LAST LOOK Inside the Former ILM Production Studio
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ม.ค. 2024
- Adam Savage gets a tour of the iconic 32Ten Studios before its permanent closure, courtesy of Academy Award-winning sound designer, film director, editor, screenwriter and voice actor Ben Burtt. The majority of the ‘80s and ‘90s blockbusters -- from Indiana Jones to Back to the Future to Star Wars -- passed through 32Ten Studios during their production, and ! It was even housing the original LucasFilm EditDroid, a revolutionary computerized analog non-linear editing system, which changed movie making forever. This studio is full of secrets and legacy ready to be discovered!
The Iconic Sounds of Star Wars: • The Iconic Sounds of S...
An Interview With Former Star Wars Modeler Lorne Peterson: • An Interview With Form...
NOTE: This video was filmed before 32TEN Studios was closed permanently, and its contents auctioned off. More interviews conducted by Adam in this iconic building are forthcoming; more on the closure here: www.northbaybusinessjournal.c...
The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: amzn.to/3RtI9Bu
More about Ben Burtt: www.skysound.com/people/ben-b...
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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman
Thanks for watching! - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
The Iconic Sounds of Star Wars: th-cam.com/video/KAg4wySzgUg/w-d-xo.html
An Interview With Former Star Wars Modeler Lorne Peterson: th-cam.com/video/_WP5MKWGCrs/w-d-xo.html
NOTE: This video was filmed before 32TEN Studios was closed permanently, and its contents auctioned off. More interviews conducted by Adam in this iconic building are forthcoming; more on the closure here: www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/article/its-a-fade-to-black-for-historic-marin-county-movie-studios-known-for-sta/
The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: amzn.to/3RtI9Bu
More about Ben Burtt: www.skysound.com/people/ben-burtt/
Disclaimer: Tested may earn a commission from purchases made via the links above.
@tested I just wanted to say thank you for this series. The Ben Burtt and Lorne Peterson videos are fabulous. I'd love to see Adam do interviews with other ILM geniuses like Phil Tippett and Dennis Muren, Joe Johnston, etc if that opportunity arises. This is absolutely top-level content that is both engaging and historically important. Thank you!
The man is an absolute icon, turns out he's a lovely bloke too. Legend.
Ben Burt is a freaking rockstar.
100%
*Burtt
And hilarious, totally had me at the Chuck Connor’s edit. 😂
Just as important to SW as John Williams, honestly.
It is actually sad that such an important building is closing down! So many of my fondest movie memories came from that building. Ben Burtt is such an ICON for sound effects. Thanks for sharing these videos Adam!
A lot of "It BELONGS in a MUSEUM!" kept running through my head
@@TheGreatAtario Dr. Jones is always right! LOL
I used to work @ 3210. This is wild. Always felt like the building had such a history, but was sort of eerie walking around the halls. Almost like a ghost town. Neat to hear Ben talk about it when it was at its prime.
That last room where pixar machine was eventually became the camera room, Greg Beaumonte's domain. As an assistant in my early years at 32Ten I shuttled many camera packages to and from that room. Film camera/lens/rig setups were built, tested, customized and dialed in there then rolled out to the stage. Greg designed and built some great camera equipment in that room over decades.
so sad, that non of the stuff you were talking about was still there for us to see it. they should have turned that studio into a museum, honestly
These are just tools. You can’t keep every screwdriver and hammer for3ver. And the tools, technology and equipment is retired it is replaced with a new thing. I’m sure some of the equipment was sold off and sent to museums but this was an active business and they couldn’t waste space for outdated stuff that didn’t make money.
True. Yet museums near me have exhibitions of early knives, spoons hammers and other "tools" to represent a point in our history.
Even an old bowl has value somewhere, and these would have been no exception to see in person.
Just reminded of the Raiders pocket watch speech in the bar
Challenge 1: who will pay for it. Getting anyone that is willing to commit capital, typically over many decades, to a museum is difficult to find.
Just like Indiana Jones said, “It belongs in a museum!”
@@c1ph3rpunk very true. remind me again on what George has currently invested part of his 4 Billion earnings on again? 🤔
George Lucas and the people of ILM actually manifested destiny. They dreamed it, did it, then created the tools to take it to the next level. Mr. Peterson is such a wealth of technical and historical knowledge. I'm so glad his legacy has been captured on video.
Between these videos, and the Lights & Magic documentary on Disney+, I realized just how much of an impact ILM has had on film, video & audio. Working there in the 80’s must have been downright awesome.
I talked to people so many times about how much was created out of the mind of a guy wanting to do things more efficiently, effectively, convincingly, and all with the intent to make a better product for our entertainment. We now have a lot to thank George and his team for.
Wow! I forgot that ILM pioneered the digital editing bay...At Warner Bros Animation we cut digitally in the mid 90's on an Avid....and the negatives were run through a wonderful old fashioned looking machine that would print a tiny code number on each frame of film on the edge out of frame. That machine used an oil that gave off a small puff of smoke with each frame that smelled like the smoke from an old Lionel model train...a very distinctive memory. All that changed when Warners went totally digital.
Adam, I can't thank you enough for producing these very fun interviews with Ben! Growing up in the '80's, I spent much of my free time reading the ILM coffee table book, watching behind the scenes VFX documentaries, building models and dreaming of day where I too could make movies. I have a film industry job today. It's amazing to see the tools and processes I use in my daily work all originated from these incredible pioneers whom I idolized in my youth. Thank you for the very cool tour down the halls, behind the doors and into the rooms where it all began!
If my memory serves... the first time I saw Ben's work was in a documentary (one of many obviously) on the creation of Star Wars and I remember (I think) him whacking a big cable that I think was attached to a power pole and explaining how that was the sound of the blasters. Always a joy to listen to these legends talk.
This whole series has been really interesting. Thanks Tested
Great to see this! I was lucky enough to get a tour of the ranch 20 years ago, now seeing its predecessor adds lots of context.
Same here. There were times I thought they had changed locations to Skywalker Ranch. The architecture and details are very similar. Easy to see how this was the precursor.
they co-existed. There were limits on how many employees could commute Lucas valley Rd. to the ranch and big rock ranch so ILM was always in Kerner. Some of Lucas Animation was at Big Rock during Clone Wars but it was mostly Lucasfilm art dept, sky sound and lucasfilm and archives staff out at the ranches.
Adobe Photoshop and Premiere came from this. Ben Burtt, John Knoll and Thomas Knoll are the pioneers of modern editing.
AH! "C-Building!!!!!" I used to work in that building back when ILM & Universal were attempting their first all-digitally animated movie "Frankenstein and the Wolfman." I mostly worked down in "The Pit" but also sometimes on the 2nd floor. I also remember one night taking a nap under a Flame during a marathon temp sound mix while we were trying to get the first story reel out. I was there while Phantom Menace was being shot.
I have to confess that one night just after I had started working there, I snuck into the C building theater to get a close look at the R2-D2 that was next to the screen and patted him on the head.
It's too bad that movie never came out after all the work we put into it, but it was awesome to work at ILM when the model shop was still up and running and computers were only just starting to take off in VFX.
I don't know if I aver ran into you there Adam, but perhaps we crossed paths at the Java the Hutt shed since, as I recall, it was about halfway between C-building and the model shop. 😀
18:17 - I believe that the matte lines that were visible around tie fighters in space when Star Wars was shown on television, or even when it was viewed on home video, was due to the gray-scale limits of NTSC video. 35mm film had a much wider gray-scale range and thus the matte lines had much more range of black to use to blend into the black of the space background.
For the win.
Ben Burtt rocks!
That was amazing to see the birthplace of ILM and the tour. Thank you!
I may not think Lucas is the greatest storyteller around, but his impact on media is undeniable
Well, no one really cares what you think. Nor does it matter.
These folks were truly pioneers, analog and physical media is fascinating. They didn't have guides or books to look these things up! Truly amazing.
Interesting interview and walk thru, thanks Adam and the Tested team.
Amazing. We want to see more
This brings me great sadness. 😢
Thanks for this trip down memory lane.
ABSOLUTELY LOVE this content. Keep em coming. Love to learn about the history of production.
Ben Burtt looks incredibly good and mobile for 75! 😮
This is fabulous. Thanks Ben Burtt, Adam Savage and the Tested team for documenting this historically important facility. It is amazing how many innovations and turning points in technological history took place under one roof. We owe a great debt to George Lucas as his associates for having the vision and persistence to challenge the status quo and change the world as they did.
Amazing tour with the legend Ben Burtt. When I'm complaining on the time involved to edit ecopenny videos on the computer, I need to remember the previous generation of physically splicing bits of film together 😊
Such an important walkthrough. Thank you, Tested!
This will inspire the pioneers of the future.
Utterly enthralling to me. Thanks Adam and Ben!
Thank You, This was great to see. I've always enjoyed all of the BTS documentaries and learning how things are done and even though I didn't go down the route of working on films, I do think that impacted the way I approach an issue and how to find the solution.
The Kerner Company (named after the street the building was on), and you can see "Kernercam" on one of the devices in the video. There's a sushi restaurant just up the block, and from there, if you knew what direction to look, you could spot a storm trooper in a second story window of a different building. I used to work nearby.
Editing homevideo on the first digital videosystem? That's insane
What the duck... 😮
So this video made me decide to look up how the "optical" audio track embedded into movie film strips actually worked. While I haven't figured it out yet, a YT Short I just watched blew my mind....
He was showing a 35mm strip and pointed out the L/R channel tracks next to the sprocket holes, of which each frame has 4 holes. Then he pointed out that 5.1 surround actually used QR codes embedded _between each hole,_ which is read by a laser!
That's all damn impressive on its own, but then you have to factor in:
That there's 5 QRs per frame...
*Each second,* 24 frames zip by...
Therefore, 120 QR codes are being read AND decoded, *_every second..._*
🤯
And what a wonderful ghost story that was! Thank you, Adam and Ben, for sharing.
That was amazing. Thank you!
Absolutely superb stuff. I loved every single second of this video
The editing video part you can see in the behind the scenes extra DVD in Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace. He's there along side George editing. Cool stuff. Loved those extras DVD's in the prequels. Super in-depth.
Another interesting video, thank you, and thanks for your previous video that touched on ILM. I watched the Light and Magic series, brilliant 👍🏻
I used to work desktop support in/around all these offices. So many memories. Makes me want to head to Foodles for lunch (inside joke).
We had lunch there one of the days we were filming! Barely made it before it closed for the day.
@@testedI had no idea it was still there! I will have to have lunch there one of these days just for nostalgia.
Amazing video, I learned so much!!!!
Adam's subtle self outing as a fellow Dallas fan is one of my favorite parts :)
Wow. Great piece❤️
Please turn this into a museum!
@tested This is great! The edit room where I prepped all the Phantom Menace film dailies (and many other films) is at 01:25. I spent many years walking through these halls in C, D and E buildings and hearing names over the intercom paging system. "Adam Savage, 8111. Adam Savage, 8111." Always stopping at Java the Hutt for a morning coffee.
Amazing!!!!!
Ben Burt is my sound fx Hero.
Wonderful to see these tour videos. I was lucky to get a couple of tools from the auction just to feel like I was saving some small bit of the blood and sweat history that that building saw, but extremely happy to see so much of it captured on video for posterity since we couldnt get it as a museum.
Edit Droid was groundbreaking. Star Wars was on Laserdisc before it was on Laserdisc! 👍😎🇦🇺
Ive looked up to ben since i was 12 years old..almost 30 years ago i got "from starwars to jedi the making of a saga" on vhs and he had a segment in it and i instantly fell in love with sound efx and puppets.thanks to him and Phil tippet,my 20s were full of music and sounds and practicle effects.they made it seem so simple and hand made....not so simple it turns out but hand made most definetly.❤❤❤
The videotape era is a fascinating time in film & tv history. It’s the transition between film and digital, but it doesn’t survive near as well as the other two. I always think of the 80s and 90s as the blurry era.
No matter how much of Ben Burtt's work is owned by his employer you just know that he has a massive private stash of odd ball sounds from physical objects that don't exist anymore.
When he dies there had better be a museum of Ben Burtt's Auditory Oddities.
Ben Burtt's Auditory Oddities, I really LOVE that
"Its full of ghost's... " says Ben Burtt. Wow, that really stuck with me. Amazing video and such a nice cool guy.
So that's what edit droid did.
Interesting.
I had the chance to be in the building several years ago when Creature Art & Mechanics occupied it. Lots of other amazing historical rooms in that building.like the Main Screening theater, Arts Graphics Room, the Pit, Thomas Knolls office where Photoshop was born…
Not sure why this struck me as this started. As they walked past the 32ten sign, I read ten23, when the doors closed….any way, what an amazing place to see. Thank you Tested team.
Truly amazing! Wow!
Absolutely incredible! Please, please do skywalker ranch
I'd love of this could become a new Tested series, where Adam sits down with prominent figures of the various Lucas Films divisions/subsidiaries, to talk about the various things that occurred and/or were created!
Don't know where it'd be filmed at though... Maybe the Man Cave, or at said person's house for those who don't live locally.
Adam's knowledge seems to help facilitate the conversations better than some guy who wants to film a documentary, since Adam not only worked in the film industry, but also TV. Which the latter helps, I think, because he's actively considering our frame of mind or the things we might not have knowledge of. 😊
Either way, thanks again for another fun installment in this 32TEN series! ♥️
Please look for the "8111" podcast, where former ILM employee, Matt Wallin, makes long form interviews with so many ex-ILM colleagues. REally fascinating.
I didn’t even know they were closing it up. UGHHHHH!!!
SO MUCH Americana culture!
Thank you for doing this and recording it all for people to know in the future!
Probably to be turned into a safe-space for the Purple-Hair Brigade.
It is being torn down to build offices, is what we hear, potentially medical offices.
@@PhantomFilmAustraliayou don't sound the least bit effed in the head.
@@ButterfatFarms What do you mean?
Michael Rubin wrote a great book called DroidMakers that covers this era of Lucasfilm if anyone wants more nitty gritty detail.
Years ago I visited ILM in San Rafael to interview a model maker and a matte painter for a college radio story. Will always remember getting lost and stopping to get directions at a yacht sales office. I asked where Kerner Blvd. was, got the directions, and as I was leaving the guy said, “And George is waiting for you!”. I guess everyone around that business park knew what was located on Kerner Blvd!
It’s interesting to hear about the vision, creativity, and effort people of that era put into wanting to push beyond what they found to be traditional filmmaking’s limitations. However, my cumulative reaction as increasingly more of these retrospectives are released each year is a melancholy for the quality of the films that were made in the past *because* the level of effort tended to only be undertaken by truly gifted and driven creators rather than so many of today’s studio hacks.
I could watch hours of this!
Love love love this series!
Are we building up to a reveal that Adam/Tested bought the 32Ten building to maintain the history?
Financially impossible. But we did inherit some of the tools! Stay tuned on that front.
@@testednow that sir is a teaser!!!! How exciting 😀
Thank you again for these wonderful bittersweet videos they're awesome and equally precious.
@@tested It's an impossible task anyway. Unless a person has been through the same very melancholic process that Ben described, and seen a once-vibrant place slowly pass into memory, they can't really appreciate what he meant by saying it was "full of ghosts."
Amazing to see how a space changes over time. Even if it is all long gone.
Tested i like the videos that you make guys and i like to say thanks for this cool and its some how Education😊
I work at a Meta data center but am visiting home office this week. Decided to take a drive up to 3210 hoping someone was still there that could let me have a quick tour.
Was sad to find it abandoned and in deteriorating condition.
I wish it would be made into a museum.
Burtt is still The Man. Nice to have a personal tour!
Not to mention THX and Skywalker Sound! 👍😎🇦🇺
I also remember that first time Star Wars aired seeing these "boxes" around those TIE Fighters in the trench! I was like "WTF is that?!!"
Great video sir 👍 👏 👌 ❤
The company that I worked for in 1983 had one of the first Pixar image processors. It was about the size of a mini fridge and fit into a 19" rack.
That Rifleman video was epic.
I have seen many Star Wars documents and behind scenes, well at least all those on DVD and BluRay. And while I knew that it led to these new technologies, this video explains it in such a way that it makes me appreciate George Lucas so much more. Like sure I have heard that he wanted to have faster production and so came editdroid etc.
To hear how he assembled a team of scientists who developed all those things from scratch for years, just gives it the touch of reality. And THAT is the difference which makes me appreciate it much more. It wasnt just that George wanted it and BOOM heres your digital editing program.
It's amazing to see how far imagery and sound has progressed in my 65 years! Might be an interesting exercise to look at the evolution of sound from wax and vinyl records to CDs and so on. Tube amps vs Solid State. Imagery from film to digital to CGI... I have compared the sound of a vinyl record to the CD equivalent and I CAN hear a difference! 🤔
Wow. Just wow.
This building could have been used as a Special/Visual Effect history museum.
I think that the video would have benefitted from some context at the start, perhaps a piece to camera from Adam.....I was waiting on an explanatation of what this was about (apart from the on screen text) for the whole video
Loved it. As a people watcher I was just fascinated with the body language :)
Love a good PAL joke. Or as we call it here in the states: Nice To See Comedy.
Or Never The Same Color 😉
This series is great - super appreciate everyone’s time to make these vids happen! 🎉 Awesome! 🎉
Negative cutting was an awesome job back in the day
Video idea : I would really like to see someone explain what all those symbols mean in editing software (or what they represent back in the old days before all that). Seems like this would be the perfect place to explain it.
Nevertheless this is absolutely fascinating.
Seeing it go breaks my heart.
Okay Adam, you got one legend. Now go get THE legend. Lasso George and have him give you a tour of Skywalker Ranch. :)
Very Cool! You should take a deep dive into the Pixar Cube. It was very calm & way ahead of its time & used outside the Movie industry for Medical imaging.
I remember the Pixar Image Computer "rotating fat lady" demo visualizing a CAT scan.
Awesome
i am going to be so irreconceivably mad if none of this studio is preserved or put in a museum in some way. so sad to see it close down.
7:50 - NUMBERED FILM FRAMES. How R2-D2 got its name. The name derives from when Lucas was making one of his earlier films, American Graffiti. Sound editor Walter Murch states that he is responsible for the utterance which sparked the name for the droid. Murch asked for Reel 2, Dialog Track 2, in the abbreviated form "R-2-D-2".
So 32Ten is the Xerox of the film industry.
This is sad. This place should never close.
Why is ILM no longer at the ranch?
End of an era, a Bay and Marin legendary spot. Luckily I got to work there in my 20's, coincidentally, it was for Mythbusters! (The new Mythbusters without Jamie and Adam)
When he was talking about how digital editing opened Pandora's box, and talking about all the things you could suddenly do, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for him to day "You could make Greedo shoot first". Alas, the opportunity was squandered.
2:57 willow on THX laserdisc is Dolby Stereo THX/TAP out of this world , theatrical mix that makes bkuray dtshdma sound like lossy audio
The space does seem to have nice Feng Shui vibes...
I would LOVE to see a video of Adam sit down and have an interview with George Lucas. make it happen, please.
Have you looked at the behind the scenes of the chosen
I haven't caught anything about what they are going to do with this building going forward in any of these videos. Has it been said? Museum? Other production just not official movie making anymore?
does anyone know what that light grey camera is on the table in the pixar room? viewfinder looks arri 435ish but the body is slightly different...