When producer Steven Spielberg decided to raise hell in suburbia, he presented the cinemagicians of Industrial Light & Magic with their most formidable assignment to date.  Poltergeist visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund, along with a dozen key members of his ILM effects unit, discusses the arduous creation of ghosts and goblins, passageways into other dimensions, imploding houses and numerous other paranormal phenomena.  In addition, mechanical effects supervisor  Michael Wood explains the  complexities involved in bringing menacing trees to life and in trying to defy gravity, while Craig Reardon discusses the film's queasy makeup effects.

Article by Paul Mandell

Extraordinary challenges foster extraordinary ingenuity and innovation. Such was the case when superstar producer-director Clint Eastwood approached Apogee, Inc. with his Firefox project.  As scripted, the film included  a pivotal effects sequence featuring a fictitious pair of shiny metallic warplanes engaged in aerial combat against an optically foreboding environment of bright skies and  sunlit clouds. Apogee rose to the challenge by  completely rethinking the basic tenets of traditional traveling matte work and devising an altogether new process,  along with a number of auxillary technologies and techniques designed to suspend audience disbelief. Effects producer John Dykstra, and seven key members of the Apogee team discuss the highs and lows of the landmark production.

Article by Paul M. Sammon