American Cinematographer - December 1998 - 79

control

love life

lead

As we al know, trying to
to

ones

can

various kinds of insanity.

In

director Griffin Dunne's black

comedy Practical Magic, shot
by Andrew Dunn, BSC, witchy
sisters Gillian and Sally (Nicole
Kidman

and

Sandra

Bullock)

discover

just how crazy love can get
when they decide to use their super¬
natural powers to attract Mr. Right.
The gods don't take kindly to this
breach of the natural order, however,
and murder and
In

an

mayhem ensue.

effects

sense,

the title

Practical
very

Magic is deceptive. In fact,
little magic was created practi¬

Cinesite grants powers to the
witches of Practical Magic.

modern-day

by Ron Magid
and film-salvage
removing dirt, rods,

compositing

company -
wires and whatnot

does

-

firm that

the

the traditional

now

have

areas

-

with

help of

some

large-scale extravaganzas
such as Lost in Space. "But we don't
want to be just a digital facility
either; we want to bring in more of
to

what we're

a

youthful Sally

mate

explains, citing the kind of recent
contributions Cinesite London has
made

watches,

makes her wish
for the perfect

work," Riddle

3-D

more

to a

As sister Gillian

computerized
flower petals
crafted by
Cinesite.

and augment

doing in digital. While we
to

farm

out

miniature

work, we'd like to have closer ties to
that stuff ourselves. We're
in

a

space

investing
facility with additional
where we can have all that,

new

because

our

current

location is filled

with

people working on computers."
Ironically, Practical Magic
does not precisely fit the model of
Cinesite's

new

direction. "Practical

a fairly traditional show,"
Riddle admits. "It has a lot of 2-D

Magic is

cally by physical effects supervisor
Burt Dalton (although he did engi¬
neer a subtle gag wherein a candle
lights up as Bullock blows on it).
Instead, the production relied
primarily upon the digital craft of
Cinesite Los Angeles to infuse the
tale with the requisite paranormal
edge. Leading the

way was

visual

Clijfhanger at Boss Film. He also
supervised Digital Domain's work
on

Snow

winner

Covered,
at

the

a

Grand Prix

1993

Cannes

Commercial Festival, before

going to
Tippett, for whom he
lit and integrated thousands of CG
bugs on Starship Troopers. Finally,
Riddle's quest for the perfect effects

work for Phil

work and

more

effects

home landed him at Cinesite, a facil¬

as

graphics supervisor on Star Trek VI
at Industrial Light & Magic, and on

ity looking to remake itself.
"We're trying to evolve the
company from being strictly a 2-D

can

supervisor Jay Riddle, who
previously had served as computer

lot of greenscreen,

but
interesting 3-D work
going on, which evolved through the
process of doing the show itself."
The concept of effects evolv¬
ing during the course of production
is not a new one, but it's becoming
there is

for

a

some

of a

challenge in the digital age,

filmmakers
fix almost
a

come

to

realize

they

anything in post

-

price. "It's always interesting to

have that kind of evolution while

American

Cinematographer 77
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