Unfortunately, Reggia Palace is also a popular tourist attraction, and could only be secured for a handful of shooting days—from the late afternoon and long into the night. Shooting in Reggia Palace was difficult for other reasons as well, primarily because we were shooting in anamorphic, Tattersall adds. The architecture there is almost entirely vertical, so composing shots that really took in the structures was sometimes hard, and we were limited in what we could do in there because it was a historic place.
In one key scene there, Queen Amidala and her assault team are pinned down by a platoon of Battle Droids within a vast corridor of polished stone. To escape, they blast though a large window and use grappling-type hooks to climb to the next level of the castle-like structure. Unfortunately, we couldnt get permission to use squibs—explosive charges—while shooting in Caserta, Tattersall says. But Gavin did a brilliant job of reconstructing that corridor from Reggia Palace back at Leavesden after we returned to England—for just one day of shooting. That let us blow chunks out of columns and shatter the windows, but it had to match what wed shot at Caserta.
Due to Tattersalls overall softlight approach, lighting such enormous spaces required immense wattage. Well, we did have a lot of power on hand, Tattersall jokes. But we usually just flew a series of 20' by 12' silk panels outside the set windows, and aimed Maxi-Brutes through them to create the softest sources possible.
In August, the production moved on to Tunisia. Shooting there was quite an anxious time, because I dont think anybody quite predicted how hot it was going to be, Tattersall begins. The temperatures were quite scary, photographically speaking, especially on the days when they got over 130F. My main concern was whether the film would actually melt in the camera. Wed tested the cameras during prep in Arri Medias climate-controlled box, letting them run for a day, but only at 120F.
On the set, we had a routine in which the film was kept in an air-conditioned storage truck and then very gradually brought up to temperature by transferring the cans into different vehicles kept at different temperatures. We hoped that would prevent condensation, warping, or whatever. Then, after exposure, the footage was quickly brought back to a reasonable temperature.
A seemingly simple sequence on set on Tatooine became one of the few occasions when the first unit used more than two cameras. It was a dawn sequence, in which Anakin is working on his podracer, Tattersall remembers. We actually shot it at sunset, so we could rehearse the scene all afternoon in full light, and then be prepared to shoot all of the required angles by rolling with 10 cameras at once, right at the magic moment when the sun was sitting on the horizon. We got two takes.
Aiding in Tattersalls work throughout the shoot was visual effects supervisor John Knoll, who acted as ILMs eyes and ears. In early preproduction, Gavin, John Knoll and I enjoyed a rather close collaboration, the cinematographer recounts. That was necessary because we all had to know what the bluescreen elements were going to be, and what ILM needed from us. In regard to the photography, it was a matter of referring to storyboards and any other visual reference material, and then establishing what might appear in the bluescreen later.
That was helpful when we were shooting the Jedi Council Chamber. The set was used in three scenes, each of which took place at different times of the day—daytime, sunset and nighttime. Because of the chambers huge floor-to-ceiling windows, a lot of planning went into both the lighting and bluescreen work. We had to find the best place to position the setting sun, and then determine how its light would work best for the drama of the scene. I would try to emulate that sort of lighting on the set, which ILM would match with their background plates.
On that set, we were able to make sure we had the 15' we needed between the bluescreens outside the windows and the lighting rail from which wed hang our pods of Jack Flos, Tattersall continues. The bluescreen almost totally surrounded the set, covering nearly 300 degrees. Also, those windows were quite large, and which would theoretically allow quite a lot of light to come into that room during the day. That was a difficult illusion to create, considering that the bluescreens obscured so much.
To get around them, the bluescreens were never hung directly from the the overhead lighting grid, but with at least a 4' gap between the two. Behind the bluescreens we had a catwalk, from which we lit through the windows of the Council Chamber—coming in from up high through that 4' gap between the screen and ceiling.
We had a lot of 9-light Mini-Brutes up there, along a rail surrounding the entire set. A diffusion screen was then placed in front, following the circumference of the lighting rig. Then, off to the side of the camera, we had other soft sources for fill, including a 12' by 20' silk screen with Maxi-Brutes behind it.
That was the basic setup, but we could use it to create all three of the looks we needed in the Council Chamber by adjusting the direction, color and contrast of the lighting. For instance, the daylight sequence was full, white, soft and high-key. The sunset effect was more contrasty, with a harder, lower key gelled with 12 CTO and some 14 CTB on the fill. The nighttime scene was then totally lit from practicals built into the set.
Another interesting situation in which we dealt with large bluescreens and interactive lighting came up while we were filming Anakins ship during the Podrace on Tattooine, Tattersall says, referring to the Ben-Hur-style contest that pits young Skywalker against his arch-nemesis, Sebulba. We shot that with [actor] Jake Lloyd sitting in a full-scale pod mockup, which was on a gimbaled rock n roll base. We had a map that showed the route of the race, so we knew when he would be flying across wide-open spaces with plenty of sunlight, though narrow canyons, under stone arches, and through tunnels. We then had to re-create the interactive lighting characteristics of those different areas on the race circuit, including nearby explosions caused by other pods crashing into canyon walls and so forth.
Eddie Knight and I came up with several different lighting rigs. One was just a full 20'-diameter circle that hung over Anakins pod on the motion base. Suspended from the circle on a track was a 5K, which could be swung around the pod to give the impression that Anakin was sailing around a corner. Another rig was built as an arch over the top of the pod; it was fitted with a rail so we could swing a 5K from being a left-side crosslight to a position where it became a right-side crosslight, which gave the impression that Anakin was swaying back and forth.
There were additional lighting cues running on dimmers, so we could switch from a soft toplight—suggesting flying over open ground—to a flashing, strobing quality that simulate flying through the arches. All of these effects were cued and ready, so George could simply call out, Now were going through the canyon! or Now somebody blows up or wherever else was needed.
Knowing that the entire film would be digitized allowed Tattersall a great degree of freedom to place lights in positions that might otherwise be in frame, but it was still a scary notion, because you can sometimes later inherit aberrations and color shifts that can create grading problems. The cameraman adds that having reference material taken from any given shot or sequence, before it is put through the digital effects phase, is vital to retaining the integrity of the original material.
Looking back on his experience in the Star Wars universe, Tattersall again credits the artists at ILM with completing what he and the principal production crew captured on film. Their contributions to this film were really colossal, and thats no exaggeration, he enthuses. Considering the number of individual effects artists of all kinds who worked on the film there, the picture has a stylistic unity thats truly exceptional.
