Light & Magic episode 6 review
By Matthew Roth
The series Light & Magic which has offered us an inside look behind the scenes of how Industrial Light and Magic not only built Star Wars, but also changed cinema forever wraps up its six-part series in a heartfelt fashion.
The final episode titled “No More Pretending You’re Dinosaurs” caps off an incredible run of story telling and magic.
The episode kicks off with a montage of filmmakers such as James Cameron, Ron Howard, and Steven Spielberg discussing how effects had become so good you could no longer wow the audience on them alone. Fans wanted story telling to match the amazing effects being input into films. We then take a peek behind the curtain into the film that changes SFX forever, the 1993 film Jurassic Park. The crew discusses the difficulty blending the old school technology with the new digital age of filmmaking. Phil Tippett continues to be the heart of ILM as he discusses how difficult this was for him being that he is steeped in the culture of practicality.
Details such as how it would take six months to paint one dinosaur to perhaps the funniest moment in the entire series which was the crew, in an effort to properly digitalize dinosaurs moving pretended to be dinosaurs running through the studio lots. All of this culminated in changing the landscape of filmmaking forever and led to George Lucas realizing he could make the prequel trilogy finally. We knew how groundbreaking
We thought we knew the impact Star Wars had on film but, what this series does so Elegantly is highlight every crew member and the part they played. It took a team that becomes family to give us the modern CGI and SFX we know and love today. The series wraps up with a beautiful montage of friends who have been together for 40 years to how big they have grown. In the words of Phil Tippett: “If you become a filmmaker, you never have to grow up.”
Find all six episodes of Light and Magic streaming on Disney Plus now.