"There's No Going Back" is the third episode of Season 2 of the documentary series Light & Magic, released on Disney+ on April 18, 2025.[2]
Official description[]
ILM is no longer the only game in town. To stay on top, they'll have to change the game yet again.
Synopsis[]
Pirates of the Caribbean[]
The episode features Industrial Light and Magic's former headquarters on Kerner Drive in San Andreas. Masi Oka recalls that the building resembled a non-descript dentist office. Jim Morris and Dennis Muren explained that Lucasfilm chose a non-descript shopfront as a diversion. John Knoll explains that ILM invested its money into visual effects and production.
ILM embarks on producing Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, collaborating with Gore Verbinski. Knoll was eager to get involved since he had had watched old classic maritime movies from the 1940s and 1950s. ILM built a massive water tank to accommodate several 35-feet model ships. Verbinski and ILM used a mixture of live action and CGI to depict the undead pirates, with the actors wearing motion capture suits.
ILM visual effects animator Hal Hickel talked about growing up on a rural ranch far from Hollywood. Hickel identified strongly with Luke Skywalker, who grew up on the far side of the galaxy. Hickel was inspired to pursue a career in film by the works of Ray Harryhausen and the original King Kong. Hickel worked on the puppets for the The California Raisins before landing a job at ILM.
Revenge of the Sith[]
ILM veterans talked about creating digital versions of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku for several lightsaber duels in Revenge of the Sith. Since the movie had more sword fighting scenes than previous Star Wars films, digital effects were used to realize scenes of characters flipping and jumping. Head replacements were also used to depict scenes of Palpatine fighting the Jedi since Ian McDiarmid was unable to do sword fighting; with CGI imagery of McDiarmid's head being placed over the stunt double. Knoll recalled that Revenge of the Sith had over 2,500 VFX shots, compared to the 2,000 in The Phantom Menace.
Concept design supervisor Erik Tiemens talked about concept art for the volcanic world of Mustafar, which George Lucas drew inspiration from Hell. The model shop also built several sets based on the storyboards. Knoll convinced Lucas to let the model ship build a massive set using plaster and methocel to depict the lava, drawing inspiration from the 1995 film Congo. Following the production of Revenge of the Sith, ILM scaled back its operations and laid of several staff at its practical division including Fon Davis.
Facing competition[]
During the 2000s, Lucas invested in building a new ILM campus at Presidio of San Francisco. By the mid 2000s, ILM was facing competition with other visual effects companies including Manex Visual Effects, Digital Domain, The Orphanage, Cafe FX, The Mill and Wētā FX. Several of these companies recruited former ILM employees or were founded by ILM veterans.
Janet Lewin described Wētā FX as their biggest competitor, saying there were a lot of similarities in the way they ran their companies and interacted with the film industry. Joe Letteri served as a supervisor at ILM between 1991 and 2001 before defecting to Wētā FX, which was then working on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Letteri says that ILM pioneered a technique called "subsurface scattering," which was used to generate Gollum's skin. Letteri and his Wētā colleagues won Oscars for their work on Return of the King.
Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3[]
Letteri said that Gollum made it easier for ILM to pitch a digital version of Davy Jones, who appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Crash McCreery did the concept art for Davy Jones, envisioning him as a completely CGI character with the actor wearing a motion capture suit.
Bill Nighy played Davy Jones and wore a motion capture suit and prosthetics. They also wore tracking marks, which gave created flexibility to the cameras and allowed visual effects to be done later. ILM animators including Polly Ing talked about using simulation engines to digitally render Davey Jones' facial tentacles. John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charlie Gibson and Allen Hall won an Oscar for their work on Dead Man's Chest.
For the third Pirates of the Caribbean film, much of the production was done against blue screens. Verbinski talked about the challenge with doing simulated ocean waves for the movie's whirlpool scene. Knoll talked about using computer animation to flatten the maelstrom and transform it back into a funnel shape. Verbinski described the relationship as a friendship driven by adventure.
War of the Worlds[]
Long-time collaborator Steven Spielberg also enlisted ILM's services in producing the digital effects for the 2005 film War of the Worlds. The production crew filmed several scenes on the Hudson River and New York City. Several ILM crew including Dennis Muren, Doug Chiang and Jean Bolte are interviewed.
During production, Muren proposed using digital animation to depict a collapsing bridge. Models of houses were built and controlled explosions were used to destroy them. The car escape scene featuring Tom Cruise and the child actors was filmed indoors against blue screen. Shots of flying clothes tied to cables were used to simulate people being blaster by the tripods. Bolte described War of the Worlds as a high mark for ILM despite its limited budget. Muren retired after War of the Worlds.
Rango[]
Janet Lewin talked about ILM turning down "big and risky projects" such as Avatar despite spending several months bidding for it. ILM instead collaborated with Verbinski on an animated film called Rango, which Bolte recalled was the first digital feature film that ILM worked on. Verbinski worked with several ILM colleagues including Maia Kayser, Jakub Pistecky, Kevin Martel, and Hal Hickel.
Verbinski allowed the ILM visual effects artists to work at his house, treating the animators and artists as family. For Rango, production utilized story-based filming instead of shots-based filming. The animators also voiced the characters in Rango. According to Polly Ing, the film drew inspiration from Western films such as There Will Be Blood for world-building and design. The film production also utilized "emotion capture" where the voice actors' facial expressions were rendered onto the CGI characters. Ing described Rango as a "weird blend of photorealistic style blended with a very stylized look and feel."
The curtain closes[]
Rose Duignan talked about the ILM model shop staff remaining at the Kerner building before closing down in 2023. That year, a farewell part was held at ILM Kerner for current and former ILM employees. Several people in stormtrooper costumes also attended. Joe Johnston gave a speech about working on the white Boba Fett suit during the production of The Empire Strikes Back. Fon Davis praised Lucas for inspiring the creation of Pixar. Lewin talks about the challenges and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence while Knoll talks about ILM inspiring a new generation of film-makers.
Credits[]
| Cast | Uncredited cast | Crew | Uncredited crew | Special thanks |
Cast
|
Uncredited cast
|
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
Light & Magic on Disney+ (backup link)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
Star Wars (@starwars) on Twitter (post): "See how @ILMVFX changed movie making. Light & Magic Season 2 is coming to @DisneyPlus April 18." (backup link)
