Over the scope of 22 episodes plus a feature film, The Clone Wars series has visually expanded the scope of the Star Wars galaxy immensely. We’ve gone to about 20 planets in the whirlwind that was the first season, and met a variety of alien cultures and creatures. Season two promises to be even richer, and Comic-Con International hosted some of the key members of the artistic team that help put that together at a panel early on Star Wars Day. On hand were Dave Filoni, Supervising Director; Joel Aron, CG Supervisor; Kilian Plunkett, Lead Designer; Danny Keller, Story Artist and Animation Consultant; and moderating the panel was starwars.com’s own Pablo Hidalgo
“The goal was to create 22 minutes of the best movie to you each and every week,” said Filoni, describing how creator George Lucas kept pushing the envelope on the scope of the story. “If there are 10 clones on the screen, he wants 20. We put 20, he wants 100. Once we get around 100, he wants a thousand. It’s a goal that you simply don’t see every week on an animated series.”
Filoni contrasted the leaps and bounds made by the production team. When the feature film and season one began, Lucasfilm Animation was still being constructed from the ground up. “One simple way to illustrate it very easily, we had Plo Koon — a new character we had built for that. We had three clones that we redressed with different formats. That was largely all we had to build for that episode. No, for the season finale, we had new models of Cad Bane, Aurra Sing, Robonino, a modified pirate for a bounty hunter, a whole bunch of new Senators and background characters. So, just as far as character models, we’ve multiplied what we’re capable of.”
Pablo chimed in – “With that said, is there any temptation to revisit any of the designs done for season one?”
“It’s unavoidable,” said Filoni. “Just because we built Anakin Skywalker, he’s was the first model we built, so he’s needed some of the heaviest redesign that we’ve had to do. The Anakin you see now in Clone Wars, even though he looks relatively the same, is not the same model we used in the movie. In fact, he’s substantially better than the one. We redid the rigs, we redid some of the surface textures.”
To show an example of how confidence in execution has changed the approach of designing the characters, Kilian showed an image of the original concept maquette of Anakin Skywalker next to the concept maquette for Bail Organa. Whereas the original explorations of Anakin were hard and geometric, Organa was a much more subtle yet still stylized design.
The experience the team has garnered over the course of season one has also effected the writing of the series to a large extent. The team laughed about how new capabilities let them come up with better designs, and perhaps avoiding the creation of some that wouldn’t look quite right. Throwing up a sketch of Ahsoka from well before the series, her outfit looks decidedly different from her clothing in the show. “We originally gave Ahsoka a schoolgirl skirt that expanded out when she spun around. Turns out that was really expensive” Filoni joked.
Joel then went on to show how the art style of Clone Wars influences details and subtle as even the snow or the water. Passing through some videos, he describes the process of creating the flamethrowers that will be used in season two. Revealing the process he used, he actually created models for each frame of the flame itself, then sped the animation up quickly – and this process gives the fire a definite ‘Clone Wars’ effect, making it stylish and artistic to match the show. “It’s been a great learning experience,” he goes on to say, “Since I came over to animation from ILM (Industral Light and Magic) I was trying to break myself away from the photo-realistic style I have always gone for.” By opting for a stylistic choice and approach, the production team achieves an economical solution far less taxing that expensive computer physics simulation ordinarily employed for such effects.
As the panel ended, hints of the story of season two began to drop. In response to a question about Season Two, Filoni began to wax philosophical: “With the Jedi, when it seems like they are winning, they are really losing. It only seems like they are winning. They are a tool of Palpatine and the Clone War. They should not be fighting the war, and they don’t understand it. They believe if they fight the war and end it quickly, they can put it behind them. Obi thinks that, Yoda thinks that.(…) There are a lot of things and themes going on that really make the story very deep.”
Ever wanted to draw Star Wars characters and vehicles just like the professional comic book artists? In this step-by-step series, Star Wars artists and illustrators show you how to draw some of the most beloved characters in the saga.
Native to the moon of Endor, Ewoks may resemble harmless teddy bears, but they are actually extremely skilled in forest survival techniques (and defense) and can build amazing things like gliders and catapults. This came in handy when the Ewoks helped Chewie, Han Solo, and Princess Leia fight against the Imperial forces in Return of the Jedi.
Star Wars illustrator Amy Pronovost explains her easy steps to draw an Ewok with examples below.
Steps 1-7 are to be drawn lightly with a pencil. No pen, no dark lines. Finished lines and details will come at the end.
Step One:
Draw a circle for the head and a tall oval for the body. Next draw a straight line up and down through the middle of the head and body. Then make a horizontal line through the center of the head and one through the center of the body. Next draw a line underneath the oval about the same height as the head so the Ewok stands on solid ground.
Step Two:
Next you’ll want to draw some curvy lines for the arms and legs. Use the center line on the body to line up the arms.
Step Three:
Draw circles at the ends of the arms and half circles for the feet.
Step Four:
Put two circles on either side of the head and give the Ewok a rough spear.
Step Five:
Sketch in the shape of the Ewok’s hood making sure to use curvy lines around the ears. This makes it look like its ears are really coming out of the hood! For the face, very lightly draw two small dashes on the horizontal line, halfway between the vertical line and the sides of the head. Draw a dash to mark the nose and a longer dash to mark the mouth.
Step Six:
Now is the time to make the Ewok fluffy! Add some fluff to his cheeks, chin, arms, legs and feet. Draw the hand holding the spear with three ovals and give him three sausage-shaped fingers on his other hand. Use the guides you made for the face to give your Ewok some personality with tall, oval shaped eyes, a button nose and a wide grin.
Step Seven:
Begin to erase your light working lines and add more detail to the hood. Give the Ewok some fluffy knees and draw fingernails and thumbnails. Draw four lines near the top of the spear to make it look like there’s some leather wrapped around it.
Step Eight:
Here’s where you’ll want to add some finishing touches like feathers to the hood, a masked pattern around his eyes and some fluff between his body and his arms. Make the spear look like it’s made of wood by drawing some extra lines on it and add some feathers.
Step Nine:
Try your own ideas by creating your own hood and trying different fur patterns on the face and body. You can even draw other weapons. Create the whole tribe! Yub Yub!
We’re now just a few short days away from the triumphant return of the The Clone Wars to television as Season Two launches this Friday on the Cartoon Network. But let’s turn the calendar back about 15 years and look at an animated venture that didn’t have the legs to last. We’re not talking Droids or Ewoks, which enjoyed a fair amount of success in the mid-1980s. We’re talking about an artifact largely forgotten from Lucas-lore: a tongue-in-cheek superhero show called The Defenders of Dynatron City.
Thanks to the Internet, the only episode of Defenders of Dynatron City ever produced can still be viewed:
Check out the screen grabs below:
This was back in the day of the early 1990s, when much of the creative activities at Lucasfilm was done under the company umbrella name of LucasArts Entertainment Group. Back then, LucasArts encompassed more than just video games, and Defenders of Dynatron City was seen as a full-fledged entertainment property with real potential. It started life as a game — spawned from the Lucasfilm Games group — but LucasArts positioned it as not only a game, but a comic book and a TV show, a multi-media venture that should sound familiar to seasoned Star Wars fans. Hey, look at some of the familiar names here.
Nowadays, collectors know Howard Roffman to be the President of Lucas Licensing.
Steve Purcell is probably best known as the creator of Sam & Max, Freelance Police. Gary Winnick was co-creator of Maniac Mansion. Older LucasArts games list Cynthia Wuthmann as a Sales Director.
Unlike The Clone Wars, which warranted the creation of an animation studio, the animation for Defenders was done by DIC, the same studio that produced a slew of animated fare in the early ’90s, like C.O.P.S., The Real Ghostbusters, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.
To complete your crash-course in all things Defenders of Dynatron, let’s reprint the one and only article on the subject that appeared in Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine, back in 1992. By the time that magazine (#12) saw publication, Defenders‘ fate had largely been sealed, and it remains today merely a footnote amid the entertainment ventures explored by Lucasfilm.
Defenders of Dynatron City: Sneak Preview
By John S. Davis
How would you like to have that third arm you’ve always needed? No problem. Just move to Dynatron City where mutation is a way of life. It all began in the early fifties when professor Melvin Myron came to Dynatron City and set up the world’s first atomic-powered soft drink company. Soon, Proto-Cola was born, and the inhabitants of Dynatron City, who love all things new, guzzled it down like crazy.
But was the professor satisfied with this great new hit soft drink? Of course not. As a scientist he wanted to improve his creation. He knew the secret syrup was the key, so he transformed it into something even better — atomic syrup. Proto-Cola was now even better. Yet, Myron wasn’t sure if people would like his new concoction, so he tested it on the lab’s research monkey with amazing results. Almost instantly the monkey could walk and talk and tell jokes. This was the birth of Monkey Kid.
Now the professor thought, “If atomic syrup can turn a monkey into a man, then what will it do to me?” His answer came soon enough, but the change wasn’t what he expected. He thought it would improve him. In reality it exaggerated his grasping and greedy nature and transformed him into the supervillain, Dr. Mayhem.
During Dr. Mayhem’s initial quest to control Dynatron City, the Defenders of Dynatron City are inadvertently born. The Defenders include:
Jet Headstrong — The most stereotypical of the group, Jet is a real truth, justice, mom and apple pie kind of guy. He also uses his head a lot, which can detach from his body and shoot toward his enemies like a bullet.
Buzzsaw Girl — This beautiful blond doesn’t use her head any more than Jet does. Although Buzzsaw Girl doesn’t blow her top as often as Jet, she is, nevertheless, impulsive and quick to jump into a fight. Her large circular saw blade, which takes the place of her legs is both her major weapon and mode of transportation.
Toolbox — In the beginning Toolbox was just that: a toolbox. Now he’s the nuts and bolts man of the Defenders. With his clawhammer head he can shatter just about any substance. A really cool and detached sort of guy.
Ms. Megawatt – This serious-minded woman is the most energetic of the team and the smartest next to Monkey Kid. She’s an expert at electroshock therapy. Just ask anyone who has been on the receiving end of her powerful lightning bolts. She is also able to move at sonic speeds. Whoopi Goldberg is the voice of this Defender.
Radium Dog – Mailmen, beware! This green dog has a fearsome atomic-powered bite. In fact, his head grows as large as his body when he gnaws down on something. Probably the most powerful and dumbest Defender, Radium Dog has an atomic satellite which circles his head that seems to have a mind of its own. At times this satellite darts off-screen where we hear an explosion and see debris fly on-screen. Radium Dog can also fly, but he must dog paddle to remain aloft.
Monkey Kid – The most intelligent of the group, Monkey Kid leads the Defenders in their battles against evil. A case could also be made for Monkey Kid being the missing link between the rest of the group and true intelligence.
And now, Dr. Mayhem’s minions:
An endless supply of sewer monsters and Robot Drone Soldiers. Plus, Dr. Mayhem’s right hand head, Atom Ed The Floating Head. Atom Ed has the psychic power of levitation, and his light bulb eyes fire potent ray beams. He is under Mayhem’s complete control.
Within the context of The Defenders of Dynatron City these somewhat unusual superbeings were created by Mayhem’s atomic syrup, but in reality the genesis for this “Simpsons meet the X-Men” concept came from the mind of Gary Winnick, one of the creative individuals from the Lucasfilm Games division.
“Dynatron City is in this friendly, futuristic outlook of, ‘Mr. Atom is our friend.’ Kind of what people thought in the 1950s. It’s gone off in a parallel direction. It does take place in present day, it’s not taking place in the 1950s. Everybody thought atomic energy was going to be our pal, that’s the direction we take with it. So this atomic powered soft drink ends up causing mutations ,” says Winnick.
But The Defenders of Dynatron City isn’t just a video game, it was considered a full-fledged LucasArts property from the very beginning. LucasArts has already mapped out a plan for this property, and if everything goes according to plan the timeline is as follows:
DECEMBER 1991 – Marvel comics launches The Defenders of Dynatron City as a six issue limited series. If these issues sell well, the comic could continue as a regular series.
FEBRUARY 22, 1992 – Watch the birth of the Defenders in this animated half-hour pilot episode on the Fox Network. Special to be broadcast twice.
FEBRUARY/MARCH 1992 – The Defenders of Dynatron City is released as a Nintendo video game, available for the eight-bit game system.
SPRING 1992 – The Defenders of Dynatron City television special is released on home video.
FALL 1992 – This is a turning point for The Defenders of Dynatron City. If it does well up to this point it could be picked up as a regular series.
SPRING 1993 – A toy line is launched at this time, plus other licensed products are also introduced.
There are many, many groups of superheroes, but none quite like The Defenders of Dynatron City. This group is so unique that it borders on the absurd. Of course, that’s the whole point. The concept is supposed to be played tongue-in-cheek; it’s deliberately poking fun at superheroes. That may be the strength of the property. The humor will either make or break the property. Tune in and judge for yourself.
Ever wanted to draw Star Wars characters just like the professional comic book artists? In this step-by-step series, Star Wars artists and illustrators show you how to draw some of the most beloved and memorable characters in the saga. So get your pencils and paper ready!
To show you how to draw a gruesome Gamorrean Guard, Star Wars illustrator Cynthia Cummens explains her easy drawing steps with examples below.
Steps 1-8 are to be drawn lightly with a pencil. No pen, no dark lines. Finished lines and details will come at the end.
Step One:
Begin with drawing the overall shape of the head, which is somewhat like a kidney bean. Since being a Gamorrean Guard requires more brawn than brain, the top of the head is narrower than the bottom (jaw). Lightly draw 2 horizontal lines to indicate the placement of the eyes and bottom of the nose. Draw a vertical line through the center of the head and make sure it’s slightly offer center (to the right), since this will be a 3/4 view. (Tip: these lines are just temporary — keep them light as you will be erasing them later).
Step Two:
Indicate where you want to place the horns with two lightly drawn lines. Draw a “V” shape for the front of helmet. Define the chin with a wide arc. Draw a large curved line to indicate where the mouth will be.
Step Three:
The nose is easy — just draw a wide pig’s nose, placing the bottom of the nose on the line you drew in Step 1 (Tip: you’ll see a little more of the left side of the nose than the right). Remember to place the shapes along the vertical line to place the features into proper 3/4 view. Draw the bridge of the nose just under horizontal eye line. For the lower lip, draw a round “W” shape extended well past the outside edges of the nose.
Step Four:
The Gamorrean Guards have beady eyes, so draw small circles on the line you drew in Step 1 (don’t forget to add the pupil either now or later when you’re adding detail). Give expression to the face by overlapping the eyes with the brow (you’ll later add the upper and lower lids). Draw the upper lip, making it wider than the lower lip. Leave space for the fangs!
Step Five:
Draw two horns where you drew the lines in Step 2. The right horn will be behind the helmet. Give them character — maybe the tip of one is broken off after a fight with one of Jabba’s henchmen. It’s up to you! Draw four fangs, which jut out from the lower lip and rest in front of the upper lip (for effect, you can add some drool if you like!)
Step Six:
Now you’re going to draw the helmet. The outside edge of the helmet is wider than the overall size of the head, but not by much. At this point you might want to start erasing some of the temporary lines you drew in Steps 1, 2, and 3.
Step Seven:
Draw the lower and upper lids of the eyes (the key is expression — if you reveal too much of the pupil, he’ll have a surprised look, which might be want you want — it’s up to you!) Add the nostrils, which are bean-shaped. Draw a bit more of the right side of the face next to the nose. Also draw the right side of the helmet (sort of like a “V” turned on its side). Extend the line of the flap-like, fleshy jowl on the left side of his face to reach the helmet. If you haven’t done so, start erasing of those temporary lines you drew in Steps 1, 2, and 3.
Step Eight:
Finish erasing all those lines you’ve been using for placement and keep only what you’ll need for the final drawing. Now is the time to adjust or change anything you don’t like because the next step is adding detail and polishing the final drawing.
Step Nine:
Darken your lines by adding more pressure with your pencil, or retrace the lines with a marker. Vary the line thickness — this will add weight and will give more interest to the drawing. You know how angry the Gamorrean Guard looks (when he’s not cowering in a Rancor pit), so add some wrinkles under his eyes and on his brow to give him that ornery appearance. Add some decorative detail to his helmet. This creature’s skin isn’t smooth, so there may be wart or two on his chin, along with some slobber! You can add as much detail as you want — be creative! Finish your drawing by adding a suggestion of shoulders and don’t forget to sign your artwork!
Mondo Original Trilogy Star Wars Prints by Tyler Stout
“Star Wars” print by Tyler StoutCollectors and fans who’d like to add something a little different to their Star Wars art collection should check out this new series of art prints from Mondo.
Mondo is the Alamo Drafthouse’s collectible art boutique, featuring designs from world famous artists based on licenses for popular TV and movie properties including Star Wars, Star Trek and Universal Monsters.
These prints are VERY limited in run and are snatched up by collectors quickly, selling out in mere minutes. So if you want to know which prints are on sale and when, follow MondoNews on Twitter!
Here’s the last set of prints from Mondo — Star Wars Posters by Tyler Stout — 24″x36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Each has an edition of 850.
Mondo writes of its Star Wars-themed print series:
A project over a year and a half in the making ends today. We are very proud of the series and are thrilled to have worked with so many talented artists. We also want to thank all of the fans that supported us and made the series such a success. We couldn’t think of a better way to end the series than releasing Tyler Stout’s truly epic Original Trilogy poster set.
“The Empire Strikes Back” print by Tyler Stout“Return of the Jedi” print by Tyler Stout
Report from the Clone Wars Season Two Press Junket
This morning, members of the press were given a sneak peek at a three-episode story arc from season two that returns the Republic heroes to the planet of Geonosis introduced in Attack of the Clones. Without revealing any plot points, we can report what supervising director Dave Filoni said upon introducing the episodes:
Filoni: “Across this series of episodes we’ll see Anakin’s relationship with his Padawan, which is something I’m very keenly interested in developing as the series moves forward. Ahsoka’s one of the big question marks, especially if you’ve been a fan of Star Wars for a long time. Originally people said ‘I didn’t know Anakin had a Padawan’, and so we dealt with that question last year. Now the impression is, ‘Dave, where are you going with this and what’s going to happen to this girl?’ The kids that I run into all the time are very concerned for Ahsoka, because she’s not in the third movie — ‘and why is that Dave?’ We’ll find out. I’m very well aware of what the answer to that is.”
Following the screening, Filoni joined voice actors Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka), Dee Bradley Baker (Rex and clones), James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan), and series producer Cary Silver for a press conference to discuss the new episodes and the season as a whole. We’ll update this entry with quotes from the Q&A session as we transcribe the responses from the panel:
Producer Cary Silver: “We’re really excited about season two. The quality is even better. It’s faster, slicker, bigger and better. There’s been a number of production techniques that we’ve incorporated and refined that have allowed us to produce the show with even greater depth and detail than before. Everyone keeps saying how great season one is, and how great it looks, and I keep saying, you aint seen nothing yet.”
Filoni on continuity and Expanded Universe: “When we’re developing story ideas and George comes to me with ideas — he has tons of them — if there’s something I know crosses over with material that’s been explored with the Expanded Universe of Star Wars then I will bring that up and kind of refresh him on what it was. At that point we’ll make a decision on our storytelling on whether that material is going to be included or if it will just be touched upon or if we’ll just kind of go around it or alongside it. So it’s always kind of a balance of needing to tell the best story possible and trying to pay a lot of respect to the creative people that work in the Expanded Universe. Ultimately, though, this is George Lucas’ Star Wars. It’s his films and Star Wars exists best in the medium of visual storytelling, so we try to make that experience the best that we can in everything we do.
Ashley Eckstein on Ahsoka’s fate: “I ask [Dave] this as often as I can [laughs]. But I like not knowing at this point because I get asked that question all the time and I can honestly look the fans in the face and say ‘I don’t know’.”
Dee Bradley Baker on differentiating the voice of clones: “I think about identical twins, really, and a lot of them seem very similar when you look at them, but as they mature in life, live on different planets and work under different Jedi, you end up with a different-sounding person. Plus, as I understand it, they’re all incubated separately and there are also deviations in that that are possible. So the accent may change a bit, or the logic or style in which that clone solves problems can be very different. One thing we really strive for is the differentiation of the clones.”
James Arnold Taylor on recording dialog: “We’re always together, generally speaking. Unless it’s pick-up lines, we are all called into the studio together. Sometimes there can be as many as 12 people in the studio at once. We do get to play off each other and I think it definitely makes a difference.”
Filoni on characters old and new: “I always go back to a quote I heard George say when he was making Revenge of the Sith. He had all these great characters and not enough screen time for all of them. I find that we run into a similar situation on Clone Wars. We’ve created what I think are some great new characters like Cad Bane, and I’d love to do Plo Koon or Kit Fisto stories and the other Jedi Council members. But how do you find the time in all the episodes to get them in there? We’re going to see a lot of characters we saw in season one come back but we’ve also added a whole bunch of new ones. I mean, just when you see the bounty hunters — they’ve added such a color and a flavor to everything. It gets you out of battledroids and clones, and they have been a hugely welcome addition for us creatively.”
Ever wanted to draw Star Wars characters just like the professional comic book artists? In this step-by-step series, Star Wars artists and illustrators show you how to draw some of the most beloved and memorable characters in the saga. So get your pencils and paper ready!
To show you how to draw the wise, old Jedi Master Yoda, Star Wars illustrator and cartoonist Randy Martinez explains his easy drawing steps with examples below.
Steps 1-8 are to be drawn lightly with a pencil. No pen, no dark lines. Finished lines and details will come at the end.
Step One:
Basic Guides — The Head Green — Draw a big circle in the center of the page. This will represent the main shape of Yoda’s head. Red — Draw a horizontal line through middle of circle. Blue — Draw vertical line through middle of circle.
Step Two:
Body and Ears: Green — Draw arch up to horizontal line. This will represent Yoda’s shoulders and upper body. Red — Draw a side ways “V” shape with some curve, on left side of circle. The bottom of the “V” should meet the intersection of the arch and the big circle. The top of the “V” Should come down to the horizontal line. Blue — same as Red but backward on right side of circle. These are the ears.
Step Three:
Facial Guide lines (VERY IMPORTANT) Green — Draw a horizontal line. Even with where the arch line, meets the big circle line on left and right. Red — Draw a horizontal line through the big circle, half way between the first horizontal line you drew, and the one you just drew (Green of this step). Blue — Draw two vertical lines through the big circle. Both half way between the first vertical line you drew, and the left and right sides of the circle.
Step Four:
Facial Features Green — First make some circle shapes to represent his circular features.
Eyes: Make some side ways ovals, using the intersection of guidelines (top horizontal guide, and the left and right vertical guides) as the center point. The bottom of the ovals should lie on the middle horizontal line.
Nose: Make a smaller oval that fits right between the top and middle horizontal guides. Using the middle vertical guideline as your center point. Cheeks: Make small circles that fit between the middle and lower horizontal lines. These circles should be touching the big circle.
Chin: Make an oval about the same size as the eyes. Use the middle vertical line as your guide. The bottom of the oval should sit at the bottom of the big circle. Red — next we will do the more angular shapes.
Brow: This is an odd shape – a cross between a box and a triangle. Use your middle vertical guideline as a center point. The bottom of this odd shape Should lie around the top of the eye ovals.
Inner ears: Repeat the “V” shapes you made in Step 2, only make them smaller, and inside your original “V” shapes.
Step Five:
Define Facial Features Green — Eyes: Using the intersection you used for the eyes, make thin almond shapes that are the same width of the eye ovals, but about 1/3 of the height.
Nose: Make a small circle inside the nose oval you drew in Step 4. Red — Nose: Make two vertical lines from the right and left sides of the nose circle you just drew, up to the brow shape.
Mouth: Using the middle vertical guide and the top of the chin oval as your base point, Make a short “V” shape so the arms of the “V” go up to the bottom horizontal guide. Blue — Brow: Draw half a “C” shape that starts from the left side of the big circle, and ends at the top of your original brow shape. Do this again but on the right side.
Step Six: Red — Tunic: Starting where the left and right horizontal lines meet the big circle, draw vertical lines that are angled slightly toward the center of the page. Blue — Give Yoda a little bottom lip. A little curved line below his mouth is fine.
Step Seven:
We’re almost done, but we have a few more small details to get. Green — Iris of eyes: Make small circles (about the same size as the nose circle), using the same intersection guide for the eyes as in Step 4. Red — Pupils of eyes: Make smaller circles inside the circles you just made. Blue — Collar: Just below the bottom of the big circle, draw a curve with a square notch in it.
Ear: Yoda’s left ear has a little crook in it at the end. Make a little “v” shape to show that.
Step Eight:
This is what your Yoda should look like right now. No dark lines yet!
Step Nine:
Now is the really fun part. You can now use your pen or draw heavier with your pencil. We want to use all the building we have just done and draw just the important lines that make up Yoda’s face.
Step Ten:
Keep with your dark lines and add small details that make up the rest of Yoda’s facial features — wrinkles, nose holes, hair, and oh, don’t forget to color his pupils in. (Artist’s hint: leave a small white circle in the upper corner of the pupil. This works as a high light and will give your eyes more life.)
Step Eleven:
Erase your guidelines, and Ta Da! You have just drawn Yoda!
Step Twelve:
As you become skilled in the art of drawing you can add shading and expression lines of your own. The most fun part about being an artist is you can draw things your way. This is how I would polish off mine. Have fun!
“I am deeply saddened by the passing of such a visionary artist and such a humble man. Ralph McQuarrie was the first person I hired to help me envision Star Wars. His genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph’s fabulous illustrations and say, ‘Do it like this.’
“Beyond the movies, his artwork has inspired at least two generations of younger artists—all of whom learned through Ralph that movies are designed. Like me, they were thrilled by his keen eye and creative imagination, which always brought concepts to their most ideal plateau. In many ways, he was a generous father to a conceptual art revolution that was born of his artwork, and which seized the imaginations of thousands and propelled them into the film industry. In that way, we will all be benefiting from his oeuvre for generations to come. Beyond that, I will always remember him as a kind and patient, and wonderfully talented, friend and collaborator.”
—George Lucas
McQuarrie’s expansive body of work — including character, creature, vehicle, and setting designs for A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi — has left an indelible mark on the world’s imagination, creating what can only be called the unmistakable ‘Star Wars aesthetic.’
It’s not very easy for some people to express their feelings. Han Solo is such a person. When Princess Leia said “I love you” moments before he descended into the carbon freezing chamber during The Empire Strikes Back, he didn’t say it back. Instead he said, “I know.” Whether you are more like Leia or more like Han, you’ll enjoy reading about the making of this memorable Star Wars scene.
The following text is from “Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays” by Laurent Bouzereau.
The idea of putting Han in carbon freeze first appeared in the second draft. Before Han gets frozen, Leia tells him: “I love you. I was afraid to tell you before, but it’s true.” Han replies: “I’ll be back.” In the third draft Han replies: “Just remember that, ’cause I’ll be back.”
Director Irvin Kershner: “The only difference I ever had with George on cutting happened when Han is about to go into the freezing chamber and Leia tells him, ‘I love you.’ When I was shooting the scene Han was supposed to reply: ‘I love you, too.’ So we did a take, and I said, ‘Wait a minute, Harrison, I don’t like the dialogue.’ It’s like she wins, she said it first, and ‘I love you, too’ is pretty weak stuff for Han Solo because he is too smart, too arrogant for that.
“So Harrison asked, “What do you want?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know; let’s improvise.’ So Leia says: ‘I love you,’ and he goes: ‘Yeah, yeah.’ And we tried it again and again with different lines, and finally Harrison says, ‘I give up, I don’t know what to say.’
“The crew is hating me by now; it’s hot, we’re way up high on this set, they’re all hungry, it was a nightmare. Finally Harrison says, ‘Let’s do it one more time and that’s it.’ So she says, ‘I love you,’ and he replies, ‘I know.’ And it just came out of him, and I said ‘Cut!’ The assistant turns to me and says, ‘You’re not going to use this, are you?’ And I said, ‘Why not? It’s perfect.’ When I cut the film, George looked at the scene and said, ‘In the script it was something like “I love you, too,” wasn’t it?’ I told him, ‘Yes but it’s such a stinky line for Han Solo that we had to change it.’
“George was worried the audience was going to laugh and that it would break the tension. I felt very strongly about this, and George said, ‘All right, when we show the film the first time, we’ll show it your way, and then we’ll show it the way it was written.’ So we sneak previewed the film in North Beach, and when the line came, the audience roared. George turns to me and says, ‘You see, it’s a mistake.’ Now the picture is over, people start coming out, and they’re all taking about the line, saying how great it was. They all noticed it. So we kept it in the film. George is very flexible; he knows what he wants, but he is flexible, and that’s why I like him so much.”
Ever wanted to draw Star Wars characters and vehicles just like the professional comic book artists? In this step-by-step series, Star Wars artists and illustrators show you how to draw some of the most beloved characters in the saga. Lieutenant Porkins, otherwise known as the Rebel starfighter pilot Red Six, found himself useful during the Battle of Yavin, but unfortunately had a mechanical malfunction on his X-wing fighter, which led to a crash after being hit by Imperial forces.
Star Wars illustrator Randy Martinez explains with these easy-to-follow steps on how to draw a funny caricature portrait of Jek Porkins.
“One of the greatest things about drawing is that you can express your ideas, or how you see things anyway you want,” Martinez explains. “I love to draw caricatures, which are humorous portraits with exaggerated features. Caricatures are fun because they make people laugh, and it lets me express my silly side.”
To do a caricature, you’ll need a reference picture like the one here.
Try to point out his most distinctive characteristics. Keep them in mind, or even write them down if you like. Caricature is no different than any other kind of drawing. It is very important to build up from the guides and keep your sketching loose. Steps 1-8 are to be drawn lightly with a pencil. No pen, no dark lines. Finished lines and details will come at the end.
Step One:
First thing to do is to draw his head in the shape of a pear.
Step Two:
Now that you have a basic shape, draw some guidelines. This helps you know where to draw the facial features as well as his accessories. Start with a circle in the top of the pear shape. Draw some horizontal lines as well as vertical guidelines as in the example shown. This will help you to figure out where the eyes, nose and mouth will go.
Step Three:
Next to draw are the basic shapes of his helmet and shoulders. Draw a larger circle around the head for the helmet, and then a simple arch as shown in the example.
Step Four:
Next up are the facial features. Draw almond shapes in for eyes. His eyes lay right where the top horizontal guideline meets with the two outer vertical guidelines. The tip of the nose should be where the middle horizontal line meets the middle vertical line. The bridge of his nose is just a simple line. His most distinctive feature is his mouth, so exaggerate his lips. First, draw the open space of his mouth, just the basic shape. The middle of the mouth is where the bottom horizontal guideline meets the center vertical line. His bottom lip is pretty big, so draw a line below the mouth to show how big his lip is. Make a “U” shape to draw his chin, leaving room between the chin and the bottom of his face. Draw simple line across the top of his forehead that represents the brim of the helmet.
Step Five:
Next draw the basic shape of the Mohawk-like element that runs down the middle of his helmet. And don’t forget his goggles! To finish his facial features, start by drawing his upper lip. He has a bow like upper lip, so feel free to exaggerate that. Next draw a little jellybean shape near his mouth for where the helmet microphone goes. After that, draw some lines for his armpits as well as the vest-like clothing on his body.
Step Six:
Follow along the steps 6-8 and sketch in these basic detail lines. Remember, light sketching!
Step Seven
Step Eight
Step Nine:
Once you are done, your drawing should look something like this example. It might look like a mess right now, but it will look awesome in just a few more steps.
Step Ten:
Lastly grab a marker, and draw over only the lines you want to keep. For instance, you don’t want to keep those guidelines, so don’t draw those. After you do that, since you built up the drawing with light pencil, and inked it with marker, you can now erase all those lines you didn’t want. Have fun adding color to your very own Porkins caricature!
This weekend, George Lucas sits down with Oprah Winfrey for an hour to discuss what it was like to create and experience the explosive worldwide success of Star Wars, about the secret origins of the Force, and about his latest action-packed theatrical production, Red Tails. Lucas is Winfrey’s guest on her new primetime series, Oprah’s Next Chapter, which airs on January 22nd at 9 pm | 8 pm (central) on OWN.
Ever wanted to draw Star Wars characters and vehicles just like the professional comic book artists? In this step-by-step series, Star Wars artists and illustrators show you how to draw some of the most beloved characters in the saga.
Among an endless variety of bounty hunters plotting and scheming throughout the galaxy, Greedo is one of the most interesting to draw. With his large, bulbous eyes, pointy ears and scaly skin, his appearance is a combination of alien and reptile.
Star Wars illustrator Cynthia Cummens explains with these easy-to-follow steps on how to draw a side view of Greedo’s face. For this lesson, try using a soft lead pencil, such as a 2B. This exercise uses pencil, ink and colored pencil, so it’s a bit of an exploration with mixed media. Have fun with it and if you’re nervous about color, just stick with pencil and marker!
Steps 1-7 are to be drawn lightly with a pencil. No pen, no dark lines. Finished lines and details will come at the end.
Step One:
Begin by drawing a simple egg shape for Greedo’s head. It will be slightly more rounded on the left side than on the right. Draw a horizontal line through the middle; this will be placement for his eyes. Draw a curved line close to the right side of face, extending past the egg shape. This will become his snout.
Step Two:
Greedo has very round, large eyes so place them on the horizontal line you drew (remember, you will erase this line later!). Draw a full circle for the left eye, and a half circle for the right, placing it up against the curved line you drew in Step One.
Step Three:
Greedo happens to have very large, pointy ears. Draw the basic shape as seen here, with the horizontal line intersecting it about midway. If you’re having trouble deciding how big to make his ear, think of it as being almost as long as his snout!
Step Four:
Here you’re going to draw those funny little ears on top of his head. The shape very much resembles that of kidney beans. Watch the direction. As with his ear, they’re slanted, not straight up and down. When drawing his mouth, think of a soft, curvy ‘W’ shape. Draw his lower lip, extending the into the egg shape as it becomes his jaw.
Step Five:
Give Greedo a neck and shoulders so that it’s not just a head floating in space!
Step Six:
Begin erasing any stray lines that you are confident you don’t want. For example, the horizontal line you drew in Step One, or any other marks that you don’t want in the final drawing (such as the ones indicated with the red arrows).
Step Seven:
This is the fun part! With the basic outline of Greedo now in place, it’s time to add some detail. Be creative — he’s kind of scaly and warty! He also has some unusual spines on the top of his head, which vary slightly in size. His eyes are very smooth and reflective. The skin on his nose is a bit smoother, but not nearly as smooth as his eyes. Try drawing tiny little half circles or “C” shapes for his bumpy skin. Add some detail to his ears and around his eyes, as shown.
Step Eight:
Grab a black marker — you’re going to do some inking! Trace along your pencil lines — be confident! Use the marker to fill in shadow areas (under his jaw, alongside his ear, for example). Those highlight on his eyes are very important to giving him a lifelike quality. You might want to pencil those in before you fill in his eyes with your marker.
Step Nine:
Time for color! When using colored pencil, think about building two or three layers of color, using light pressure as you go, rather than pressing very hard to cover the surface. Allow some of the white paper to show through in area’s to give the effect of highlights. Colored pencils are fun but tricky. It’s best to keep an electric pencil sharpener nearby since you’ll need to sharpen your pencils often. And keep in mind that colored pencil can be tricky to erase, which is another reason to press lightly. Be bold and daring with your color, and don’t be afraid to experiment with watercolor or even acrylic paint! The sky’s the limit when it comes to making art, especially in the Star Wars galaxy!
Ever wanted to draw Star Wars characters just like the professional comic book artists? In this step-by-step series, Star Wars artists and illustrators show you how to draw some of the most beloved and memorable characters in the saga. So get your pencils and paper ready!
To show you how to draw Han Solo’s fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy — the Millennium Falcon, Star Wars illustrator Chris Trevas explains his easy drawing steps with examples below.
Steps 1-7 are to be drawn lightly with a pencil. No pen, no dark lines. Finished lines and details will come at the end.
Step One:
Start by drawing two ellipses, one on top of the other. An ellipse is what a circle looks like from an angle, similar to an oval, but not as rounded at the sides. In the early days George Lucas used to describe the Millennium Falcon as a “Flying Hamburger,” think of these two ellipses as the bun.
Step Two:
Now draw a smaller ellipse within in the top ellipse. It should be just a little above the center. From the center of this new small ellipse draw a straight line angled down and to the right. This line will be the direction the Millennium Falcon is pointing.
Step Three:
Draw a straight line coming from each side of the larger top ellipse to a point on the center line. Then draw two more lines from the sides of the lower ellipse parallel to the lines coming from the top one. You now have a big triangle coming off the front of the “Hamburger.”
Step Four:
Cut the front off of this big triangle by drawing a wide rectangle. The sides of this rectangle will be straight up and down. The top and bottom of the rectangle are angled from this point of view. The corners will be where the sides cross the lines drawn in Step Three. Divide this rectangle into three smaller equal size rectangles with two more short lines.
Step Five:
Draw two long straight lines from the top of the new center rectangle to the small ellipse on top of the “Hamburger.” These lines should be parallel to the center line we drew in Step Two. Draw one more line from the bottom right corner of the small center triangle. This one should be parallel to the rest but you can stop short at the edge of the bottom large ellipse. Now draw two lines from the small center ellipse out to each side of the larger ellipse. These will be angled like the front rectangle.
Step Six:
The lines out to the sides are the guides for drawing the raised areas that divide the front and back of the ship. Draw the long rectangles and angled sides for them. At the end of each of these draw a tapered cup shape. These cups don’t stick out any further than sides of the “Hamburger Bun.” Draw an even smaller ellipse inside the top center ellipse. This is the gunner’s window. Draw the center rectangle between the front wedge shapes now. Follow the earlier guidelines but make it a little wider. It will stop short of the wedge shapes so you will also draw a little bit of the bottom rectangle too. Now the Millennium Falcon is really taking shape!
Step Seven:
Han and Chewie need a place to sit! Add a cockpit and the hallway to it. The cockpit is a cup shape with a short cylinder behind it and the hallway angles in towards the center of the ship. George Lucas referred to the cockpit as an olive off to one side of the hamburger.
Step Eight:
Now all the main shapes of the ship are drawn and you can lightly erase the lines you don’t need and start to darken up the others. It’s time for the details! There are two round holes on each of the front wedges and an octagonal hole between the cockpit hallway and the center rectangle. Draw a group of six ellipses on the back end for the rear vents of the engine. Also add a line to either side of these vents. The radar dish is a simple ellipse with a couple more below it to make the base.
Step Nine:
More detail! Add the bracket to support the radar dish and a small cone in the center of it. The gun turret on top is basically a box with four cylinders sticking out. Across the back behind the engine vents add the wide stabilizer fin. Shield generators go to each side of the center rectangle. Add some shadows in the gap under the center rectangle and within the holes. Don’t forget the cockpit windows!
Step Ten:
Draw some more detail lines and the different color panels on the ship’s hull. Along the edges add the “meat” of this flying hamburger, you can keep it simple by drawing some lines and boxes. I also like to add a sweep behind the Falcon coming from the engines to give it that extra burst of speed!
Many skilled and famous actors lend their voices to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and a few have faces that are as recognizable as their sound. Viewers will know Phil LaMarr as one of the brilliant comedians who started MadTV, and as the actor who played the ill-fated Marvin in Pulp Fiction. For many, his voice will always evoke Hermes Conrad, the Rastafarian accountant from Futurama.
LaMarr is now voicing the Jedi Master Kit Fisto in Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series and video games. starwars.com had a chance to chat with him.
Kit Fisto is one of those characters in the Star Wars universe who keeps popping up at incredibly important moments. Since those moments are rather rare, what did you base your voice off of when forming him?
The character hadn’t been used much and spoke even less so there wasn’t much to go on vocally. I worked with director Dave Filoni to try to find something that captured the strength, bravado and humor that they were planning to bring to Kit Fisto that hadn’t really been seen before. I’m not positive but I think it was George Lucas had suggested to Dave the idea of giving Fisto a little bit of a Caribbean feel. Once we did that, it clicked.
Your work history reads like a who’s-who of geek-culture icons. From Hermes in Futurama, to characters in Metal Gear Solid and The Animatrix, you seem to be involved in every corner of the sci-fi and videogame world. What keeps you coming back?
As a performer, there’s never a better time than when you’re working on something you’d want to watch or listen to. I’ve been a comic book, sci-fi, videogame fan since I was a kid. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be acting at a time when all those genres have moved into the mainstream of American entertainment. It’s possible I do a higher percentage of “genre”-oriented voice work than some other V/O people. If so, it might be because I watch all this stuff, and when you “get it” it not only makes it more fun, it makes it easier to do.
What are some challenges that voice actors face that the viewer — who only sees the end product — would never know about?
One thing that is a huge difference between videogames and any other kind of performance is the sheer volume of work required. In a TV series, and even feature films, you’re voicing, at most, two hours of entertainment. And that is if you are the lead character and speak in every scene. But a videogame encompasses so many hours of gameplay, some of which the player may never get to. You have to voice all the scenes they might play as well as all of the ways they might kill even the most minor character.
What would be your favorite experience working in the Star Wars universe? Knights of the Old Republic I, II or being Kit Fisto in his (hopefully) first of many appearances?
Definitely, Kit Fisto, for the games and the Clone Wars series. One, because there’s just nothing better than being a Jedi Knight and two, because it’s the one that’s most impressive to my seven-year-old.
Were you a Star Wars fan as a kid? Is it exciting to finally be a Jedi?
I was. Han Solo was my favorite character. It’s fantastic to be a Jedi. I just have to remember not to make the lightsaber sound when we’re doing fight scenes.
Are there any Star Wars characters you felt deserved a voice but weren’t given one? Any that were voiced that you would have loved to tackle yourself?
It’s hard to say. I mean, there’s certainly no shortage of characters in the Star Wars universe. And there are so many really interesting looking ones in the background and you wonder, “What does the clarinet guy in the cantina band sound like when they’re on break?”
Breathing life into comic book characters seems to be actress Jaime King’s specialty as of late. Whether she’s playing twin sisters Goldie and Wendy in Sin City (and in the upcoming sequel), or as the beautiful Lorelei Rox in the new film The Spirit, King is proud of her comic book leanings, not to mention her fondness for all things sci-fi.
starwars.com chats with King about her bionic namesake, why she has a soft spot of Star Wars and getting about the power of 3-D movies by director George Lucas himself.
I read that you were named after Jaime Sommers in the classic sci-fi TV show The Bionic Woman. Were you a fan of the show?
The funny thing is even though my mom named me after Jaime Sommers, I never really saw the show. It wasn’t still on by the time I was old enough to really watch TV. But I really want to see it because so many people love that fact, and it sounds like the kind of show that would really be right up my alley.
Were you a Star Wars fan growing up? When did you first see Star Wars?
I was! My mom always loved Star Wars. I think she may have seen it opening day. You know when you’re a kid you can’t remember the first time you saw something; it all just feels like a big blur in a way.
Did you ever dress up as a Star Wars character for Halloween?
No, but I dressed up as a bunch of other nerdy things! I remember my mom making me a full-on dinosaur suit made from green felt. Last year I was Peter Pan, and we went to Seth Rogen’s Halloween party and I felt like such a nerd. I’m there looking like a boy with no make-up, my hair pulled back, and green tights, and if you looked at me the wrong way I probably looked like the Jolly Green Giant. Of course, all the other girls there were dressed up all sexy.
Which Star Wars character is your favorite?
Darth Vader is my favorite character. I feel like he had such a great deal of love and power that was misguided and misused. Eventually, he turned it around to do the right thing. It’s interesting when you see people have to go through great difficulty to become who they are meant to be.
Why will Star Wars always be cool to you?
Star Wars speaks a universal language. It’s symbolic of what we all go through in some way in our lives. The characters represent these beautiful archetypes. It doesn’t matter what age you are, you’ll be able to understand it and get it. It’s incredibly spiritual and honest and fun. It’s the only series of films, I think, that will stand the test of time. I can’t think of any other film that touches people like Star Wars does. I will always love Star Wars and anything that comes from it.
What do you think of the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series?
I did a voice for one of the characters coming up in Season 2. In fact, Dave Filoni just texted me a little while ago to see if I’m available to do some more voiceover work. I kept harassing him to let me do some voices. I love the new TV show. The imagery is so beautiful! The last time I was up at Skywalker Ranch I spent a lot of time with the animators and Dave, and watched the whole process of how they make The Clone Wars. I love how they’re exploring sub-characters. Each episode visually looks better and better. I think it’s also exciting to open up more of the Star Wars universe to younger children to see.
Do you like the freedom of voiceover acting as opposed to tradition acting where you constantly have to think about lighting and how you look and standing on the right marks?
Absolutely! It’s fun to be in the room with everybody. I’d love to do more voiceover work. I’ve always been doing films so I never realized how much I loved voiceover work until I started doing The Clone Wars. I have a lot of experience doing ADR (additional dialogue recording) which is kind of like voiceover work, but different.
How did you come across your role in Fanboys?
Harvey Weinstein from The Weinstein Company, who I already knew from doing Sin City told me about the role. I thought that it was cool because I gravitate towards the more sci-fi and comic book genre kinds of films, which I prefer to make. When they said it was a celebration of that as well as Star Wars, I thought that was cool. I had never met Kyle (Fanboys director) before, and didn’t know anything about him. And by the end of the film, he ends up becoming my husband.
That’s one of the best kinds of movie deals!
Exactly!
Seeing behind the scenes footage of Fanboys it looks like everyone had a blast on the set while filming. What was your favorite part of being in the film?
There were a lot of great actors in the film. I loved working with Seth Rogen and Dan Fogler. They’re really phenomenal actors so it was a highlight for me to be around such great comedians. Plus the scene where Dan tried to pull a Jedi mind trick on me was pretty funny.
Have you ever tried to persuade anyone using a Jedi mind trick yourself?
No, but I’ve probably persuaded someone with some fast talking, though. (laughs) We’ve all pulled a Jedi mind trick on someone in the past and probably didn’t even realize it .
Delving into Comics
Would you consider yourself a sci-fi fan? What other sci-fi movies and TV shows do you love?
I’ve a big fan of Battlestar Galactica. I think it’s one of the finest shows that’s been on TV in a long time. I love Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and other movies like that. 2001: A Space Odyssey is my favorite movie of all time.
Since starring in the hit Sin City, as well as The Spirit, would you consider yourself a comic book fan?
When I was a kid I loved reading Calvin and Hobbes in the newspaper, and I’d be so bummed out when I’d go to the library and all the Calvin books were checked out. Watchmen is great. I’m a big fan of Y: The Last Man. At one point we tried to secure the movie rights for Love and Rockets, but some one has it already and is holding out. It’s important to me as an actress to keep looking for interesting, strong female roles, and comic books have a lot of those kinds of characters.
Actually, I just started this new comic book with a man named Marc Andreyko who [co-]wrote the Torso series. David Fincher is making his comic book into a film starring Matt Damon. So he’s my newest collaborator. The comic series is sci-fi and takes place in the future. It deals with armageddon in space.
Did you read The Spirit comics before working on your role as Lorelei Rox or did you prefer to only work from the script?
Frank Miller started telling me it three years ago when he started writing the screenplay. And my character Lorelei Rox in the film is really set up more for the sequel. When you see her in The Spirit she’s mostly in silhouette and interwoven into the story as kind of a fantasy character. But in the sequel, she becomes the lead with the Spirit and you get to see her character fleshed out. So he was really smart about the way he wrote Lorelei. The movie is fun and funny, and 1940’s banter, and still PG-13. It’s different than something like Dark Knight. It’s kooky and it’s fun and it’s beautiful to look at, and it’s really Frank’s vision. Amazing actors are in The Spirit. Sam Jackson is incredible and over-the-top. It’s great that Frank is doing something different than everyone else is doing with comic book films, this is more of a comic strip film.
You are starring in quite a few movies coming out in 2009 including the horror film My Bloody Valentine 3-D, Sin City 2,The Pardon, and the long-awaited Fanboys. Which movie genre do you have the most fun with — horror, action, drama or comedy?
They’re all kind of their own beast in a way. I love doing comedy if I don’t have to be the straight person. Comedy is definitely harder for most people to do. You have to be committed and understand it. It’s a satisfying thing to make people laugh. Drama is very fulfilling as well.
Are there any action movie character roles you’re dying to play?
I would love to play Catwoman in the new Batman!
You’ve worked with some pretty iconic directors such as Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Michael Bay, and Ted Demme, just to name a few. Are there any you would love to work with next in your career?
George Lucas! He’s such a genius. I would love to work one on one with him in a project. I was talking to him about all the My Bloody Valentine stuff and he was schooling me on how well the 3-D screens were working because I was worried we wouldn’t have enough screens for our movie. I also love Spielberg and Danny Boyle. I’ve been obsessed with Tim Burton since I was a kid, so it would be awesome to work with him.
With Lucas and Spielberg on your director wish list, you should audition for the rumored Indiana Jones 5.
That would be pretty amazing. I would love that! Put in a good word for me!
“You’ll find I’m full of surprises,” Luke Skywalker said as he stared down Darth Vader in the carbon-freezing chamber of Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a philosophy that Mark Hamill has taken to heart as a performer.
“My goal is to never stop trying to entertain and surprise people, and tenacity is my middle name,” he says. “I’m really determined to continue directing, and writing, and hopefully surprising people for years to come.”
Star Wars fans may know him best as a motion picture actor, but Hamill can be found in a wide spectrum of media forms, jumping from one to another with deft skill. He has performed on stage, on radio, in video games, and on television, each new experience challenging preconceptions some may have about him and his characters. “I remember when it first started hitting the airwaves that I was the voice of the Joker [on the Batman animated series], the most common expression at that time was, ‘you mean that Mark Hamill?'” he laughs.
The latest addition to Hamill’s library of works is his directorial debut, Comic Book: The Movie. The direct-to-DVD release stems from Hamill’s outspoken love of the comics medium, another rich field to which he has contributed. “I’ve always loved comic books,” he says proudly. “I’ve always been fascinated by why they seem to have a hold on me years after I, through peer pressure alone, should have given them up.”
Comic Book: The Movie is a Valentine’s to comic book aficionados, and an vivid encapsulation of that yearly pilgrimage to San Diego that so many comics fans hold dear — Comic-Con International. The mockumentary chronicles the transformation of a classic (though fictional) Golden Age comic book hero into a gritty, modern franchise film, and the journey of one intrepid fan who is determined to make sure the studios get it right.
But the movie didn’t start off that way. Comic Book: The Movie, fittingly enough, finds its secret origins in a comic book. Hamill had been shopping around The Black Pearl, the title that he wrote for Dark Horse Comics, for development into a feature. Though he started a dialogue with Creative Light Entertainment, a live action Black Pearl just wasn’t feasible.
“That seemed to be too ambitious a project for them. They weren’t really in the business of making even low budget feature films so we decided to just move on,” Hamill explains. “Creative Light didn’t want to give up the idea of working with me, and having done DVDs of two Star Trek actors interviewing each other and Kevin Smith interviewing Stan Lee, they wanted to know whether I could do a project that was in that range in terms of budget.”
A tight budget doesn’t really allow for an epic scope, a cast of thousands, and exotic locales, but putting his head to the puzzle, Hamill found inspiration. “I didn’t think I would be able to do something, unless it was just a talking-heads interview situation. Then, I thought if it were possible to get permission from the San Diego Comic-Con to film down there, I could do something that would appeal to genre fans, and that was about something that I cared about.”
Comic Book: The Movie centers on the fictional Commander Courage, a patriotic Golden Age superhero who would smash through Nazi forces alongside his good-natured teenage sidekick, Liberty Lad. The hero has since been re-imagined as the modern Code Name: C.O.U.R.A.G.E., a gun-toting revenge-seeking maverick out to kill terrorists, accompanied by his curvy sidekick, Liberty Lass.
It’s the edgy, cynical latter incarnation of the hero that has been greenlit to become a major motion picture, and the studios bring aboard the biggest Commander Courage fan they can find. Donald Swan, played by Hamill, will act as a “consultant,” to placate the fan community with assurance that their voice is being heard.
While it would have been easy to focus on the Hollywood types, played with relentless insincerity by Roger Rose (Rugrats in Paris: The Movie) and Lori Alan (The Freshman), the movie instead follows those with their hearts in the right place, even if they may be a bit naïve.
“What struck me was how quickly we forget, living in New York and Los Angeles, what genuine people there are in that great expansive land between coasts,” Hamill says. “If I were playing a documentary filmmaker, then I’m really satirizing show business, and then there’s no point-of-view in the film that’s strictly comic book. Instead, I crafted a character that was a high school teacher who was also a Golden Age comic book aficionado.”
This of course begs the obvious question: how much of the heartland-bred Don Swan is Mark Hamill? Mark describes Swan as an exaggeration of some of his passions. “I have, to a certain degree for different topics, that kind of obsessive-compulsive nature to voraciously devour everything related to something that interests me,” he explains. “When the Beatles first appeared, I wanted to read about who they were and where there were from. I felt the same way when I saw Bonnie & Clyde. In putting together the movie, I realized that I had to be the comic book fan, not only because I know the minutiae of the Overstreet Price Guide and all the details that go along with the hobby, but because there was no one else in the movie yet to represent that.”
Treading into the fandom-filled waters of comic books and conventions, Hamill took care not to target a group of often-targeted people for derision. Historically, genre audiences have had to put up with such labels as freaks, geeks and nerds, but Comic Book: The Movie doesn’t seek to mock its subject matter.
“I resisted the term mockumentary, because I don’t really mock anything,” says Hamill. “It is a mock documentary if you use the term as ‘not real.’ I think that was a concern of the Comic-Con people when it came time to make this. I think they got a little nervous, and they’re protective of the people that participate. They wanted to know if I was going to be … well, ‘snarky,’ was their word.”
The organizers of Comic-Con International — the largest annual popular media convention in the world — needed Hamill’s assurance that his film would not end up being a carnival sideshow full of snide humor, but would instead celebrate the genre culture from within. Hamill was able to persuade them that he wasn’t the shallow, judgmental detached Hollywood producer that would appear in his film, but was really a fan at heart. He gained permission to shoot the bulk of his movie on the fan-packed floor during Comic-Con 2002.
“Comic book fans are really great people,” says Hamill. “I think they really get a bum rap because they’re marginalized by the mainstream media as goofballs and weirdoes. But Hollywood is more than willing to take their wallets. I think we’re gaining on them, though. Sure, we all love the Comic Book Guy from “The Simpsons,” but that’s just one tiny faction of fandom — the guy that can’t do anything himself and just criticizes everything else. He’s meant to be the outsider. I wanted to make this where the fans were the ones who were the normal, genuine ones.”
A Cast of Thousands
Fandom has long followed Hamill in the wake of the phenomenal success of Star Wars. Die-hard fans of the Force have chronicled Luke’s entire life, from farmboy to Jedi Master, from the films to the latest novels, from creating the most painstakingly accurate lightsaber props to stitching together detailed costume replicas. Though Hamill could rattle off the most obscure trivia about E.C. Comics, the Adam West “Batman” show, or the Kinks, he is not about to go toe-to-toe with the most fervent Luke Skywalker trivia-maven.
“It’s one of the ironies that there are so many people who know so much more than I do!” he says. Luke has gone beyond a character of three films and appeared in dozens of novels, video games, toys and more. Skywalker has rebuilt a new Jedi order after the fall of the Empire, is married, and is the proud father of a baby boy named Ben. A lot of this comes as news to Hamill, who considers his work on the saga wrapped as of Return of the Jedi.
“I really was very much immersed in all of it years ago, and wanted to know all the details,” he explains, “but once my job was over, I didn’t have to read the flight manuals and supporting novels and comic books and games. It’s not that I don’t like them — it’s really a question of time.”
Despite a busy schedule, Hamill still devotes time for his passion of comics new and old. Just as the medium has grown and diversified with different themes, target audiences and subject matter, comics fandom has also become too varied to be painted by a single brush. As a fan of comics, Hamill keeps an open mind, sampling fare as varied as Carl Barks and Alan Moore.
“There’s such a bizarre twist to looking with grownup eyes at material we enjoyed as children,” says Hamill. “As a kid, I remember thinking how Batman was so much more realistic than Superman. Because, you know, you could build up your body and become a great detective, and I bet you if we caught mom in a good mood, she’d let us dig a Batcave under the garage. Then, you grow up and realize it’s a guy in a bat suit fighting crime. I love the fact that Bathound has to wear a mask. I mean, what the hell are they putting a mask on this dog for? Is it to protect his identity from the other dogs in the community? I love all this silly stuff, as well as the real raw, grown-up fair too. I loved Watchmen. I felt it was one of the best comic books I’ve ever read.”
Don Swan isn’t as open-minded, it would seem. From silly to serious, Commander Courage mirrors the history of popular comics, from the earliest super-patriots of WWII and the atomic age, to the cartoony antics of the 60s and 70s, to the grim antihero tales of the 90s and beyond. Hamill has constructed an elaborate backstory to Courage, and purist Swan can’t see beyond the classic Courage of yesteryear.
“It was very important that Commander Courage be not only from the Golden Age, but also a patriotic character. A character that was born of World War II — because I really felt there are parallel sensibilities between post-Pearl Harbor and post-September 11th,” says Hamill. “There’s the fact that blatant patriotism can seem corny.”
Such corniness is not new territory for Hamill. It’s the same label applied to the happy-go-lucky spirit of the first Star Wars, and the gee-whiz adventurousness of Luke Skywalker. “George Lucas did it with religion in the Star Wars movies. He was able to talk about this Force, and kids who need that sort of spiritual rejuvenation can have those stirrings without feeling like they’re out of the mainstream, or that it’s too corny to talk about. I thought the same thing about Donald being an unabashed fan of the way in his mind America used to be, before MTV, Janet Jackson and the Super Bowl, or whatever. You know, the good old days.”
Hamill even changed his appearance to communicate Swan’s heart-on-his-sleeve retro roots. “His hair is like a cross between Buster Krabbe in Flash Gordon and Robin the Boy Wonder. I also thought a good stylistic choice would be to make him sepia toned, like a faded old photo album,” he says. “At one point, he’s literally wearing rose-colored glasses.”
Joining Hamill in Comic Book: The Movie is a veritable who’s who of leading voice actors. Billy West (Fry and Dr. Zoidberg on “Futurama,” and everyone’s favorite overstuffed dimwit kitty, Stimpson J. Cat) plays Leo Matuzik, the last surviving relative of Commander Courage’s fabled creator. Jess Harnell (Wakko on “Animaniacs,” the Human Bullet on “The Tick” and many more) is the perpetually wasted cameraman Ricky. Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants himself) is Don’s comic-loving sidekick Derek Sprang, and Jill Tally (“Stripperella,” “Spongebob Squarepants”) plays his convention-enduring wife. Also in the cast is Jim Cummings, the voice of Darkwing Duck, Winnie the Pooh and The Lion King’s Ed the Hyena.
While Hamill describes these actors as “ear candy,” the eye candy designation goes to Donna D’Errico (“Baywatch”), who plays (the actress who plays) Liberty Lass.[ Mark Hamill: Full of Surprises ] “She was a complete surprise to me,” admits Hamill. “I was scared. What if she turned out to be some kind of diva with 16 hairdressers, a manager and a lawyer in tow? But she is so nice, so sweet, and she doesn’t take herself seriously.”
In addition to these characters, a number of well-known fixtures in the comics and genre community appear as themselves. “I could get Kevin Smith to do a bit for me because we hit it off so well on Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. We had the same sensibility,” Hamill explains. “Stan Lee had actually done voices on shows I’d done, like ‘Fantastic Four’ and the mid-90s ‘Spider-Man’ show.”
Other cameos include Bruce Campbell, Paul Dini, Mark Evanier, Chase Masterson, Ray Harryhausen, Billy Mumy and Hugh Hefner. Sharp eyed Star Wars fans will spot a nod to the saga with the inclusion of Peter Mayhew, David Prowse and Jeremy Bulloch in cameo appearances.
With a cast full of so many well-known genre faces, Hamill was able to bring the movie in on so tight a budget by favors and friendship. As an example, the padded Commander Courage costume was crafted by a leading effects house, KNB EFX, which delivered convincing practical effects for films such as Kill Bill and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.”Greg Nicotero was able to get me a basic foam musculature onto which we built the costume,” says Hamill. “Were I just a regular movie studio, or an A-list film, I’m sure it would have been 10 times what we paid for it.”
The lessons of film economy can be traced back to Star Wars. Though the films have become synonymous with big budget blockbusters, many forget that the original A New Hope was shot on a very modest budget. “One of the things I remember George saying about the original Star Wars was that it’s the most expensive low budget movie ever made. He was basically saying that in terms of all of the cast being unknowns, every penny winds up on the screen and that’s what I was hoping for with Comic Book: The Movie,” says Hamill.
“I remember reading in the trades, Hamill brings in his directorial debut for under $1 million, and I was stunned,” he says. “Well yeah! — so under a million! Why didn’t you say under $500,000? Why didn’t you say under $400? $300?” he laughs. “One of the reasons I got the idea of doing it in the backdrop of the San Diego Con is that it’s like a billion dollar set!”
Behind the Curtain
For a directorial debut, the rather non-traditional and non-linear approach to making Comic Book: The Movie seems an ambitious first step. “This was a trial by fire,” Hamill admits. “I mean I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, because there was an uncertainty there, which I do like.”
Hamill worked without a net — in this case, without a script. The actors were armed with character briefs, and there was an arc for Donald Swan to Leo Matuzik to go through, but much of the film is marked with improvisation and seat-of-the-pants guerilla filmmaking. “It gives it a kind of a dangerous air,” says Hamill, “like a toboggan hurtling down the mountainside at great speeds and you have this fear that it’ll either arrive safely at the lodge at the bottom, or there’ll be the horrendous accident from which there are no survivors.”
Over the four days of Comic-Con 2002, Hamill and his small crew roamed the fan-packed floors, capturing moments, interviews, and scenes. Hamill wore a Don Swan badge and never broke character. Dozens of hours of convention footage needed to be distilled into the finished film, and it was not an easy task. “Going though it was scary and I didn’t really have time to relax and enjoy myself at the Con,” he says. “Especially going into the editing room and looking at all this footage. You’d look at 45 minutes that makes bad ‘Saturday Night Live’ look like Molière. It’s like going into your room and seeing someone’s kicked over all your jigsaw puzzles and it looks like a mess. But you’re able to pick out all the pieces that you like and make something out of it.”
Comparing Comic Book: The Movie to its most similar contemporaries, like the works of Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind) reveals big differences in approach. “We did it in an even more unconventional way,” says Hamill. “He writes a complete script but just leaves the dialogue out, so that every beat is clearly delineated. I think there’s a happy medium between what I did which is really dangerous, and having something that is completely written out in advance. Somewhere between those two extremes is probably the way I’d do this again.”
Despite no story credit to the DVD, there is a story. A tale of Don Swan, an unlikely hero who champions for the everyman comic book fan in the face of an uncaring money-hungry Hollywood. The audio commentary on the DVD fills in further backstory and tales of tribulation behind the making of the DVD, and a second disc of supplementary material goes extensively behind-the-scenes on the making of the movie.
In discussing this type of behind-the-curtains material and the sheer accessibility of escapist entertainment these days, Hamill echoes Don Swan’s wistful recollections of an earlier era, when fantasy films like The Wizard of Oz and even Star Wars were only available in the theater, or on network television once a year.
“It’s not an event anymore if you can just push a button and there it is,” say Hamill. “Or if you can pause it and go to the bathroom and you haven’t missed anything. I really resist giving away the magic.”
Hamill recalls his reluctance to host behind-the-scenes specials during the making of the Star Wars. He hosted SPFX: The Making of the Empire Strikes Back in 1980, and From Star Wars to Jedi in 1983. “I remember saying to George, why do we keep making these stupid ‘Making Of’ specials? They give away everything! Let’s just tell people it’s a real lightsaber! They don’t need to know everything!” he recalls. “I said I feel like a magician’s assistant. When people worked in the magic shows on Broadway, they had to sign a piece of paper saying that they wouldn’t tell you how they achieved some of these effects.”
In this new era, future generations will now grow up with Star Wars on DVD, complete with supplementary material pulling back the curtain on the magic that has entertained millions. “It’s impossible to turn back time,” he says. “We’re in a multi-channel universe where there’s just so much material that goes out there. In the old days, there weren’t VCRs or DVDs, but in a way, comic books were the antiquated version because every picture is a freeze frame. You could analyze the storytelling process. You could go back and see the parts that you skimmed over, and you can own the story. I think that’s really important. People look at their DVD shelves and look with pride. It’s very satisfying to a collector to own these things, and that feeling was only achievable in our modest means through comic books.”
Comic Book: The Movie, the two-disc DVD set, is a Miramax release of a Creative Light Entertainment production.
John Ratzenberger: The Postman Always Strikes Back
A Man for All Uniforms
In Decipher’s Star Wars Customizable Card Game, Major Bren Derlin’s card comes with an odd biographical tidbit: “At the Mos Eisley Cantina, everyone knows his name.” If you’re scratching your head over this odd link between the sweltering desert world of Tatooine and the icy planet Hoth, don’t bother looking through your Star Wars novels and comics. It’s a joke — an allusion by Decipher to the fact that John Ratzenberger, a bit player in The Empire Strikes Back, would go on to star for more than a decade in Cheers, one of the most popular TV sitcoms in American history, set in a bar where, as the song goes, everyone knows your name.
Yes, Cliff Clavin, the Boston letter carrier and know-it-all barfly, is in The Empire Strikes Back — at least for a couple of scenes and a couple of lines. It’s the mustachioed Ratzenberger, clad in his snow gear, who regretfully informs Princess Leia that the shield doors of Echo Base must be closed against the Hoth night, even though Han Solo hasn’t returned from his hunt for Luke Skywalker. He can also be glimpsed and briefly heard again in the scene in which Leia gives the Rebel pilots their orders for evacuating the planet and protecting the Alliance’s transports.
Ratzenberger was 32 in the spring of 1979, when he spent about a week on the Echo Base set at Elstree Studios, in a suburb north of London. (Luckily for Ratzenberger, all of Major Derlin’s scenes were interior scenes, meaning the actor didn’t have to endure sub-zero temperatures and constant winter storms atop the Finse Glacier in Norway, where the exterior scenes on Hoth were shot.)
Two decades — and what the actor genially admits are “a lot of cobwebs” — have obscured some of his memories of his time on the set. He says he admired director Irvin Kershner, whom he describes as “an old-school director.” But his memories are crystal clear when he confesses to having his head turned by one particular co-star.
“I remember having an enormous crush on Carrie Fisher,” he says, but adds that under the circumstances, he harbored no illusions about the chances for, well, a princess and a guy like him. “I was living in what pretty much amounted to an abandoned building at the time, so there wasn’t much I could offer,” he says.
By Ratzenberger’s account, he wasn’t exactly swept up in the hysteria of being part of the hotly anticipated sequel to what was then the top-grossing movie of all time. “I really didn’t know it had become this huge thing, [though] I was aware there was a movie out called Star Wars,” he says. “It was a job. I was hired to do a job, I showed to up to do a job, and I went home.”
Nor was it even a particularly out-of-the-ordinary job for the young actor. At the time, he recalls, he was one of several American actors living in London who would get the call whenever a movie shot in the area called for an American in uniform. Ratzenberger’s early work, indeed, is a tale of bit parts and changing ranks: He played lieutenants in A Bridge Too Far and Gandhi, a corporal in Yanks, a chief in Firefox, a sergeant in Hanover Street, and also donned government gear for Superman and Superman II. Under those circumstances, one can see how Bren Derlin was just another major – albeit one from a galaxy far, far away.
Still, Ratzenberger got to that galaxy along an unusual route. Before he headed for London in 1971, his resumé included such jobs as an apprentice blacksmith in northern Vermont and a deckhand on an oyster boat off the coast of his native New England. It was a tax refund from his stint as a deckhand, in fact, that sent him across the pond. As Ratzenberger recalls, the check happened to be the exact same amount as a ticket on a charter flight to England that he saw in a newspaper. He had a friend in London, so he left on a lark for a three-week visit — never suspecting he would stay 10 years.
It wasn’t long before Ratzenberger and friend Ray Hassett began achieving considerable renown as Sal’s Meat Market, an improv duo whose freewheeling 90-minute shows would cast each of them in as many as 20 characters apiece. The two were veterans by the time an agent approached them and asked if they’d thought about movies. Ratzenberger’s screen debut came in 1976’s The Ritz, directed by Richard Lester (A Hard Day’s Night), who would later direct him in Superman II.
Familiar Voices
Besides his stints as an American in uniform, Ratzenberger also did extensive voice work, providing English dubs for foreign films — a key addition to what he calls “my bag of tricks.” That work spotlights what the actor sees as an advantage of having learned his craft in England: “They don’t pigeonhole you over there,” he says. “As a journeyman actor, you were expected to do everything.”
It’s a matter-of-fact approach that Ratzenberger traces back to having grown up working with his hands. It also meant that for the young actor playing Major Derlin, Harrison Ford was someone to watch. Ford, like Ratzenberger, was a self-taught actor without formal training. And like Ratzenberger, he’d worked as a carpenter — though Ratzenberger notes that Ford was a fine carpenter who worked on finishing and other jobs, while Ratzenberger himself was (and is) a house framer more used to working with two-by-fours. Nonetheless, Ratzenberger remembers watching Ford succeed and being inspired.
“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool,'” he says. “if he could do it, I could do it.” Indeed he could: beginning in 1982, Ratzenberger would become a fixture on TV wearing another uniform — this time for the postal service-on Cheers. That role sprung from a failed audition that Ratzenberger turned into a success by drawing on the oldest trick in his bag — his years of improv.
“What I do well is just improvise within the situation,” he says. “Drop me into the situation and I’ll do fine.”
Ratzenberger says he originally read for a non-descript character for Cheers — an approach that was too stilted for him to shine. He was walking out the door when he asked Cheers’ creative team if their show had a certain character he felt was needed.
“Being a New Englander, I knew that in every bar I’ve ever been in, there’s a bar know-it-all,” Ratzenberger says. After piquing the group’s interest, he began to improvise just such a part, using anything at hand — such as people’s clothes and last names — as his material. He left the group laughing and eventually was called back and asked to become the bar know-it-all he’d quickly invented — the character that would become Cliff Clavin.
Having won the job with improv, Ratzenberger would use the skill to create any number of off-the-cuff lines for Cliff during Cheers’ 11 -year run-and then for the computer-generated characters to whom he lent voices in three blockbuster Pixar films, including A Bug’s Life and both of the Toy Story movies, in which he plays the talking pig toy, Hamm.
Ratzenberger has also embraced a growing role with a good cause. He’s the chairman of an online charity called childrenwithdiabetes.com, offering children who have diabetes and their families everything from medical advice to a place to chat with other children and families.
Childrenwithdiabetes.com sprung from his desire to find a way to connect researchers working (sometimes in ignorance of each other’s efforts) to find a cure for the disease. “They don’t talk to each other,” Ratzenberger says. “I thought, in the age of the Internet, that’s stupid.”
Between that work and his ongoing acting, Ratzenberger may not have a lot of time to look back at what was a very brief tour of duty on Hoth 20 years ago. Nor, by his account, does he get much fan mail for his Star Wars work. But for this journeyman-actor-turned-master, the body of work he has put together is proof enough.
Indeed, whether they’re fans of George Lucas’ saga, a beloved bar in Boston, Pixar’s pioneering productions, or all three, everybody knows John Ratzenberger’s name.
Ever wanted to draw Star Wars characters just like the professional comic book artists? In this step-by-step series, Star Wars artists and illustrators show you how to draw some of the most beloved and memorable characters in the saga. So get your pencils and paper ready!
To show you how to draw the fearsome helmet of Darth Vader, Star Wars artist Thomas Hodges explains nine easy drawing steps with examples below. For a larger view, click on each image.
Step One:
Start with a simple circle with a line down the center and another line across towards the bottom of the circle.
Step Two:
Jump just above the line along the bottom; arch his “brow” line. Also, create the lines of his helmet. Be sure to adjust the top of it at this point. Remember, Vader’s helmet is not round.
Step Three:
Add a small box in-between the eye area and under it, make a small circle.
Step Four:
Draw another circle that is slightly larger then the last that overlaps the first small circle about halfway through it. Connect the sides of those lines and then draw a line through that circle. The end of that line will be the point to start your “triangle” for the front of Vader’s mask. Create that triangle and put little circles on the ends.
Step Five:
Here’s where you start adding all the lines to start defining Vader’s mask. The lines for his eyes, the sharp edges of the mask and the triangle under his “mouth”… You can see in the example the lines you need to add.
Step Six:
Start cleaning up the drawing by erasing the excess lines you have still on the piece. You’ll also adjust the helmet lines (the sides) and add his neck area.
Step Seven:
Vader’s helmet is black, but you need to be able to see it. So in this step, section off the areas you will make black. Put small X’s in those areas. This is a comic artist trick that shows exactly what areas to make all black.
Step Eight:
Fill in the areas and begin to fill in the little details.
Step Nine (Finishing step):
Erase the extra pencil lines you don’t need and sign your piece of art! You’ve just created Darth Vader!
Cantina Roll-Call: Shedding Light on Some Alien Aliases
This Place Can Be A Little Rough
Star Wars fans love detail. The intricately crafted worlds of the films and expanded universe are what sell the fantastic as reality and keep viewers and readers coming back for more. Many fans aren’t content to accept a background alien as just a background alien: they want to know who he, she, or it is, its planet of origin, and what exactly the alien was up to in that scene. From the earliest days of writing Star Wars, George Lucas dovetailed his interests in science fiction, fantasy, and anthropology and wrote elaborately detailed backstories for his creations. In the Lucasfilm Archives are transcripts of brainstorming sessions wherein Lucas laid out the ecology of Kashyyyk, and the complete cultural roots of the Wookiees — all this for a species that would ultimately be represented by a single character, Chewbacca, and a planet that would go unseen in the original trilogy.
The Mos Eisley Cantina is a wealth of character and alien information, but much has been lost over the quarter-century of Star Wars. Misplaced production notes and half-remembered anecdotes make piecing together who was in the shadowy watering hole difficult. During the publishing resurgence of the early 1990s, many of the cantina aliens were given full histories, but these were invented from scratch; the authors essentially had a clean slate to work with, with little more than simplistic filming nicknames as a starting point. “Four Eyes,” “Bat” and “Plutonian” are hardly compelling character names.
In the summer of 2000, shortly after Lucas shot the Outlander Club sequence for Episode II, dozens of the nightclub extras were promptly assigned character names and species in anticipation of spin-off fiction or licensing possibilities. These details were established concurrent with production, rather than invented long after the fact. Lucas and Lucasfilm named such barely-glimpsed nightclub denizens as Lunae Minx, Oakie Dokes, Sel Maa and Nyrat Agira.
The 1970s were a far different time. Back then, naming and establishing the backstory of the cantina aliens was not anyone’s priority. Furthermore, Lucas was never entirely pleased with the progress of the cantina scene, and had more pressing concerns. During the initial shooting of the sequence in England, Makeup Supervisor Stuart Freeborn was ill and could not complete enough aliens in time. Lucas later had to cajole 20th Century Fox for more money for reshoots, and photographed insert shots of booth-dwelling aliens crafted by ILM and Rick Baker.
Lucas was surprised that the cantina became an audience favorite, since it had always represented compromise and disappointment in his mind. But the skills of Freeborn, Baker, and other makeup artists, along with judicious editing, made the cantina appear much more than the sum of its parts. In 1978, when Kenner Products began making action figures, cantina aliens were high on the wish list. The toymakers began requesting names and details for the many nameless aliens.
So, in 1978, internal memos at Lucasfilm established names for many of the aliens, though only Walrus Man, Hammerhead, Snaggletooth and Greedo ever got to action figure form. Also that year, “The Star Wars Holiday Special” aired for the first and only time, and it too featured a scene in the cantina, with more aliens supplied by Rick Baker. But even then, there wasn’t much information about the bar’s inhabitants.
Fast-forward to 1989. Star Wars publishing is largely dormant, with West End Games being the sole publisher regularly expanding the universe through roleplaying games and guides. Galaxy Guide I: A New Hope added more information about the cantina aliens — including names and backgrounds for many of them, though author Grant Boucher invented much of the material since there was nothing to go on. Also that year, author Troy Denning shed light on more history with Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races. In 1995, Bantam Books’ Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina not only added more names, but added personality and histories to a number of cantina aliens. That same year, Decipher Inc. fleshed out more cantina aliens in their Star Wars Customizable Card Game.
Earlier this year, poking through the photo archives at Lucasfilm revealed more secrets of these cantina denizens. Here’s an exclusive look at what the research uncovered:
Friendly Neighborhood Cullatran
Hem Dazon
Stepping into the cantina, one the first characters you see is Hem Dazon, a glittery-eyed Arcona that was photographed as part of insert-footage. He was simply a bodiless puppet named “T-head” on set and designed and built by Laine Liska. According to Lucasfilm memoranda dated September 13, 1978, he was to have been given the proper name of “Thadd,” though that name went unused. In the Holiday Special, the puppet head was mounted on an extra that walked through frame, giving a very brief view of the creature’s humanoid anatomy.
In 1989, West End Games established the Arcona species of salt-addicted limbed serpents. A boxed miniature set identified the Arcona in the cantina as Hem Dazon, though the Star Wars Screen Entertainment software package would attempt to name him Kal Nkai. Dazon is the name that stuck.
Defel & Lak Sivrak
In supplementing the existing cantina alien footage, pinch-hitter Rick Baker pulled a number of pre-existing masks off-the-shelf to fill in the booth-based reshoots. This included two different furry-faced wolfmen in the cantina.
The first one seen in the original theatrical version of A New Hope is a snarly, shadowy creature with glowing red eyes. Baker’s crew nicknamed this alien “Wolfman,” but it is not the same alien as the more visible canine carouser seen later in the scene. That other wolfman was actually nicknamed “Hyena-Man,” and he didn’t get a proper name until 1989, when he was established as Lak Sivrak, the Shistavanen Wolfman.
The first wolfman went unnamed until Decipher Inc. described him as a “Defel” in the card game. The Defel first appeared in a 1989 gamebook as a compelling species of shadowy mercenaries that have the natural ability to absorb visible light. That worked well with the Defel barely glimpsed in the movie, but how do you explain photos of that original wolfman in plain lighting with clearly visible details? To alleviate that discrepancy, Decipher would later go on to explain that the Defel in the Cantina, Arliel Schous, is aging and is losing his light-absorbing talents, though that leaves readers to presume that any time an artist uses the “Wolf Man” mask as reference for a background alien, it is meant to be an aging Defel.
The off-the-shelf canine masks long bothered Lucas, and when it came time to do the Special Editions both aliens were replaced with more elaborate creations.
Trinto Duaba
This booth-lurking alien was nicknamed “Terminal Man,” not only for his deathly appearance, but also odd electrical terminals grafted into his craggy skin. He was also known as “Veiny” and “Future Man.” His name and backstory as Trinto, a vampiric Force-gobbling Stennes Shifter, came about in the mid-1990s through the Decipher Star Wars Customizable Card Game.
Brainiac
Another alien from Rick Baker’s crew, this giant-headed specimen was known on set as “Brainee,” “Cranium Head” and “Crater Head.” He was never given a specific name until 1995, when he was dubbed Braniac, which according to lore is apparently just a nickname.
Bom Vimdin
This Rick Baker-supplied alien has probably the oddest on-set nickname: Don Rickles. No, the famous Vegas insult-comic didn’t have anything to do with Star Wars, but this particular alien hockey puck resembled the comedian enough to earn the sobriquet. He didn’t get a “real” name until 1993, when West End Games identified him as Bom Vimdin, the Advozse.
Myo
It’s easy to trace the etymology of most of the on-set alien nicknames, such as The One-Eyed Cyclops. His proper name was going to be Cyceyed, back in 1978, but that name was lost to time. In 1995, a roleplaying sourcebook, Alliance Intelligence Reports, featured a cyclopean Abyssin named Myo. When the Decipher card of this character came out, the cantina alien finally had a name.
The spin-off material established Myo as a sort of hulking brute, but in truth, the person wearing the mask in the cantina was actually pretty scrawny compared to more recent artwork of the beefy Abyssins. Myo was a Laine Liska-designed slip-on mask with slight articulation of the eye.
Muftak
A fan favorite for his warbling drone and his endearing confused head-scratch, Muftak was nicknamed Spider-Man on the set. It wasn’t for any similarity to the famous webslinging superhero, but rather because arachnids inspired the multiple eyes on the creature’s fuzzy face. Clearly, there was no use establishing “Spider-Man” as this alien’s proper handle. Besides, it had another nickname: Four Eyes. This alien was also in the Holiday Special, where it warbled the exact same dialogue to the cantina hostess played by Bea Arthur.
According to a 1978 memo, this alien was going to be named Cullatran, but more than a decade later, the name Muftak and the species Talz was applied by the writers of the roleplaying game.
Djas Puhr
A recent Hasbro toy, the detailed and articulated action figure of Djas Puhr has sparked many a fan to ask, “just who is this guy?” He’s hard to spot in the cantina, but he’s definitely there, with his gleaming black skin and inexpressive face. This character was identified as “Coal Man” during production. A pale-faced version of the same alien species — Sakiyan — appears in “The Star Wars Holiday Special.” The proper and difficult-to-pronounce name of Djas Puhr came from the Customizable Card Game.
Of Hare Mice and Gila Men
Feltipern Trevagg
Concept artist Ron Cobb illustrated a number of alien designs during the development of the cantina sequence. In the margins of the illustrations were a number of biological notes, explaining the creature’s native environment. A twin-horned scruffy-faced alien was described as being a “High Tundra” creature, and that became its default nickname on set.
Make up artist Laine Liska crafted the High Tundra mask and hands. The alien was to have been given the proper name of Dratun. It wasn’t until the Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina anthology in the mid-90s that this alien was identified as corrupt tax collector Feltipern Trevagg. His alien species, the Gotal, was established in 1989’s Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races.
M’iiyoom Onith
When we first saw Feltiperrn in the cantina, he was snuggling up to a beak-nosed alien who was giggling up a storm. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but this comely alien was given the unflattering on-set nickname of Yam Nose.
The alien was to have the proper name of Yamnoss, but instead fell into obscurity. The alien mask was resurrected for Return of the Jedi, though that particular alien is barely visible on screen.
In 1995’s Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, we learn that Yam Nose is really M’iiyoom Onith, whose name translates to “Nightlily.” She’s a tender young H’nemthe with a deadly secret that Feltiperrn finds out during a stolen moment of intimacy.
Leesub Sirln
One of the on-set aliens shot in England, Leesub Sirln was only identified as “Weird Girl” in the production notes. She didn’t get her proper name until the first set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, which established her as a Qiraash. A production photo of this character has her standing in front of the Millennium Falcon, suggesting the proximity of both the docking bay and cantina stages.
Solomahal
This alien has always had a military leaning. During shooting, it was known simply as “The Colonel,” though another nickname was “the Hare Mouse.” Seen both in the cantina and wandering the alleys of Mos Eisley, the Colonel had a very rotund build. Its original proper name was going to be Ownellco, but it went without a moniker until the Customizable Card Game established him as Solomahal. According to the lore printed on the card, Solomahal was a veteran of the Clone Wars. He most likely achieved the rank of Colonel.
The Saurins
There are at least two thirsty reptilian bipeds at the bar in A New Hope. On set, they were simply known as “Crockers” or “Gila-Men,” but one of them was to have been given the proper name of “Gilaass.” It wasn’t until 1995 that they were given proper species name of Saurins, and individual names of Sai’torr and Hrchek Kal Fas.
Nabrun Leids
Turned into an action figure by Hasbro, the four-armed Nabrun Leids was called the Plutonian on set. Though Leids is a male, the slight build and production photography revealed the extra playing him to be a female. The alien’s long, cone-like head prompted its other nickname, Squid Head, which predated the Quarren nickname by several years. This nickname became the source of its intended proper name of Quidultii, which was forgotten for years. The name Nabrun Leids came from the Customizable Card Game.
Takeel
Most fans know Snaggletooth from the vintage action figure made by Kenner. The legendary “Blue Snaggletooth” came about when Kenner didn’t have adequate reference photography to design the figure of the alien, so the sculptors guessed at its body shape and wardrobe. The result was a Snaggletooth that was too tall, too blue, and a prized collector’s item. Kenner corrected the alien by giving him a red jumpsuit and a shorter build, but even that particular Snaggletooth can’t be found in A New Hope.
The Customizable Card Game gave the dopey-looking alien seen sitting next to Han and Chewie’s booth the proper name of Takeel. His species name, Snivvian, was developed around the same time by the roleplaying game. In the late 70s, the proper name “Tooggle” was set aside for this alien, though it went unused.
The mask was re-used for “The Star Wars Holiday Special”, for a character wearing a red-and-black jumpsuit not used in the original film. It is this character that the action figure Snaggletooth is meant to represent. The Holiday Special established his name as Zutmore, which later became Zutton.
Greedo
Greedo was the only cantina alien whose name was actually spoken in the film. There were several Greedo-type aliens in the cantina and Mos Eisley scenes, all dressed identically. Production notes nicknamed Greedo’s alien species “Martians,” since the bug-eyed green-skinned suction cup-fingered alien fit many a Martian cliché. That name would never do for Star Wars, which is set in a distant galaxy with no Mars.
A 1978 memo established Greedo as one of the Graffties, a species of bipeds whose name may be a corruption of American Graffiti, in reference to Lucasfilm’s other big hit of the era. In 1989, that name had been forgotten, and Galaxy Guide 1 established Greedo as a Rodian. Since then, “Rodian” has been adopted not only by the expanded universe, but also the production team that often uses the correct alien name in indentifying the many Rodian extras seen in the prequels.
Dannik Jerriko
Sometimes a cigar-smoker is just a cigar-smoker, and sometimes a background extra is a gateway to gothic horror fiction. The perfect example of an alien that’s more than meets the eye, this simple extra identified only as “smoker” has gone on to have an elaborate, high-concept, and macabre backstory. The extra playing the smoker wore simple make-up to modify his features. There appears to be no attempt at naming this alien back in the 70s. Perhaps his hookah-habit prevented him from being an action figure — a child’s play thing dedicated to a smoker would probably have raised a few parental eyebrows.
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina reveals that the smoker is Dannik Jerriko, a centuries-old vampire with a dark and twisted past, who uses jagged proboscii concealed in cheek-pouches to drain the life from his unsuspecting victims.
Louie, Louie
Dr. Evazan
“You’ll be dead!” There’s one of these guys in every seedy bar, a loudmouth troublemaker with something to prove. Only identified as “grubby human” in the script, this ugly bully boasted having the death sentence on 12 systems. Some sources have mistakenly identified this thug as “Snaggletooth,” (long time fans may remember the Jedi Master Quizbook saying this).
In the radio drama, this human was named Roofoo, though in 1989, we learn that he is in truth Dr. Evazan, a sick and twisted doctor who earned the dozen death-marks by mutilating his patients. He has since been established to have numerous aliases, including the Doctor, Doctor Death, and Doctor Cornelius.
Ponda Baba
This is the ill-fated thug that tries to pick a fight with the meek Luke Skywalker. In the script, he is simply called “Creature,” and Lucas describes him as a “large, multiple-eyed creature.”
The finished alien was realized as a slip-on mask and set of gloves, and had the nickname of Walrus Man. The disarming lightsaber attack was shot practically on stage, with a tear-away arm prop worn by the extra who played Walrus Man. The effect never really worked, and Lucas had to cut around it, obscuring the action editorially. The reveal of the severed arm was shot as an insert after the fact. However, on set in London, Walrus Man had big, awkward fin-like hands. The inserted arm had a hairy claw.
For a time, Walrus Man’s proper name was slated to be Russwall, but that name never saw print, and the action figure that Kenner produced bore the simplistic production nickname. Not that many fans seemed to mind — besides, more than one young action figure collector renamed him “Bum Face” for his inward-curving tusks.
In the 1981 radio dramatization of A New Hope, Walrus Man is given the name of Sawkee. His final name of Ponda Boba didn’t come about until 1989, in Galaxy Guide 1, which also revealed him to be an Aqualish. Sawkee is just one of the many aliases this criminal uses.
Swilla Corey
According to production notes, there were several “local girls” on set, meaning female human Tatooine residents that would not require complicated alien masks. One of the extras, noted in continuity logs simply as “Jenny” was to be seen snuggling next to Han Solo. She was cut from the film, but can be seen in a video included in 1997’s Behind the Magic CD-ROM from LucasArts. An image of this scene was also published in Star Wars Insider #41 in a fascinating article about an early cut of A New Hope.
Another local girl is a stringy-hair blonde lurking behind Ben Kenobi after the old Jedi puts away his lightsaber. This character was established as Swilla Corey by the Customizable Card Game.
Kabe
The squeaky little rodent who requests a tall blue beverage was known simply as “Bat” on set. Other notes use the nickname “Demon.” Though Kabe has since been revealed to be a relatively harmless pickpocket, the original script for A New Hope has the small rodent creature as a cohort to Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba as they accost Luke. If you watch the cantina scene closely, you can see that Evazan exchanges a few words with Kabe before the fight breaks out.
Production notes identify the alien’s early proper name as Tink. It would be renamed Kabe and established as a female partner in petty crime to Muftak in Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope.
Labria
Labria, the razor-toothed devil-faced Devaronian, has been revealed to have a checkered past. While Tatooine Manhunt, a roleplaying module published in 1988, and Galaxy Guide 1 suggest him to be a harmless drunk, Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina showed Labria to be a fugitive war criminal named Kardue’sai’Malloc.
Would fans consider this horned miscreant any less sinister if they knew his on-set nickname of “Louie?” He was also simply referred to as “the Devil.” This Rick Baker-creation was added to the cantina during the additional photography that filled out the booths with exotic aliens.
And the Band Played On
Modal Nodes
Surprisingly, the most memorable aliens from the cantina didn’t get immortalized as action figures until 1996. The swinging cantina band consisted of large-headed aliens built by Doug Beswick. They weren’t present during principal photography, instead added during the reshoots that filled out the scene. Known simply as “Band Member,” the aliens were going to be given the proper species name of Sicmoo, which appears to be a simple rearrangement of the word “music.” In the Holiday Special, the band leader is referred to by name as Babarine.
The proper alien name of Bith and the bandleader’s name, Figrin D’an, came from Galaxy Guide 1. The names of the bandmembers were fleshed out in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina.
Tonnika Sisters
The Tonnika twins weren’t exactly twins. Their production nickname was “Space Girls,” though their fashion sense of wearing their underwear on the outside led to a less-than flattering (and somewhat unprintable) nickname. They were played by two local extras that were not related, and did not look alike at all.
But in 1989, when Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope filled in this pair’s backstory, it established that the girls were identical. The artwork accompanying the article was cheated — it was based on production photography of the cantina extras, but only one of the girls was illustrated. The artwork was reversed and duplicated, creating a mirror image.
This presented a problem when it came using photography of these extras. They clearly weren’t identical, despite what their backstory claimed. Timothy Zahn resolved this discrepancy with his short story in the Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina anthology.
In “Hammertong,” Zahn reveals that the non-identical girls in the cantina that day weren’t the real Tonnika sisters. The real twins were doing time in some prison for one of their many capers. The women posing as them were actually undercover Mistryl shadow warriors.
The Duros
Though Star Wars fans now know these social aliens as Duros, on set they were simply called Goggle-Eyes. Realized as inarticulate slip-on masks built by Phil Tippett, only one of the two Duros seen in the cantina was fitted with alien gloves, producing quite the size disparity in the aliens’ hands.
The Duros backstory was established by author Troy Denning in Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, who detailed their long history of spacefaring that rivals that of the Corellians.
During the production of Episode I, the Neimoidians were to be computer-generated, but when George Lucas decided to realize them instead as animatronic masks, he pointed at some classic trilogy photography of the original Goggle-Eyes and declared them Neimoidians.
Of course, the Duros backstory had already been developed, so the resulting Neimoidians ended up with a history that intertwines with the Duros and the aliens that resulted had enough superficial differences to the original Duros to allow both backstories to be preserved.
Kitik Keed’kak
One of the most elaborate puppets on set is hardly seen in the finished movie. Identified only as “Praying Mantis,” this giant green insect was operated by Jack Purvis, the same actor who played the chief Jawa, chief Ugnaught, and Teebo the Ewok in the classic trilogy. It was part of principal photography, and was on set in London. It was named Kitik Keed’kak in the Decipher Customizable Card Game.
Reegesk
This sniveling little rodent wore robes much like a Jawa, but the lack of true binocular vision on its pointed head clearly indicates it is not meant to be an un-hooded representative of that species. In addition to the rodent in the cantina, a rather tall member of this same species walks across frame as Luke is selling his landspeeder.
Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races establishes this species as a Ranat, a ravenous race of vermin. The specific alien seen in the cantina is Reegesk, as revealed in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. During production, the alien was known simply as “Rodent” or “Rat Face.” John Mollo’s costume sketches suggest it was to wear a face-mask at some point. It’s early proper name was Aceatta, but that name never saw print.
Dice Ibegon
This serpentine alien is seen next to Lak Sivrak, the Shistavanen Wolfman. Part of the booth-based reshoots, on set this puppet was referred to as “Snake Head.” It was going to have a proper character name of Nake, but years later, it became a female Florn Lamproid named Dice Ibegon in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina.
Elis Helrot
Another booth-based reshoot alien, this walking skeleton with the anguished face was based on original illustrations by Ralph McQuarrie. It was nicknamed “Skull Head,” and was to have the proper name of Kull. In 1989, its species name was established as the Givin in Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, an alien race of mathematicians who could hermetically seal their external skeletons to survive exposure to vacuum. The particular Givin seen in A New Hope was named Elis Helrot, a slave-trader, according to the Customizable Card Game.
Flies, Snails and Hammerheads
Tzizvvt
Though its head resembles that of a giant fly, this alien’s production nickname was “Snail Head.” According to original 1978 Lucasfilm documents, it was to have been given the proper name of Illna. This alien was part of principal photography in London, and is mostly edited out of the film, replaced with more elaborate booth aliens during the reshoots. It was largely forgotten until Decipher revealed it to be Tzizvvt the Brizzit.
Momaw Nadon
A fan favorite, this alien was known for years simply as “Hammerhead” thanks to the Kenner action figure. Its production nickname sounded cool enough to keep for the toy, and even the radio drama has Luke comment upon seeing a “Meerian Hammerhead” while in the cantina.
The particular Hammerhead alien was named Ammerha by Lucasfilm in 1978, though that name went unused. In 1987, The Star Wars Sourcebook established the alien as an Ithorian, and then Momaw Nadon was revealed to be the Ithorian in the cantina in Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope. A peaceful Rebel sympathizer, Nadon has appeared several times in the expanded universe.
Mosep
Mosep can be seen lurking the backstreets of Mos Eisley as Luke goes to sell his speeder. This background alien has drawn the attention of many long-time fans because he served as a stand-in for Jabba the Hutt in the original Marvel Comics adaptation of A New Hope.
Mosep was a walrus-faced humanoid in a faded red suit with a cut reminiscent of an Imperial officer’s uniform. During shooting, the alien was known as “Walrus,” “Ming” or “Mingo.” He didn’t get his proper name and Nimbanese heritage until 1995, when Galaxy Guide 12: Aliens — Enemies and Allies was published. This book also established that the Nimbanese work as bureaucrats for the Hutt criminal empire.
The ties to the Hutts were inspired by Marvel Comics using Mosep’s design to depict Jabba in a scene cut from A New Hope. Though George Lucas had always intended Jabba to be a big loathsome creature, he simply didn’t have the time or money to realize Jabba as a visual effect for the original film, so the confrontation between Han and Jabba was cut. It was originally filmed with an actor, Declan Mulholland, in a shaggy outfit, playing Jabba.
Though it was cut from the film, it stayed in the comic, and artist Howard Chaykin used Mingo as his Jabba substitute. Back then, the character was known as Jabba the Hut (he didn’t get a second ‘T’ until 1983). This character would appear once more to plague Han Solo in the Marvel series.
Of course, there were more cantina denizens, but the ones spotlighted here represent some of the more interesting specimens. If further research uncovers more facts — no matter how trivial — about the classic cantina sequence, look for an update someday.
The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition originally was conceived as a way to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the release of Star Wars. But as the process of restoring the original film negative started, it turned into much more. For one thing, the new release gave creator George Lucas a chance to “pull the old thorns out of my side” by fixing some shots that he felt didn’t work, and by adding new sequences that just couldn’t be done twenty years ago. In addition, it would give Industrial Light and Magic, Lucas’ premier special effects house, a chance to stretch and to try out new techniques that would later be used in full force to make Episode I.
One scene that was revised to better meet Lucas’ expectations was the Tatooine Dunes sequence in Star Wars. It involves a detachment of stormtroopers searching for two missing droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, who presumably have top-secret plans of the Death Star battle station. Lucas wanted an element of surprise, so he had the troopers ride giant lumbering beasts called Dewbacks instead of more advanced machinery. Due to budgetary and technical limitations, the original Dewbacks were little more than large, immovable rubber puppets. This five-part documentary, which will be released one episode per week over a five-week period, shows how the Dewbacks became the seemingly living, breathing creatures in the Star Wars Special Edition.
Transition Effects
Though much less technically complex than the special effects that have made Star Wars famous, transition effects are another way in which George Lucas made Star Wars visually distinctive. In his use of them he reached back into neglected dimensions of cinematic history, where they had been gathering dust. With transition effects, as with the sheer thrilling adventure feel of Star Wars, Lucas was reactivating aspects of film-making that had been fun in decades past, but which by the mid-1970’s had fallen into disuse.
A movie-maker’s traditional repertoire of ways to get from one shot to the next consists of cuts, dissolves, fades, and wipes. Cuts simply replace one shot with the next with no transition, and are used as the standard approach in film and video editing. The other forms of transition therefore stand out as unusual, and so they carry an additional visual statement, a form of ‘phrasing’ the way the screen story is being told. Dissolves gradually blend one shot into the next, making for a smoother transition, and can be used to show the passage of time or the shifting of the scene to another place. Fades are dissolves to a single color, normally black or white, which are used to punctuate end of a scene or make a statement of closure or finality. All three of these transitions were still part of the standard filmmaker’s tool kit when Lucas came to editing Star Wars in the mid-1970’s, but wipes were very rarely used anymore.
Wipes are a more showy way to go from one scene to the next, and if used improperly can draw too much attention to the editing of the film, getting in the way of the story. A standard side-to-side wipe brings in a new shot as if a page is being turned, with an invisible line crossing the screen to reveal the next image. For a moment, parts of both the old and the new shot are on the screen together. Many other forms of wipe are possible, and Lucas invoked a variety of creative types for the editing of Star Wars. These transition effects played into the grand showmanship of the film, contributing to its feel as an exciting story being told with flair. In another context they would seem out of place, and in the mostly gritty and ‘realistic’ world of 1970’s films like Dirty Harry, they were virtually never to be seen. But they were right at home in the more comic-book fun approach of Star Wars, and they once more linked the film to its inspiration origins in classic adventure serials like Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, which regularly employed creative wipes. Lucas was also influenced by the work of the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, who was himself known to use transition effects.
Star Wars employed a variety of transition effects. Among them, an ‘iris out’ reveals the middle of the new shot in the center of the picture and expands the borders of the shot in a widening circle. Vertical wipes reveal the new shot from bottom to top or vice-versa. Lucas even employed growing interlocked diamonds and other creative patterns, one of which was the ‘clockwise’ which made the invisible transition line follow the path of a clock’s hand around the screen. When the Special Edition of Star Wars was being put together, transition effects were just one of the ways in which the new footage had to blend with the old, as in the scene here with the Dewback patrol group, which is revealed by a clockwise wipe. The wipes were one more complexity to the editing, but one more aspect in which Star Wars was made a special form of visual storytelling.
The Missing Negative
To begin work improving and enhancing the original Star Wars saga, the first step was to make new copies of the film from the original negative. But early on, producers and special effects editors realized that this negative had suffered significant damage over the last 20 years. The film was alarmingly faded, scratched and coated with dirt. It was soon clear that a full-scale restoration of the original negative would be necessary before any new footage or digital effects could be added.
When creating Star Wars, George Lucas saved nearly every element associated with the making of the film: props, costumes, models, paintings and so on. The problem was that these pieces were stored at a number of different locales and much had been mis-filed over the years. A search was conducted using an incomplete editorial archive, which should have offered a guide to where each negative and element was stored. The editors carried the search from the archives of Skywalker Ranch to the warehouses of ILM, and even to a subterranean vault in the Midwest. With luck and perseverence they were able in the end to find all the necessary pieces.
The original footage for the Tatooine Dune sequence – “TD3” – was found by chance sitting on top of a cold storage vault. Special effects editors needed this footage because the original negative was not live action. The sequence had already been recomposited to add two effects. Original footage, effects elements, and the filming of new dune scenes were required to create the new scene with the digital dewbacks and extra storm troopers.
Concept Art
It was Terryl Whitlatch’s job to turn the rough dewbacks that appear in the original Star Wars into detailed and realistic creatures.
Terryl studied vertebrate zoology, the study of animals with backbones, at Sonoma State University. She later transferred to the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Her biological training has been invaluable for creating amazing but plausible creatures. She said she uses animals that exist in nature as models and blueprints for evolving her own creations. She pays strict attention to skeletal details and chooses realistic skin textures and colors.
Terryl approached this particular challenge by asking herself questions about the dewbacks. What physical characteristics would this creature need to survive in the harsh Tatooine desert? Is it clumsy or graceful? What particular features make the dewback a convenient animal for the stormtroopers to use on their desert missions?
Terryl answered these questions graphically — giving the dewback a hump to store energy much like a camel. It has dark, rough skin with sparse hair. Her dewback doesn’t look very comfortable to ride but they work well for the stormtroopers because they’ve adapted well to life in the desert. The details in Terryl’s design make the dewback a creature that an audience would find plausible in the context of the movie.
Terryl used the example of a horse in a Western to illustrate what she tries to accomplish when designing creatures.
“If the horse just stood there not moving while the cowboys talked, no one would believe it was a real horse. The little movements like twitching ears, and a flipping tail are important details in making the animal seem real and alive.”
Terryl needed to create several sketches for the digital artists so they could build a properly proportioned computer model of her design. The full color sketch defines the dewback’s skin texture and color, its proportions and size. She drew the top view of the dewback to establish the dewback’s ribcage and pelvis size and length.
Not all the sketches were necessary for creating the enhanced Tatooine dune sequence, but they represent the amount of thought and care Terryl puts into each creature she designs. She says she develops a real affection for some of her creatures.
The Lucasfilm Archives
In the beginning there was chaos.
Piles of “stuff” in closets, warehouses, cubbyholes and corners. This “stuff” consisted of the thousands of props, miniatures, creatures, models, costumes and paintings used to film the Star Wars Trilogy.
After posing for a publicity shot surrounded on all sides with piles of these miniatures and props,[ Archive Photo ] George Lucas took a look around and realized just how much “stuff” there was. An archive was a necessity if all of these pieces were to be preserved.
So with the goal of preserving the art and artifacts with the same care as would a museum, the process of constructing the archive building began. Since 1992 the collection has been stored in a huge two-story environmentally controlled building on Skywalker Ranch.
Preserving and cataloging the collection is an ongoing process. The collection includes not only objects from the Star Wars Trilogy, but also from several other movies including the Indiana Jones trilogy, American Graffiti and Willow. The collection continues to grow with new artifacts such as models of the planet of Coruscant used in the celebration scenes of Return of the Jedi Special Edition.
Conserving the artifacts is difficult because they were not originally created to last and because they are made of many different types of materials. Latex, plastic, metal, fabrics, and fur all require special care. The archivists are always looking for new and better methods of storage to slow the deterioration of the artifacts.
The archive includes a “Hero” aisle, a space not only for storage but also for displaying some of the more fantastic articles from the collection. A model of the Death Star under construction from Return of the Jedi, the Imperial Star Destroyer, X-wings, Han Solo in carbonite, and the wampa snow creature puppet are all carefully stored, cataloged and displayed.
The archive houses: models — the spaceships, vehicles, miniatures of sets, and items used in special effects sequences; creatures — including hand puppets, masks, creatures in miniature scale for stop-motion photography; props — weapons, clothing, artifacts; costumes — uniforms, full-body suits, costumes of principal characters; paintings — matte paintings designed to create the illusion of a large set, and larger backdrop paintings; art work — the sketches, drawings, production paintings, storyboards, costume and set designs and set blueprints.
The archive was critical for adding new scenes and special effects to the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. From the original dewback’s rubber head used in Terryl Whitlatch’s design, to stormtrooper costumes used in filming additions to the scene, the archive supplied the needed artifacts and reference material that made enhancing the Tatooine dunes sequence possible.
Pre-Visualizing the Scene
Storyboards are cartoon-like drawings that act as blueprints for the creation of a filmed scene. They let filmmakers consider the visual flow and feel of a shot in relation to other shots in a sequence without the expense of having to film it first. Changes can be made with a pencil and eraser rather than with expensive full production crews.
Storyboards were traditionally used primarily for animated movies due to the expense involved in creating every film frame by hand. In animation, it was not practical to try a scene several different ways. Storyboards came to be used in live action movies as well, particularly for special effects sequences, so that elements filmed separately could be created to work together properly for the final shot. Difficult action sequences were sometimes storyboarded as well, to assist in the efficient planning of such shots.
Raiders of the Lost Ark was almost completely storyboarded, which was an uncommon thing in 1980 for a live action movie. Storyboarding each scene let everyone know in advance exactly what the director had in mind, and kept the elaborate production on schedule and under budget.
Storyboarding has since become more common, especially in the effects-laden pictures of the modern era.
For the new Tatooine Dunes scenes in the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, storyboards were standard operating procedure, a tradition at Lucasfilm by this time. The storyboards let George Lucas and the production team communicate visually with each other about what the new shots could offer and how they would flow. Rough ideas could be sketched out quickly and considered, rearranged within the sequence, or modified. An idea that seemed to work would get refined in further sketches until the final storyboard was often a work of art.
In the collection of storyboards shown here, you can see several different approaches to the shots making up the new Tatooine Dunes sequence. Some of the ideas went on to be filmed, while others were discarded – the dispatch of probe pods by the landing craft, for example, and the early design of the lander. In many cases storyboards show a combination of elements, of which only some were retained for the final, actual shot. These storyboards let you see the range of possibilities for the Tatooine Dunes shots, and offer a glimpse into the creative process and into visions of Star Wars that almost were.
Continuity Report
Many factors affect the look of a particular shot in a film, including the angle and types of lighting, the type of lens in the camera, the type of film, and the use of filters over the lens. A journal of daily continuity reports is kept during the making of a movie to record all these factors, as well as to describe the action that took place in a shot and inventory any other aspects of it that may be useful later, such as the way in which characters move, wear their costumes, hold props, or interact with the set.
Continuity reports are important to maintain consistency throughout a sequence. It is sometimes necessary to go back and re-shoot a particular shot when it is later considered unsatisfactory. Occasionally an additional shot may be filmed for insertion in a previously filmed sequence. New and old shots, as well as shots originally filmed out of sequence, must blend together without any jarring changes. Was that character holding the prop in his left hand or his right hand? If the production sets up again tomorrow to continue filming the sequence, this kind of information must be absolutely correct. In the unusual case of the Tatooine Dunes sequence, the continuity information was just as important when the production set up again two decades later.
The new dewback scenes in the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition had to fit precisely into the look and feel of the shot seen in the original movie when the stormtrooper patrol has discovered the escape pod amongst the Tatooine dunes. Reference stills were only a small part of the information needed to blend new scenes with classic ones. Vital information regarding the photographic “stats” of the shot was necessary to ensure that the light quality, for example, and the nature of the sun glare was the same throughout the new combined sequence. And so the continuity reports from the original production, saved by George Lucas for over 20 years, were pulled from their files and consulted closely by the team filming the new Tatooine Dunes sequence.
It was discovered in these reports that the harsh glare of the hot desert sun was enhanced in the original film by the use of pantyhose stretched over the camera lens (indicated by the notation “net” on the continuity report) which gave the scene a less sharp, hotter and more hazy look as well as making characteristic four-sided flares at bright sun reflection points (for example, on the troopers’ helmets). The report also carefully records the camera and lens in use, the camera movement, and the details of the action taking place in the scene. When continuity is kept, the average viewer is not even aware of such subtleties, but when continuity is violated, errors become noticeable. Accordingly, the team creating the new shots for the Special Edition consulted every resource to ensure that the new would blend in every way with the old.
Plate Shots and Other Ancient Traditions
Film terms often have roots in very early technology, and remain meaningful long after the original method of achieving them has changed.
When the production team went to the desert to film the new live-action scenes of the stormtroopers, they were “shooting plates,” as you will hear several people call the shots in the documentary. This term dates back to the earliest days of cinema, when actors in studios were sometimes filmed in front of projected slides of landscapes or other backgrounds. This was done to give scenes greater apparent scope without the expense of sending crews and casts out on location. The background stills, shot with large-format cameras, were called “plates,” because the traditional photographic technique involved large plates of glass on which the emulsion was laid for the negative.
The term “plate” came to refer to other background or scenery shots as well, even when these were cut into a film without any additions and used as establishing or atmosphere shots. A team might be instructed to go get some plates of mountains and some plates of sky to give a scene shot in the studio a greater sense of setting and atmosphere.
Front-projected background “plates” were even used in such cinematically advanced films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, in scenes such as the Dawn of Man. Plates of African scenery were front-projected on screens behind the foreground sets of rocks and man-apes to make it look like the film was actually shot on an African location.
Special effects techniques combine plates with foreground elements, most often using optical compositing rather than front-projection. In the original Star Wars, an example of this is the shot where the landspeeder zooms overhead on its way into Mos Eisley – a static background “plate” was composited with a model shot of the landspeeder, as well as a shadow to go with it.
The term “plate” survives today, even when the plate shot involves camera movement and includes foreground actors like stormtroopers searching the Tatooine Dunes for missing droids. All this live action is called a plate, because it will later be combined with additional elements like Dewbacks and an Imperial lander. The computer-animated elements must be painstakingly “tracked” to the movement of the real camera, to look like they were shot at the same time – a process of “fixing” the virtual, invisible computer background to the real one that has been filmed. The technology has advanced miraculously since the days of King Kong standing in front of a projected slide, but the basic aims of creating entertainment and cinema magic remain the same.
The Virtual Model Shop
ILM artists employ a variety of off-the-shelf and proprietary software programs to build models, sculpt them, give them texture, paint, and even light them – all on a computer. Terms developed for the creation and photography of traditional models are now used to describe what is happening in the “virtual model shop” since the objective is to create computer-generated images that mimic reality as closely as possible. The artists ask themselves how the X-wing or Dewback they are developing would look in real life and they use that as their goal in creating realistic effects.
Accordingly, you will hear computer artists referring to “painting their computer model,” and “lighting it,” actions which all take place via keyboards and mice on the computer screen. Textures can be added to models (or “mapped on”) as part of the program, either giving the model actual texture, or imitating the look of texture. By covering a wireframe model with a kind of wrapping painted to look like various textures – hair, skin, fur, paint, metal – the artists give objects realistic appearances.
Maquettes (small sculptures or models) and traditional paintings and sketches still play a vital role in guiding the work of the computer artists as they create their extraordinary images. But a whole new kind of art now takes place aided by microchips, described in metaphorical terms borrowed from the traditional artists’ studios. The computer artists are exploring new ways of creating, and while their techniques may be “virtual,” the dazzling effects of their art are real.
The People Behind the Pixels
A variety of positions contribute to making a computer model
Star Wars computer-generated (CG) creatures begin their lives in the Art Department. Here among traditional artists working in a wide variety of media, sketched concepts get refined to approved drawings, and rough sculptures become final maquettes. All these works are eventually transferred to the people at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for the creation of the computerized version of the creature. Everything from designs of the skeletal structure to skin texture is important reference for the CG people, and all of it is used in translating the artist’s vision to the world of computer modeling.
Within the mysterious hallways of ILM, powerful computers hum and process millions of calculations at the direction of the small army of technicians assembled for the work. Outside documentaries often give one the impression that these people create a CG dewback by “hitting the dewback button” on their keyboard. The fact is that a variety of distinct types of artists contribute to the creation of the fantastically complex mathematical model that results in the illusion of a moving, living creature. Many of them use metaphorical terminology, making use of descriptive phrases from the artist’s studio or the film editor’s room – so we still speak of sculpting, or compositing images together, knowing that it’s all taking place in the computer and on the screen.
Typically, a CG creature is made to be combined with a live-action shot, which will include an environment (like sand dunes) and characters (like stormtroopers). Creating a CG creature is only part of the job – the creature must be made to walk in a way that matches the live-action plate shot, and then combined with the plate in a seamless fashion.
The CG Modelers build three-dimensional wire-frame models in the computer. These models include hard-surface models (industrial and architectural design), digital sets and CG creatures. In many cases the modelers must build several versions of an object or creature to achieve different desired effects. In the case of creatures, modelers must build multiple facial shapes, often up to 40 or 60 different facial expressions for any given character, especially if it talks. After a model is built, the modeler will continue to work closely with the animators to make modifications due to the complexity and varying demands of any given shot.
A Match Mover makes sure that the virtual environment in the computer matches the real environment filmed for a scene. They also make sure that any camera moves (like pans or zooms) in a live action shoot are carefully matched by the computer’s virtual camera. The lead match mover usually goes on location with a Plate Shot crew to get the necessary information for reconstructing the 3-D environment in the computer. A match mover might use reference points specially placed in a scene for reference and alignment in the creation of the CG environment – for the dewback scene, tennis balls in the sand, laid out in a regular grid, provided secure reference points for the match movers.
When a CG creature or element is added to a the live-action plate, it is placed on top of the existing image, which will make it appear to be in front of everything else unless special steps are taken. Digital Rotoscope Artists make sure that a CG lizard in the background doesn’t overlap a stormtrooper in the foreground. They do this by outlining foreground objects (like stormtroopers) in the live-action film, creating an articulate matte. This moving silhouette of the stormtrooper keeps the computer from generating CG objects in that area, making the dewback appear to walk behind the human figure. The Rotoscope artists are also the people who “perform background repair” and conveniently erase things like tennis balls in the sand.
Viewpaint Artists, meanwhile, are enhancing the creature model by giving it colors and textures. They take a complex but colorless form from the modelers and transform it from something that appears like plastic to something that may appear wrinkled, hairy, or in the case of a dewback, scaly. Their work, based on color paintings from the Art Department artists, will make the CG creature sport a rich variety of hues. Combined with the textures, the realistic colors turn the CG model into a convincing imitation of reality.
The creature may look great now, but he’s still got to move. That requires a whole additional set of skills. A Character Animator takes the CG creature model and gives it motion using a combination of complex commercially-available software and ILM’s proprietary software. Convincing, life-like motion cannot be generated by a computer alone, however, and giving the creature realistic movement takes the artistry of a human animator. These people often come from a background in traditional hand-drawn “cell” (or cartoon) animation, where they learned the subtleties of creating the illusion of living movement. The same expertise is applied to the CG creature using the tools of the movement software. Effects Animators work on the less-complex motion of objects that are not living creatures, such as vehicles or Imperial landing craft.
The creature’s moving, and he’s got a place to fit in the film, but without virtual lighting he’ll never look right. A Technical Director is responsible for the look and lighting of computer generated objects. Light quality and light direction, diffusion, and other factors must be involved to match the CG creature to the live-action environment. A dewback far away on the horizon would look completely wrong if it were as sharp and bright as a Dewback in the foreground. Atmospheric haze and the effects of sunlight and ambient light are all taken into account to blend the computer model into the filmed environment of the real world.
The technical director also keeps track of all the separate elements that are created to build a final shot, coordinating the work of the people creating those individual elements. This workwith be linked together with mattes, paintings, and particular effects created or designed by the technical director.
Supervising the overall production is, finally, the CG Supervisor. This person assists with any problems that come up anywhere in the sequence, and provides feedback on the success and development of each stage.
So…when you see a creature like a dewback lumbering across the sand, you see the results of a complex process, the painstaking construction of a virtual reality. Rather than a single powerful button on some sophisticated computer keyboard, it is a team of professionals doing a whole variety of jobs that makes this leap of imagination possible.
George Lucas demonstrates how his team replaced the original dewbacks from Star Wars (1977) to CGI for the 1997 Special Edition.
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The Sith Lords have grown from shadowy menaces lurking in the peripheries of Star Wars fiction to full-fledged central characters in their own dark dramas. The latest chapter in Sith lore comes from Drew Karpyshyn, fantasy and science fiction writer, and award-winning writer/designer for the computer game company, BioWare. Karpyshyn’s first entry into the Star Wars expanded universe was the enthralling Knights of the Old Republic video game, which told the captivating tale of Darth Revan from the most intriguing, and surprising, vantage points. Now, Karpyshyn has written his first Star Wars novel, Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, out today in hardcover from Del Rey Books. What follows is a brief interview with the author, and an excerpt from the book.
How has your work in computer games influenced your writing?
The most obvious influence comes from my work on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In researching the game I developed a real appreciation for the extended Star Wars universe; I became fascinated with the sheer depth and volume that existed beyond the movies. Being drawn into this world was the first big step towards writing Path of Destruction.
More generally speaking, I find that working in computer games has helped me better understand the concepts of agency and motivation. In game writing you tend to focus on presenting your story in a way that motivates players to make choices, then allows them to act on those choices. I like to think my non-game writing takes this principle and applies it to my characters, giving them strong motivations and more dynamic personalities. Since story is often about character, strong characters with drive and purpose help deliver a stronger overall story.
What are the differences between writing for games and writing novels? Do you have any preference?
While there are a lot of similarities, I find there are a couple major differences between the two genres. The first is in the final product: games (at least, BioWare games) tend to have a much broader and far-reaching scope than any novel. Take KOTOR: we had nine major characters who could join the party, hundreds of people you could meet and roughly 500,000 words of dialog — about the equivalent of five full novels. However, because the player is in control of major sections of the story, a game is forced to deal with things on a more superficial level. We don’t know what order players are going to visit our worlds, or which choices they are going to make. Because of this, we sacrifice complexity to maintain control of the story. Conversely, in a novel the author has complete control. Every move by every character is known well in advance, allowing the author to spin a very complicated, intricate story that digs way, way down into the core of the major characters. In short, games are wide and far reaching but the story tends to stay more on the surface, while novels are much more limited in focus but incredibly deep.
The second difference has to do with the actual creative process. A novel is a very individual effort: the author sinks or swims on his or her own merits alone. I did get a lot of help from my editors, but in the end the book is quite clearly a reflection of my own personal vision. A game involves creative input from hundreds of people: artists, designers, programmers, animators, writers, etc. The end product is a reflection of a group vision, with every person contributing in their own way. In a game, you sacrifice some creative control for the sense of community that comes from sharing and building your ideas with other talented and creative people.
Is Path of Destruction the first of a series? Will we see more of Darth Bane?
I hope so! Without giving anything away, I can honestly say Bane’s saga doesn’t end with the events of the book. I’d love to spend more time with the character, but that’s not really my call. I hope fans feel the same way, and if Path of Destruction generates a demand for more Darth Bane, maybe the powers that be will tap me on the shoulder once again.
The Rule of Two — talk about putting all your eggs in one basket! How can a system that relies on there being only two Sith in the entire galaxy at any time hope to survive? A single accident would be enough to wipe out the entire order forever, and being adept in the Force doesn’t immunize one against accidents.
You have to be careful not to oversimplify the Rule of Two. On the surface it’s basic and straightforward, but this is a philosophy that helped to shape the course of galactic history. There are levels below the surface, and a greater depth and complexity than first meets the eye. I don’t want to give too much away, as I do explore this in the book, but one element that is critical to the philosophy but may not be readily apparent is a belief in the power of the Force and its ability to enhance the power of the individual. An accident could wipe you out, but if you are worthy of being a Sith Master you have to believe you are strong enough to shape your destiny through the dark side so that there are no accidents. The fact that this philosophy kept the Sith line alive for over a thousand years is a pretty strong argument that there is some merit to it.
Who is Darth Bane?
Where did you get the idea for Darth Bane?I think Bane’s first appearance was in the Dark Horse comics, but my decision to use him as my central character was based on discussions between me and my editors. The comics introduced this character, but he wasn’t the primary focus of that story. I found the character to be intriguing and compelling, but what really sold me was the opportunity to examine how someone evolves into the monster Bane finally becomes.
How involved was LucasBooks in this project?
Obviously they had to be involved on some level to make sure this novel fits in with the rest of the Star Wars intellectual properties. Path of Destruction introduces a new era in the Star Wars universe [for novels], and it was important to maintain the Star Wars “feel” and keep the story in line with existing continuity.
In the early stages of developing the story I had a lot of help from my editors Shelly Shapiro and Sue Rostoni, from Del Rey and Lucasfilm, respectively. I worked out the original concept of the book and then with their feedback hammered away at it until we all felt it was something really special. When it came to the actual writing, however, I was pleased to see they let me sink or swim on my own.
How did your views of the Force, and especially the dark side, evolve in the course of writing this book?
Much of the groundwork was laid through the work our team did on KOTOR. I think the big breakthrough came when I realized that, in and of itself, the dark side philosophy is not “evil.” It’s really about the power of the individual rather than the acceptance of collective good. Understanding this makes you realize how appealing the dark side can really be, and that’s where the true danger lies. Nobody starts out wanting to be reviled or a villain, but through the book I hope readers can gain a better understanding of how it could actually happen.
Since light and dark are two sides of a single thing, the Force, and not separate things themselves, why can’t Force users balance both disciplines, drawing from each as the situation requires? In other words, why isn’t there a third group of Force users, neither Jedi nor Sith but occupying a gray zone between them? I don’t know if you can answer that, but it’s something I’ve always wondered about…
I think there are people like this. In KOTOR we touched on this with the character of Jolee Bindoh, but I think there is an inherent flaw in being a “gray” Jedi. For me the key differences in the light and dark comes down to how you perceive the Force. Is it a great, binding energy that we serve by allowing it to act through us? Or is it a tool that we use to serve our own needs? Do you believe in the power of the individual, or the value of teamwork and the group? It’s hard to live your life believing that the best answer is to become a strong individual at all costs and be willing to sacrifice yourself for the good of the group. They ideas aren’t easily compatible, which is why “gray” Jedi are so rare.
Was it a challenge to write a book featuring a villain as the main character? Did you have to go over to the dark side a bit yourself in order to write it?
It was a challenge, because I didn’t want to soften Bane up at all. He is a monster, and I wanted to portray that. At the same time, I wanted the readers to sympathize with and understand him and his motivations. As for going over to the dark side, it wasn’t as hard as you think. Remember: the dark side itself isn’t evil. It’s more about individualism, which can actually be a very good and desirable thing. Self-improvement, confidence, attaining your goals through your dedication and hard work: these are noble traits. The trick comes in recognizing when this nobility becomes corrupted by greed or hate.
When comic book artist and book cover illustrator Dan Parsons first saw a glimpse of a galaxy far, far away, it was unfortunately blocked by a big head of hair.
“My first Star Wars memory was standing in a long line in 1977 to see A New Hope for what seemed like forever,” Parsons recalls. “I ended up having to sit in the very back, only to realize that I was behind a dude with a very large afro! It was, after all, the ’70s!”
Luckily for Parsons, he loved what he could glimpse through the curls enough to realize that he one day wanted to merge his love for Star Wars with his talent for art as a career.
“I think I had a sense that I wanted to be an artist when I was a kid,” Parsons explains. “Around that time I saved up my allowance and bought the Ballantine Frank Frazetta art books, and never was quite the same after that. Although, I didn’t start working full time as a professional until recently, I had been working as a research scientist around 14 years before entering this crazy career.”
As a teenager, Parsons took pride in his work as the cartoonist for the school newspaper and chief illustrator for the school literary magazine — The Pikesville Prism. In college, he majored in science, as well as earning a degree in Fine Art from Towson University in Baltimore. “I can’t say that college had any great affect on me other than exposing me to classical art and giving me a chance to work from the live model,” Parsons admits. “My background in art came from the comic books that I read all through my life. I think my psychology came from there as well!”
Studying both fine art and comics, Parsons says that a number of varied illustrators and artists have influenced his style over the years. “I always cite Frazetta as a major influence, but mostly because his work introduced me into the world of art,” Parsons says. “Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, Al Williamson have remained strong influences on me and newer artists that have really affected me are Dave Finch and Travis Charest. I think Gene Colan has had a deep influence on my storytelling. His sense of flow is unrivaled. And of course, Will Eisner. It was a great honor to recently contribute a piece of art to his tribute book. I’m also really into classic art. The Greek/ Hellenistic style is just the most beautiful art ever created.”
“My current favorite is an illustrator from the early 1900s named Joseph Clement Cole,” Parsons adds. “He had a pen and ink style that is just amazing — loose, but highly detailed. Of the modern comic book artists, I like Dave Finch for scale and mood. I also like the Silvestri/Batt team a lot. I love the sketchy, yet tight, feel they get. My favorite Star Wars artist is definitely Jan Duursema. And I am fortunate enough to be able to work with her on the Star Wars books. Her storytelling is on par with her mentor’s, who I also love, Joe Kubert. I just read his new graphic novel Jew Gangster. He is a true master of simplicity.”
A Creative Partnership
Starting out as a self publisher, Parsons came to be known in the independent comic crowd for his “bad girl” comic, Harpy. His work on the comic earned him enough of a reputation to start getting assignments such as the covers and interior work for the Battlestar Galactica comic. Soon enough, Parsons was onto more projects including the Sci Fi channel’s First Wave comic book. He also illustrated various trading cards projects for the titles Witchblade, Vampirella, Lexx, The Crow and The Lord of the Rings, as well as the ever popular Star Wars Heritage and the Revenge of the Sith sets for Topps.
“I have must have drawn nearly every Star Wars character in the galaxy when you put together the Heritage and the Revenge of the Sith sets,” Parsons smiles. “Of course my favorite will always be Jedi Master Plo Koon! Who else in the galaxy has a small intestine for a face? I like working on the bounty hunters a lot too. Bossk is another face only a mother could love!”
However, before he was sketching his favorite characters on cards for Topps, Parsons found himself chatting with his favorite Star Wars artist — Jan Duursema — in hopes of teaming up with her on a future project. “I was at the San Diego Comic-Con back in 2002 and I had a spot in Artist Alley not far from artist Jan Duursema,” Parsons recalls. “Little did I know she was on the hunt for a new inker. I showed her some of my work which at the time had a real Al Williamson flavor. I think it was a King Kong type piece that caught her eye. I inked some sample pages and we have been working together ever since. We both have a realistic, illustrative approach that works well together.”
For his first official Star Wars project, Parsons was hired to ink an 18-page Obi-Wan/Anakin tale for the double-sized 50th issue of Star Wars: Republic. “I went on to ink the first four issues of Jedi and then Jan [Duursema] and I signed on as the regular team for Republic,” Parsons says. “We worked on the title until the series end with issue #83.”
Parsons continues his creative partnership with Duursema as they tackle the newly released Star Wars: Legacy series. He also has lent his penciling and inking talents on King Kong for Dark Horse. “King Kong was always a favorite of mine so that is a real treat to work on,” Parsons says. “I also continue to work on my creator-owned series Harpy and Savage Planet here and there. Some Harpy stuff is scheduled to come out this summer from Amryl Entertainment. I am also working on an oil painting for a pirate novel called Tales from the Sea. There are other things that are in the works, but I don’t want to get yelled at for ‘giving up the ghost.'”……..
Whether she’s transforming an actress into an otherworldly kind of beauty or creating elaborate hairstyles from fantastical concept drawings, Episode III Makeup Supervisor Nikki Gooley understands all too well the magical qualities of makeup and hairpieces.
Working as a makeup artist and hair designer in such films as The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Matrix, Queen of the Damned and Peter Pan, Gooley has a special knack for using makeup and hair to add dimension and personality to a character whether it be an iconic children’s character or a terrifying vampire.
For Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Gooley and her team found themselves guiding the look of Hayden Christensen as he made the metamorphosis into Darth Vader, as well as perfecting the intricate hairpieces and headdresses for Natalie Portman, not to mention numerous Senators who needed constant primping and preening.
With all the characters who needed complicated makeup and hairstyles, it’s not surprising that Gooley and her team, who arrived on the Sydney set during pre-production eight weeks before filming, would be at the set each day long before most of the cast and crew, and stayed for hours after filming to prepare for the next day’s shooting.
“As a makeup artist and running a department, we start very early in the morning,” Gooley explains. “If they want to start filming at 7:30 in the morning it might take an actor hours, not just with makeup, but they have to get dressed, and fed, and rehearse and everything. Often we’re there from like 5:00 in the morning through until after the filming’s finished. We have to clean everybody up and put everything away and then set up for the next day. We work maybe 14, sometimes 16 hours a day, five days a week. And if you’re on location, it can be six days a week.”
Timing is everything, especially if you only have an actor sitting in the makeup chair for a set amount of time before he or she is asked to be on the set. Because of these stopwatch deadlines, Gooley had to master the art of time management in an extremely busy situation.
“We would tell the Assistant Directors how long we need to do a hairdo or a makeup,” Gooley says. “If we say an hour, that’s fine, that’ll give us an hour. But then after that hour the ADs would schedule something else for the actor, whether it be breakfast or rehearsal. If the actors needed to be on set at 8:30, they have to be there at 8:30. And sometimes if the set is ready earlier then they might try and squeeze them on earlier; which means if the hair and makeup ends up taking an hour and a half, I can’t go past the time limit. I have to say, okay that’s the hour, ready or not. So we often need to use shortcuts if something’s taken a little longer than is anticipated so that we can fix it on set and buy time somewhere else later on.”
It’s exactly this kind of high pressure atmosphere that keeps Gooley on her toes, making for a rather interesting work environment.
“Nobody realizes how tough the hours and demands are — it’s relentless,” Gooley confesses. “Once you’re here at work you can’t always take the usual lunch or dinner breaks. If something needs to be done then that needs to be done no matter what. And if it’s not finished by 6:00 p.m., when you think it’s knock-off time, well then that’s your tough luck. You need to stay until it’s finished which can sometimes be at 11:00 p.m. There are a lot of demands on people. So if it’s not really in your blood, then I think a lot of people have a hard time coping with it.”
Hair Today, Vader Tomorrow
One of the first projects Gooley and her team encountered on the Sydney set involved not only implementing the changes in Anakin Skywalker’s appearance as he was last seen in Attack of the Clones, but also accurately portraying his stunning transformation as Darth Vader.
“We had to keep him very handsome and strong,” Gooley reveals. “So to go from the short hair, younger Anakin to the older more mature Anakin we wanted him to look slightly older in the face so that it was an easier transformation into the darker Darth Vader.”
Director George Lucas could be spotted in the makeup and hair department monitoring Gooley’s progress and offering his ideas regarding Anakin’s new look.
“George is a very interactive director when it comes to hair,” Gooley smiles. “I think he had a very strong image in his head, and there were very detailed concept drawings of how Hayden should look. Sometimes it’s very difficult to make a drawing come to life because there are other people involved. The actor has to have his say, or in the texture of the hair may be different than expected, or it doesn’t resemble how it looks in the drawing. But we were fortunate enough with Hayden. The final look just evolved from conversations with George and from George playing with it, and combing Hayden’s fringe. Plus Hayden was very definite about how he wanted his hair to sit.”
The concepts regarding Anakin’s appearance ran the gamut from a harsh Mohawk to a long pirate-like ponytail, before deciding on the final longer-hair version.
“We had made a long haired wig with a ponytail which looked great but it just wasn’t strong enough for Anakin,” Gooley explains. “Having a long ponytail would have been a little bit too swashbuckling. So it gradually got shorter and shorter, and then we arrived at the length and that was it. I think it was the right decision because it makes him look strong, it gives him a great jaw.”
After the decision with Anakin’s hair had been made, Gooley tried in vain to get different opinions of other crew members. Everyone seemed to love not only the hair, but also the actor.
“When we did some makeup tests in the beginning with Hayden, and we had the dilemma of whether we should use a short wig or go with the longer hair pieces, we’d ask the girls on set what they thought of Hayden’s hair and they’d say, ‘Oh he looks gorgeous! I love that look!’ Then we’d go and ask somebody else. And they’d reply, ‘I love him, I love him! I think he looks fabulous!’ So I think no matter what you did to Hayden, all the girls would be in love with him anyway. He’s so gorgeous.”
Original Trilogy Tie-ins
Anakin wasn’t the only character getting a new look. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had to begin his subtle transformation to look less like actor Ewan McGregor and more like the original trilogy actor Sir Alec Guinness.
“With Obi-Wan’s character, we had to bridge between him being quite young to matching him to the late Sir Alec Guinness,” Gooley recalls. “We decided rather than aging him to make him look a lot older, and closer to Alec, we just gave him a few little tweaks here and there. Instead of giving him a wig with gray hair, we gave Ewan some little hairpieces on the temples to make him look gray.”
Luckily for Gooley and her team, McGregor grew his own beard for the role, making many of the required hair elements easier to work with.
“He has a lot of colors in his beard as well and we were fortunate enough that there was enough time for Ewan to grow his own beard,” Gooley says. “So we didn’t have to put one on every day — which makes it more comfortable for the actor as well as it’s just easier to maintain. There’s a lot of fighting and a lot of water and sweat, so if you can be as realistic with makeup and hair for the actor, it’s a saving grace because otherwise you’re up there touching them up all the time. Having to fix and maintain a wig or a beard with glue and everything when they’re hot can be quite irritating for an actor.”
In addition to the two Jedi, Gooley and her team also concentrated on the intricate headpieces for Padmé Amidala played by Natalie Portman. The headpieces were designed and constructed by Ivo Coveney’s Costume Props Department, but had to work in concert with the hair and makeup design.
“Padmé’s various looks came about through concept drawings, and Costume Designer Trisha Biggar had had a lot of meetings and fittings with Natalie and George about her looks,” Gooley says. “So a lot of it had already developed once I came on board. Our team was left to do the fine fitting and logistics of the hairdo including the creation of a dreadlock-style piece.
“The weight of certain headpieces had to be distributed somehow, and had to fit onto Natalie’s head perfectly,” Gooley continues. “It was almost like working on a motorcar, having to make it function and be comfortable and practical but look fabulous, and not do too much damage to Natalie’s hair. And I think we escaped without too much damage. Natalie was incredible and so patient. She would just sit here for hours with sometimes over 100 pins in her head and not complain once.”
Gooley decided to approach Padmé’s makeup with a more natural look due to the lavish ornate qualities in Padmé’s costuming for Revenge of the Sith.
“Natalie as Padmé had so much going on with her costume and her hair, I tried to keep her makeup as natural as possible,” Gooley says. “I didn’t want her makeup to compete with everything that was going on, just so that her natural beauty came through. Because of Padmé’s pregnancy I wanted to give her a radiant, natural glow — that very healthy look that pregnant women have.”
Even with this new approach to less theatrical, a more natural-looking Padmé, Gooley still managed to have a little fun with the makeup and pay tribute to another sassy and beloved Star Wars heroine.
“Natalie and I played homage to Carrie Fisher with some 70’s lip gloss in the bedroom scene,” Gooley laughs. “She wakes up looking very glossy.”
A Makeup Artist’s Dream
The primary characters weren’t the only ones taking their turns in the makeup and hair chairs. Some of the more intricate makeup and hair pieces were often found on various Senators making their debut in Episode III. “We had some great fun doing some different types of makeup with the Senators,” Gooley admits. “Fang Zar, played by Warren Owens, had this fabulous big beard and hairdo that we just tied up into a top knot. Again, I think because the costumes are so elaborate it’s very important not to try and compete with them but to just let it flow. We had another Senator, Malé-dee, that had a red Mohawk, and so it was great fun. It’s a makeup artist’s dream really there were so many things we could do.
George has been very clever with his makeup ideas in the Star Wars films because there’s nothing really that can date; nothing is a trendy fashion item,” Gooley adds. “He’s been very smart with his choices to keep things very timeless so that in 10 years time, it won’t look dated.”
Though Gooley and her team work on various actors first thing in the morning and throughout the day to prepare them for the filming ahead, she also administers touch-ups on the actors throughout the day to make sure their characters look their best in between shots. But with constant powder puffs and hairbrushes being aimed at the actors, Gooley says she’s hyperaware of when to fix unruly hairpieces, and when the let the actors have their space.
“When you have to look after the actors on the set there’s a very fine line between being annoying with them and not being in there enough,” Gooley says. “I think a lot of actors like to know you’re there and they can see you. Some directors and actors want you to be in there all the time, and then there are other jobs where they like you to leave them alone. So it’s just knowing; finding out that balance, and knowing when to go in and when not to go in. I mean even if it’s a big wide shot, sometimes an actor would still like you to go in and just make sure that they’re okay. And it’s just a reassurance.”
Along with that reassurance is a level of camaraderie between the cast and crew that can be essential to a smooth and positive atmosphere.
“You’re forging a relationship there and you have time to have a joke and laugh, as well as if they’re feeling down about something, whether they’re away from home,” Gooley explains. “You get to know people as well as make sure that your work looks great and holds up against whatever it has to hold up against.”
One of the most important working relationships Gooley formed on the Sydney set was with the director.
“George deals with every department, and he has an answer for every department,” Gooley says. “Even when things go wrong and everything on set is turning bad, you look to George and he’s like ‘Okay, well we can fix it’. He’s just very calm, and I think he just knows how it is all going to fit together. He really cares about everything.”
“I felt quite privileged because I was asked to join the Star Wars family,” Gooley continues. “And that I was asked to do something that has created a culture almost. I never knew that there were websites and fans that traveled the world and went to conventions and things like that. I was completely blown away. I feel very honored to be a part of history.”
The news is out that Episode III will be shot with the new generation of digital high-definition (HD) camera, the HDC-F950. Stories of this type are usually filled with confounding acronyms, numbers and highly technical information. Just what does it all mean, and why is it important? ILM’s HD Supervisor Fred Meyers helps clarify some of the technology.Episode II was the first major motion picture to be shot entirely on digital cameras. Sony developed the first generation HDC-F900 camera. By not using film, the production team saved the time and money usually invested in film stock and photochemical processing, and was able to attain an image of incredible clarity already in the digital medium ready for postproduction use.
For effects-intensive movies like Star Wars, imagery shot on film would have to be scanned and converted into digital information for the artists at Industrial Light & Magic to incorporate their amazing effects. By starting in the digital medium, the use of HD cameras saved a time-consuming step, and kept the picture digital throughout the production pipeline, from the editorial department, through to effects, through to the final mastering, and — in select theaters — through to film-less digital projection.
The First Generation
“Episode II used the first generation of cameras specifically tailored around a new HD format called 24-p. That was the enabling technology to produce a digital camera and a digital recording system that could be used for a motion picture project,” says Meyers. Though the HDC-F900s are seen as the first step, HD cameras had existed before that for broadcast applications such as television. The 24-p, which in this case denotes a 24-progressive frame rate, was the breakthrough.
A frame rate is the number of individual still images that are played back in a second, which when viewed sequentially, produces the illusion of movement. You may have experienced this phenomenon when working with simple flipbooks. When the human eye sees similar still images in rapid succession, it combines those images into motion.
Broadcast video plays back at a different frame rate than traditional film. Traditional film projected in theaters flickers at a rate of 24 distinct still images per second. Video plays back at 30 frames per second, and it’s not distinct images but often “interlaced fields,” where two images are on the screen at the same time, drawn electronically in alternating lines. This disparity between the playback nature of broadcast and film has long been a hurdle when moving images back and forth between the electronic and physical worlds.
The main accomplishment with the HDC-F900s used for Episode II was that they shot at 24 progressive frames per second. The 24 frames fit in perfectly with the traditions of film projection and editing, and the progressive frames meant that each frame was a rock-solid image, and not an interlaced halfway point of merged fields.
As with all digital innovations, as soon as the first generation is produced, a second generation of improvements is waiting around the corner. The improvements focused on three related pieces of technology: the lenses (which gather the light), the camera (which turns that light into image data), and the recorder (which stores the image data). Lucasfilm provided Sony and Fujinon with detailed feedback from the trailblazing efforts of Episode II to build a better image acquisition system.
“They listened,” says Meyers. “Sony and Fujinon have devoted some resources into delivering something that is going to raise the bar for digital acquisition. We were in close contact with Sony about our Episode II experiences, and our hopes to keep the momentum going to see incremental and substantial new features in the camera and the recorder. We shared what we learned, and Sony came up with a new camera format that could be based on the 900-series camera, and had much cleaner image output than the first generation.”
Third Generation Lenses
Facilitating the gathering of sharper, cleaner images are the latest generation of lenses from Fujinon. “They listened to us on our experiences on Episode II, and they’ve made significant improvements on the quality of the lens and the usability of the lens in a motion picture style environment,” says Meyers. The new E Series lenses are now considered third generation, and while better suited to cutting edge digital cameras, still retain the familiar user-interfaces that traditional cinematographers are familiar with.
Last year, Fujinon’s Cine Super C series of zoom lenses were used for the majority of visual effects photography, including motion control, miniature, greenscreen and pick up shots. Now, the Cine Super E series will be used for all photography, including on-set, location, and postproduction.
Image Quality & Compression
Image Quality: What’s the 4:4:4 for?
One of the improvements with new HDC-F950 was a re-examination of the way the camera gathered image information. All cameras are built for the same basic function: the gathering of light onto an imaging surface. Whereas film cameras use lenses to funnel light onto the photochemical surface of unexposed film, digital cameras sample that light, and assign numerical data to describe its qualities.The first HD systems were primarily developed for use in broadcast (the transmission of visual data through electronic signals) and not theatrical exhibition (the transmission of visual data through the projection of light). Broadcast applications favor different qualities of light than theatrical projection does. The first generation HD cameras followed the broadcast standard of capturing light at a YCBCR 4:2:2 output, while the new HDC-F950 provides RGB 4:4:4 output. So, what does that mean?The letters (YCBCR, RGB) represent the type of data recorded, while the three numbers (4:4:2, 4:4:4) are representative of how detailed that data is sampled. Whereas RGB stores red, green, and blue light data, YCBCR stores the differences between colors.”The Y stands for the luma, or brightness data, which your eye is most sensitive to,” describes Meyers. “The CB and the CR stand for differences between the luma and the color, and those differences the eye is somewhat less sensitive to.” The numbers indicate that that the luma is stored at twice the information complexity as the differences (4:2:2). The new format records the colors red, green and blue each at a full 4:4:4.
“The broadcast formats use a different way of storing and transferring color and luma information — the brightness and the hues — out of the camera that are based on sampling rates. The original first generation used a system that saved bandwidth — it reduced the amount of data that comes off the camera to be recorded onto tape. That fit very well with the broadcast format, but was not the most direct path to go into motion picture postproduction,” explains Meyers. “So Sony changed that format from YCBCR 4:2:2, which was 8-bit, to a RGB 4:4:4, which is 10-bit. That’s more numbers to represent each color and each brightness value of the pixels, and a true RGB format which is what is used in feature post-production, film recording, and digital cinema.”
Having a richer, purer image to start results in increased flexibility further down the production pipeline. “Not only is this good for the amount of subtle differences in brightness and color that can be output from the camera and recorded onto tape, but it also means there’s more information to manipulate in computers,” says Meyers. “If you’re going to enlarge an image, or if you’re going to take a bluescreen element, extract it and replace the blue with other elements, you have more data to process and you get improvements in the quality.”
Kiss Compression Goodbye
While the use of digital cameras has eliminated the generational image degradation experienced in film production, there are still processes that lessen the quality of a digital image.
In the traditional photochemical process, the production pipeline that added visual effects to filmed imagery greatly degraded the quality of the original image. A complex device called an optical printer would combine many separate pieces of film — the starships, the laser blasts, the space background — into a single composite image. Each layer that was added muddied the quality of image — much like repeatedly photocopying a photocopy results in a degraded duplicate of the pristine original.
Digital imagery does not undergo such degradation, since the numbers that define the image remain intact throughout the pipeline. However, to better run that cumbersome image data through the pipeline, sometimes the images are compressed or subsampled early on in the process.
Digital information can be averaged in such a way to reduce size. A large area of similar color, for instance, may be averaged to a single color, thus requiring less data to describe the differences. A background that sits mostly still, or an area of image information that remains mostly the same for a stretch of time is averaged, eliminating minute differences from frame to frame. Too much compression results in artifacts — telltale imperfections that a trained eye can spot, especially under magnification. There’s always a trade-off between image quality and image size.
“There are many different types of HD,” says Meyers. “It’s almost like you’re talking about an engine: there are high horsepower and low horsepower engines.” This new version has considerably more “horsepower,” as it can handle uncompressed data, preserving image purity.
Though Episode II was output at a resolution of 1920 pixels across and 1080 scanning lines deep, the initial image data was often less than that, and was enhanced up to that size by image processing within the camera and the recorder. “In this version of HD, the actual amount of image data that is captured with the new camera and the new recording format is now the full 1920 pixels across,” says Meyers.
“The first generation of camera used certain techniques to conserve the amount of storage and reduce the amount of data that had to come off the camera and into the recorder. The technical terms for those techniques are spatial and chroma subsampling,” explains Meyers. “The output from the camera was employing chroma subsampling, and the recording system was employing spatial subsampling. Those two techniques are eliminated in the new camera and the new recorder. Also, the new recorder uses substantially less image compression.”
Slow Motion, Recording and the Future
Slow Motion Instant Replay
Though Star Wars movies generally don’t have slow motion shots for dramatic effect, the technique is vital for ILM miniature photography. The illusion of a lethargic pace to camera moves helps miniature environments look bigger and more realistic. Achieving slow motion in traditional film cameras is an easy, mechanical process. Achieving the same results in digital has required some clever solutions.In traditional film, a process called overcranking creates slow motion. The term dates back to the old days of physically hand-cranking film through a camera. If film runs at a faster frame rate than 24 frames per second, more frames are used capture an event of a specific length. When that film is played back at 24 frames per second, that event now lasts longer, as it occupies more frames. So, if a camera runs at 60 frames per second, captures a second-long event, a 24-frame playback will slow that event to two and a half seconds long. Similarly, undercranking a camera ends up speeding the motion, since fewer frames are committed to capturing an event.”During the postproduction process, we made some suggestions to Sony based on what we had learned on how they might implement a feature in their camera systems that would allow motion control and miniature photography to simulate overcranking and undercranking, and do that in real-time, in the camera,” says Meyers.The ILM solution during postproduction was to average the frame imagery to the desired speed. It was a software solution that was done out-of-camera, in computers once the footage was already recorded. The new HDC-F950 can now do this in camera.
“Sony was able to implement in hardware much of that software process, allowing it to be done in camera and faster,” says Meyers. “That allowed us to gain more sensitivity in a better quality when we use that technique in postproduction.”
SRW-1 and SRW-5000 are not droids
The recorder is the next step in the chain, as the information coming from the camera needs to be stored somewhere. Advancements in one piece of technology necessitate advancements in the next, since it would do little good to have a recording system that degraded the new quality level captured by the HDC-F950.
The previous generation camera was cumbersome, since it included the recorder and the cassette inside the camera. The new camera is much smaller as it does not contain the recording unit within its frame.
“There was a kind of a one-and-a-half generation, if you will, of the F900 that we used in post-production. It had a new way to interface the camera with the recorder, which was using fiber optics, and that allowed us a little more ease and flexibility when we were doing our effects model photography.” This streamlining is now standard in the F950, which directs its output either to the SRW-1 portable recorder, or the studio SRW-5000. These recorders lay down the digital information onto specially forumulated BCT-SR series videocassettes.
To the Future, The Horizon
As with all things digital, innovations continue at a hurried pace. “Things seem to be moving. Every three years, we seem to see a fairly significant improvement,” says Meyers. “You’re going to start to see improvements come from numerous companies. Right now, it’s the early adopters that are encouraging this, as it becomes more mainstream, we’ll probably start to see more people involved in it, and there will be even larger improvements.”
Along with digital acquisition, improvements are being made on the digital cinema projection side of the coin as well. Lucasfilm has been working with key vendors such as Texas Instruments to improve the quality of digital projectors. “We’re looking at things on new digital projectors now, such as the Episode III camera tests, and we’re seeing things that we’ve never seen before,” says Meyers. “It’s an amazing improvement in the quality.”
With the release of Attack of the Clones just around the corner, some of the film’s stars have begun the process of meeting with members of the press at Skywalker Ranch this week.
“I didn’t do anything like this on the original Star Wars,” recalled Director George Lucas. “Maybe I did a dozen interviews and one TV — that’s all there was. ‘The Today Show’ and then I did TIME magazine, the New York Times and a few other people, but there wasn’t an entertainment reporting business out there.”
For Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker), his re-emergence into Star Wars came this last weekend at Celebration II in Indianapolis. “That was something else,” Christensen said. “It was like being a rock star for a day — it was weird. You walk out on stage and everyone starts screaming and they lose it. I’m glad I went because you realize how much these films mean to them and they’re not all nutty crazy Star Wars fans. They’re just people who want to have some mechanism for escape and I think the fantastical elements of Star Wars provides a great escape.”
The stars also had their first chance to see Episode II in final form.
“The intrigue is more intricate and gives the audience something to think about, even though we know the story,” said an excited Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu). “It’s being opened up to us and discovered. It’s still one of the most visually interesting things to sit down and watch, even though you know what’s going to happen to Anakin.”
“I’m not a Star Wars person, but I was so entertained by this film,” Natalie Portman (Padmé Amidala) smiled. “It was amazing. I tend to get bored in action movies. I really think it’s going to be great for young people. Girls get the cute boy, guys get a little skin and lots of action.”
Portman is particularly satisfied with the burgeoning romance her character experiences. “I like that she comes from a place where everything is rigid and formal, so uptight. It’s such an interesting place to start from in a love story, because you have to melt her to get her in a place where she can be vulnerable. I think the first film, the mask-like façade was a really wonderful place to have continuity from because you can see she’s had this formal rigid upbringing and that changes when she meets that young stud.”
“He’s not too bad lookin’,” she laughed. “He has a passion and intensity that’s similar to hers. She’s a fixer — she’s someone who thinks she can fix the world and then she sees this young man who’s very damaged and broken. She sees he’s not beyond repair yet and it’s attractive to her to be able to bring him out of that.”
For Lucas, the time for reflection on Episode II has been short. “I’m working on writing the next one while this one comes out. I can only worry about what I’m doing today.”
The actors are eagerly anticipating what the final Star Wars chapter will bring, though thus far they’ve been kept in the dark on the details.
“I hope I die on-screen,” laughs Jackson. “We know that’s what happens. There are only two Jedi left when the first Star Wars starts, Obi-Wan and Yoda. Unless the rest of us went on vacation, we’re dead. I just hope I have a great death scene. That’s what acting’s all about — dying great!”
“George has told me nothing. Absolutely nothing,” said Hayden shaking his head. “I’ll have more mechanical parts in the next one for sure. I’m told I might get to sport the dark helmet. I’d like to kill Mace Windu. I love Sam. He’s supposed to be one of the most powerful Jedi.”
Fans enjoying Padmé’s midriff in Clones will have a different perspective in three years. “I’m going to be with child,” said Portman patting her belly. “The next one, according to George, is going to be a tragedy. It’s going to be sad, but I’m looking forward to having more to do.”
Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones opens May 16
The Long, Winding, and Shapeshifting Trail to Episodes VII, VIII & IX
The long conjectured third Star Wars trilogy has kept fans guessing for decades, and may even have a few numerologists working on their mysteries. George Lucas’ shifting feelings about future Star Wars trilogies have consistently clouded the picture. Given the difficulties associated with the birth of Star Wars in 1977, it’s no wonder that Lucas’s ideas kaleidoscoped. When trying to get such a big undertaking up and running and out the door, visions of the future are understandably hazy. But, as of October 30, 2012, Episodes VII, VIII and IX have been announced as real and soon to be tangible — but they’ve existed as gossamer spirits for nearly 40 years.
On December 29, 1975, in conversation with Alan Dean Foster per the novelization of Star Wars, Lucas mentioned the prequel trilogy along with what would become Episodes V and VI: “I want to have Luke kiss the Princess in the second book. In the third book, I want the story just about the soap opera of the Skywalker family, which ends with the destruction of the Empire. Then someday I want to do the back story of Kenobi as a young man – a story of the Jedi and how the Emperor eventually takes over and turns the whole thing from a Republic into an Empire, and tricks all the Jedi and kills them. The whole battle where Luke’s father gets killed. That would be impossible to do, but it’s great to dream about.”
As Lucas came to terms with Twentieth Century-Fox during the making of Star Wars, he secured the legal rights to his sequels, though they remained undefined at the time. On location for the first phase of principal photography in Tunisia in March 1976, Lucas began a long tradition of talking with close collaborators, voicing his ideas for these other episodes and trilogies, much as Walt Disney would do of his projects.
“You know, when I first did this, it was four trilogies,” Mark Hamill recalled in 2004, speaking of their conversation in 1976. “Twelve movies! Out on the desert, any time between setups… lots of free time. And George was talking about this whole thing… ‘Um, how’d you like to be in Episode IX?’ ‘When is that going to be?’ ‘2011.’ […] I said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘You’ll just be like a cameo. You’ll be like Obi-Wan handing the lightsaber down to the next new hope.’”
In 1978, a Time magazine article reported that the Star Wars Corporation (a subsidiary Lucas had formed for Star Wars) would be producing “Star WarsII [Empire], and then, count them, 10 other planned sequels.” At that time Lucas consistently mentioned 12 films and even created a barebones outline to that effect.
In it, the original trilogy occupied Episodes VI, VII, and VIII; a Clone Wars trilogy took up Episodes II, III, and IV, while Episode I was a “prelude,” Episodes IX through XI were simply left blank – and Episode XII was the “conclusion.”
In 1979, however, Lucas said in an interview on the set of Empire, “The first script was one of six original stories I had written in the form of two trilogies. After the success of Star Wars, I added another trilogy. So now there are nine stories. The original two trilogies were conceived of as six films of which the first film was number four.”
While in postproduction in early 1980, Lucas used to kick back from time to time with ILM manager Jim Bloom and muse about the bigger story. “The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke’s father when Luke is a little boy,” Lucas said. “This trilogy takes place some 20 years before the second trilogy, which includes Star Wars and Empire. About a year or two passes between each story of the trilogy and about 20 years between the trilogies. The entire saga spans about 55 years. I’m still left with three trilogies of nine films. At two hours each, that’s about eighteen hours of film!”
While Empire was originally part of a 12-film plan, by the time it was released, the number had clearly been reduced to nine. “The prequel stories exist — where Darth Vader came from, the whole story about Darth and Ben Kenobi — and it all takes place before Luke was born,” Lucas explained at the time. “The other one — what happens to Luke afterward — is much more ethereal. I have a tiny notebook full of notes on that. If I’m really ambitious, I could proceed to figure out what would have happened to Luke.”
Lucas mentioned these notebooks — or one big book — to me, a few years ago. I asked if I could see it, but he declined. My feeling is that this big book or these notebooks are private, though Lucas has occasionally sent me via an assistant miscellaneous handwritten notes from the period 1976-1983 to help in the writing of the making-of books.
But two years later while filming Jedi, for many reasons, Lucas was burning out, tired of the whole enterprise: “I’m only doing this because I started it and now I have to finish it,” he adds. “The next trilogy will be all someone else’s vision.”
As of today, Lucas has given his new co-chairman Kathleen Kennedy several ideas and is really going into semi-retirement. Now, in a relatively short time, compared to the decades of speculation, fans will learn the secrets of Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Star Wars has risen again!
The Cinema Behind Star Wars : The Disney Connection
It’s easy to watch Disney films and see the similarities between so many of the motifs of classic storytelling and the hero’s journey that is ever present in the Star Wars films. It’s difficult to pin whether the films and cartoons of Walt Disney directly influenced the creation of Star Wars (with a few notable exceptions), but the style of story and method of storytelling on display is so similar it’s hard not to feel they came from the same school.
Take The Sword in the Stone, for instance. It looks at young Arthur’s journey toward becoming king — with the help of an eccentric wizard that everyone thinks is just a crazy old man. Sound a lot like A New Hope? The entire movie plays like an extended, comedic training sequence of Master and Padawan, right down to the mysticism and hard life lessons. Parallels to Luke’s time on Dagobah in the cave could very easily be drawn to Arthur’s time spent as a squirrel or a fish. He learns hard lessons in a situation he doesn’t completely understand and has to face difficult truths about himself and his life.
Could anyone argue with the parallel between Snow White finding herself pursued by a huntsman in the woods and given refuge by kindly dwarfs, and Princess Leia on Endor, pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents and given refuge by kindly Ewoks?
You would easily be forgiven if you mistook Yoda for a little green man dispensing advice and telling you to trust your feelings that Disney created. His name was Jiminy Cricket.
There are more substantive similarities as well. As the middle act of a mythological story, The Empire Strikes Back has the distinction of being darker in tone, sending our heroes into the dark of the unknown, plunging them into the deepest pits of despair. Who could forget the Millennium Falcon bursting from the jaws of the Space Slug with all the aplomb and cinematic majesty of Geppetto freeing himself of Monstro the whale, one of Disney’s darkest early cartoons?
These parallels are no surprise, though, since the Star Wars films draw so heavily from the classic themes of the mythologies and fables that have permeated the world for as long as we have a history for it.
One of the most striking influences though, and one that I think is a direct and obvious influence, comes from the swashbuckling adventure films that Disney produced in the 1960s. The most prevalent is none other than Swiss Family Robinson, which was directed by a fellow named Ken Annakin.
Yes. You read that right: Annakin.
In any case, Annakin included in this classic film a scene that plays very much like one in A New Hope. Two of the young heroes and a girl in disguise are trudging chest deep in murky water, only to be attacked by a massive snake. Fritz struggles with the beast, dragged under the water repeatedly, shouting for help as his younger brother and the girl look on, shocked. Soon, the other boy (played by Tommy Kirk, a dead ringer for Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton) is embroiled in the battle until the snake just disappears in the water. Many of the shots and even some of the reactions are repeated almost verbatim in the trash compactor sequence on the Death Star.
The Star Wars movies follow the same patterns as all the best Disney films of this type and took so much more from them, even through subconscious inspiration. And the influence flows the other way, too. I could cite many examples of Star Wars, in turn, influencing the cinema of Disney. With Disney and Lucasfilm coming together to give us more Star Wars films, is there a doubt in anyone’s mind that they won’t carry on the same quality of mythological storytelling for years to come? They certainly have a good track record for it.
This issue was remarkable, because as it was coming together, the news about the Disney acquisition and the new Star Wars trilogy was just about to break. I wouldn’t call myself an editor of the magazine – I just advise when and where I can – but this time, I got to channel the ink-fingered editors of yore and put a call out to HOLD THAT FRONT COVER!
I had gotten wind that these announcements would soon be public while I was at New York Comic-Con, which made for some very cagey phone calls with Lucasfilm while I was at a very public venue (oh, if only the people within earshot had any idea what we were talking about!). As soon as I got back to California, Howard Roffman led us in hammering out a plan on how this news would be announced on starwars.com. It was kept to a very small group of people at first, and I didn’t want Insider to miss what would be the biggest Star Wars news in years.On October 25, I emailed editor Jonathan Wilkins at Titan Magazines, requesting that every effort be made to accommodate an upcoming major announcement that was brewing at Lucasfilm. “This could end up being the most important issue you’ve published to date,” I wrote, but I could not give him any specifics. I just said to hold the cover (and never advised what to run instead of a planned Clone Wars cover) and said that I have about 4,800 words of story coming his way, so that he had to move editorial around to make room. To his credit, Jonathan responded exactly the way a Star Wars fan should: he was excited to hear what was coming.
Now, per schedule, the content for issue #138 – which arrives at newsstands tomorrow – was supposed to be delivered by mid-September. Here we were, way past that deadline; we had to move fast. George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy had sat down to record their video conversation with Lynne Hale on October 19th. A few days later, I got to review the video in its entirety to help advise where individual featurettes could be cut from this longer piece. I figured while starwars.com got to run the shorter video chapters, the Insider could present the entirety of the interview for those who prefer reading their news and having this content in textual form for easy future reference, without fast-forwarding and rewinding. (Full disclosure: I’m a text guy. I’m not a video guy. I prefer to read on the Internet. And if you’ve made it this far, maybe you do too!)
So I quickly transcribed the text by the 24th, a 4,800-word document (turns out, I’m really good at estimating word counts), and reformatted the text by topic and turned it into a feature article for Insider. Issue #138 communicates this major news in the world of Star Wars in a format worth preserving in print, and also has some content that has not yet made it online or will never make it into the web series.
Of course, that’s only one of the features in this issue of the magazine. There’s plenty more filling out Insider #138.
Scoundrel Days. The deep mining of some never-before-published gems continues with the surfacing of a Harrison Ford interview from January 1977. This is before Star Wars exploded into a worldwide phenomenon, and is based on a discovery made by JW Rinzler of interviews done by Charley Lippincott during the making of Episode IV. This completes a trilogy of rare interviews; issue #137 featured a similar article with Mark Hamill, while issue #136 featured Carrie Fisher.
Scoundrels: We Like the Sound of That. Speaking of Scoundrels, this is the issue that pays tribute to Timothy Zahn’s forthcoming heist novel. Tricia Barr interviews Zahn about the making of this eagerly anticipated book that takes Han, Lando, and some other checkered rogues and put them firmly in their underworld element.
Heist: Zahn supplies the exclusive fiction in this issue, with a short stories that stars two of the scoundrels from his book, the beautiful and resourceful cat burglar twins Bink and Tavia Kitik. Brian Rood (who illustrated the portraits in The Essential Reader’s Companion) provides the artwork.
The Art of Tsuneo Sanda: On the subject of art, one of the nicest and most talented Star Wars artists is profiled in this issue by Mark Newbold. Sanda-san has been illustrating Star Wars for over ten years, including some striking pieces that have appeared in previous issues of Insider as well as Star Wars Celebration.
Celebration VI Through the Eyes Of… Celebration VI continues to be a subject of discussion – no surprise, given an event as big and exciting as that convention. In this feature article, some of the guests themselves offer their inside look at what made the event so memorable. Mark Hamill offers his perspective, as does James Arnold Taylor to interviewer Amy Ratcliffe. My particular favorite is the piece penned by Samantha Roberts, the daughter of Tom Kane. She describes how she would not let her battle with Hodgkins Lymphona get in the way of appearing at Celebration VI in costume as Asajj Ventress. It’s an inspiring and heartwarming tale that shows the power of Star Wars and its fans.
And More. Bantha Tracks celebrates the Season of Giving, Catherine Taber shows off an impressive knowledge of blaster types, the comics column looks at the latest arc in Dawn of the Jedi, Incoming is filled with Angry Birds while Rogues Gallery profiles some pigs – Ugnaughts and Gamorreans – and the sexy Black Milk models make this issue’s cover of Blaster one to remember.
And there’s more beyond that, so check out Titan Magazine’s official site here for more about Star Wars Insider, and go like ‘em on Facebook.
The fishy comics store-exclusive cover for issue #138.
Pablo Hidalgo is paid to know the difference between Romba and Lumat and dies a little bit inside when you misspell Wookiee or Lucasfilm.
As someone always on the lookout for rare old Star Wars photos, I was pleased to discover Forbes.com’s Geek Beat columnist David M. Ewalt had unearthed a cool old gem from the vaguely-documented “Star Wars Holiday Special” of 1978, which we actually lent a bit of coverage to a couple years ago.
While researching a couple of those pieces, I came across a rare Associated Press image of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher in photocopied articles from 1978, but couldn’t locate the original in Lucasfilm’s expansive Image Archives (apparently, wire photos were not automatically sent to LFL for approval and/or cataloging). Enter Ewalt’s Geek Beat column, which appears to have located the original shot of Ford and Fisher in a rare backstage moment captured by AP photographer George Brich.
Ah, to be a fly on the wall to hear what Ford is sharing with Fisher before their next Holiday Special take…
As an addendum to our original post (below) about the “Vader is Luke’s father” spoiler appearing in the April 1978 issue of Little Shoppe of Horrors:
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Major Empire Spoiler Actually Dropped in 1977
A lot of buzz has surrounded a recent post at retroist.com concerning an alleged major spoiler leak made two years before The Empire Strikes Back was released. The article, which we’ve identified as having appeared in the July 24, 1978 issue of The San Francisco Examiner, relays comments made by Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) claiming that the sequel would reveal that Darth Vader is in fact Luke’s father. Actually, it turns out, this little rumor had been dropped several months earlier in a fanzine called Little Shoppe of Horrors #4 (April 1978), which featured an exclusive (and lengthy) Prowse interview (reprint copies can be found on eBay, which is where we picked up ours thanks to a tip from SW bibliographer Bob Miller).
Among the passages of the interview, which, according to the author, were collected between October and December, 1977 (including a public discussion at the Horror Elite Convention in October), were these sentences, which seem to mirror the comments made in the SF Examiner interview:
“In the next film, there is going to be a confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader and they then discover that Darth Vader never killed his father, that Darth Vader IS his father. So son can’t kill father, and father can’t kill son — so Darth Vader lives into the next sequel.”
So, it would appear the original Retroist post title – “Yes, They Did Have Star Wars Spoilers Back in 1978” was almost correct. Actually, they go as far back as October, 1977.
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Star Wars author Ryder Windham recently sent us a heads-up on another instance of this spoiler showing up in early 1978:
“Earlier today, I found myself perusing the first issue of Future magazine, cover date April 1978,” says Windham. “The issue has a ‘Databank’ feature for ‘News Items from the World of the Present’ on pages 6-7, and includes this entry for Star Wars…”
“In the realm of the Wars, George Lucas has approached all of the original film’s principals, including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Dave Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker. Noted SF author Leigh Brackett has been approached with the task of writing the screenplay for the big-budgeted sequel. One of the key elements in the second script may be the origin of the Dark Lord, Darth Vader. One version of his life being considered for the forthcoming production will reveal a young, handsome Darth turning rogue Jedi, killing Luke Skywalker’s father and being pushed into a pool of molten lava by avenging angel Ben Kenobi. Darth is so badly scarred that he dons his black armor forever. It serves as a combination exoskeleton and walking iron lung. The second version portrays Darth as being, in reality, Luke Skywalker’s father. After a psychological trauma, Luke’s father succumbs to the darker nature of The Force and allows all that is good within him to die. And rising from the ashes of his soul is Darth, the arch-foe of all that is righteous. Whatever Vader’s fate in the as-yet-embryonic script, the film began pre-production in London in January.”
The first scenario mentioned – the one where Vader is pushed into molten lava by Kenobi – was likely lifted from a Rolling Stone interview with George Lucas in 1977. The source for the second scenario – the father one – is uncertain, unless the reporter was within earshot of Prowse’s comments recorded at the October 1977 Horror Elite Convention (and referenced in our original post).
In any case, that cat was out of the bag by April ’78, although it fortunately didn’t get picked up by the mainstream media, allowing the Dark Lord’s identity — as Kenobi says — to remain safely anonymous until 1980.
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