The Illusionists — Paul Lambert

Open our 40th anniversary edition, Cinefex 169, and you'll find The Illusionists, a huge panel where 21 Oscar-winning visual effects discuss past, present, and future cinematic illusions. We recorded over 14 hours of interview material for the article, and part of it inevitably ended up on the floor of the editing room. In this series of short blogs, we're excited to share some of our favorite outtakes. To read the full round table, get your copy of Cinefex 169.

CINEFEX – Which films inspired you as a child?

PAUL LAMBERT – i
I spent my youth watching star and watching again
Wars. That and The Sound of Music were
The only films I've had on home video that I've seen hundreds of times. They are both very close to my heart. At the time, this was not the case
Register that these fantastic worlds were actually created by humans.
I later went to college and did aerospace – I was actually on my way to
Build missiles. But it wasn't really for me and I got lost a bit. I went to art
School because I had a deep urge to be creative and then got a job as a service worker
Steinbeck and Moviolas. That's how I found the film industry.

CINEFEX – No doubt
Your interest in aerospace paid off when you worked on First Man. How did you make the switch?
from device maintenance to use?

PAUL LAMBERT – i
I started as a runner at Cinesite, where I spent all my nights learning how
to use the flame and inferno setups. It was a different time then. The
Flame suites would be unlocked and you could go in there and learn for yourself
Time. You go to school for all that stuff these days.

CINEFEX – Visual
Effect systems are now much more structured in many ways.

PAUL LAMBERT – That's right, and it's partly because they have to protect
even the customer changes this, this and the other. You know, I think
The key to managing all of this is an independent team near the
Director to do rapid fire test and visuals. Then you can leave the photo area
Part of the larger facilities that have this type of infrastructure.

CINEFEX – you are
talk about the in-house team, which has become increasingly important in
the past few years. As a supervisor for visual effects in a show, you will work with this team cheek to cheek during the post.
Does this give you the opportunity to take control of yourself?

PAUL LAMBERT –
Well, I'm working on Dune and
I just got on my laptop the other day and turned around
Take off ornithopter. I was actually pretty proud of myself – it's been a while!

Cinefex is a bimonthly magazine
to visual image effects. Since 1980 it has been the Bible for effects
Professionals and enthusiasts who cover the field like no other publication.
Richly illustrated in color, with extensive articles and interviews, Cinefex
offers a fascinating insight into the technologies and techniques behind many of our products
most popular and consistent films.