During the lively Tron retrospective, moderated by the stately visual effects supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw, we were reminded how revolutionary the movie was for its time back in '82, how difficult and ground-breaking its effects were and how indebted current films are to its achievement.

"Matrix is the exact opposite of Tron," director Steven Lisberger complained while divulging that he is having a much harder time getting a movie sequel off the ground at Disney than launching a video game. "'This reality is getting too much for me; maybe there's another one out there.' We're in real trouble because there is no other reality out there…. Each generation sees through the Emperor's nudity. My son, who's grown up on CG, loves Ghostbusters because [it's so refreshing]. We are backing ourselves in a corner in movies. Action and stunts are killing the need for storytelling. But games are more efficient at that [craving] than films."

Retrospective Panel Moderator: Harrison Ellenshaw

The VES 2003 closed with a look at music video visual effects. While the artists find music videos more engaging because they are invited to contribute more to the creative process and there are less levels of approvals, the work is usually more challenging due to shorter deadlines and no pre-planning or interface with the director or director of photography before and during the shoot.

Eric Durst, VFX supervisor, and Jeff Goldman, CG supervisor from George Michael's Freek! did get to do some pre-planning on the shoot, but with the complexity of the project was enormous, plus dailies were sent back and forth between Santa Monica, Santa Maria and the U.K. (Michael paid for the video personally and was involved in every aspect.) They ended up delivering it six hours before it was to air in U.K. Due to the highly graphic content and sexual content, the video has not been shown in U.S.

Andrew Orloff and Emile Edwin Smith, CG supervisors on Linkin Park's Points of Authority had to create a tremendous number of robotic creatures and crafts in a massive battle with little direction and a short window. They, like the Freek! team, found it difficult to explain what the video is about. Music videos seem less likely to follow a linear storyline.

Perhaps the most amazing performance was by fire artist George Fitz, and his crew at Colorado Effects, who got the call on a Wednesday night to finish Lucy Woodward's Dumb Girl music video in 36 hours, for a Friday delivery. The director had done some pre-planning, using an around-the-world camera rig to shoot the sets, so one scene would revolve up to the next. The director, Ulf, said they could mold shots together using wipes. They gave the edges of each scene an industrial style border with motion blur to help the transition of the wipes. They also ended up having slip and slide it to get it to synch, added light sources and shading, inserted images in a music box prop and composited in the head of another actor, since the one they shot it with was not cleared.

"This was one of those rock & roll projects," said Fitz, shrugging when asked about the short turnaround. "These people aren't as experienced as in commercial work, they think we have a magic button that does these things.

Amy and Burt Yukich were also scheduled to present their work on DMX's X is Gonna Give It To Ya, but had to bow out that day.

Bill Desowitz and Sarah Baisley are the editors of VFXWorld and Animation World Network, respectively.