October 01, 2001 – Ruling the galaxy requires elbowroom, a neatly organized work environment, and a heck of a view. Audiences got a glimpse of Senator Palpatine’s decorative tastes in his crimson-hued apartment in The Phantom Menace. In Attack of the Clones, Palpatine returns ten years later, as Supreme Chancellor, with surroundings that match his elevated political position.
“Doug Chiang asked me to give Palpatine’s headquarters an all-seeing view onto Coruscant,” recalls Concept Artist Jay Shuster, “It was an ideal theme in that it embodied who and what this man is all about.”
“People’s first impressions of the space may range from ‘Hey, this guy’s loaded,’ to ‘Nice view… that view could be corrupting,'” says Shuster. “Both reactions are valid: the design of Palpatine’s headquarters lends him an air of ‘Big Brother- hood’…as in Orwell’s 1984. Where does an ego like Palpatine’s go after he has an office space like this?”
Construction
Upon receiving Shuster’s illustrations, Production Designer Gavin Bocquet and his crew began examining the set in three-dimensions through detailed foam-core and whiteboard models.
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on in there,” says Bocquet. This set was almost entirely built, as opposed to some of the other environments that consisted largely of bluescreen. “We basically worked almost 360-degrees. George [Lucas] wanted us to leave maybe 10 percent of the wall out on the right as you come in. That did give us an opportunity to move the camera crane in and out through the gap.”
The set, built in Fox Studios Australia, was finished in about seven weeks. “There were a lot of finishes to be done,” explains Bocquet.
The finished textures and details required even more effort than usual thanks to the incredible resolution of the new digital cameras. “It really does pick up a lot of your middle and background detail. It’s much more unforgiving in certain instances than celluloid is. In the film world, we’re always doing things theatrically, in a way that works for the cameras. But if you’re standing there, it might not look right. With the digital camera, we had to be a more careful since things that were in the middle distance were actually showing up more as scenic work than actual finishes. We had to take our finishes a bit further than we did before.”
Several stylized statues stand as sentinels in Palpatine’s quarters. What started off as tiny elements in Jay Shuster’s drawings were transformed into full pieces by Bocquet’s crew.
“We produced about five or six little maquettes of military figures, inspired by medieval Japanese or Chinese ones in that stately position,” says Bocquet. The assortment of six and 12-inch tall maquettes were brought to George Lucas, who selected two of them.
The finished statues were carved out of polystyrene with plastic coverings, topped with a bronzen paint finish.
There are numerous visual cues in the office revealing the evolution of the galaxy and its politics. During tense meetings of enormous importance, Palpatine sits in a very distinctive looking chair. “If anybody’s got any sort of Star Wars history in their head, they’ll notice that there’s something pretty familiar about it,” says Bocquet.
“I honestly couldn’t say whose suggestion that was,” says Bocquet. “We didn’t have the original chair. We had the drawings from Return of the Jedi, so we had to sculpt and model from that. It was quite difficult, because it was quite a sculpted, funny shape.”
The colors of Palpatine’s quarters are also an evolutionary element. It was Bocquet’s crew that came up with the red colors of Palpatine’s apartment in Episode I; they were originally going to be pastel-hued, much like Bespin’s Cloud City. “Yes, we were quite bullish in Phantom Menace to suggest to George that the room should be that crimson, blood-red color,” says Bocquet. “It was almost meant to be sort of a cocoon womb-like environment for Palpatine in there.”
The colors of Attack of the Clones visually bridges the prequel and original trilogies. “The color scheme in Empire and Jedi were very much in the monotone grays, graphites and blacks. We suggested to George that we should introduce part of that color scheme to this predominantly red environment. If you look at it, you’ll see that it’s sixty percent in the red range, and forty percent in the graphites and silvers. If this set’s required for Episode III, then probably by that time, Palpatine’s environment will move predominatly to the graphites and grays.”
This Article was Originally posted 2022-08-26 13:36:22.
The galaxy is in turmoil as a great disturbance in the Force rocks the very foundation of the Republic. From the towering skyscrapers of Coruscant to the picturesque gardens of Naboo, the people are restless and dissent is brewing. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, once hailed as the savior of the government, is failing to keep the peace as separatists threaten war. The Senate is divided and unable to decide whether to raise an army or maintain fragile diplomacy. The stalemate is a ticking time bomb that could unleash chaos across the galaxy.
In the midst of this turmoil, a young and headstrong Anakin Skywalker has come of age. The Jedi Council is perplexed by his enigmatic personality and Obi-Wan Kenobi struggles to train him as his apprentice. Anakin is fiercely ambitious and independent, even as he grapples with his forbidden feelings for the beautiful Senator Padmé Amidala. When an assassination attempt is made on her life, Anakin and Padmé are reunited after ten long years. But little do they know, this attack is just the beginning of a dark and treacherous journey that will test their loyalties and challenge their emotions.
As the Republic teeters on the brink of war, the Jedi are clouded by a growing darkness that threatens to consume them. They are unaware of the army that is slowly amassing in secret, preparing for battle. Anakin and Padmé’s love intensifies even as the galaxy crumbles around them. Anakin’s allegiance to the Jedi Order is put to the test as he grapples with his emotions, leading him down a dangerous path.
Based on the iconic story by George Lucas and the screenplay by George Lucas and Jonathan Hales, R. A. Salvatore’s thrilling novel sheds new light on the Star Wars saga. Get ready to journey to a galaxy far, far away and experience the epic tale like never before.
Get ready for an epic journey through the galaxy with “Battlefront II: Inferno Squad”, a thrilling prequel to the popular video game that takes place right after the events of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”
As the Empire reels from the Rebel Alliance’s devastating attack on the Death Star, their elite force, Inferno Squad, is called into action. Their mission: to infiltrate and eliminate the Partisans, a rebel faction led by the notorious Saw Gerrera.
But the Partisans are no ordinary rebels. They’re extremists who will stop at nothing to take down the Empire. As Inferno Squad burrows deeper into the Partisans’ inner circle, they face an ever-growing threat of exposure. Failure is not an option, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Will Inferno Squad prove itself as the Empire’s most elite fighting force, or will the Partisans prove too much to handle? Follow the action-packed storyline as Inferno Squad battles their way through one of the most dangerous missions of their careers.
The Rebel Alliance may have heroes like Jyn Erso and Luke Skywalker, but the Empire has something even better: Inferno Squad. Are you ready to join the fight?
For Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), there were to be many more visual effects than in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). This documentary shows many VFX meetings between George Lucas and ILM. Many of these meetings focus around the creation of a completely digital Yoda, used for the first time in the Star Wars films.
Sheets of rain pour down from the gloomy skies, buffeting a city built on stilts over a churning ocean. A distant cry of an aiwha is drowned out by the angry hiss of a lightsaber and the shrieking reports of blaster fire as a knockdown, drag-out fight occurs between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett.
The digital and miniature arts of Industrial Light & Magic extend the skies and landing platform, and the stunt work of Nick Gillard puts the players in motion. But to make the ceaseless wind and rain of this distant planet real, Episode II relied on Dave Young, Special Effects Supervisor on Attack of the Clones.
Though some use the term “special effects” as a catch-all for anything out of the ordinary in films, it does have a distinct definition separate from “visual effects.” In Episode II, visual effects are the domain of ILM. These are the effects that are put in after shooting — the miniature and digital creations. Young’s crew instead takes care of the effects that are on-stage, on-set, and captured by the camera as it happens. Also called practical effects, Young’s work involves wire-rigs to make characters fly, gimbal-mounted speeder props to simulate soaring and rocking motion in stationary vehicles, and things like rain, smoke and fire.
“We’ve had to do a lot of atmospherics,” describes Young. “We’ve had a lot of scenes with steaming, and that sort of stuff. We’ve done a lot of little fires and things.”
While visual effects have undergone a complete digital revolution in the past ten years, practical effects have also benefited from computer-controlled mechanics and planning. “I think practical effects will still have a role in films because with computer graphics, the actors don’t have anything to react to,” says Young. “I think practical effects will be around for a long time.”
Case in point, although ILM has mastered digital rain and water-spray effects, Young’s crew was still required to turn the inside of a studio into a tempest. “We had 32 rain-heads working indoors dropping seven-and-a-half tons of water a minute into Studio 1,” says Young. “Everything was on its own switch control, so we can turn everything off and on depending on what’s needed. We’re looking at 7,500 liters of water a minute.”
The fountainheads spray upwards, creating an umbrella of water that creates an even distribution of rain throughout the specially constructed set. “Amongst that, we had three large electric wind machines blowing the rain everywhere. Everything is kept off the ground, and completely contained. The electricity is all above us, and the rain-works are beneath that. There are circuit breakers on everything, because we operate on a 240-volt system that is more dangerous than the 110-volt system. ”
Such precautions are necessary since the safety of the crew and performers take precedent over all other concerns. Even the comfort of the stuntmen was a factor. “It did get cold, because it was the middle of winter in Australia [during the shoot.] The stuntmen were wearing wetsuits underneath the costumes.”
Before the complicated shoot, Young had little time to test the rain system to see how it would register on camera. “We tested for the quantity of rain that we wanted, and the size of the droplets. It’s important how much misting we get, because we could block out the bluescreens which are behind the rain. If our mist is too fine, then it will wash out the bluescreens,” says Young.
“It was a challenge sometimes. I hadn’t done a film that involved so much bluescreen before,” notes Young, a veteran of over 100 films including The Matrix and Mission: Impossible 2. “It’s a totally different kind of film. Often, from our perspective, it didn’t really change anything. We still have to do the effects, whatever they may call for. The only thing we had to watch that the atmospherics didn’t wipe out any of the bluescreens.”
Aside from the waterworks, Young and his crew helped animate stationary vehicle props through the use of articulated hydraulic gimbals. In addition to making Anakin’s hot rod speeder, Zam Wesell’s wickedly forked dragster and Owen Lars’ beat-up bike rock and sway appropriately, Young oversaw the creation of a number of bluescreen-skinned creature simulators.
“The animals are simulated,” explains Young. “They’re animals that John Knoll and Rob Coleman are going to lay over our blue stand-ins. We have scenes where Anakin is jumping onto an animal, and it takes off and bucks him off. We can do that on this machine. It does everything. The motions for that came from George Lucas. He told us exactly what he wanted.”
The old actor’s maxim speaks of there being no small parts, and that is very true for Star Wars. The visual tapestry is so dense with meticulously planned detail that even the most briefly glimpsed characters develop a following. Fans venerate characters like IG-88, Snaggletooth, and Aurra Sing even though they don’t have a word of dialogue, or even a full minute of screen time. Their designs are so intriguing that they demand extra attention. Sometimes, this is supplemented through licensed products, like action figures or spin-off fiction, which allow collectors and readers to learn more about said characters.
With Aayla Secura, the process had an interesting twist. She was already an existing heroine, with a built-in audience of comic book readers who understood her origins before she ever made it onto the screen. After seeing artist Jon Foster’s original cover art for issue #33 of the ongoing Star Wars series, Writer/Director George Lucas saw star potential. Aayla Secura, a blue-skinned Padawan, embodied Jedi strength and Twi’lek femininity in an eye-catching combination of beauty and power. It was the perfect ingredient for the action sequence recipe Lucas and Industrial Light & Magic were constructing, layer-by-layer.
Episode II was well into post-production when the decision to add Aayla was made, so the casting and costuming of this particular Jedi happened mostly at ILM. Stepping into Aayla’s droid-kicking boots was Amy Allen, a Production Assistant working at ILM. It was a fortuitous delay in an unrelated film that saw her entrance into Episode II. “I got to do a lot of hands-on work and really get involved with all the shows that were going on at the time,” recounts Allen. “This included A.I., Jurassic Park III, Pearl Harbor, and all the really big shows. I was on Gangs of New York for quite a long time and then it went on hiatus because the movie release date was postponed. That’s how I ended up working on a stage unit for Star Wars, which was a blessing in disguise.”
A graduate from San Francisco State University, Allen studied film and sought work in the Bay Area, landing a job at Industrial Light & Magic. Though her work was primarily behind-the-scenes, her role as Aayla was actually not the first blue Twi’lek Allen performed. “I had been a Twi’lek for the Episode I DVD,” she says. In a modification to The Phantom Menace for the DVD release, Senator Orn Free Taa’s formerly human-filled Senate pod was instead populated with Twi’leks. “George [Lucas] decided, last minute, to replace that shot. So, I was actually a blue Twi’lek probably two months after I started at ILM.”
Allen underwent makeup and a headdress fitting, and was dressed in a Senatorial aide gown designed for Episode II. She was shot against greenscreen, supervised by John Knoll, one of the Visual Effects Supervisors for both Episodes I and II. “I was interested in being in front of the camera, but it’s nothing that I actively pursued,” she admits. “But when an opportunity arises, one must take it!” Little did she expect what was to come.
Building an “Oola Jedi”
When word came down that Lucas wanted Aayla Secura in the arena, it fell to Costume Supervisor Gillian Libbert to determine how best to turn a character of pencil and ink into flesh and blood. “This is a comic book character, which doesn’t have a realistic proportion to the human body,” says Libbert. “That was our first challange.” The Aayla Secura character, as illustrated by artist Jan Duursema, is more dynamically heroic than a typical human extra. Libbert had to determine how much, if any, of that cut, muscular form to emulate in the costume. “Getting the character to look like what George wanted was our primary goal” says Libbert. “He answered a few questions we had related to the character’s body image, but it ended up that he wanted the costume to look like the comic book character and the body to be human-like.”
Libbert began gathering fabrics and materials to construct the outfit for Aayla, who at the time was often just referred to as the “Oola Jedi.” By the time of Episode II, Secura was a full-fledged Jedi Knight, but she definitely doesn’t dress like the other more conservative keepers of peace and justice. Secura’s brief wardrobe shows a fair bit of blue skin, but that didn’t make Libbert’s fabric-gathering job any easier. “What was helpful was since I was in Sydney [during principal photography], I had an idea of what fabrics were available and not used for any other character. There were a lot of incredible fabrics purchased from around the world to choose from.”
Libbert and her crew had a scant two weeks to make an outfit and dress Aayla for Lucas’ approval. Delving into storage, she uncovered several Twi’lek headdresses from Episode I and the Special Edition Trilogy. Pouring through eight huge costume crates of fabric, she collected materials to present. “I brought many different types of fabrics, leathers and trims for George to pick from. He picked the color of the headdress first and then we began dying fabric.”
Throughout the process, Libbert was on the phone to Scotland, keeping in touch with the Episode II Costume Designer, Trisha Biggar. “I would call Trish to get her advice and throughout the construction of the costume, I would send her fabric swatches and photos as the design progressed.”
As the outfit came together, Allen would come in and be fitted. Libbert and her crew would snap pictures of the developing Jedi. This was before Allen was painted the proper shade of blue, so those pictures were sent off to the ILM Art Department to digitally color Allen’s skin, to present Lucas the whole ensemble in context.
“George liked the overall look. We had to change the headdress a couple of times because he wanted a different style. He was very specific in what he wanted, down to the detailing on leather pieces and the way the leather trim was wrapped around the tentacles or lekku. ” explains Libbert.
Assisted by lead seamstress Barbara Hartman-Jenichen and leather craftsman Alan Peterson, Libbert supervised the costume’s development. The final piece-list consisted of the following items:
1 x boots w/ covers
1 x belt w/ tabs
1 x trousers
1 x leather vest
1 x top w/ bra
Trivia hounds take note — even extra scraps of Jar Jar’s leather tunic found its way into Aayla’s outfit.
The fitting of the costume was quick compared to a four-hour paint job that Allen had to endure. Lauren Vogt, from the ILM Model Shop, handled Allen’s makeup, applying the blue hue thick enough to cover Allen’s own tattoos. “She’d done the makeup the first time I had done the Twi’lek for the DVD, so she got all the little details like painting my nails and everything,” notes Allen.
Hot Lights & Cover Stories
Another performer’s maxim has to do with never letting the audience see you sweat, but in the case of the painted Allen, swinging a lightsaber under the hot lights of visual effects photography didn’t leave her much choice.
“Since I’m embracing this character so much I decided not to wear deodorant because I think that affects the way the paint is on your body,” Allen recalls. “I just stayed away from any kind of perfume, lotion, or deodorant to help Lauren keep the blue paint on. Gillian was just tweaking the costume a little bit. She had gotten real close to me and she said, ‘Well, Ames, you stink!’ Which was pretty funny, but thank God I’m close to Gillian. She can tell me things like that,” laughs Allen. “Oh yeah, I was stinky.”
The hot lights and tight schedule kept Allen active for four days of shooting. Under the direction of George Lucas and John Knoll, she combated imaginary droid and alien villains, led non-existent clone troopers into the thick of a pretend battle, and wandered the corridors of an unseen Jedi Temple.
“It went really well,” says Allen. “I had no training learning how to use the lightsaber, so I just went in and I was completely winging it.” She proved to be a natural, though the two-week rush in developing Aayla so late in post-production meant the character didn’t have her own unique weapon. “There were some extra lightsabers that were made in Sydney, so we used one of those and even used Ki-Adi-Mundi’s at one point” recalls Libbert.
In December of 2001, when starwars.com posted news of Aayla’s upcoming appearance in Episode II, there was a fair amount of bet-hedging in the announcement. “Since the film is still being edited, it’s impossible to know what — if any — her end screen-time will be,” the story read. Since that time, Aayla ended up in over half-a-dozen shots, from the Geonosian arena, to the Clone War battle, to the Jedi Temple.
Since Allen worked at ILM during the thick of post-production, she didn’t have to wait long to discover her recurring cameos in Episode II. “I kept hearing about it after dailies because everyone would make fun of me,” she laughs. “They would send me an e-mail and say, ‘oh my God, we saw you again, we saw you again.’ It started becoming a joke amongst a lot of friends here, which is good because you become close with people when you work with them so much.”
Seeing her face projected on the screen was just the start. As Episode II news began appearing everywhere, Allen got quite the surprise when she found out Time magazine had run her picture in the Yoda cover-story issue.
“At ILM, I sat with two girls, Jeanie King and Christy Castallano, and they were just freaking out when I walked into the office,” says Allen. “They said, ‘Okay, you are not going to believe this.’ At first, we thought it was just on [Time’s] website, but then I checked my messages and it was someone from the Ranch telling me that I’d better go out and get to the closest newsstand because they’re flying off the racks. That’s when I thought — wait, wait, wait. It’s in the hardcopy of Time? I went completely ballistic!”
From national magazines, to additional comic book appearances, to an upcoming action figure, Aayla’s exposure continued to grow. Allen found herself invited to Celebration II, the largest Star Wars convention ever held. She appeared on a panel entitled “Women Who Kick,” alongside such female Star Wars models and actresses as Femi Taylor (Oola), Nalini Krishan (Barriss Offee), Mary Oyaya (Luminara Unduli), Michonne Bourriague (Aurra Sing) and Shannon Baksa (Mara Jade).
“I had no idea what to expect,” admits Allen. “I wasn’t sure how well I would be accepted yet, or how many people would know me. But people do their homework. I met more women who were so excited about it. Women and young girls that were really excited that there was a female character and that she was a Jedi.”
Allen also got to meet Aayla’s co-creator, Jan Duursema, at the convention. “We hugged each other right away, and it was like an instant bond that we had,” she says. “I thanked her and told her the whole story how this had happened and she was really excited about it.” It was sort of a meeting of creators at Celebration, as Allen’s parents also met Duursema. “They really liked her and Jan is sending them some original drawings of Aayla as a keepsake. I know my mom will frame it and put it up in the house.”
Still young, Allen considers her stint as Aayla Secura as a stepping-stone to larger things. She plans on attending more conventions, and meeting face-to-face with Star Wars fans, but she is already very appreciative of all that’s transpired. “I’ve made some friends. I keep in touch with Nalini and Michonne at least a few times a week. That was something that was really cool that came out of this — meeting these women and getting to share this experience with them,” she says.
“It’s been surreal, definitely surreal,” concludes Allen. “It’s unbelievable. I would have never in my wildest dreams have imagined that something like this would have happened.”
Winning numerous awards for its presentation of its feature film, and the quality of its extras, the Episode I DVD set a precedent for what the Star Wars DVD experience should be. The same team that developed that two-disc set returns to bring Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones to DVD.
Unlike Episode I, the Episode II DVD arrives only six months after its theatrical release, hitting stores on November 12. The lessons learned in making The Phantom Menace DVD helped prepare the team for what was to come.
“A DVD takes about a year-and-a-half or so to produce,” says Jim Ward, Lucasfilm’s Vice President of Marketing and Executive Producer, who led the DVD project. “As early as 2000, when we were shooting principal photography in Sydney, we were already trying to figure out what the configuration of the DVD would be.”
While Director George Lucas and Producer Rick McCallum were busily shooting Episode II, Lucasfilm’s Marketing Department was developing the Episode I DVD, and also earmarking content and areas to explore for the Clones DVD. “The Episode I disc gave us a really good benchmark. We had a very good blueprint so that we could multi-task everything and get it done,” says Ward.
“My contribution to the DVD is the movie itself,” says George Lucas. “Because Episode II was shot with a digital camera and created digitally, you can almost say it was made for the DVD format.”
Attack of the Clones will be the first major live action feature mastered direct from the digital source. Because the image stays within the digital medium from start to finish, the feature itself has unprecedented clarity. Lucas credits THX, under the leadership of Rick Dean, Head of Special Projects, for assuring the quality of the transfer.
“They did a phenomenal job making sure that there was no loss of definition to the digital images that were so full of motion and detail,” says Lucas. “Their expertise in image and sound replication preserved the creative work that so many artists and sound designers had put into making this movie.”
“We spent millions carefully developing and mixing the soundtrack and creating infinitely detailed visuals, and it breaks my heart that many theaters out there aren’t equipped to show it the way we intended,” laments Rick McCallum. “But with home theaters now fully digital and getting better and better every year, DVD is now a real safe haven for people who really love films and want to see it as the creators intended.”
While the DVD format is known for its enormous storage capacity, it comes at a price that must be carefully balanced in the mastering process. The more material packed onto a single disc, the poorer the quality for all of it. As a result, Disc One optimizes the presentation of the feature by keeping such extras as deleted scenes and documentaries on Disc Two.
“It’s always a challenge. We sit down and understand what the bit-rate budget is,” explains Ward. “Our first and foremost priority is to make sure the bit rate budget for the film is the highest it can possibly be. Other people will take a lower bit rate on the film in order to cram some other content in there.”
Like the Episode I disc, Episode II uses the fantastic environments of the Star Wars galaxy to deliver the menu information and navigation options. Producer Van Ling worked with digital resources direct from Industrial Light & Magic to create worlds to explore. Each time Disc One is inserted into a DVD player, one of three planetary themes is randomly selected for the menu interface. Viewers may find themselves inspecting the clone hatcheries of Kamino, the towering skyscrapers of Coruscant, or the treacherous conveyer belts of the Geonosian droid factory to select their viewing options.
The movie is divided into 50 chapters, which makes homing into a favorite scene easy. Sound options on domestic discs include an English 5.1 Surround EX track, delivering audio experiences such as the reverberating twang of seismic charges, the wailing howl of Zam Wesell’s speeder, or the layered chaos of the Clone War in THX-certified clarity and balance. Spanish and French-dubbed Dolby 2.0 audio are available on separate tracks.
The second English audio setting is a commentary track assembled by Gary Leva, the same editor who put together Episode I’s commentary. The Clones track features Lucas, McCallum, Editor Ben Burtt, Animation Director Rob Coleman, and Visual Effects Supervisors John Knoll, Ben Snow and Pablo Helman. “We take it for granted that these guys are inventing the process every step of the way,” says Ward. “Everyone else follows their lead when they’re finished, but these guys are the ones that are inventing it. I think it’s wonderful to allow people to understand and learn more about the process through such commentaries.”
Star Wars fans fortunate enough to have seen Episode II in a digital theater will be happy to know that the D-cinema version of the movie — which differed from the standard film print version — formed the basis of the DVD master. “The digital version of the film is on this DVD, but there are also some additional, minor changes. You’re going to have to figure those out for yourself,” says Ward.
Disc Two: The Extras
“Obviously, the movie itself should be the driving force, and the reproduction of the movie’s sound and picture quality should be exactly as the filmmaker originally created it. The opportunity to include ‘extras’ is just one of the added benefits that the DVD format allows,” says Lucas. Disc Two of the DVD set is a trove of extras, called “value-added material” in the business.
Van Ling has again transformed the Episode II locales into menu screens, turning the Jedi Archives, the Coruscant nightclub, the Naboo spaceport docking piers, Dex’s Diner and elsewhere into areas of navigation for Disc Two. As with Episode I, the supplemental material delivers a mix of informative and entertaining goods that illuminate the filmmaking process from start to finish.
“We have a working mandate when we make these DVDs to include value-added material that people actually want to watch, and to leave out games, and make-your-own-scenes and other gimmicks. We’re not about that,” explains Ward.
A long-form documentary, “From Puppets to Pixels: Digital Characters in Episode II,” tracks the trailblazing journey that ILM’s talented artists had to undergo in creating computer-generated co-stars. “That’s where the news was in the making of this particular film, so that’s where our cameras went,” says Ward.
Hundreds of hours of documentary footage shot by Lucasfilm’s documentary group were viewed and distilled into the 52-minute piece, crafted by Jon Shenk in a “fly-on-wall” narrator-less style. Several stories are tracked from beginning to end, the centerpiece being the development of a digital Yoda. It starts with Rob Coleman and his crew working on early proof-of-concept tests of the new Yoda, then follows what was shot on-set, and covers the broad strokes and subtle details of the finished animation — including the most deceptively difficult shot the animators dubbed “The Widowmaker.”
The film also examines the making of CG supporting cast members Dexter Jettster and Taun We, from clay maquette to finished, living form. Rare behind-the-scenes footage shows the interaction that actors Ron Falk and Rena Owen provide before their digital alter egos are inserted into the scene.
Also documented is the perfection of digital doubles, computer-generated stuntmen used for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jango Fett and Count Dooku during some of Episode II’s most dynamic action sequences. A team of artists worked on the simulated physics of computer-generated clothes and hair to deliver convincing doppelgangers of the human form.
Lucas isn’t worried about disrupting the illusion that so many artists have worked carefully to craft. He instead sees these documentaries as important educational tools. “The visual effects artists at ILM and sound design teams at Skywalker Sound are not magicians giving away their secrets,” he explains. “They are artists sharing their expertise and passion for filmmaking.”
A second documentary, “State of the Art: The Previsualization of Episode II” shines a spotlight on the Animatics Department. Pre-Visualization Effects Supervisor Dan Gregoire and his crew developed remarkably sophisticated low-resolution computer-animated versions of scenes to plan and refine them in a quick and efficient manner.
The Speeder Chase, the Droid Factory, and the Clone War are covered in the 23-minute documentary, complete with examples of the sparse, bluescreen-filled plate photography, and the Art Department’s concept paintings and animatics that fleshed them out. The Clone War sequence in particular has several concepts and shots that never got past the animatics stage in the documentary.
In “Films are Not Released: They Escape,” the documentary cameras follow Sound Designer Ben Burtt and his crew in the capturing, building, and layering of Episode II’s sound universe. Everything from the drone of a Jedi starfighter engine, to the percussive machinery of the droid factory, to the soft smooches of forbidden kisses for the finished picture is covered. “It takes teams of sound recordists, sound designers, foley artists, effects editors and even alien language creators working together in blending all the sound elements to create the final sound mix,” says Lucas of the 25-minute documentary.
These three documentaries are joined by three featurettes (“Story,” “Love” and “Action”) and all 12 parts of the Making Episode II web documentaries, offering valuable educational material to aspiring filmmakers. “If you’re a kid, and you want to be in the movie business, but you’re in a state that has no film school, and you have no concept of what’s involved, it’s very hard to demystify the process,” says McCallum. “I want people who don’t have the ability to enter the system to be able to see how it’s done, so they can understand. This DVD offers that opportunity.”
Further illuminating the filmmaking process is a collection of eight scenes deleted from the final cut of Episode II. Optional introductions by Lucas, McCallum and Burtt explain why the scenes were cut. The original plate photography for these scenes were filled with areas of bluescreen, and ILM was busily delivering the 2,000 shots that would make it into the film. For these scenes, the digital environments and elements were crafted by the Animatics Department at Skywalker Ranch, led by Pre-Visualization Supervisor Dan Gregoire.
The DVD also collects a lot of the marketing material that went into telling the world about Attack of the Clones. Fans may have recorded some of these off television, or seen them here at starwars.com, but the DVD presents this video in the highest possible quality: the Across the Stars music video, the character- and story-based television commercials, and the theatrical teaser and launch trailers. The “Mystery” trailer, which only played online, now gets its largest incarnation through the DVD.
There’s more of course (never-before-seen photos, an ILM effects reel, R2-D2: Beneath the Dome trailer, a few carefully stashed “Easter eggs”) — even after finally viewing every last shred of content, the DVD will continue to be a gateway to further Episode II material in the months to come through a web-link to dvd.starwars.com.
Ten years after the invasion of Naboo, the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Under the leadership of a renegade Jedi named Count Dooku, thousands of solar systems threaten to break away from the Galactic Republic. When an assassination attempt is made on Senator Padmé Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, twenty-year-old Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker is assigned to protect her. In the course of his mission, Anakin discovers his love for Padmé as well as his own darker side. Soon, Anakin, Padmé, and Obi-Wan Kenobi are drawn into the heart of the Separatist movement and the beginning of the Clone Wars.
Fans of the classic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG series received some bad news recently when it was reported that the upcoming remake of the original 2003 game had been delayed indefinitely. The series’ short-term prospects have started to look up with the news that another studio has taken over the remake’s development, but the last month has been a rough ride for KOTOR devotees nonetheless.
Thankfully, Limited Run Games is forging ahead with its physical re-releases of old Star Wars gaming hits, and has opened pre-orders for Obsidian’s beloved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, which was recently touched up by Aspyr. From now until 11:59 PM Eastern Time on October 2, 2022, you can place a pre-order for either a PC or Nintendo Switch copy of the acclaimed sequel….
October 19, 2000 — Episode II is now firmly in the post-production stage, as the digital footage shot in Australia, Tunisia, Spain and England is being edited together to form a rough cut of the film. During this process, Supervising Sound Editor Matthew Wood is hard at work gathering what will become the unique sounds heard in the new Star Wars movie.
“I’m actually going out and recording new sound effects,” explains Wood. “I’m taking the recording gear we used on the set and I’m going out into the field and recording various interesting sounds to apply to the film.”
Wood started this task while in Australia with the main production. “I was over in Australia for a couple a months. I was recording various sounds out there, after reading the script. Right now, I’m building up a library of organic, interesting, unique sounds. I’ve got a fairly big library that I’ve been accumulating over the past ten years that I can always dip into, but I want to try to go with a lot more new fresh sounds in this film.”
The local fauna of Australia provided Wood with an important ingredient in his sound recipe. “There was a trip that I took down to Melbourne while I was there,” he recounts. “I went to Phillip Island, and there were a bunch of penguins that migrate to this one spot down on the very south-eastern part of Australia. I was able to go out there and record. A lot of these penguins have really interesting sounding calls – they have three or four different calls. They just come up to shore around six o’clock at night, and they burrow in their nests. There’re hundreds of them. I was able to get rather distinct calls, because they call out to each other.”
The vociferous penguins are currently slated to lend their voices to a new alien species in Episode II.
