Contents 007 X 4 - John Richardson: In four of the last five James Bond adventures, special effects supervisor John Richardson has acted as an off-camera 'Q' to the indomitable 007 - engineering a speedboat chase over a waterfall in Moonraker; flying a minijet through an aircraft hanger in Octopussy, snaring a blimp on the Golden Gate Bridge in A View to a Kill and staging a massive ground and air battle in The Living Daylights. Eschewing opticals in favor of full-scale physical effects or cleverly integrated miniatures, Richardson has earned a reputation world-wide as an effects artisan of consummate ingenuity and skill. Article by Nora Lee

Aging Gracefully with Dick Smith: When a film script calls for an actor to age, one name comes quickly to mind - Dick Smith. In a celebrated career that has spanned more than forty years, Smith has designed and executed aging makeups for such classic films as Little Big Man, The Godfather, The Exorcist and Amadeus. Smith discusses in detail the evolution of old age makeup and gives an anecdotal account of his experiences adding years and decades to such motion picture notables as Dustin Hoffman, Marlon Brando and Walter Matthau. Article by Jody Duncan Shannon

The Predator: Predator Revealed: When producer Joel Silver went to R/Greenberg Associates with a script that called for an extraterrestrial being capable of rendering itself virtually invisible in the jungle, the challenge of creating such an effect - and others including it's thermographic vision - was eagerly accepted. By employing a red creature suit to generate mattes and a laborious optical technique for creating a multifaceted quasi-invisible figure, visual effects supervisor Joel Hynek and his crew were able to successfully render the alien in visual terms that were both effective and unique. Article by Paul Mandell

Contents Beetlejuice: Cheap and Cheesy and Off-the-Cuff: To produce a wildly offbeat supernatural comedy with wall-to-wall effects and limited funding, Beetlejuice director Tim Burton turned to first-time visual effects supervisor Alan Munro who assembled a choice team of cost-conscious independents willing and able to conjure up hundreds of effects shots for a very small portion of the film's $14 million budget. In charge of creature creation and makeup illusions was principal effects contractor Robert Short; providing opticals and miniature support was Peter Kuran of Visual Concept Engineering; and tasked with enlivening three highly specialized animation sequences were Doug Beswick, Ted Rae and Tim Lawrence. Together they assembled the fanciful imagery that helped make Beetlejuice the first big hit of the summer season. Article by Jody Duncan Shannon

Batteries Not Included: Visit from a Small Planet: When Amblin Entertainment brought Batteries Not Included to Industrial Light & Magic, visual effects supervisor Bruce Nicholson found the prospect of creating a family of pint-size anthropomorphic flying saucers both intriguing and challenging. Principal among the challenges was the need to create ships that could be photographed in real time on live-action sets and also in bluescreen environments under motion control. Most importantly, the imagery produced through employment of these two techniques had to be stylistically indistinguishable even when cut together end to end. Developed to support the effort was a sophisticated new wire rig and a winning array of flying machines brought to life via overhead wires, motion control, rod puppetry, stop-motion animation and go-motion. Article by Richard Linton

Contents Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: Romancing the Rabbit: What if cartoon characters were real performers who lived and breathed and worked on movie soundstages like any other actor? With the considerable might of Walt Disney Studios and Amblin Entertainment behind him, director Robert Zemeckis took that offbeat notion and from it concocted Who Framed Roger Rabbit - a frenetic comedy adventure combining live-action and animation with a degree of realism never before attempted. Mechanical effects by George Gibbs and Michael Lantieri enabled actor Bob Hoskins and others to interact convincingly with characters that had no on-set presence. These characters were later provided by some three hundred artisans working under animation director Richard Williams and were then seamlessly integrated into the live-action -complete with shadows and highlights - by the optical wizards at Industrial Light & Magic. Article by Adam Eisenberg

Willow: Filmmaking impresario George Lucas - whose flights of fancy have spawned the Star Wars trilogy and the adventures of Indiana Jones - has focused on myth and magic for his latest excursion into the world of unbridled imagination. Manufacturing an earthbound environment every bit as wondrous and complete as Tatooine or Endor, Lucas and film director Ron Howard have produced Willow - an epic sword-and-sorcery adventure complete with fairy princesses, evil queens, firebreathing dragons, pesky brownies, talking animals and a diminutive hero determined to save an infant foundling from the forces of evil. Willow represents the most complete mustering of Lucasfilm effects talent since Return of the Jedi - employing effects animation, miniaturization techniques, stop-and-gomotion, animatronics and computer generated imagery. Article by Jody Duncan Shannon

Contents Alien Nation: A Planetful of Aliens: To fulfill a need for hundreds of extraterrestrial characters - ranging from principal players to incidental extras - the producers of Alien Nation turned to Stan Winston Studios. There - under the direction of Alec Gillis, Shane Mahan, John Rosengrant and Tom Woodruff Jr., with on-set collaboration by Zoltan Elek - was mounted the largest makeup effects show in twenty years. Article by Ron Magid

Die Hard: Exaggerated Reality: Even with near-total access to a brand new high-rise building, the makers of Die Hard needed something more to bring their action thriller to the screen. To simulate a bomb blast in an elevator shaft and a giant rooftop explosion and helicopter crash, producer Joel Silver enlisted the services of visual effects producer Richard Edlund and his Boss Film Corporation. Article by Adam Eisenberg

Dead Ringers: Double Vision: On Dead Ringers - the latest chiller by horror impresario David Cronenberg - optical effects supervisor Lee Wilson worked with Balsmeyer and Everett and Film Effects of Toronto to create a new generation of split-screen opticals that enabled actor Jeremy Irons to play scenes with himself as twin brothers without the customary restriction of stationary splits or even locked-off cameras. Article by Don Shay

The Blob: The Right Blob for the Right Job: For his updated remake of The Blob, director Chuck Russell engaged visual effects production supervisor Michael Fink to oversee an outpouring of cinematic illusions that included gooey creature effects by Lyle Conway and Stuart Ziff, special makeup creations by Tony Gardner and opticals and miniature photography by Hoyt Yeatman and Dream Quest Images. Article by Robert G. Pielke