Interview: Visual FX Oscar Nominees on Lightsaber Duels and Collaborative Arts
Monday, February 22, 2016 at 2:45PM 
For as many articles I've read and videos and movies I've seen, the realm of visual effects remain a mysterious and magical power... not unlike The Force in that galaxy far far away. Speaking recently with two members of The Force Awaken's visual team, I suddenly imagine my confusion is probably akin to how it would feel to act a scene out with Chewbacca; all the Star Wars regulars understand his throat noises but I would definitely need subtitles.
Nevertheless it was a good time sitting down with Roger Guyett, a four time Oscar nominee who does both visual effects supervision and second unit direction for J.J. Abrams -- he tells me this is somewhat normal since second unit work tends to fall in the visual effects arena -- and Pat Tubach, also a previous nominee (Star Trek Into Darkness) who attempts to explain what "plate supervision" is though my brain won't comply.
Herewith the parts of our interview that I did understand, I think, and Roger & Pat's game answers including what their loved one think of their work and seeing the movie for the first time.
NATHANIEL: You're both "visual effects supervisors," so how does the work get divvied up? Do you get specific scenes?
PAT TUBACH: Roger okays everything. We do break things up a little bit for ease given the sheer number of shots and number of people involved. I worked a lot on the opening scenes: the village raid, the TIE figher escape sequence with Finn and Poe. As well as the rathtar escaping and terrorizing the gang.
So you had Captain Phasma -- I assume she was the most difficult to pull off since her suit is so reflective and much of her environment isn't actually there!
Captain Phasma's suit will pick up everything
PAT TUBACH: She was definitely a challenge. You really had to look at that; there was no way you wouldn't get crew reflections and equipment in her suit.
For laypeople like me and readers who don't totally understand what visual effects are. I think special effects are practical tricks on the set and visual is what comes after -- is that right?
ROGER GUYETT: In terms of classification, yes. Special effects tend to be things like riggings and explosions, performed on set in front of the camera. Visual effects can be in front of the camera, like miniatures and puppeteering, which we use a lot on Star Wars, but all of the digitial work is post production. We're adding the Millenium Falcon in post.
So in some ways you're the clean up for on set effects. Then adding to them?
ROGER: That's part of our workload, yes, we help those guys out. They might build something with wheels and we'll have to paint out the wheels
The thing everyone loves about the Star Wars movies is the lightsabers. A lot of that is obviously stunt fighting on set but in post what is there left for you guys to do?
ROGER: Well... we're putting in the lightsabers!
[Laughter] But what does it look like to you? Are you just watching actors battling with sticks?
ROGER: In the old movies they just fought with sticks basically and there was no light emitting from those areas. What we managed to do was actually construct fairly accurate representations of those lightsabers that were LED lights inside a strong plastic sleeve. Like you'd see in the toy store, a stick of light. We developed those with the prop guy and they became very sophisticated with motion sensors and more. But at the end of the day, they are nowhere near as sophisticated as they look in the movie.
What the props did give us is all the interactive light. So then we replace those lightsabers with what you see in the movie and give them real volume and a sense of energy inside them. Kylo Ren's is way more crazy.
And so memorable.
ROGER: We're doing all of that. And of course his have those little flames and sparks.
Right. His lightsaber is such a great variation on what we've seen for years in Star Wars. My favorite action beat in the whole movie is actually when the hilt of his lightsaber burns Finn's shoulder! It's something I'd never seen before in a Star Wars movie and because of that it really popped.
ROGER: That, for example -- clearly we're not really burning John Boyega's shoulder (Laughter). What we're actually seeing is this funny little white plastic tube coming off the lightsaber and Finn's jacket had a pre-cut hole in it. We're adding the sense that energy is burning through this coat. We're adding the burn, the smoke, the embers. And then John Boyega is acting to make it look like it's really happening.
When you're watching the movie afterwards can you enjoy it like the audience does or is it all "this part's mine" and thinking of all the work?
PATRICK TUBACH: It's always a bit hard to detach yourself. The first time you watch it you are thinking a lot about the decisions you made along the way and hoping they're going to land. You're almost watching the reactions of the people more than you're watching the screen. That takes away from your enjoyment but the more you see it, the more you can enjoy it as a fan again. But the first time is nerve-wracking!
Film is such a collaborative art even within these very technical areas.
ROGER GUYETT: Absolutely.
When you see visual effects credits there are always hundreds of names. Do even your loved ones understand what you guys do?
ROGER: [Laughter] When I talk to my mother or sister or something and I say 'we're doing the Falcon chase through the desert,' they understand visually what they're seeing but they don't really understand at all how we go about it other than that computers are involved. My mother always marvels at the lists of names at the end of the movie. She says 'What do they all do?!'
Reader Comments (1)
Very nice read. Hearing how they did the lightsaber hilt burning Finn was particularly interesting. Since I have my doubts that TFA will walk away with any awards on Sunday, I do hope that ILM will be awarded in the future for their work on SW.