PT "The Beginning: The Making Of Episode 1"

I started thinking about this jewel of a documentary today and how great and insightful it was into not the filming of Episode 1 but story planning and filming in general, it's great to see how the characters and story evolved even over the course of filming it. I used to watch it all the time when I was a kid mainly to learn the lightsaber moves lol, I still tear up a bit a the end with the world premiere and seeing how excited the fans were back then. definitely one of the greatest Star Wars documentaries ever right up there with "Empire Of Dreams" I was disappointed that 2 & 3 didn't have one like it. I hope TFA has one on its DVD they could call it "The Awakening: The Making Of Episode 7"

 

Is there anywhere i could find this documentary? Im interested in watching it.

 

It's great.

 

Is this the full documentary? If it is thanks.

 

ROTS had Within an Minute, showing all the hard work that went into every single minute of the film.

It focused on part of the Mustafar Duel, though it did encompass other parts of the film.

I thought that it was quite a novel way to present a Making Of.

 

Awesome documentary about an awesome movie.

 

If asked how good this documentary was, I'd have to reply with a Rick McCallum quote, but it's not really something you can post here

While the other two movies had pretty interesting docus, The Beginning really takes the cake, it's just on a completely different level.

 

The only unfortunate thing about the doc is that folks have twisted the rough cut viewing towards the end as somehow showing Lucas's supposed weaknesses and inability to take criticism. Great doc, though, I agree.

 

I enjoy watching this documentary more than I enjoy watching TPM.
(When I bought the DVD, I bought it mainly for the documentaries, and I considered the film itself to be the bonus feature.)

I hope the TFA DVD/BluRay comes with something comparable.

 

I like it, too; though I do think it works better in conception than execution. I've watched it several times, and there's some meat in there, but its ambition -- a bit like Anakin -- (I find) is its own undoing. Ultimately, they try to squeeze "everything and the kitchen sink" in there (hope you catch that reference to ROTS itself... ), but it ends up being rather Procrustean, and for all its comprehensiveness, a bit on the superficial side. Perhaps a classic case of "too much of a good thing". Well, in my view, anyway. That said, now we're talking about it, I'm kinda eager to watch it again!

It's sad how that "it's so dense" remark of Rick McCallum's (from Episode II material) is bandied about, when, really, picking one of his f-bomb moments says more about the man and his awesome enthusiasm.

Yes, these are my sentiments, too.

A film about a film, it's almost as magical as the movie itself (well, for those -- I sometimes have to remind myself -- that like Episode I, that is).

Well, truth be told, a ton of moments got cherry-picked and twisted (even if the last part gave detractors -- albeit rather falsely -- their greatest ammo).


Don't wanna be a sourpuss, but here's a good (or bad) example:



And as I posted in 2013, I get an odd thrill from all these moments which others see as "proof" of immeasurable folly:

- "I know it's gonna work because it's impossible"
- "Jar Jar is the key to all this"
- "How you gonna top the podrace?"
- "You see the echo of where it all's gonna go ... It's like poetry, they rhyme"
- Rick talking about allowing Natalie to read the script
- "Anakin is a little boy who lives with his mother"
- Jake Lloyd's reading of the "Are you an angel?" scene with dialogue not included in the final cut
- The primitive pseudo-props for the screen-tests and the funky mural in the background: pixel madness!
- Natalie Portman's longer hair
- Lucas worrying that he'll have to piece Jake's performance together from a "zillion" takes and deeming Jake's approach "unstudied", but that "it rises way above the others"
- Seeing Terryl Whitlatch, designer of Jar Jar (the brunette lady with the pink top and the frizzy hair), in the background
- The crude test with the Jar Jar puppet on a gloriously bright day with Ben Burtt filming and giving directions in the back of an open-top truck
- Jake thinking they're gonna spend "probably over fifty-thousand dollars" on Episode I
- Spielberg checking out "the new stormtrooper", mucking up the arm, and calling it "old dangleweed"
- Lucas talking about the "literally, 'War And Peace'" battle between the droids and the "Goongas"
- Teasing neophyte Chris Newman and having a joke at his own expense: "I manage 'action' and 'cut' and 'faster' and 'more intense' and then mostly I sit there looking miserable and quiet"
- George Lucas "putting [his] producer hat on"
- The way Rick McCallum says "Prague"
- "The biggest trap people fall into in these kinds of movies is they go too far"
- "The guy we got has got a great waaahlk and everything"
- George doing the "Jar Jar" shuffle and Ahmed Best cracking into a smile
- "Good luck everybody and now let's kick [butt]"
- "Corooskant?"
- Ahmed speaking French
- "I'm hot ... but I'm cool"
- "I did 'More American Graffiti' and it made ten cents"
- "I may have gone too far in a few places"


I bet you, dollars to Jawa Juice, TFA doesn't have a "making of" documentary half as quirky, revealing, or fun.

 

You got to admit though the "it's so dense" line, is up there with classic quotes

I loved the TPM making of documentary, and I love the behind the scenes stuff in AOTC.

Unfortunately for me though the ROTS docs were unfortunately lacking (aprt from the webisodes) and "within a minute" sorely disappointing.

 

I remember this. It was fun. And Star Wars Insider CD was cool, too.

Cryogenic TFA won't be as quirky for sure. It will be more polished and generic and all about them being inspired by ANH so that decided to redo it again

 

And filming in a real desert.

 

The Beginning is a solid film docomemtry just for the fact how much detail they go in the film making. Though I'm still quite fond of Within a Minute doc, but I confess that's probably my bias towards ROTS.

 

I almost like The Beginning more than TPM--and that's saying a lot!

 

The only problem with it is that it's too short. Give me a six-hour version!

 

I believe they shot something like 600 hours of behind-the-scenes footage on TPM.

****EDIT****

Yes, they did. Googled and found this neat little article:

http://www.wired.com/2001/10/inside-the-phantom-menace/

From there -->

In November 1996, Shenk – then 27 and fresh out of the Stanford documentary film program – was given an all-access pass to Lucas' creative process, including the director's own writing room at the Ranch, the 850,000-square-foot set in a converted Rolls-Royce aircraft-engine factory in England, and the Tunisian oasis that plays the role of the planet Tatooine in the Star Wars neomyth. Initially, Shenk was hired to feed footage to the marketing department, and Lucas considered using his interviews as course material for an online film school. It was Shenk's idea to weave excerpts from more than 600 hours of filming into a 65-minute cinema verité examination of life on the set of the most anticipated movie in history.

And:

"I didn't want to make a Hollywood puff piece – I wanted to pull together a series of living moments," says Shenk. "I have faith that if you show people reality, they'll take their lives more seriously, and that will slowly change the world."

 

Yeah I loved all the stuff that came with that first DVD release.

The fact that RLM used what was an honest, candid and as far as possible warts and all documentary against Lucas in that fashion was the lowest of lows.

And notice how often you get a youtube commentator saying "wow where is that footage from?".

Oh yes, it's secret hard to find footage that he found - not apparently included in the award winning DVD release selling millions probably.

And anybody talking about a real desert obviously hadn't seen all the stuff with the storm wrecking you know - the sets - and all the full size practical pods.
Pure ignorance.

 

I just love this documentary!