John Knoll Talks Star Wars 3-D
After the recent announcement that the Star Wars saga was going to be converted to 3-D, beginning in chronological order with The Phantom Menace (set for a 2012 theatrical release), I caught up with John Knoll, Industrial Light & Magic's famed visual effects supervisor, who is spearheading the project. He provides a sneak peek of what we might expect in 3-D from the Death Star trench run to the Tatooine Podrace.
Bill Desowitz: So what are your plans for 3-D stereoscopic conversion?
John Knoll: We're mostly going to be working with outside vendors. But the big difference is I'm driving the look of this and going to hold the vendors to very high standards. I've been pretty vocal and my feelings for stereo and stereo conversion. I feel like some of the previous efforts that we've seen were victims of a too rushed production schedule and a too low budget, and maybe not the best aesthetics applied. I feel like the tools can be used to generate good results; otherwise, we wouldn't be doing this. You can't rush it and it's an iterative process, and if you've got a gun to your head and you've got eight weeks to convert a 2,000-shot show, it's not possible to maintain the level of quality control that you need.
BD: And you can only work with what you've got for live action.
JK: Right. I've been very vocal with my opinion that if you're originating new material, if you're in production right now, making something for stereo exhibition, then you should be shooting it in stereo if it's live action, or if it's a computer-animated film you should be rendering it in stereo. But it's a different story if you've got good reasons why you want to convert a library title. So, if you want to explore what stereo can do for you, conversion is the only option. But when stereo's done right, it's not just throwing objects at the camera every few seconds; it's immersive. I think Avatar did a really good of transporting you to an exotic alien place where the stereo is mostly used to give you this powerful sense of presence. And so if you look at the Star Wars world, there are so many interesting, exotic places to go and I think that the immersive nature of stereo exhibition has a lot of appeal. The stuff I've seen to date is pretty cool.
BD: So what is the status of converting Phantom Menace?
JK: We've been thoroughly evaluating the resources out there and giving them the feedback that they need to hear to get the quality where we expect it to be.
JK: I don't think we're allowed to.
BD: Or how many companies?
JK: I'm not allowed to do that either.
BD: Tell me about your role.
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Ah yes, nicely put, eveyrone.
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS PREMIERE
Can't wait!!!!!!!!! Just to be able to see the Duel of the Fates, Naboo, Jar Jar, Jango, the battle of Geonosis, Anakin & Padme, the space battle over Coruscant, speeder chase through Coruscant, battle of the hero's, the trench run, sand people, Cloud City, speeder biker chase etc. on the big screen again is enough for me!!!! I haven't seen anything in this new 3D yet, The Phantom Menace will be first. I'm glad they're starting in the proper order, I-VI is the ONLY way to watch Star Wars!!! They are NO trilogies, only the Star Wars Saga! Six films, one story! Thank you George, and John!
Money talks, box-office reciepts and DVD revenue are what makes decisions, not the retardation of fanboys who cant grow up.
Okay I'm still trying to figure out where Knoll insulted Cameron because I didn't read it or picked up on it. There is genuinely a difference between what Cameron used 3D in Avatar and what Dreamworks did in 3D. Cameron wanted to create a virtual environment and others just want to wow audiences. I'm glad Knoll realizes that the long shots in movies aren't supposed to look up close in real life and applying that to 3D.
I agree Lucas has destroyed star wars like he has indiana jones. The 3-D thing is just further ruining it.
He can spend 20 million to put jar jar freakin binks in 3-D but won't restore the legendary original star wars trilogy from 1977-1983. Its madness!
What i would ove is restored prints of the theatrical versions of the original star wars trilogy. Not the 1997 special edition, or 2004 video cut.
And if any star wars deserve to be in 3-D it should be the real original trilogy not the bad cgi version.
I remember when they recreated some scenes for imax from the theatrical versions for a ben burrt documentary. That was better than this cgi crap prequel retreads will be in 3-D
I don't think that was Jimmy Mac that made the post you're referring to; the guy (or gal) simply ended with Jimmy's famous quote to Roger Ebert, and they attributed his name to it, as often seen with stand-alone quotes.
All you Prequel haters - just stop wasting your breath. Stop criticizing and hating the prequel for what it is not. No, it's not the Original Trilogy. Nothing ever will be. So many of you haters wanted 3 movies of nothing but Jedi battles and Vader. You wanted a whole trilogy of dark and adult like Matrix or the glut of brooding superhero movies. Well, that wasn't the story George had to tell. But he is filling in some of the blanks with Clone Wars and future SW projects. Enjoy it all for what it is - more SW stories. And if you don't like it, why waste your time spouting off? Move on and find something that you do like.
And understand that the OT was a once in a lifetime phenomena for those of us that were of the right age and grew up with it. Nothing would be able to compare with that magic. Nor would we quite be able to experience any new SW films quite like we did when we were younger and so readily and easily able to lose ourselves in the fantasy of cinema. The OT was delicious cake. The Prequel and now the Clone Wars and everything that comes after such as a 3D release is just icing on that cake.
And to Jimmy Mac - love your Forcecast - thanks for such a great venue for us fans. You guys rock! I do agree with your comments here. But no need to specifically bash someone's personal political stance.
To all the Avatar fanboys, Knoll is basically saying that for their purposes, the other approach works better for them. Don't forget Avatar was developed for 3D, Star Wars was not.
Personally, I found How to Train a Dragon too pop-up bookish. Anyway, Knoll has a great track record, he knows what he is doing, so I am quite sure he will deliver.
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