Official Site Discussion Thread: Planets/Environments

Yep, it's our very first thread on the discussion of material from the Official Site (hereafter referred to as 'OS'). You can see our policy on this right here

Please note: this thread is for the discussion of material which is published on the OS. This does NOT, I repeat, does NOT include information from Hyperspace. Everything from Hyperspace should be discussed in the Hyperspace thread only. This will get rid of the more spoilerish information which comes out of Hyperspace and allow those who only want to know limited information to discuss without fear.

Ok, now, the news on this topic to date:

Jun 06, 2001 / OS Making of Ep2 Video about location shooting with an emphasis on using Tunisia for Tatooine:
Lucas is asked out of nowhere while on the Tunisia set, "So why did you shoot a scene from Episode III today?" He responds with "you'll have to wait six years to find out", but then he goes into a bit more detail. He says that it's the only shot he'd need for Episode III at the Tunisia location, and shooting it now makes more sense than packing up a crew of 60 people down the line. When asked what he'll do if he ends up needing more shots in Tunisia, he replies "Then I don't get them."

August 15, 2001 / TFN Spy Report on Lava Planet pre-production art work:
"When we were doing [Jedi] I remember I had done a series of sketches of Vader's home, and there was a sea of lava that his house looked out on," remember Johnson. "I remember having trouble drawing it because everything was either orange or a shadow; it was very intense. But before we got too far, George said he would save this for somewhere down the line, and I stopped working on it."

May 13, 2002:
Rick McCallum said that about 80-85% of Episode 3 will be shot in Sydney, starting June 2003.

Nov 10, 2002; Italian newspaper reports on local cameraman shooting volcano "footage" for Ep3:
Ron Fricke (considered an amazing cinematographer) has been on the Etna (volcano) for a week now, shooting for Episode III. The Italian cameraman explains how he was called for the job: "Lucas figured out it would be cheaper to film a real volcano rather than creating it digitally, and when Etna became "noisy" again a couple of weeks ago, Lucasfilm contacted the italian company Too Motion for which I work" (considered the best company for HD digital video in Italy).

The article says the cameraman was called on the 31st of October and asked to be in Sicily the following day. They should have finished shooting on the 6th, but he says they keep finding amazing new angles and images to capture on video.

May 10, 2003: SW Insider 68 Highlights:
- McCallum will not confirm or deny if there's a Star Destroyer bridge as one of the sets of the film.



In this thread, feel free to discuss this information as well as add any new information that is released from the OS.

 

Rick McCallum said that about 80-85% of Episode 3 will be shot in Sydney, starting June 2003.

Hmm, probably shooting on Green (or Blue) Screens then, which means a lot of Coruscant or other new strange worlds (ie- Kamino-type strange ). Perhaps this mysterious volcano world.

 

June 29, 2003: SW Insider #69 highlights

- There will be no location filming for Ep.3
- Yoda's homeworld or species will not be revealed.

 

There will be no location filming for Ep.3

That's a bit of a disappointment. No matter how good blue screen stuff gets, it does not compare to watching a performance in a real (or semi-real) location; you always feel like you're actually there on those occasions (whereas, in blue screen, I tend to notice how staged things are)

Yoda's homeworld or species will not be revealed.

Probably a good thing; makes him a bit more mysterious. Besides, it'll prevent the EU from developing Yoda-like characters

 

Interesting...so almost no Tatooine and no Naboo...

Tatooine was a major factor in TPM and relatively major in AOTC...

I suppose almost the entire movie could take place exclusively on Coruscant...that would certainly be a twist for SW. But I doubt that would happen.

BTW, Stinrab, with your permission, I'm playing off your great sig. Thanks.

 

I'd like to see Alderaan and it seems to make sense to me that it should be in there.

I am also disappointed that there won't be any location shooting. I like locations, and they can always be enhanced if they're not 'weird' enough.

-sj loves kevin spacey