On Location: Part 13
Ready For My Digital Close-up Mr. Lucas

Summary by: Don Keefe

(Please note that the following comments are my opinions and speculations regarding the production of Episode II and do not necessarily reflect those of TheForce.net)

Again this On Location clip was introduced by an extra at the bar / restaurant on Coruscant. The beginning of this clip is kind of interesting for a couple of reasons. One being that you can see other extras on either side of the girl introducing the clip. The guy on the right is in a green pleated robe and the 7 ft guy on the right looks like he?s wearing some kind of brown jacket. Are these citizens of Coruscant? The other is the neon tube again in the background as we saw earlier in On Location # 3.

Ahmed: Ahmed Best here, here at www.starwars.com for the World Wide Web. That?s right you saw it, you heard it, you feel it we have somebody that?s really cool for us to interview. Somebody really cool for you to click on to special effects, really important, please introduce yourself and tell us what you do.

During this two minute and five second On Location clip, Ahmed interviews one of the camera operators working on Episode II.

Ahmed: On the set of Episode II with one of the most important guys, the cameraman. Could you please introduce yourself and tell us what you do?
Calem: I?m Calem McFarland, camera operator.
Ahmed: He makes sure the camera is ok, so you can see everything ok on the big screen.

Ahmed: Now these cameras are different then the ones you normally use?
Calem: Yes they are and we?re still getting use to them.
Ahmed: What?s the differences between these and the cameras you normally use?
Calem: With a regular camera you can look through the eyepiece and you can see through the lens optically. With these cameras you see a video image in the viewfinder.

Calem: Also instead of having a film magazine on top of the camera, the film is stored digitally.
Ahmed: So what are the advantages of shooting digitally?
Calem: Mostly post production. When they have to do CG and backgrounds, especially for a shot like this, it?s a lot easier if it?s in the digital realm.

(Especially for a shot like this? Hmmm. What scene could they be filming? (see at the bottom) )

Ahmed: What are the disadvantages of shooting in digital?
Calem: We have yet to find out. We?ll find out real soon.
Ahmed: What?s the hardest thing to adapt to?
Calem: I can?t see as much through the viewfinder as I normally could.

Ahmed: I see you have a side mounted video camera. Does this help you?
Calem: Yes. It?s in color and this viewfinder on the main camera is in black and white. Sometimes it?s hard to pick things out in a dense crowd scene like we did on the street the other week.

Interesting. The shot involved picking someone out of a crowd. Could be anything, but still interesting.

Ahmed: How long do you think it will be before all film cameras are digital?
Calem: I don?t know, maybe 5 years.
Ahmed: Five years everything straight to post-production.

Ahmed: This is Ahmed Best www.starwars.com. Peace out.

(This is the end of the interview, but if you want to see something really cool read on.
If you can go back and view the clip again, look at this part of the screen while you watch.)

(During the beginning and again towards the end you can see in the monitor a scene being played. This is the footage they must have shot before this interview and they are replaying it. If you look really closely you can see Anakin?s (Hayden Christensen) head. It looks like the scene that TFN mentioned a couple of months ago involving a possible chase scene through Coruscant in this vehicle shown in this select picture from the starwars.com website:)

If you look closely you can see Anakin?s head moving and you can see some sort of yellow cockpit that he?s in. Calem mentioned in this video that there are a lot of CG and background visual effects involved. I believe this to be the scene of Anakin and possibly another flying through Coruscant. Another clue to this is if you watch the video at one point during the clip you can see a type of strobe light being used near the left of the frame behind the camera. This is used to simulate the lights of buildings flashing by. It?s used typically in movies and television where a person is driving a car at night to simulate other cars headlights driving by.