Just Think About It

Master Qui-Gon, more to say, have you?

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"Just Think About It" is the third episode of the documentary series Light & Magic, released on Disney+ on July 27, 2022. It focuses on Industrial Light & Magic's visual effects work on the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.^[1]

Official description[]

ILM moves north to face a daunting task: creating a sequel to the most successful film of all time.

Synopsis[]

Moving to San Francisco[]

Several Lucasfilm veterans and directors including John Dykstra, J.J. Abrams, Jon Favreau, Ken Ralston, Doug Chiang and Dennis Muren recount how the first Star Wars movie A New Hope inspired them to pursue careers in film-making. After completing A New Hope, the special effects team disbanded and several employees returned to their previous careers. Dykstra recruited his colleagues Jonathan Erland and Lorne Peterson for the sequel Empire Strikes Back.

Seeking distance from Hollywood, George Lucas decides to relocate Lucasfilm from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Several Lucasfilm employees including Erland, Peterson, Gary Kurtz and Phil Tippett relocated to San Francisco but Dykstra parted company due to his unwillingness to relocate to San Francisco and workplace difficulties. Lucas establishes a new visual effects facility in a warehouse in San Francisco. Joe Johnston and Tippett share their recollections of the construction of the visual effects facility alongside archival footage.

Creating The Empire Strikes Back[]

Johnston serves as concept artist for The Empire Strikes Back, helping Lucas to realize his vision. The Industrial Light & Magic team are joined by matt painter Harrison Ellenshaw and future visual effects producer Chrissie England, who starts of as a receptionist. Lucas envisioned the opening of Empire Strikes Back to be set on an icy world with a battle between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire.

While Kurtz initially toyed with using Norwegian Army tanks to depict Imperial transports, Johnston and Tippett designed a four-legged walking tank which became the iconic AT-AT walker. Erland built numerous model sets to depict the Battle of Hoth scenes while Tippett drew the matt paintings used for that battle. Erland also developed an optical printer which puts together multiple pieces of film into one image. The ILM team also did stop motion work for the Empire Strikes Back.

Old and new technology[]

The ILM team is also joined by University of Utah computer science graduate Ed Catmull, who uses new computer graphics technology to develop animation for Lucasfilm. Several ILM veterans talk about Lucas's willingness to try out new technologies and methods. Tippett talks about how his love for art and clay modeling helped him cope with his dyslexia, depression and anxiety. The documentary also talks how the ILM team built a model tauntaun with Luke Skywalker using the hide of a calf and white glue that had been processed by maggots. Tippett also constructed a dolly track to move the tauntaun model.

Johnson talked about matt paintings were used to make several sets including the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer Executor and the Cloud City landing pad scenes look bigger. ILM veterans also recall that Ralph McQuarrie drew on inspiration from Flash Gordon when designing the architecture of Cloud City. While McQuarrie focused on matt paintings of Cloud City's structures, Ellenshaw focused on the clouds.

Ken Ralston also talks about Lucas giving broadcaster Walter Cronkite a guided tour of the Empire Strikes Back set. Ellenshaw also talks about manipulating multiple shots of the Millennium Falcon to depict its hyperspace jump. In addition to the Star Wars films, ILM also worked on several other films including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dragonslayer, E.T. and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.