Dennis Muren
Dennis Muren
Dennis Muren, ASCis an American film special effects artist & supervisor, most notable for his work on the films of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. He has won eight Oscars for Best Visual Effects...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth1 November 1946
CountryUnited States of America
opportunity giving trying
Everyone is trying to do something that hasn't been done and that's a really good thing. You can only do so much with a story and some scripts don't give you the opportunities and other scripts do give you the opportunities to do things that haven't been done before.
american-artist films fits recognise work
I think you've got to talk to the director, see the director's films and recognise that it's important that the work fits right in and see if as part of the movie.
american-artist harry helped potter stuff taken worked
You know a lot of what worked on this was taken from Harry Potter 2, the little Doby character, we had a lot of our skin stuff worked out and that helped a lot. We have a lot of exchange happening.
american-artist curve far involve knowing knows people steven worked
Steven and I have worked together a lot and I'm far ahead of the curve than most people in knowing what he wants, but he knows far more than I know about what's important for the story. So, most of the changes he will make will involve story changes.
american-artist clearly design few frames motion shot work
So much of it is the design of the shot or the motion of the character; it's the work you do so that it has the same things that are in the movie. In just a few frames it's got to communicate something clearly and dramatically.
american-artist business classes days movies rest spend time took
I took business classes as a back up but I made movies all the time. I would get my classes done in two days and then spend the rest of the time making my movies.
american-artist fine maybe movies stories virtual
I see the tool set being the same and maybe doing virtual movies and that's fine for some stories but not for others. And maybe make all CG movies but they are already doing it.
american-artist coming
I just focus on one show, when this is over then I'll start looking at what is coming up.
american-artist areas render side stuff technical visualise ways
And then you start getting into the technical side of it and the aesthetic side and with those areas you can come up with new ways to visualise things, new ways to render and use the computer to make things look different and new and stuff like that.
american-artist explain hold monster trouble visualise wave
I have never had trouble with any actor being able to visualise things. They are amazing. As long as you have your monster head on a long stick, so you can hold it up there and you can wave it around and let them see it and explain it to them, they are just great.
american-artist
Yes, if I had it my way I would do all the shots myself - I used to do that when I was just a cameraman, an operator - but there's no way; you can't do that anymore.
extent reaching sort stuff war worlds
I'm always reaching for something we really haven't done, and War of the Worlds has a lot of this sort of documentary look to it and first-person camera view that is a new thing for me. I've done some stuff like that before, but nothing like the extent of this and digitally.
along american-artist somebody
Just going along with this, what I did, or what I do is I imagine not being myself seeing it, but imagine somebody else who's seeing it for the first time.
done enough ifs
I've done enough of this that I can tell early on if it's going in the wrong direction or not.