ST Planets in the ST

Long time lurker - first time poster!

Just thought I'd try and assuage some fears about the Skellig shoot, as I have contacts who are familiar with both the area and the government bodies who run it. As far as I understand it, chopper flights are actually fairly regular to Skellig throughout the summer in order to supply the island for the tourists. The objections seem to be about more general intrusion into the birds' nesting practices and essentially all those nasty filmmakers getting up in the birds' space. ( See this article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-28551785 - where the concern of the conservationist is about noise and vibrations). Given that the Parks and Wildlife service, which is the body that granted permission for the shoot, is generally considered one of the more above-board arms of the Irish State (they won't make exceptions just because it's a big name movie), I imagine the birds are pretty ok, certainly no more perturbed than by the usual crowds of tourists there at this time of year.

I'm not saying it's ideal, but I think some people are overreacting given that it appears to be a very minor piece of shooting.

 

Starryganpost You know... I would have been perfectly happy with your post if you hadn't accused me of overreacting right at the end. In fact you were going some significant part in assuaging some of my fears, and I would have left it at that. In fact I was all ready to 'like' your post until I read the last sentence.

I already made it clear that I know the birds would be used to the constant flow of tourists. I'm not just some concerned passer-by or some random nutcase. My first degree is in Environmental Studies and I did conservation work on sites like this for years, so I do know the issues. As I've said before, I would be perfectly happy about the shoot if it wasn't for the helicopters, because the birds would be used to people on the ground. However, the original shoot was supposed to be in September for a reason, as it avoided the nesting season.

I'm not saying that precautions aren't being taken at Skellig; of course they are, but I still have entirely reasonable concerns. I think it's fair for me to make people aware of these issues and I think giving my side of the argument is entirely fair seeing as I do have a lot of experience in this area, and I know of several cases of 'bird strike' over the years over nature reserves with large concentrations of birds. In this instance I am concerned for the safety of those on board the helicopters. You can be sure that if there was an incident of bird strike at the Skellig, the summer flights would soon stop.

We will have to agree to differ on this one I'm afraid.

 

You know what thread we don't have? Creatures/birds of Star Wars...I wonder if ILM is gonna do a modification on these island birds and make it more alien-ish?

Besides birds, are there other rare land animals/reptiles there?

 

I would be seriously impressed if they pulled off CGIing the birds but I doubt that was their aim as the original scheduled shoot would have been at a time when the islands would have been practically birdless. I always loved the Naboo creature renditions, especially in the stampede near the beginning of TPM; totally believable creatures.

I don't know much about the other fauna and flora on the islands; they are mainly protected for their enormous seabird colonies for example 70,000 Gannets nest there. And of course the valuable and amazing ancient monastery ruins. Here's a nice little summary of some of the birds:

http://www.skelligislands.com/birds.html

 

To start us off, there is a ship called the Millenium Falcon, so presumably there are feathered falcons in the SW universe.

 

Another thought I had is that this doesn't necessarily need to be an island. LFL is known for taking small patches of land/groups of people and turning them into much more than what was originally filmed. Much of the grassy fields of Naboo in TPM was created from a scan of a photograph taken by an LFL staffer years earlier. The Wookiee army in RotS was about 8-10 guys in Wookiee costumes shot in different poses and stances and inserted into the shot in post production. Perhaps the location being shot at Skellig Michael will be expanded upon in the film and might not even be an island at all.

Along those same lines, there is the rumor I heard somewhere that the desert planet seen in the set photos is a world other than Tatooine. I'm not saying that it is or isn't a sure thing, but I wouldn't put this kind of misdirection past LFL or anyone tied into this film, it has been done before.

 

I am pretty sure ILM can have the ability to turn any footages into a much bigger spectacular place than what you get on just the footages shot, that's what they are great at. So yea don't discount it as anything but island.

In the movie version, it might just be a mountain instead.

 

UNESCO are notoriously over sensitive. Half of Liverpool is an UNESCO world heritage site and they want to keep it looking like its the 1800s. Sure, in those relevant areas but they are against significant development around them to 'keep the sites in context'. So Liverpool is meant to be city in a time warp for eternity?! I would only give UNESCO only so much consideration. Its one or two days, SM will be fine.

 

First of all, apologies are in order, because I never intended to insinuate that you were overreacting and on first hearing of the shoot I had similar concerns (although I'm more into marine biology and early medieval archaeology than birds, there's potential for concern over all of those areas). In fact, I agree with every one of your points, more or less. There is definitely a need to ask these questions and, of course, it would probably have been better for all concerned to have the shoot in September as originally planned.The only one I'm not sure of is the danger of 'bird strike', given that these trips a regular occurrence, but then again I know nothing about helicopters, so I'll defer to your expertise.

My comment in the last sentence, was not directed at you, I'll stress again, but at the conservationists at Birdwatch Ireland, who, rather than engaging with the production team (who approached them for advice prior to the shoot) and with their undoubted contacts in the Parks and Wildlife Service and in the Department of the Environment, are simply going onto national media (which has now got international following, as this thread demonstrates) and talking in the vaguest terms about disruption. The fact is that these people have no idea what kind of filming is taking place, what precautions have been put in place to protect the islands (wildlife and archaeology) or what reviews they had to go through to obtain permission for filming, nor do they seem to be making any effort to inform themselves. You and I have reasonable concerns and I, based on the information available, feel that the shoot is (or was, it's probably over by now) completely above board. I trust the processes until they have been shown to be flawed. The Bridwatch Ireland folks seem to have neither trusted the process, nor attempted to investigate it, rather they just started mouthing off to the media. My beef is with their overreactions, in particular as they should have access to more information than we do, not with your (perfectly reasonable) reaction.

 

Starryganpost, thank you for your comments. No need to apologise; I I have the rather annoying habit of posting here after night shifts when I'm exhausted and feeling a bit spun out. Today's my day off btw...

I'm glad we can agree that there are legitimate concerns here, and it's good that you have put your knowledge of the area into clearer context. Yep I was primarily concerned about the use of helicopters; I had no other specific issues. Be that as it may, I'll leave it at that.

Slán go fóill!

 

I wonder what planet the final battle of IX will occur on.

 

Just saw Guardians of The Galaxy, these planets in the movie is certainly very Star Wars-ish

What a great movie BTW!

 

The desert planet. The ice planet. The city planet. The forrest moon. I want something more interesting than taking an earthly setting and making it a whole planet. What I really want to see is interesting culture and tech. Attack on Titan does this well by juxtopositioning a midieval setting with not-quite-steampunk tech. It makes the world very interesting. Walling them in with an unknown world outside only makes it all the more interesting. I want something that we really don't expect.

 

I'm pretty sure you'll get that. Plenty of planets are more exotically conceived on-set and with scale miniatures and CGI. But I assume you already know that...

 

Okay, apparently we now have a diner planet

It is very likely that at least one of the city planets(Corellia, Denon, Coruscant, Taris, Nar Shaddaa) will show up.

 

I can think you can make a preety interesting and otherworldly planet out of most outdoors shoots, be it through elaborate set extensions or by simple color grading. I think the LOTR trilogy created awesome otherworldly vistas from on-site shoots.

 

Hopefully not Tatooine

 

Thanks for the Info.

Interesting; I am surprised that the Ruins are Christian; I could see ancient Druids living there. Either way, I like the look of the place for a Jedi/Sith Location. I too hope that the bird Habitat isn't harmed; though I am sure that the Production Crew will be careful.

 

Just FYI, druids generally held their religious ceremonies outside, in groves of oak trees, not in buildings. Celtic people lived in round stone houses though. When the Anglo-Saxons invaded, they lived in wooden longhouses, and this was seen by the Britons as a regression from their own stone buildings (and the villas the Romans had built.)

 

That is an interesting bit of knowledge.

 

Based on Peter Mayhew`s statement that there will be little digital effects I guess there will be no Coruscant?

 

There's sure to be digital effects. I think Peter is just saying there won't be non stop digital effects and they are doing as much as they can the "old fashioned way". But I think we can guarantee there will be SOME degree of digital effects.

 

He talked about "little or no" special effects, which either way isn`t enough for Coruscant, which requires much CGI.

 

every movie since the beginning of effects in films has said there won't be many effects in their movie. that's for believability purposes.

 

I'm pretty sure he's just comparing this movie with what he's done before: With ROTS he must've done the Kashyyyk stuff with a lot of green screen; with the OT, none at all. Kevin Smith is on record as saying there is little evidence of green screen on the sets he saw (there is some just not loads), and I would assume that Peter is echoing Kevin's sentiments as it were.

We'll still have scenes for which no sets are constructed, or at most, scale miniatures, and that could well include Coruscant and the like. And anyway, even if Coruscant is in this movie, we don't know if Chewie is there at all.