Hey folks, Harry here... This report doesn't contain any future movie info, but it is just so cool... and such an interesting event, that I had to post it for y'all. Chuckles went and attended Day 2 of 'THE BIG BAKE-OFF' which was apparently an event that the Academy (as in OSCAR and Red Carpet and the wrong documentaries) has used to judge the Special Effect nominees... This sounds like an evening that would have been a great DVD! Check it out...
The Day I Should've, Could've, Almost, But Didn't Come Close To Meeting George Lucas
I have applied for jobs at ILM in the past, but have never heard word one back. Being the masochist my college years trained me to be, I go every so often to see if the jobs I've applied for have disappeared yet. On this third day of February, I never got past the front ILM page. There was a special section that hadn't been there before called "Events", with something listed about a film fest February 2nd and 3rd in San Rafael. My fingers went faster than my brain as I clicked on the link for more information.
This wasn't a film fest, but a clip fest called "The Big Bake-Off". Apparently, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was putting on 2 days of the reels that filmmakers had submitted to them for special effects over the years. The first night was to be from King Kong to Star Wars, and the second night was from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Jurassic Park. I kicked myself for missing the first night, and told my girlfriend that we had to go to this tonight. She gave me an amused look, and gave in.
As we walked in that night, right there in front of us were a couple of my friends! I was pretty psyched, they had decided to make it after all. My one friend had this funny look on his face, which I figured was just the excitement of seeing the clips we were to see, and I asked them to grab seats while I got some popcorn. My friend said, "No, we're going to just go stand against the wall." Que? "What? Okay, you do that, I'm just getting some popcorn." I brushed past the people between us and the popcorn line, and looked back to see my friends just standing against the wall, with my one friend having a really whacked look on his face. I noticed that he wasn't looking at me, he was looking at the guy between us...the guy...hmmm...he looks like...nah...
I let the people behind me go in front of me as I just stood there gawking. "That's...that's George Lucas. Wait, he's reclusive. Yo, that's George Lucas. He can't be here." My friend just gave me a big old grin, and shook his head. He told me about how he had just gotten there and saw him, and had been just giddy ever since. So I left them on the wall, because it gave me an excuse to keep looking toward Lucas, and got in line. Wait, I had my digital camera with me!
No. I was gawking. That was bad enough. I have met a few celebrity types in my whacky life, and what they hate most is the gawking. Must concentrate on the popcorn... But Mr. Lucas is just standing there talking to a friend! *sigh* My friend came over, and told me they were going inside. All good, maybe that would stop my gawking. Meanwhile, some kids went over to George Lucas and asked him to sign their Star Wars poster. How do these kids know to bring a poster with them, I ask you? There are always these kind of kids around...blows my mind. Anyway, George looked a little annoyed, but he signed it. Hmmm, there's my chance for a great picture! No...must...resist...and into the theater George goes.
Just a side note here. My girlfriend and I conferred later and agreed: Mr. Lucas is looking good. In interviews seen over the past couple of years, it looked like he had gained some weight, but the guy was definitely looking in shape. Shorter than you might think, as all celebrities tend to be, but lookin' like he'd been working out. Kudos to George.
Popcorn in hand, I go into the theater, and see my gang (without the identifying bandanas) on the opposite side of the theater. I turned around to go back out and around, and there's Mr. Lucas sitting in the back with a lady friend and child, looking ready to make a quick exit if he needs to. I resist asking him for a job, or to explain Jarjar, and continued on my previous route out the door and over to my friends. When I sit down, we're all talking excitedly about him being there. My girlfriend mentions that when he came in, the host of the night went over and asked if he would like to sit with the other presenters, or if he would like to speak. He apparently declined, and seemed to just want to disappear in the crowd. I tried to subtley take a couple pictures in the dark, but...well, it was dark, and I wasn't going to use a flash. Of course they wouldn't come out.
And then, the Big Bake-Off began, and I forgot about all the plots forming in my mind to go try to meet Lucas on his way out. The main host was Richard Edlund, from the Academy's Board of Governors representing the Visual Effects branch. The guest speakers were Steve Gawley, supervising model maker at ILM, Dennis Muren, senior visual effects supervisor at ILM, and Phil Tippett, owner of the Tippet Studio and former head of Lucasfilm "creature shop". I think I got all of the folk right. One guy didn't show, but I think these were the guys in attendance. Forgive me, my head was spinning from it all. I leaned over and told my girlfriend "I'm like a kid at a candy store." She gave me a knowing smile.
Then the show begins. Watching Raiders of the Lost Ark was like revisiting an old friend. My girlfriend and I always laugh at "Asps. Very dangerous. You go first." Unfortunately, they skipped that one, but it was interesting to watch the scenes they chose. The goal of these clips were to show off the special effects, but in enough of a story format so the Academy member watching wouldn't be lost. The panel began to talk about the clip a little. Apparently, the rolling ball only moved several feet, but many cameras were used at different angles and put together to make it look longer. Next up, Tron. Ah, look! Bruce Boxleitner playing with a frisbee! Jeff Bridges being digitized like Automan! Heh. Boy, I need that on DVD. The clip for Poltergeist reminded me how freaky that movie was while Return of the Jedi just got me all psyched up (watching a movie in the presence of its maker was definitely a first for this young geekboy). All the while, between the clips, the panelists are making comments about the tricks they learned from making these movies. For Jedi, apparently, a string was used to plot out the path of the speeder bikes through the forest. The steadycam operator then had to follow the path, which was bumpy, making the journey as steady as possible (hence the name steadycam). Apparently, if you watch the scene frame by frame, you can see a bit of the string. When pointing this out, the host said you could probably see it best on DVD. I was thinking this was a jab at Lucas and there being no Star Wars DVDs, but maybe he just misspoke.
2010 was next, and I had forgotten how good that movie was. Far more hollywood than the original, that movie still was incredibly realistic. It cost $500,000 to make Jupiter's cloud movements, Edlund said. When introducing Aliens, the panelists talked about how funny it was that James Cameron had embraced the digital age as much as he had, when back when he made Aliens, he resisted the movement and used more trick photography and flashes to hide reality. For Die Hard, they told of a little Alan Rickman moment. Apparently, when Rickman's Gruber character falls to his death, the terror on Rickman's face was real. They convinced him to freefall about 25 feet without looking down, which no stuntman would do (they like to see where they're falling). And they convinced him to do it twice, although they ended up only using the first shot. When we watched the clip, the audience burst out laughing when they saw the death scene.
Total Recall, Back to the Future Part III.... I was a fan of the Back to the Future flicks, but never really appreciated the last one. This has now changed. This movie was apparently all about split camera work, and it was so believable, that I for one lost track of Michael J. Fox talking to himself through half the movie. This flick does an amazing job of these interchanges, which is what the footage highlighted. Lastly was Jurassic Park. One of the panelists said that they felt that Terminator 2 really did the breakthrough into digital technology, but Jurassic Park certainly displayed it in a way audiences loved. Kids love those dinosaurs.
That was it for clip time. Next up, questions. Immediately, my friend and my hands shot up. As did half the audience. Unfortunately, we were toward the back, so I don't think they could even see us. In my opinion, no real decent questions were asked. Too many brown-nosers. "Isn't it interesting how the editing of the clips have evolved over the years?" "What's next?" "What did you mean when you said pseudo-computer when talking about Tron?" The only interesting thing I remember from this discussion was the talk of 3d being the most probable next step in film. The current problem is that when things pop out of the screen, people's minds lose track of where to focus, and it gives the audience headaches. The digital revolution has begun, though, and anything is possible.
As people began to disperse, I looked back and saw that George had indeed bolted. Probably when the questions began. I went to leave, but my friend told me the panelists were still up front chatting. So we began to make our way up front, but I stopped. Was my question any less brown-nosing than anyone elses? I looked at my friend, and he said that it might just be more interesting to mention this experience in an interview, and leave it alone for the night. So, whether it was chickening out or not, you decide. But with that, we went to the coffee shop, and just gabbed on about what an incredible night it was...and how best to tell the story to our friends.
So that is my tale, but in case your curious as to what I was going to ask, it was this: I was lucky enough to hear Stephen Speilberg speak when he won the James Smithson award, and he swore he would never go digital. He'd leave that for his friend George Lucas. Do you think he'll be left behind? What, if anything, will be lost in the transition to digital?
What do ya think? Too much? Anh, I thought it'd be a good panel discussion.
Chuckles
