Within a Minute of Star Wars Episode III

scene 158

26 shots

1185 frames

910 artists

70441 man hours

Mark began speaking about the production pyramid of games and movies and how similar they are so I decided to look at the special features disk of Star Wars to gain more knowledge and just how complex this pipeline can be when making a highly anticipated movie.

The Producer Rick McCallum has to get artists and technicians together so that George Lucas can bring his vision to life.

To begin with the movie has to start with a screen play. George’s script was around 120 pages and the duel on Mustafar was just only 3 pages and he had to write about the reason why they were even on this planet and what was the reason for the duel.

The Concept artists have to draw what George describes and the Concept leader Erik Tiemens has to find a way to express George’s vision. They start with basic pencil sketches and quick brain storms then it moves onto some basic 3D modelling and Photoshop sketches, this allows George to choose from a variety of different views of what he believes will be the best image for his movie. They put all the images on boards so they can present more than one at a single time. These designs would last for 3-4 months as George changes his script as he can now begin to picture the planet.

Once this is complete the artists then do some quick draft story boards of how the scene will work out and where the next scene will be shot.

Once George is happy with what has been chosen all the art work gets past down to the Pre-Visualization team who create a living story board all in 3D. This is done because it is a quick and flexible way to design the shots of the movie and where the actors would move to as the scene progresses and if the Director is not happy with a particular shot or movement it can be changed within a few hours. It is almost like working on a set with real actors as the team will give you a performance shot and then you can discuss what works and what doesn’t and you can have more shots again until you are happy with the final work.

Production Office then to sort out actors contracts and keep the team all working together with the crew and sorts out everyone’s schedule and ensuring that everything is on time and all communication is up to scratch. They also make sure that everyone gets paid.

Catering has to be there to make sure that all crew members are fed and given the correct amount of food and there 5 a day. It also helps moral as the amount of work that has to be done in 12 hours can be draining.

Production Design has to create all the sets and make all the concept sketches in 3D from 2D. They start with mini scaled down models and they then look at where the most shots will be taken and make the architecture of that given shot.

The Construction team including carpenters, plasterers, riggers, steel riggers, moulders and painters to make the sets look as real as possible and also looking at costs for the production. The sets are then torn down after the scene has been shot this can be within the same day of just finishing making the set.

Props are made including weapons and other props such as chairs. In this scene on the Mustafar duel the main props are the lightsabres and they have to make lightweight versions, heavy weight and rubber. The prop designers don’t just have to make fancy looking weapons though they also have to make props that the actors like and prefer to use in this case Ewan McGregor chose what sabre he felt comfortable using.

Hair and Makeup have to then make actors look beautiful but in this case on the Mustafar scene their job was to make them look hot, sweaty, beaten up and dramatic.

Costumes are then made for the actors to use. They have to create every wardrobe for every actor. In this scene the clothes are getting burnt and they have to show the progression of this throughout the fight, creating wear and tear. There were around 14 different trousers, 16 undershirts, 16 over jackets, 12 belts just for Anakin in this one scene.

Actors have to bring the script to life not just by their acting but they had to do the actual duel and show emotion and passion for the reason of the fight. They had to perform on green screen as the world isn’t real but most of their focus is on the fight.

Stunt department go through the fight scenes and take the place of digital characters including stunt doubles for all the actors. They got out the lead stunt co-ordinator Nick Gillard 4 months before they started shooting so they could get as much test footage as possible. Nick choreographs every fight and gives every character there own distinctive fighting style for Anakin and Obi-Wan. The team also had to create a moving set for the falling piece of debris that lands into the lava. This meant that the stunt doubles had to take the actors place when this happens they have to scan both actor’s faces and map on digitally the actors face onto the stunt double.

Director has to make sure that the filming is going just the way he imagined it and how he wanted to picture the scene. He also gives the actors ideas on how he imagined this fight for years. He also has a script advisor how makes sure everything is in the correct place and the right time.

Cinematography helps capture the image of the director and create the mood and lighting of every scene. In the Mustafar scene the team had to create the correct lighting for a world that hadn’t been digitally made yet so the lighting had to be correct. The team also has to make sure that the camera doesn’t lose focus when shooting. On this scene the world isn’t real so they have 2 cameras shooting one that captured digitally and recording that separately from the others. As the film is getting filmed the engineers send the film back to George on the Plasma screens so he can see how the film would look in that given shot.

Sound recording is taken after post production as this scene has no dialog and is just fighting. This means that every actor has to record the grunts and noises after the scene is shot.

Editoral team has to work with the director and edit the film into the correct length and put the appropriate footage that he wants. It is done during filming as well as after the film. Once the scene is shot the tap is taken out and copied, this is sent to another editor and logged onto the computer and passed to a digital editor and finally passed to the film editor to begin editing the film. On episode III they had 2 editors working at the same time. 1 in Sydney and 1 in Skywalker ranch. The joys of editing is that you can shoot around the film and move the footage around to how the Director wants. If a scene isn’t there that the Director wants they re-shoot in London but only for a few weeks. Another job is for the editor to add in some effects and footage taken, in this case the volcano eruptions of Mustafar.

ILM Production then take the basic edit film and have to create all the green screen shots into real life planets or creatures. They have to add all the textures and look of the planet that only existed in Georges mind. They also take all the artwork and use that to help create the world and visual effects.

VFX Supervisors they are there on every scene with the Director to understand the master plan of the whole film. The difficult thing about this scene was the lava as it spurts up and runs everywhere during the scene. This artist would work on a single shot for months.

3D Matchmove/Layout work to each reference point and this is very important as the whole scene is shot on green screen. To make sure that they are not lost they add markers against the screens to show if an action is happening during the shot that the Director wants. They use the markers to track the movements of the cameras so when they add the digital environment it matches the correct perspective.

Animation department have to bring the characters to life and act with the real characters such as Yoda. During the Mustafar scene they had to animate the prop falling into the lava ocean and with the 2 actors looking as though they are holding on for dear life to do this they over reacted the impact of the landing.

Digital Environments team then draw the world and take the footage of the smoke and the lava. This drawing is basically a massive back drop and is used for the whole Mustafar scene. Once this final drawing is finished they then animate it with the clouds moving and volcanic eruptions. This takes several months to complete a 25,000 pixel painting.

Lighting and Rendering team have to light the scene and create shadows and reflections, to make the world feel real. In this scene they have to make the lava look real by creating brightness underneath the props and creating darker parts for areas where the lava can’t reach. In the lava they use it as loads of pixels which create light. They also add steam and movement to the arm to make it as realistic as possibly when the lava lands onto it.

Digital Modelling have to build and texture the arm of the prop in 3D this takes 3-5 weeks. They had to build inside the hollow model as it breaks apart due to the lava landing on it.

Practical Models are made by using styro foam to create the landscape of the rocks this is then tilted at 10 degrees to change the flow of the lava. To create the lava they used a methasil food additive with an underflow light to change the brightness.

Motion Control then take images of and capture the movements of difficult situations that you cannot normally take. They light the model in different ways on the rig so they can get the different effects that they are after.

Rotoscopting they isolate the green screen shots allowing the actors to be removed so they can work on the background and edit the CG elements. They add shadows and the colours of the lightsabres.

Compositing group add all the elements together to create the overall final shot. This will include smoke effects, lava effects and model elements.

Sound design have to look at every shot of the movie as the shots have been taken with noise that will drown out the dialog so this has to be re-recorded. This makes the film sound less realistic so they have to re generate the sound. This will include footsteps, grunts and dialog.

They also have to design sounds for the environment as lava has no sound they have to make the sound of the bubbling lava and roars as it spurts up into the air. This will take months of work as the sound is added in layers at a time just for one scene.

Score is the music industry in this case John Williams would create a new theme of “Dual of the Fates” and the “Battle of the Hero’s” was made as this fight is about 2 friends fighting against each other instead of the traditional enemies. Also the music is added because there is no dialog and it’s just fighting.

Sound mix then put all the correct sounds into scene to make it as appropriate and dramatic as the scene needs to be. This is done is whilst the film is being shown so they can go back and re-edit it if someone disagrees in something.

Final Screening is then shown on the big screen to all the main departments and hopefully it doesn’t require any more editing and if it does then they have a few hours to change something and then that is it whether they are happy with it or not.

All of this is gone through with 137 other scenes and this then creates Revenge of the Sith.