Robert Blalack | |
|---|---|
 Blalack delivering a multi-media conversation at the Cinematheque Francaise in 2015 | |
| Born | (1948-12-09)December 9, 1948 |
| Died | February 2, 2022(2022-02-02) (aged 73) Paris, France |
| Alma mater | Pomona College California Institute of the Arts |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, producer, writer,Visual effects supervisor |
| Years active | 1969–2022 |
| Notable work | Star Wars -The Day After -Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. |
Robert Blalack (December 9, 1948 – February 2, 2022) was a Panama-born American mass-mediavisual artist, independent filmmaker, and producer. He is one of the founders ofIndustrial Light & Magic.[1] Blalack received theAcademy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1978 for his work on the firstStar Wars film. He also received thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in 1984 for his work on the 1983 television filmThe Day After. Blalack directedexperimental films and mixed-mediatelevision commercials, and he produced visual effects fortheme park rides.
Robert Blalack was born in Panama on December 9, 1948. He attendedSt. Paul's School inLondon[2] before receiving aBA in English Literature andTheater Arts fromPomona College inClaremont, California. As the college did not have a film school, Blalack taught himself filmmaking by directing non-narrativeexperimental films using a second-hand 16mmBolex camera.[3] After graduating from Pomona, he attended theCalifornia Institute of the Arts, receiving aMaster of Fine Arts in Film Studies in 1973. While attending the Institute, he was a teaching assistant forPat O'Neil, an experimental filmmaker. Meanwhile, he continued his work in experimental film before co-directing his first feature film,The Words (1973), with ProfessorDon Levy.[4] Blalack died from cancer on February 2, 2022, at the age of 73.[5]
In 1973, Blalack worked night shifts at Crest Film Labs (later renamedCrest Digital), operating anoptical printer making 35mm to 16mm TV negatives.
ForHearts And Minds (1974), Blalack animated directorPeter Davis´s smuggled photographs ofCon Son Island Tiger Cage prisoners.[6] The film went on to receive an Academy Award recipient for Best Documentary Feature.[7]
Blalack created a first-person subjectiveoptical effects sequence designed to put the audience in the driver's seat of a Formula One race car for the filmOne By One (1975).[8]
Blalack formed Praxis Film Works, Inc.[9] during his work onOne by One. AfterOne By One, Blalack continued to produce optical effects for low-budget Hollywood movies andoptical composites for high-end TV commercials.
In 1975, Blalack worked with the two leading visual effects innovators,Robert Abel andDouglas Trumbull.[10] Trumbull commissioned Blalack to make a 16mm promo showcasing the creativity of Trumbull's visual effects studio, Future General. While making this documentary, Blalack met Trumbull's cameramanJohn Dykstra.
In June 1975,George Lucas choseJohn Dykstra to supervise the visual effects forStar Wars. Dykstra asked Blalack to help build the Star WarsVistaVision Visual Effects facility. As one of the founders ofIndustrial Light & Magic, Blalack's responsibility was to create crucial ILM VistaVision Photographic Optical Composite andRotoscope Animation production pipelines that would mass-produce a record 365 VistaVision-to-35mmPanavisionanamorphic visual effects composites.
No modern VistaVision photographic blue-screen pipeline existed whenILM was founded. The modest budget ofStar Wars dictated that Blalack gather obsolete VistaVision optical composite equipment, modernize and debug each mechanical and optical component, devise methods to mass-produce 365 Visual Effects composites, design the Rotoscope Department, and then hire and train the Optical Composite and Rotoscope crew. Blalack supervised the design and fabrication of the world's first and only aerial imagediffraction-limited VistaVision-to-35mm optical composite system. TheStar Wars 365 VistaVision Visual Effects shots contained 1,250 original VistaVision color negative elements, from which more than 10,000RGB black and white color Separations, mattes, and other intermediate VistaVision composite elements were generated. All of these VistaVision Visual Effects composite elements were photographed and composited during the final seven months of theStar Wars production.[11]
At theStar Wars 40th anniversary, Blalack spoke to the assembled crew: "All of us changed the direction of filmmaking. Because of you, visions that were once completely impossible are now within reach. And you know, it wasn't always like that. We discovered that building ILM from scratch during production was like jumping out of a low-budget airplane, and stitching up a parachute during free-fall."[1]
Blalack received the 1978Best Visual Effects Academy Award for his work onStar Wars.[12]
In 1980, Blalack produced visual effects for 12 of the 13 episodes ofCarl Sagan'sCosmos: A Personal Voyage, in collaboration with the series producerAdrian Malone.[13]
In 1983, Blalack designed and producedThe Day After visual effects. To determine what visual effects the movie needed, the Praxis team createdstoryboards to visualize the effects of nuclear detonations and their aftermath, and the missile contrails of US-launched ICBMs, from the perspective of the population of two cities inKansas.[14]
Praxis calculated that the number of angles and shots that would be required to simulate anuclear bombmushroom cloud on 35mm high-speed blue screen film would not be possible to produce within the modest production budget. Instead, Blalack decided to create both the nuclear bomb simulations and the missile contrails of US-launchedICBMs in a custom-built, computer-controlled water tank, where the interaction between the iconic mushroom cloud “cap” and “stem” could be separately controlled with precision.[15][16]
In 1984 Blalack received thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement, Special Visual Effects for his work onThe Day After.[17][18]
Blalack created and produced visual effects for many motion pictures, including:
Blalack directed hundreds of multi-layered mixed-media USA and International TV commercials, produced by Praxis Film Works, Inc., for such clients asCadillac,Chevrolet,Coca-Cola,Dodge,Hyundai,Kodak,Minolta,Panasonic,Papermate,Philip Morris,Union Carbide,Sharp, and3M.[27]
The visionary experience, as described by Aldous Huxley (The Doors of Perception,Heaven and Hell, andMoksha) and others, was a lifelong interest for Blalack. He discovered his passion for film-making when he attended experimental movie programs that played on the Pomona College campus from time to time. There he experienced the work of Patrick O’Neil, among others. Blalack would go on to study with O’Neil at CalArts. He came to regard film as a means and medium to open the doors of perception. This interest in the visionary experience underpinned his experimental film work.
Blalack was in post-production onDaddy Dearest, a Praxis Film Works, Inc. production of his experimental 8K motion picture, at the time of his death. The film remains unfinished.
Inspired by his life-long interest in the visionary experience, Blalack created a series of "Living Paintings". These unique 10-hour, 4K, and 8KUHDTV creations were synthesized from tens of thousands of photographs he took in the Jain temples of NorthernIndia, the Hindu temples ofAngkor Wat, the Buddhist temples ofSri Lanka andChina, and the Catholic cathedrals of France between 2008 and 2017. Each artwork draws the viewer into a world beyond everyday experience, a world of waking dreams.[attribution needed]
Blalack gave multi-media talks at more than 70 universities, film schools, VFX schools, art schools, and film festivals inChina,Germany,Austria, and France at theCinematheque Francaise. He explored the design and realization of ILM from scratch forStar Wars, the impact ofVFX on Hollywood studio creative choices, and strategies for aspiring movie workers to optimize their career paths and make use of today's merged media motion picture design and production opportunities.
Remembering those early days on Star Wars, Blalack would jokingly add, "We discovered that building ILM from scratch during production was like jumping out of a plane and stitching up the parachute during free fall."