Page 129 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2020)

THERE’S A COMMON MISCONCEPTION THAT THE VISUAL EFFECTS FOR THE PREQUEL TRILOGY

WERE EXCLUSIVELY DIGITAL. WHILE IT’S TRUE THAT VIRTUALLY EVERY FRAME OF THOSE FILMS

PASSED THROUGH A COMPUTER, THE MYTH PERSISTS AND ROBS THE BRILLIANT ARTISANS

WHO WORKED ON THE PREQUELS OF THEIR DUE. BRYAN YOUNG TALKS TO THREE OF THE

MODEL MAKERS AND ARTISTS BEHIND THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF THE PREQUEL TRILOGY

TO DISCOVER JUST HOW OFTEN THEY BLEW OUR MINDS WITH THEIR STUNNING VISUALS.

teve Gawley worked as a model Phantom Menace has 2,000, so that’s many “I was told that we made more models in
builder on the original Star times larger. On Episode I, we had five the third film alone than the entire original

Wars trilogy, and his resumé crews shooting miniatures at one time and trilogy combined. They were mainly
beyond that reads as a who’s we had 95 model makers.” building spaceships, and they could use
Swho of all your favorite films: Don Bies is a name you might recognize the same spaceships over and over again.

Jurassic Park, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, as one of those model makers. He worked They only had to build four versions of the
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back to the in the model shop for the prequels, but Millennium Falcon. The Death Star was a
Future, and the Indiana Jones trilogy to he was also the man in charge of R2-D2 very simple model. For the prequels, we
name just some. When the prequels went on those films and was tasked with were building entire environments. We

into production Gawley was a supervisor in handling the Lucasfilm archives from were building all of Theed City, the Mos

the Industrial Light & Magic model shop. 1988 to 1996. The mockumentary R2-D2: Espa arena, Tipoca City, and a lot of the
Speaking about the difference in practical Beneath the Dome was his brainchild. Geonosis landscape and environments
effects between the trilogies, he says, He was on set for most of the prequels, there. The podrace alone had a number
“A New Hope had 350 effect shots, The operating R2 and performing other tasks. of models that were built; there was the

INSIDER 129