{"id":7562,"date":"2019-05-19T17:39:05","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T00:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=7562"},"modified":"2019-05-21T12:36:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T19:36:25","slug":"see-the-phantom-menace-brought-to-life-in-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/see-the-phantom-menace-brought-to-life-in-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"See \u2018The Phantom Menace\u2019 Brought To Life In \u2018The Beginning\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among decades of disposable DVD extras and supplemental Blu-ray curiosities, there\u2019s one 66-minute documentary that towers far above most: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Beginning<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Directed by Jon Shenk, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0354408\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Beginning: Making Episode I<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a fly-on-the-wall look behind the curtain of Lucasfilm and its renowned visual-effects studio, Industrial Light &amp; Magic. The 2001 doc follows filmmaker George Lucas from 1997 to \u201999, as he sets out to try and recapture the audacious vision of his original 1977 triumph, once known simply as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Phantom Menace<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which went by the working titles of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Episode One<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Beginning<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at various stages of production, takes place more than 30 years before the first <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It depicts the legendary Jedi Knights, a teenage queen, and a young slave boy who\u2019s destined to grow up and become the monstrous Darth Vader. The first theatrical <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> release since <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Return of the Jedi<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 16 years prior, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Menace<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> became one of the most anticipated films in history \u2014 a cultural event carrying the weight of impossible expectations. Naturally, <em>Episode I<\/em> left critics divided and older audiences disappointed. It was a very different <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> movie than the ones they\u2019d experienced as children or as adolescents, and its director (who hadn\u2019t received a directing credit on the series since \u201977) was perhaps a different artist: a little older, divorced, doing his best to be a good father while keeping his entertainment empire afloat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/da8s9m4zEpo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every time I revisit <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Beginning<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, my favorite DVD \u201cspecial feature,\u201d I\u2019m struck by the sheer Herculean effort that went into making Lucas\u2019s most controversial film, and by the man himself. Whatever you think of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Phantom Menace<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0or the prequel trilogy as a whole, there\u2019s no disputing the spectacular artistry and technical innovations it made possible. And for many of us who grew up with the second <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> trilogy as well as the first, <em>Episode I<\/em> seems only to get better with age.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">about<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Lucas the man? He\u2019s a filmmaker who comes from an experimental background; the style he honed in film school has less to do with the work of his contemporaries and more to do with cin\u00e9ma v\u00e9rit\u00e9, or the \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masterclass.com\/articles\/what-is-cinema-verite-in-filmmaking#the-history-of-cinema-verite\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cinema of truth<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d Consider <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">American Graffiti<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">THX 1138<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or the films he made as a student: they\u2019re the cinematic equivalent of found poetry. And, in fact, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Beginning<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a perfectly suitable example of this type of documentary filmmaking. At <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Celebration in Chicago last month, Lucasfilm chief creative officer John Knoll recalled that Lucas had a film crew present for nearly every major meeting during <em>Episode I<\/em>\u2019s production. The artists and modelmakers at ILM got so used to cameras being around, he said, that the feature \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.starwars.com\/news\/swcc-2019-9-highlights-from-the-ilm-model-shop-panel\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tells a very truthful story<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the film\u2019s second scene, we find Lucas reviewing storyboards for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Phantom Menace<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, of which there were reportedly 3,500 in total. (A fresh-faced Knoll is also present.) Lucas holds a pink highlighter in his right hand; in his left, one blue and one yellow. He begins scribbling directly on each of the storyboards, using the yellow marker to denote computer-generated imagery and the pink marker to establish which parts of the image will be achieved with actors, practical models and props, and physical sets. Rick McCallum, the film\u2019s producer, appears stoic and confident as he watches the director work. The ILM employees surrounding them are visibly nervous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eventually, inevitably, Lucas draws with the wrong color. He lets out a groan, and the room erupts with laughter. \u201cI was getting so good at my ability to do this,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this point, the essential problem with Lucas\u2019s grand vision has nothing to do with the film\u2019s political backdrop or the \u201cwooden dialogue\u201d the reluctant writer-director is famous for. Rather, the great challenge is rendering the imagery the director has in his head in a way that\u2019ll look convincing on the big screen. His ambitions are lofty; Lucas wants to make <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3DqanxfecIA\" data-rel=\"lightbox-video-0\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">War and Peace<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in space \u2014 to populate his third-act battlefield almost entirely with CGI creatures, droids, and vehicles. Using technology pioneered on landmark films like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Abyss<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jurassic Park<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he hopes to push digital filmmaking to the furthest extreme imaginable, all the while maintaining the naturalistic look and feel of the previous <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> films. Knoll offers an understatement: \u201cWe don\u2019t have a real good way of doin\u2019 that right now.\u201d This gets more laughs. Still, the director\u2019s confident they\u2019ll pull it off.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lucas is prone to self-deprecation. In describing his methodology to assistant director Chris Newman, for instance, he says, \u201cIf I forget to say \u2018action\u2019 or \u2018cut,\u2019 just step in and say \u2018action\u2019 or \u2018cut.\u2019 I manage \u2018action\u2019 and \u2018cut,\u2019 and \u2018faster\u2019 and \u2018more intense.\u2019 And then mostly I sit there looking miserable and quiet.\u201d In a later exchange, shooting on location in Tunisia, Lucas checks in with Ahmed Best, the actor playing the amphibious alien Jar Jar Binks: \u201cHow are you doing?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m hot,\u201d says Best. \u201cBut I\u2019m <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cool<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 if you know what I\u2019m sayin\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lucas tells him, \u201cI wish I could say the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-7566\" src=\"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/star_wars-_the_phantom_menace-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/star_wars-_the_phantom_menace-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/star_wars-_the_phantom_menace-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/star_wars-_the_phantom_menace-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/star_wars-_the_phantom_menace-500x282.jpg 500w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/star_wars-_the_phantom_menace-1080x608.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/star_wars-_the_phantom_menace.jpg 1296w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When casting director Robin Gurland presents the director with three finalists for the role of Anakin Skywalker, the young child who will grow up to be Vader, each of the boys is given a screen test opposite Natalie Portman, who\u2019s been cast as Queen Amidala of Naboo. One of the boys gives a fairly lackluster audition; another gives a fabulous one. Jake Lloyd, a lesser-known eight-year-old actor from Colorado \u2014 who played Arnold Schwarzenegger\u2019s son in the Christmas film <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jingle All the Way<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 brings something raw, unpracticed, but deeply authentic to the part.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOne is gonna move the production along a lot faster, and the other one, I\u2019m gonna have to just do a zillion takes and then cut the performance,\u201d Lucas tells design director Doug Chiang. \u201cBut the performance sort of rises way above the other one, because it\u2019s so unpredictable, and it\u2019s kind of unstudied.\u201d Lloyd signs his contract on June 6, 1997.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">True to his cin\u00e9ma-v\u00e9rit\u00e9 roots, Lucas eschews the easy route in favor of what he hopes will be a more remarkable end product. \u201cI became fascinated with editing,\u201d he <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taschen.com\/pages\/en\/catalogue\/film\/all\/01170\/facts.the_star_wars_archives_19771983.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recalled recently<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of his years at USC\u2019s film school. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018This is where the film is made. It\u2019s about these moving images and how they intercut. It\u2019s really the editing process that is the heart and soul of a movie.\u2019\u201d It\u2019s little surprise, then, to learn that Lucas prefers to do as much directing as possible in post-production.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s an especially touching moment in the documentary where the realities of this philosophy are laid bare. During the filming of a quiet dinner-table scene with Anakin (Lloyd), Queen Amidala (Portman), Jar Jar (Best), Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Anakin\u2019s mother, Shmi (Pernilla August), Lloyd flubs the pronunciation of a planet name \u2014 \u201cCoruscant\u201d \u2014 and Lucas yells cut. The other, more experienced actors appear frustrated, though they\u2019re trying their best to hide it. Lucas stands at Lloyd\u2019s side, giving a fatherly smile of encouragement as he asks that Lloyd try the scene again, this time ignoring the prop food in front of him. \u201cIf you mispronounce it, it\u2019s okay,\u201d Lucas says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo. Everybody\u2019ll start laughing!\u201d says Lloyd.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lucas puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and everyone in the room assures the boy that that won\u2019t happen. You can\u2019t help but feel for him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Beginning<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the story of a visionary genius making what many consider to be his worst picture. It includes such other highlights as Ewan McGregor, newly cast as the young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, getting a haircut while Lucas and his children watch and offer commentary. (Katie Lucas, who will go on to write for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> television, retrieves a lock of McGregor\u2019s hair from the floor. \u201cHow \u2019bout <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> much?\u201d she asks, to which Lucas replies: \u201cThat\u2019s fine. Don\u2019t get any more.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another odd through line is the $100,000 rubber suit worn by Ahmed Best in the role of Jar Jar. Ultimately, the suit never once appears on-screen; the character is entirely digital. When Lucas deems this an obvious waste of money, effects supervisor John Knoll counters with the fact that it serves as a valuable tool for ILM, providing a reference for both the actor\u2019s performance and the way lighting hits the costume in the context of each shot. If you want to learn about the nuts and bolts of moviemaking, this stuff is an endless source of fascination.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The documentary ends sometime after <em>Episode I<\/em>\u2019s premiere, with Lucas sitting quietly at his desk. In a binder full of notebook paper, he scrawls four lines in pencil: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star Wars. Episode II. Fade in. Space.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Among decades of disposable DVD extras and supplemental Blu-ray curiosities, there\u2019s one 66-minute documentary that towers far above most: The Beginning. Directed by Jon Shenk, The Beginning: Making Episode I is a fly-on-the-wall look behind the curtain of Lucasfilm and its renowned visual-effects studio, Industrial Light &amp; Magic. The 2001 doc follows filmmaker George Lucas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":7594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,61],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-7562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-star-wars","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7562"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7593,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions\/7593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}