:29:54.360 --> 0:29:57.520 behaving in a realistic way and a believable way so 0:29:57.560 --> 0:30:01.080 that the audience has an emotional connect with that character. 0:30:01.640 --> 0:30:05.080 And then that's not easy to do. I mean, computer 0:30:05.520 --> 0:30:08.719 animators and animators in general will tell you, you know, 0:30:08.960 --> 0:30:11.160 once you developed that kind of style where you can 0:30:11.200 --> 0:30:15.800 create that on a reliable basis, it's an amazingly effective 0:30:15.840 --> 0:30:18.720 and useful tool. And before you get there, it is 0:30:18.800 --> 0:30:23.600 just a painstaking process thinking, well, you know, I created 0:30:23.600 --> 0:30:26.000 this character and the sad thing happens to this character, 0:30:26.040 --> 0:30:28.440 but no one seems to care. It's I mean, it's 0:30:28.440 --> 0:30:31.800 a tricky thing to to be able to invoke empathy 0:30:31.960 --> 0:30:38.200 in your audience. Eight they were awarded to I l 0:30:38.360 --> 0:30:41.000 M was awarded two patents for some techniques. One was 0:30:41.040 --> 0:30:45.440 for hair, fur and feathers. Uh. In this case, it 0:30:45.520 --> 0:30:48.400 was the hair, fur and feathers effects they made for 0:30:48.440 --> 0:30:52.600 another movie, Mighty Joe Young, which was am I saw 0:30:52.640 --> 0:30:56.160 the original Mighty Joe Young way back when I didn't 0:30:56.200 --> 0:30:59.800 see the remake. Um, this one was hair raising, I'm sure. 0:31:00.120 --> 0:31:03.080 And the other one was for facial animation, which was 0:31:03.160 --> 0:31:07.280 again created originally for the film Casper, but was also 0:31:07.480 --> 0:31:11.920 used on other movies like Men in Black ninety nine. 0:31:12.280 --> 0:31:17.200 They created the most realistic digital human character ever seen 0:31:17.280 --> 0:31:23.320 in film, which was not the Daddy. It was the Mummy. 0:31:26.120 --> 0:31:29.520 Chris is not having a great morning right now. Hey, 0:31:29.920 --> 0:31:32.760 I just listened by the way slight tangent. I just 0:31:32.840 --> 0:31:37.280 listened to one of our older episodes, and uh, and 0:31:37.840 --> 0:31:42.240 you ground my my will to live into the dirt 0:31:42.320 --> 0:31:44.680 with your puns. So you're gonna sit here and you're gonna, 0:31:44.960 --> 0:31:50.040 you're gonna, you're gonna endure this, all right? Two thousand Um. 0:31:50.160 --> 0:31:54.120 That was with the real time on character motion capture 0:31:54.160 --> 0:31:57.040 system developed for Star Wars episode one. So this is 0:31:57.480 --> 0:32:02.760 this is where they have someone's favorite movie ball thank you. Yeah. 0:32:03.000 --> 0:32:07.200 Star Wars episode one the phenominas, which I'll say this, 0:32:07.920 --> 0:32:11.720 I think it's the best of the prequels. Alright, that's 0:32:11.720 --> 0:32:14.720 as much praise as I can give it. But anyway, 0:32:15.280 --> 0:32:18.800 Also it has jar Jar, so do the other two prequels. 0:32:19.160 --> 0:32:22.080 It also has Darth Vader saying yippie, and I still 0:32:22.120 --> 0:32:25.560 say it's better than the other two. Um, but that's 0:32:25.600 --> 0:32:28.240 neither here nor there. What they developed was this motion 0:32:28.320 --> 0:32:30.640 capture system that worked in real time. Now, this is 0:32:30.640 --> 0:32:35.000 really useful, and that you could get an actor wearing 0:32:35.040 --> 0:32:37.440 a special suit that would have sensors on our or 0:32:37.560 --> 0:32:39.960 really it's not even sensors, it's just points of reference 0:32:40.240 --> 0:32:43.040 for a camera to pick up UM and then the 0:32:43.080 --> 0:32:48.520 actor could physically portray a performance within a space. And 0:32:48.560 --> 0:32:51.960 then they take that information that the actor has created 0:32:52.000 --> 0:32:54.840 by moving through the space and the camera picks up, 0:32:54.840 --> 0:32:58.320 they feed it through software and that becomes the guideline 0:32:58.640 --> 0:33:01.760 for the computer generated character that will replace the physical 0:33:01.800 --> 0:33:04.800 actor who was moving through there. Jar Jar is an 0:33:04.800 --> 0:33:08.640 example of that. That was one of the characters that 0:33:09.360 --> 0:33:15.479 that used this UM this technology to create the performance. Now, 0:33:16.120 --> 0:33:18.280 while I do not much care for the character of 0:33:18.360 --> 0:33:21.800 jar Jar, I do admit that it was an interesting 0:33:22.320 --> 0:33:25.640 use of technology to be able to give a computer 0:33:25.680 --> 0:33:30.760 generated character more of a physical performance by actually mapping 0:33:30.760 --> 0:33:34.440 it to someone's real movements, because otherwise you've got animators 0:33:34.680 --> 0:33:37.840 trying to simulate real movements as best they can, and 0:33:37.920 --> 0:33:40.440 sometimes it works great, and you watch and you're think, oh, 0:33:40.480 --> 0:33:42.720 well that looks real, and sometimes you're like, huh, that 0:33:42.840 --> 0:33:45.280 doesn't look right at all. Yeah, they're going to use 0:33:45.320 --> 0:33:47.160 this technique again in some of the movies that are 0:33:47.160 --> 0:33:52.080 coming up to to pardon my pun, great effect, um, 0:33:52.160 --> 0:33:55.720 some of my my favorite recent more recent movies. Yep. 0:33:55.880 --> 0:33:58.800 They also began to develop other stuff. In two thousand 0:33:58.800 --> 0:34:03.720 and one, they developed ambient occlusion. Yeah that's uh what, 0:34:03.840 --> 0:34:08.040 it's just what it sounds like. Which, there you go. 0:34:08.200 --> 0:34:10.279 They actually used this in the movie Pearl Harbor. Like 0:34:10.320 --> 0:34:12.560 it's just what it sounds like. I have no idea 0:34:12.560 --> 0:34:15.640 what you mean. Basically, they were using a combination of 0:34:15.760 --> 0:34:22.160 light and shadows that made the lighting appear realistic through 0:34:22.160 --> 0:34:26.240 the use of computer graphics. And they really it really 0:34:26.280 --> 0:34:28.920 showed uh showed up for the first time in Pearl Harbor, 0:34:29.880 --> 0:34:32.480 the movie. Not not the actual actual Pearl Harbor, not 0:34:32.719 --> 0:34:36.399 the place nor the historical event. Yes, but they Yeah, 0:34:36.440 --> 0:34:38.440 I mean with the the planes in the attack on 0:34:38.520 --> 0:34:41.520 the the American fleet and that you know, in the 0:34:41.560 --> 0:34:45.000 early morning hours. Um, you know, it required a lot 0:34:45.040 --> 0:34:48.440 of clever lighting. Yeah, and shadows. Yeah, you're talking about explosions, 0:34:48.440 --> 0:34:51.200 you're talking about shadows being cast by lots of different objects. 0:34:51.239 --> 0:34:53.880 You're talking about smoke. I mean, there's there are a 0:34:53.920 --> 0:34:56.680 lot of effects here that we kind of you know, 0:34:56.800 --> 0:34:58.880 you take for granted when you watch it on a film, 0:34:59.000 --> 0:35:01.920 but to be able to recreate it realistically in a 0:35:01.920 --> 0:35:05.880 computer environment is not easy, and that that's why a 0:35:05.880 --> 0:35:08.120 lot of this technology went toward. That same year, they 0:35:08.200 --> 0:35:15.160 also created onset visualization processes that would allow a filmmaker 0:35:15.280 --> 0:35:19.520 to put actors into an environment, let's say, like a 0:35:19.560 --> 0:35:23.560 big green screen environment, and look at the virtual sets 0:35:23.680 --> 0:35:29.319 around the real actors, complete with the actual camera motions. Um. 0:35:29.600 --> 0:35:32.200 This was This is useful when you're making a movie 0:35:32.360 --> 0:35:36.520 where a lot of the backgrounds you create are digitally inserted. 0:35:36.600 --> 0:35:39.279 It's not it's not a computer animated film. It's still 0:35:39.280 --> 0:35:44.239 a live action film, but the the the sets might 0:35:44.280 --> 0:35:46.319 be virtual. And we saw this in a lot of 0:35:46.360 --> 0:35:48.480 the movies, like a lot of the Star Wars prequels 0:35:48.520 --> 0:35:52.000 had it. The example they give specifically within the Island 0:35:52.080 --> 0:35:58.080 timeline is with Steven Spielberg's movie AI Artificial Intelligence. Uh, 0:35:58.600 --> 0:36:01.680 it's another let down. There's a lot of movies here 0:36:01.719 --> 0:36:04.440 that I didn't really care for so much. Yeah, but 0:36:04.719 --> 0:36:07.080 back to the future I loved So there's there's that 0:36:07.120 --> 0:36:09.760 address a park. I love that too. So it's okay, 0:36:10.080 --> 0:36:13.799 I'll just keep going, all right, two thousand three, or 0:36:13.800 --> 0:36:15.279 do we You were about to say something, I'm sorry, Well, 0:36:15.280 --> 0:36:17.360 I was going to point out that the U for 0:36:17.400 --> 0:36:22.240 the ambient occlusion thing. They do point out that. UM 0:36:22.280 --> 0:36:25.400 a few years later in the Academy of Motion Picture 0:36:25.520 --> 0:36:29.320 Arts and Sciences gave them a cry Tech Award for 0:36:29.520 --> 0:36:34.280 the ways in which ambient inclusion helped advance computer graphics 0:36:34.320 --> 0:36:37.000 in the motion picture industry. Yeah so, I mean, you know, 0:36:37.040 --> 0:36:39.680 looking at it in retrospect, it may not have seemed 0:36:39.800 --> 0:36:41.279 like a big deal at the time. It may have 0:36:41.320 --> 0:36:43.640 seemed all that that movie is lit and you know, 0:36:43.719 --> 0:36:47.560 shadowed very well. But it has played a significant role 0:36:47.600 --> 0:36:50.560 in many many other films since then. So yeah, yeah, 0:36:50.600 --> 0:36:52.600 I mean that's went before we went too far. Sure, 0:36:52.680 --> 0:36:56.680 these these developments they're making are things that are are 0:36:56.719 --> 0:37:00.279 pushing forward the filmmaking industry across the entire industry, not 0:37:00.400 --> 0:37:04.080 just for a single movie. Uh it really I l 0:37:04.239 --> 0:37:07.800 M has done a lot to shape the way movies 0:37:08.040 --> 0:37:12.160 are today. Uh. Without their influence, I would say that 0:37:12.840 --> 0:37:16.160 we'd be we'd have very different films right now if 0:37:16.160 --> 0:37:19.240 it were not for industrial light and magic. Doesn't necessarily 0:37:19.239 --> 0:37:20.799 mean that they would be better or worse, but they 0:37:20.800 --> 0:37:25.120 would certainly be different. They would So, yeah, you mentioned 0:37:25.120 --> 0:37:27.600 the two thousand three or you mentioned the awards. They 0:37:27.640 --> 0:37:30.720 also got an award for the way that they found 0:37:31.160 --> 0:37:36.640 to render skin or translucent materials, uh from the the 0:37:37.120 --> 0:37:39.320 good Old cy Tech Award. They also in two thousand 0:37:39.400 --> 0:37:45.319 four created a digital baby for a lemony snicket. It's 0:37:45.360 --> 0:37:49.440 a series of unfortunate events and it was this marked, 0:37:49.480 --> 0:37:52.000 according to I l M, the first time that you 0:37:52.080 --> 0:37:56.720 had a computer generated human character shown an extreme close 0:37:56.840 --> 0:38:00.560 up y. So we're getting to the point now where 0:38:01.360 --> 0:38:06.360 photo realistic computer generated characters are within the realm of 0:38:06.360 --> 0:38:10.799 possibility for a serious filmmaker, um to the to the 0:38:10.800 --> 0:38:13.640 point where it's not necessarily going to be distracting when 0:38:13.640 --> 0:38:15.239 you watch it and you think, wow, that does not 0:38:15.360 --> 0:38:19.160 look real. Doesn't mean that everyone pulls it off successfully 0:38:19.200 --> 0:38:22.239 these days, but at least it's much more possible. Two 0:38:22.239 --> 0:38:26.000 thousand six, they developed imo CAP, which was an image 0:38:26.000 --> 0:38:29.480 based performance capture system, and this was for one of 0:38:29.520 --> 0:38:32.799 the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. And that same year, 0:38:32.840 --> 0:38:38.560 two thousand six, was when Disney made an acquisition. Disney 0:38:38.600 --> 0:38:43.080 purchased Pixar. So you remember back in that's when Pixar 0:38:43.200 --> 0:38:45.920 struck out on its own, not not struck out in 0:38:45.960 --> 0:38:49.560 the baseball sense, but set out as its own company 0:38:50.400 --> 0:38:54.239 under the the the financial support of Steve Jobs. Well, 0:38:54.239 --> 0:38:58.720 two thousand six, Disney makes a move to acquire that company, Pixar. 0:38:59.600 --> 0:39:02.800 Disney and Pixar had already been making several movies together 0:39:02.880 --> 0:39:06.400 for several years, and uh, it was it was a 0:39:06.440 --> 0:39:10.520 strategic move to guarantee that Pixar would remain under the 0:39:10.960 --> 0:39:14.880 Disney family. And that also it was kind of a 0:39:15.200 --> 0:39:18.520 talent grab because John Lasseter, who was the head of 0:39:18.560 --> 0:39:21.480 Pixar at the time, would become the creative head of 0:39:21.640 --> 0:39:27.160 Walt Disney Animation as well as a imagineering. So um 0:39:27.200 --> 0:39:31.719 that that little acquisition was made for seven point four 0:39:32.120 --> 0:39:36.160 billion dollars in stocks and other assets. So that made 0:39:36.320 --> 0:39:40.319 Steve Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney at that time 0:39:40.880 --> 0:39:44.239 and put him on the border directors to seven point 0:39:44.280 --> 0:39:46.680 four billion. Now that to me is interesting because we 0:39:46.719 --> 0:39:50.239 already mentioned, you know, Disney's buying or trying to buy Lucasfilm. 0:39:50.239 --> 0:39:52.200 As of the recording of this podcast, the deal has 0:39:52.239 --> 0:39:55.799 not been approved, but a Disney would be purchasing them 0:39:55.880 --> 0:39:58.920 for four point oh five billions. So you've got a division, 0:39:58.960 --> 0:40:04.560 a former division of Lucasfilm sold for uh, not quite 0:40:04.600 --> 0:40:08.200 twice as much as what the parent company sold for. 0:40:08.840 --> 0:40:15.520 That's interesting. So two thousand seven, Uh, at this point, 0:40:16.600 --> 0:40:21.680 I LM is working on creating a system to simulate 0:40:22.520 --> 0:40:25.719 fluid motion. And this again is tricky. You know, we 0:40:25.760 --> 0:40:30.280 talked about getting a water effect is challenging, and that's true. 0:40:30.760 --> 0:40:35.600 It's also challenging to simulate fluid mechanics, especially you're talking 0:40:35.640 --> 0:40:38.560 about huge quantities, you know, with with the Pirates of 0:40:38.560 --> 0:40:40.600 the Caribbean movies, you're talking about ships on the ocean. 0:40:40.680 --> 0:40:43.080 So you need to be able to simulate the way 0:40:43.160 --> 0:40:46.320 the ocean really moves and the way that objects floating 0:40:46.719 --> 0:40:50.080 or otherwise you know, somehow in the water, how they 0:40:50.080 --> 0:40:54.640 would move as well. So they did a lot of 0:40:54.680 --> 0:40:57.799 work in two thousand seven to perfect that technique. Yeah, 0:40:57.800 --> 0:41:01.720 they actually used a particular system that they called Zeno 0:41:02.040 --> 0:41:05.719 and UH an engine, a graphics engine called fiz bam 0:41:06.719 --> 0:41:09.560 um and this uh, this was the series I was 0:41:10.280 --> 0:41:14.360 mentioning a few minutes ago, because they modeled these effects 0:41:14.440 --> 0:41:18.120 within what they were calling a virtual water tank. But 0:41:18.280 --> 0:41:20.680 of course in the in the last in the second 0:41:20.760 --> 0:41:23.719 and third movies, in the installment UM, there were lots 0:41:23.719 --> 0:41:29.440 of appearances by Davy Jones and his UH daydream Believers, 0:41:32.080 --> 0:41:36.719 his crew, which were who had taken on aspects of 0:41:37.320 --> 0:41:42.000 sea life. They lived underwater UM and they there's a 0:41:42.360 --> 0:41:45.919 really cool picture out there where they show the UH 0:41:46.160 --> 0:41:50.279 motion capture UM sticker things that they put on the 0:41:50.640 --> 0:41:54.640 actors to UH while they are you know, pretending to 0:41:54.680 --> 0:41:57.080 be or they're acting as the crew, and it's it's 0:41:57.120 --> 0:41:58.840 kind of cool because they can't get weight. They don't 0:41:59.080 --> 0:42:04.040 have alliant fish heads on UM. But that's you know, 0:42:04.080 --> 0:42:07.640 how they did that, and the amazing sea battle effects 0:42:07.640 --> 0:42:12.800 and all the things, the giant maelstrom UM just amazing stuff. 0:42:12.880 --> 0:42:15.960 And then of course you know the YEP. And in 0:42:16.000 --> 0:42:19.440 two thousand and eight they began to work on FEZ 0:42:19.560 --> 0:42:23.080 because fezes are cool. They are according to a doctor 0:42:23.120 --> 0:42:28.480 I know, yes, but no. FEZ was the name of 0:42:29.719 --> 0:42:33.160 a facial animation system that they had been working on. 0:42:33.200 --> 0:42:36.799 And again this is to refine that that ability to 0:42:37.080 --> 0:42:40.280 capture an actor's performance to translate it to a computer 0:42:40.360 --> 0:42:43.720 generated character. This is one of those things that really 0:42:43.880 --> 0:42:48.320 is problematic. It's interest. It's an interesting question to ask 0:42:48.840 --> 0:42:55.560 who is ultimately responsible for a computer generated character's performance? Um, 0:42:55.560 --> 0:42:58.440 because if you have a performance within a film that 0:42:58.680 --> 0:43:02.600 is award worthy, but it's a computer generated character, who 0:43:02.600 --> 0:43:05.040 do you give the award to? Do you give it 0:43:05.080 --> 0:43:09.080 to the animator who built or the people who built 0:43:09.080 --> 0:43:12.680 the textures and rendered everything and made it now that 0:43:12.840 --> 0:43:14.920 made sure they made all the tweaks to make the 0:43:15.000 --> 0:43:17.400 character look exactly the way the character looks. Do you 0:43:17.400 --> 0:43:21.800 give it to the actor who physically portrayed that character 0:43:22.000 --> 0:43:25.399 and it's that actor's movements that you are watching, even 0:43:25.400 --> 0:43:30.160 though it's a different, uh computer generated body that's doing 0:43:30.160 --> 0:43:33.160 the motions. Ultimately it was an actor who went through 0:43:33.200 --> 0:43:35.920 those motions. Is it the voice actor who may or 0:43:36.000 --> 0:43:39.080 may not be the same person who did the physical motions. 0:43:39.680 --> 0:43:42.919 It's a it's a complicated question because the performance comes 0:43:42.960 --> 0:43:46.640 from so many different people working together to create this 0:43:46.800 --> 0:43:48.960 thing you're watching. And I know that that was one 0:43:48.960 --> 0:43:51.080 of those questions that came up during the Lord of 0:43:51.080 --> 0:43:53.800 the Rings movies because there were people who were saying 0:43:53.800 --> 0:43:58.680 that Andy Serkis should be nominated for his performance as 0:43:58.800 --> 0:44:04.160 Gollum in those movies. But how much of that performance 0:44:04.200 --> 0:44:07.880 would you say is his versus the animators who created 0:44:07.960 --> 0:44:11.640 the uh I hesitate to use the word physical, but 0:44:11.680 --> 0:44:13.960 the the visual version of the character that you see 0:44:13.960 --> 0:44:16.560 on the screen. And it's I don't think there's an 0:44:16.560 --> 0:44:18.520 easy answer to that question. It may very well mean 0:44:18.600 --> 0:44:22.280 that one day we'll see a new category of award 0:44:22.360 --> 0:44:26.200 come up where it's best performance of some sort as 0:44:26.239 --> 0:44:32.800 opposed to just best Actor or Best Supporting Actor or actress. Yes, wow, 0:44:32.920 --> 0:44:34.960 you waited all that time just to do that, all right? 0:44:35.000 --> 0:44:39.959 Two thousand nine we had the very GPU engine which 0:44:40.360 --> 0:44:44.960 was designed to create firestorms. So again you know, looking 0:44:45.000 --> 0:44:47.719 at the stuff that's hard to make look real on 0:44:48.560 --> 0:44:51.399 computer graphics. You know, fire and water, those are big 0:44:51.440 --> 0:44:54.839 and for those are the big ones. Well they they're 0:44:54.840 --> 0:44:58.200 working on the Harry Potter series of movies and they 0:44:58.239 --> 0:45:01.360 for the sixth film, they needed to be able to 0:45:01.640 --> 0:45:05.839 have realistic fire effects. So you know, it's it's the 0:45:05.880 --> 0:45:07.480 I L M way. When if you don't have a 0:45:07.520 --> 0:45:10.719 system that already does it, go build one yep. Well 0:45:10.840 --> 0:45:13.880 and they did, and so this kind of wraps up 0:45:13.920 --> 0:45:16.920 where they are today. I mean, i l M is 0:45:16.960 --> 0:45:20.920 not the only property outside of Lucasfilm that will be 0:45:20.960 --> 0:45:23.920 acquired by Disney if this deal goes through. Skywalker's sound 0:45:24.040 --> 0:45:28.120 is also in there. And you know, Lucas has, like 0:45:28.120 --> 0:45:31.440 we said, he's had a huge influence on the way 0:45:31.840 --> 0:45:35.840 movies are shown today. I mean, th h X is 0:45:35.880 --> 0:45:40.439 another example, uh, which Disney I was also going to get. 0:45:40.760 --> 0:45:45.640 So really, when it comes down to the the technology 0:45:45.760 --> 0:45:50.919 behind filmmaking and film projection, film screening, Disney is making 0:45:50.920 --> 0:45:54.200 a huge move here and and some people are a 0:45:54.200 --> 0:45:56.920 little nervous about it. I've got friends who work in effects. 0:45:57.560 --> 0:46:01.400 They work for for affect houses that often we'll get 0:46:01.560 --> 0:46:05.560 contracted to work on companies UM. And some of these 0:46:05.680 --> 0:46:07.840 friends of mine are a little nervous because this is 0:46:07.920 --> 0:46:12.759 sort of showing a consolidation of effects houses and that 0:46:13.000 --> 0:46:18.120 could mean less competition and fewer opportunities for these artists. 0:46:18.160 --> 0:46:21.719 So there are things to worry about, depending upon what 0:46:21.880 --> 0:46:25.799 field you are in. Yeah, But nonetheless, I still think 0:46:25.800 --> 0:46:28.160 it will be interesting to see and if some of 0:46:28.200 --> 0:46:33.239 the people leave UM, you know, they may very well 0:46:33.320 --> 0:46:37.320 take the ability to Uh, do these complex the knowledge 0:46:37.360 --> 0:46:40.520 that it takes to to build these complex effects with them, 0:46:40.560 --> 0:46:45.360 making the acquisition less valuable. There's always a chance that 0:46:45.400 --> 0:46:49.120 people could strike out and create their own uh companies 0:46:49.160 --> 0:46:51.960 as well and start competing with their old company. I 0:46:52.000 --> 0:46:53.960 mean that's happened several times in the past as well, 0:46:54.000 --> 0:46:57.680 So it's too early to say. But some of the 0:46:57.719 --> 0:47:00.600 movies ALM has worked on we've talked about, of course, 0:47:01.000 --> 0:47:05.160 the Star Wars series all the way from episode four 0:47:05.200 --> 0:47:09.440 through six and then one through three. Uh, the several 0:47:09.440 --> 0:47:13.719 Star Trek films generations first contact Star Wars are Star 0:47:13.800 --> 0:47:16.160 Trek Wrath of con which is my favorite of all 0:47:16.160 --> 0:47:20.920 of the Star Trek films because it's very cold. It's space. Yes, 0:47:21.000 --> 0:47:25.600 it is fine Corinthian leather. Yeah. The Jurassic Park movies. Uh, 0:47:25.840 --> 0:47:30.560 you know had the mask Forrest Gump, Twister. Never had 0:47:30.560 --> 0:47:33.320 I felt that a cow really did fly past someone's 0:47:33.320 --> 0:47:38.520 windshield until I saw Twister, Mission Impossible three. They they've 0:47:38.520 --> 0:47:41.719 worked on many, many, many movies. I mean, if you 0:47:42.160 --> 0:47:44.200 if you watch any film that has a lot of 0:47:44.239 --> 0:47:47.360 special effects in it and you wait to the end, Uh, 0:47:47.440 --> 0:47:50.040 it's amazing how many of them have industrial light magic 0:47:50.120 --> 0:47:52.440 listed as at least part of the team that worked 0:47:52.480 --> 0:47:57.319 on the effects. Also, it's it's interesting to realize how 0:47:57.320 --> 0:47:59.960 many films you may not have realized have a lot 0:48:00.000 --> 0:48:02.680 of special effects in them because the special effects are 0:48:03.120 --> 0:48:07.120 to make the film look more like real life. Forrestcump 0:48:07.239 --> 0:48:10.200 is a good one, although you could argue that no, no, 0:48:10.480 --> 0:48:12.880 that's clear because you know, Tom Hanks never actually shook 0:48:12.920 --> 0:48:17.359 hands with that many presidents still. But but even so, 0:48:17.480 --> 0:48:19.520 that's that's one of those where the special effects are 0:48:19.560 --> 0:48:22.279 there to create the story, but they're not you know, 0:48:22.760 --> 0:48:25.400 it's not spectacle the way it would be in a 0:48:25.440 --> 0:48:29.359 big science fiction film or something. Right, So, yeah, they 0:48:29.360 --> 0:48:32.880 have had a monumental effect on the movie industry, definitely, 0:48:33.040 --> 0:48:35.399 and uh, I'm sure they will continue to do so, 0:48:35.560 --> 0:48:39.680 even whether whether Disney's deal goes through or not. I'm 0:48:39.680 --> 0:48:42.800 sure it will remain a big player in the the 0:48:42.920 --> 0:48:47.280 effects industry. And that's it. I hope you guys enjoyed 0:48:47.400 --> 0:48:50.680 this classic episode of tech Stuff. If you have any 0:48:50.719 --> 0:48:54.759 suggestions for future episodes that I should cover, well, why 0:48:54.800 --> 0:48:57.920 not send me a message The email addresses tech Stuff 0:48:58.040 --> 0:49:00.279 at how stuff works dot com, or you can drop 0:49:00.360 --> 0:49:03.360 me a line on Facebook or Twitter. Don't know the 0:49:03.400 --> 0:49:06.000 handle for those, well, pop on over to our website, 0:49:06.000 --> 0:49:08.879 tech stuff podcast dot com. That's where you're gonna find 0:49:08.960 --> 0:49:11.640 links to where we are on social media. You'll also 0:49:11.680 --> 0:49:15.680 find a link to every single episode we've ever published 0:49:15.840 --> 0:49:18.200 of this show. I was gonna say recorded, but that's 0:49:18.200 --> 0:49:21.200 a lie, because we've recorded a couple of episodes that 0:49:21.280 --> 0:49:24.680 we've never published for good reason because they were bad 0:49:25.520 --> 0:49:28.240 and I feel ashamed of them. But all the published 0:49:28.239 --> 0:49:30.239 ones are there. You also find a link to our 0:49:30.320 --> 0:49:33.000 online store, where every purchase you make goes to help 0:49:33.080 --> 0:49:36.879 the show and be less bad, and we greatly appreciate it, 0:49:37.200 --> 0:49:44.520 and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff 0:49:44.560 --> 0:49:47.040 is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 0:49:47.080 --> 0:49:49.880 For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i 0:49:50.000 --> 0:49:53.239 heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:49:53.280 --> 0:49:54.200 your favorite shows.