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New Lucasfilm Campus Breaks Ground at Presidio
GuyMannDude writes "Lucasfilm has broken ground on the new $300 million special effects campus that he hopes will help San Francisco rival Hollywood as a producer of movie magic. Some see the project as a way for the Presidio (a national park) to become economically self-sufficient while critics claim that level of commercialization is unnecessary."
Will this campus actually improve films, or is there still room in films for plot and characterisation? Or have all films become so obsessed by graphics that the story no longer matters....... Scrab
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I am sure this will be useful to other producers as well. There is such a demand for land and room to do movie effects that this should really make it a lot easier to film movies in a timely fashion. As well as bring in cash for LucasFilm when they decide to rent out some of their campus. Very smart move.
... but Hollywood is no longer the standard for making movies. For making refuse flung at the long suffering or just plain fucking stupid morons who dont care, sure. That's Hollywood.
But consider, ILM is already outside the Hollywood system. Inhouse effects by the major studios just do not come close, do they? Wh do these major studios go to to get effects? Mainly ILM. That must piss the studios off having the best fx guys in the USA working there, cause ILM owe nothing to anyone.
So....
If you look around, who matches ILM? I cant name them, but I know there is a fx house in Canada, one in Aust and of course WETA. None owned by studio per say, but most are bankrolled to some degree. WETA's now industry leading effects work was bankrolled by New Line, owned by AOL whom own Warner Bros and a few other studios. Hey, watch New Line especially now go to WETA instead of ILM. WETA basically is now New Line's defacto effects house. Presto, problem of having to deal with ILM fixed!
Look, while it's cool as WETA has risen to genuinely challenge ILM in f/x (Competition will really drive effects tech forward I bet - watch these two try to outdo each other for the next few years), Lucas' present move is all about tryign to consolidate the f/x market. He senses real competition now with the smaller f/x groups doing things ILM have not done - or like WETA, beating ILM at their own game. For the studios, having these other f/x places is good, cause it gets them away from the ILM f/x strangle hold. Gives them choices or even the chance to basically have a f/x group basically of their own. You cant tell me New Line and WETA arent now quite closely associated. New LIne gave WETA shitloads of dollars to ramp up.
I'd say whatever New Line paid, they got a bloody bargain. LOTR (FOTR and TTT) so far has earned 640 million in the USA, 1.2 billion intl and 750 million in VHS and DVD in the USA alone. With more DVD releases and another movie in the already paid for set, New LIne could have 10 billion in revenue when it's all over.
As a resident of San Francisco, I feel I should point out some things that were not made clear in the article. First, the Lucas facility will not be in any of the beautiful wooded park land that most people associate with Presidio National Park. Rather, it is right under the 101 freeway overpass and built on the site of an old Army hospital that has been nothing more than pavement and abandoned buildings for decades. It is on the edge of the park and will not affect any major throughfares into or through the park. None of the parks wilderness is threatened by the project. You bring up a good point about paranoia and security. The Lucas companies are very security conscious to the point of paranoia. Granted, some of that is justified as they have had a great deal of problems with people trying to break into their facilities, fans rummaging through the garbage, etc. I don't see security being as much an issue as it is easier to secure a small group of tightly knit bulidings than many locations in Marin that share office space or parking lots with other businesses. The complex doesn't envellop any major roads into the park, so I doubt that there would be any effect of park traffic due to security concerns. Overall, I think the move is a positive one for the Presidio. They get a non-polluting business on the edge of their property to help keep them self sufficient. None of the park will be ruined by the development and access to the park should not be affected. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
While thinking philosophically, we see problems in places where there are none. -Wittgenstein