Abyss Diary - Updating The Supplements


	In this exclusive section we will follow the development of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s “The Abyss Special Edition”. In irregular updates we will keep you informed whenever new developments occur and new information becomes available, so make sure to check by frequently to keep up with the latest development on this highly anticipated title.


		by Guido Henkel December 3, 1999


	lthough producer Van Ling was the effects supervisor on many Hollywood movies, he enjoys very much working on selected DVD releases, like this one and the “Terminator 2” special edition he is also working on. “Both of these titles are very close to my heart,” he

confides. “Because I had done the Laserdisc box set already, I really wanted to be involved in bringing the title to the next level. Being a DVD aficionado, I’m very interested in seeing how I can take advantage of the medium. Both films were groundbreaking in their special effects work, so the idea of education is very important for me. I wanted to make it a textbook on the disc, and get someone else fired up about making special effects.”

Computer generated effects were still in their infancy at the time “The Abyss” rocked the world with its Pseudopod scene, and Van had a strong wish to teach people about the art of visual effects and filmmaking.

“The making of this film was unique and groundbreaking in so many ways. I find this DVD a great opportunity to give an inside look and do some education on how

both these effects and the underwater work on the film itself were achieved.”

To achieve this desired effect, he relies on some of the original material from the Laserdisc box set of “The Abyss”, like the one-hour documentary “Under Pressure: Making The Abyss” that features interviews with the cast and the crew, as well as behind-the-scenes footage. Some of the production photographs and storyboards will also make it over to the DVD from the Laserdisc, but most of the material has been entirely reworked and recompiled for this DVD release.

“I am currently recompiling all the still pictures and text frames,” Van tells me. “I am redoing them from scratch, because the Laserdisc had black text on white backgrounds. It was okay back then, but it appears outdated today. So I try to make them better. I also didn’t just use what’s on the Laserdisc, so I ended up rewriting whole sections to clarify information and to remove typos, etc.”


	hen he started working on the materials, Van quickly accumulated enough material to fill entire hard drives, but oftentimes the quality was not as he had hoped. “In order to do the supplements at a higher

quality we had to go back find the original photos and re-output and reformat the text,” he fills me in on the procedure. “It’s been a bit of a challenge. I had forgotten how much material we actually had. There are over 4000 still images and text frames. I’m surprised we survived putting together all the material in

1993. And I am also updating certain things from the materials, and I’ll include new photos from Gaffney, the site where we shot the movie, to show what it looks like today.”

Van is also working round the clock on the Menu designs. For all the text screens on the disc, Ling also makes sure they are easier to access than on the Laserdisc. DVD’s interactive capabilities certainly help there to break up the content into logical segments that are easily accessible at any one time.

“We’re trying to work out this really nice navigation system,” he tells me enthusiastically. “If you want to see the storyboards only, there’s no need to go through the text. Depending on the depth of the experience and involvement you want to have, you will be able to select different, let’s call



	James Cameron and Van Ling with divers on the set

	them ‘modes’ for the lack of a better word. We still have to figure out how to do it in practice, though,” he laughs. If everything goes according to plan, you will be able to look at all the vehicles from the movie, from different perspectives and go into extreme detail about the movie. At the same time you will be able to just go in and take a look at the video segments, and the multi-angle comparison of the Pseudopod sequence, truly depending on the level of interest and sophistication of the viewer."


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