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Back in July, Widescreen Review's Michael Coate and Shane Buettner attended a special day-long press event held by Lucasfilm Ltd and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment to promote the October 16 DVD release of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace." About two-dozen journalists from around the globe were invited to spend the day discussing and watching the "Episode I" DVD. Who could pass up such an invite?
Located in the town of Nicasio, safely secluded within the hilly Marin County, California confines of coincidentally named Lucas Valley, Skywalker Ranch is home of much of the Lucasfilm enterprise, including the company headquarters and Skywaker Sound. While the main entrance is guarded and with an unimposing street address, even die hard "Star Wars" fans would never know what lies beyond the main gate if stumbled upon by accident. Now if the posted address had been 1138 Lucas Valley Road, or something....
The Lucasfilm staff treated everyone with an appreciative dose of generosity, and the morning kicked off with a tour of the main Skywalker Ranch offices, followed by an introduction to the day's events by host and moderator Jim Ward, Lucasfilm's vice president of marketing. The visiting journalists, many traveling from as far away as Europe, were shown the popular Pod Race sequence from the film in one of Lucasfilm's screening rooms. This was designed to give everyone a sense of the visual and sonic quality of the DVD. Impressive! From there, the group was moved into a different screening room where Ward guided us through the DVD's vast supplements section. This was certainly one of the many highlights of the day's events. The guests were treated to the deleted scenes documentary and "The Beginning" documentary in their entirety, which many found to be a pleasant surprise given the nature of press events and customary practice of simply sampling materials. Without spoiling any surprises for fans, "The Beginning" may well be worth the price of the DVD alone! An assortment of hidden easter egg features, including humorous outtakes, were also displayed (naturally, without directions as to their location on the final DVD product).
From there, the group pilgrimaged over to the Lucasfilm Technical Services building, which houses the highly regarded Stag Theatre and Skywalker Sound mixing facility. After being treated to lunch, the group assembled in the theatre for the highlight event of the day: the "Q & A" session.
Upon the group anxiously filling up the front three rows or so of the theatre insuring a good view and enabling as much group interaction as possible, host Jim Ward moderated three separate Q & A sessions. First up, the group was treated to a session with "Episode I" film producer Rick McCallum. Next, a more technical session ensued with Van Ling, the "Episode I" DVD producer; Rick Dean, supervising engineer, THX; and Pablo Helman, visual effects supervisor, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). And last but not least, a half hour session with the Jedi Master himself, filmmaker and Lucasfilm chairman of the board, George Lucas.
What follows is a complete transcript* of the Q & A session. The transcript was supplied by Lucasfilm and is at times difficult to follow due to the nature of live speech. Certain passages have been crosschecked with WSR's recording of the event. No informational content has been altered, though selected passages have been edited for clarity. Enjoy!
*Note that the "Episode I" press event transcript currently posted on other DVD Web sites, while similar, is actually from a separately held press event. So please don't pass up an opportunity to read this thinking you've already done so elsewhere. The event Widescreen Review was invited to was intended for long-lead print press and was held in late-July. The event held for Web site coverage of DVDs was held in early September.
Click here to read Session One with Rick McCallum
Click here to read Session Two with Van Ling, Rick Dean and Pablo Helman
Click here to read Session Three with George Lucas
Click here to view the DVD's menus
Special thanks to Lucasfilm Ltd. and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Our DVD review of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" is posted here.
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