George Lucas' Episode Zero Set Diary

The feeling was good on the set today. All of my technicians were super pumped, majorly stoked. I arrived in the small green box to see the actor being loaded into the Emotional Gearing Device [EGD] ready for shooting. Keira Knightley has really grown as an actress and as a beautiful woman and as a trooper since we worked together a decade ago. In her diaphanous gown, she looked remarkable hanging face down 8.3 feet above the ground with thin but powerful manacles around her waist and arms linked to the robotic limbs and with the camera-invisible plastic face mask clamped on tight.

I got the feeling she wanted to throw me a thumbs up so I gestured thumbs up to the right arm guy, he pushed the thumbs up button and voila, nanoseconds later a perfect thumbs up from the arm of Ms. Knightley. And Reggie, my guy, he even threw in a smile. He's worked with me for fifteen years so he knew that was okay.

There are a number of misconceptions about the EGD. This is not about me thinking I know better than my actors, okay? This is me doing what directors do which is bring actors to their very best. The issue is this: CGI is fast improving, but no matter how lifelike we make a Jar Jar Binks, there's always a noticeable difference in motility and expressiveness between the human and the artificial actors. In some scenes it's as noticeable as the matte effects in the laserdisc edition of the Battle of Yavin (!)

We struggled and struggled to make it up but in the end we said, “scrogg it, there has to be another way.”

I was playing with an old Chevy when it came to me. The issue was resolution mismatch. And if there was a limit to how high we could take the emotional resolution of the CGI actors the solution was simple. Down-Rez the emotions of the human actors.

I'd subconsciously been doing it before, of course, when I cast Natalie Portman as the lynchpin of the first prequel trilogy. But I needed to do it in a systematic and programmable manner.

My guys came up with a beaut. Silent pistons, tiny pneumatic face pumps, even a way of slowing the actors heart rate and blood pressure down to a point where their essential humanity stands alone.

People are going to love this.

—-

People always said to me, Kid, when are you going to do a movie for adults?And they had a point I do concede. I really had the children in mind when I made the first prequel trilogy. That was why I included things like the massacre of the younglings so that children could feel more personally involved with the Genocide of the Jedi. Steve did something similar with Schindler's.

So this time I felt I owed it not only to myself but to my adult followers to touch on more adult themes that I had touched upon in my earlier work. That's why the centerpiece, both emotionally and technically in Episode 0 is the impregnation of Schmi Skywalker by the midichlorian infection.

Now you see why I HAD to get Keira. What other young actress of her generation could pull off a scene where the majority of the action takes place in her womb?

Even with the assistance of the EGD the answer is ‘none.'

—

Shooting was going well. KK is a Brit so she works like a brickie, swears like a soldier and takes a drip feed like a dream. She was hanging while we programmed in the moment where the unbearable itching begins when I got a call coming in from Steve. I knew that he was working on those Tintin movies with Peter Jackson, so I assumed he was having problems and needed my advice so I picked up.

I was surprised that instead he was just chatting about the weather, Francis' new red wine, how great Dame Helen Mirren was etc.

“He's screwed up bad, hasn't he? Well don't worry, I can take a break from this. I can be out there tomorrow. He can keep a credit, I know he did his best. Let's get the old team back together.”

Here followed what I think a lot of people would call an awkward silence. I've never understood that phrase: silence is the natural state of the universe. It's noise that's awkward.

He told me things were going great with Jackson. He went on and on about that. Steve never knows when to stop. Have you see A.I.?

“Okay I get it, look I have Keira Knightley hanging from my ceiling. Pass on my best wishes to Peter and tell him he did a great job shrinking those people down to hobbits because no, no one had ever thought of doing that before. No, we all just struggled with our terrible, terrible scary dwarves and midgets.”

I went back out. Keira's gown was wet with sweat but she still smiled. That was a bug.

“KK. I have an idea for a different direction. Cut her down.”

That night I called my top midget, Sir Kenny Baker.

“Kenny. You ever play a germ?”