Light & Magic

A documentary on the fx wizards of Industrial Light & Magic [ILM]. Founded by George Lucas to create the special fx for Star Wars, ILM had their fingerprint on many turn of the century blockbusters (ET, Indiana Jones, The Abyss, T2, Jurassic Park, etc etc etc).

I’ve loved this show. Their are six episodes, each clocking in round an hour of runtime.

The Wizardry

The show featured interviews with the early cinematographers, model designers, and the general characters who were at the inception of ILM. They used engineering to enable creativity and push the bounds of depiction, and came across as the brilliant & slightly obsessive makers you’d expect.

Particular characters includes Phil Tippett, one of the core model maker / puppeteer. Delightful Rancor creating man who grew into an even more delightful grandpa santa.

The Director’s Club

ILM was George Lucas’s, and it was fascinating to see how he shared it with his crew, e.g. Steven Spielberg (ET, Indy) and Francis Ford Coppola.

Also interesting to me is how George Lucas felt obsessive as fuck, and not a small bit depressive during the original Star Wars. Success as always goes a long way.