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Impressive, most impressive

  • Darren Waters
  • 10 Mar 07, 03:23 AM

For any cinema-loving, technology geek of a certain age visiting the home of Industrial Light and Magic in San Francisco is a little like coming home.

Outside the firm's office in the Presidio area of the city, master Yoda greets visitors sat atop a fountain.

yoda203300.jpg

The offices are part-cutting edge studio, part-museum of film history.

Around each and every corner you will find a treasure of cinema - and not just LucasFilm history. A poster of a James Bond movie is next to a display cabinet with a model from Jurassic Park.

Models, creatures, spaceships, light sabres are on display along each and every corridor. Matte paintings, concept art and even a giant model of the dish of the Starship Enterprise are on show to inspire staff and impress visitors.

The original compositing machine for Star Wars - that layered finished effects onto film - is kept behind a glass cabinet.

The effects team working hard on the third Pirates of the Caribbean film have turned their offices into a living, breathing buccaneer's galley with flags of the jolly roger seen at every turn - although I was under strict instructions "not to look at anything".

I was visiting for a feature for the 91Èȱ¬ News website on how IL&M has stayed at the cutting edge of visual effects - what technologies are they using to pioneer new cinema history in the making?

But of course, like any organisation, it is the people that make it a success and IL&M has the very best of engineers, artists, producers and so on.

As I walked down the corridors I passed someone who was later pointed out to me as the winner of eight Oscars.

The man who co-created Photoshop with his brother, John Knoll, still works at IL&M and recently brought home the Oscar for visual effects for Pirates 2. I also met the other recipient of that award, Hal Hickel, who seemed more than happy for the 91Èȱ¬ to just swing by unannounced.

I also had the chance to meet the robot who cleans the floors of the IL&M server room. Can you guess who it is?

Comments   Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 11:10 AM on 10 Mar 2007,
  • Jon wrote:

3P0, of course

  • 2.
  • At 05:22 PM on 11 Mar 2007,
  • Steven wrote:

I am thrilled that you made it to ILM!!

  • 3.
  • At 04:19 PM on 14 Mar 2007,
  • Chris wrote:

Is it possible for anyone to visit ILM for a tour ?

  • 4.
  • At 05:27 AM on 15 Mar 2007,
  • Sajid wrote:

yay!!!

  • 5.
  • At 12:47 PM on 15 Mar 2007,
  • Ash wrote:

I would say R2D2, since i can easily imagine some sort of cleaning device on the bottom of him as he rolls around the floor...

  • 6.
  • At 01:08 PM on 15 Mar 2007,
  • chris wrote:

jealousy does not even come close

  • 7.
  • At 01:26 PM on 15 Mar 2007,
  • Anthony Maxwell wrote:

I think the robot is number 5 from Short Circuit "Number 5 is alive". awesome.

  • 8.
  • At 01:32 PM on 15 Mar 2007,
  • Tim Dennell wrote:

Can you get an interview with Thomas or John Knoll? Those guys (they invented Photoshop – later sold to Adobe) are both graphics gurus and legendary software engineers. We honour scientists that make breakthroughs, but the pioneers of computing get nowhere near the amount of kudos and recognition that they should.
They're much more important in the general scheme of things than George Lucas.

Now that is a cool statue! I want one, although I don't think my other half would let me :-(

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