The Light & Magic panel at Star Wars Celebration 2022 gives attendees a sneak peek and inside information about the upcoming documentary from Ron Howard. (UPDATING LIVE)
Friday, May 27
Light & Magic
11:00AM – 12:00PM, Live on the Celebration Stage; streamed to Galaxy Stage and Twin Suns Stage
Attendees of Star Wars Celebration will be among the first in the world to get a sneak peek at “Light & Magic” with an “illuminating” discussion panel featuring Lawrence Kasdan and Ron Howard, joined by VFX titans Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, Joe Johnston and Rose Duignan, and Lynwen Brennan, Lucasfilm executive vice president and general manager.
Light & Magic @ Star Wars Celebration 2022
As audiences get wiser and smarter, how do we accomplish effects.
Need to be sure that technique is as good as the illusion with ILM.
“more exciting, realistic, magical.” – Jon Favreau
Larry Kasen made this documentary because he never knew how the movie magic happened. ILM is a company of geniuses. George Lucas had the vision to bring them all together. The greatest special effects hours in the world. A lot of improvising. If someone needed help they would go to someone else and they always would help. “Where geniuses help geniuses.” They only want to do a good job. The whole company is aimed at providing the best special effects ever.
Being interviewed kept bringing back memories from the past that they had forgotten. All participants praise Larry that the documentary tells the story of ILM perfectly, in a way outsiders looking in can understand.
Lynwen Brennen says that ILM is about the people. Yes, they have changed the industry but it’s all about the people. “There is no hoarding of the secrets.” It gets in your blood, when you are there. It’s an incredible honor to work there and stand on the shoulders of the giants.
Ron Howard says that George Lucas “doesn’t do actor speak.” When the first Star Wars movie came out, Ron Howard stood in line for two hours with his wife to see it. When it ended, they loved it so much, they got right into another two hour long line and saw it again. Twice in the same day.
Howard says he was intimidated when he first started becoming a customer of ILM as a director, but is always impressed with their work.
“It doesn’t have to work, it just has to look great. It’s easy to design if it doesn’t have to work.” – Joe Johnston
“George always saw the rebel fleet as hot rods/ They are pieced together. The Empire stuff is right off the factory floor. We can outrun the imperial ships because we hot rodded ours.” – Joe Johnston
George was very vague about what he wanted because he wanted choices. For example, he would say that Darth Vader needs a ship to get him from the Star Destroyer to the ground, and Joe Johnston would say “like a shuttle.” to which Lucas would reply “yeah.” He did this so that Joe would bring him nine or ten drawings, and he could pick a few.
Dennis Muren began as a fan. “From a very young age I was attracted to visuals and to spectacles I couldn’t see in real life.”
Phil Tippett explains that on Return of the Jedi he tasked with getting a few sculptors together to create models and George would look at them and assign them names and what they would do. “We would come up with stupid names because you have to have names for things.” George twisted the names — calamari man became mon calamari. He’s like a documentary film maker because he likes to explore.
George responded well to 3D stuff. Get creative people to invest, make it theirs, and run with it.
Rose Duignan says ILM looked like a dump when she arrived for her interview. “I had seen American Graffiti so I was already sold.” My job was to follow him around and make notes. I had to keep track of everything he said to every department. John Dykstra was loose and funny, but when George got there it was all business. I don’t know how they managed what to shoot when. George Lucas says they needed to get an adult in the room.
“We were all in our twenties, nobody had kids, we all just worked, worked, worked. From morning to night.” – Rose
Joe had a hand in making the Star Wars logo happen. He was given just a handful of hours to redesign the logo. He used a ruler and drew the logo.
After 45+ years the spirit of doing something new is still there, as well as honoring the craft. It’s the best took for the job. Practical models, stop motion, but on top of that inventing new techniques, like the stage craft. It comes from a place of a story point that needs to be told and an idea from a director. Having people like Jon Favreau who want to push you and Kathleen Kennedy who doesn’t have no in her vocabulary is what makes it happen. “You start with yes and then you figure it out.
Ron Howard says after being away for a bit, but still close to it, the spirit was still there when he went to make Solo. The advances were spectacular and of course in association of Bryce, the breakthroughs just keep coming. They push the artist. It’s about creativity first. Technology is there but what’s the idea, what’s the dream.
Larry Kasdan discusses the transition to digital. He says there had to be patience with the process. That’s a miracle that someone can sit down with five distinctly different designs and you can see where they ended up.
The move to digital was a powerful moment says Dennis. Phil stayed on for the animation because it’s about the soul of the animal. You need the emotion still. If you don’t have that, who cares. After that we thought it would be a few years for the transition but every studio that came to us wanted CGI so we had to start hiring like crazy. Took two or three years before we were really going.
Rose says George is both a producer and a director. He’s a serious man. John is a funny guy. George would look in the screening room. He loves organization. Someone would say “there’s a problem in the left hand corner so I’ll redo it.” George would say “if they are looking in the left hand corner we already lost them.”
George wanted to teach people about selfishness vs. selflessness. There was not a lot of ego in this. It was always what do we need.
“Just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Larry Kasden made this for his grandchildren. He showed them the show and immediately after they started doing stop motion.
NEXT: Lucasfilm’s Studio Showcase @ Star Wars Celebration 2022
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.