Editor's Note: Odds are that our newest contributor, Dave Filoni, needs no introduction. But in the name of being fair, we'll introduce him all the same: Dave Filoni is the Supervising Director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and a regular face at Star Wars fan events and screenings. He also likes hockey. A lot. While he has appeared in this blog before, we're excited to have him as a contributor. We'll let him tell you the rest himself: read on for his first post!
Hello, Star Wars Fans. As the Supervising Director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I am hoping to give you weekly updates on this blog, which will take you inside the production of Season 5 and beyond. I know your first question now is "what's the beyond?", but let's not worry about that just yet. Season Five promises to contain our biggest and most consequential episodes to date, so get ready, because starting at Comic Con things are going to get pretty spoiler-heavy. I've got some eye opening sequences to share with you this weekend, and if you like what you see at our panel Saturday then you better make the trip to Celebration VI in Orlando, because I'm going to show you a whole lot more.
I was working on my painting for the special pass holders at CELEBRATION VI this week. I just got a finished version sent in and I'm waiting to see a print of it to check the color balance, line quality etc. By the way, Kilian Plunkett and I looked at a character design this morning. It was a new version of a fan favorite, but looking quite different than before. Anyway, at some point I have to finalize what clips I'm going to show at Celebration. I have some ideas, but it's always hard to balance between showing you guys too much and not enough.
I just remembered I have some additional scenes to shoot for an upcoming episode. It's an important scene for Anakin and Ahsoka and I like to block and shoot those personally allot of the time. I'll have to get to that next week. It's one of my favorite moments, really: Daniel Arkin who wrote "Heroes on both Sides" wrote the scene and it turned out great. There's no way I could show it at Celebration, though. Maybe something more... Death Watchy?
On to Comic Con. I've been getting constant updates from Seth Green, Tom Root, and Matt Senreich about the cool new stuff going on at Comic Con, so I know what I want to do and see when I hit the ground running tomorrow. And of course, there are the costumes. I can't wait to see what people have been up to this year. I'm hoping for a Bo Katan or two, maybe a Krell, but that would be a big project. I have a wall at work dedicated to fans wearing Clone Wars costumes. I think it's really inspiring for the crew to see the amazing attention to detail that fans of every age put into these costumes. If you've got a Clone Wars Costume, please come to the panel Saturday. I know Friday is Star Wars day and most of you will wear Star Wars costumes then, but I couldn't get down to Comic Con on Friday this year, so if you can wear it to the panel, please do. I'd love to see it.
Here is the info on the panel:
Saturday, July 14th: 2:00-3:00 Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Onto Season 5-The aftermath of season 4 has left the Star Wars galaxy a very dangerous place: Darth Maul is alive, Asajj Ventress is a bounty hunter, and the Mandalorian Death Watch is deadlier than ever. How will these threads continue in season 5 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Find out in this behind-the-scenes panel, which will feature new clips, new insights, and more. Join the discussion with supervising director Dave Filoni and head writer Matt Michnovetz (who wrote season 4's powerful Umbara arc). Moderated by Star Wars author Pablo Hidalgo. Room 6DE
That reminds me, my friend and current head writer Matt Michnovetz will be on the panel with me this year. This is his first time on a Star Wars panel so everyone go easy on him. No Quadinaros questions.
Lastly, I plan on really trying to show you guys what the Animation division is like. I keep looking around my office thinking of something to post, so I decided on a picture of my door. This is my door: the door to the office where much of the Clone Wars series begins and ends. There's tons of cool things inside ( a fantastic Plo Koon collection) and many other things you cannot see... for now. So here is the gateway, enjoy, I don't think there is anything spoiler-ific about my door, but you never know. See you guys.