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The Director and the Jedi (2018)
Please let me introduce our producers and our mentor,
Rian Johnson, Kathy Kennedy and Ram Bergman. I'm gonna take a very short amount of time to just say that I've been making movies for a long, long time. And I don't think, seriously, I have ever had an experience like I've had with this guy and this guy. They are the best. And you guys know that... You know that you are very, very lucky to have been led by this team. So, I'm going to let them speak to that. So, I don't want to freak anyone out, but... I don't want to freak anybody out here, but I think we just made a Star Wars movie. Do you have a new project? Yeah. You know, I'm doing a Star Wars movie. - I'm doing the next Star Wars movie. - Wow! Yeah. ItsYeah, it's crazy. Right as we were finishing AMC Movie Talk on Friday, the news broke about Rian Johnson. Actually, you and I talked on the phone. I was in my car, losing it, "Did you see this, Rian Johnson, what?" I love what he tweeted when the news broke, which was that clip from The Right Stuff. Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up. It was a surprising decision, like, I think people... 'Cause he's not really a recognized name. Yeah, I think Rian Johnson, it's a really bold choice. How is Rian Johnson's style going to change Episode Vlll? All I know is that I'm super excited for Star Episode Vlll. And super excited to watch Star The Force Awakens again. The Force is certainly with the new Star Wars movie, smashing box office records in its opening weekend. - It was really amazing. - It was really a roller-coaster. It was fantastic. Okay, everybody, I gotta get to Star Wars. I think Rian Johnson is an incredibly talented individual, and I hope that within the Star Wars world, he will give us something that is new, and interesting, and exciting, and he will still make something that feels like it's gonna fit in that world. Yep. What does it feel like when you take over somebody else's world? Well, it's, you know... I mean, honestly, it's the most fun I've ever had writing. It's justjoyous. But I don't know. - Ask me again in a few years. - Yeah. And that word, "conflict," that word is straight from Luke's, when he confronted Vader. "I feel a conflict in you." And, so, that's kind of the key to, well, making him understand. "I looked into his eyes and I saw conflict. "I saw he could be turned. "And if he were turned from the dark side, "that could shift the tide and save the Resistance. "This could be how we win." "This is not going to go the way you think." "It is, because there's more." I wonder if we can even ease off on the intensity of it, and make it more... DAISY RI Entreating. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. The truth is I always put myself in the shoes of.. If I wasn't involved in this movie, if I was just, you know, just me, just a fan, the only thing I would really want is a good movie that delights me in ways I didn't expect. You know what actually would be nice maybe? You listen to me now. Instead of holding it on him as a threat, you bring it in. "Listen, listen." - And then that can be a more intimate... - Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The spotlight now is definitely on us, on Rian, on making this movie... Listen to me! which I think is great... You listen to me now! ... as long as everybody's in sync on what that movie needs to be. And that's always the hard part. The caliber of people that we've got, it's pretty amazing. Every single person is the best at what they do here. I'm the newbie. All these other department heads have done movies of this size. I imagined that Ram and I would be outsiders, that we would be somehow infiltrating this world that we don't belong in. I feel like it looks too much like a droid. Too complicated, too robot-y, too Doctor Who. I feel like they gotta be, you know... They gotta be classier. Yeah. You have to lay down all your chips on it, in front of a lot of really good poker players, and say, "This is the right decision, " based on nothing but this little tingle you get in your stomach. And, you know, that's scary. That's really terrifying. Rian delivered a great script, very ambitious, with a lot of surprises. And people realize that he has a complete vision of the film he wants to do. I've known Rian since we were teenagers. I was over the moon. I couldn't believe that it was something this amazing and meaningful to me. And that it was still a Rian movie. It wasn't a hired gun because he was gonna write it and Ram was going to produce it. - I, sorry. - That's okay. I have all of the poster art if you want to see it at some point. You don't need to see it right this second. But it's easy for me to pull up on PIX. Oh. Once we decided that we were making Star Wars movies, he was one of the people that I was immediately interested in. I just think that his storytelling ability, and who he is, as a human being, just exemplified a lot of the values and the sense of fun. I get excited when it feels like it's something new and unique. I just have one goal, which is to make the most powerful Star Wars movie I possibly can. The best shot at making something good is to come into it and trust my guts, you know. What's up, Leo? I know. He's getting pretty big now. - Up and coming. - Yeah. He would love to talk with you tonight. No, that's ridiculous. I'll throw out maybe 8:30 tonight. - That sounds good. - No pressure. - There you go. - Yeah. Wow. Hmm. Battle of Crait. Shot by shot. Any questions, any answers, greatly appreciated. Page 1, reveal of the speeder. Page 3, we have the fox tunnel here, lead onto our trench. I'm like the conduit of everything. Everything comes to me, and then I kind of branch it out to who is responsible for it. A decision by the Art Department can affect special effects. Action! It can affect visual effects. Make it look good, all right? I'll be your best mate. Uh, cool. It can affect cameras. To the creature effects. The set builds. So, it's very much a big group effort here. Did I tell you this? I've gotten a rush of tweets, coordinated tweets, like somewhere else on the Internet, there's a group that's saying, "Okay, everyone tweet Rian Johnson at the same time." All from Russian accounts, and all begging me not to kill Admiral Hux in this movie. - Are you serious? - Russian accounts exclusively. Look at this. "General H ux, lovely personality, "if you kill him in the new episode my heart can't take it, #H uxLive." We have 120 sets over 100 days' filming. Even if I throw thousands of people to build this, it's insane. Practically, this is impossible. They cannot physically build it. So that means either we cut some sets, or we combine sets. It gives them more weeks, and more time, and more turnaround. And then we'll make it more doable. It's really a house of cards. Everything needs to be, like, so perfect in terms of the schedule. So we now go Ireland, straight to Iceland, three days in Iceland... I've eliminated a travel day. Genius. And no matter we do, nobody here knows any movie where they had to build 120 sets. And it's not just building the set, because every time you build a set, the lighting guys need to come and light it, set dressing, stunts, special effects. So, when you look at the schedule, we have weeks where we're shooting eight different sets, and then they need to turn around. It takes them months to build them, especially a set like the casino, which is a huge, giant set. This is actually my first time seeing it all. - Are you pleased? - Yeah. It's big. One actor gets sick. Rian gets sick for one day. That has an effect that goes all the way. It's like... House of cards. The whole thing falls. Everything has to be so perfect to get it done. And it's not going to be. Yeah. Good work. Boy, it's... Yeah, it's tight. It is 100 days. Walk in the park. Jesus. No, it's good. It's good to, uh... It's good to get my head, like, around it, and in the right place in terms of the pace that we're actually going to have to accomplish to get all of it done. We are here on Skellig Michael, off the west coast of lreland. This is a little pre-shoot. Our main shoot isn't for a few more months. But because it's a bird sanctuary, it's a UNESCO heritage site, it is so inaccessible, we could only get there for two days to shoot. After months of planning, and working it all out, we finally have our crew here, and it feels really nice to put Luke Skywalker in front of a camera. So, this is literally the moment right after VII, and I always knew that I wanted to see what the very next thing that happened was. And so, that's what we're coming in on. Some young kid shows up and hands him this symbol of everything he's walked away from. It's not like he's gonna fire it up and say, "Let's go." He's done with that. That's why he's here. And I think it's just because the attitude of tossing on the go worked really well. So, it's still keeping that, kind of, like... Well, see, again, I mean, I told Rian this. It's no surprise, I said I just fundamentally disagree with your concept of this character and how you use him. Now, having said that, I'll do everything within my power to realize your vision, 'cause, you know, it's not my character to decide. It belongs to other people, they just rent it out to me. - And cut. - You got that? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, so, they could be walking down... So, now, there's a lot more meetings, a lot more preproduction, a lot more planning. Casting. - Casting. We're trying to find... - Rose. ...who's going to play the character of Rose, which is one of the few new characters in the movie. As we speak, of course another agent is calling me. But it felt so good to get out here and actually roll some film. It's going to be hard to go back to work now. It's going to be hard to go back looking at charts... - And designs. -... having board meetings. Clearly, you know why we're here. You know why we are here. So the question is just to quantify, if there is a way to quantify. So, if we said, okay, what if we took these characters out, will it save, and if so, how much? You know, if we were to look at where are the cost savings, the cost savings are those things that we haven't already committed to, in the biggest sense of the word. And that pretty well starts at the fathiers, down through the sea cows. So, at the moment, the casino is coming through weekly. Daily. A significant proportion of the work -has already taken place. - Correct. At a certain point, we had to fit our budget and our plan into a box. And the box was big, but it was a box. So, it had limits. I mean, if one said, "Let's not do the sea cow. "Let's stop at this point, create a CG version." I do have to say, from my visit to the location in lreland, I think without a helicopter, we are dreaming, somewhat. I do think it is very pivotal. You know, we need to find different ways how not to compromise the movie, but sometimes you have to deal with situations like this. So, you know, it's tricky. The fact that it's come so late is a little bit of a surprise, and I think it's just beginning to dawn, or become a reality to all, the sheer scope of this project, which is enormous. If we took The Force Awakens and we take Rogue One, we put them together, this project is still bigger. So, it's double the size. We now go back, we look at, I suppose, options to say, do we keep this character? Is this character potentially more expensive to do as an animatronic practical effect than potentially to do in postproduction CG effects? Can we still fulfill that expectation on the money that we have? And, if we don't, how can I trick him to think that he's still getting the same thing he asked for, but, in fact, it didn't cost quite so much money? - Hey! - Hey. You all right, sir? How are you? Wonderful. How're you doing? Good. - Cool. Okay, fish. - That looks so real. Yes, it certainly is. - You guys are amazing. - Yeah. Will that be all right? Yeah. That'll work. All good. Okay, so, this is said entity. How are you? Good to see you. Yeah, it looks fantastic. We just made that a little bit salmon-y colored. - Pinky, fleshy colored. - Yeah. Yeah. It's perfect. He has only two ways of responding, Rian. Either you get the reaction, which is very high-pitched giggle... Or you get a, sort of, "Mmm." It was eventually decided to build the sea cow, because it was Rian's ambition to always try and achieve things practically. So, to actually go to lreland and place the sea cow on a rocky outcrop, the sea, the sound, the light, all of these aspects just gelled together to make the whole shot just look incredible. I do think the flippers and shoulders are in the right place... - Yes. -...over here. But I feel like this is much more right in terms of the relation with the belly. Okay. There's a level of humor in Star Wars, a naivety and an innocence, and Rian, in this case, has particularly latched into that. He loves the blend of the grotesque with the beauty. And there's a balance in that. It feels a little bit more like it should be a bit more gargle-y. Yeah. Cool. All right. The tree. Well, we have a lovely site in Iceland that we've tech-scouted. So, we know physically what it is we're trying to get out of the tree. I don't know if it's a practical place, necessarily, for Frank Oz to try to puppeteer. So, these concerns are sort of looming. That tree can go in Iceland. There's no doubt we can put that tree there. So can the Millennium Falcon. Whether or not someone wants to pay for all of those different aspects, or whether or not we cherry-pick the ones that we want, and bring the others back here. I think that's what this is about, really. It does actually feel like it's one of those situations where we'll get exactly what we're working to get out of the location. I think. I don't know. I don't know. We really wanted to be on location. However, we realized it's really not worth it. Taking the entire crew, going through a location which is very hard. You still needed to build a tree, and we've got the whole complication of having the green guy there. You have to build a physical place from where he can operate. Head down to the tree. To the tree! So, we made that call. I think we made a good call, but you know, you walk through the set and say, "Wow, we build this crazy thing." Next movie, we build a set like this, we shoot it for a month. Not for a day. Not for two days. Okay? I spoke to Steve. I wanna test flame on the tree, prior to you painting it. I mean, the reason we test is, you know, we want to eliminate as many of the factors that could cause a shot not to be very good, because, every time we do another take, it's a lot of people standing around waiting for us to reload it. So the idea of the testing is to get rid of all those little glitches so that we stand as good a chance as we possibly can of getting it in the first shot. All right. So if I give you a, "Three, two, one, action," you go on "one"... - Go on "action." - You go on "action." It's funny, I haven 't had... I guess at this point I have had experience with rehearsing, but I always, coming into it, feel slightly nervous just because I feel like I'm kind of making up how they do it. I think you probably have more rehearsals than anybody else. Yeah. For sure. Don't you agree? And you did have some rehearsals on there. Oy! - Then I hit the thing. - Then you hit it. Okay. Great. All right. Cool. Another thing is we might play this whole sequence coming off of a Force connection with you and Kylo. So, when you're focusing on that rock, you're really seeing... - This is all about you kind of... - Yeah. Okay. Sure. "I have to get together for when I kick his ass." Okay. When I started writing, I looked at where VII left off, and I wrote down the names of each one of the characters, and I started just saying, "What do I know about each of these characters? "What do I think they want? Where can I see them going?" And, "What would be the hardest thing for each of them to come up against?" And so, that was really the starting point of the whole thing. So, we start Rose in a really unflattering maintenance jumpsuit uniform thing. And then, she's in that until formal wear. And there, we can really have fun. So, you have to cast somebody tall. It's not gonna happen. We're looking at short, short people. Really? My intent is to cast someone who you would not expect to see. So, it'll make it hard on you. Camera set. And action. You have to draw from fragments of things in your life for the story, and for the characters, and for what you care about. And, I mean, that's entirely personal. That's entirely from you. And action, John. When I wrote that character of Rose, she was genuinely a nerd. Like, someone who I would have actually hung out with in high school. She felt like a character who didn't belong in a Star Wars movie. And it appealed to me. The only criteria I had to be true to is who felt like this character I had in my head. And that was Kelly. Another thing I wanted to ask you about is our villain Benicio. - Yes. Not a villain. Not a villain. - Not a villain. Don't believe the Internet. Not a villain. I don't think he should be in a tux. I think he was there to meet a guy about a thing, you know. He was there on other business, basically. And he was gonna get in and get out, and then he got tossed in. I mean, really subconsciously what we want to evoke in the audience is Han Solo. We don't want to play it too close to that, but the whole thing of a scoundrel and the audience expects him to have a heart of gold. Because of the scope of what we're doing, it's not a schedule based on actor's availability, like most movies are. It's a schedule based on when sets are going to be ready. So I have to see when are those people going to work. They've got something else, they've got windows. Here is the situation with Laura. The HBO show that she's supposed to start working this week, and us, ideally, you know, trying to accommodate so she can do both shows. Yeah. I'm just nervous. What if we have to push by an extra week or two weeks? Who knows what happens? And what about the casino? Whatever it is. I think it's Miami. I think it's rich warlords and slender supermodels. Fellini-like. Fat, older rich women, and, you know... A casino in Star Wars, you know, with fancy dress people, it just seemed... And I expressed my fears to Rian and asked for more input. And he didn't really make it easier. He said he wanted them to look very elegant. We're doing a casting day for the casino scene. It's gonna be huge. They're very particular about the look, and we've got models, we've got people that have been dancers because of their profile, and how they can stand. We've got very quirky people coming. - How are you? - Fine, thank you. You were in the original Star Wars? With George Lucas. With George Lucas. And have you got your photos? SALO GARDN That's the famous bar scene. Here. - Is it the cantina... - Cantina, yeah. That's the bar scene itself. I met some film stars in my time. Could you just move that way? Just a tiny... They would have large groups of people that I had chosen come in so that we could actually see them in life and see them moving, and were able to, kind of, actually design the costumes for the individual person. Ah, so great. Oh, it's just gorgeous. Yeah, the way it moves is just lovely. Yeah. - You like? - It's fantastic. Just amazing work. So cool! And it feels... Yeah, it does feel Star Wars. - I hope it feels Star Wars. - It does. They've never done anything like this in Star Wars. It has that simplicity that we've been talking about the whole time. Remember, when we rehearse and you're walking away, it'll be on this line, so going parallel to this. And then the confrontation will happen somewhere out here. And the fight will happen kind of along this line. Mark, very understandably, wasn't thrilled about some of the choices in the script. The big things being the place that Luke's head is at, the fact that he's not the Luke Skywalker that we knew then. Frankly, the fact that he dies at the end. Let's go up and take a look at your hut real quick, I guess. Then, it was just a matter of really being honest with myself Like, "Is that what's best for this trilogy? "Is that what should happen here?" And just questioning that over and over again. - Oh, for God's sake! - Oh... You did this. You guys! Wow. Oh! There's too many of everybody! I misjudged this! I cannot wait to start shooting... I can't wait. But I feel like everyone's just is so prepared. I feel like we're ready, you know. It's just like, "Okay, it's time to switch "to the on-set problem-solving." Yeah. There we go. Ready? One, two, three. - Yeah, you sign next to your name. - You and me. - Director. - Wow. Don't look Yeah, okay. So, right now I'm signing the final budget sheet. So... - All right. Today's the 16th? - Yeah. There we go. I have to sign. - Don't get used to this, Rian. - I'm not getting used to it, man. At some point, we have to go back to reality. To reality. - Day one. Day one. - Okay, here we go. Roll, please. And action. The First Order's only tracking us from one Destroyer, the lead one. So we blow that one up? I like where your head's at, but no. They'd only start tracking us... When you're actually shooting, you're zoomed in to some degree, whereas in preproduction, you're wrapping your head around, just all the problems, kind of, globally. And I found myself a lot more stressed just about thinking of this as a Star Wars movie. And then, you start shooting, and it's the camera, and the actors, and you're trying to make a scene work and it's the exact same thing as it is with a small movie. And it feels so good to be zoomed in and solving problems on that level. And then, John, I don't know if you could have your hand just a little bit higher, I think. Oh, I'm fine. Sneak on board. Disable the tracker. Our fleet escapes without them realizing. And cut it. Beautiful. Great. Let's check that, and then let's get Threepio a shot. Yeah. All right, good? Anthony, you good? Here we go. Roll, please. Not telling tales out of school, George got back and looked at all the footage, and didn't like C-3PO's voice. And so, he saw over 100 actors, voiceover guys, to come in and audition for the role of Threepio's voice. Mind you, it's all been filmed. And we're so used to Tony, "Oh, yes, how's that, sir?" All of that. I mean, it was all part and parcel of the organic character. He's almost like the droid equivalent of U pstairs, Downstairs. He's much more comfortable in the drawing room serving champagne. That was the humor of Threepio. Captain Dameron, Admiral Holdo was looking for you. Captain Dameron, Admiral Holdo was looking for you. Very nice. A bad idea that is also impossible. A bad idea that is also impossible. Very nice. Yeah, I am on mics. And look at this guy. You can't escape. I was gonna tell him something secret. - There's no privacy. There's no privacy. - I'm not saying a word. I'll tell you when I'm not wearing a wire. That's good. Keep him going... - That is the pendulum. - Okay... - That's the pendulum. Because you were driving him down. That's right. And it was too fast. So, you do need to be pretty flat out for the slope. That's not gonna make it. - No, that's good. - Keep it going, keep it going. Okay... Not bad. Yeah, yeah. We've never had it on this turn before, Rian. The mechanism inside tries to fight it a bit, but, yeah. Oh, come on! You can do it! No! No! Here we go. Ready? And background! Background. Action! You start an attack, you follow it through. You're demoted. Wait, wait! We took down a dreadnought. At what cost? There were heroes on that mission. Dead heroes. No leaders. And cut. How's your hand? You should see the other guy. He's an... I know you've heard good things about him, but he's very tough... No. And then, now, slowly... He just has a very specific vision. And he doesn't seem like that when you first meet him. He doesn't have a dominating, sort of, affect. That's great. But he has a dominating vision. This is so simple, but this is so important. So this is, basically, I didn't feel like we got a hero introduction for you for the very first shot. So all this is, is a turn to camera. But it's a really essential one. He's really good with structuring things in story, and then he's good at working with actors. So, he has flaws in other areas. I just don't know about them. Action. Hold for applause... That was great. Cut. - Okay. - Hold for applause! I don't know. I just immediately adored her from the start. And so, even the things that were hard... Stand by to rehearse, please! ...they were a joy, you know. Like, I had a lot of energy for them, just because I loved her so much. And let's do one more. You're ready for this direction? - Yes. - Faster. Less intense. - Was I intense? - No. Not at all. Even when she was being a pain in the ass, she was wonderful, you know. So, after "hold your fire," that's when you'll do your "Finn." Finn! Yeah, let me try it a bunch of times. Yeah, yeah. So... Wait, should it be like this? "Finn! " Or, "Finn?" - I want you to... - Or, "Finn..." How about "Finn" with two commas after it? Finn with double comma. Action! - Don't shoot! Don't shoot! - Hold your fire! Finn? Carrie started that iconic quality of seeing a young woman save the day. I mean, it was not something we had seen. And so, it's really beautiful that these new characters pay tribute to that idea of what a hero looks like. - Okay, all set. Here we go. - Camera set. Background. Action. Too many losses. I can't do any more. Sure you can. You taught me how. May the Force be... You go. I've said it enough. May the Force be with you always. And cut it. Very, very nice. Great. Great. Oh, it's so nice. It's so... It feels like... It feels so good. I mean, on the one hand, you know, this movie was not made with the intent of it, obviously, being a goodbye to her. On the other hand, there's many scenes in the movie that I think... You know, I hope will give people some kind of, you know... Will feel good for people to see, you know. That was fun. I think it was my best work. Hi, guys. Remember me? I'm tangentially connected with this production. It's heavy on him. He thought he's gonna be the Luke Skywalker of this trilogy. It's just the realization that, in this trilogy, he's not Luke Skywalker. He's Obi. Actually, I had a long conversation with him. His first thing was, "I know I'm gonna have a stunt double. "And the double's gonna be better than me. - He's happy to... - He doesn't want... He wants to do some of it. We showed him the fight, which he really liked. - For which one? - The staff fight with... - With Daisy. Okay. - Yes. Which I think is good, 'cause it keeps... He was worried about... He said all these things with tweets and fans, how he's gonna come back. And I said, "Listen, I think we've kept it "so that it feels like you're giving her a lesson in the fight." He said, "Listen, I'm a 64-year-old man. I'm not egotistical. "I know that it'll be done better with the double." I said, "I agree, there will be parts that are better done with a double, "but also there's parts where we really want to see "that it's you doing your thing." "So, we need to make sure you learn the whole thing correctly, "and then we can pick out those moments." Make sure he's aware his performance will be better. Listen, at the end of the day, the more we get with him, it's gonna be better. Right now, we 're on the Jedi village set. This is a set that we built here because we knew we'd be doing some night work in the rain. Eventually, we're going to break this set down, and ship it out to lreland, and rebuild this entire thing on the side of a cliff. All right. Let's have Mark and Daisy. Take cover if you don't need to stand out in it. And roll, please! - Camera rolling. - Sound speed and board. Action! You failed him by thinking his choice was made. It wasn't. There's still conflict in him. If he were to be turned from the dark side, that could shift the tide. This could be how we win. This is not going to go the way you think. Rey shows up to the island with a set of expectations, saying, "I need someone to show me my place in all this." And that's what she's trying to find. And she doesn't exactly know what that is going to be yet. Rey, don't do this. So Luke slamming a door in her face seemed like the most obvious thing in the world to throw a bucket of cold water on her head. Action! Tell me the truth. There's folks in your life that you expect to fulfill a certain thing, and, as we grow up, we realize that doesn't always happen. And cut it. Oh, my God. Camera reloads. Is it true? Did you try to murder him? Leave this island now! Stop. Stop! I've never really edited in earnest while we've been going in production on any of my other films. But, on this one, I'm gonna have to. Did you do it? Did you create Kylo Ren? You would give us up to the dark side for a pair of pretty eyes. Right here, we just... We need to read that she is rearing back to swing. It's nice having Bob in the cutting room, here at the studio. I can just go over there at the end of the day, when we wrap. BOB Because the other take, she's not really doing as much. It's weird, you have, like, in your head, a memory of what takes you think are best and what worked. And it can be like that thing when you saw a movie a long time ago, and you remember a scene one way, but then you watch it again and you're like, "Oh, that's completely different than I thought it was." I feel like I need to rewrite the opening sequence, in terms of the big-picture stuff of what's going on. Watching the whole thing together, I freaked. - You watched it? - Yeah, and I freaked out. Because I'm like, "This doesn't track." "You can't follow what's happening. "You can't follow what the big stakes are." I got really scared. He can have his anxieties. I just need to make sure, if need be, to give him the confidence that, like, "No, dude. Everything you're doing is great." Or, "Yeah, that thing maybe wasn't great. "No biggie. We can fix it." Part of my job is to support him at every level. - We had, like, a budget meeting. - Yeah. How we doing? Fine, it's not important. And you look, and you say, "Okay, we're at day 50." You look in the breakdown, we have another 44 sets to build. Jesus Christ. I said, "Are you kidding me? Forty-four sets." Not believable. - Staying on schedule. That's impressive. - Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Ireland is the big... - I don't know about the weather. - Yeah. The only thing that's different is that that ramp in the back was tilted up, which was what we had. H EI N Right. So, this is correct, as far as the ramp goes. We just need a lot more rocks here. This just isn't a big enough pile. - That's it. - No problem. - Is this too big? - U h, I don't think so. I just think maybe... It's always a surprise to a director when you actually tell them how many sets that they have in their script, because they don't sit and count them. And neither should they. That's a practical concern that we figure out, and manage. This sample that I want to do for the throne room, I want it to feel kind of monolithic. It's not quite perfect in the same way that that is. It's got a little bit of... A little bit of character on the edges. Is it that bunched up, or is it spread out? Oh, no, that's the whole thing. It's a whole thing. It's gonna go all around. Wow, that's exciting. Looking off to the side, more Praetorian guards, at the oculus beyond, and just getting a sense of what our set's gonna look like. Giving a real sense to the director of being able to put his head into the set, when it's still in an extremely rough condition here on stage. So, yeah, this is all the hand props for Vlll. This is our hero table. This is where we have a lot of the hero props, like Kylo Ren's lightsaber. This is the original warrior hilt. Yoda's cane, which we made for this one. We made these dice, which were hanging from the Millennium Falcon cockpit. Apparently it's what Han Solo used to win the Millennium Falcon, so he's always kept them hanging up. We're the action vehicles, and our job is to make all the interiors and exterior decoration. We're always looking to improve the durability of the weapons, and the reliability of them as well. But this time around, we're trying to introduce as many airsoft weapons as we can into them, so that the actors can actually fire them. Obviously you've got your sound there, as well, which gives a slight kickback. So, it'll give you the feel of actually firing a rifle. Just want to see that in comparison. - Right, right, right. Mmm. - Yeah. Probably another couple of millimeters, so it's really quite... It's two mills difference between those two. When we came to the process of designing the scar for Kylo Ren, that probably took around five, six months. I think the scar can be a little more significant. - A bit more defined, okay. - You know what I mean? - More defined. More significant. - Yeah, sure. And I think we make it wider. And no one says, "Oh, my God, you had so much prep time on Star Wars." It seems a lot. I mean, it was still a push at the end. I have to say, if you're given two weeks or six months, it's still always a push at the end. The other option is we pick him up in his medical chamber. It could be taking that thing off, and revealing the fine scar, you know. There you go. Yeah, that's a good idea. Peeling it off, and... - And the thing coming off. - Yeah. All right, here we go. And sense something. And cut. Very nice. That was a nice one. Adam is so... When he's here, he's, like, so... - He's intense. - Intense. I know. - That's fine. That's great. - Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's very good. You'll bring Luke Skywalker to me. Can you see my surroundings? You're gonna pay for what you did! I can't see yours. Just you. Kylo, that was the character that I was most excited about getting into and writing, because in the first Star Wars films, Vader was a great villain, but he was never someone that you identified with. Why did you hate your father? Whereas, with Kylo, it's almost like Rey and Kylo are two halves of the protagonist. And, if this is all about the transition from adolescence into adulthood, Kylo is that anger of adolescence. - More! - H Ren, surely... More! My favorite kind of bad guys are the ones that you identify with, and that was really interesting to me. And how those two are going to develop and affect each other, and play off each other, being two halves of this whole. RI It's only when they touch that either of them actually see what could be. And through that they build this incredible intimacy. Luke should be the one nurturing Rey, and it's actually Kylo that is. Cut. That was really nice. Great. Being on location has its own challenges. It's not as convenient, necessarily, as you're in the studio. But I think, if I could shoot the entire movie on location, I would. It grounds it in reality. This is the first time we shoot in a city where you have tons of people, so you have to deal with people with cameras, and you don't want to reveal any creatures or characters or vehicles. So, you have to figure out how you can shoot what you want to shoot, and still hope that everything you're shooting doesn't get leaked instantly. And we'll see how much success we will have or not by the time the movie comes out. What we do for the entertainment of millions of people around the world. Squeeze into a rubber suit in the middle of the night in Dubrovnik. There you go. You gotta be a little more over. You really do have to protect yourself. There you go. Imagine you're the camera, there. How is it? Yeah. Well, it's mildly erotic, to be honest. Yeah. But I think we can get away with that, can't we? That's what you were going for, really? All right, here we go! All right, shooting now! Background, camera, and now! And cut. So good. So good. Yeah. Hello. Look at this magic. Look at this magic. One thing's for sure, it has to look like it's on the knees, like it's resting. Otherwise, it looks you're about to do a baton act. Yeah, right, exactly. One, two, three... Young Skywalker. Frank, we're spying on you. You have spies here. Oh, my God. Hey! I'm still upset that he hasn't aged a day. And I've aged tragically. But you look gorgeous. Thank you. I've always wanted to be able to do this. - You look handsome. - Like a certain character in the... I think it was a year ago, almost, that I had lunch with Rian, who asked me if I wanted to do Yoda. I said, "Sure," because I thought it was just CG and a voice. And then I found out weeks later that he wanted to do the real Yoda. And I thought, "Do you know what you're getting into here?" When we heard that we were going to do Yoda, that was the absolute icing on the cake. I mean, you know, come on. So, there was this personal side of, "Oh, my God, I'm gonna work with Frank Oz." But now Frank's gotta be, kind of, working with me. Hello, Frank, my name's Neal. Neal Scanlan. Had a meeting today with Rian and we learned that you were very interested in performing Yoda. We had hoped that right from the start. Kept our fingers crossed. So, it's great news to hear that you'll be involved. One of the greatest things was that we did find the original mold for Yoda. And, you know, it arrived in this beautiful little wooden box. It's such a mold of its time. We took a positive from that and created a master clay pour. Then, Colin Jackman, one of our lead sculptors, just kissed that sculpt. One daren't even change a line, really. We were able to replicate the puppet. I think it must be the closest replication that one could possibly have. Then your hands are under the bar, here. - Okay. - And this one's on top of the bar. - The brow. - The brow. So, you get the idea that it's not just a slip on, slip off. God, that's incredible! You better watch your ass. Frank's been with us for about a week. And we had some script lines. And then, completely without any warning, he suddenly... Dropped into Yoda's voice. Oh, Skywalker. Missed you, have I. I mean, just about everybody who was around, and the hairs just went up on their back... And it was like... There he was. And this little character just became what we all grew up with. I wonder if instead of looking up for the lightning, I wonder if the finger is enough to indicate... And it's... - Sure. - You know what I mean? Ready, and one, two, three, close. Yeah. For you to look past a shelf of old books. The way Rian wrote this particular scene, this is the only way the scene could have worked. Mark could not work with a CG character, because it wasn't true to the Yoda Luke knew from Empire. - Hi, Frank. - Hey. - Have you met Daisy? - Yes, we have. - Oh, careful. - Ooh! We need you alive. So, I've just been in with Frank. I'm asking him to have Yoda all ready to go with him under the rocks, 7:00, for a line-up. Stop! Turn. Master Yoda! Young Skywalker. I'm gonna burn it down. Don't try to stop me. Wonderful. Okay. Guys, thank you very much for an excellent week. 6:00 call on Monday, same place. Bring some marshmallows. It's a bestseller. Page turners they aren't. You know, George Lucas created something, and even now people are constantly still trying to figure out what it was that he tapped into that resonates still today. And, I think, a part of it is the ideas inherent in the storytelling were meaningful to him. And, consequently, they were to a lot of other people. All right. Here we go. - Set. Set! - Set. Action! Why are you here, Rey, from nowhere? The Resistance sent me. They need your help. The First Order's become unstoppable. Why are you here? And, so, we have to be authentic to that process. Every single person that steps into the Star Wars universe has to ask themselves, "Why is this meaningful to me?" And I'm afraid. I don't know what it is or what to do with it. And I need help. You need a teacher. I can't teach you. Why not? Your face, it can be more internal. You're finding the words for this for the first time, you know. And I think that's what's interesting about the contribution that Rian's making. Every single decision is personal to him. I will never train another generation of Jedi. You asked why I came here. I came here to die. And let's cut. N ice. Very nice, guys. Dan, let me see the previous. Play it back once more. I mean, basically, yeah. What they do is... I mean, all the animation comes from ILM, right? ILM is spending months to make sure we get the right animation. Then they program it into the rig. Special effects then take lLM's program, goes through the stuff, and that's how it moves. - Generates the motion for that. - Yes. - Correct. Yes. - Oh. That looks great. Okay, so, aggressive bark at first. Action. Yeah. And, then, just looking at her. That's terrific. And, then, little head cock? That's good. Okay, now, let's regard her. Let's look at her. So, pull the face back a bit, and a little head cock. Yes. Oh, you're breaking my heart. Great. And cut it. Beautiful. Very nice, guys. Good. - Oh, I like that one. - It's pretty good. It's gonna be a fun week. - He rolls with you guys. - Oh, he rolls behind us. Yeah, so they put it. It's like a disguise. So, he's got that thing on top of him that's wobbling. All right, let's get very close here, team. Very close. After VI, I has come out, I'm realizing how much of the work, in addition to the creative work, is just the mind game of keeping your head in the right spot, regarding your relation to this culturaljuggernaut. And then, the action is, essentially while she shoots the four other troops, you're already starting to come at her with the mace. With any creative decision you make in this process, you gotta shut out the doubts. And having the actors have the room... But also the pressures that they need to do their best work. And the best I can do is try and make the whole thing as intimate as possible, in terms of the process. Traitor, coward, traitor, traitor, traitor. All since... We've met you. She's the traitor. JOHN And Rian, not once did he show any type of anger, or not once was he rude or let the pressure of all of this get to him. And it's pressure. It's pressure. - No! - I love you! I love you! Okay. It's okay. Action! Cut! Thank you. Brilliant job. I'm really excited. I'm really, really excited. I think it's gonna be great. Well, you've seen it come together. So, you've seen it put together. I'm breathing a sigh of relief every night, and I'm like, "Oh, that works." It's been a pleasant... It's been a nice process. It's been good. But, yeah, I'm ready to get all this stuff together. Cautiously optimistic. All right, so let's everybody stand by. Let's go, guys. Anybody that does not need to be in here, let's clear. Okay, guys, stand by. Set. - All right. - Yep. - Let's roll, please. - We're rolling. Everybody set! And three, two, one... Fire! All right, cut there. Firemen in. Everyone all right? Everybody okay? Everybody good? Please tell me. All good? - Shoot next time. - Shoot next time. My plan for the casino is... I have to sit down with Steve later and just mark on a map where all our shots are. But my hope is I can go there, there, kind of, end the day, up the stairs, so I can let 60% of them go, and... This is like you said, the most complicated sequence in Star Wars history. So, let's make sure we cover the hell out of it. You just have to put it on when you work. Just for takes, and then we can take it off between. - It just looks so good on you. - It looks so good on you, yeah. Dave, do you like this? Not those ones, because on this one... Okay. Do that. No, the makeup is too white and the eyes are too dark. Back to Makeup if you've been told. Back to Hair if you've been told. From Steve and onwards. I'll either do less lips or dark lips. A little bit red. And red, we're not really going near too much. So it's all browns and stuff, but I think if we did really dark lips, but a lot less, so it's not quite so defined. Looks great. Back a little bit. Great. - You look beautiful. - Thank you. All right. So, guys. Health and safety meeting. Morning, everyone. Lots of people on this set. Lots of creature effects and people with restricted vision. So, again, let's just be courteous for them when you see them moving around the set. Cut it. Yeah. Overall, in terms of the attitude of all the creatures, with everybody across the board, and as snooty as they can possibly make each version of their character. That's not a person. We have hundreds of extras, dressed to the nines, a ton of incredible creatures, and they're all converging in this huge, amazing set. So, this is just like a multi-department extravaganza. And we get to shoot it all today. It's gonna be fun. If I don't mess it up. All right, here we go. Ready? Keep the energy up, miming only, guys, and... Background! Action! This place is great! It's great! Come on. I wish Rey could see this. And cut there, guys. All right. Straightaway. Very, very nice. Hand a little higher with the grab. Really up here. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right, here we go. What's that? Oh, no. Don't be silly. Oh, thank you. I'm admiring you. What are you talking about? In fact, let me walk you back to where you're supposed to go. All right. U h... Right, is anybody not ready? It's an interesting thing, because, you know, you have your own view of how your character should be. And how he should be utilized. My character always represented hope and optimism. And now, here I am, very pessimistic and disillusioned, and, sort of, demoralized. No matter how this comes out, if I'm wonderful, it's because of him. And if it's terrible, it's also his fault. Cut it. All right. Once on that. Camera reloads. - Hello! - How are you, my friend? Good to see you, man. How's it going? - Welcome to Star Wars. - Thank you very much. - How's it going? - Good. How's it going? It's good. I'm having the time of my life. I can't wait to get into Snoke's stuff. It's going to be fun. I think we're gonna have a couple of really great scenes, including a big, climactic throne room scene. I don't want you to be blind-sided. It climaxes with the spectacular death of Snoke. Sorry! I'm sorry! But it's glorious! I just wanted to... No, no. Thank you! So, it's like... Get to the page... Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Get into the zone, yeah? Don't worry about anybody else. Just yourself, yeah? Batter them! Batter them! Exciting. You will give me Skywalker. Then I will kill you. And cut it. Zoom! Scream! And cut. Yeah. And even closer if you can. Let's see that full speed. See what that looks like. Pay attention, guys. With aggression, yeah. And action. Because Adam and Daisy are so dialed in with the training that they've both been doing for this over the past six months, we've been able to just shoot it with them in the style of, like, the fight scenes I grew up loving. Like, Jackie Chan scenes, where you can literally just put a wide-angle lens, find a great angle on it and just follow the action. It's actually them doing it. I'm gonna push through into your fight. That's how we're gonna shoot it. So, you're gonna be going... But do we do the first bit and then stop? And then do the second bit, or do them both through? No, it's all going to go on. RI You just dig deep. I literally couldn't breathe. I felt like my heart was gonna punch out my chest. You wanna know the truth about your parents? They were filthyjunk traders who sold you off for drinking money. You have no place in this story. You come from nothing. You're nothing. Not getting what she wants. Not getting the answers from the places she thought they were going to come from. Meaning Luke. Meaning her parents. Join me. Please. That was the hardest thing. You're wondering who you are? Well, you have to find out who you are for yourself Please. And cut. Wow. Great. You're amazing. That was really incredible. Good, good, good. Good, let's check it. How many sets of squibs until the rest of the day? - Four? - Four. - I was so tired last night. - Huh? I was so tired last night. Conked out at, like, 10:30. Three days in Skellig, and how many pre-shoot days in here? We had two. - So, five... So, 119? - Yeah. No. We need to shoot one more day. Well, no. We've got Bolivia. Bolivia... If you count the three days we shot in Skellig last year... That's three. If you count the two pre-shoot days... I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna count right now. - Hundred and twenty-three? - Hundred and twenty-two. Three days shoot there. At the most. Right? Two, three, four, five, six, seven... RI Everyone's exhausted. We've all been working very, very hard. I don't want to speak for other people, but I certainly feel like in a delirious state. The past few weeks has just been work, get home, go to sleep, and go to work again the next day. Nine, 10, 11. Hundred and twelve plus two. - How many breaks did you have? - None. That's insane. Just Christmas was... Christmas was 10 days. There's just nothing you can do. It's a grind. So, as you get towards the end, things piling up throughout the shoot. You say, "Oh, we need to pick up this. We need to reshoot this." So, you put everything to the end, and then we get to the end and realize, "Oh, I got this much thing to do." Wednesday, we got a pickup to do on Finn for the casino bar. And then we're gonna move to C Stage to do a couple of pickups on the sea ship, and a pickup in the cell. Once we get back from lreland, we're gonna be shooting pretty much every week. Six-day weeks. It will be tough, but, again, you also can feel the light at the end of the tunnel as you get closer. So, hopefully, that's gonna be fine. All right, good evening, everyone. Just to go over Ireland. Just to make sure we've got all the right things in the right places. We're in a very heavily protected environment. And everybody's aware that this is a difficult environment, and take into account the difficulties of what we're doing. If it's a nice sunny day like this, then it's a less treacherous environment. We're in a tough location where only so many people can get there. We have to build roads that are dangerous. You're on top of cliffs, but we realized, early on, the only way to really do it is you have to be on location, with real environment, with real weather. And you can totally see and feel the difference, when you're a filmgoer and you go to the movie. The weather so far has been incredibly good. And we have untold luck with weather. So, hopefully, we won't have... Why did you say that out loud? Because I say it all the time, and it's true. All right, now can I be really boring? Anyone who doesn't need to be on the grass, get off it, please. Remember when we were waiting for the sun to go away? The beauty of being here is to get these incredible vistas. So, in order to shoot that, we have to be on a ledge that's very narrow, all the puppeteers, which there are four, have to be harnessed, as do the porgs themselves. They're harnessed to the performers in case the performer drops the porg or the porg falls over the edge. So, weather permitting, what you achieve by being here is something really, really extraordinary. Yeah, maybe cheat the look towards camera, a little bit. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's nice. - Camera's running. And action. Excellent. And cut. The fog wasn't on any weather report. The fog wasn't on any weather report. Welcome to Ireland. Cut it! Cut it! Cut it! Hey, Jamie, start thinking of... People want a list of popular songs with a Star Wars twist. And I thought of I Wanna Hold Your Han and The Luke of Love. We 're out here scouting. It seemed so simple. "Let's start here. "We'll put him on a wire. He'll go over there." - Good. - Cut there! No fear of heights? Obviously not. It's cool, man. Daisy! And look to Daisy. And look back to him. Now, a little annoyed look to her, Mark. Great. And cut it. It's very cool, isn't it? lreland was always this kind of touchstone in the schedule that we would go off and have this distant location, that, I think, that seemed very far away to Rian. And when he was there and the experience was better than he even anticipated, I think that, at the same time, was a realization that, "Oh, my God, the movie's coming to an end, "in terms of production." And I'm not sure he's entirely ready for that. So crazy how close to the end we are. I mean, we're not. - We still have a big chunk left, but... - RI But it is. It's been a time warp, man. It's been a weird time warp. Um... Well, I thought it was happening today. I thought, what if I don't keep popping up... We'll just have to reshoot. Within seconds, they'll just conk me on the head. "Stay down, punk! " The scene... We can't know its name. Oh, yeah. The scene that dare not speak its name. Okay, thank you. I'm gonna make them sorry they ever came up with that idea. In my mind, Luke's big thing in this movie is taking on that mantle of becoming a symbol of hope and inspire a whole new generation. He genuinely believes the light needs to find another hero. I wanted Luke's death to be on Luke's terms. I wanted it to be peaceful. To feel like a victory. That's beautiful. Yeah, Mark is... He's trying so hard. He's so committed. - You can see these are long, big days. - Absolutely true. And he's just doing so good and being such a soldier. I don't think he ever got to the point where he thought, "Okay, I understand why Luke has to go at the end of this." But he was completely devoted to making what I had written the most powerful version it can possibly be onscreen. I'll always be dazzled by the fact that he had the generosity of spirit to do that. And I'll always feel like I really owe him for that. You know, I don't take that lightly. Ooh. Wow. - That means me. - That's you, buddy. - Simple. Direct. Powerful. - It's nice, right? - You like it? - Yeah. I love it. Wow, I'm glad I didn't know. I mean, it's an added burden, when I think of it. I trust him. I have to trust him. I'm firmly in Rian's camp now. Having told him, "I hate everything you've done to my character," and disavow it. But once I got that off my chest, I said, "Now lead me, oh guru." Going up? Locks, clocks, smocks and lingerie. Fifth floor, please. Wait a second, this is making me nervous. Why are they saving my fall down the stairs for the last shot of the last day? I find that highly suspicious. And action! Beautiful. Good, good, good. Yeah, cut it. Good, good, good. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you to Mark Hamill. - Bye, Mark. Bye, Mark. - Bye-bye. Bye. See you. HS We had some laughs. I'll see you tomorrow. I'm coming back tomorrow. No need to say goodbye. I'm coming back tomorrow. I am coming back tomorrow. See you. A little louder. Nice. That's it. Cool. Not bad. All right. It's with great sadness we have to say goodbye and thank you to Benicio. Doing all these movies, this is home. This is my main school, main school curriculum. Then when school's done, you're outside into the real world. No more, you know, creatures and stormtroopers. I'm quite used to that day-to-day life. I live that every day, from Monday to Saturday. And now, it's not going to be a part of that at all which is nuts to me. RI Oh, my God, that's so insanely generous. - Oh, see... - Now I'm gonna keep crying. Nope. Pull it together. - One more shot. Come on! - Thank you so much. And action. The beacon's right beneath us. They've got to be somewhere. Keep scanning for life forms. And just one more. Here we go. Let's go around back. And cut it. Beautiful, guys. Very nice. All right. Put an end to that. Ladies and gentlemen, with great sadness, we say that is a wrap on Daisy Ridley. Thank you for everything. RI Thank you. Oh, my God. All right, here we go. Everybody ready... Getting very close here, guys. Now, very emotional scene in here, guys, so let's please keep all the work held while we're shooting. Please take a seat. I'd say go ahead and have that pain, the things you wished, the things you regret. - Okay. - So, as opposed to... Being so light-hearted. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, let's feel that heaviness. Yeah. All right, man. Ready, very still now. And, Carrie, you just let me know. - Okay. - Action. Luke. I know what you're gonna say. I changed my hair. It's nice that way. Leia... - I'm sorry. - I know. I'm just glad that you're here with me at the end. This is the end, isn't it? I held out hope for so long, but I know my son is gone. No one's ever really gone. Cut there. That was beautiful. Cut there. Every day, there's always a moment in the day where I feel a little sad that it's gonna be over when it's over. Like, a real moment where I think, "Oh, we're gonna wrap. It's gonna be here before I know it." And I'm really, really, really gonna be sad when it happens. I mean, I'm literally having the time of my life. Yeah. Someday this war's gonna end. Not the Star Wars, that will never end. That will keep going forever. But this, you and me, we'll go home someday. Mark? Right there. This is it. You're all fired. All of you! We're all unemployed. Mark, in this one here, sir. Anthony. Get it down. Right by me. All right! All right! Is anybody not here? All right. All right, I've got some good news and bad news. Oh, no, never mind. Never mind. All right, so... Make sure you can see the lens. All right. Stand by. Everyone ready? All looking into the camera, and say "bunny"! Back to work! Back to work, now! Back to work! Back to work! Back to work! Back to work! |
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