A blogtacular blog filled with words, images, and whipped cream on top. Written by Todd Vaziri.
"Transformers" (2007), City Fight shot CF630, visual effects by ILM I was lucky to chat with the premier visual effects journalist working today, Ian Failes, for his Befores & Afters Podcast. Listen in Apple Podcasts or Overcast . Ian wrapped up his ILM series which also featured John Knoll, Dennis Muren, Janet Lewin, David Vickery, Ben Morris, Rachel Rose, Rob Bredow, Ben Snow and Hayden Landis…
A photo of a print of a movie. I'd love to talk in much greater detail about this topic, because it's a wonderful and complicated and nuanced issue. In the meantime, here's a Bluesky post I made: Posting an image of a 35mm print from a film as “ground truth” for color and tone is almost always ridiculous. Even brand new release prints vary from print to print, and prints deteriorate over time in…
We’ve all heard about movies filmed in IMAX, or heard in movie trailers “see it in IMAX” and then looked at a series of confusing diagrams depicting various aspect ratios and theater screen sizes (typically made by fans). But do you know exactly what “IMAX” means? IMAX means: large format film cameras but it also can means large format film but it also can mean a big digital camera But IMAX also…
It's time for the Awesomest Oscar Pool Ballot In The History Of Oscar Pool Ballots. Every year I create a special ballot based on a typical Academy Awards printable ballot -- but on my ballot, each category has a different point value. The highest valued category is "Best Picture," while the mainstream films' categories are valued at two points. The non-mainstream categories (like the documentary…
From the "After The Hunt" VFX Breakdown, by Frame by Frame view full breakdown on YouTube When people see a relatively innocuous shot from a movie of a city street, then see that it was an elaborate visual effects shot (either shot against a greenscreen or at a studio backlot), sometimes they wonder “Why didn’t they just film that at a real location? Wouldn't that have been easier and cheaper? Why…
Reader warning: there's gonna be a lot of pretend puke photos in this post. If you've fired up HBO Max recently, you've probably seen that one of the most influential and prestigious television series of all time was to premiere in 4K on the streaming service. The show's first four seasons were shot on film, and the final three were shot digitally on the Alexa, but the run of the series was…
One of the best features of “Halloween Kills” (2021) is the collection of flashback sequences which show the rest of the night Michael Myers came home to terrify Haddonfield, a continuation of the events from the original “Halloween” (1978). “Kills” depicts a completely different course of events that were shown in “Halloween II” (1981). In “Halloween II”, Michael continued his rampage on that…
Vanity Fair asked me if I wanted to talk about visual effects in a video, and it was my great honor to show off some of ILM’s terrific work over the years. watch Todd Vaziri on "ILM's VFX Secrets Behind Star Wars, Transformers & More" on YouTube My goal was to highlight the artistic process of visual effects. Movies like the ones I highlight in the video are crafted by hundreds of artists,…
I've been telling artists for decades that it's not always the best idea to scale up a synthetic lens flare when the light source is moving closer to camera, which is typically met with resistance from the artist. "Of course it scales when the source moves closer!" is the usual response. My white whale has been to find the perfect photographic reference for this phenomenon to back up my accurate…
"There's a storm coming in!"
It was back in 2018 when I was a guest on a member special for Reconcilable Differences ... and seven years later they asked me back! RecDiffs is one of my favorite podcasts, and it was again an honor to talk to my two friends John Siracusa and Merlin Mann about movies, parenting, podcasting, Letterboxd and a whole bunch of other stuff. To hear this episode, you need to become a Relay member.…
I recently had the pleasure of re-watching John McTiernan’s “Predator” (1987) for the umpteenth time with someone who had never seen the movie before. Watching movies with first-timers is a wonderful experience (I highly recommend doing it!) — it's the closest you'll ever get to seeing a beloved movie again for the first time, and it reminded me of a fascinating thought experiment when it comes to…
Lighter Darker, EP20 and Show Notes Lighter Darker, The ILM Podcast’s first season comes to a close with Episode 20, our Lens Flare Extravaganza! Rob, Jenny and I are joined by John Knoll and Shannon Tindle to talk all about lens flares, those fun aberrations that occur within a lens when light rays shine at JUST the right angle. John talks all about the creation of Knoll Light Factory, the…
From the future "Peggy Sue Got Married" (2050) remake: view larger This is a very good joke. Please clap.
I'm really enjoying "The Studio" on Apple TV+, and I just had to make a graphic of the dialogue that opens season one, episode four, with studio head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) weighing in on the film versus digital debate:
watch on YouTube In March 2025, Jenny Ely and I interviewed John Knoll, the visual effects supervisor of "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew for Lighter Darker: The ILM Podcast. Listen to the show here — we also have extensive show notes and photos for that episode at the same link. Lighter Darker: The ILM Podcast, episode 14 In the episode, John refers to a shot that he's really proud of in our segment…
Movies are handmade, and just like any other art form, sometimes the seams that hold movies together become visible to the audience. For movie fans, these moments are very exciting. Catching a glimpse behind the scenes is an exhilarating experience. My favorite kind of “movie mistake” is the kind that is hiding in plain sight... but the casual viewer missed it upon first viewing. Or perhaps even…
There are a LOT of keys, locks and doors in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991), so I made a video in 2022 highlighting every major key, lock and door in the movie. It's fun. You should watch it. watch on YouTube Turns out, it's a really fun study not only of the importance that Jim Cameron's script placed on keys, locks and doors in defining the physical spaces of the movie, but also it's a study…
“A Different World” (1987 NBC) is now on Netflix, and the HD upscale is... not good. The show was shot and mastered on video in 4:3. The version on Netflix is cropped to 16:9, and has significant ML sharpening and odd softening. The show looks both over-crisp and gauzy/dreamy. Many shots have a flicker, too. And, this is the fun one - any shot with text gets really garbled. These screengrabs are…
Having just migrated two new iPhones, Apple needs to address this specific issue, because it can really really mess you up. After migrating from an older phone using iCloud backup, any Apple apps that use an account other than the primary iCloud account requires an extra step of authentication — but the user is never prompted for this, and until you authenticate the app just doesn’t work. This…
It's time for the Awesomest Oscar Pool Ballot In The History Of Oscar Pool Ballots. Every year I create a special ballot based on a typical Academy Awards printable ballot -- but on my ballot, each category has a different point value. The highest valued category is "Best Picture," while the mainstream films' categories are valued at two points. The non-mainstream categories (like the documentary…
James Cameron, directing "Titanic" (1997) updated 3/4/25 for the 97th Academy Awards, with Denis Villeneuve snagging another VFX Oscar. I've compiled a list of the directors of Academy Award-winning films for the visual effects trophy. Do with this as you will. For me, when looking at this list of nearly fifty years of visual effects Oscar wins, I think one can see trends of the types of films…
larger Modern franchise pictures frequently utilize easter eggs, references and callbacks as meaningful cinematic nutrition. But it doesn't have to be this way. Here's an understated, unassuming, blink-and-you'll-miss it callback in "Terminator 2" (1991) to "The Terminator" (1984) which repeats a motif yet uses the callback in a completely different manner. Image description: In "The Terminator"…
This question comes up a lot, usually in regards to films like "Jurassic Park" (1993) and "Transformers" (2007), especially when referring to franchise films. Some folks feel that the visual effects of a successful movie's sequels are "worse" than the original film's, even though the "technology is better". The problem with the premise of this question is that it disregards the human and creative…
Our visual effects work for "Transformers" (2007) is still being lauded to this day, which is a testament to the amazing talents of the visual effects teams at Industrial Light & Magic under the supervision of Scott Farrar, Russell Earl and Scott Benza. I frequently see myths about the production timeline of our film, and in the spirit of squashing misinformation, I'd like to address it here. In a…