This week George Lucas visited the set of the Mandalorian, Andi chats with Star Wars
Resistance’s Justin Ridge, plus so much more.
Big week, huh?
Was she a ghost the whole time?
This is The Star Wars Show.
From the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco here’s your hosts, Andi and Anthony!
Hello and welcome to the Star Wars Show, a show that is usually hosted by two people
but this week will be hosted by only one.
Because let’s get real, everybody needs some time off here and there.
Oh, that’s her right now.
Good luck, chump.
Thanks!
Let’s go to the news.
The Mandalorian, whose first season is currently in production had quite the visitor on set
last week for Executive Producer, Jon Favreau’s birthday.
George Lucas popped by to take a couple of photos with the birthday boy, as well as pull
in first episode director and Executive Producer Dave Filoni for another group shot.
Eagle eyed viewers will no doubt be wondering what set they’re on, given the accouterments
and tables in the background.
Is it a cantina, is it a Star Wars IHOP with a selection of 4 different space syrups, who knows!
Plus why is Filoni wearing a baseball hat instead of his trademark Stetson?!
Hmm?
These are the types of Star Wars questions that keep me up at night, and keep me moving the desk.
And it keeps director John very, very nervous because he hates when the desk winds up off
axis with the camera.
[Off Camera] Yup.
He’s very stressed right now.
[Off Camera] Yup.
Hasbro is introducing a newish set of figures in the Black Series line called The Archive Collection.
Think of them as a Greatest Hits collection of toys, featuring new photo-real digital
face printing tech, and new blister card packaging.
The figures include Anakin, Yoda with his cool roommate the snake, and a Scout trooper.
The Archive Collection will be available Spring 2019.
I’m just kidding.
I’ll fix it.
Finally this week, Lucasfilm is filled with interesting people doing interesting jobs
on interesting projects.
And since we’re in the building we decided to go visit one to find out how he put a little
bit of himself into Star Wars.
Enjoy!
[Laughing]
It’s still a very common practice for animators to have a mirror at their desk.
I have one at my desk right now.
[Laughing]
My name is Matthew Shumway and I’m an Animation Supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic.
Our job on the film is to take care of anything that is digital and moves.
It’s like a digital puppet.
We get handed a character and then frame by frame we’ll go through and pose the character
out until it comes to life and has a performance.
And once the director likes it it goes down the pipeline and gets finished and put into the movie.
I grew up when Disney was kind of having this Renaissance of films with Little Mermaid and
Beauty and the Beast.
And I just fell in love with that process.
I love the idea that you can take a drawing and then make it come to life.
What’s fun about animation is that we are dead center of screen more often than not.
The way we kind of sneak things in is through ourselves and recording reference of ourselves
doing something.
It’s really kind of cool to kind of get your bit into it.
And then your collected group puts out this character to the world and he becomes his own.
Every shot has a certain amount of reference to it.
It’s a big part of doing animation.
We have an animator acting room here in Industrial Light and Magic that is specifically for the
animators to go in with a camera and perform their scenes.
We’ll often get together and perform for each other.
It’s a wonderful reference tool because you can just grab your friends and get the
performance you want.
You can try different versions and shoot it with your phone and we use it on almost every shot.
Growing up and watching the Star Wars films I just fell in love with the creatures of Star Wars.
And to be able to contribute to that was just a huge bonus for me and I love it.
And for Solo there’s a character named Rio.
I really enjoyed working on him.
It’s a character that we spent a lot of time developing.
You will never have a deeper sleep then curled up in a wookiee’s lap.
We approached the animation a little different too.
It wasn't just our typical animation, make it look as real as possible.
In Star Wars you have to interact with some characters that are puppets, some that are digital.
So you don't want that divide to be too much so we wanted it to look like the most sophisticated
puppet that there could be.
Get off of my ship!
Like any artist there’s ups and downs but I have to say with this job you have to feel
fortunate to work in a place that allows you to be creative and express yourself in these
amazing giant movies to be apart of.
So fail a lot and fail with a smile because your going to fail a lot along the way.
But if it’s something that you really want to do and your passionate about it stick with it.
We all found our way here so don’t be afraid of it and learn from it and go for it.
[Porg sound]
Today we have Justin Ridge from Lucasfilm Animation.
You are the Supervising Director on Resistance.
Congratulations.
That’s a super fun show that just got going.
Thank you. Thank you.
But you’ve been with Lucasfilm for a little while now.
You started working here all the way back with Clone Wars through Rebels.
Could you tell me a little bit about how you came to be at Lucasfilm?
I started at Nickelodeon right after studying animation in college and I was on a show called
Fatherhood as a character designer.
And saw some sketches on the photocopier for the show called Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Never heard of it.
Yeah it’s kind of a rare show.
It’s very lost in the ages.
[Laughing]
But I knew I wanted to get on that show.
It looked fantastic.
So I submitted my portfolio, made up some fake storyboards, cause they didn’t have
a lot of storyboards back then.
Mhmm.
And sure enough became Assistant Director to Dave Filoni who was the first director
on the show.
We were on the very first episode of the series and continued through season 1 and he got
the call from George Lucas to go direct on Clone Wars.
And I’m like, okay that’s great.
See ya Dave.
Have fun time.
And I continue through season 2 on Avatar and he gives me a call.
He’s like padawan, you need to come up here.
I’m like okay, sure Dave.
Whatever.
And he’s like, no seriously.
You need to come up here to the ranch and check this out.
I brought my portfolio and one thing led to another and I actually got onto Clone Wars.
I started as a board artist and eventually made my way up to episodic director.
The first episode I directed was Rookies about the clones on the Rishi outpost.
That was a great experience and I kept in touch with Dave Filoni when Rebels was starting up.
He had me help him direct the first four shorts and I’ve just been kind of in the family ever since.
You’ve worked on all these different series that have very different looks, very different
storytelling styles.
How do you switch gears into a new project like that?
For me I’ve always found that if you have a solid filmmaking background then you can
adjust and customize, you know, accordingly.
I view animation as live action in super slow motion.
Your trying to make a product that feel improvised and fresh and in the moment but it’s taken
months, and months, and months to get to that finished product.
It’s really trying to keep that vision from the very beginning.
Like, okay, this is the end goal and let’s just keep that vision as strong as possible
through all the steps to get the end product.
Creating something like Resistance, cause it’s so different than Rebels.
You’re working with Jedi and the mystical elements of the galaxy and kind of switching
gears completely and working with normal people essentially.
It’s pilots and a very different type of world.
Could you tell me a little bit about developing that story?
It’s kind of nice because we’re able to tell this slice of life that’s happening
in a different part of the galaxy then we’ve seen before.
Mhmm.
That was the initiative for the show.
Let’s tell a story about a certain group of characters who are not Force sensitive
or any of that.
And how the First Order who is starting to gain momentum with their agenda.
How they get affected by them.
What’s been like the most fun part of taking that next direction or switching it up?
Sure.
I think stylistically it’s been a lot of fun going in a different direction.
Clone Wars and Rebels, they have a very different distinct look.
Which is great.
I think it fits that time frame really well.
But because we’re dealing with closer to Force Awakens it was a chance for us to try
something new.
One of the things that’s great about Resistance is that not only is it slightly lighter toned
but we still want it to feel grounded in reality.
Even though it’s a comedy the stakes are still high and it still feels like Star Wars.
And that was very important to us because we’re Star Wars fans.
We definitely want this to stay true to the canon and to, you know, everything the fans
have seen up to this point.
Right and I think fans kind of see the animated things and they’re like, oh it’s for kids,
this isn’t for me.
But I have been talking to older fans and they’re really having fun with it.
How do you strike that balance where it’s good for everyone?
Hopefully having strong characters.
I really feel like team Fireball and the Aces and the characters that you’ll soon meet.
They’re really interesting and I think audiences could really invest in them and really go
on the journey with them to see what happens.
You know, how they’re affected by the First Order.
So even though it is kind of lighter they still feel like real people.
We want them them to feel like real characters who are on this journey that we want audiences
to have fun exploring.
Awesome, I can’t wait to see how the rest of the season goes.
[Laughing]
Thanks for coming.
Cool, thank you.
Since next week is Halloween and there are no doubt lots of you out there preparing to
make kooky spooky Star Wars themed Jack-o-Lanterns, we thought it was a good idea to share your
creations with the rest of the group during the episode next week.
So slice up your favorite squash, snap a photo, and send it to us using the very good hashtag
#PorgGourd and we’ll feature our favorites here next week.
Also if you’re low on ideas, head on over to StarWars.com/Halloween.
We got you covered, fam.
Every time I say that I feel exactly as old as I am.
And as always, remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram, and party on, dudes.
Thanks for watching, and may the Force be with you.
Do you know who the real Halloween old ghost is?
It’s this man.
We used to have the Yoda fountain say, and much, much more.
But the extra much was too much, much.
Andi Gutierrez is healing up in a bacta tank after fighting a large bird for a sandwich.
This is my chance.
I can do an entire show by myself.
I have to vomit.
Oh, oh, oh, oh!
Share your careertions… share your careeersh.
This is like so many lines ahead of me AJ.
This is where I would say something that would make her angry with me.
If she doesn't have to show up why do I have to show up?!