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TAFs "T3" INTERVIEW: STARS BEHIND THE CAMERA! Pablo Helman Hal Lieberman interview! Reported By: Randy Jennings Monday, October 7, 2002 While on the set of T3: Rise of The Machines, TheArnoldFans got to interview Pablo Helman, visual effects supervisor, and Hal Lieberman, the film's producer. Both film legends sat in front of me on a director's chair. An official T3 leather jacket worn by Arnold's stunt double, Billy Lucas, hung over the back of the chair. As persistent Terminators we focuses on their every word. Pablo Helman, ILM visual effects supervisor: What can we expect that we havenšt seen before? PH: Well, we are doing some really interesting visual doubling on the TX, on the female terminator and also on Arnold. And it's mainly for very safety concerns, stunt cinematography. We're also doing a lot of fluid simulation, which is basically we're taking the skin of the TX and making it into basically liquid metal, but peeling off and revealing a bunch of surprises. Do you do motion capture for digital doubling? PH: Not necessarily. We've been working with Arnold and Kristanna for about six months or so, so we've taken some really good referencing pictures under different lighting conditions. How is this different from Spider-Man? PH: Well, hopefully it'll look a lot better. No, I think the difference is in Spider-Man you have somebody that is wearing a suit. In this picture, we have two people who are basically, we're replicating skin conditions, lighting conditions, lots of natural things like sweating and expressions and things like that. When you have somebody with a mask on, you can get away with a lot more. Were you able to use any technology from the previous T2? PH: No, this is all new. It's kind of funny because the last Terminator movie was about 11 years ago and there were only 47 visual effects shots. How many in this? PH: I'd say probably between 350 and 500. Will this film be considered revolutionary? PH: I think it will be revolutionary from a scientific point of view because like I said, we're developing a lot of fluid simulation, computer simulation stuff that hasn't been seen before. However, the public has such a sophisticated eye that after everything that we've been doing with visual effects, it's gonna be very difficult to make that kind of an impact, although we try. Are there CGI robots to go along with Stan Winston's? PH: Yeah, well, in that tunnel scene, we had to marry practical things that Stan Winston was bringing in, all the puppets, plus we had to match his puppet to the digital puppet. And so, that's going to be a real challenge. What's the breakdown between practical and CGI robots? PH: If you're talking about Arnold, there's a lot more CG than practical. Well, there are different kinds of shots to be honest with you. Producer Hal Lieberman: Is T4 in the works? HL: There's some early discussion about it but there's nothing concrete. Is it pressure that people will think this is the Terminator Cameron didn't direct? HL: It is, but really all that we can do is, and again we're such huge fans of the first two, was to try to come up and keep going back to the story with a story that had the integrity worthy of the prior two, and from there, that was really the threshold point to then go forward and make the movie. Once we felt we had something really good to tell, then it becomes about putting it through the camera and making it real. What need is there for another Terminator movie? HL: I think people love it and they have great filmgoing experiences. So, I do believe that it was worthy. In our approach, we came out of a truly passion for the prior movies and again, coming up with a story that we could be passionate enough to want to commit to make. Can a movie like this make money? HL: It is very expensive, but the movie can definitely make money, absolutely. The studios that got involved in the financing of it, nobody gets into this to not make money. They have businesses to run and we don't want to count our chickens until they've hatched but we believe that if we make a good movie, and that's why Jonathan is here and the rest of us to support him, we believe hopefully we'll get a great opening and that the movie will play out well and with the way movies are opening today, especially in summer time, there's a good chance when you run the numbers, and I'm a former studio executive that ran many, many numbers, there's a reason to make it. How will you approach the marketing? HL: Well, as you can see, we're loathe to give away too much information on the story so obviously, in a teaser we're going to look to tease and to whet their appetite and see that there's something terminator out there that is formidable and worthy of taking on our heroes and the Arnold terminator. Hopefully, you'll see it Thanksgiving or Christmas. Why a female terminator anyway? HL: Well, it has significance in the story. And also, it's a fresh way to approach it. It was a choice, but a good one. Will we see more of the future world? HL: What did Jonathan say? Jonathan's right. There is, yeah. We're hoping that the vista of this Terminator will be very varied and very surprising. Is anything different because of the changes they made in T2? HL: Sure. Yeah. You'd have to be specific with me for me to not answer you, but yes. Obviously, there's a time paradox that goes into all of the Terminators and we had to be careful to make it make sense to the audience. ----------  |