Contents Blade Runner: 2020 Foresight: After more than a year of intensive labor, the visual effects craftsmen at Entertainment Effects Group have produced the definitive urban future for Blade Runner - Ridley Scott's stylish homage to film noir. A polluted overpopulated megalopolis, the Blade Runner city was created largely with miniatures and matte paintings - and effectssupervisors Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich and David Dryer detail the arduous process by which it was generated and captured on film. On a broader scale, director Ridley Scott and design consultant Syd Meaddiscuss the evolution of the project and the philosophy behind its distinctive ambience. Adding further dimension are director of miniature photography Dave Stewart and cameraman Don Baker, matte painters Matthew Yuricichand Rocco Gioffre, designer Tom Cranham, model shop supervisorsMark Stetson and Wayne Smith and modelmaker Bill George, animation supervisor John Wash and cameraman Glenn Campbell. Compsy tech director Richard Hollander, optical supervisor Robert Hall, matte cameraman Robert Baily, still photographer Virgil Mirano, lab liaison Jack Hinkle and effects auditor Diana Gold. Together, they present one of the most thorough accounts ever of a major special effects project - covering the design, construction and photography of the massive Tyrell pyramids, the vast Hades wasteland, the extended cityscapes and the wondrous flying vehicles. Article by Don Shay

Contents Poltergeist - Stilling the Restless Animus: 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

Mach 5 Effects - The Apogee of Firefox: 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

Contents Turn on Your Heartlight - Inside E.T.: With $300 million in the till at year's end, E.T. is well on its way to becoming the most popular and profitable motion picture of all time. Superstar director Steven Spielberg and production supervisor Frank Marshall provide a comprehensive overview of E.T. - both the film and the phenomenon. Construction and activation of the celebrated extraterrestrial is discussed by Carlo Rambaldi, enhanced by contributions from Mitch Suskin, Robert Short, Caprice Rothe and Craig Reardon. Then, Industrial Light & Magic effects supervisor Dennis Muren - aided by fourteen members of his crew - reveals thesecrets behind E.T.'s flying bicycles, spaceships and other magical elements. Article by Paul M. Sammon

Special Visual Effects - Robert Swarthe: His contributions to the Close Encounters ensemble ranged from the flamboyant luminosity of the mothership underbelly to the subtle insertion of countless starlit skies. For Star Trek - The Motion Picture, he designed and supervised the vertiginous undulating wormhole interiors and the dazzling transcendence at the end. In the Close Encounters - Special Edition, he took us at last inside the awesome and wondrous alien mothership. Two-time Oscar nominee Robert Swarthe traces his way through these landmark effects productions, delves into his earlier animation work, and discusses his most recent efforts on behalf of One From the Heart and The Outsiders. Article by Don Shay

Contents Something Wicked This Way Comes - Adding the Magic: Culminating a gestation period which spanned nearly a quarter of a century, Ray Bradbury's chilling fantasy novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes, has at last materialized on the screen under the Disney banner. Ray Bradbury and director Jack Clayton discuss the origin and evolution of the project, while effects supervisor Lee Dyer - assisted by seven key department heads - details the elaborate mechanical and optical effects, makeup, miniatures, matte paintings and computer animation that transformed the film in postproduction. Article by Brad Munson

Stop-Frame Fever, Post-Animation Blues: After a short-lived resurgence in Clash of the Titans and Caveman, the venerable old art of stop-motion animation has slipped once again intothe role of supporting performer, struggling for a foothold among the superstar effects technologies of the day. Animators David Allen, Randall William Cook and Steven Archer discuss their respective efforts - successful and otherwise - at adding stop-motion moments to such recent and forthcoming productions as The Howling, Q, The Thing, The Hunger and Krull. Article by Paul Mandell

A Dream in the Making: From humble beginnings in a residential garage, Dream Quest has grown - in three short years - into one of the most highly respected effects facilities in the business. A close partnership comprised of six predominantly young, but seasoned professionals, the Dream Quest principals - Scott Squires, Rocco Gioffre, Hoyt Yeatman, Robert Hollister, Tom Hollister and Frederick Iguchi - recount their evolution as a company, their ancillary work on such projects as Escape from New York, E.T. and One From the Heart, their first solo outing on Blue Thunder, and their prospects for the future. Article by Marc A. Richardson