Welcome Back, Matte
October 15, 2004
Anyone who works with technology regularly will tell you that when critical glitches happen, they happen at the worst possible time. So it was at the Industrial Light & Magic offices this week. Just before the anticipated arrival of George Lucas to view another round of effects work, the latte machine at the coffee shop (dubbed "Java the Hutt"
broke down. Fortunately, the Director was satisfied with regular coffee, and reviews were able to proceed as planned.
"Now, this first shot has been cut from the movie," prefaced Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll as a stunningly beautiful image of Naboo appeared on the screen. "But the painters did such a nice job, and it came out so beautifully, I wanted you to see it anyway." Drowning out the oohs and ahhs of the small audience were the loud and violent cries of Producer Rick McCallum, pretending to be stabbed in the heart. If you ask McCallum, one aspect of Episode III he's most personally proud of are the advances being made in digital matte painting. This shot is a perfect example of the leaps being made.
"But I'm trying to take shots out of the movie," complained Lucas, "not put any back in." After watching the shot loop several more times, he conceded. "Go ahead and finish it. I'll see if it fits." The request pleased McCallum greatly.
Next up was discussion of the physical properties of Force lightning, from stylistic choices of color, size and shape to the physical reflective properties in angle and strength. For cinematic effect, it was decided that the somewhat random dispersion shown in some initial animatics should be more tightly controlled, showing the skill of the combatants involved and also adding jeopardy to the scene. For the physics majors out there, the angle of incidence will equal the angle of refraction.
As usual, larger theoretical discussion gave way to dozens and dozens of smaller decisions. How fast should General Grievous fall when he's wearing a cape? Does 2-1B walk, or does he roll? Should the Wookiees be looking screen left, or screen right? And so on.
One such dilemma involves the audience's suspension of disbelief that a group of battle droids wouldn't shoot our unarmed heroes while they are proceeding to arm themselves. "The battle droids are working off of an old Commodore," explained Lucas who suggests that the droids simply be distracted by the fast-paced activity. "When in doubt, just confuse them. New orders don't come very quickly. They're like turkeys. If you wave your hand in front of them, they get confused."
After ILM's presentations were finished, Lucas offered a surprise by showing the latest cut of the first teaser trailer for Episode III. The effects team was wary. "We've seen it, haven't we? We just finished those shots last week," commented Knoll.
"But you haven't seen it with sound," taunted Lucas. "Sound is the other half of the movie, you know."
After the viewing's enthusiastic applause, Lucas declared the milestone. "See, we have ninety seconds of the movie done!"
Speaking of sound, Composer John Williams watched the most recent cut of the movie this week. According to Lucas, Williams will begin writing music for Revenge of the Sith as early as next week.
Paul Ens
