DATE=9-30-03

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-37897

TITLE=Intvw: Hollywood Visual Effects Master Pablo Helman

BYLINE=Adam Phillips

TELEPHONE=212-264-2148

DATELINE=Marin County, California

EDITOR=Robert Sivak (202- 619-2023)

CONTENT=

(ATTN: ENTERTAINMENT, FILM)

HOST: From "Terminator Three" to "Matrix Reloaded" and "Lord of the Rings," today's blockbuster films are heavy on action and digitally-made visual effects. But what are digital effects and what science and art are involved in making them work? VOA's Adam Phillips reports. [MUSIC FADES OUT]

SFX: COMPUTER KEYBOARD [ESTAB :03 FADE UNDER]

TEXT: Except for a few small-scale space alien figures, rhinoceroses and "Incredible Hulks" scattered about, the offices of Industrial Light and Magic are s milar to many cubicle-crammed corporate offices in Marin County California. But this is a place where alternative realities get created.

MUSIC: (CREEP UP, ESTAB: THEN BED: OUT BY ** BELOW)

Pablo Helman was the visual effects supervisor for Arnold Schwartzenegger's recent "Terminator Three" film and helped to make several "Star Wars" films among other projects. The Argentine native explains the difference between so-called "visual effects," and what Hollywood labels "special effects."

TAPE CUT ONE HELMAN (:16)

"'Special effects' refers to something that had been done on the set, for instance explosions or stunt work or rigging a car or something, whereas 'visual effects' is taking those special effects sequences into the computer and manipulating them digitally."

TEXT: Mr. Helman adds that special effects often depend on digital effects to be effective, especially in action movies, when stunt actors stand in for the stars and take the physical risks involved in shooting a scene.

TAPE CUT TWO HELMAN (:23)

"… If you see somebody being thrown left to right into a wall that person doesn't really get pushed by somebody but he gets pulled by a cable or a rig. Well, that rig has to be removed somehow removed visually - by painting it out, and we use a computer to do that. And that is something that is completely standard. It has to be done and we do it."

TEXT: By making it easy to manipulate images, computers help free a filmmaker's imagination and offer an unprecedented amount of artistic control.

TAPE CUT THREE HELMAN (:29)

"You can change bakgoudns and you can change, foregrounds. You can change somebody's face and somebody hairline and somebody's nose -- anything that has to do with serving the story and enhancing the storytelling process."

TEXT: Movie directors were once at the mercy of the weather when shooting outdoors. They had to wait until the light was just right to evoke an emotion demanded by a scene. No more. Today, directors film whenever they want, and the digital effects experts like Pablo Helman simply replace the actual sky with a sky the director wants for a scene -- complete with custom-made clouds.

TAPE CUT FOUR HELMAN (:08)

"Usually what the director asks for is for the clouds to move. Whatever the director wants, that's the direction we're going."

TEXT: Some of Mr. Helman's most interesting work involves creating new characters -- and often very strange characters -- entirely within a computer. These fictional beings are then "inserted" into movie scenes as virtual performers, working opposite live actors. But don't get over-awed, says Mr. Helman: all this fancy technology is just another tool.

TAPE CUT FIVE HELMAN (:35)

"A movie is just another media [medium]. You want to make a story interesting. And the way to do it is to punctuate it differently and to use whispers and to scream and to make faces and to illustrate everything you're doing, and your timing."

TEXT: In film, as in literature, pacing and surprise are key.

SFX: SUPER LOUD LONG CAR CRASH (BRING IN TEXT OVER DECAY)

TEXT: Violent car crashes --such as this one in "Terminator Three," are one of Pablo Helman's latest projects -- are one sure way to get an audience's attention. Visual effects teams can take months to enhance the more elaborate car wrecks through animation and other techniques. According to Mr. Helman, a finished crash sequence must be similar enough to real life to be credible, yet different enough to have a dramatic impact.

TAPE CUT SIX HELMAN (:41)

"When you're doing a crash, it is a very expensive thing and it is a very powerful thing. So you usually slow down the pace of things and you double cut things, and you slow down actions. And when you do that you are creating a sound effect that will encompass seven or eight shots… And when you are on a street and you witness a car crash it just happens [snaps fingers]. That's it."

TEXT: Sound and music are, of course, crucial elements in today's blockbusters, as is lighting and a host of other factors, all of which can be digitally rendered. And scenes may contain a complex "layering" of digital and analog elements. [MUSIC OUT]

Mr. Helman recalls one highly technical battle scene from "Terminator Three" when Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing a half-man half machine from the future is seen advancing toward the camera.

SFC: "SHOOT 'EM UP" SCENE THEN BED

TAPE CUT SEVEN HELMAN (:31)

"I don't see a guy coming towards the camera. I see Arnold. I see a green screen. I see computer-generated stuff. I see lighting. I see animation, simulation. I see textures in smoke. I see fire. Camera movement. Sound. I see all that stuff and I put it together. However, things are a lot more complicated than we think."

TEXT: But you don't want to overdo it with the computer graphics or "C-G" as Mr. Helman calls them. Audiences -- all of them experts on what looks real and what does not may sense when they're being tricked.

TAPE CUT EIGHT HELMAN (:35)

"So if you cut four or five shots that are completely computer [generated] then your eyes are gonna start thinking there is something wrong. You brain wants to make sense of that stuff… and your eye does the same thing. So the idea is we cheat a lot. We put a C-G' shot in there of all this live-action stuff. If you put a digital shot in a middle of a sequence that looks completely real, you'll buy it."

FILM MUSIC: [CREEP UP WITHIN CUT, UP AFTER S/O]]

TEXT: Pablo Helman is a visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic in Marin County California. His recent credits include "Terminator Three," and "Star Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones." He is currently at work on entitled "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." I'm Adam Phillips. [MUSIC UP, PLAY TO POST AND FADE]

Voa/ap/rms