VFX Voice - Fall 2017

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COMPANY PROFILE ILM: 40 YEARS OF MAKING MEMORABLE IMAGES FOR GREAT STORIES By BARBARA ROBERTSON TOP to BOTTOM: Deepwater Horizon (Photo copyright © 2016 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.) The venerable visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic began 2017, its 41 st year, with its artists receiving 16 VES Awards nominations, three VES Awards, four Annie Award nominations, two BAFTA nominations, and three Oscar® nominations for work accomplished last year. The nominations and awards include those for best achievement in visual effects, outstanding effects simulations, compositing, animated effects, character animation, environments, virtual cinematography, modeling – just about every area in visual effects for which there is an award. In addition, four developers at ILM received an Academy Technical Achievement Award for the studio’s facial performance-capture solving system. So what’s ILM up to now? “The short answer is that we’re doing the same thing we’ve been doing for 40 years,” says John Knoll, Chief Creative Officer and Visual Effects Supervisor. “Trying to generate and make startling and memorable imagery for clients. Trying to help create great stories. “All the shows we’re working on have something interesting,” he continues. “That’s how we choose these projects. We ask what potential they have for being the source of striking and memorable imagery, and what can they do to help drive the technology forward. There’s always something creatively cool about the projects we pursue.” Already, the studio has worked on eight films, so far (Transformers: The Last Knight, The Mummy, Kong: Skull Island, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Life and Spider-Man: Homecoming). Currently in production are visual effects for another 14 films so far: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Thor Ragnarok, Mother!, Downsizing and Only the Brave for release this year. Those underway for 2018 include Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Ready Player One, Aquaman, A Wrinkle in Time, Monster Hunt 2, Cloverfield Movie, and an untitled “Han Solo Star Wars Anthology Film.” How many films can ILM handle at one time? “Rather than the number of shows, we think about the number of shots we’re doing,” Knoll says. “It’s all about managing capacity. We could have fewer shows with a large number of shots. I did an estimate probably two years ago and came up with a number – we are probably something like a 4,000 to 6,000 shot facility. ILM type of shots.” 58 • VFXVOICE.COM FALL 2017
GLOBAL ILM SINGAPORE Lucasfilm opened its first international studio in Singapore in 2006, with 15 artists working in three branches: animation, LucasArts and ILM. Now, solely an ILM studio, approximately 300 artists – 400 people total – work in the ILM’s Sandcrawler building located in Singapore’s Fusionopolis. Nigel Sumner, Creative Director, who has traveled back and forth between Singapore and San Francisco since 2007, manages the group. “For me, the great strength of the global ILM is that we can move shots freely between the studios, which means shots can be completed at any one of our four locations,” he says. “And our geographical location allows us to reach into Asia to make connections with regional filmmakers.” In addition to working with the other studios, ILM Singapore hubbed the Chinese co-production of The Great Wall, and is currently hubbing the regional production, Monster Hunt 2. VANCOUVER ILM first opened a studio in Vancouver in 2013 and within a year had expanded into a 30,000-square-foot space in Gastown. In 2017, the company opened a second studio, expanding into another 60,000 square feet. Today, approximately 425 people work at ILM Vancouver. “A lot of our technology is San Francisco based,” says Creative Director Eric Barba. “We remotely connect to the machines in San Francisco.” Although bidding for projects also goes through San Francisco, the goal is to have studios and directors come directly to Vancouver for their projects. And that has begun. “Valerian was the first show we hubbed,” Barba says, “that we had full creative ownership. We’re doing all the work for Only the Brave in Vancouver and we have more in the works. We’re building a team of great visual effects supervisors. “Of course, we also have teams running with a good amount of shot work – as spokes on shows that hub elsewhere,” he adds. “ILM is much more collaborative than what I’ve been used to. It’s a different culture. I’m in constant communication with the creative directors in each facility. I can walk through shots with Dennis Muren – and the other supervisors. That’s one of the big positive things about ILM.” LONDON ILM opened its London studio in 2014 with Creative Director Ben Morris. The location is perfect for ILM’s work on Star Wars, which is filmed in part at nearby Pinewood Studios. ILM London is currently the hub for Star Wars, The Last Jedi. “We’re also hubbing Jurassic World and working on Ready Player One, the Han Solo spin-off, and the next Avengers movie, says Executive-in-Charge Sue Lyster. Currently approximately 500 people work in three buildings in central London, but work has started on a new building in Holborn – also central London – to house everyone. London ILM’ers share the same pipeline as those in the other three studios. “There is an enormous depth of experienced talent in London, and I think we have attracted some of the best into our studio,” Lyster says. “We also have a graduate program to bring the best emerging talent into the studio.” With several other award-winning studios already located in London, why would the local talent choose ILM? “I think people join ILM to be part of ILM,” Lyster says, “to join the legacy of a great and long-standing company. ILM has a reputation, which is what brought me here, for treating people well and respecting people. There is an ethos of sharing, of reaching out for an opinion, and what’s happening is that people don’t only reach to San Francisco for help, opinions and feedback, they also reach to the other three studios. We’ve all gotten a little bit used to the time zones.” DIVIDE AND CONQUER Working on these shots are approximately 1,700 artists and support staff spread nearly equally among four studios: The home base in San Francisco plus Vancouver, London, and Singapore. “We have talented supervisors and creative directors in all four studios,” Knoll says. “In the same way I keep an eye on San Francisco, Eric Barba does that in Vancouver, Nigel Sumner in Singapore, and Ben Morris and David Vickery in London.” Any combination of studios might work on any film – one, two, three or all four – and in addition to work centered in San Francisco, the other three studios often act as the hub for one or more films. For example, Vancouver hubbed Valerian and is the hub for Only the Brave scheduled for release later this year. London has Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Episode VIII), which will release in December, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, scheduled for 2018. Singapore is hubbing a regional production, Monster Hunt 2, directed by Raman Hui of Shrek fame. Each of the four studios has artists on staff working in ILM’s global art department to provide concept art and design for films with ILM effects and for other films. And, ILM is moving technical artists – R&D engineers – into all the studios, as well. “For a long time, the R&D was all in San Francisco,” Knoll says. “But there are good reasons to have engineering capacity in all the studios. R&D is easier to manage if we can say particular aspects are concentrated in different studios.” Knoll estimates that a group of about 40 people do R&D, but notes the number is difficult to pin down because artists on production teams also do R&D and vice versa. The goal is two-fold: FALL 2017 VFXVOICE.COM • 59
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VFXVOICE.COM FALL 2017 VES 70: ALL-
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[ EXECUTIVE NOTE ] Welcome to Our V
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[ V-ART ] Lorin Wood V-Art showcase
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CyberGraphix, one of the first Mac-
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