Star Wars Episode I: Production Notes

In addition to the digital work done at ILM, Episode I's far-flung locales called for special sets and home bases for the production. To this end, the filmmakers took over Leavesden Studios in the United Kingdom, creating a virtual movie factory under its sprawling roof. The facility's 850,000 square feet were converted to ten stages and sixty sets, plus extensive areas for floor effects, special creature effects and costume manufacturing. It even had its own rigging and fire departments.

Leavesden, which was once a Rolls Royce aircraft engine factory and has the largest backlot of any studio in the world, truly was the ideal choice for the scale and rigors of much of the Episode I filming. "It's probably the best place I've ever made a movie," says Rick McCallum. "We were able to shoot and build at the same time, effortlessly and seamlessly."

Filming on Episode I began in Leavesden in the summer of 1997, almost three years after Lucas started writing and his design team started putting together initial concept drawings -- and a year since construction had begun on the sets. The production then moved to the Caserta Royal Palace near Naples, Italy, for scenes set in the Queen's palace on Naboo. Several other locations had been scouted, but the filmmakers agreed that the Caserta Royal Palace, one of Europe's most beautiful and elegant structures, would lend an important realism and authenticity to the sequences.

In the heat of summer, the Episode I team made what McCallum calls a "seismic" move to the edge of the North African Sahara -- Tunisia, home of the Tatooine scenes. Tunisia's distinctive traditional architecture once again adds exotic richness to the film's cultural tapestry, as it did over twenty years ago for Star Wars. The crew made minor changes at some locations, with only a little set dressing needed to complete the illusion of Tatooine in these otherworldly Berber structures.

For logistical reasons, this move and subsequent filming had to be done in July and August, the hottest months of the year in the sun-baked desert. Under average temperatures of 130 degrees Fahrenheit, the crew built not only the set of a large town, but also constructed a village that would serve nearly 200 members of the cast and crew.

One member of the production not only tolerated the heat, he actually seemed to thrive on it. "I loved its intensity," exclaims Ewan McGregor. "We were wearing about eight layers of clothing, kicking around the desert. It was extreme, but I enjoyed it."

The intense heat turned out to be only the first of the meteorological challenges facing the Episode I team in Tunisia. One late July evening, cast and crew watched with fascination and then alarm as lightning flashed over the desert sky, followed by a wall of sand that raced toward them. By the time the team had reached their hotels, heavy sheets of rain began pelting the sets.

The aftermath of this night storm gave the Tatooine set the feel of a post-tornado trailer park: Hundreds of costumes had been scattered across the desert, and various structures were twisted or even torn to shreds. Even some droids lay all about, broken and scattered like fallen soldiers on a battlefield.

Early on the morning after the storm, producer Rick McCallum arrived in the middle of the wreckage and immediately began finding ways to put the production back in order. Rather than lamenting the extensive damage, cast and crew were swept into brisk action under McCallum's lead and suddenly the impossible recovery began to seem possible. George Lucas took the main unit to find a relatively undamaged area where it could shoot. Costumes were dug out of the desert and cleaned while buildings and vehicles were repaired. Everyone provided help wherever needed and, miraculously, filming remained on schedule. Lucas himself provided perhaps the most hopeful assessment of what had been perceived as a devastating situation when he pointed out that the same thing had happened over twenty years ago on the set of the original Star Wars. Maybe, he reasoned, the fact that it happened again was a good omen.

The production then returned to Leavesden, where principal photography was completed in the early Fall. Months later, and well into the editing process, the massive studios again served as home base when the filmmakers came together for dialog dubbing sessions and pick-up shots, whose need was identified by Lucas' evolving rough cut.

Indeed, editing, which is Lucas' favorite part of filmmaking, took on an ever more exciting dimension, courtesy of ILM's digital technology. Lucas and his editors, Martin Smith and Ben Burtt, now enjoyed tremendous flexibility: They could actually create shots in the editing room by digitally cutting people and even locations out of one shot and moving them to another. "I could completely reconstruct and rewrite the story in the editing process," says Lucas.