"There Must Be a Better Way" is the second episode of Season 2 of the documentary series Light & Magic, released on Disney+ on April 18, 2025.[2]
Official description[]
As George Lucas tries to convince Hollywood to go digital, ILM takes on wind, water, and a CG Yoda.
Synopsis[]
The backlash[]
Rob Coleman, George Lucas, Ahmed Best, Rick McCallum and Jim Morris talk about the critical and fan backlash against The Phantom Menace in 1999; with much of the criticism focusing on Jar Jar Binks. Lucas defended Binks, comparing him to "goofy" characters from the Original Trilogy such as C-3PO and the Ewoks. Coleman recalls that none of the critical reviews took issue with the visual effects behind Binks. Best talks about how he attempted suicide following the fan, media and social backlash against Binks. Binks criticized the erasure of African Americans from Hollywood productions. Footage of Best speaking at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration and getting a better appraisal for his work after 20 years.
Marching on[]
Following the Phantom Menace, Industrial Light & Magic ILM continued working on other Hollywood productions. The episode also features interviews with other ILM veterans including Stefen Fangmeier, Jean Bolte, Habib Zargarpour, Polly Ing, Fon Davis, and Kim Bromley. Fangmeier and Zargarpour talked about using particle systems to create the tornadoes that featured in the 1996 Twister film. Growing up in Iran, Zargarpopur lived in Belgium and France before studying computer graphics at the Pasadena City College. Inspired by the visual effects of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Jurassic Park, Zargarpour pursued a career as a visual effects artist at ILM.
Zargarpour used his knowledge of particle systems to create the visual effects of The Mask, Jumanji and The Perfect Storm. In addition, Fangmeier applied his knowledge of particle systems to Galaxy Quest. He later reminisces about admiring his visual effects work while watching The Perfect Storm.
Digital effects artist Masi Oka talked about the challenge of digitally modelling water in The Perfect Storm, describing it as constantly viscous and changing. Zargapour had recruited the young Oka to the visual productions team for the film. Another digital effects artist Polly Ing talked about creating the various types of waves and droplets. Ing talked about being inspired by the Indiana Jones films to pursue a career in film. After studying cognitive science at university, Ing managed to find work as a research assistant in computer graphics for Jumaji. She subsequently joined ILM's computer graphics department.
Attack of the Clones[]
After working on the visual effects for Pearl Harbor, Lucas uses the ILM team to create the digital effects for Attack of the Clones, bringing John Knoll and Rick McCallum to Australia. Lucas wanted the movie to be filmed digitally entirely. McCallum talks about Sony taking six years to develop a camera capable of shooting within a 24 frame format. The makeup team also had to modify their makeup for digital photography.
While several scenes including Temuera Morrison as a Clone trooper are filmed digitally with green screen, the ILM model shop led by Lorne Peterson and Fon Davis also built several model sets including Padmé Amidala's Coruscant apartment and the Petranaki Arena. Davis talks about his mixed parentage as the child of a US Air Force pilot and Vietnaemse mother. Davis talks about finding a sense of belonging in building models. After watching A New Hope, David was inspired to pursue a career as a model builder in films, finding a job at ILM.
While John Knoll wanted to film the Clone troopers using costumes and armor, Lucas overruled him and decided that the Clones would be filmed using motion capture suits. Doug Chiang talks about the extensive use of smaller blue screen sets to save money. Coleman talks about the process of creating a digital Yoda for Attack of the Clones, replacing the puppets used by Frank Oz in the earlier films. Linda Bel and Kevin Martel talked about mirroring human movements to generate Yoda's movements in animation. For Yoda's fight scenes, ILM drew inspiration from the Tasmanian Devil in Looney Tunes and martial art films, with input from martial arts fan Ahmed Best.
ILM took six months to develop Yoda's duel with Count Dooku, and two weeks to animate his fight sequence. Coleman and Muren expressed relief at the positive audience reaction to Yoda's fight scene with Dooku, with the former regarding it as triumph. The episode ends with Ben Burtt and John Knoll talking about ILM's contributions to film-making.
Credits[]
| Cast | Uncredited cast | Crew | Uncredited crew | Special thanks |
Cast
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Appearances[]
| Characters | Organisms | Droid models | Events | Locations |
| Organizations and titles | Sentient species | Vehicles and vessels | Weapons and technology | Miscellanea |
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
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)
