James McPhail

Can the media stop participating in AI psychosis

These snivelling cowards. Canadians will not forget that America treated Putin's Russia like its best friend and us like an enemy. Ever.

Post your getaway vehicle(s)

it's so rarely "the teams that worked on this were so creative and resourceful, amazing that they were able to accomplish this in 2009" and it's almost always "boy, computers' gigaflops must have been a good rendering engine GPU's and whatnot" computers don't make visual effects, people do

just checking in with this BACKROOMS- tons of VFX OBSESSION- so many digital effects its VFX supervisor is presenting at View Conf. DEVIL/PRADA 2- 5 VFX shops MICHAEL- full CG animals interacting with humans, VFX concerts ODYSSEY- more VFX than people realize SPIDER-MAN- tons of VFX, huge hit

People think "Hollywood" is rich and famous. The reality? Film and TV is a national industry. It's a blue collar industry. And it is an industry free fall. My latest for @newrepublic.com on how the Paramount merger would crush blue collar workers who can not afford it newrepublic.com/article/2136...

I hate that baseball commentary is trying to convince me that baseball is better when I am wagering money on its outcomes. Fuck that noise. Get that shit out of sports.

It's fine to talk about box office performance and story issues, but "The Mandalorian and Grogu" is full of practical sets and puppets, as well as an impressive stop-motion sequence. It's gross for Hollywood Reporter to call the hard work from that team "lazy" when it was anything but.

perfect dead drop 10/10 no notes (the shrouds really make this)

I wish well-paid actors would spend just one day sitting in on visual effects reviews for the movie they are starring in, then take that personal experience and knowledge in good faith* into their press junket interviews. Maybe the VFX crew would be shit on a little bit less. *this is key

IT'S HERE AND IT'S SPECTACULAR "Nolan's CGI is really just Invisible CGI", by Jonas Ussing @themovierabbithole.bsky.social youtu.be/AFLcP-t0-kI

youtu.be/nINCkoHvQ1c Auralnauts always delivers.

"Tell Jabba I'll get him his money..."

I try to restrain myself from just yelling at clouds like an old man, but when misinformation goes viral it ought to be pushed back against: this video is a nearly-unbroken string of misinformation and should be entirely disregarded when it comes to digital color science.

"Media is not a puzzle you can beat" is something many people need rammed home

Nvidia’s DLSS 5 is like motion smoothing for video games, but worse

"what's the plan?" my goodness - beyond self-parody at this point WHAT'S THE PLAN? YOU'RE DESCRIBING THE ARTISTIC PROCESS YOU BOZOOOOOSSSSS

I think you need a Disney plus account to watch it but this special look at Send Help has the entire boar hunt sequence I worked on recently at ILM at the end of it. www.disneyplus.com/browse/entit... It was a really fun project. Warning it is a gory one.

Take me down to the Parallax city where the far moves slow and the near moves quickly

I sat in a fucking court room and heard Apple imply that a naked cartoon banana was somehow inappropriate but somehow Grok non consensually undressing women and children is ok?? www.theverge.com/policy/85990...

Vanity Fair asked me to talk about visual effects, and it was my great honor to show off some of ILM’s terrific work over the years. Todd Vaziri on Vanity Fair VFX youtu.be/ERKEsIzTFas?...

me a few weeks ago: maybe we've turned a corner and the press won't continue to fan the flames of a non-existent war between movie departments me today: ah shit

Jim Cameron on digital and physical effects: “It’s really the higher question of what are you trying to show, and what are you trying to say? I don’t attach some kind of dogmatic aesthetic around in-camera or practical... It’s really just a means to an end.” source: youtu.be/v_x3OZlnkwM?...

"Personality, knowledge, and emotion are the three things that need to exist [in art] — and I'm sorry, they don't come from a fucking app." Del Toro sums it up 🫡

one thing the AI uptick has shown is that people resent creatives so much for what they perceive to be "not real work." and that means creating a narrative that people are overpaid for things they don't perceive as important/valuable, but still form entire consumer identities around.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=649P... A great reel celebrating the first 50 years of ILM. A couple of shots I contributed to made it in.

We're expecting another update from Vancouver Police later tonight about the tragedy at Lapu Lapu Day. After that, we probably won't know much more for many hours. Given the global attention already on it, a lot of speculation will inevitably happen. The best thing you can do is not amplify it.

He gives good interviews. Tony Gilroy in The Hollywood Reporter. Good bit here. www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-featur...

Tony Gilroy says Andor wouldn’t exist without The Mandalorian. "No Baby Yoda, no Andor," he tells Empire. "Seriously. Don’t think that we don’t know that." Read more: www.empireonline.com/tv/news/tony...

Elbows up, Canada.

I have covered presidential politics for 40 years. This was the most juvenile display by a President and Vice President I have ever seen. Other presidents treated their enemies with more respect. This is a low point and a dark day for the US. Totally embarrassing.

look at all this "minimal CGI" 😐 i'm sure all those influencers will now correct their videos and posts youtu.be/TkJGWFuWlOw?...

I spent a good portion of 2024 working on season 2 of Silo at ILM. I'm most proud of the work I did on the FX simulations for the paper helicopter sequence. The shots are a mix of full CG helis or a blend of practical & CG. As a fan of the first season it was a joy to work on.

Saying a specific movie "relies on visual effects" to tell its story is like saying another specific movie "relies on costumes" to tell its story.

Some otters showed up in pond next to my place yesterday. I've only seen them there a couple of times before. This time I got some footage of them having lunch. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq8K...

Happy #SkeletonCrew Day! Who wants to hear some facts about the visual effects techniques ILM uses to bring our beloved Neel to life? Along the way, we’re gonna debunk clickbait junk headlines like this. ⬇️ #NeelNation #StarWars A 🧵. (Cont.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again If any slashfilm/screenrant/shovelblog shitty website says an element in a newly release movie "isn't CGI" THEY LITERALLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT