Hal Hickel

Hal T. Hickel is a visual effects animator for Industrial Light & Magic.

At the age of 12, Hickel wrote a letter to Lucasfilm, outlining his ideas for a sequel to the original Star Wars movie (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), and received a polite rejection letter from producer Gary Kurtz. The letter now hangs on the wall of Hickel's office at ILM. Twenty years later, Hickel found himself working on Star Wars after all, as a lead animator on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

A native of Bailey, Colorado, Hickel joined the Film Graphics Program at CalArts in 1982. He worked at An-FX from 1982 until 1988, and then joined Will Vinton Studios, working in stop-motion and motion control.

Hickel began his animation career at Pixar in 1994, where he worked on Toy Story and the THX promos, as well as some of Pixar's short films. Hearing that a new Star Wars trilogy was in pre-production, Hickel applied for a transfer to ILM on the chance that he might get to work on the prequels. He was first assigned as an animator on The Lost World: Jurassic Park, but was eventually assigned to work on The Phantom Menace, and later its sequel, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, where he was responsible for the unique movement of the Droideka destroyer droids.

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of various characters "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away".

The first film in the series, Star Wars (later subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope), was released on May 25, 1977 by 20th Century Fox and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. It was followed by the similarly successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983); these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was later released between 1999 and 2005, which received a more mixed reaction from critics and fans, compared to the original trilogy. All seven films were nominated for or won Academy Awards, and were commercial successes, with a combined box office revenue of $4.38 billion, making Star Wars the fourth highest-grossing film series. The series has spawned an extensive media franchise—the Star Wars expanded universe—including books, television series, computer and video games, and comic books, resulting in significant development of the series's fictional universe. Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the "Most successful film merchandising franchise." In 2012, the total value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $30.7 billion, including box-office receipts as well as profits from their video games and DVD sales.

Light & Magic

Light & Magic is the second studio album by English electronic band Ladytron. It was released on 17 September 2002 by Telstar Records in the United Kingdom and by Emperor Norton in the USA. The album was reissued by Nettwerk in January 2011.

An earlier version of the song "NuHorizons" appeared as a B-side to the band's 2001 single "The Way That I Found You", under the title "Holiday 601".

"Seventeen" is part of the soundtrack to the 2003 film Party Monster, while its instrumental was used in television advertisements for Christina Aguilera's 2008 fragrance Inspire.

Drowned in Sound included Light & Magic at number 14 on its Top 41 Albums of the Year.Rolling Stone put this album on their 50 Best Albums of 2002 list.Muzik selected Light & Magic as the Best Electropop Album of the Year 2002.NME included this album at number 41 on their Albums and Tracks of the Year for 2002 list.

Track listing

All songs written by Ladytron.

Industrial Light & Magic

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company, Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when Lucas began production of the film Star Wars. For many years, particularly during the widespread inception of computer graphics in film during the 1980s, ILM was considered the leading industry standard production house for computer graphics in film; many studios other than Lucasfilm sent scenes to the studio for CGI. It is also the original founder company of the animation studio Pixar.

ILM originated in Van Nuys, California, then later moved to San Rafael in 1978, and since 2005 it has been based at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired ILM as part of its purchase of Lucasfilm.

History

Lucas wanted his 1977 film Star Wars to include visual effects that had never been seen on film before. After discovering that the in-house effects department at 20th Century Fox was no longer operational, Lucas approached Douglas Trumbull, famous for the effects on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trumbull declined as he was already committed to working on Steven Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but suggested his assistant John Dykstra to Lucas. Dykstra brought together a small team of college students, artists, and engineers, and set them up in a warehouse in Van Nuys, California. Lucas named the group Industrial Light and Magic, which became the Special Visual Effects department on Star Wars. Alongside Dykstra, other leading members of the original ILM team were Ken Ralston, Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Joe Johnston, Phil Tippett, Steve Gawley, Lorne Peterson, and Paul Huston.

Pacific Rim

The Pacific Rim are the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Basin includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire.

List of countries on the Pacific Rim

This is a list of countries that are generally considered to be a part of the Pacific Rim, since they lie along the Pacific Ocean.

Commerce

The Pacific is a hotbed of overseas shipping. The top 10 busiest container ports, with the exception of Dubai's Port of Jebel Ali (9th), are in the Rim nations. They are home to 29 of the world's 50 busiest container shipping ports:

Organizations

Various intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations focus on the Pacific Rim, including APEC, the East-West Center, Sustainable Pacific Rim Cities and the Institute of Asian Research. In addition, the RIMPAC naval exercises are coordinated by United States Pacific Command.

Bibliography