Movies

EW Presents...

Continued

Secrets of 'Star Wars'

More

Previous Page 2 of 2

(LAVA) RIVER DEEP, MOUNTAIN HIGH
Far more of Mustafar's molten river was done old-school than one might ever guess: by building the entire set in miniature and using a food additive called methylcel for the lava. ''Star Wars fans have such an affection for miniatures,'' says practical-model supervisor Brian Gernand. ''And I think we ended up with the longest miniature shoot in ILM history.''

STICKS AND STARS
Stunt coordinator Nick Gillard began choreographing the duel with his team as soon as he read the script, and started working with McGregor and Christensen early in preproduction, knowing that this lightsaber fight — one of the longest in the entire Star Wars saga and perhaps the most important — would need to be both precise and emotionally resonant.

IT'S NOT EASY BEING SURROUNDED BY GREEN
''Mustafar was one of the sequences that we worried about most,'' says Rob Coleman, the animation director who helped coordinate the greenscreen portions of the shoot along with other visual-effects supervisors. '''Exactly how are we going to render the lava? How are we going to handle the [characters'] interaction with it?''' It started with a low-res staging of the sequence, went through principal photography, and sorted itself out in the editing suite.

CITY OF ANGLES
Lucas is a director who knows what he wants, and what he wants is to have as many cinematic options as possible when he gets to the cutting room. ''George really just shoots elements to make it all up when we cut the movie together in postproduction,'' says Roger Barton, who, along with Ben Burtt, edited Sith. ''We're often taking completely disparate shots and combining them to make a completely new idea.''

THE SOUND FOR THE FURY
Composer John Williams' score has been the finishing touch for each and every Star Wars film. At last, the final digitally composited image, the sound effects, and the music can be merged into one rousing 49-second sequence, created by thousands of people over hundreds of days.

Posted Oct 21, 2005 | Published in issue #847 Oct 28, 2005 | Order Article Reprints

Previous Page 2 of 2