Noteables
Two Contributors
While there are many significant contributors to the motion picture industry, two of the most important are George Lucas and Peter Jackson.
George Lucas
Lucas created the Star Wars films. He was one of the first to break away from studio dependance by self funding his own movies . Lucas understood and capitalized on the value of merchandising his movie's brand. Most importantly, Lucas started Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound out of his own need for high quality production. He also launched a successful video game division. What inspired Lucas to do this? He says the "pursuit of art fuels innovation."
Lucas believes the pursuit of art created the need for technology solutions. rather than profit or invention. “Art is about communicating emotion via technology. So it fuels creative thinking not only in terms of content, but also execution. It’s been the case since early cave paintings and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes. To achieve stunning effects, an artist often needs to push the boundaries of current technologies, and then discover a new way of doing things. And that very artistic process can lead to tech that can be highly monetized; in other words, innovation" (Jana, 2009).
Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson's contributions include the creation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and being the first director to successfully film three movies at once. Jackson used cutting edge internet communications to manage seven film crews to be virtually on location at each set. Jackson was successful at filming a very complex story while combining CGI and real actors into a believable world.
"I started with one goal: to take moviegoers into the fantastical world of Middle-earth in a way that is believable and powerful." I wanted to take all the great moments from the books and use modern technology to give audiences nights at the movies unlike anything they've experienced before."
Perhaps the most important achievement was committing to films all three movies at the same time. It had never been attempted before in the history of film. "I felt that in order to do the tale's epic nature justice, we had to shoot it as one big story because that's what it is. It's three movies that will take you through three very unique experiences but it all adds up to one unforgettable story" (New Line, 2003).
Jackson needed to be on seven sets shooting at the same time. This was possible only through an integrated solution using voice, video and data. Polycom’s IP Video cameras allows each set to communicate with the director so Jackson could see what the teams where doing in real time. “By using Polycom's video conferencing equipment, I could make changes in lighting and camera angles in real-time, which not only saved us time and money, it allowed us to make an overall better film trilogy."
The net effect of Jackson’s real time participation helped reduce filming costs, lost time from retakes and improve the quality of the final product (Polycom, 2005).
