darthmonkey9206
Sith in 60 Seconds
by Pete Vilmur
"It truly is mind-boggling how many people, how many thousands of hours it takes to make just one sequence -- a sequence that's over virtually within a minute." -- Episode III Producer Rick McCallum
As narrator of the long-form documentary found on the Episode III DVD release, producer McCallum guides viewers through the expansive pool of talent and artistry responsible for bringing a mere 49 seconds of Revenge of the Sith to the screen. Within a Minute: The Making of Episode III takes a far more intimate approach than previous Star Wars documentaries, seeking to reveal the vast scope of the film's production within the microcosm of a single scene.
Because one scene would be dissected for a study of its parts, finding the right one was essential. Within a Minute's creators found that the best way to expose the vital organs of Revenge of the Sith was to go straight for the heart of the saga -- the tragic duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan. No other scene so well defined the spirit of Revenge of the Sith, or the massive scale of talent required to bring the saga's final chapter to life.
The opening titles of the documentary reveal the staggering figures needed to complete the scene: 26 shots -- 1,185 frames -- 910 artists -- 70,441 man hours. Capturing the hundreds of artists and hours became the task of Lucasfilm's tireless team of documentarians, headed by Within a Minute director Tippy Bushkin. Lead editor on the project was Duncan Sinclair.
Unlike the previous documentaries for Episodes I and II, Within a Minute was all shot and cut in-house. This allowed Bushkin and Sinclair to work closely with Lucas, who ultimately came up with the doc's "scene anatomy" concept. "What he wanted to do," explains Bushkin, "was really give you an in-depth view and intimate understanding of what it takes to do even a small portion of the film. He also really wanted to honor the people that have been on the journey with him through all three films."
Working with less than 60 seconds of Sith, the search was on to find a scene that effectively represented the film as a whole. Pretty quickly, the duel sequence became the clear choice. "That's such a climactic sequence, you know, the juice of the film," says Bushkin. "We were looking for something that incorporated stunt work with the saber fighting, something which showed the course of the costumes being worn, something that had a lot of interesting elements in terms of ILM, and all of the different aspects that go into creating a shot with visual effects and CG work."
Sinclair remembers anticipating the Mustafar choice during the pre-production phase. "Right back in the early days, we were thinking that the Mustafar fight could be one of the scenes that we might want to concentrate more on, so back in the Art Department I made sure that we covered as much Mustafar material as we could."
The idea to examine a single scene was actually late-breaking, and wasn't fully green-lighted until after all the raw documentary footage had already been shot. Fortunately, the tenacious doc crew had been very effective in collecting hundreds of hours of footage during production, so was able to take the restrictive "60-second scene" concept in stride.
"Tippy has always been very good at covering all her bases," says Sinclair, "so it wasn't like she restricted herself to a particular idea of the where the documentary was going. When you're covering something this huge, you never know where it's going to take you. You have to give up your ideas of what life you're going to show, and show what the movie wants you to show."
by Pete Vilmur
"It truly is mind-boggling how many people, how many thousands of hours it takes to make just one sequence -- a sequence that's over virtually within a minute." -- Episode III Producer Rick McCallum
As narrator of the long-form documentary found on the Episode III DVD release, producer McCallum guides viewers through the expansive pool of talent and artistry responsible for bringing a mere 49 seconds of Revenge of the Sith to the screen. Within a Minute: The Making of Episode III takes a far more intimate approach than previous Star Wars documentaries, seeking to reveal the vast scope of the film's production within the microcosm of a single scene.
Because one scene would be dissected for a study of its parts, finding the right one was essential. Within a Minute's creators found that the best way to expose the vital organs of Revenge of the Sith was to go straight for the heart of the saga -- the tragic duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan. No other scene so well defined the spirit of Revenge of the Sith, or the massive scale of talent required to bring the saga's final chapter to life.
The opening titles of the documentary reveal the staggering figures needed to complete the scene: 26 shots -- 1,185 frames -- 910 artists -- 70,441 man hours. Capturing the hundreds of artists and hours became the task of Lucasfilm's tireless team of documentarians, headed by Within a Minute director Tippy Bushkin. Lead editor on the project was Duncan Sinclair.
Unlike the previous documentaries for Episodes I and II, Within a Minute was all shot and cut in-house. This allowed Bushkin and Sinclair to work closely with Lucas, who ultimately came up with the doc's "scene anatomy" concept. "What he wanted to do," explains Bushkin, "was really give you an in-depth view and intimate understanding of what it takes to do even a small portion of the film. He also really wanted to honor the people that have been on the journey with him through all three films."
Working with less than 60 seconds of Sith, the search was on to find a scene that effectively represented the film as a whole. Pretty quickly, the duel sequence became the clear choice. "That's such a climactic sequence, you know, the juice of the film," says Bushkin. "We were looking for something that incorporated stunt work with the saber fighting, something which showed the course of the costumes being worn, something that had a lot of interesting elements in terms of ILM, and all of the different aspects that go into creating a shot with visual effects and CG work."
Sinclair remembers anticipating the Mustafar choice during the pre-production phase. "Right back in the early days, we were thinking that the Mustafar fight could be one of the scenes that we might want to concentrate more on, so back in the Art Department I made sure that we covered as much Mustafar material as we could."
The idea to examine a single scene was actually late-breaking, and wasn't fully green-lighted until after all the raw documentary footage had already been shot. Fortunately, the tenacious doc crew had been very effective in collecting hundreds of hours of footage during production, so was able to take the restrictive "60-second scene" concept in stride.
"Tippy has always been very good at covering all her bases," says Sinclair, "so it wasn't like she restricted herself to a particular idea of the where the documentary was going. When you're covering something this huge, you never know where it's going to take you. You have to give up your ideas of what life you're going to show, and show what the movie wants you to show."
