Since principal photography finished in Sydney, the post-production of Episode III at Skywalker Ranch and Industrial Light & Magic has been in full swing. Hyperspace webcam viewers have been spying on the offices at ILM, seeing various group meetings with Rob Coleman and John Knoll -- but what about those other behind-the-scenes people who keep post-production running smoothly?
That's where Visual Effects Coordinator Jessica Teach comes in. Viewers may recognize Teach on the webcam from the jungle of houseplants surrounding her computer. But it's not her green thumb that makes Teach an impressive member of the ILM team. It's Teach's job to coordinate the CG creature and hard surface (vehicles, props and environments) model builds, as well as the viewpainting and look development that happens to the models before they are used in shots. She also coordinates the work done by the digital matte group.
A typical day for Teach includes spending time in the mornings setting up the daily reviews that happen between the artists and the effects supervisors, the art directors and leads for the disciplines that she coordinates. In the mornings, she also turns over new projects to artists with the leads, effects supervisors and art directors present to give notes on the work that is required. The rest of the day is spent scheduling, fielding questions from the crew by email or phone and attending meetings.
"I'm always making sure that all the pieces are in place -- that we have the artwork/reference needed to build and paint upcoming models, that we know how the elements will be used in shots and so on," Teach explains. "I spend time updating our database to be sure that we have a record of what's been approved, what work still needs to be done, and adding any other information that is relevant to each asset."
Teach is a member of the crew working on the "front end" production for Episode III. This crew handles the work that needs to happen to the elements before they can be used in the shots. In addition, ILM has a "back end" group who are responsible for coordinating the actual production of the shots.
Before she kept things running smoothly for the visual effects team at ILM, Teach was a producer on a popular 2-D web show called "Happy Tree Friends."
"I don't have a background in film, I actually have a degree in writing," Teach says. "I am most interested in working with groups of people and helping people get what they need to do their jobs well and efficiently."
"I enjoy being surrounded by people who take their work very seriously and at the same time have great senses of humor," Teach explains. "All of the people I work with at ILM are hard workers. That definitely shows in the quality of the work they produce, and they are really interesting, great people too. I appreciate that I am learning more every day here."
As the webcam makes its way around the ILM offices, fans have been able to witness production assistants hard at work, weekly team meetings, and the usual hijinks that comes with the creative set.
"I personally liked seeing the still life of the action figures and the Christmas peeps," Teach recalls. "Before the webcam arrived, Russell Earl, one of the technical directors, was dared to try to fit two boxes of peeps in his mouth at once. He did it successfully, and there has been some talk of trying to get him to recreate that moment of glory for the webcam. That would be pure webcam movie magic!"
