pooperpants
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.
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.
