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James McPhail

@jamesmcphail

I'm a VFX artist at ILM originally from New Zealand and I've been calling Canada home for a while now.

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13.07.2023
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Latest posts by James McPhail @jamesmcphail

"what's the plan?" my goodness - beyond self-parody at this point

WHAT'S THE PLAN? YOU'RE DESCRIBING THE ARTISTIC PROCESS YOU BOZOOOOOSSSSS

17.02.2026 20:43 πŸ‘ 128 πŸ” 21 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 0

The CEO was so desperate to talk about dog search party on your decoder interview with him. He kept coming back to it. I guess he thought that people would like pervasive distributed surveillance if it helps dogs ?

13.02.2026 04:38 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Watch Send Help | A Special Look | Disney+ Get ready for "Send Help."

I think you need a Disney plus account to watch it but this special look at Send Help has the entire boar hunt sequence I worked on recently at ILM at the end of it. www.disneyplus.com/browse/entit... It was a really fun project. Warning it is a gory one.

02.02.2026 15:41 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Take me down to the Parallax city where the far moves slow and the near moves quickly

01.02.2026 15:40 πŸ‘ 16722 πŸ” 4840 πŸ’¬ 94 πŸ“Œ 73

Black and white Snyder cut treatment. For the β€œtrue fans”…

22.01.2026 21:13 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Do these people forget that the show features a character named Fisto who has a giant metal fist ?

22.01.2026 21:11 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

It is such absolute cowardice. Apple especially for years has constantly claimed it needs to have total control of the iphone appstore to protect its users. Now they have an actual reason to use that power and they do nothing because they are scared of Elon Musk & the Trump administration.

22.01.2026 18:38 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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16.01.2026 02:12 πŸ‘ 46 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards Once you’ve traded your principles for proximity to power, do you even run your own company?

I sat in a fucking court room and heard Apple imply that a naked cartoon banana was somehow inappropriate but somehow Grok non consensually undressing women and children is ok?? www.theverge.com/policy/85990...

09.01.2026 21:30 πŸ‘ 1856 πŸ” 565 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 30

Just cover the dong up with the electric screwdriver. It wouldn’t be worse at all.

26.11.2025 21:05 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
ILM's VFX Secrets Behind Star Wars, Transformers & More | Vanity Fair
ILM's VFX Secrets Behind Star Wars, Transformers & More | Vanity Fair YouTube video by Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair asked me to talk about visual effects, and it was my great honor to show off some of ILM’s terrific work over the years.

Todd Vaziri on Vanity Fair VFX
youtu.be/ERKEsIzTFas?...

07.10.2025 17:18 πŸ‘ 509 πŸ” 118 πŸ’¬ 23 πŸ“Œ 21

Using someone's likeness like that without their permission is disgusting.

06.10.2025 16:25 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Why do they keep doing this? They belittle the entire community of VFX industry professionals. Is Christoph Waltz film illiterate? The film had over 200 digital VFX shots.

Enough with this crap.

31.08.2025 16:53 πŸ‘ 36 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 5
Guillermo del Toro refused to make #Frankenstein with too much visual effects and green screens: "I want real sets."
"I don't want digital. I don't want Al. I don't want simulation. I want old-fashioned craftsmanship. I want people painting, building, hammering, plastering."

Guillermo del Toro refused to make #Frankenstein with too much visual effects and green screens: "I want real sets." "I don't want digital. I don't want Al. I don't want simulation. I want old-fashioned craftsmanship. I want people painting, building, hammering, plastering."

me a few weeks ago: maybe we've turned a corner and the press won't continue to fan the flames of a non-existent war between movie departments

me today: ah shit

21.08.2025 16:40 πŸ‘ 200 πŸ” 29 πŸ’¬ 22 πŸ“Œ 4

That quote was such a tiny part of that article as well and yet that is the quote they choose to pull to try and get people to read it. Variety should do better.

21.08.2025 19:52 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Weird choice of a pull quote to focus on out of that article. It is such a tiny part of it.

20.08.2025 18:31 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Jim Cameron on digital and physical effects: β€œIt’s really the higher question of what are you trying to show, and what are you trying to say? I don’t attach some kind of dogmatic aesthetic around in-camera or practical... It’s really just a means to an end.”

source: youtu.be/v_x3OZlnkwM?...

07.08.2025 16:19 πŸ‘ 102 πŸ” 17 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 2
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"Personality, knowledge, and emotion are the three things that need to exist [in art] β€” and I'm sorry, they don't come from a fucking app." Del Toro sums it up 🫑

28.07.2025 18:56 πŸ‘ 3348 πŸ” 1221 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 34
A book and audio cassette of Star Wars

A book and audio cassette of Star Wars

A book and casette of The Empire Strikes Back

A book and casette of The Empire Strikes Back

Your post reminded me what was in the last box of stuff my mum sent over to me. I listened to these so many times when I was little.

16.07.2025 17:20 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

That looks fantastic.

15.07.2025 15:31 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Just wait until they release 28 months later and complicate everything🀣

26.06.2025 19:59 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I got sent one of those Amazon surveys about the show after they had already announced it was cancelled. Filled it out anyway on the slim chance they are still looking at it. It was a very detailed survey going into all the characters and storylines etc. I’m really disappointed it’s cancelled.

23.06.2025 14:59 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Yeah it's even more infuriating when the director or producer are bragging about how they didn't use CGI. Sometimes while we are hard at work doing vfx work on their movie. I miss the time when cg work was celebrated in BTS features etc.

19.06.2025 22:00 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

It is so frustrating that so much online commentary has made CGI = bad for so many people that you get these sorts of contortions trying to say an incredibly well executed visual effects shot has "No CGI". I would love for these folks to see the work that artists put into shots like this.

19.06.2025 21:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

one thing the AI uptick has shown is that people resent creatives so much for what they perceive to be "not real work." and that means creating a narrative that people are overpaid for things they don't perceive as important/valuable, but still form entire consumer identities around.

13.06.2025 15:17 πŸ‘ 2506 πŸ” 414 πŸ’¬ 19 πŸ“Œ 13
Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation
Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation YouTube video by Industrial Light & Magic

www.youtube.com/watch?v=649P... A great reel celebrating the first 50 years of ILM. A couple of shots I contributed to made it in.

29.05.2025 00:27 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Demand naming rights.

23.05.2025 23:05 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

We're expecting another update from Vancouver Police later tonight about the tragedy at Lapu Lapu Day.

After that, we probably won't know much more for many hours.

Given the global attention already on it, a lot of speculation will inevitably happen.

The best thing you can do is not amplify it.

27.04.2025 05:44 πŸ‘ 651 πŸ” 129 πŸ’¬ 13 πŸ“Œ 5

I want to believe!

25.04.2025 20:34 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Interviewer: I recognize that some people want their preferred version of Star Wars so much that they'll jockey for position in any way they can, but shouldn't we all be rooting for a rising tide in that case? Success means we can all win and get what we want.

TG: Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me. If you love this thing, then the more variety in it, [the better]. You can't talk about the Star Wars community: it's not a monolithic thing at all. There's 25 different versions i nthere. But I do go online, particularly when we're going out to sell or there's something intense or we're getting into marketing and we're trying to figure out what to do. So I do go online and look, and most of it is fantastic. But every now and then, there's just someone saying something that's completely appalling. The people who speak with the most authority online are usually the people who know the least. That seems to be a pretty fair theorem. So I don't to piss anybody off by saying this, but it is a big tent, man. It's a big frickin' tent. It should be."

Interviewer: I recognize that some people want their preferred version of Star Wars so much that they'll jockey for position in any way they can, but shouldn't we all be rooting for a rising tide in that case? Success means we can all win and get what we want. TG: Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me. If you love this thing, then the more variety in it, [the better]. You can't talk about the Star Wars community: it's not a monolithic thing at all. There's 25 different versions i nthere. But I do go online, particularly when we're going out to sell or there's something intense or we're getting into marketing and we're trying to figure out what to do. So I do go online and look, and most of it is fantastic. But every now and then, there's just someone saying something that's completely appalling. The people who speak with the most authority online are usually the people who know the least. That seems to be a pretty fair theorem. So I don't to piss anybody off by saying this, but it is a big tent, man. It's a big frickin' tent. It should be."

He gives good interviews. Tony Gilroy in The Hollywood Reporter. Good bit here.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-featur...

25.04.2025 16:32 πŸ‘ 760 πŸ” 159 πŸ’¬ 24 πŸ“Œ 27