Industrial Light + Magic's Academy Award winning, Visual Effects Supervisor, Scott Squires will give a keynote speech titled, "The Future of Visual Effects" at the Digital Content Creation Conference in Los Angeles, CA. The keynote is scheduled for Wednesday, December 2, from 9:45 am - 11 am.

Mr. Squires as been nominated twice for "Best Achievement in Visual Effects", for both The Mask, and Dragonheart. He is currently working on The Phantom Menace, also known as "Star Wars: Episode 1".

For more information, check out the Digital Content Creation Conference Website.

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The award winning animated short film Bunkie & Booboo (produced at ILM) will be showing at the NICOGRAPH98 CG Film Show, Nov.25 to 27th in Japan. Bunkie & Booboo was developed as part of ILM's "Personal Projects" Program. I hope to write an article about this program soon, and publish it here on ilmfan.com.

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At this pace we'll all be rabid lunatics by the time the actual movie opens. But if you can't wait that long, here is the next best thing. Starting today, in select theaters, you can see trailers for the upcoming Star Wars Prequel, "The Phantom Menace." For more information, check out this page from The Official Star Wars Website.

In the ilmfan.com fan feedback section, give us your thoughts on the visual effects in the trailer, what you like, and what you don't like. If you want to discus the (much hated) title though, please go here.

UPDATE: The Prequel Trailer is now available online. The server is getting extremely overloaded, but if you'd like to try, here it is; Real Video, Quicktime(320x240), Quicktime(160x120), AVI (160x120).

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An observant ILM fan noticed that I had forgotten to add Mighty Joe Young to the list of ILM films in production. Good catch. ILM completed 17 shots of the computer generated ape. The movie is slated to release on December 25. Credits included-- Visual Effects Supervisor, Jim Mitchell; Associate VFX Supervisor, Carl Frederick; Visual Effects Producer, Mark Miller; and Animation Supervisor, Daniel Jeannette.

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On Tuesday, the Marin County Business Journal ran a story detailing the expansion plans ILM was considering at their San Rafael campus. The story was quickly picked up by the Business Wire. The original story surfaced after the plans became public record on Monday. "ILM has been growing since the start of the company twenty years ago," said a suprised ILM spokesman, downplaying the news, "Every expansion must be approved by the city planning and in turn becomes public record. Thus explains why the article was written."

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Tuesday, the Marin County Business Journal reported that ILM is considering expanding it's San Rafael operations. The Business Wire immediately posted the story, and it took less than a day before I was alerted to the news while traveling in the orient (I'm currently in Taipei, Taiwan). More news on this to come.

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Thursday (10/15) Marcus Stokes, Technical Director/Animator for ILM's Commercials Division, will give a presentation on The Art of ILM's Commercial Productions. He will share insights and the creative background behind some of ILM's award winning television commercials. The event is being sponsored by The North Bay Multimedia Association. Social hour begins at 6pm, the presentation lasts from 7pm to 9pm at Autodesk, 111 McInnis Parkway, San Rafael. Cost is $15 for non-members at the door.

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It's Alive! But is it official? Universal Pictures' released a press release announcing their new film in production, Untitled Frankenstein CGI Project.

Untitled Frankenstein CGI Project is a full length all-digital dramatic motion picture. Digitally generated characters and environments will be created by Industrial Light + Magic, and the film will be directed by ILM's Dave Carson and Brent Maddock (who also wrote the story).

On the subject, ILM is staying quiet. Though they will confirm that they've completed elaborate tests, and that those tests have been well received at Universal, the official word from ILM spokeswoman Ellen Pasternack is, "We don't have an official deal yet."

For more information, check out this Variety article, U, ILM plan Frankenstein

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ILM's Commercial production group is in the spotlight this week. Their 60 second spot, titled "Financial World" debuted on Sept. 27th. Produced for First Union Corp., the series of spots were produced by Industrial Light + Magic, and directed by ILM's Steve Beck .

The spots are already being hearlded as "60 second feature films".

"The sense of cinematic scope is different from anything that has ever been seen in a commercial," says director Steve Beck. "One shot incorporates more than 95 different visual elements and includes nearly 7,000 people real and animated."

For more information, check out these links:

• The 'Making of Financial World' video (requires Real Video)
• The official First Union press release
• An article by NewsStream about "Financial World"

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Last Friday, Lucasfilm released the title of the new Star Wars Episode I film (better known as the Prequel Trilogy). The name of the film, is "Star Wars - The Phantom Menace". What do you think of the name? Give your feedback, in the fan feedback section of ilmfan.com.

In related news, Lucasfilm has also recently opened a new, very interesting website at www.naboo.com. The Naboo Swamp is one of the fictional locations, for the new film. For all the official information about the new Star Wars Prequels, visit www.starwars.com

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If you are looking to read more about Industrial Light + Magic, check out these magazines at your newsstand now:

• Cinescape Insider, vol. 4, no. 5 has an article titled The Industrial Light + Magic Revolution. Cinescape speaks with ex and current ILM artists, and details ILM's role in transforming the visual effects industry from models and minatures, to digital imagery.
• Star Wars Insider, issue 39. An Interview with ILM Art Director Doug Chiang. The interview focuses on his rise from creating props for Pee Wee's Playhouse, to working on the new Star Wars Prequel. Also in this issue, read about ILM technician Don Bies work on the new Prequel, in a story titled "Don Bies Makes R2D2 Move".


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Tomorrow, Sept. 15th, the Los Angeles SIGGRAPH chapter will be kicking off the 1998/99 season of professional meetings and events with a panel discussion entitled, Crossover Crafts -- Visual Effects and Cinematography. Co-hosted by American Cinematographer magazine and Los Angeles SIGGRAPH, the event features ILM's very own Stefan Fangmeier. Other speakers include; Dean Cundey (ASC), John Toll (ASC), John Schwartzman (ASC), Joel Hynek (Manex), John Bruno (ex-ILMer, now a Director on Virus), Stuart Robertson (previously POP, RGA/LA), and Tim Landry (Dreamquest).

This sounds like a very exciting discussion, and I strongly suggest you go. For more information, check out the LA Chapter SIGGRAPH Newsletter

And tell them ilmfan.com sent you!

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I recently I had the honor of speaking with Beth Sasseen, Recruiting Supervisor for the ILM Computer Graphics Department. I took questions from you, the ILM fans out there, and passed them along to her. [the interview]

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