Saturday, July 29, 2006
Secrets of the Rebellion - first day of shooting
"Elsewhere in a dingy cantina populated by spice miners, bounty hunters and other general riff raff, Han Solo prepares to take on another Kessel run. He reminisces about the high stakes Sabacc round with his old buddy Lando Calrissian in which he won a clunky YT-1300 freighter from the gambler." These words from the Xpress Entertainment Star Wars: Secrets of the Rebellion website introduce the first scene shot for the movie - also known as the Cantina flashback scene...
This morning started shakily. I was supposed to arrive at the studio at 8:30 to get prepped for a 9am start. I haven't set my alarm for several months now, because Z has been waking regularly at 7:10 with his toddler enthusiasm to start the day. Of course he chose today to be the day that he decided to change it up on me. I awoke at 8:20 in a panic, threw on a t-shirt and the closest pants to the bed, skipped the shower and ignored my hair, and still managed to get to the set by 8:45. My bed head and I blended in fairly quickly with the pre-coffee crowd and soon realized that shooting was off schedule already. Some extras headed out the door for McD's when they heard that we weren't going to be needed for an hour and a half - I stuck around to get a feel for what was happening, besides, there was coffee and bagels on a table for free - there was no way Rotten Ronnie would top that. I soon met Mark and Jason - I would begin to discover later in the day that all involved in this production are Star Wars fans, but some are 'Warsies' and some are not - these two seemed to fall in the same group that I did, all three of us knowing significant details about the movies, yet none of us owning custom designed costumes from the original trilogy. Mark drove up from Calgary to take part - he's been an extra in a few movies, his best story involves a role as a a homeless guy alongside Mace Windu in an upcoming flick - his Hebrew neck tattoo could pass as something Mandalorian-ish. Jason, in addition to working as an extra today (and a small speaking role later) is the production's photographer (still-photo) for DVD extra features and promotional material, I assume. We hung out and chatted for a while - until around 9:30 when I was asked to put my horns on. (I think I may have been a subspecies of the Zabrak/Iridonians, but I'm still not sure)
Between 9:30 and 1:00, I did little more than glue 3 horns to my forehead, change shirts and put on a vest. So much for being finished by 3 o'clock.
It seemed that there were some issues with the set, or maybe the camera equipment, or both. Gradually things started to come together. The Tw'leks looked great - the red and blue body paint under the bright lights looked very cool. The set began to resemble a Cantina, sort of - it's a little difficult to imagine when most of the set is a green screen. The camera equipment was eventually ready to go - the battery died minutes before the first shot - requiring yet another cable to be manipulated for the initial moving sequence. But by mid-afternoon I was sweating under the lights and trying to get into character. It had been a long slow start and my confidence was shaken by the amount of technical difficulties and lack of group direction in the first part of the day, but my confidence in the project was restored when we watched the play back of the first shot - it looked great. The next few hours were a lot of fun - we shot various groups of aliens, spice miners and other cantina patrons (the bartender was by far the most handsome) reacting to the Sabacc game between Han and Lando where Han pulls off the rarely seen Idiot's Array. I never did do anything with my hair - I guess bed head was the look they wanted for my character. The actor/Iowa school teacher playing Han is fantastic. I'm sure he has spent an inordinate amount of time watching and rewatching every scene with the rogue smuggler in the original three - his mannerisms and speech are perfect. Chewbacca could have been Peter Mayhew himself - the costume was beautiful and his vocal impersonation could have been sampled right from the 1977 soundtrack.
This is one indie film that I'm anxious to see. I'm not needed on the set until next weekend, but I might bring Z by tomorrow to meet the big Wookie, I think he'll like that.
I was finally finished about 12 hours after I arrived, so I washed the spirit gum off of my forehead and caught the number 143 home.
This morning started shakily. I was supposed to arrive at the studio at 8:30 to get prepped for a 9am start. I haven't set my alarm for several months now, because Z has been waking regularly at 7:10 with his toddler enthusiasm to start the day. Of course he chose today to be the day that he decided to change it up on me. I awoke at 8:20 in a panic, threw on a t-shirt and the closest pants to the bed, skipped the shower and ignored my hair, and still managed to get to the set by 8:45. My bed head and I blended in fairly quickly with the pre-coffee crowd and soon realized that shooting was off schedule already. Some extras headed out the door for McD's when they heard that we weren't going to be needed for an hour and a half - I stuck around to get a feel for what was happening, besides, there was coffee and bagels on a table for free - there was no way Rotten Ronnie would top that. I soon met Mark and Jason - I would begin to discover later in the day that all involved in this production are Star Wars fans, but some are 'Warsies' and some are not - these two seemed to fall in the same group that I did, all three of us knowing significant details about the movies, yet none of us owning custom designed costumes from the original trilogy. Mark drove up from Calgary to take part - he's been an extra in a few movies, his best story involves a role as a a homeless guy alongside Mace Windu in an upcoming flick - his Hebrew neck tattoo could pass as something Mandalorian-ish. Jason, in addition to working as an extra today (and a small speaking role later) is the production's photographer (still-photo) for DVD extra features and promotional material, I assume. We hung out and chatted for a while - until around 9:30 when I was asked to put my horns on. (I think I may have been a subspecies of the Zabrak/Iridonians, but I'm still not sure)
Between 9:30 and 1:00, I did little more than glue 3 horns to my forehead, change shirts and put on a vest. So much for being finished by 3 o'clock.
It seemed that there were some issues with the set, or maybe the camera equipment, or both. Gradually things started to come together. The Tw'leks looked great - the red and blue body paint under the bright lights looked very cool. The set began to resemble a Cantina, sort of - it's a little difficult to imagine when most of the set is a green screen. The camera equipment was eventually ready to go - the battery died minutes before the first shot - requiring yet another cable to be manipulated for the initial moving sequence. But by mid-afternoon I was sweating under the lights and trying to get into character. It had been a long slow start and my confidence was shaken by the amount of technical difficulties and lack of group direction in the first part of the day, but my confidence in the project was restored when we watched the play back of the first shot - it looked great. The next few hours were a lot of fun - we shot various groups of aliens, spice miners and other cantina patrons (the bartender was by far the most handsome) reacting to the Sabacc game between Han and Lando where Han pulls off the rarely seen Idiot's Array. I never did do anything with my hair - I guess bed head was the look they wanted for my character. The actor/Iowa school teacher playing Han is fantastic. I'm sure he has spent an inordinate amount of time watching and rewatching every scene with the rogue smuggler in the original three - his mannerisms and speech are perfect. Chewbacca could have been Peter Mayhew himself - the costume was beautiful and his vocal impersonation could have been sampled right from the 1977 soundtrack.
This is one indie film that I'm anxious to see. I'm not needed on the set until next weekend, but I might bring Z by tomorrow to meet the big Wookie, I think he'll like that.
I was finally finished about 12 hours after I arrived, so I washed the spirit gum off of my forehead and caught the number 143 home.
# posted by Anonymous : 11:15 PM
