Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Hell Yeah Harrison!


While we all know that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull isn't the greatest entry in the franchise (far from it), Shia LaBeouf went on the record to blame everyone else for not living up to its potential. Shia has been quoted as saying:

“I’ll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this. I love him. I love Steven. I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work. And believe me, I talk to him often enough to know that I’m not out of line. And I would never disrespect the man. I think he’s a genius, and he’s given me my whole life. He’s done so much great work that there’s no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball you drop the ball.”

He even went on to later say that in private, Harrison Ford commended him for saying what he did. Well Shia, I hope you're listening because here's what Mr. Ford really said to you.

"I think I told him he was a fucking idiot. As an actor, I think it's my obligation to support the film without making a complete ass of myself."

While I'm definitely not defending some of the choices that Lucas and Spielberg made while making Crystal Skull, the biggest single problem with the film is Shia LaBeouf. It's very hard to pull off the long lost relative angle in a movie (it's a terrible idea to begin with), and when you cast a hack like Shia LaBeouf, it's impossible. You need someone with charisma and a certain gravitas for that role, things that Shia is completely lacking. 

While I could go on and write more about my opinions on Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, I don't feel like it - perhaps another now. I'll end this with a simple Hell Yeah Harrison!

 

Monday, June 27, 2011

A Novel of High Adventure

Indiana Jones, archaeology professor and swashbuckling adventurer, has unearthed many an ancient treasure. But now, the very future of the world depends on his finding one special relic.

With bullwhip in his hand and a beautiful lady at his side, Jones journeys from Nepal and Cairo to the Mediterranean, dodging poisons, traps and snakes, battling rivals old and new, all in pursuit of an ancient artifact said to give invincible power to its posessor.

It's a battle to a startling finish, a finish dictated by the magic, the light - and the power - of the Lost Ark.
 
Raiders of the Lost Ark by Campbell Black
Published by Ballantine Books in 1981 
(Hardcover Book Club Edition)

Published by Ballantine Books in April 1981
(Paperback First Printing)

Published by Ballantine Books in July 1981
(Paperback Second Printing)

Published by Corgi Books in 1981
 


The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark by Derek Taylor
Published by Ballantine Books in September 1981

From high seas to searing desert... from exploding planes to horrifying mummies... from the first exciting days of shooting in France to the last stages of special effects wizardry... Here is the amazing story of the creation of the year's most fabulous movie.

Featuring: In-depth interviews with the stars! Conversations with Director Steven Spielberg and Producer Frank Marshall! Discussions with the special-effects designers who dazzle you with their incredible cinematic techniques! Chapters on the heart-stopping stunts and interviews with the people who create and execute them! Candid sessions with Executive Producer George Lucas, create of the Star Wars saga! Plus 32 pages of spectacular behind-the-scenes photos and much, much more!



Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Illustrated Screenplay 
by Lawrence Kasdan
Published by Ballantine Books in July 1981

The ultimate companion volume to the greatest adventure movie of the decade! The edited screenplay that combines Lawrence Kasdan's final script with elements of action and dialogue from the movie! Selected storyboards - extraordinary drawings that guide the filmmakers step-by-step, scene-by-scene through the actual production of the film!

 

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Save $5 At Best Buy


I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to post this before today, but there's a rather useful coupon being accepted at all Best Buy stores (in store only). With this coupon, you can save $5 off any DVD or Blu-ray priced $14.99 and up. Better still, the coupon can be used on sale titles, it doesn't expire until July 31st and you can keep printing it out and use it again and again (sorry, one coupon per visit).  I've already used it three times and plan on using it a fourth time this weekend.  



Tuesday, June 21, 2011

If It Ain't Broke...

When thinking of George Lucas, a certain ancient Chinese proverb comes to mind... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This certainly holds true for Star Wars; he's tampered with original trilogy way too often and has not included the unmolested films in the upcoming blu-ray release. Unfortunately, Mr. Lucas has even messed around with Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

The first change, some might argue is a minor one, but is most glaringly obvious - and I loathe this decision. Back in 1999 with the release of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles on VHS, they changed the name of the movie on all the packaging and have kept it that way on all subsequent releases. The movie is not called Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark!


The second change, first seen in that very same release, is one that I would call a minor change (and one that I don't mind). When Indy first enters the Well of Souls and is face to face with the cobra, if you looked carefully, you used to be able to see a reflection on the glass that separates Harrison Ford from the snake. Seeing the reflection in the original film didn't bother me and its removal doesn't bother me either.

The third change is another one that shouldn't have been made. Someone had the bright idea to "update" a part of the truck chase where the Nazi car goes off the cliff. This CGI effect is quite noticeable and doesn't enhance the movie-going experience. When something like this is done, it pulls you OUT of the movie. It calls attention to the CGI that doesn't match the rest of the scene. I should be grateful they haven't tampered with the film as much as the Star Wars Special Editions; but really guys, if it ain't broke... don't fix it.



Another thing that bothers me is where is the love for Indiana Jones? Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back both have these very nice in-depth books about the making of the films. One book for each film. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "But Indiana Jones has one of those spiffy behind the scenes books." Yes, there is one book and that's the problem. The making of all four films is crammed into one book; I want more. I shouldn't be surprised as this has happened in the past with two-thirds of From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives being devoted to Star Wars and everything else crammed in at the end.

The same rings true, to a lesser extent, on the making of documentary on the Bonus Material DVDs. The Empire of Dreams documentary for Star Wars feels much more well made with a definite structure and higher quality than the one for Indiana Jones - not to mention that the original making of documentaries for Raiders, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade are missing in action. Young Indiana Jones even gets the shaft in this area. Although the DVDs include many documentaries on all the historical figures and events that Indy experiences in his travels, not a single minute of behind the scenes material is included. The only place to see a rather short documentary, with a runtime of less than half an hour, is on the Japanese laserdisc set. I'm just sick and tired of seeing one of my favorite films always taking second stage to everything else from Lucasfilm. Come on Mr. Lucas, give some love to Indiana Jones, put the correct title back on the packaging and release that deluxe blu-ray loaded with every single special feature imaginable.
 


On a side note, I came across this headline on Google News today...
  

Report: William Shatner Probably Won't Appear in Star Trek 2.  Did these people really just write that?  William Shatner won't appear in Star Trek 2?


I've seen Star Trek 2 and William Shatner does appear in the movie, you might even say that he stars in it. I know, I know... they're really talking about Star Trek 12...

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Raiders 30th Anniversary

Thirty years ago today, movie history was made with the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Here's a look back from the November 1981 issue of American Cinematographer.

Creating the Special Visual Effects For Raiders
by Richard Edlund
Photographic Effects Supervisor

When I assigned to work on Raiders of the Lost Ark, I has been doing a couple of space movies, and even though The Empire Strikes Back is a kind of fantasy, we had to deal with white, snowy backgrounds in terrain where people had actually been. Therefore, the material that we had to provide for the film had to look real and at least be stylistically integral with the rest of the picture.

Raiders, on the other hand, was set back in the 1930s, and everyone has been in situations that resembled, to a degree, some of the situations in Raiders. We had stormy skies and we had matte shots in which we had to fly airplanes that were no longer in existence, as well as shots in which the environment was familiar.

In the climactic sequence of Raiders there is a real on-the-earth situation in which men are walking up to the Ark, looking in and experiencing the Wrath of God. We had to portray that in a fitting way to follow the inspired act of Steven Spielberg, who is a virtuosos director (I feel that some of his best work is in this picture). We also had to follow the spectacular work of Glenn Randall, who coordinated the stunts. All of a sudden, at the end of the picture, after the unbelievably break-neck pace these people had established, we had to come up with a final sequence that topped off the rest.


That final sequence also involved ghosts, which are a touchy subject. I felt that a lot of people have their private fantasies about what a ghost may or may not look like. Looking back through the films that had been done involving ghosts, I found that had not been many which had portrayed hosts in a memorable sort of way.  I hoped that our ghosts would be somewhat memorable, but the problem is that you can't show too much or you will start revealing your tricks. On the other hand, you can't show too little or the audience will feel cheated. That was one of the real difficulties: to come up with something that looked like a ghost, that looked like it had sped and maneuverability and could wreak damage of one sort or another - and still look kind of beautiful and "angelic," in a sense. George Lucas came by and kept an eye on these effects in progress and also had a good hand in cutting that final sequence.

In that sequence we also had a lot of difficulty in controlling the pyrotechnic material involved. We had to portray fire in a controlled way, so that it looked like it might have some sort of mind of its own. We had to build a miniature of the entire set (about four feet wide and five feet deep) and run fire through it in order to sweep up the Nazis, who had expired as a result of looking when they shouldn't have looked. There were also a number of matte paintings, most of which were done by Michael Pangrazio. To top it all off, we had to create a special makeup for the monster-type work dealing with Toht's melting head, Belloq's exploding head and Dietrich's shrinking head - as well as producing the myriad of ghosts.
 
When we started the picture and evaluated what would have to be done in the final sequence, we assumed that, with the ghosts and all, a lot of the work would involve animation. In the meantime I came up with a couple of ideas for filming certain materials during the course of principal photography that would give us something to tie in to when we got to the effects studio. One idea involved a special filter that we shot the sequence with, and the other was a sort of harness arrangement that all of the various Nazis wore in the set. This harness had a very bright little projector bulb in the front, sticking out on a little bendable wire apparatus. Then around behind, inside their shirts, was an enormous flashbulb that produced a flash lasting about two seconds. The flashbulb was bright enough to light up the entire inside of their shirts to look like they were being struck by the Wrath of God. It would not be an effect that we would have to animate on top of each person; it would be something that would actually be part of the original photography, causing flares to bounce from one actor to the other and onto the ground, as though the effect were actually happening in the scene.


Many times, when you try to animate that sort of thing on top of live action, the subtleties of the light that is bouncing around from one object or person to another, plus the subtleties of cloth texture and other elements like that, turn out to be details that you can't quite get without more testing and more work than you can afford.
 
We did some tests at Industrial Light and Magic in Marin County that involved casting high school students and dressing them up in Nazi uniforms. We got some interesting dry ice pumps arranged and placed a big anamorphic mirror inside the Ark that would reflect light back into the camera through this filter which I had built on a machine. I didn't want the filter to produce the effect of a star filter, and yet I wanted it to be something unique. I had come up with this filter idea a couple of years before and had been looking for something to use it on. It produces a "crowned" flare from a source, so that the effect is that of a sort of winged flare, instead of a straight one across the screen. It is a somewhat subtle element, but I think it was helpful in making real that destruction scene, when all the Nazis get hit. We shot the tests at I.L.M. and even cut a little sequence together. At this time, Steven was shooting in London and I went over there and worked with Dougie Slocombe on the lighting and the "look" of the sequence.

We had built our own Ark at I.L.M. and had put in quite a bit of work to get a certain look worked out. Then we communicated transatlantically with Norman Reynolds, who was doing the production design, as well as supervising construction of the major props, in order to get some of these effects elements lined up. When we got to London I found out that all of the shirts these guys were wearing were a bit small for them , so we had to be very careful about putting those big flash-bulbs inside their clothes. The actual sequence was filmed mainly in long shots and all of this was done in London. We had only three days to shoot the entire end sequence, including all of the production material leading up to the devastation.

After shooting everything in long shots in London, I went around the set after it was all finished and marked off sections that I wanted. We shipped them back to Marin County in a sea container, where we rebuilt part of the set and shot all of the closeups - using similar materials, using our friends in the old harnesses again, using air cannons to affect the Nazis like a big blast of wind hitting them.


Then we tackled the problem of creating the ghosts. We had originally planned to "materialize" the ghosts by using an animating technique, but when we finally started getting into it, we discovered that we weren't achieving the look that we needed - to say nothing of the time that would be needed to produce as many ghosts as finally became necessary.

Also, the storyboards changed a little bit as we moved along, so we came up with a method of using our big tank, building armatures and flying the "ghosts" around in water, using forward and backward motions. Steve Gawley, one of our model shop experts, did the flying of the ghosts, while I watched through our Empire camera. I would have a clip of the scene in the camera, so that I could watch the motion of the ghosts in relation to the scene. We shot enough footage to be sure that we had as much as we needed and the final ghost effects were put together optically by Conrad Buff. We would select and edit all of the ghosts separately. We had one shot in which we did about 50 passes through the camera in order to get a swirling vortex of ghosts.
 
To refer back to what I said earlier about not giving the audience too much to see, and yet not cheating them - some of these shots were cut to go by very, very fast, on the screen and the amount of work that would go into each of these shots would seem out of proportion to the amount of time that it would be on the screen. However, if the impression is there, then you have succeeded and there is no point in leaving the scene on the screen any longer because, as I say, if you leave it on too long and your edges start showing, you begin to give yourself away.

We had a girl who was featured in only one of the shots. We made her up and flew her around on a wire rig. I shot the plates of her in sharp focus and then rear-projected them through an inversion layer in a tank in order to achieve confusion and to break up the image, taking the sharpness away without losing the entire image. That was, again, the case of a great deal of work being devoted to a small bit of screen time.


At any rate, once I had her image, I shot a skeleton to match, lining it up by projection to get the effect of a "live" ghost turning into the face of Death. We then did a white-in optical and rear-projected that element through a tank that would distort the image and reduce it to just the right amount of information that we wanted to show. This was done using our motion-control camera and high-speed track, with a rear-projector in  synchronization. It was all pre-programmed so that we could do a number of takes to get confusion at various levels, and then we would pick the best one at dailies.

I feel that the most successful of the grisly ends of the three lead "Bad Guys" was on the screen for maybe 30 frames - a little over a second.

The shrinking head - which was not my favorite shot in the picture - involved an awful lot of work, but it was one of those shots that we didn't have enough time to do again and again in order to get it right. However, George cut in just the right amount of that shot in just the right place and it worked.

Incidentally, the shrinking head effect involved a vacuum and various exotic materials. It took eight or nine people to control the effect, manipulating different levers inside the head, all of which had to be done by hand

During the pyrotechnics in the final sequence, when fire sweeps the Nazis, there are a couple of shots which I feel turned out quite well. One was the scene in which the fire from the Ark shot up off the island. It was a long shot with the fire shooting from the top of the island into a hole in the clouds (which was filmed in our cloud tank). The island was actually Marin Island, just a few miles from I.L.M. in San Francisco Bay. Michael Pangrazlo painted in added detail for the island itself. We then shot the fire on a separate piece of film and controlled it through a tube. The clouds were also done as a separate item. All of this was then matted in with a reflection of the water.


We see the peak of the fire changing direction. It starts coming back down onto the island, then sweeps down through the altar set, over the Nazis, who are all lying dead on the ground. All of that was shot in miniature. The Nazis were only about 4 1/2 inches long.

We shot it upside-down, so that the fire would actually rise toward the floor. We cut away to Indiana and Marion tied to the stake and then we cut back to a shot of the fire going around them. The original plate was done blue screen and I shot the fire in two pieces - a foreground fire and a background fire - to actually put them into the fire and show them in a situation of peril. Then we cut to the fire sweeping back in the other direction, revealing an empty set with all the Nazis swept away. One of them you see flying through the air burning up. We used a lot of gunpowder for that.

Before the crew went off for location shooting in Tunisia, I had discussed certain of the matte shots very carefully with Michael (Mickey) Moore, the second unit director, and he got pretty much the shots that we needed - for instance, for the truck-off-the-cliff shot. There was a matte painting involved, of course, and we built a miniature truck and used a few stop-motion puppet Nazis who flailed their arms around in the air when the truck went off the cliff.

When the time came to shoot the Pan American "China Clipper" sequence we knew that there was apparently only one similar seaplane in the world that still files. But that was in Puerto Rico and we didn't have the budget to go there and film it. We did discover, fortunately, that only about five miles from I.L.M. there was a flying boat of the required type in drydock. So we made a miniature of this flying boat that we found across the bay and did a helicopter plate to show it flying in front of the Golden Gate bridge. Then we matted that in to create the illusion of having the plane take off from San Francisco.


The actual full-size flying boat was not in the water. It was on dry land and could not float, so Jim Veilleux went over and made a helicopter shot of a pier I had found which would match the angle. We shot the flying boat being boarded by some people going up a ramp. The flying boat, which was a British-made four-engine seaplane, had one engine that worked, so we showed them getting aboard and then started up the engine. For added realism, we put down some pans of water to reflect light under the wings. We then shot the plate of the flying boat. We next went over to Treasure Island, which is a nearby Naval base, where we found a pier that looked pretty good and which we could then matte under the plate of the flying boat to put it into the water. With the addition of a matte painting to fill in the top part of the frame, we had ourselves a shot of people getting aboard the China Clipper.

We shot blue screen in London for the Well of the Souls sequence. The cameras were up on high rostrums against blue screens and we shot only the area where they were digging to find the entrance to the Well of the Souls. Later on, in our cloud tank, we put in a  cloudy sky background. One of the shots had a big circular vortex appearing in the center of it and there were shots of Sallah commanding the Arabs to dig harder and faster. There were five or six shots like that. Then we animated in the lightning and the rest of the distance was taken care of by matte paintings.

The sets we had to work with in London were wonderful sets. They have great master plasterers in England. For example, in the Well of the Souls sequence, they used 60 tons of plaster - an incredible amount of material. The big altar set for the final sequence of the picture was all built on one stage. It was very carefully painted and detailed so that the rocks really looked like rocks, even though they were a combination of Styrofoam and plaster and pipe rigging. All of the shooting on that huge set was completed in 3 1/2 days. Then it was torn down and sections of it were shipped to I.L.M. to be rebuilt for us to film the closer shots.
 

We did a lot of inserts and pick-up shots - such as cuts of Marion in the cave with the skulls and skeletons, and Indiana under the truck during the chase - so we fulfilled not only the special effects requirements but certain second unit functions as well.

In terms of special effects, The Empire Strikes Back was more of a controlled situation. We were concerned mainly with stop-motion and a lot of matte shots. Raiders was more of a shoot-from-the-hip type of effects picture. It was a different sort of challenge. It's fun to work on different projects, where one is a certain way and another is altogether different.

We expanded our techniques, picking up from Close Encounters of the Third Kind the cloud tank technique that Doug Trumbull and his associates developed and brought into our grammar. We used that technique and came up with others that could be executed in water. Our big tank, the Close Encounters tank, is 7 feet by 7 feet by 4 feet deep, and it is in use all the time now. It opened up some different avenues for us. In Raiders there were a lot of very tricky animated mattes involved in making the material we shot in the tank actually work. Sam Comstock and his crew did a great job in coordinating all that.

We used rotoscope mattes principally in what we called the altar sequence, the final devastation sequence where all the ghosts are flying around the people and you have closeups of the ghosts in pretty close proximity to the Nazis. It required a lot of very deft animation work, especially where something would be crossing in front of something else at one point, but not at another. Not to forget the fact that a number of the ghosts in that sequence were animated.

  
Our Optical Photography Supervisor, Bruce Nicholson. deserves considerable praise for his contribution to Raiders. We didn't have our usual fancy rear-lighted blue screen in England. We had to make do with a painted blue background, the best blue that we could find. Bruce had to deal with the results when the film was sent back to I. L.M. He had to come up with very, very complex density mattes in order to put 20 or 30 ghost elements into one shot - all separately photographed, because every ghost that appeared in Raiders was on a separate piece of film. We never shot two or three at a time, with the exception of the ghost vortex scene, which required 50 passes through the camera. All of that was extremely tedious and there was some very expert optical work involved. 

It was fun to work on Raiders, because there was a certain verve that was established early in production. The picture was regarded, in a kind of tongue-in-cheek way, as being a sort of "B" movie. It was not the kind of project that allowed you to make 10 or 12  takes on a scene in order to get it perfect. You had two or three takes on a scene and then move on to the next shot. That was the pacing of the production, which came inn under schedule and under budget. It lent a feeling of spontaneity to the set which I believe shows on the screen.

English crews have ways of working that are different from ours, but they are definitely  wonderful and very talented.

I especially appreciated the opportunity of working with Steven Speilberg who, in my opinion, is one of the best directors around. He is never at a loss for an idea. He listens to advice and takes the best advice. He knows how use a situation so that it flows incredibly  and can work on schedule. It was a pleasure to work with him.

 

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Raiders of the Lost Ark

You may have noticed that we did a little redecorating around here in honor of the upcoming 30th Anniversary of one my favorite films, Raiders of the Lost Ark.  To kick off the month long celebration of Indiana Jones (and especially Raiders) related posts, let's try to roundup all the special features that have been released over the years.


The very first release of Raiders of the Lost Ark on CED, VHS, Betamax and Laserdisc all contained one special feature that, to this day, has never been released again. Although not pertaining to Raiders, this is the only place you will find the the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom teaser trailer which plays before the movie starts. It has sadly been missing on all subsequent releases.


Great Movie Stunts & The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark is another title that is mysteriously missing from both DVD releases of the Indiana Jones Trilogy.  Released on CED, VHS and Laserdisc (was there a Beta release?), this title includes two 50 minute documentaries about the making of Raiders, one is an Emmy award winning program, while the other is narrated by Harrison Ford himself.

From the back cover of the Laserdisc...
Raiders of the Lost Ark has been called "the movie Hollywood was born to make." As thrilling as its story is the discovery of the techniques, effects and daredevil stunts that went into its creation. This disc contains two made-for-television specials: The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Great Movie Stunts: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Narrated by Raiders star Harrison Ford, the Stunts episode demonstrates how major action sequences were designed and executed. The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark captures the cast and crew as they tackle the many problems created by an adventure spectacular of this magnitude.

These documentaries are well worth tracking down and should not have been excluded from the DVDs.


When Lucasfilm decided to release the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles onto VHS in 1999, they also re-released the Indiana Jones Trilogy in matching packing and a few special features. Aside from trailers for the re-release of the movies and the Young Indy tapes, there was a ten minute behind the scenes featurette called Raiders of the Lost Ark: A Look Inside and featured interviews with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford. While the interviews don't reveal anything new to the Indiana Jones fan, this is the only place you'll find it.


In 2003, we finally saw the first release of the Indiana Jones Trilogy on DVD. This four disc set featured an entire disc of bonus material (pictured above). While not Raiders exclusive, it does offer one lengthy documentary, a few featurettes and some trailers.
 
Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy 
(127 minutes, 51 minutes on Raiders)
The Lucasfilm Archives were raided to give you unprecedented access into the making of the Indiana Jones Trilogy. Join the cast and crew of the three Indiana Jones films on an epic movie-making adventure including all-new interviews from Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Frank Marshall, Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and more. Go on set and experience firsthand the rough-and-tumble world of creating the Indiana Jones films. Illustrated with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage, outtakes, screen tests, production drawings and photographs, Making the Trilogy is your first-class ticket behind the scenes of movie-making history. 
(Text from the booklet)

The rest of the disc is devoted to four featurettes, The Stunts of Indiana Jones (11 minutes), The Sound of Indiana Jones (13 minutes), The Music of Indiana Jones (12 minutes) and The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones (12 minutes).

This was also the first time that any of the trailers were available on home video, aside from the teasers for Temple of Doom (mentioned above) and The Last Crusade.  The teaser, theatrical and re-release trailers for Raiders are included.


If you purchased the DVDs and Best Buy, and were at the store early enough, you had the chance to score a fifth bonus disc entitled Raiders of the Lost Ark: Classic Featurette. This 10 minute video feels like a trailer for the Great Movie Stunts & The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark documentaries as they are made by the same people, although this featurette does include some material that I don't remember seeing before.


The Indiana Jones Trilogy was re-released again in 2008 when the trilogy became a quadrilogy. This new special edition contained a few special features that weren't on the previous version.  

Raiders of the Lost Ark: An Introduction (8 minutes) a new introduction features interviews with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

The Melting Face (9 minutes) a behind the scenes look at how the melting of Toht's face was achieved for the film's finale.

Storyboards: The Well of Souls (4 minutes) a storyboard to film comparison showing the storyboards on the top of the screen while the scene from the film plays below.

The disc also includes four photo galleries: Illustrations & Props, Production Photographs & Portraits, Effects/ILM and Marketing.

Unfortunately, that's all of the officially released special features for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Perhaps, when the blu-ray set is released, we'll be treated to something like the upcoming Star Wars set; but I doubt it. Indiana Jones always seems to come in with significantly less love than Lucas' other franchise, but that's a topic for another day...