Revenge of the Sith at 20: Return of Pablo Hidalgo’s Episode III Set Diaries

Meeting Genevieve O'Reilly
June 23, 2003

The first rule about being in Star Wars is that you don't talk about being in Star Wars. At least, not until you've been officially announced. Genevieve O'Reilly has known about her upcoming role as Mon Mothma since May, but the announcement of her involvement in Episode III had to wait until last week.

"My boyfriend is mad into it. He loves Star Wars," she tells me as she sits in the Hair and Makeup Department, getting fitted with a wig by Key Hairdresser Annette Miles.

"So, did he know your character?" I ask. Being able to identify Mon Mothma is a pretty good litmus test for Star Wars geekiness.

"No, I haven't told him anything," she says. "I was told I wasn't allowed to say anything. Now that it's obviously known, I'm going to go home and tell him."

The Irish actress' elegant features are a perfect match for a young Mon Mothma, but her pale blonde hair doesn't fit the character. Annette is pinning down Genevieve's real hair to affix the auburn wig. "The wig that I put on her today is actually not finished," explains Annette. "But it will give Ivo [Coveney, Costume Props Supervisor] a fair indication of the size that he needs to adapt his headdress. Then we'll look into style as well."

Originally, the concept sketches for Mon Mothma had her with longer hair, a look that's being revised at George Lucas' request. "He wants Mon Mothma to look very similar to the last time, but younger. I think he wants a bit of a pageboy look," says Annette.

It's no accident that many of my crew chats of the past few weeks have been during hair or makeup tests. It's the perfect opportunity for small talk. I tell Genevieve just some of what she's in for being a Star Wars character. It doesn't matter how small the role, the second you've been announced, magazine, newspaper and Internet writers will begin digging up your previous roles and investigating your background.

"I've got a really good friend, Rose Byrne, who played Padmé's handmaiden in the last one," she says. "We would laugh at the stuff that was written about her, because it was the tiniest little role."

There's no such thing as a tiny little role in Star Wars. Play a power droid, work the convention circuit for years. This set diary and the material gathered by video documentarians prove that every little detail has value. "I think reality television has had such an incredible impact on our social psyche," offers Genevieve as an explanation. "When there's something like this movie, this is the closest people will get to the ‘reality' version."

That's when I bring up the web-cam, much to Genevieve's surprise. "Where is it? Make sure I know where it is so I never get anywhere near it!" she laughs.

Well, it's not likely to get near anyone's costume fitting, that's for sure. A white curtain in the fitting room of the Costume Department offers some privacy as Genevieve slips into Mon Mothma's robes. It's a new costume, though the fabric was originally earmarked for one of Padmé's dresses in Episode I, but never used. I notice pictures of Caroline Blakiston as Mon Mothma on the walls. The costume is different, but it is true to the spirit of the character.

"It's just stunning," Genevieve says. "It's all hand-worn felt. I first looked at it, and I thought, my goodness, it's something you'd wear in Alaska! But it's so incredibly light and very comfortable."

For the headdress, Ivo Coveney has provided an unpainted version of the costume prop. "I think that's the third time I've had the headdress on, and it's had different phases. In the beginning, it didn't quite fit, but today it was perfect," says Genevieve.

"I now know that we don't have to worry too much about the front, because I was worried about how the headdress would interfere with the front hairline," says Annette. "The headdress has now been shortened too, so that works with the back of the hairline. I was a bit worried last week about how everything would look together. I was worried that the hair was going to be squashed down like a pudding basin, but I think it's going to look quite elegant, actually."

Industrial Light & Magic has arrived in Sydney. Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll, Animation Director Rob Coleman and Matchmove Supervisor Jason Snell are setting up shop down the hall from my office. During their first day, they're touring the stages and getting acclimated to their surroundings, so I'll save my deluge of technical questions for another day. During my walk-around of the sets, I see John and Rob standing within the classic trilogy set that now stands completed. I get a sense that it doesn't matter if they have business in there or not. It's just a very cool place to stand. John Knoll likens it to the experience of standing in the Lars Homestead for Episode II.

Oh, another old familiar ILM friend also made the trip. The enigmatic half-silver ball that has made repeated appearances in many "making of" documentaries arrived safe and sound.

Behind the Photo

June 27, 2003

If you thought yesterday's Episode III publicity photo looked a bit familiar, there's a reason. The composition was inspired by a similar publicity photo released for The Empire Strikes Back. It wasn't a perfect replica, of course, since there's a different number of players and the location has changed, but the resemblance is obvious.

Ewan McGregor seemed eager to have it be a perfect replica, since he got the "cool chair" -- the spot held by Harrison Ford as Han Solo. Though that's not who he was quoting that day.

While photographer Merrick Morton lined up his shot, Ewan was voicing classic excerpts from the Quotable Luke Skywalker. Sure, everyone can do the whole "but I was gonna go down to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters" whine (and George quoted that line during the shoot), but it takes a true Skywalker connoisseur to bring up "No you're not, what kind of talk is that?"

Ewan did, and he nailed it. His mimicry skills are great. You should hear his George.

According to the Creature Shop workers, a good-spirited subject makes the lengthy application of prosthetic makeup much easier. It can be true test of patience sitting under the lights for hours as latex is glued to your face. But Silas Carson is used to such demands as he undergoes a Ki-Adi-Mundi makeup test. "It's a real flashback. It feels like I never left," he says.

It's the first time Kath Brown and Sophie Fleming have applied the five pieces that make up the Cerean Jedi. But unlike some of the other makeup tests done in the previous weeks, these pieces were perfectly molded to fit onto Silas' features. I won't go into too much detail, since the whole process was captured by the webcam. But of course, without audio, you miss out on the fact that Silas Carson is a really funny guy.

"Two hearts, big brain, plain trousers." That was the line that had us laughing. Carson was commenting on the call-outs of Ki-Adi-Mundi found in the Episode I Visual Dictionary. See it for yourself, Ki-Adi-Mundi wears clearly labeled plain trousers. And after a few hours of getting makeup applied to you, that's pretty amusing.

Partway through the test, there's a Jedi raiding party reunion of sorts as Matt Sloan drops by from the Droid Unit. Sloan worked alongside Carson as Plo Koon for that deleted scene from Episode II. As an animatronics technician, Sloan delivers good news to Carson. The Nute Gunray animatronics for Episode III will be far more comfortable. The heavy rig that Silas used to wear on his back has been miniaturized and now resides in Nute's head.

Several of the new faces recently announced in casting were in the Hair and Makeup Department today. Chantal Freer, the youngest handmaiden, was going through hair tests with Tracey Reebe.

"We're probably looking at 60 percent being Chantal's actual hair," she describes. "She has three separate attachments. She also has large stuffings incorporated in there to build it up and give it shape."

I tell Chantal that her casting has been officially announced. "Does that mean I can say I'm in it?" she asks.

"You can say you're in Star Wars, and you're a handmaiden. But that's about it," I explain.

"We had Ling Bai in today," says Nikki Gooley. "We did a test on her that George hasn't seen yet. She's wearing a hood. We swept her hair back very cleanly. We did some tests with Warren Owens, also. He's wearing a bit of a topknot of his own hair. He's got quite long hair, kind of wiry, but very soft, and he's got a big beard that we just push into a shape."

Also in the makeup chairs today were Nash Edgerton and Ben Cooke, who will be stunt doubles for Obi-Wan and Anakin. Cooke is also slated to play Kit Fisto, but that's much later in the schedule.

"We've been lightening Nash's hair, to try and get it the same shade as Obi's," explains Nikki. "He's on set on Monday. Because Nash's beard is not quite long enough, we'll add a bit of hair onto that."

Nikki describes a particular challenge on this film. "There's going to be a lot of wind," she says. "We have to be careful with Anakin because he has wefts of hair through his own hair, they might behave differently than his own hair, especially in the high wind. What's it called on the schedule?" She checks her notes.

"Extreme wind."

Day One
June 30, 2003

The canary-colored call sheets list the start time for the crew as 7:00 this morning. The estimated wrap time: 19:00. On the agenda: six scenes for a full day of shooting. For some, the day started earlier. Both Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor were in makeup chairs before 5:45 a.m.

As I get to the set early this morning, I can't help but be grateful that the Pre-Shoot Party was on Friday, thus giving me an entire weekend to recover.

Earlier, we received a cautionary email from Production Coordinator Virginia Murray, warning us to avoid the yellow fiber optic camera cables snaking around the floor of the stage. "These must not be run over by equipment, as a pinched/squashed cable may cause camera failure." This warning is repeated on the call sheets, which end with a friendly message from Rick McCallum and Production Supervisor Stephen Jones.

"Dear Dudes & Dudettes,

Thank you for your hard work during pre-production. We hope you know how much we appreciate everything you have done for the movie. Have a great shoot.

Rick & Stephen"

The active stage today contains four sets, but only one will be used for shooting. The other three are in various states of completion. In between takes, you can hear the scattered reports of nail guns as the construction crew continues to work in the shadows. The shrill ring of the alarm that indicates filming is about to start silences the cavernous stage of all unrelated activity, at least until the double-ring of the "all clear" signal sounds.

Only the lights illuminating today's set are on; the house lights are down, affording better visibility for the plasma screen monitors. This is not Padmé's apartment, the site of last week's camera test. This is an environment new to Episode III, mundanely described as an "ELEVATOR LOBBY" and "HALLWAY" on the call sheets. The scene takes up 2/8th of a script page. Call sheets divide script pages into eighths, indicating the approximate length of what's being shot.

At 8:07 a.m., Rick McCallum takes the clapboard, continuing a tradition that dates back to the days of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. As Rick has done on both Episodes I and II, he marks the first take of production.

"V-23, A-Camera," he says. "Good luck everybody. Kick some ass. Let's do this in 60 days."

The first take isn't very involved at all. In fact, no actors are in it. It's a "control take," a clean plate of the environment for the benefit of Industrial Light & Magic. "And... action!" George calls, as two cameras pan along the lobby. He calls cut as the cameras finish their moves.

The V on the slate indicates the shot requires a visual effect. "Maybe it'll be easier to put an 'N' on the slate for shots with no visual effects," jokes John Knoll. For this shot, some of the work required of ILM is obvious. Chalkboard-sized greenscreen panels cover areas of the walls. This set is going to double for another similar environment elsewhere in the movie, and the greenscreen represents walls that will be digitally modified. "There are also indicator graphics where the elevator is," explains John. "We'll have to put those in. And see those light patterns on the floor in front of the elevator? That's supposed to be in front of the other elevators as well, so we'll do those."

In the downtime between takes, stills photographers rush out to get reference photos. The scene is shot again, this time with Hayden and Ewan in frame. They exchange lines of dialogue as they walk down the corridor. In front of the plasma monitors, George hears their exchange through headphones.

George calls the action today, raising his voice higher than his usual soft-spoken levels to shout "action" and "cut." The shots in the lobby and attached corridor are straightforward, consisting mostly of dialogue exchanged as the characters walk through frame. Script Supervisor Jayne-Ann Tenggren leans over to ask George a question about the placement of lightsabers at this point in the story, ensuring continuity in the overall picture.

The elevator doors shut without the characteristic pneumatic Star Wars hiss. That will be added in postproduction. Stagehands turn a crank to operate these less than high-tech doors.

Spirits are light early in the morning. A scene requiring Anakin to sidestep some obstacles keeps stalling as Hayden gets his cloak stuck on an unruly outcropping.

By 10 that morning, a co-star joins Ewan and Hayden. R2-D2 arrives on set for a brief appearance. From the Droid Unit, Don Bies and Matt Sloan move Artoo through his blocking. "Artoo's ready for his closeup," says Matt. "He's just been freshly polished." The little droid performs flawlessly, and Ewan can't help quote Obi-Wan once again. "Come here, my little friend," he beckons to the astromech.

While George spends the day on this stage, work continues elsewhere in different departments. In Costumes, Chris Kirby, Warren Owens and Genevieve O'Reilly are fitted into their Senatorial robes, while an extra is dressed as Senator Tikkes' aide. In Stunts, a 10-year old Padawan undergoes combat rehearsals. Elsewhere, the Droid Unit dresses the newly arrived Anthony Daniels into his familiar golden shell.

Trisha Biggar comes in to not only inspect Anakin and Obi-Wan's costumes during shooting, but also show George color printouts of photography of Kirby's fitting. George updates Trisha that he's written a new scene with Bail Organa that will require a new costume for another character. Gavin Bocquet's ears perk up at this new addition, wondering if it will require new work from his department, but it sounds like it will be within an existing environment.

In the afternoon, the shooting gets slightly more complicated. Though the morning required on-set practical smoke effect, this afternoon sees Special Effects Supervisor Dave Young's crew setting up explosive squib hits on the wall.

Although not needed on the set today, a few guests are present watching the shooting from director's chairs lined up behind George and Rick. Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing is there, as are actors Anthony Daniels and Bai Ling.

By 7:10 that night, the last shot is wrapped, only 10 minutes off the initial estimate. The next day looks to be a bit more ambitious. Nine scenes, including a set change.

Change of Venue
July 18, 2003

There's an inherent malleability in the way George Lucas is shooting the prequels. What's on the written page can change at any point to accommodate new ideas, and the various departments need to be flexible enough to follow the evolving process. Case in point, a scene shot today was originally set in Palpatine's Office. A quick rewrite kept the scene intact, but changed the venue. What was originally a private meeting has moved into a very public space.

After a morning of shooting in Palpatine's Office, the camera crew moves to a very sparse set on another stage. It's what people generally imagine a digital backlot set to be -- blue curtains and blue stage pieces everywhere. The date in the latest script has this revision occurring on July 14 -- a scant four days ago. On a nearby table, I see a pile of five printouts showing Ryan Church's concept art of this new location. They're all dated July 13. In these past four days, Gavin Bocquet's Art Department has whipped up a blue representation of the new set's contours, complete with fully detailed chairs featuring miniature monitors and control keys in the armrests.

In postproduction, this minimalist blue environment will become a Coruscant theater, with tiers of viewing boxes and an elaborate stage production yet to be determined. The script gives a whimsical description of the entertainment, but this of course can change over the next two years. Some of us on set have no shortage of wiseacre suggestions as to the show that night -- from Battlebots to monster truck shows ("Truckasaurus!") to Hutt Sumo wrestling. But Palpatine is a man of refinement and sophisticated tastes, of course.

Within the barren set, Ian McDiarmid sits as Palpatine, awaiting a guest, along with his aides Sly Moore and Mas Amedda and a pair of red robed guards. This is the first day on set for Sandi Finlay and David Bowers, who return in their roles as the Chancellor's assistants. Unlike I previously reported, Sly does not have a new outfit -- it's the same willowy outfit from Episode II -- and Sandi did have to shave off her eyebrows.

Mas Amedda, on the other hand, does have a new costume, and there's an irony in his look that I appreciate. The character is ultimately a bureaucratic weasel, but with his dangerously pointy horns and new imposing shoulder-pieces, he does put on an impressively intimidating show.

By the end of the day, there's an antsy vibe on set that comes from it being a Friday evening after a long week of shooting. This scene defies the rule-of-thumb that a page of script takes about a minute of screen time. It's 3 7/8th long, but easily lasts over eight minutes in its entirety.

Among his many responsibilities, First Assistant Director Colin Fletcher is also the guy who calls for quiet on the set before shooting, making sure that any shuffling or whispered discussions are kept to a minimum. During the last take there's a muffled plastic shuffling coming from behind the bluescreen curtain. Those who know exactly what's behind there meet eyes and grimace nervously. Colin doesn't say anything... which is good, because what's behind there is a surprise for him.

The shuffling was C-3PO -- Anthony Daniels in full costume – who walked forward once George yelled cut, pushing a cart with champagne bottles as a candle-decorated cake. Today is Colin's birthday, and that's all the more reason to celebrate today, the end of week three of shooting.

Since we were done with Palpatine's office set this week, the ILM guys and I were jokingly calling dibs on the fantastic furniture in that environment. The statues and couches would make excellent additions to any fan's rec room, right? Of course, the one item we all have our eyes on is the power chair, the ultimate seat of authority in the galaxy, the place where Palpatine issues his commands. Cutting through our joking commentary, Ian McDiarmid glides past our conversation, and without breaking stride, says with a sinister smile, "You can't have it."

You don't argue with that.

A Busy Day for Bail
July 28, 2003

George Lucas wasn't kidding when he said that Bail Organa was a developing character. Three scenes are on the call sheet for today, and the Senator from Alderaan is in all of them. It's not unusual for a shooting schedule to concentrate on one actor for a stretch like this. It ends up making the most of Jimmy Smits' brief time here in Sydney.

For the trio of scenes, Smits has three costume changes to fit the locations and actions required. Unlike the more ornate robes and turtleneck tunic he wore in Episode II, the outfit he wears in Episode III seems more functional. It still has an elegance and presence that befits a man of his political standing, but the lines and textures are cleaner. To my eye, the costumes subtly bridge the styles of the prequel and original trilogies.

The first scene today is all dialogue -- an important discussion between Bail and other major characters. We're back in a full set, with walls, floor, ceiling and nary a hint of blue to be seen. It's a nice break from the blue and green-filled shooting of the previous week. The set is a conference room -- one with a design that definitely hearkens back to the original trilogy, right down to the array of confoundingly unlabeled blinking lights and buttons that you find all over the classic films.

Duncan Young again provides the voice for Yoda while sitting off-camera. The chair that Yoda will occupy has a red tape marker on its back, providing Jimmy and the other actors with an eyeline. Underneath the table, fishing wire tugged from off-screen controls the swivel of the chair, letting the non-existent Yoda face the appropriate character. On the plasma screens, it ends up looking as if the characters are discussing crucial events of galactic portent with the Invisible Man.

If at all possible, ILM won't need to reconstruct the chair as a digital prop. Its measurements are carefully recorded nonetheless so a digital placeholder chair can act as a "collision object," providing interaction with the computer-generated Yoda. Something has to crush the fabric of his digital clothing to suggest that his little green arms are on armrests, after all. "We may end up splitting the chair out of frame so we have better control over it," says John Knoll. This means that the actual chair in the shot of a particular take may be replaced with re-synched footage of the chair from other takes, to better suit the action. Digital artists will also need to paint out the wires for some of the wider shots.

For the second and third scene today, the crew relocates to another stage. It's back to blue, as we shoot another in a long series of landing platforms. This is not the landing platform set we've shot on previously -- this one is much more round compared to the rectilinear shape of the other set. It's still on Coruscant, though, and now Smits gets to exchange laser fire with unseen opponents.

Bail makes a hasty escape aboard his gleaming red speeder. Explosive squibs lining the speeder create a shower of sparks as Smits ducks for cover behind his vehicle. A close examination of the speeder's contours should provide a hint of familiarity to keen-eyed viewers. The Art Department has adapted the basic shape of the mold used to create Anakin's speeder from Episode II, but it has been extensively modified to make it a unique conveyance.

For the last scene shot today, Jimmy becomes the missing piece in a previously shot sequence. As reported on July 2, a scene involving Bail Organa was shot before Jimmy Smits had arrived in Australia. Duncan Young was made up to resemble Smits and played the scene as Bail Organa in Padmé's apartment. That set is long gone, and today, the landing pad set -- covered with blue carpet -- becomes the apartment.

Though only the element of Bail is needed, many of the other actors in this scene are brought in to provide the proper eyeliner and timing. A video playback from July 2 is superimposed over today's camera set-up to ensure position accuracy. Crewmembers resurrect and position the couches from Padmé's apartment in the appropriate places. None of the other Senators are in costume. On Bail's right sits Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma. Next to her is Natalie Portman as Padmé, and the new blue-skinned Senator that sits beside her is now a more terrestrial hue since she's not in makeup. On the opposite couch sits Christopher Kirby. Seated next to him is Duncan Young; since Bai Ling has left Sydney, he reads her lines. Warren Owens isn't on set today, so Dialogue Coach Chris Neil reads that dialogue.

Any other production would have waited for an actor to arrive before shooting one of his scenes, but it wouldn't be a Star Wars film unless some rules were rewritten. The use of digital wizardry has again maximized the shooting schedule, allowing Smits to occupy a set he never set foot in, and interact with actors from four weeks ago in the past.

The Best Starpilot in the Galaxy
August 11, 2003

"He was the best starpilot in the galaxy," Obi-Wan Kenobi said to Luke in A New Hope, describing Anakin's skills. While I'm not about to take anything Old Ben says at face value anymore, he seems to be telling the truth for once. Today's shooting concentrated on the piloting skills of our Jedi heroes.

The same gimbal-mounted starfighter cockpit used on Friday serves as both Kenobi's and Skywalker's vessel -- the color and detail differentiations will be added in post along with the rest of the fuselage for these tight shots. First up today, Hayden Christensen sits in the cramped quarters, wearing the familiar piloting headband first seen in Episode II.

The circular track above the cockpit supports the swiveling light that makes it appear his ship is twisting through space. A bank of red-gelled lights indicates incoming enemy fire. Brighter orange lights are for near-miss explosions.

By the time I catch up with filming this morning, the scripted dialogue has already been shot, and George Lucas is shooting ad-libbing and wild lines with Hayden. George sits in front of the plasma screens, calling out descriptions of the battle and other background chatter to prompt Hayden's reactions.

"Okay, you've got fire coming in. Look to your droid! Now we'll do the little piece where you watch the droid do the -- here comes a bad guy from your right! He's over the top of your ship now," George calls out.

Later that day, it's Obi-Wan's turn at the stick. In addition to George's called out directives, Ewan listens to Duncan Young and Dialogue Coach Chris Neil. Young provides the voice of other pilots chiming in, while Neil prompts Ewan with dialogue cues.

The energy for the first take draws me in, and I embarrassingly catch myself rocking from left to right in synch with the movements of the gimbal, a subconscious form of sympathetic body english as I get into the scene. But with each subsequent take, I gain a better appreciation of how difficult these piloting sequences are for actors. The dialogue is very abstract, calling out positions of imagined enemies and technical information about what's currently right or wrong with a starfighter. Given the cramped quarters of the vessel, coverage is at first limited to two camera views -- a head-on shot, and a slightly three-quarters shot. For later takes, side angles are gathered, and later still in the day, the camera pulls out further.

The cockpit reunites with the rest of the starfighter frame for these wider shots, and the camera motion provides the bulk of the vessel's aerobatics. This wider shot necessitates the inclusion of an astromech droid into the starfighter's socket. Obi-Wan's new bronze and copper astromech (voted by you, the fans) is still in The Works, and not due for action until tomorrow, but Kenobi will use more than one droid in this film. The script calls for the return of Kenobi's fretful redheaded companion, R4-P17. It seems the little survivor escaped Geonosis after all.

The new starfighter design requires a body for R4-P17. In the delta-shaped fighter seen in Episode II, R4 was just a head. Now, he needs a collar and shoulders. The Droid Unit quickly whipped up a new body for R4-P17, using an Artoo shell with red tape to provide individualized markings. It'll be up to the Expanded Universe lore, no doubt, to explain how R4-P17 got her new body.

Speaking of Expanded Universe explanations:

"So how did Anakin get that scar, George?" asks John Knoll.

"I don't know. Ask Howard," says George, referring to President of Lucas Licensing Howard Roffman. "That's one of those things that happens in the novels between the movies. I just put it there. He has to explain how it got there. I think Anakin got it slipping in the bathtub, but of course, he's not going to tell anybody that."

Complication for the day: Dragging the laptop through dusty stages isn't good for sensitive electronics. I seem to have blown out my USB port, which means I can't download pictures from my digital camera until I get it repaired or find an alternative. I'll page Network Assistant Kenji Oates early tomorrow morning to see if he can work his magic.

Head's Up: A preparatory announcement for those compulsively in need of updates: There may not be a Set Diary or much webcam variety for next Monday, August 18. I've got some business off-set to take care of, I'm afraid.

Saddle Up!
September 12, 2003

"Now guys there's nothing to worry about here," reassures George Lucas to the trio of ILM crewmembers sitting behind him. "It will be all cut together, and it will all look great." Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll doesn't share George's optimism. "With enough camera shake and dust added, maybe," he suggests.

The conversation isn't actually entirely serious, but that doesn't detract from the difficulty to be faced. Today's shooting involves what is one of the hardest visual effects to achieve on screen -- a character riding a non-terrestrial animal.

Almost every Star Wars movie has an effect like this, to varying degrees of success. The original Star Wars called for stormtroopers riding atop dinosaur-like dewbacks, but by the time the articulated puppet made its way to the North African desert, the sand had clogged its inner mechanisms and it simply didn't work. Thus the dewback had to hide in the background. The bantha fared better, being a real elephant dressed in furs, but the pachyderm proved temperamental, and would throw off its wardrobe between takes, resulting in a limited amount of screen time. The tauntauns of The Empire Strikes Back could stride across great lengths of snow, thanks to stop motion animation puppets, but we never got a close view of the conveniently bundled rider. The full size puppet was articulated to run along a track, but the freezing elements of the Norway shooting location prevented from that working.

After the digital effects revolution, computer-generated animal mounts became a possibility, but it still proved difficult. The digital dewbacks and rontos of the Special Edition never let the viewer get too close to their CG riders. The sedate gait of the eopies in Episode I made their brief appearance with human riders relatively easy to achieve. It was Episode II that pushed the envelope of beast riding, with shaaks, orrays and a cranky reek employed as conveyances in the film.

"They are the the shots that you don't think are going to take that much time, but they ended up taking forever to get right," says John. As with so many aspects of Episode III, ILM's task on this front is even more ambitious than what has come before.

"It's really one of the most difficult things, because in this case the CG creature is very organic, and moves in a specific way that we're all very familiar with, even though this is taking place in another galaxy," says Visual Effects Supervisor Pablo Helman. "It's going to move similarly to a creature we've seen, so that's one thing that's very difficult thing to achieve."

Pablo's laptop computer has documentary video footage of the closest real world analogy moving at different speeds. In another window, a work-in-progress computer-generated creature mimics the move, complete with a digital rider on a saddle.

"Rob Coleman has done a lot of research into the movement of the creature," says Pablo. "We've been working with the riggers to make the creature rig movement as accurate as possible. Otherwise, it won't look real."

In a perfect world, there would be more time and money to construct a rig capable of reproducing the animal's walk and run cycles and corresponding anatomical movements with more exactitude. Dave Young and his Special Effects Department have worked within the time and budgetary restrictions to program the gimbal rig to move as the creature would. On set, it's just a blue barrel representing the creature's body sitting atop the rig. The barrel wears a detailed saddle. The creature's reins are tethered to an outrigger so that the actor call pull back, as if to control the beast.

"The other thing that is difficult is for an actor to act like he was riding something he doesn't have contact with," says Pablo. "It's very difficult for actors to come to a completely bluescreen set, but in this work, we've been very fortunate to have actors that are very tolerant of that working environment."

The blue creature mount is lined by small bits of red-orange electrical tape, the work of Matchmove Supervisor Jason Snell. This will help determine the movements of the rig when examining the footage. He's also building a crude geometry of the creature rig in his computer, so that the finished digital model of the animal will correspond as much as possible to the gimbal's dimensions and movements.

"I did a rough model of the saddle with the rivets for tracking. There's some armature beneath the barrel as well, and I included the pivot points that the rig has. The barrel pitches and rolls on the same point, which is basically right in the center of the barrel. But the yaw is three feet below that. I built two pivot points, one for pitch and roll, one for yaw," he explains.

What makes this creature quite different from previous Star Wars animals is that it's quite fast and agile. Its jockey is definitely in for a hair-raising ride. Since the creature is much more mobile than the practical gimbal mount, lighting effects and a wind machine help sell the idea that the rider is moving through space. The creature may turn around and change direction, and something as simple as sliding a light along a circular track conveys that effect.

Making it all the more real that everything is drawing to a close, I got my return airplane ticket today. Also, the invitations to the wrap party have gone out, and we have to RSVP by today.

No, there won't be a webcam at the party.

Day Fifty-Eight
September 17, 2003

At the end of work yesterday, I was fretting over the September 17 Set Diary, because I felt the pressure to create something that was a fitting finale to a lengthy journey. But Publicity Assistant Lisa Shaunessy reminded me that it's not the end at all. Episode III still has a long road ahead of it, as it enters into postproduction and into the domain of Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound and beyond.

John Knoll pointed out to me where we stand in the Episode III timeline. "George said that he'd been working on Episode III for 18 months already, and we've still got another 18 months to go in postproduction, so we're really at the halfway mark."

Reality checks aside, the charged air of finality hangs over today's shooting, but it's not all glum and teary. With the Sydney weather sunny and warm, and 12 weeks of exhausting work behind us, it feels more like the last day of school. The sadness comes from knowing you may not see your classmates for some time, but there's still an exciting sense of larger things to come.

"If it wasn't for the fact that we know that we're all getting back together with George and Rick and everybody in March, I think we'd feel a real sense of dread at the moment," says Creature Shop Supervisor Rebecca Hunt. "But we've got March to look forward to, wherever in the world that may be."

The whispered promise of a half-day also kept anyone from getting too down, though that didn't come to pass. The morning shoot lasted longer than originally anticipated. It would be unfair and inaccurate to call us behind schedule, though. We are wrapping days early, after all, and on paper, we're still ahead of the game.

Today's final call sheet has a number of special notes reminding us of this day's significance, but Rick McCallum's is hard to top:

Just a short [note] to tell you all how truly fantastic you have been to work with -- your professionalism, energy, humor and lightning speed have allowed you to be unemployed five days earlier than originally scheduled! Seriously though, it has been an honor and a truly great experience for us, and I hope you know how much both George and I appreciate all the hard work you have done. We are very grateful and indebted to all of you. You have made it easy! Australia RULES!!!

The call sheet lists five scenes today, four in one stage, and the last in another. The first four, which originally were thought to be quick ones, are dominated by stunt work. "It's not about getting it fast. It's about getting it good," says George in response to us clockwatching types. It's not until the afternoon that we leave this bluescreen dominated shoot to relocate to the last standing set of production.

By the end of the morning, Stunt Coordinator Nick Gillard takes a breather to sun himself outside atop a crashmat, chatting with his crew. "We've now arrived at the last day," he says to me. "There have been huge challenges that we've managed to overcome. I think we all feel a sense of achievement, and we're very sad it's all over."

At the top of the today's call sheet is a box with a bold and underlined "Please Note" header: The webcam will be on set for our last shot today. It's the first time the webcam's presence has been identified on the call sheet. I asked the Assistant Directors to include it to let the crew know that fans will be watching our final moments together.

Since I had anticipated the crew moving onto stage before noon, I had the camera in there all day, waiting for everyone to arrive. The immense stage floor is mostly empty now, with one lonely set surrounded by a greenscreen curtain. The empty space works to my webcamming advantage: in previous shoots in this stage, I've had to stick to the walls or ceilings to keep my cables away from everyone. Now, with less traffic and more hard rubber cable ramps freed from empty stages, I'm finally able to bring the camera across the floor and move it around freely, as I have on that mostly featureless greenscreen stage in the past.

We're on another original trilogy location, one of two sets recreated in this movie. Ironically, the last set used in the Episode III production was one of the first ones built. It's been sitting under a tarp for over five months. As Production Designer Gavin Bocquet has explained before, the sets returning from previous Episodes were the easiest ones to tackle first, since they didn't have many unanswered questions in their design. This is the set that Gavin once worked on as a junior draftsman on Return of the Jedi.

The set is elevated to allow for sunken crew pits, and removable hand rails mark the edge of the set. This crew pit is a delightfully nostalgic realm to explore, since the Art Department has painstakingly reconstructed the clunky late-70s / early-80s aesthetics of control panel design. Knobs, switches, and levers look like anachronisms to a generation schooled in touch-screens, ergonomically designed keyboards and mice, and personal computers that resemble works of sculpted art. But it has an unmistakable charm, and close scrutiny of some of the display screens show that the Art Department had fun in creating these readout decals.

They're not written in Aurebesh. They're plain san-serif English, as they would be back in the original trilogy days. Some say "DEFLECTOR SHIELDS" and "REACTOR STATUS." Other useful gauges include "REBEL SCUM DETECTOR" and my favorite, "VADER PROXMITY DETECTOR." The blueline low threat level reads "Coast Clear. Goof Off." The opposite side reads "He's behind you. Look busy."

George Lucas and John Knoll discuss the angles that this set will be photographed, and John asks about whether reverse angles should be shot to fill in the viewports with interior reflections. George passes on the suggestion, using continuity to rationalize his decision. "If we do that, we'd have to go back and put reflections in all the Classic Trilogy windows," he says.

Camera Operator Calum McFarlane looks over to me and warns, "You're playing with fire, you know." I answer with fully ironic bravado: "I live on the edge, Calum." He's referring to what's being shot on the set and the risk of having a webcam there. Though George has okayed the camera being on-set, he's asked me to concentrate on crew, and specified which characters should remain off the webcam. So to those who wonder about those moments where the camera appears to be all black: you're looking at the inside of my baseball cap. And, just for the record, Rick tried to talk George into changing his mind, but some things in Episode III need to be revealed in a fashion more befitting their character.

As the shoot progresses, Script Supervisor Jayne-Ann Tenggren shouts out seemingly strange instructions to the camera crew. It took me a while to decipher her phrases like "Penguins up!" before a take. It's sort of like CB-lingo: Penguins means to denote the set-up with the letter P on the slate. Each setup gets its own letter. Today's letter-codes were markedly different. "Chewie's up!" she calls for the third setup, requesting this setup to be marked as C.

For D, it was Darths. For E, "Eopies up!" We never did find out what she had in mind for F today, though falumpasets was an interesting suggestion. "I've got one for F," says George. "How about 'Finish'?" he offers, a bit premature. The F-setup wasn't the last of the day. It was the G-setup, the seventh setup on this set, and as per tradition, Rick McCallum marked it. "Goodbyes up!" Jayne-Ann calls.

V177G was the last slate shot for Episode III. At 6:42 pm, we wrapped, to the applause of everyone on set. We stepped out from behind the greenscreen curtain to join the rest of the crew for champagne, beer, and farewells. For some, it's goodbye until tomorrow. For others, it's goodbye until the Wrap Party in a few days. For others, it's goodbye until whenever next time brings us together.

I'll end this Set Diary with the words George Lucas said to the gathered crew after the shoot: "I must say this is the actually the "funnest" film I've ever worked on. It's been very easy, and it's been very swift. It really happens because everybody works in harmony, which is really important. There hasn't been crazy politics and ego and all the other stuff that you find on some movie sets. This is the best crew I've ever worked with. I really enjoyed being with all of you. I think we made a great movie. I'm really looking forward to cutting it together and see what happens. Thank you very much."

Walking with Grown Ups (Post-Note)
December 12, 2003

"Confer on you the level of Jedi Knight, the council does," says a grumpy Yoda, as he hobbles with his wooden cane across the marble floor of Theed Palace. "But agree with your taking this boy as your Padawan learner, I do not."

In a darkened conference room at ILM, Director George Lucas watches the footage of Yoda from Episode I -- the first time the sage Jedi Master had ever been rendered as a computer-generated character for a very brief scene. "That walking in the beginning of this shot," he points out to Animation Supervisor Rob Coleman. "In terms of that scene [in Episode III] where we're having the problem of him keeping up, think about this as a model. He's really shooting there."

"You mean in terms of speed?" asks Coleman,

"Yeah, even in the puppet he's doing it," says Lucas, noting how quickly Frank Oz is moving the puppet laterally across the stage in the following shot.

One of the recurring challenges in animating Yoda is determining what's going on with his legs. On several occasions in Episode II, there were to be scenes where Yoda was walking alongside his full sized Jedi companions. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu cover such distance with their long strides that the little green Master couldn't keep up, and a workaround solution was his hovering chair seen in Attack of the Clones.

In Episode III, there are several scenes wherein Yoda walks in similar statuesque company -- he walks and talks alongside Bail Organa and Obi-Wan Kenobi. On set in Sydney, a little person stand-in walked with actors Jimmy Smits and Ewan McGregor as they blocked the scene. She set the pace for her taller co-stars.

In animating Yoda to match her steps, there at first is resistance to having the Jedi Master walk that fast. Looking at the Episode I footage, however, there is a brief precedent that can be applied to Yoda "walking with grown-ups" as George describes. "This is pretty fast. If he was walking this fast, he could keep up with those guys," he says.

"So, we won't have to give him roller blades?" asks John Knoll, Visual Effects Supervisor.

"Or those shoes with wheels in the back?" asks Rob. "What are they called? Wheelies?"

Such zippy shoes would come in handy in an environment as expansive the Jedi Temple. Episode III ventures into new locales within the towering edifice, and these new locations that weren't realized as sets in Sydney currently exist as relatively crude geometry in low-resolution animatics. John Knoll asks specific questions about the interior decorating of two shots.

"These statues here," he says, referring to two simple gaunt humanoids flanking an enormous staircase. "We've built some statues for a matte painting for the outside of the Senate building. We were wondering if we could reuse those statues for this, or if we should use something new."

"I think we should use something new. Those are pretty recognizable," says George.

"Along similar lines," continues John, pulling up a shot of an new corridor, where again a blocky digital placeholder statue appears to be holding a floating orb. "We did a statue for the hallway outside the younglings room with the big staircase [in Episode II]. About halfway through the pan, there was a big brass statue of a Jedi with a floating ball and a lightsaber in the other hand."

"So, you're asking if can we use that statue for this scene?" anticipates George.

"Yeah. Was it well enough established that it'd be recognizable as the same thing?"

"Yeah, that's where this one came from," says George -- the animatics version was inspired by the miniature built for Episode II. "I liked that statue. I think we should keep the Senate ones in the Senate. I think you'll have room for that one elsewhere, because we have a lot of vast spaces where we can stick other statues. Why don't you make another new statue for this scene."

John jots down a note. "Just trying to save some money here," he smiles.

Producer Rick McCallum, always concerned with the bottom line returns the grin. "Very good," he says, laughing.

"Art! This is art!" says George, jokingly waving his arms around before moving on to the next scene.

Pablo Hidalgo

The Animatics of OSB010 (Post-Note)
June 09, 2004

Having seen ILM's work on OSB010, the sprawling opening shot to Episode III, I spoke to Animatics Artist Euisung Lee to learn more about the evolution of this epic introduction. He was the artist responsible for the composition and dynamic animation that Industrial Light & Magic is currently working to replicate in photo-realistic resolution. From George Lucas' first loose description of the scene, Euisung Lee ran with the opening shot baton, developing it as an animatic of breathtaking scale before handing it to ILM.

"I guess it was March [2003] when I first heard about the opening shot," recalls Lee. "The first description I got was 'the two Jedi starfighters enter into frame.' Basically, we pan down to see the Jedi cruiser -- the triangle ship -- and two Jedi fighters fly into camera-view, and we follow."

Euisung pulls up a QuickTime file on his computer, depicting his first stab at this shot. "It was just based on the description in the script, but it's interpreted wrong," he points out. In this version, we see the Jedi cruiser from a different angle -- more from the front, rather than the upper view that would eventually develop.

"That was 18 seconds," he notes. "For an opening shot it was a standard length, I'd say." But Director George Lucas definitely had something longer in mind. He clarified to the Animatics Department: "then we'll see the battle for a minute." A nonchalant, no-frills description whose sheer quantity provoked a quiet double-take from Lee.

"I thought, One minute? Are you sure?" laughs Lee. "It was kind of a daunting task to figure out what we could show in one minute of space, but that's what I did."

Lee pulls up another QuickTime window. "This is the second version. It's pretty close to the final version, but it has a little more to it. Maybe I got a little bit carried away, and made it too complicated," he admits.

A veritable fountain of Separatist vessels soars straight up, perpendicular to the horizon line, and the starfighters weave through the swarm. "We dive down, and we keep going down. I thought of the Separatists escaping from Coruscant, so they're going through the herd of the cruisers, fighting and firing at them."

Another section of the dive has a brilliant missile effect whose complexity proved its undoing. I admit, it wasn't clear to me. On first glance, I assumed it was a burst of missiles firing from a Separatist ship, but as Lee plays it a second time, he explains what the projectiles are, stopping on a frame that shows one of them more closely.

"These were actually tri-droids," he says. "It's not until the end that we find that they're actually droids with booster engines on them. While the booster engines are on them, they're more like missiles, and when they detach the boosters, they become a fighter mode."

But having to slow the action down to clarify what's going on is not desired, and cramming too much ingenuity into one shot results in overload. "George said if people don't follow it the first time, and don't get it immediately, it'll confuse them. I mean, it's not that common to see missiles in Star Wars, so that blurs things even more. He liked the image of the red blossoming explosion, so he suggested to change it into some kind of explosion -- or anything -- just to maintain the image of it."

Another visual effect that seemed unclear in these early passes was a peculiar shockwave that sheds off the Jedi fighters as they begin their precipitous dive. "What I really liked in Pearl Harbor was that, whenever they fire tracers, you see a trail of smoke behind the shot. And whenever you're flying with the plane and they fire, the smoke they leave behind gives you tremendous speed reference. So, I thought, what if we could have something like that in this environment?" he says.

"Obviously, this is outer space, so you can't have it be atmospheric. But what if Coruscant had an extra atmospheric layer that they put artificially to protect the planet from gamma rays or whatever? So maybe this layer chemically reacts with the fighter's engines once they pass a triple-supersonic sound barrier, making a ripple," he postulates. Whatever the rationalization, the visual effect was intriguing, but it was ultimately left out. "I don't think George objected to the idea. If they had fired in this shot, I would have added tracers -- lasers with tracers -- but he said, no, they don't fire."

Such direction proves that the energy and complexity of the shot have to be balanced with the intent and flow of the sequence. "You can't get married to everything, because in the end it's about the story and not pride and attachment," says Lee, whose words seem to almost Echo the Jedi Code.

So what were the "big picture goals" of OSB010?

"What George wanted to establish is the kind of situation Obi-Wan and Anakin are in -- how intense the battle is," he explains. "In an earlier version, I wanted them to be more actively engaged in the battle, firing down at the bridge of the enemy ship, but George saw it more that they're actually part of a rescue mission, and not part of a dogfight."

More than just an effects tour-de-force, the shot actually builds character through the flight characteristics displayed by the Jedi. "One big theme about this shot is how skillful they are as pilots -- and as a team," he says. "George wanted their moves synchronized. They're so good as a team; they work together so well. In an earlier version of the shot, they're weren't perfectly synchronized, because I didn't think to take that literally. In animation, that becomes a little unnatural, so you want to offset the timing a little. But when George saw this, he said, no, they're literally perfectly synchronized."

Animators at ILM needed this unnatural coordination further clarified. "Scott Benza asked George again, 'do they fly exactly synchronized?' and George confirmed that. Scott was trying to make sense of how they do that. Do they somehow link through R2 units and computerize their movements? No. They're just so good," says Euisung.

As is often the case in Star Wars, little details observed at an almost subconscious level serve to paint in a much bigger picture. "I think the stronger the bond between them in the beginning, the more impact there is when they go the other way and fight at the end," says Lee.

As Lee continued to refine the animatics of the shot, ILM had already begun building the digital assets they would require. As such, the Animatics Department at Skywalker Ranch and the team at ILM could share resources, working together to more clearly define the final action. In comparing the evolution of OSB010, there's a definite difference in the detail of the starships from the first iteration, to the most recent version.

"In the case of the Jedi ships and the Federation flagship, they're actually ILM models. We stripped them down a little bit, but it's still very hi-res for an animatic," says Lee. "It's more accurate. The AMD-based computers we use are fast enough for this job that we can sometimes use ILM models without stripping them down too much."

Such polish has allowed George Lucas unparalleled freedom in defining his mind's-eye visions into finished frames. As happens often these days, Lucas works closely with the Animatics team to Nail down all the unknowns in some very effects-intensive scenes, eliminating the guesswork and delivering sophisticated shots of clear, focused action to ILM.

"During the design of this shot, there was a little part that I wasn't sure how to bridge, how to get from A to B," explains Lee. "George actually sat here with me and was able to show how the shot would work in space. He's been doing that a lot recently -- he directs us. Once he started doing it he just fell in love with it. So for certain sequences George wants to develop or change, you prepare the 3-D scene with the right characters, props, vehicles, the environment, and the camera with correct HD film back and lens. He sits with you and tells you to move things to compose a shot, and it's like he's the director on the set and you become the entire production crew for him. It's very interactive and an educational experience about filmmaking for us, and I like the fact that he call this process 'shooting', rather than 'animating', 'rendering', or other usual 3D animation term."

And throughout the long render times and many iterations, there is always the instant and inspiring feedback from the rest of the department. "Once you have many creative people around you like that, even flying in an outer space battlefield for over one minute doesn't really leave you in daunting vacuum," says Lee.

Pablo Hidalgo

Capturing a Wookiee (Post-Note)
July 28, 2004

How do you go about capturing a Wookiee, let alone hundreds upon hundreds of the shaggy giants?

The Wookiees in Revenge of the Sith will be realized through a combination of practical costumes and digital extras. Eight massive furry costumes, crafted by the Creatures Department under the leadership of Creative Supervisor Dave Elsey, formed the central core of live-action Wookiee performance. Most of these Wooks were shot in Sydney earlier this year.

Kashyyyk, however, has more than just a small crowd of the furry titans. The lagoon-side tree cities of the arboreal world are teaming with Wookiees, warriors and civilians both, and for some of the most crowded battle scenes, the animators at ILM will have to fill in the frame with digital Wookiee extras.

There are two principal methods of infusing life and performance into a digital character. One is key-frame animation, where an animator sets the main poses of the character, and the computer fills in the gaps of motion in between these stances. The other is by applying motion capture data performed by a live actor to a digital model.

The motion capture stage became a workout room for Michael Kingma, the 6'11" Australian basketball player recruited for the role of Tarfful. In that role, Kingma's height is increased to over 7', and he disappears under the heavy fur and muscle suit.

Today, though, Kingma isn't playing Tarfful. "He's playing every digital Wookiee," says Doug Griffin of ILM's Motion Capture Department. Griffin directs Kingma, often acting out the required actions himself first before letting him take over.

Pulling up animatics footage of the lagoon battle on Doug's computer screen shows hundreds of Wookiees running out from out of cover, striking out against Corporate Alliance and Trade Federation droids. The treaded tanks, cut from Episode II, have undergone somewhat of a conceptual redesign, judging by the animatics. Whereas before they were droids themselves, these models appear to have droid pilots or at least battle droid gunners aboard.

"Will I be paid for each one?" asks Kingma with a smile, examining the actions of the furred swarm that his performance will drive.

The small stage is surrounded by an array of 16 cameras in perfectly calibrated positions. I get the standard warning as I enter on stage -- try not to touch the camera stands, but if I do, be sure to let the crew know.

Each camera has a ring of LEDs projecting forward along its view. Kingma wears a tight spandex suit covered with little reflective balls. Just snapping a few pictures with my still camera illustrates just how well they throw back light - my camera flash is reflected back with full intensity in that split-second.

The sixteen digital cameras each capture a grayscale feed at 120 frames per second. That grayscale image data is further crunched down into black and white, with a very high contrast. Anything that is not a reflective ball becomes a featureless sea of black, leaving just a cloud of reflective spheres floating in the air.

The mental exercise of connecting-the-dots helps me visualize the humanoid form driving the motion of these floating dots. From just two of these 16 camera feeds, the computer can determine where in 3-D space those dots exist and move. Thus the computer can connect-the-dots, creating a crude 3-D wireframe humanoid, and determine what exactly Kingma is doing with his body.

Shots go really quickly. There's no set-up time and all 16 cameras gather what is needed. Lighting doesn't matter. Framing doesn't matter. With the data pulled from the reflective balls, these Wookiees can be put into any camera angle. At 120 frames per second, there's enough performance to be extracted from a single second to slow down or speed up for different effect.

Reference and inspiration material lies nearby. A laptop plays footage from A New Hope. How fast does a Wookiee run? Consulting Chewbacca loping through the Death Star reveals a pretty relaxed trot - it's the massive leg-spans that move a Wookiee at a brisk pace. Doug often mentions Saving Private Ryan and Braveheart as reference, to help Michael further visualize what's required of him.

It's not all epic battles. In some cases, Kingma's nameless Wookiee extras are guiding in helicopter traffic, loading supplies on landing platforms, or barking orders to clones and Wookiees. In other cases, it's Wookiees leading troops into the fray, jumping out from behind cover and charging forward, or recoiling from a near miss of heavy ordnance.

A variety of practical Wookiee props lies nearby -- the oversized blasters, bowcasters and rifles crafted by Ty Tieger's Prop Department. These too have reflective markers on them on key points, allowing animators to correctly align these handheld props in their digital incarnations.

Michael really gets into the performance, even roaring loudly to properly portray how such outbursts can affect posture and movement. By the end of a solid morning of work, he can feel it in his voice, and looks quite relieved when the rest of the shoot requires "no more grunts."

It's may be easier than running around with a full Wookiee outfit on, but it's still a tough job.

Pablo Hidalgo

Return of the Wookiee
July 29, 2004

It's not often George Lucas gets to use the directive "scratch your head" when shooting a Star Wars movie, but this week proved to be a rare exception with the return of one of the most beloved characters in the series. Though his involvement with Episode III was announced well over a year ago, Chewbacca only just recently shot his scenes for Revenge of the Sith.

The 57-day shoot that took place in Sydney last year covered most of the movie's principal live action, but there were noticeable gaps. Lucas factors in stints of additional photography into his shooting schedule, to allow the story to develop in the editing room, and new scenes to be added as needed. But in this case, several major sequences that were in the script since day one were left off the principal photography schedule -- they'd be taken care of later. Much of that "later" has already come to pass, such as isolated Jedi battling on alien worlds -- witness Amy Allen's role as Aayla Secura documented on the webcam and in a Set Diary.

These pick-ups also include the long-awaited visit to the arboreal world of Kashyyyk. Hyperspace members may have spotted Wookiee costumes and props in development during principal photography. The Creature, Prop and Costume Props Departments undertook these tasks when they had already ramped up for shooting, even though the results of their labors would remain in storage for months.

When the Sydney shoot ended, there were seven new Wookiees already cast with towering Australian locals, including basketball athletes and a prison warden. They had been fitted in their costumes, dressed in their wardrobe and armed with weapons. Peter Mayhew had journeyed to Sydney for his costume fitting as the eighth Wookiee, Chewbacca. But despite all this preparation, they all had to wait.

Earlier this spring, a small second unit photographed Wookiee action in Sydney. Though the extras were new to on-camera action, the Wookiee costumes went a long way in helping to get into character.

"Axel was their leader of sorts," describes Creature Shop Supervisor Rebecca Hunt. Axel Dench, a basketball player, portrayed an imposing Wookiee bedecked in armor and braids earlier this year. "In one of his takes, he got so into it, he received a round of applause from the crew," she recalls. "I think after that, some of the other Wookiees started looking to get that kind of recognition."

Though I missed that particular shoot, I did see the outcome of it this week. As mentioned in the last Post Notes, the Animatics Department has worked out the logistics of the Kashyyyk battle. Their computer-generated previsualization has the Confederacy droids attack a lagoon-side tree village, with hundreds of Wookiees fighting back. The shaggy warriors are bolstered by clone trooper ranks and the heavily armored vehicles of the Republic.

The leading edge of that battlefront is made up of the practical Wookiees shot this spring. The swarms behind them will be digital. But there are two notable Wookiees missing from the ranks.

The script to Episode III only identifies two of the Wookiees by name -- Chewbacca and Tarfful. Both were absent from this spring's Wookiee shoot, but were the subject of photography this week.

It was a joy for me to see Dave Elsey, Lou Elsey and Rebecca Hunt of the Creature Shop again. I've made no secret my admiration of the Creature Shop and their work; they were the first department in Sydney that I got to know, and the first to warm up to the ever-present webcam. So, it was like being home again. Lugging the webcam to stage, staying out of the way while the cameras rolled, and hiding behind the greenscreen curtain brought the experience of last summer rushing back.

It must have been a much more profound trip down memory lane for Peter Mayhew, who returns to the role of Chewbacca. The suit is new, but faithful to the classic incarnation. It sports a new arterial system that can pump ice cold water to help cool the actor down. Michael Kingma dons the Tarfful suit. Though both Wookiees stand about the same height, Tarfful's definitely the beefier of the two, with a chiseled muscle suit underneath the fur defining his powerful physique. Dave Elsey and Don Bies work the radio controls of Tarfful's animatronic features.

As the principal Wookiees, it is Chewbacca and Tarfful who interact most with the Jedi protector stationed on their world - Yoda. The tallest of heroes parlaying with the smallest makes for some interesting framing challenges. For some shots, only the Wookiees knees are needed behind Yoda, allowing the performers some blessed respite from the sweltering heat. After all, if it's only their knees in frame, they can take off the Wookiee heads.

A vacuum cleaner stands ready off the edge of set, as the greenscreen accumulates stray fur between takes. The noise of the appliance and the drone of the wind machines are not a concern -- these scenes are shot MOS (without sound.) The Wookiee roars will be added later, a strange mixture of ursine and other feral sources provided by Ben Burtt. On set, the Wookiees need not vocalize, but occasionally, Michael and Peter do speak dialogue, to better time the scene. "Let's get out of here," may be a very common action movie phrase, but it sounds very unusual coming from a Wookiee mouth.

It's a full day of shooting with only a break for lunch. Though the action can't really be described as physically intense -- most of today's set-ups are reaction shots and simple movements. But the hot lights and bulky suits make for a very exhausting day for Kingma and Mayhew, who have frequent downtime to preserve their strength and energy for a long shooting day.

The shoot is entirely greenscreen, with appleboxes, c-stands and tennis balls standing in for Jedi holograms, clone troopers and departing starships. A shrub is wheeled in to provide a real interactive prop for a scene where Tarfful must clear some foliage to make good an escape. The Kashyyyk environment will be a mix of miniatures, plate photography and digital landscape, all too exotic to be found in the real world. At the Model Shop at ILM, the Wookiee's tree city is coming together, a fittingly massive miniature that will soon be photographed as a separate element, adding more pieces to what looks to be one of Episode III's most memorable and breathtaking action sequences.

A Night at the Theater
August 23, 2004

Prior to my departure for London, Producer Rick McCallum warned me that the pick-ups would be -- how'd he put it? -- "intense." The shooting schedule looked extremely packed, what with about 400 shots, but these should be put into perspective.

Pick-up photography is mainly done to add transitional shots, new close-ups, or modified dialogue in scenes that are already in the edit. Those 400 shots don't represent 400 brand new scenes to build from the ground up. But their being relatively small doesn't make them a breeze -- it takes just as long to set-up and light a forty-second scene as it does a ten-minute scene, after all.

This kind of work can be especially challenging for actors. Rather than having an entire scene to perform, wherein they can properly gauge the ebb and flow of conversation, emotion and reaction, the actors have to deliver a performance that can be cut and spliced into the surrounding scene. Also, just filming a walk across a hallway, a grasping of a prop, or the raising of an eyebrow is not the most rewarding of acting exercises. Add to this the fact that this shoot will almost be entirely against blue and greenscreen (the background has already been captured in the form of "clean plate" shots of the sets built in Sydney), and it all makes for an arduous job.

The feel of this morning was very much what I figured the pick-ups would be. There's new dialogue for a scene where Anakin and Palpatine discuss the ongoing war in the Chancellor's private office. Though the scene remains mostly intact as it was shot in Sydney last summer, some of the dialogue has been re-written to be more focused on the evolving storyline. The private office set is very minimal -- in this case, it's just a set of three steps rendered in blue, and the actual oval-backed chair used by Ian McDiarmid in Sydney.

To prepare Hayden Christensen and McDiarmid for the work ahead, George Lucas screens the current edit of the scene on the plasma monitors. It's a somewhat unsettling experience, one where a creative eye needs to look past the rough Frankenstein patchwork and see the finished product. The scene currently consists of footage from Sydney, stills as placeholders, footage lifted from another scene, and dialogue which slips from fragments of Hayden and Ian's voices, to Ben Burtt's unmistakable voice filling in new lines. Watching this does clarify what needs to be shot, but it can also confuse matters if you get caught up in the incongruous details of an incomplete edit.

The scenes shot in the afternoon, however, ballooned to a scale beyond my expectations. They were as large, if not larger, in scope than some of what was shot in Sydney. If you'll recall, last summer had a scene that switched locations just prior to filming. What was to be in Palpatine's office was suddenly moved to an opulent theater. During principal photography, the viewing box was simply realized as a set of chairs against bluescreen. In the edit, the theater needed to be established, so an animatic form had Anakin Skywalker rushing into the grand staircase of the glittering venue, which is teeming with the elite of Coruscant socialites, humans and aliens both.

Since it's only for one shot, building the entire staircase set is impractical. But something had to be built for the characters in this scene. The construction crew delivered an enormous staircase, about 60 feet long by 20 feet wide, all painted in blue. ILM will replace the blue with a 3-D matte painting of the environment, to accommodate the craning camera move that follows Anakin as he rushes past the patrons.

It's actually quite the mixture of high culture, this sequence. It's a ballet, held at an opera house, where Palpatine discusses an old play (and given Ian McDiarmid's background with the theater, that's especially fitting).

The Creature Shop has spent the last week busily preparing all the rubber-headed alien extras that will makeup the theater lobby crowd. Humans, Twi'leks, Ishi Tibs, Bith, Nikto, Sy Myrths, Anx and other aliens, dressed in newly crafted classy wardrobe by Trisha Biggar and her team file into the ballet performance. Given all these variables, you can understand some concerns for safety on the set on the set.

Over 50 extras...

Many of them in masks...

On a rail-less staircase...

That's all painted a uniform blue....

... and a reckless Jedi Knight weaves his way past them.

I think of the blooper reel from the Episode II DVD, dreading a misstep that will result in an avalanche of aliens, but it never happens, despite multiple takes. The subsequent shot is much safer, set on terra firma, representing Anakin's continued trot through the landing at the top of stairs, and into the entrance to Palpatine's private viewing box.

Many of the alien extras are indeed familiar faces. Re-used masks for standard background aliens are dressed up slightly with jewelry and makeup. One female Nikto looks particularly ghastly with a wig of long curly hair. Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

Another familiar face in the crowd isn't alien at all. Looking dapper in an officer's uniform is Anthony Daniels, reprising his Episode II cameo role as Lt. Dannl Faytonni. Excuse me, that's Captain Faytonni. Daniels points to the added stripes on his shoulder and pips on his collar. "You'll have to help me with the backstory that got me here," he kids to me as he awaits the next take.

Even a shifty con-artist can work his way up from the lower Outlander Club and into the Galaxies Theater.

Wrapped Once Again
September 03, 2004

Even if I hadn't seen them in costume in Sydney, I would know who Paul Whelan and Goran Kleut are playing in this movie. Their tall, gaunt frames and thin faces instantly give them away as members of the same species of Tion Medon, the helpful alien played by Bruce Spence. As Obi-Wan Kenobi visits a world besieged by the Separatists. Though Ewan McGregor and Spence have shot their parts last year, George has decided to give Medon a bit more of an entourage.

The script describes them as "sidekicks." They are shot isolated on blue to be added to last year's footage. Their costumes are not as extreme as Tion's, who has the flair befitting his rank. These are a bit more non-descript, but their ashen faces and towering heights still make them stand out.

Their faces come courtesy of the Creature Department, who crafted their alien countenances specifically for the performers, necessitating their travel to the UK. The same holds true for Shaak Ti, who shot her scene today.

"For Episode II, Shaak Ti's makeup was really just the crown and a bit on her forehead, and for this movie we thought we'd go in and improve it, especially given the closeup performance required," says Dave Elsey, Creature Shop Creative Supervisor. "So, we built it more so that it actually covers her face and blends in more. It's a very thin layer of latex on her face, but it's fitted exactly to [Orli Shoshan]. When we found out we were going to shoot her, we needed to find her. With some of the other makeups, like Kit Fisto and Saesee Tiin, it's thicker off the face, and you can cheat it and not have it be the same person. But not with Shaak Ti."

Shoshan was tracked down, and flown over from Australia to Shepperton. If she couldn't have been found, Dave's backup plan was to use the Creature Shop Supervisor Rebecca Hunt as the Jedi Master. "If that was the case, I could bully Becky around a bit more," jokes Dave.

I see Orli waiting for a take, and notice something different about her alien face. I can see her eyes. "You haven't had your eyes put in yet," I say, stating the obvious. I recall what a pain those large black contacts were last year. "I'm not wearing them this time," she says. Her alien eyes will be added digitally, saving valuable time on set on this last day.

Anakin sits in Yoda's quarters, talking about matters pressing heavily upon his shoulders. Yoda's difficult advice very much echoes his original speech to the young boy in Episode I. The Jedi Master advises Anakin about attachment, possession, premonition and mortality.

Yoda's quarters, first seen in Episode II, were a miniature environment. On set is only the big circular chair (jokingly referred to as the wheel of gouda) for Hayden to sit on. A blue wall with slots for Venetian blind-style lighting is positioned into place, casting shadows on a face built perfectly to catch them. Yoda is again represented by the Episode I puppet, simply for eyeline purposes.

Today's "awwww..." moment came courtesy of eight precocious younglings gathered to film a scene in the Jedi Council chambers. The incomplete collection of chairs are brought out again, looking gigantic compared to these tykes. Most are children of people on the crew. There's a wall of proud parents standing by, watching their kids in the Jedi gear. I notice Prop Master Ty Teiger among the adults and ask him which one was his, and he points out to a young lad in dark brown robes.

As they meet Hayden Christensen, one bright kid says, "You have to put your glove on." Clearly, a young fan since he's able to spot that Hayden has yet to fully get into costume.

W.C. Fields maxims to the contrary, these kids are very easy to work with. Colin Fletcher and George Lucas coach them before each take, particularly Ross, the one child actor in their midst, who has to deliver a line of dialogue. There are rounds of applause from the crew with each successful take, because, hey, they're kids.

Though this is an all-new batch of younglings, John Knoll recalls the travails of shooting the kids in Episode II. "They were around four and six years old," says John. "And there's a big difference between four and five-and-a-half, in terms of being able to sit still and follow directions."

The restless kids of the Bear Clan made for difficult shooting for Episode II, but with enough material gathered through multiple takes, ILM was able to patch together a group of younglings properly reflecting Jedi discipline. Those whose performances weren't salvageable had their faces replaced with CG aliens, or their entire bodies replaced with composited kids shot during postproduction. Dem's the breaks of showbiz, kids.

No word on whether that will be the case here, but the performance requirements are easier, what with only one kid talking, and from what I saw, the kids were pretty well behaved.

At 6 p.m., Colin Fletcher informed the crew that we'll be going over schedule, adding an additional hour to the day to capture everything that's on the call sheet. This may indeed be the last time many of the cast and crew will be assembled together, barring any short stints of pick-ups next year.

After two weeks -- eleven days -- of shooting, we're approaching the end. Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor are on stage, shooting tiny insert segments of their hands or weapons for the big duel. Look closely at the webcam footage from the end of the day -- they're dueling, but they're in such tight quarters that it's clearly not an extended fight. George just needs to pick-up some reactions for the edit, and some shots of fallen lightsabers clattering on the floor.

Hayden finishes his last shot at 7:00, to an enthusiastic round of applause from the crew. This just leaves Ewan, shooting a soggy climb up the side of a cliff-face. Or, rather, a small segment thereof. It's another tiny piece to be added to the puzzle, and so very characteristic of the majority of this shoot.

There's not as much fanfare as there was in Sydney once we wrap -- understandably, as this was only an 11-day shoot. But it was still great to see so many Sydneysiders return to the shoot, and meet so many new great new people from the UK crew.

At the bottom of today's call sheet is a farewell message from Production and the Assistant Directors.

To everyone on the Cast and Crew

Thank you all so much for your hard work, we've had a fantastic time -- it's been great working with you! - Rick, George, Brian, Colin and Deb

P.S. Thanks for working on the Bank Holiday -- sorry we couldn't pay you for it!

(only Joking!)

Special Thanks To: Kathryn Ramos and Siobhan Lyons for facilitating this trip overseas to continue this kind of coverage. To Duncan Blackman and Keith Hamshere for their last-minute use of their tripods for the webcam today. And to whoever stole my tripod last night, for giving me one less thing to pack.

And much, much thanks to George and Rick for encouraging us and having fun with the idea of insomnia-addled fans staying up at odd hours to watch them work.

See you Stateside!

Part of the Coruscant Elite (Post-Note)
November 24, 2004

Note: The shoot described in this article occurred on Wednesday, November 17.

What Episode III didn't need during principal photography was another scene set in Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's office. To be certain, momentous and seismic events unfold in the crimson-carpeted space, but in the interests of opening up the environs and exploring a new Coruscant locale, George Lucas transplanted a seven-minute dialogue scene into the Galaxies Opera House.

The versatility that digital technology affords him allowed for such a switch. The Art Department at Skywalker Ranch zapped over digital studies of what a Coruscant opera house would look like to Sydney, Australia. The Production Art Department then crafted a handful of theater chairs to be shot against bluescreen. Add Ian McDiarmid as the centerpiece of the scene, and you have one of Episode III's most compelling and eye-opening exchanges, one that I predict will become a source of endless fan debates regarding interpretation and implications.

But, there's still the matter of the environment. In the past few weeks, the digital and miniature architecture has come together to describe the opulent and gilded splendor of a storied entertainment venue. The scene is established with Anakin pulling up in his protractor-shaped speeder past a line of limousines, rushing up a staircase filled with Coruscant glitterati, tearing down a burnished hallway, and finally arriving at the Chancellor's executive box.

The time has come to populate the scene, and this sequence will be filled with extras that you may have seen elsewhere. Like a strange distortion of a management-mandated "casual Friday", many familiar ILMers are bedecked in the finest Coruscanti eveningwear. ILM Production Coordinator Katie Lynch says her character's name is "Statuetta Libertatta," while Model Shop Supervisor Brian Gernand uses the more descriptive if ultimately less dignified name of "Eggplant Parmesan." They, along with Associate Producer Lori Arnold (who is wearing chopsticks in her hair), kick off a long day of shooting on the ILM bluescreen stage to populate the Coruscant opera house.

Directing the CGO scene-backgrounds is VFX Director of Photography Carl Miller. Stage Manager Gabriel Hanley serves as his assistant director, communicating with and coordinating the talent on stage. When it comes time to shoot extras sitting in viewing boxes, Miller describes: "It's like a baseball game -- you don't watch just the game; you watch the people at the game." The extras crane their necks about to take in the view, lean in to gossip about who they see, or maybe stand up, and walk into the scene, as if they're late for the show. "Remember, it's a huge show, so wherever you look, you're seeing something," he offers.

"If you had asked me to do this a few years ago, I might have said no," says Visual Effects Producer Denise Ream, who wears a dark gown with teal trim and a large, squarish headdress. "But this is the last one, so how can you turn it down?"

She's part of an executive box adjacent to Palpatine's, forming the background seen over Anakin Skywalker's shoulder. The box is definitely VIP seating, if the roles of the ILMers involved are any indication. Joining Denise Ream in the box are VFX Producers Jill Brooks and Janet Lewin, Animation Director Rob Coleman, and Visual Effects Supervisors John Knoll and Roger Guyett. "Who's skippering the boat?" chides Michael Olague from the ILM stage crew as he adjusts the lighting for the scene. "It's rudderless!"

As architects of this particular venue, it's understandable that these people get good box seats. The "box" in this case is just two rows of seats, the back row elevated above the front row. Even the chairs are blue. "Why is everything painted blue?" asks Roger, feigning bewilderment. "You guys can keep the chairs afterwards if you want," someone suggests. John Knoll shoots that idea down. "It doesn't really go with our décor."

For Knoll, this isn't his only cameo in a Star Wars film. He's seen most visibly in Episode I, as an ill-fated Naboo starfighter pilot. For Episode III, this isn't his only part. He has taken over as the role of the fire ship pilot, replacing the footage shot in Sydney with a new take.

Likewise, Rob has had a cameo in Episode I as one of Jabba's Boonta Eve guests. A bust of Rob Coleman appears in the Jedi Archive library, and he of course as a Jedi Master named after him in Episode II.

"We decided that we were your guests, Rob," says John, describing what passes as motivation for their background roles. "And you sort of invited Roger, but you never really specified that you were paying for his ticket."

The large group of extras required today has been segmented into smaller clusters. This VIP group is "Group C" seated in "Box 4." Katie, Lori, and Brian were Group "D," seated in Box 5. Boxes 1, 2 and 3 have a mix of extras identified as Group A. Among them is Production Assistant Anthony Reyna, playing multiple roles as both human and a Mon Calamari.

Group E and F don't get box seats, but get to be ambulatory extras. They are shot as people milling about the entrance, the corridor, and trying to find their seats within the auditorium. I'm always amazed at the speed and accuracy of Carl Miller and his stage crew, throwing up powerful lamps and flags to essentially sculpt a scene's parameters with light. A fan of white lighting spreads out on the ground, casting long shadows behind the subject, framing them perfectly as if walking into a darkened amphitheater from a brighter hallway. This setup is captured by the HD camera, shrunk down appropriately, and layered into an animatic of the shot. Carl eyes it exactingly, instructing the stage crew to adjust the light or camera in minute increments.

The opera box chairs are taken offstage, and two are brought back, positioned underneath a "ceiling" of black flags to block light. A slight blue step is placed next to one of the chairs. It's a challenging exercise to mentally fill in the bluescreen gaps without any hints. Looking at the monitor, I see that this setup is meant to approximate a digital limousine. Seated "inside" are extras Pouchon Venerin and Lorelei David, both from ILM. The black flag ceiling blocks light from hitting them, thus creating a darkened interior for the speeder. The blue step represents the edge of the door frame that a person exiting a limousine would have to step over.

I tell Pouchon my theory that he may be extremely rich and powerful, if he can afford to show up this late to an opera this grand. But he's just one of many of this unparalleled Coruscant elite ... which of course begs the question, what am I doing here?

Here's a piece of advice. If you think there's even the remotest chance that you may be cast as an extra in a movie that won't allow you to wear your eyeglasses, get fitted for contact lenses right away and get used to them, so you're not scrambling at the last minute.

The night before the shoot, I arranged an evening appointment at the "done-in-about-an-hour" vision place, to get fitted for my first-ever contacts. I explained to the doctor that I didn't need anything too fancy or permanent. I prefer wearing glasses, but I "had the chance to be an extra in a period film," so I needed to have some contact lenses right away. My particular astigmatism would ordinarily result in pricey lenses, but since he figured it was a one-time thing, I would do fine with 90% vision.

"This is your first time wearing these, so you'll want to ease into them a few hours at a time. It's not like you need these tomorrow," he said. I lied and agreed with him.

Now, I wouldn't recommend anyone do this. You're only supposed to start off with first time lenses, say, six hours at a time. But being a novice at putting them in, and not wanting to risk taking them out again, I put them on at home at the start of the day -- 5 a.m., even though I wasn't scheduled to shoot until 3 that afternoon.

There are many people to thank for the opportunity of playing an extra in Episode III, Lori Arnold and Gillian Libbert deserve special mention. It was Gillian who called me in for a fitting, measuring me and finding a green frock that fit me. It was a heavy green dress with a hoop-skirt hem and an upholstered finish that made me feel not unlike a 1970s sofa, shaped like a playing piece from the classic "Sorry" board-game. Just add a strange hat, and you're set. The pants and shoes were mine.

I had two shots. The first had me standing outside the auditorium in the hallway, talking with my fellow opera-lovers Katherine Farrar (ILM Production Assistant), Lars Jensvold (ILM Editorial) and David Gray (VFX Coordinator). Carl put me in charge of my little group. I led the conversation, and then motioned us to walk in when it was time to go catch the show. Everything shot today was MOS -- without sound -- allowing us extras to yammer away. "Have you heard anything about this show? It's supposed to be pretty good." "Well, we paid for our tickets, we might as well head in..." That kind of stuff.

My second shot was the "martini shot," old moviemaking jargon for the last shot of the day. The clock was ticking towards 7 p.m.. The directive was simple. I just had to walk a slightly curving line, delineated by three masking tape Xs on the floor. Walking forward, away from camera, I had to look over my left shoulder, at the graceful zero-gee ballet. Walking back towards camera, I would look over my right. I would be one of several opera guests wandering between aisles as the show started.

It's not backbreaking labor, but it still makes for a very long day and a test of stamina and patience. A breathy excitement affected while retelling the tale is one thing, but adrenaline cannot run for an entire 10-hour day. The end result was 32 performers, 14 scenes, and 19-20 camera positions. And a pair of really tired and cranky eyeballs.

But all worth it, of course. Like so much of my Episode III experience, I'm too far caught up in the details and machinery of the process to really soak in the significance of what I'm a part of. It only hits later that I've played a role -- albeit small -- in something that many people consider historic. And for that, I'd weather a dry eyeball or two.

But I don't want to get too ahead of myself, since I don't know just how many pixels tall I'll be, or even if I'll be visible at all. Besides, not even counting the ILM VIP box, there's a much more interesting cameo appearance in this scene, but I'll have to hold off on revealing who just yet.

For those keeping track:

Group A: CG Supervisors John Helms, Russell Earl, Craig Hammack, David Meny, and Hilmar Koch; Compositing Supervisors Eddie Pasquarello and Pat Tubach; VFX Coordinator Leigh Ann Fan; VFX Production Assistant Anthony Reyna.

Group B: VFX Coordinators Bill Tlusty, David Gray and Jessica Teach; VFX Production Assistants Brian Barlettani and Katherine Farrar; VFX Editorial Lars Jensvold; Internet Content Manager Pablo Hidalgo.

Group C: VFX Producers Denise Ream, Janet Lewin, Jill Brooks; VFX Supervisors John Knoll and Roger Guyett; Animation Director Rob Coleman.

Group D: Practical Model Supervisor Brian Gernand; VFX Coordinator Katie Lynch; VFX Associate Producer Lori Arnold.

Group E: VFX Production Assistants Anthony Reyna and Pouchon Venerin; Editorial Coordinator Sureena Mann; Assistant Editor Lorelei David

Group F: Editor Lars Jensvold; Technical Operations Supervisor Rob Bonstin; Sabre Supervisor Grady Cofer; Assistant Colorist Michael Parkinson; Production Manager Maria Brill.

Pablo Hidalgo

The Voice of the Republic (Post-Note)
January 31, 2005

I wasn't too worried about the two-hour delay of my flight from San Francisco to Heathrow. Also on my plane was George Lucas, and I knew the Episode III activity waiting across the Atlantic wasn't about to begin without him.

This week marks the final\* step of what can be described as production, a brief surfacing of on-camera activity when the term "post" is put aside, when canary yellow call sheets once again stream off printers to be distributed to the crew, where a clapper board will mark the start of a take. It's just one last day of shooting, scheduled for later this week. The gathering of several Episode III principal cast members along with Lucas and Rick McCallum allows for some very specific postproduction requirements to be taken care of as well.

That's what brings me to London's West End early in the morning of Sunday, January 31st. The normally bustling Soho district is strangely quiet at 8:30 a.m., the cafes not yet open for business. My destination: the recording studios tucked behind a trendy restaurant. These studios have been booked this week for several sessions of ADR (automatic dialogue replacement) recording.

Oftentimes, it's Skywalker Sound back at the Ranch that serves as the venue for postproduction looping. But talent scheduling and geography makes sessions such as these in London necessary. Today, it's Ian McDiarmid's turn to re-record key lines for Revenge of the Sith.

The spacious recording studio has an intimidating bank of controls separating the crew from the talent, a bewildering array of status lights, potentiometers, and sliders. Off to one side, behind a partition of glass and soundproofing insulation is a thin chair and sheet music stand, with a microphone on suspended before it. A single earphone feeds the actor the sound, including the all-important triple beep that will cue the performer.Present today are Lucas, McCallum (who has no shortage of stories of his early days maintaining a production office in this neighborhood), Supervising Sound Editor Matthew Wood, ADR mixer Robert Farr and assistant Mark Appleby. When McDiarmid arrives, Rick greets him warmly. "There's no question who the star is of this movie," he grins. "You're the new definition of evil." Much of the dialogue in Episode III will be gathered from ADR sessions, rather than the production audio captured during shooting. The controlled conditions of these recording studios produce a much better dialogue track than the often-noisy sound recorded on set. The actors are miked during the shoot, whether with wireless microphones or with a boom mike, but that audio ultimately serves only as a guide track for these sessions. Since that audio is temporary, it allows Lucas to make changes in editorial, to move lines around or rewrite them entirely, and then have the actor re-record them. This is one of the reasons the film has evolved considerably from what was written on the pages of the shooting script.

"We've got Ian doing Palpatine today," explains Wood to the ADR mixers. "He also does the voice of Sidious, and I have those lines separated out, so that he doesn't have to switch back and forth between characters." Ian doesn't mind switching between the two, so a compromise is reached -- for each reel, all the Palpatine dialogue is recorded first, followed by the Sidious dialogue, so that he doesn't have to keep breaking character.

"I'm depending on you," says Palpatine to Anakin Skywalker as they walk down the steps of the Chancellor's office, "to be the eyes, ears and voice of the Republic." A projector fills a large movie screen with this scene in front of McDiarmid. This dialogue was cobbled together, taken as fragments from a longer speech that was cut down in the edit. "I'm depending on you" originally ended a line of dialogue, so in the production guide track, its intonation and cadence sound more like a conclusion. In this new form, it starts a sentence, so Ian must change the inflection, but he must also keep the timing. The camera is on Palpatine, so the sync must be precise.

It's a very technical aspect of acting that doesn't get much documentation. People tend to prefer hearing about how an actor gets into the mindset of a character, rather than know about the specifics of difficult and sometimes tedious recording sessions. But ADR nonetheless requires essential skills from actors -- the ability to deliver a line pitch-perfect and at a specific rhythm time and again.

After pauses for Anakin's dialogue, Palpatine continues. "I think they will," Ian performs. "They need you... more than you know." In the production audio, this scene is filled with the creaks and groans of the wooden set, rendering these lines obviously unusable.

"Anakin, you know I'm not able to rely on the Jedi Council."

This line, said later in the film at the Galaxies Opera House, covers two shots. The first word, "Anakin" is said when Palpatine's back is to the camera, an over-the-shoulder shot showcasing the spectacular zero-gravity ballet performance that fills the amphitheater. The next shot is a reverse, of Anakin taking a seat next to Palpatine. For this, Ian needs only record the first word. Sync isn't essential, since we see the back of Palpatine's head, but the tone needs to match the next part. The ADR mixers are able to play back the new dialogue instantly, mixed with the dialogue in the edit, so that Wood and Lucas can see if everything matches.

We jump forward a few scenes. We're back in Palpatine's office, this time in his more private chambers. "They see your future and they know your power will be too strong to control. You must break through the fog of lies the Jedi have created around you.""The performance was great," advises Lucas about the production audio, "it's just too noisy." After a pause, he points out, "this was two different performances done a year apart, but it's good." What he means was the first line ("They see...") was shot in Sydney in 2003; the second ("You must break...") in Shepperton in 2004.

For the scenes of Darth Sidious, Ian's voice drops a few octaves and acquires a dark oiliness to it. "His death was a necessary loss," he reads for one line. For another, it's just a fragment: "Send a message to the ships of the Trade Federation..." Still another: "You're fulfilling your destiny, Anakin."

Wood carefully watches Ian's pacing, sync and levels. "We could use more projection on this," he recommends. In the pin-drop quiet of the recording studio, one's inclination is not to speak too loudly, since the surrounding silence seems to amplify every sound. The microphone is sensitive enough to pick up stomach growls, and at one point Ian has to remove his watch, since Robert can hear the ticking through his headphones.But Wood points out that this dialogue will have to compete with sound effects and music in the final mix, and needs to stand out.

"If you give it to us too loud, we can tone it down," says Lucas, "but if it's too quiet, we can't turn it up."

One particular stretch of difficult dialogue requires no reminders for Ian to project -- it's all top-of-the-lungs shouting. I've watched McDiarmid do this scene three times now. Once in Sydney once again in Shepperton after the dialogue was altered, and once again today. The production audio is filled with the drone of wind machines, making it unusable. But I remember that day in Sydney vividly -- it was a performance that sparked an ovation from the crew. In Shepperton, it happened again.

And when Ian's voice boomed in the otherwise silent confines of the studio, his years of stage experience came out on a commanding blast of words. It provoked a third ovation, quieter only because of the small number of observers present.

\* This asterisk is just a precaution, since I recall an 11th-hour shooting session for Episode II, of Anakin and Padmé holding hands, that only made it into the digital version of Attack of the Clones. You never know if something like that might happen again.

Pablo Hidalgo

The Last Set Diary
February 02, 2005

At the end of the journey, George Lucas has come full circle, returning to where it began over a generation ago. Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, just outside of London, serves as the shooting location for a single day of additional photography. The world-famous stages hosted the majority of the studio-based principal photography for the original Star Wars trilogy.

We're on Stage 8 on the morning of Monday, January 31. It's a featureless redbrick building just down the road from the George Lucas Stage, the newer structure commemorating the director that brought so many blockbusters to Elstree. A stage the size of the eponymous building isn't required, but JAK Productions does maintain an office in the George Lucas Stage.

"We started the studio work in here the first day for Episode IV," Lucas says, looking around at the dark interior of Stage 8. "I think it was the kitchen. You know, where Aunt Beru is in there cooking and Owen comes in looking for Luke. This was also the cockpit stage -- the X-wings and the Millennium Falcon cockpit were filmed here."

Today's shooting is four scenes -- or rather, four pieces of scenes. Rick McCallum was right to downplay the scope of these pickups. They're mainly to patch over continuity or accommodate a change in dialogue. For today, only Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are the actors required, and they don't even share a scene. Each is shot in isolation.

For me, it's a reunion with the London crew, the people I spent two weeks working with at Shepperton last year. As I step into the building, I see several familiar faces, including Production Manager Brian Donavan, Grips Pete and Luke Myslowski, Clapper Loader Jennie Paddon, on the video playback Demetri Jagger and Zoe Whittaker, Boom Operator Cecilia Lanza, and Hayden's stand-in (and Hyperspace member), Christian Simpson -- all of whom had been subjected to appearances, willing or otherwise, on the webcam last Fall.

As a result, each of them asks as a first or second question: "Hey, where's the webcam?" Sometimes said with trepidation, sometimes said with hope. Unfortunately, this drafty stage lacks any network access, meaning it won't be seen by the cam. "It's just me and my still-camera," I explain.

At 8:24 a.m. the bell rings, sounding the official start of the production day. Sue Wood, the 2nd AD, calls for silence as the cameras start rolling. For this first scene, the Production Art Department delivered what will be the most extensive set today -- a section of bunk aboard the Naboo yacht. This brief stretch of the starship was fully built for the Shepperton pickups, but for today, only the immediate bunk area was constructed.

An overwhelmed Padmé reclines aboard her starship, looking up to Obi-Wan. In the original footage, shot as a pickup in Shepperton, there was no dialogue. Now, there is a single line, delivered to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

As it's shot over Kenobi's shoulder, Ewan McGregor wasn't required for today. We don't even see Obi-Wan's face. Extra Mick Ankri serves as Kenobi's double, wearing the tunic, a wig and a beard. The original footage of Ewan couldn't be used without extensive manipulation, since he interacts with the Natalie imagery from September '04. Now, this new January '05 Padmé moves differently, necessitating new contact from Kenobi. Still, to provide ILM with maximum flexibility, Lucas shoots the scene with and without Kenobi. Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett oversees the VFX requirements of the shoot.

"In the original take she's kind of hot and sweaty," points out Rick, looking closely at the playback from last Fall. There's no Continuity Supervisor on set today, so he's the one to spot this detail.

Today is a one-camera shoot day. In previous ones, two HD cameras captured the action, gathering a close-up and medium shot (or longer) of the same performance. Today, with only one camera to capture the action, each move-in towards the actor must be done as a separate setup. Despite this added time, by 10 a.m., Natalie has completed her work, and she is finished her role as Padmé Amidala.

In between the setups, Rick takes advantage of a few minutes of downtime to proudly show off a new video -- the full Episode III trailer that will debut in March. The small crew crowds around the single plasma screen to watch the finished trailer play. It includes some shots gathered at the Shepperton shoot, so for the UK crew, it's very much a revelation of how their work is transformed into the finished product.

It's a crowd-pleaser. "There will be fourteen more screenings over the next few hours," says Rick, jokingly. When Hayden Christensen comes out on stage next, Rick plays him the trailer. It's Hayden's first time seeing it, and he can't contain his grin. He's reveling in Anakin's fall, and seeing how it comes out in finished imagery seems to be pleasing him.

The next setup is an element of a fight scene that has been growing with each stint of production. The bulk of the rematch between Dooku and Anakin aboard the Trade Federation cruiser was gathered in Sydney, shot on two separate sets -- a bluescreen environment that isolated Christopher Lee; a full set environment for Christensen to face Dooku's double; Kyle Rowling and greenscreen pieces to shoot specific action beats in Shepperton.

The result of one of those specific beats needs a follow-through. In the duel, Dooku tosses both Anakin and Obi-Wan through the air like rag-dolls, using the Force to turn the two Jedi into barely-controlled missiles. The throwing of Anakin was gathered at Shepperton, as was his hard impact against a bulkhead. Now, what's needed is his rough landing and his look up, to see his friend suffer the same fate.

By 10:25, we're past this small action piece, and onto shooting a decidedly darker, cowled Anakin receive instruction and words of dark wisdom from his new mentor. This requires a reshoot because the dialogue has been altered. Sidious' lines remain the same, and are read from off-stage by Anakin's stand-in, Christian Simpson. Hayden reacts, nods, weighs Anakin's options, and then replies.

"The Council's first move will be against the Senate," says Anakin. He listens to a few more words from Sidious. "I understand, Master."

Suddenly, a voice squawks over an open walkie talkie, "Are we still rolling?"

"Yes, Master" replies Hayden, not breaking character.

The walkie talkie is quiet in subsequent takes, and we've moved onto the final setup. Word has spread that Episode III is wrapping, and it draws the attention of a guest. Dean Devlin, admitted Star Wars fan and producer of such big screen event movies as Godzilla and Independence Day dropped by to talk shop with McCallum. He's a recent convert to the world of HD photography, and compares notes with Rick, offering nothing but praise for the digital medium. Rick can't resist, and shows the trailer once again.

The last pickup is the most complicated of the lot. Demetri pulls up the playback to show Hayden the context. In the fiery chaos of Mustafar, Anakin runs along a length of crumbing architecture, balancing and running uphill as the floor drops from beneath him, culminating in a foolhardy leap when he reaches the peak of the incline.

The framing sequences were shot in Sydney and Shepperton, with octagonal segments of set meant to represent the falling structure. All that matters now is the length of the run. Three wooden frames represent a small fragment of the environment's shape, while the rest is delineated with tape on the blue floor.

Again, in the absence of a Continuity Supervisor, there's no clear chain-of-command to figure out who determines which hand Hayden should hold his lightsaber. Standby Props Marie Finch needs to know, since she will hand Hayden the handle. She asks Demetri to pull up the clip, and Nick Gillard looks at the footage closely to reconstruct the choreography.

"How about I throw it from hand to hand, just to keep [Obi-Wan] off-balance," jokes Hayden, tossing the lightsaber handle from his gloved hand to his bare one like a Harlem Globetrotter trying to outwit a hapless Washington General.

Since Anakin was clinging to the falling structre with his good arm, he carries his lightsaber in his left hand. When he lands from his leap, it still is in his left hand. "But here, he's got it in his right," says Nick, pointing to the next time we see Anakin.

"Yeah, but that's 15 minutes later," exaggerates Lucas. "Do you want me to shoot an insert of him switching hands? It happens."

Hayden takes his position near the blue blocks. He just needs to run the length of the "set." "It's a bit minimal, isn't it?" says a familiar voice. Production Designer Gavin Bocquet, who had since gone onto other projects, returns to witness the last shot. "I couldn't miss the last day of Star Wars," says the prequel veteran, who was one of the key members of the Young Indy team to graduate to the new Star Wars trilogy.

As the final shot lines up, I look and see Trisha Biggar, Nicole Young and Michael Mooney of the Costume Department watching closely. It's a bit of a shame that the very last day is gathered with such a small crew. There are many names not represented here that really should be.

"This really feels like it's the last day," says Jennie Paddon to me. The Shepperton wrap was a bit bittersweet, but it was known that there would be one last round of pickups in '05. Now, this is the end of the road.

A few takes with varying camera moves... Hayden runs at top speed.

And that's it.

"Last shot, Rick," George points out with little fanfare. "It's all over now. Twenty-eight years."

Applause spreads among the small crew. Rick glances at his watch. It's only shortly after noon. The last day of shooting was only a half day. "I can't think of anything else to say but: that's lunch, everyone."

"Can we watch the trailer again?" asks Hayden.

Cameras have stopped rolling, leaving only the postproduction questions to be answered. ILM continues to work on it's shots, whittling away at the enormous numbers to meet the April 1st deadline. Skywalker Sound has been assembling the audio mix a layer at a time. This week, John Williams picks up a baton to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra for the last Star Wars theatrical motion picture soundtrack.

If this isn't the home stretch, I don't know what is.

The Score Begins (Post-Note)
February 03, 2005

When theater lights darken this May, and the rolling drums and fanfare of the 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm logos fade out, fans will brace themselves for that first triumphant blast of brass that signals the start of Episode III. The famous main title theme is not what started off today's scoring sessions at Abbey Road Studios -- like the filming process, scoring is rarely ever done in movie-sequence. The first piece of music recorded for Revenge of the Sith was instead something six reels into the story.Composer John Williams has written over 40 distinct cues for the Episode III score, to be performed over the next few days by the London Symphony Orchestra. The recording order is delineated on an oversized printout, marking the title of the cue and the reel where it resides. These titles are more for internal use -- they rarely ever make it to the liner notes of soundtrack albums since these cues are often combined and edited to make playable tracks. My guess is that cues like "Boys Into Battle" and "Palpatine's TV Set" will likely get renamed before readied for public consumption.Today starts with "Padmé's Visit," the music that accompanies a tense and dramatic encounter between Anakin and Padmé. The young lovers have shed the starry-eyed innocence of Episode II, worn down by witnessing years of warfare and deception. Though the love theme from Attack of the Clones appears in this cue, there's a sense of desperation behind it, of time ticking away. Anakin's troubled nature is signaled by the creeping approach of the Imperial March -- Darth Vader's theme from The Empire Strikes Back. The deep bass tones that lurk behind the love theme color the drama.

The next cue jumps to the early moments of film, to the first lightsaber duel in a movie packed with many. It's the three-way rematch that sees Anakin and Obi-Wan once again square off against Count Dooku. The frenetic on-screen action is accompanied by aggressive combat music devoid of any familiar character-based themes. The percussive music, accented with cymbal hits, underscores the lightsaber attack, but it isn't particularly timed to each hit. To do so would be impractical, given the intensity of the sound design that will accompany this lightsaber action.

An angry roll of timpani accompanies the fight's denouement, silencing the orchestra in its wake. Then come some tentative strings, exploring the uncomfortable silence that follows.

"Can the clicks be louder," asks Williams of the control room. The assembled musicians all wear headphones that play a "click track," a series of timed clicks meant to keep them all in the same beat. "They sound a bit wooly," says Williams.

Shawn Murphy, the Scoring Engineer complies. He sits in the control room, carefully listening to the orchestra as they are recorded. He makes notes on any irregularities in the music, citing measures that need to be revisited.

After each take, Williams comes into the control room along with principal musicians to hear what the microphones captured. From there, they can make adjustments for subsequent takes. Together, Murphy and Williams gauge each performance and determine how much to re-record. Rather than wear down the orchestra by re-recording entire cues, they often target specific trouble spots, prompting the orchestra to replay certain measures to be edited into the surrounding music. Still, sometimes the entire cue is re-recorded.The next selection for the day is "Palpatine's Seduction." Even in the heavily soundproofed confines of the control room, I can still feel the low vibrations. The music covers a conversation between Anakin and Palpatine within the Chancellor's office. We in the control room hear none of the dialogue. The picture, played on a regular television monitor in the booth and on a relatively washed out screen on the scoring stage (projection in a fully lit room will do that) has graphical pops and streamers atop the image in sync with the click track.

Perhaps my ears are playing tricks on me, but I think I can hear a little refrain of Shmi's tragic last moments in this scene. A strong connection stirs between Anakin and Palpatine, as voiced by the strings. A bass drum is responsible for the tremors. By scene's end, the Emperor's theme rises -- played here without a choir -- with the luring strings continuing underneath, finally culminating in a growing cymbal roll that accompanies the scene-wipe that takes us to Utapau and Obi-Wan's continued hunt for General Grievous.

"I love the dark stuff," says George Lucas, relishing the tones prevalent throughout this score.

Next up is "Heroes Collide," the much anticipated start to the duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin. A new theme, carried mostly by the brass section, follows the two Jedi as their duel takes them from an outside landing platform to the inside of an industrial facility. The music alternates between sweeping strokes and fast punctuation -- not unlike the lightsaber duel itself. As is common in the final reels of a Star Wars movie, the action intercuts from one story to another. Those concerned about the action being compromised by cutting away needn't worry -- what's playing opposite this duel is a confrontation just as big and anticipated, though it doesn't last as long, so the remainder of Obi-Wan and Anakin's battle plays through uninterrupted.

At one point in this cue, the music sounds almost exactly as it did in The Empire Strikes Back, when Darth Vader begins pummeling Luke with equipment tossed telekinetically. In both that Episode V moment and this Episode III moment, we hear a grandiose presentation of the Imperial March with sharp brass accents.

Closing your eyes, you can still track the progress of the battle. The music holds to accommodate dialogue during the fight. When lightsabers lock and opponents stare at each other over crossed blades, the strings vibrate brilliantly, building the tension and drama. At one point during in the duel, Obi-Wan and Anakin are caught in competing Force pushes, outstretched hands locking a few centimeters apart. Here, the elegant Force theme emerges from the frantic fighting, but it sounds pained, echoing the struggle.

Shawn notes that the sound quality of the loud percussion affects that of the rest of the orchestra, so William conducts the next take without percussion. As it turns out, even this huge stage is too small to contain the powerful drums. They may be recorded later, under different circumstances.

Lucas points out that this portion of the fight seems to be lacking an expected ingredient: the Duel of the Fates from The Phantom Menace. "That comes later. In the big duel," says Williams.

According to the schedule, those were the only four pieces slated for today, but the orchestra continues, and four more cues are performed. "Another Happy Landing" is a short piece of music, the first cue to occur after the hectic pace of the chaotic space battle. Now, we can take time to peacefully introduce Coruscant and its skyline with a pageantry reminiscent of the first majestic introduction of the city-planet back in Episode I. "Yoda's Fall" is a very brief piece, less than a minute in length, that underscores a specific action.

Next is "Revisiting Padmé," which covers the reunion of the lovers, Anakin and Padmé, in the film. It contains the familiar love theme from Episode II, but there's an interesting juxtaposition in tone. Proof that music greatly affects the perception of a scene, I remember seeing this sequence un-scored and feeling one way about it. In the rough cut, creepy temp music was inserted to an otherwise tame scene of tender exchanges. Here, in the final score, it's not so much creepy, but there is an undercurrent of dark uncertainty. Padmé brings a purity to it, in the form of a unblemished woodwind recitation of the love theme that crescendos to the next wipe.

"So, people, what I'm proposing what we do for the remainder of today is 7M1," says Williams. It's title is, currently, unprintable for the sake of the spoiler-free majority that reads these reports. That's the case with almost everything that happens in the 7th reel. And, true to the film's end, it is tragic and emotional.

Disclaimer: Of course, a dozen people can listen to the same piece of music and come away with a dozen different impressions, but I can't think of how else to report what I heard than by expressing what I felt. Please keep that in mind when reading these Post Notes from scoring.

Spotted today: Hayden Christensen couldn't resist the opportunity to witness the scoring session -- a first for him. Also visiting today is Director and Jedi Master Frank Oz, who will soon return to the backwards-patterned speech to record some loop lines for Yoda this weekend.

Oh, another thing: The main title isn't part of the planned scoring sessions -- a pre-existing recording of the famous Star Wars theme will be used instead.

Pablo Hidalgo

Finale (Post-Note)
February 10, 2005

I'm no musician, so I'm certain there are nuances to each performance and recording session that breeze past my amateur ears. Nonetheless, there are feats I suspect would impress me no matter what level of knowledge I possesed. I am continually amazed by the level of skill exhibited by the London Symphony Orchestra, particularly when the players perform a piece for the first time. I don't know what I assumed exactly, but I figured there'd be a more involved rehearsal. That the musicians wouldn't be tasked to play a piece cold, at first look, not having been previously acquainted with the sheet music.

There's no lengthy rehearsal. Upon turning to a new cue, the orchestra plays it once, without a click track, without video playback. Composer John Williams and Scoring Engineer Shawn Murphy listen for trouble spots. Williams revisits any troublesome measures with words of guidance or necessary modifications -- oftentimes, the music sounds different with all 110 musicians assembled within the studio space, necessitating a tweak here and there. And then, a take is recorded.

For the first cue of today, there was perhaps more familiarity with the music than with other pieces. "Good morning, people," says John Williams to the orchestra members. "We'll start with 7M8: the end credits."

As all Star Wars fans know, the end credits sequence follows a very specific structure. With the iris out of the last frame of the film, there's a triple-attack of brassy fanfare that kicks the music into the main title theme. The up-tempo rendition of the Star Wars theme -- Luke Skywalker's theme -- continues until it is overtaken by a new theme. Then what follows is a reprise of the main themes of the film, before fading out or ending triumphantly.

With the end of Episode III serving double-duty as a finale to the entire saga, but also the end of the first trilogy, the end credits are slightly different this time around. They contain a major piece of music that otherwise has no place in Episode III.

After the fanfare of the main theme dies down, the glide of a harp segues into Princess Leia's theme, now indelibly associated with peacefulness of Alderaan, one of the closing worlds of Revenge of the Sith. It is, perhaps, the most passionate and emotional cue in all of the Star Wars saga. In the recording session, when it builds to its final crescendo, Williams finishes to a rousing applause and cheers of appreciation from the orchestra.

"It'll be another 25 years before we do this again," jokes Williams.

"That's my goosebump fix for the session," says Scoring Assistant Andrew Dudman.

As the end credits are always a montage of multiple themes, this cue is not recorded as one piece. Rather, Williams isolates the sections. He picks up the piece around measure 58, where the new "Revenge of the Sith" dueling theme appears. This then segues into a surprise, and not an unwelcome one.

The stately "Throne Room" from Episode IV, the music that accompanies the Yavin 4 awards ceremony, appears in the End Credits. It's the unedited version of the piece, that is different from what appears in A New Hope. It's been recorded as a concert piece this way: instead of the iris out to Episode IV's end credits, it goes into a reprise of Princess Leia's theme.

"We haven't recorded it in this configuration here with this orchestra since the very first film," says Supervising Music Editor Ken Wannberg.

With each cue running over six minutes, Shawn Murphy describes the next two pieces as "monster cues."

"In the old days, when we were using those little reels, each one would have taken up a reel," points out George Lucas.

The first of the two, "Scenes and Dreams" starts off sweetly, with a violin playing during a tender exchange between Anakin and Padmé. It is night on Coruscant. She has changed into her nightgown and stands on the balcony of her apartment, while Anakin leans against the curving wall, admiring the beauty of his beloved wife. The "Across the Stars" love theme plays, and unlike some of the other Padmé and Anakin scenes, there's no nebulous threat lurking in the lower registers, no undercurrent of uncertainty.

This makes the contrast to the music's next turn all the more pronounced. Anakin experiences a chilling nightmare, played with shrill strings in an increasing crescendo that peaks with his sudden awakening. He leaves his shared bed with Padmé, dons a robe and heads outside, to the airy verandah to stew over his unsettling vision.

Padmé soon joins him, and the music brings up Anakin's innocent boyhood theme from Episode I. Very fitting as he notices the token of affection he gave her all those many years ago, the japor snippet Padmé wears around her neck. There's a fragile twinkle of bells to accompany the shot of the jewelry. The music is moody as Anakin explains his fears to Padmé.

These somber tones continue as Anakin next confers with Yoda about his vision. There's slight intonations of the Force theme on a bassoon as the discussion turns philosophical. An interjection of brass moves us away from the moody introspection to more objective issues, as Anakin arrives late to the Jedi briefing room, and then the cue ends.

The next lengthy cue, which ends the day's recording session, is named simply enough "Moving Things Along." It isn't very thematic -- mostly background music to establish mood, with flourishes to accompany establishing shots. With the visual introduction of fiery Mustafar, we're given a bellicose, percussive passage with blasts of hard brass. The camera glides in to the mountainside processing facility, soaring past platform-riding Mustafarians skimming the molten rivers for precious ores, past the flea-riding aliens that walk along the hardened surface of the lava flows.

The music gets more atmospheric and smoky as we cut inside the facility, and see Darth Sidious holographically communicating to the Separatist leaders.

Before the cue's end, we'll hear Darth Vader's theme and the Emperor's theme -- which is truly appropriate as it accompanies Palpatine's formal declaration of a New Order.

It's a satisfying finale for this leg of my personal Episode III journey. The scoring sessions will continue for another week -- including isolated percussion and choir sessions, but I am returning to the U.S. after today. Expect Post Notes to return to their ILM focus, with perhaps a look at the mix preparation at Skywalker Sound.

As I write this, there are less than 100 days before the world gets to experience Revenge of the Sith.

Let Peter Cavanna's once-in-a-lifetime experience prove the maxim: it never hurts to ask. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," he beams. "I've done that all my life: I've always asked for things that were sort of impossible."

During Rick McCallum's online chat on February 8th, a Hyperspace member with the screen name GazelleUK boldly ventured the following query:

Rick, I live just a few miles from those studios. Any chance of me coming down now and having a prevue???

The answer was classic McCallum, a shoot-from-the-hip, take-everyone-by-surprise response:

It's too late for today. But if you're here at 10:30 tomorrow, I'll let you have a little peek. Ask for John Singh. But if you tell anyone else, I will have you terminated.

Now, I typed that for Rick, and I wasn't a hundred percent sure if he was serious. John Singh, (LFL International Publicity) and I exchanged an incredulous look before asking Rick if this was for real. "Yeah, let's do it," he said. So, John made it happen by sending GazelleUK (a.k.a Peter) an email inviting him to the studios.

"I thought he was just joking," says Peter. "You can't just do that! Not on a forum, where everyone can read that. I mean, who knows who else will show up?"

As he recounts it, Peter wasn't entirely willing to believe it was real until he showed up at Abbey Road studios this morning. "I didn't tell my girlfriend or anyone anything about it, because I thought it wasn't going to be true."

John Singh met Peter, and took him upstairs to briefly meet Rick. From the Producer's Lounge, Peter got a bird's-eye-view of the orchestra as they performed the End Credits sequence for Revenge of the Sith. "I'll admit I was a little bit confused. I was trying to think how that particular music would fit in. In my head, I thought this a very familiar tune that will appear in a very unfamiliar place," he says.

"My eyes were watering just listening to that music," he continues. "Not only is this Star Wars, but they're great musicians as well and it just sounds fantastic. I thought, these people aren't making movies; they're making magic. And it was absolutely magic."

Pablo Hidalgo