ILM Presents: “Empire at 40”

Fireside Chats with the Wizards of of The Old ILM Republic....

Now THAT's Entertainment!

What I love is that the host, Bill George, got his job at ILM by showing a fantastic model of a Y-Wing which he'd built after watching Episodes IV & V. The model makers at the time thought it was even better than the filming models used for the first two films & hired him on the spot!! Bills'Y-Wing was subsequently used in Episode VI Return of The Jedi.....
I think, if I recall, that it was eventually affixed to a plaque & kept as a trophy.....

C’mon Lorne, are we not going to talk about this? Where can I get one?

Thanks for doing this guys, could listen to stuff like this for hours more

One of my high school classmates, and a close friend, Jeff Light, was supervisor of motion capture at ILM during the first two of the Star Wars prequels. He was bright and dynamic. He could act, sing, dance, write, direct, paint backdrops, record and play sound effects--round that time, whilst watching an episode of Star Trek (TOS), I had managed to capture on a tape recorder a few seconds of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) firing his phaser pistol; I shared it with Jeff, and he incorporated it into a segment of our senior skits, during which the world's best hyperbolist in all of human history played Captain Quirk--a true Renaissance man of the first order Jeff was! His only character flaw was that he kept pestering me to tell him my astoundingly brilliant puns . . . .
I long have wished he could find two colleagues, one named Jeff Industrial, and the other Jeff Magic, and they would form their own SFX/CGI production company.

Thank you very much! It is, though, ironic to celebrate "40 years of EMPIRE" but showing scenes from the "special edition". Funny that you cannot show the original movie scenes, or at least the DESPECIALIZED.

Their work was absolute artistry. It holds up today. I believe that their work on the original Jurassic Park made the CGI dinosaurs look believable today.
Visual Effects Miniature have a gravitas that CGI simply doesn't.

I remember my father took me to the first one and he was squeezing in this one because it was a bit darker than the first one, I was just sold for the rest of my life. Now 40 years later I am still a model maker and rc specialist and actor because of Star wars

What are you working on now?

BEFORE BEING OWNED BY AN UNWORTHY AND FILTHY COMPANY CALLED DISNEY CORPORATION BY BOB EIGER.

Fantastic !

That was an abrupt ending 😆

great

Geez, I still can't believe how well the stuff on screen holds up forty years later.

You guys are legends, thank you so much for blowing a nine year old's mind in 1977...

So cool that you mention Mike Pangrazio, I wish we had more interviews or workshops of him

This is great, almost as great as being at a roundtable discussion or at a dinner table together reminiscing of the good ol' days of Cinema. Thank you guys.

Dennis Murren: " the will to do it." That says it all. These Guys are just incomparable. Cinemas national treasures.

this talk is a gift wrapped in gold, thank u

Artists and Craftsmen.

I`m not worthy ...thanks guys :)

I think George Lucas is a genius, but for Empire he was also lucky to work with some equally talented people that also had the balls to challenge him about his not-so good ideas. That can, unfortunately, not be said about any movie Lucas made after this one.

Wha...I'm just seeing this now T.T
Thank you for this! <3

Great stuff, these gentlemen an many unsung others made reality of Lucas's world and filled our little heads with imagination and wonder.

Our most favorite Episode of them all. Hands Down. Excellent Zoom like video Interviews. We are definately going to archive this video. Love it.

This really is totally awesome! Thank you so much to the people that burned amazing images into my mind for life :D

These are the people who made star wars endearing to all the real fans. Better than CGI.

If Phill Tippett is in it then im in.

This film still holds to this day. An inspiration for some people on our team

Simply one of the best 1h 25mins of my life! Absolutely wonderful job, thank you.

Bonch of 60 year old kids. I wanna hug them all

That super star destroyer model is incredible. And still one of the best capital ship designs out there.

Would of loved to have seen a Kubrick directed film

These guys are like heroes to me! Thank you all so much.

That was such a great stream! Let's get Joe Johnston a SW movie!!!-

That scene of the falcon outmaneuvering the star destroyers was basically the spaceship equivalent of the chaotic foot chase Han Solo escape scenes on the Death Star in the previous film. It's him moving like crazy in between them all making them scramble - perfect capturing of Solo's personality but with ship movements.

Talking about one of the greatest movies ever made pure joy thank you as long as there are movie's there will always be star wars

What a treat to listen to the guys who made our obsessions possible . I found it funny when they were talking about the origins of the Falcon when both models including the original concept and the Eagle were on the shelves behind the host , as well as a few other items i would have liked to hear about their origins too ..

This is like getting George Martin and the engineers of Abbey Road together to talk about how the Beatles created Revolver and Sgt Pepper. Truly a privilege to be watching these souls recount their experiences that have touched and inspired so many.

You guys have to do More videos like this

I bet you guys did not think that what you were doing would stick like glue in the imaginations of 10 year olds around the world in 1980, It has, the Magic is still there, 40 years on. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dennis Muren, Ralph McQuarrie, Frank Oz, Ben Burt, and ALMOST George, for a PBS news special in 1998, talking to my childhood heros was a life affirming experience for me, I should have asked for a job. Doh!  
You guided my drawing imagination as a child and my film making passions as an adult. Your work Fueled my imagination with hope and joy for a life time. Thank you.

Dreams do come true!! This is amazing!!

Amazing talk. Love the SW world.

What is that music at the start?