On Location: Part 3
Creative People Producing Creative Solutions

Summary by: Don Keefe

(Please note that the following comments are my opinions and speculations regarding the production of Episode II and do not necessarily reflect those of TheForce.net)

Well this is the third On Location video. Again I didn’t recognize the actress who introduces Ahmed, she is a Twi'lek alien though. Maybe this sheds some light on that last Select pic we saw on starwars.com. She appears to be in some kind of club or bar / possibly restaurant. It looks similar to the one seen in the background of the first On Location video. (See below). Since this has been in two videos so far it must play some significance in EP2. Maybe it will be like the famous cantina featured in “A New Hope”. However I don’t think they would have something like this on Tatooine, I think it would be on Coruscant or maybe another world we have yet to see. Check out the neon tube on the left.

The only person to be interviewed in this video, which is 3 minutes long, is Gavin Bocquet. Gavin was the Production Designer for Episode 1 and now is back for Episode 2. He says “coming back to work on Ep2 is like coming back to your second year of school”. His team works along with Doug Chiang, the art department, and the concept group to provide solutions for George Lucas. He turns the concepts and ideas into real world sets. Gavin and his team (which is around 40 people) are responsible for creating all the sets and props that appear behind and in front of the actors in the film.

He also says that when they initially started they were under the impression that this was going to be a smaller film. However there are about 25% more sets and many different environments and locations in EP2. The schedule for this film is also faster than it was for EP1. Gavin says “the look of the film will be mind-blowing”. 25% MORE than EP1, WOW! I think were going to be seeing some pretty cool things and places in the next film.

One thing that I really liked about Gavin was the fact that everyone on the team has input into the production. He takes ideas from a lot of different people to create the best production possible.

At the very end of this clip I think we see a piece of the set! It does not look like any film equip I have ever seen. My first thought is that this is a moisture evaporator used in moisture farming on Tatooine. It’s difficult to say though because the picture is not the best. I had to lighten and sharpen it as much as I could without distorting it. It could be part of a ship or building as well since it’s elevated about 5-6 feet off the ground.