DENNIS MUREN - Where Is Digital Storytelling Going? Written by: Bill Peay Photos by: Nick Galante KALAPAKI BEACH, KAUAI, HAWAII 8 p.m. H.S.T. Friday, April 27

Dennis Muren, A.S.C., Senior Visual Effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), is the recipient of eight Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, with credits including Casper, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, The Abyss, Empire of the Sun, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, The Empire Strikes Back, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Wars. He shared a bag full of visual effects treats with an audience of storytellers by way of an action-packed, video-enhanced presentation.

"Where is storytelling going?" asked Muren. "Right now ILM is a service company. We don't develop content, but instead work with the scripts that directors bring to us," Muren said. ILM, working from the scripts, decides where they can add something new by way of visual effects, and then present their cutting edge ideas to the directors for consideration. In this way they are able to enhance the storyteller's ability to tell a convincing and effective story.

ILM has been around for 20 years and employs over 500 people. "We still have a model shop, so digital hasn't taken over completely," according to Muren. "We evaluate what's the best process for any given situation, and it's not always digital," adds Muren.

There are some tricks of the trade, however. "The more detail there is in an image, the more there is for the audience to pick up on, and that's what makes it interesting," shares Muren. "Another good trick we use is to focus the audience's eye from one point to another as we tell a visual effects story," said Muren. Having been in the business for 20 years, Dennis Muren is convinced that with today's technology, and given enough time and money, you can do almost anything with visual effects. "What we are seeing in films now will make storytelling more interesting in the level of detail," he adds.

One thing to start watching for in movies is changes in the weather. With the technology available today, directors no longer have to wait for the weather to change to shoot a scene. "This keeps the show on schedule, shoots move along faster, and, if the effect is done right, the results are perfect," Muren claims. ILM is working on "Twister," a soon-to-be-released feature film which will have lots of modified weather effects. "You're going to start seeing whole sequences in film embellished by controlling nature," said Muren.

Another improvement digital visual effects will offer is better composite shots. With digital work, you don't have strange matte effects. Shots are not being designed with the effects in mind, as in the past, but the effects are being used to better convey a story, and that's good for storytellers. Muren emphasizes, "Directors and storytellers will need to ask themselves 'what do I want to do with this technology, now that I have these new effects available to me?'"

One thing Muren has noticed, "People are taking more risks. Directors, writers, actors, etc., and it shows." We are seeing stuff that has never been done before to this level of detail." He adds, "We haven't hit the wall yet on this digital technology either."

One area where digital effects have become controversial is the idea of a "digital backlot" where the actors are shot completely on blue screen with remote cameras, etc, and all background is digital to save costs. "One problem with this," Muren claims, "is how to pre-visualize what the finished product will actually look like. It will be really tough on the actors and cameramen."

Storytellers can count on digital effects for synthetic characters and "creatures." Beyond creatures will be digital animals, but, Muren points out, "it will be very difficult to do with animals because everyone knows what animals look like and how they move, even dinosaurs." Finally, you will see digital effect actors, like in Casper. "How this type of effect differs from animation is that the characters act at a different level because they interact with the real actors on screen," said Muren. But he warns, "people are the hardest thing to do."

With the accomplishments of Industrial Light & Magic to date, and with continual cutting edge improvements in digital capabilities, the future for advanced digital visual effects looks brighter than ever. That's good news for storytellers because it gives us more options, more creative ways of doing what we do best: inform, entertain, move, and motivate audiences through the art of telling stories.