Josh back again here with a report from the master of visual effects, John Knoll.
John was introduced to solid applause from his friends. His session started with an Episode III status report - his part in the film was complete two weeks ago. He is writing a book from the Star Wars movies discussing the environments, and showed some exclusive and unproduced photos from his research creating this new book.
Then, we were on to Episode III.
He showed the technology behind the elevator sequence in the opening of the movie, how they used a new computer program they deveoped to make it much easier. He also showed how they converted the set pieces like the Invisible Hand cockpit into the finished product. They typically captured principle photography, made an unextured CG model, textured everything, then lit and populated the rest. The finshed shots looked stunning.
He showed some before and afters, like Count Dooku being filmed on entirely green screen, the Jedi Temple set only being a few feet tall and the view from Padme's veranda. The opera house was quite an undertaking, Lucas had an idea for this scene late into the reshoots, so the set was totally blue. They built a model, and combined it all into an amazing shot. Same process for the Utapau set as well.
Other shots from the set included Mustafar sets like aa control arm that crashed into the lava. Most sets consisted of not much at all - which was can attest to seeing the Knollvision series.
Alderaan's complete set was about the size of a car door, though the scenes in the movie are quite stunning. The crowd loved just how small of an object could be turned into an entire planet. In fact, Tatooine consisted of a green room with a green ramp someone could stand on (like the Luke twin suns pose).
He also showed us the filmed version Bail Organa's office, which was ultimately cut from the movie. He did think it would make the cut on the DVD so be sure to look for it there.
He moved on to Star Destroyers and the Tantive IV, and talked about how exciting it was to work on these Classic movie sets. He also mentioned the opening space battle running time is now at 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and he played a clip of the reflections in the cockpit glass.
He showed a bunch of errors ILM did as well - all of them were
hilarious! There was a scale error with helmet over a clone pilot -
it was huge! The invisible face of Yoda was funny, and Grievous with 4lightsabers but no textures on the CGI model also got some laughs. The opera scene had an error - it was a "little too spectacular" with huge flashes of lightening and so on overwhelming the screen. There was a couple of funny Yodas, too ... one with no expression and one with a HUGE expression. There were a series of cape accidents as well which were hilarious, Yoda with a cape over his head, Grievous' cape
gets stuck in the door. SO funny!
Lastly he also had a few jokes. Like bunny ears on Grievous and
Palpatine playing online poker when Anakin enters his private
chambers. There was this funny blooper with Obi-Wan getting tossed through a target and the best one was iClone - a silouhette of a clone on a pink background with him jammin on his iPod. Hilarious (the Mac icon was a Death Star in the shape of an apple)!
All in all John is a stellar presenter with tons of original content
and a great show. No wonder his session was packed. Now, if we could just find out if Yoda really farted or not ... just kidding. JG
Hey guys - Josh here just finished hanging out with 500 of my closest friends and the entertaining Michael Wood, sound designer of Episode III and the voice of General Grievous. He told the well-documented story of how he got the role and fielded questions about his job.Then he showed an audio progression of the Obi-Wan and General Grievous
fight.
AMAZING! Oh. My. Word. The crowd went WILD!
Yes ... the sound is amazing and the voice is cool, but since they
woulnd't let us record the best parts I'll have to give you a rundown of the sequence as best I can remember.
Obi-Wan and General Grievous are going to go head to head.
Great dialogue as they are about to duel. GG wants to take him, and the droids to fall back.
Scores of droids surround them like kids in a playground fight
Obi-Wan gets out his lightsaber
Grievous lights 1 ..2 ...3 ...4 lightsabers like a clock
2 blue, 2 green as his arms split apart with sweet droid noises
He uses two to taunt Obi-Wan and two to buzsaw the floor. IMPRESSIVE!
Obi-Wan deftly loses one of Grievous' hands, to his shocked reaction
Obi-Wan takes out another and it falls to the ground
And just as it is about to get nasty, Clones repel from the ceiling
and gunships fill the air
the droids all sweep into action and Grievous continues his pursuit of the Jedi
Clones are getting killed ... droids are exploding ... Obi-Wan is
about to get taken out by the General
At the last second, with GG talking about how Obi-Wan is "doomed"
close up on Obi's eyes... GG's eyes look SO great super close-up as well
Obi-Wan Force pushes him up 3 stories into a huge metal beam. BAM!
Grievous tumbles through the air ... then recovers at the last second to land like a spider and takes the fall without a problem.
Absolutely amazing. The audio plays a HUGE role in this film. The
score fits great and the visuals are stud. Although we still haven't
heard much dialogue, everyone is thrilled with what they've seen.
Can't wait to hear Lucas in the morning and hear Rick's big secret at 8:30AM. You'll hear about it here first. JG
Hey everyone - Daryl here jamming some more news from the Celebration convention here in Indy. The lines are long, the Rick McCallum's Spectacular is spectacular, and Nick Gillard isn't picking any fights. Of course, he would win the fight anyhow ...
Nick was very honest, but did not want to share any secrets behind the stunt work in the film. He showed some footage of stunt work from 1997, EP I, Gillard w/long hair, and some pics of stuntwork for II and III.
Gillard talked about a serial killer/suspense movie he wanted to do and Jackson and Christensen have expressed interest in doing it, he wants to start shooting in September, and he will direct, not Christensen b/c of stuntwork but b/c of his acting.
When asked a question asked about fighting style, Gillard said he
developed a unique style not found in IV-VI, the style also dependedon the actors and what they could contribute to the film.
There was also a question about the Emperor's fighting style
different than the other actors, Gillard said that he wanted him to
be a better fighter without a lightsaber, even better than Yoda,
because he has the dark side so he should have an edge over the good, also wanted him to look a little cheesy, not exactly like a cunning fighter, but actually very deadly. Like being a hunchback, for example.
The question about fighting style with lightsabers vs. swords was
answered by Gillard as he talked about the immense damage being done when lightsabers even touch you vs. swords, and then gave an example of a fight and said if I am fighting and have the chance to take off someone's leg but run the chance of losing my head, I better defend my head.
Which fight scene did Gillard like best out of the original trilogy?
Gillard answered honestly, none of them, they were all dreadful, lots of laughter. Lastly he talked about Episode III's General Grievous using 4 sabers, and how hea dealt with them. The bottom line was to have him lose two of them as quickly as possible! What a great time with a great guy.
To answer your question, NO, Lance has said he wants no more link posting of anything thats been leaked video wise or anthing from HS.
And yes the thread looks exactly like that because the majority of this section's posters are too lazzzzzzzzzzzy to read who HAS the actual stuff and push the bloody pm button. They'd all rather be spoon fed.
Which is why, with the exception of me doing this last night cause I was feeling generous (after reading all these posts, that feeling has long since evaporated) I no longer post this stuff at kmc. It's the lack of sharing that goes on here. There are a few good people that bring the goods in and the rest are content to sit on their ass rather than go look for something new to contribute.
Leech: a hanger-on who seeks advantage or gain
synonym see PARASITE
Gender: Unspecified Location: United Kingdom [I wish!]
Because I don't have an infinite amount of time on my hands, I'll PM the first 10 people who send me a request:
-Celebrate the Saga
-Ian McDiarmid Interview
Ask for one or both. But the first 10 only. Then I have other stuff to do.
__________________ "Notwithstanding the fact that your proposal could conceivably encompass certain concomitant benefits of a marginal and peripheral relevance, there is a countervailing consideration of infinitely superior magnitude involving your personal complicity and corroborative malfeasance, with a consequence that the taint and stigma of your former associations and diversions could irredeemably and irretrievably invalidate your position and culminate in public revelations and recriminations of a profoundly embarrassing and ultimately indefensible character."
"I Wish I Was There" clip
I suspect this was shot a long time ago
Sam Jackson: Just look at him without sound, and see the faces he makes!
Christopher Lee: Sad... "one never knows whether I'll be anywhere..." Sounds like he feels the Grim Reaper's cold hand on his shoulder.
Natalie Portman: Not much too say. I don't think she's sad she can't make it... what with those legions of horny fanboys and all.
Ewan: Great guy. Sympathetic and funny. Couldn't give a rat's ass about C3... (how many days?) or Episode 3's title, for that matter. Nice "Hello there" Alec impression
Ian & Hayden: Great... you gotta love Ian (especially after his nice interview)... great to see them together and in black. Hayden doesn't seem the talkative guy to me.
__________________ They stole me lucky charms... you know what to do laddie...
Burn them down!! The lot of them!!
9,000 people spent the night outside. That doesn't sound like such a big deal if you're in Southern California, but here in Indiana that is no small feat.
Despite the pouring rain and 40 degree weather (not counting windchill), a sold out crowd waited faithfully to be one of the few, the proud that got to see Lucas with their own eyes.
The presentation was great, but my hat is off to the fans that endured the weather. These were the hardcore of the hardcore fans. Pouring rain, police disbanding the line, intense cold, biting wind and frustration with volunteers didn't discourage them from this once in a lifetime opportunity.
A WARM GREETING
George Lucas entered to thunderous applause that lasted for several minutes. The fans stood to their feet to honor the writer/director of their favorite science fiction franchise. The Flanneled One lived up to his name, wearing a blue plaid Marin flannel and blue jeans.
The host, Jay Laga'aia did an adequate job of keeping the conversation moving, but was obviously upstaged by Lucas. Even McCallum, a normal celebrity producer, was a footnote in the morning's events.
THE TALK
The talk started with a short bio video with hilarious clips of him clowning around on the set. The fan favorite was him with a lightsaber through his neck, and another where he was being painted blue. Then there was a short introduction of Lucas by his children. Lucas talked a bit about how much Star Wars means to fans and how excited he was by everyone that is in attendance today.
George was excited about the fact that "it is finished" and the thirty year journey is now complete. "It has been a rewarding experience," he said, amazed by the passion of fans around the world.
Several fan questions asked about the origin of the movies, discussing the scripts movement from Anakin to Luke, the original story being Anakin and his two children. The space battle was the beginning of all things Star Wars in his mind.
THE FUTURE OF STAR WARS
He said there were plans to revamp Star Tours, and how those discussion started with Episode I. He said there were several great things planned, and some awesome ideas.
He also talked about the TV Series! Lucasfilm is now going to move into television. The first series is 3-D animation, a regular series that will last 1/2 hour per episode. He's also working on a spinoff TV series for characters that have appeared in the films. It will be live-action, and based on what he called a "really great idea." They will not started shooting for about a year, and it will be structured much like Young Indy.
They will shoot the first year all at once, which also means writing the script all at once. He will "get it started" then hand it off to others to carry on.
When asked if was Episode III everything that you wanted it to be? "Yes, it is." Everyone has their own opinions about the films, and he has been happy with all of the films. "Not six separate movies, one big movie." Like a mini-series, he suggested. "They all build on top of each other, you will see things in 4,5,6 that make more sense no after you've seen Episode III."
Then he joked with Jay Laga'aia about being a clonetrooper, even though Jay actually appeared as Captian Typho in the film. Hey - we all get things wrong! Lucas also noted that about 3,000 clonetroopers appear in the last film.
It was a great time - terribly short - but really a unique opportunity to see the man behind it all, George Lucas.
Sounds like the fans had a cracking time....
...AND we have confirmation of the TV SERIES!!!!!!
KMC Community Forums
Apr 23rd, 2005 05:02 PM
They stole me lucky charms... you know what to do laddie...
