Behind the scenes of movie magic

The first thing you know as you approach the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) studio is that this isn’t your average office building. A giant grey fountain is placed before an unassuming door, a statue of Yoda sitting peacefully near the spigot. A tiny door leads into the building itself, which immediately turns into a large front room. There you can see a whole wall shelved with gleaming awards that the company has received for their work in films. They’re guarded by two life-size statues of Star Wars figures, Darth Vader glancing beadily through his plastic eye sockets as if to give anybody who dares to think about touching the glittering awards the evil eye.

My dad and I came to ILM to tour the studio and meet one of the animators who worked on the movie Rango, which is ILM’s first fully-animated film. Our guide was named Brooke, and the first thing she does is take me into the screening room.

“Do you want to sit where George Lucas usually sits?” she asks me, referring to the creator of the Star Wars movies. I nod in a slow trace- surprised at the fact that Brooke even knew where George Lucas sat much less remembered. I couldn’t help but think she must have been a die-hard fan.

I think she saw the confusion in my face. She smiled and tells me the reason she remembers where he sits is because they have attached a small laser-like light to the ceiling of the theater, and its thin beam is right above the seat of the director himself. She offers me the seat and the lights start to dim.

After watching a highlight reel of the various films ILM has worked on, Brooke leads me up the elevator to another set of rooms. I should mention that along the way she stops and pauses at multiple movie posters and props, full of interesting facts and secrets. She leads me into a small workroom where a whole wall is devoted to a giant screen. There I see the familiar, unforgettable face of Rango  peering at me with a blank expression. I also notice a man surrounded by laptops and projectors.

He introduces himself as Kevin Martel, part of the animation department. He explains to me a little bit about the animation process and then he does the unthinkable — he actually lets me animate Rango! Okay, maybe it’s more like me moving the mouse to his careful directions. It turns out that you have to make 24 frames of animation for a single second of footage.

That’s second, not minute. Just imagine how many frames it takes for just an hour-long movie. (That’s 86,400 for those of you who don’t feel like doing the math!)

In the end I excruciatingly chug my way through about 24 frames, pretending not to notice when Kevin helpfully edits some parts of Rango that look a little bit funky. In the end, I get him in one second to jump up and down while holding his arm in a Michael Jackson-esque pose. I am proud of myself.

Next, Kevin takes me down to where he actually works. It turns out that associate animation supervisors don’t get any bigger space then the other guys, and the room we were in is generally used for presentations. The cubicles down where the animation actually gets done look a lot more like a normal office. But the similarities end when I see the toys. Well, action figures. They litter the walls and are painstakingly categorized. A whole shelf full of Transformers on one side. Kevin has a nice array of muscle men.

My dad mentions to Kevin and the other animators in close range that I went to Pixar for Cars 2. This scares me a little when he says this because I’m afraid that the animators won’t be too happy about that. I thought Pixar and ILM are competitors. But the animators’ response is surprising. They nod their heads, and one says “Pixar? I bet it was like living in a treehouse.”

He doesn’t say it in an offensive way, and it’s kind of true. Pixar is a very clean, sterile, and pretty place with their own little restaurant and coffee shop. But somehow the charm of ILM is more endearing and real.

Check out my story about how ILM made Rango on the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps website! 

—Kid Reporter Mimi Evans

Photo: Director/Producer Gore Verbinski (standing) behind the scenes on Rango, from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. (Credit: Greg Grusby / Industrial Light & Magic © 2011 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.)

A visit to Pixar Studios

Kid Reporter Mimi Evans at the Cars 2 press day

The first thing that you notice when you walk into Pixar Studios is how much they love their movies. In one corner you can see a giant throne from Toy Story 3. Going up a floor, a giant storyboard for The Incredibles is placed as the backdrop for life-size statues of the Incredibles themselves. Across from them you can see an intimidating shark from Finding Nemo.

The second thing that you notice is how serious everything is. As soon as I got into the hall, I was suddenly surrounded by throngs of reporters doing, well, reporter-ly things — sipping coffee, taking pictures, or just chatting with the people next to them. And the reporters were from everywhere. I thought that they would only from around California, and maybe a couple out-of-staters. But there were reporters from as far away as the United Kingdom.

Security was also tight. Before we went to see a short clip from Cars 2 (sorry, no spoilers here!), our bags were thoroughly searched for any recording devices, including cell phones. I could hear some of the reporters grumble about that. But after they took anything that was remotely electronic, they still weren’t done. They used a metal detector extremely similar to the kind they use at airports, complete with some intimidating security guards. I can assure you that nobody was going to get any part of Cars 2 on camera.

What was also noticeable was how down to earth everybody was. I know, I wouldn’t believe it either. I always hear about how this star or that person is just “sooo down to earth,” and I never believe them. I mean, these are people making movies. How could you be down to earth when you’re doing something amazingly huge like that?

But really, everybody at Pixar studios is unassuming. As me and a half-dozen other reporters sat at round wooden tables, they were easygoing as they explained the workings of Cars and Cars 2. When they went into press round tables, they even looked a little nervous themselves.

Even the director, John Lasseter, and comedian Larry the Cable Guy (who is the voice of Mater) were laid-back. Just because Lasseter is a director doesn’t mean he wears a suit — in fact, he came in wearing a smile and a Hawaiian shirt with a print of classic cars.

When I talked to Larry the Cable Guy, he offered me a cucumber sandwich. LARRY THE CABLE GUY offered ME a CUCUMBER SANDWICH. There is so much wrong with that sentence! First of all, a “redneck” comedian eating a cucumber sandwich? “Everything goes with cream cheese,” he offered in his defense. Secondly he had offered it to ME?

I was flabbergasted with delight about the people of Pixar to say the least!

—Kid Reporter Mimi Evans

Photo: Larry the Cable Guy and John Lasseter at Pixar Studios for the Cars 2 press day. (Deborah Coleman ©Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved)