[IMG:L]Director Steven Spielberg‘s life and career has been full of dazzling special effects. So it comes as no surprise that the Visual Effects Society’s sixth annual awards for achievements in film, television, video games and commercials honored Spielberg with its Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to visual effects.
From the beginning of his career, Spielberg‘s films pushed the boundaries of technology. His mechanical shark in Jaws caused major production delays. He followed that by demanding excellence from the world of miniature models in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Eventually, he pushed computers to bring dinosaurs back to life and later create the future worlds of A.I. and Minority Report.
Here is a brief portrait of Spielberg‘s special effects, as summarized in his VES acceptance speech and post-interview.
[IMG:R]Digital Ego Removal: Where many big shot moguls take all the glory, Spielberg shared the credit for bringing dreams to life with all the artists of the Visual Effects Society.
“You all know that we have a lot of dreams, the directors and writers who put all the stuff together, but you also know that they become sometimes a dream that doesn’t quite have a picture frame around it. It’s just an idea–‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do something like this?’ And you’ve got to give yourselves credit, because you’re the ones that fill in the colors and bring our dreams into focus by showing us what can be done. It is an amazing collaboration that filmmakers with this group, a collaboration that has resulted in some of the most amazing motion picture images the world has ever seen. I cannot wait to see what all of you are going to think about and do–not in the next 20 years; next year.”
Trick Photography: Even with no training, Spielberg figured out how to make movie magic as a kid.
“It’s really interesting how this all begins, because I did my first special effect shot in a little movie I was making when I was 13 years old, 14 years old. I wanted to do a movie about UFOs. I remember taking this black poster board and taking a pin and just stabbing holes in this black poster board all day long for thousands of holes. And then taking a big [light] and I took a little 8mm movie camera and I shot the poster board. Then I took the camera, rewound the film, then I put this little plastic spaceship and hung it from two strings that I painted black so they didn’t show up. And I just shot the spaceship doing nothing but standing in the center of the frame. Two and a half weeks later, because in those days it took two and a half weeks to get your damn film processed and sent back to your house. I would put it on the 8mm projector, I would run it on a wall with all the curtains closed and I got to, for the first time in my life, see a special effect that I did in my own bedroom on a Saturday. I was just kind of thinking, ‘Well, that’s a start.'”
Optical Optimism: Even in a time of war and strife, Spielberg sees hope in the (well-funded) arts.
“I watch the clip package you showed tonight from television shows and commercials and video games. It just makes me think that this is a glorious time to be alive. It’s a glorious time to be expressing ourselves in a way that no longer is impossible. Sometimes it costs a lot of money, but with enough money, we can do anything, right?”
[IMG:R]Rendering Flops into Hits: The highlight montage for Spielberg‘s award included the box office dud Always and the critical flop Hook, but Spielberg was happy to give them their due.
“I love they included Always. Joe Johnston shot that, I didn’t. I directed the movie but Joe Johnston shot all of the fire stuff with miniature airplanes up at ILM. Those were full miniatures and that was really fire. That fire, they were control burned, had flames 30 feet into the air. That was one of the most extraordinary miniature shoots I had ever seen and Joe Johnston supervised all that. So I liked that they used a lot of the films that aren’t often [regarded] like Hook. There were a lot of great effects in Hook and I love they showed some clips on that.”
Emotional Blue Screen: Spielberg and co. were sad to wrap production on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
“It was awful the last day of shooting because I didn’t want it to end. Harrison [Ford] didn’t want it to end, Karen [Allen], none of us wanted it to end. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”
Pre-Visualization: The new art of animating complicated movies before shooting has made Spielberg more efficient on Indy IV, if not as spontaneous.
“I get to make the movie before I get to make the movie. The only bad thing about that is it takes about 25 percent of the spontaneity of making on set discoveries because you fall in love with the pre-vis and you don’t give your imagination a chance to fly so much when you’re on the set and the practical 3D reality of being on a movie set. So I had to fight that urge to stick with pre-vis by throwing out a lot of pre-vis if I thought I had a better idea the day I was shooting the actors.”
[IMG:R]Stereoscopic 3D: Spielberg predicts the future of movies will jump out at audiences.
“I think we’re all heading inexorably towards three dimensional reality movies. There’s going to be more 3D coming at us than the inventors of 3D in the 1950s ever imagined. I think we’re headed into a 3D conversion and I think 3D will be the tool that will get exhibitors to do more digital conversion of theater. Now, I’m a film guy. I shoot my movies on film, but the industry is tipping towards digital conversion and I think 3D will be the shoehorn for that.”
Miniature Filmmakers: Spielberg wants to give props to the upstarts like he once was, now making movies online.
“I, like many of you, am seeing amazing work being done today on the Internet. We’re seeing amazing backyard special effects being done by all those you will be hiring some day very, very soon. I would love to see a student film award for particularly gifted animators and gifted visual effects artists and future directors to be able to really have an incentive to get into this business, because you allowed them a little window into what’s going to be the generation to come. I really think that would be a wonderful thing to do. It’s not my position to suggest, but I have the conch as they say, so I can say that.”
