"Episode I" Press Conference July 27, 2001 Skywalker Ranch (left to right) Van Ling, Rick Dean, Pablo Helman

Session Two with Van Ling, Rick Dean and Pablo Helman

Jim Ward: Okay, at this point I would like to bring out three other folks here that we have with us today. I would like to introduce them one by one. The first person is somebody that obviously we have just been talking about, the producer of the DVD, a gentleman by the name of Van Ling who has been responsible for some of the major DVD productions that you guys have seen and probably have run across him before. Van, come on up. [applause] Van is always working and he brings with him his briefcase everywhere he goes! The next person I would like to introduce to you is Rick Dean. Some of whom have met him earlier on. Rick was the supervising engineer on the entire DVD process and THX certification. [applause] And finally, Pablo Helman. Pablo was the Special Effects Supervisor on all those wonderful deleted scenes that you saw earlier. [applause] Okay, a lot of you guys were asking me a lot very technical questions before. These are the guys that can answer all of those and certainly Pablo can tell you what kind of experience he had in helping to create those deleted scenes.

Question: I have a question for Van Ling. Did you include the new THX trailer on the DVD?

Van Ling: Well, actually, I can turn that over to Rick to discuss.

Rick Dean: That's a new cavalcade trailer we call it. That's going to be appearing on our theatrical circuit as well as future DVD releases as a standard THX logo.

Ward: We didn't show that specifically. I am not sure that we can go back now and do that but you will see it certainly on the check disc, and it is out right now in U.S. theatres.

Dean: Yes, you can see it in any THX-certified theatre. You can enjoy it in its full glory there as well as on the disc.

Question: Will the feature play in 6.1?

Dean: The feature is in 6.1, yes. ["6.1" playback derived from a Dolby Digital Surround EX 5.1-encoded master.]

Question: I am curious about the THX logo. Does it have a dedicated rear center?

Dean: Yes it does. Within the Surround EX format, it does.

Question: I was just wondering if there was going to be a DTS-encoded "Episode I" DVD? There has been no mention of it in the press pack. I was under the impression that there would be a DTS release.

Ling: I think that's actually a question for Rick or Jim.

Ward: Guys, clearly there is a lot of material on these discs, but as we were compiling [the materials], we had to make certain priorities in terms of preserving bit rates on the quality of the images and things that we had. We just had to make some tough choices when it came down to it. Unfortunately, a DTS track is not going to be included on this.

Question: So there might be another release in the future with a DTS track?

Ward: There are no plans for that right now.

Question: What about releasing the disc as a DVD-18? Why was the decision taken not to use the DVD-18 format that was used for "T2"?

Ling: I think the answer to that is a couple of issues. We had done that on "T2" via Artisan because they wanted to try that format out and use it. And I think what they found was that, although it's a great thing to be able to say we have all of it on one disc, the manufacturing yields on DVD-18 is not as robust which means it costs more to do them as "18"s, number one. Number two: if you have a defective side, you have defective disc. As opposed to having two discs and if one is defective, you can have it easily replaced. And I know that on "T2" they actually had to go half of the run on DVD- 9s because WAMO in Pennsylvania was the only facility that could manufacture 18's. And as such, they couldn't keep up with the demand. We knew that on this title we would have a fairly voluminous demand for the disc and we wanted to make sure that manufacturing got the most discs done and got them out, and it also gave us the opportunity to treat each disc as its own entity and really focus it that way rather than say, "Oh we can't do anything until we get both sides together, and we can't even make a disc until we start putting things together." So those were some of the issues.

Question: I have a question about the THX optimizer, would that be on the PAL version too?

Dean: Yes it will. This will be tailored more so for the European market for this. We found it a very big benefit last year when we released a title in France. How much the public appreciated being able to reference even just contrasting light settings, this we think is a very important thing.

Question: Will the special features be enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions?

Ling: Virtually all of the material on the disc is enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions. The only things that I believe that are strict 4:3 are the TV spots, the domestic TV spots understandably, and I believe the music video. All of the rest of the material was done 16:9 anamorphic, enhanced for widescreen.

Ward: Okay, the next question.

Question: I would like to ask a weird question about the mastering process. Did you use digital or did you go back to the original [film] elements?

Dean: We went back to the original elements mainly because they were more tailored for a CRT. You know, what goes into a digital cinema environment is not the same imagery that we use for the CRT display. So it was best to go ahead and use the existing high-def elements for that.

Question: Van, about your animated menus, did you come up with the concept for these and how different was the process for doing the menus for this?

Ling: Well, I think the process is similar. I did come up with the menu scheme, but I have to say I was, as with the other titles, inspired by the universe that it came in. I am a huge "Star Wars" fan and so it was a great opportunity to try to contribute to that. In terms of developing menus, Jim Ward gave me an opportunity to come up with some ideas and stuff. And, again, I take my inspiration from the series of films and specifically from "Episode I." My goal is always to enhance the presentation of the film itself. Somebody once said that the film is the jewel and everything around it is kind of the setting for that jewel to help highlight that. So my goal has always been to sort of bring you into the environment and get you into the spirit for the film.

Ward: Pablo, when we went through this process there were a lot of interesting aspects to what happened along the way to the deleted scenes and a lot of things that I think that you actually brought to the table in terms of adding value that was originally just in the animatic work. Can you give us an example of that?

Pablo Helman: Well, it was an interesting process, because I found out about the material that we were going to put together through VHS that George sent. He had a bunch of animatics, about 217 shots that were very cool animatic way, he described what he wanted in every one of those shots. We got together and at some point at first, I was watching the VHS in my home. I just pour a glass of wine when I look at the DVD and I started pouring more wine because it was very difficult for me to think of how we were going to do this. So it took about six months of work for ILM just to put all that together. Some of the things we had to deal with when we were doing the DVD was that the animatics were pretty rough and the content was there, for instance, for the pod race, how say, Anakin loses a cable and how he puts it back on and how that extra lap comes together. Lots of things were left open for us to figure out. So we thought it might be a better idea for us to work as a group, let's say about 20 people or so, to have these sessions where we would basically figure out how we were going to solve all those things. Sometimes we would talk to George about it and sometimes we would present ideas that were a little odd. Actually George encouraged us to come up with things that normally could not be done on the schedule of "Episode I" or just to explore a little bit the content and the characters. It was a great experience.

Ward: Tell us specifically about a favorite.

Helman: Oh, there was a creature in the pod race. He never completes the race, so he starts the race and four engines blow up. So we were thinking about looking at the animatic in the pre-pod race where we introduce all these different characters, there was a shot of Ben Quadinaros. So, remembering that he never completes a race, we thought maybe he should be reading a manual right next to his pod. George looked at it and shook his head -- what did we do? So he says, "You know, in the 'Star Wars' universe there is no paper or manuals, so put a laptop right there." So it was really a great experience to talk to George about what the "Star Wars" universe is and how he comes up with all these ideas and where they come from.

Question: How many units of the DVD will be shipped?

Ward: We haven't made the decision yet.

Question: Can you give us a ballpark?

Ward: No, but we are literally working with our partners at 20th Century Fox trying to figure it out right now. If you have any ideas, let us know. [laughter] How many do you think we should ship?

Question: I've got a question for Pablo. How much of a difference did two years of advances in computers and software make to actually creating the deleted scenes?

Helman: Actually, a lot. One of the reasons why the waterfall sequence wasn't in the first film was because it was very difficult to put together. Besides the fact you had a little bit of a story detour right there. But the fact that he took out the sequence, it was going to be very, very difficult to make the water look like water. By the time "Episode I" went out, this was about two years after, we actually came up with a way to do this whole waterfall sequence in about four weeks. By the way, we worked out the solution, a resolution that we knew we had to cut back to back to the original film so it was pretty hard. So a lot of advances have been made in computers. And, of course, ILM has a huge R&D team that works basically around the clock to come up with new ways of doing things.

Question: Pablo again, I would like to ask you, given those advances, will animatronics become obsolete?

Helman: Oh, the animatronics, OK, I really do think that there is a sense of beauty to those. There is a lot of craft that gets put into animatronics and some of what we are trying to do in computers emulate those ways of animating, those ways of communicating in a digital way. So I am taking it beyond. Maybe I am making a character that you have never seen walk around or run around specifically because an animatronic version of it, you couldn't do it. In digital now we can. But we really respect all that heritage. Without that we couldn't have done what we are doing right now.

Question: I was wondering a little bit about the sound and music for those, have you composed some specific music for the deleted scenes or did you use some that John Williams had composed for the original movie that wasn't used or how was that done?

Ward: I guess I will take that. The sound design was all done by Ben Burtt. Obviously, he is the man when it comes to that. The music was really put together by John Williams. I don't recall that there was actually any re-scoring per se, but the existing compositions were worked into those sequences themselves.

Question: About the link to starwars.com, do you really need the DVD to access that? How does this work and what does it require?

Ward: What it requires is for you to have a DVD-ROM system capability on you PC. You can insert the DVD that will then allow you access to a special place on the starwars.com site that no one else can get to. So you do need the DVD to do that.

Question: Have you changed any shots?

Ward: The only thing that we confirmed that's different is the Air Taxi sequence that has been reincorporated. The rest you are just going to have to go check out yourself.

Question: Did you do anything special to avoid piracy on the disc when it comes out?

Ward: Well, that is always a huge concern of ours. One of the things that we do is collapse the launch schedule as such so we don't go out in the U.S. and then hit the rest of the world much, much later. So we condensed that as best we possibly can to prevent that. As far as encoding issues and things like that I will turn that over to you guys.

Dean: The most modern technologies have been applied to the discs. Of course, if you talk too much about security measures, they aren't security anymore.

Ling: Actually there is one thing that you should remember is that the best way to fight piracy is quality. A lot of people don't really realize that the best way to fight piracy is to put out a quality product that there is no substitute for. And that is what we really tried to do with this disc. And that I think is really an important issue.

Ward: I would like to say that we apologize that Jon Shenk, director of "The Beginning" documentary, couldn't join us today. We can set up special interviews with him through our publicity office if you would like. Or if you have questions now, I can certainly answer those for you as best as I can.

Question: Did you consider putting an isolated music track on the DVD?

Ward: We did think about that. A lot of things come into play. One: bit budgets. I am over here dreaming of all this stuff and Van was very good at schooling and disciplining all of us at Lucasfilm about the maintenance of what he just talked about -- quality -- and to prioritize what you need to have from a quality standpoint. Also, to be quite honest with you, the soundtrack is available on CD and you could purchase it that way.

Ling: That is something actually to keep in mind that this disc is also within the context of a lot of other things and some people may think, "Oh well, why isn't this on here," "Why is that on here?" It's because they are already available, and rather than just duplicating material, we felt it was important to try to put things on the disc that were unique like the Making-Of, like the deleted scenes; things that you couldn't get anywhere else. I think that was one of the driving forces behind the content that was put on the disc and frankly, if you have ever listened to an isolated soundtrack that is a track to the movie, what you will often find, is that there is a lot of blank space and there is a cue, and then there is another blank space. And if you know about DVD production, the blank spaces take up as much room as the parts with music. So it would have been a tremendous waste of digital real estate on the disc. And you have this wonderful ultimate "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" CD soundtrack that is already available that has all the cues including ones that weren't necessarily heard in the movie. And I think that was another reason for that.

Question: Well, speaking of the documentary, if you have been following through all the production from five years, it is a well-thought plan. Is that something that is happening here at Lucasfilm on a regular basis? In other words, is there already a documentary crew that has followed since three years ago at the beginning of "Episode II?"

Ward: Absolutely. Absolutely. There are a number of things that we, I should say George really wanted to do. It's not as much about having the materials to help marketing produce or to create something on DVD, although that's all wonderful. Ultimately I think he is interested in having materials, as Rick was talking about, to be available to help young filmmakers really learn the craft of filmmaking and understand that. But maybe someday, all that will be accessible online. We are still trying to figure it all out, as everyone else is, in terms of technology. But it's really to have that database of information available. So absolutely that is taking place right now.

Question: How was the documentary shot? In what format?

Ward: "The Beginning" was shot in a couple of different formats. Our very own Lynne Hale, who is here, actually began shooting all that even before Jon Shenk came onboard. That was on Hi-8, I think. Then some of it was shot on DV, some of it was shot on BetaSP, a lot of different formats. But the primary format for I think the bulk of it was shot on DigiBeta.

Question: This question is for Rick. Can you discuss the benefits of having the disc THX mastered?

Dean: Well, first of all, the whole program is about quality. Inherently, that is what Lucasfilm always strives for. It's a continuation of a process that we started long ago with LaserDisc. We have constantly been trying to raise the bar of each production that we deal with. With this product, we have been allowed to go ahead and extend every one of the features that we had thought of in the past to this product. Not only in how film was handled but down to the compression. An extreme amount of time was spent in making sure that the compression was the most efficient and treated each individual scene the best way possible. So the whole issue there was trying to get the most bang for your buck. I think that the qualities of the discs stand as proof for that.

Ward: Rick, how would you categorize what you normally do for a disc versus what happened here on "Episode I?"

Dean: Well not only did we extend our normal quality control efforts into it, but there were a number of things that were implemented: instead of just sending a videotape through a compression mode. We sat with the compressionist and actually tried new things. And the same platforms that had been used over the last couple of years are now working better because of this particular project. There is much more quality and a lot more dynamics that we are capable of in both picture and sound out of this. This is the type of thing that we are most proud of. The other thing is that we are now turning into more of a post-production system manager. This is a project where we actually consulted with everyone with Fox, Lucasfilm and with Van to book the facilities, negotiate prices, everything else and then make sure that the product got done. This is a very time intensive task itself, too.

Question: How did you come up with the idea to have three different settings for the menu?

Ling: I just figured, what would cause me the absolute most grief that I could possibly think of that I haven't already encountered in doing menus in the past. As I mentioned before, in a lot of my previous menus, I try to get people into the setting. On "The Abyss" it was Deep Core. In "T2" it was in the Skynet Factory at Cyberdine. And with the "Star Wars" universe, there is no one place, it's so many different planets and so many different locations, beautiful setting and great locales. I said to myself, it would be a disservice to do just one, so how could I do a disservice to myself. So I said, let's do all of them, and we took the three major planets and came up with that solution. I think that was well received as an idea and then it was, "Oh my god, how am I going to do this?" It does add levels of complexity to the authoring process as well as just making the menus that wouldn't be otherwise. But I think that it actually gives you a littler more exploration that you can do on the disc and it also stays true to the film in terms how sprawling the film is a wide range in terms of the different locales.

Question: So, in follow up to what you just started, do you anticipate any player compatibility problems in the complexity of the menu navigation?

Ling: We have done pretty extensive testing to try to minimize that. Rick can also discuss that. My feeling philosophically as a DVD producer is that while we want obviously the most people possible to enjoy the disc, we also, being in the forefront as Lucasfilm in technology development and stuff, do not want to penalize the people who have good systems by having to simplify or over-simplify the programming so it doesn't take advantage of a lot of the things in the players. Personally, I would rather encourage people who have maybe real low end players to get better players than I would to take all of the people who have taken the time and effort to really deck out their home theater and say, you know we are not even going to use half of the capabilities of the format because we want to make sure that somebody else is able to view the disc. That being said, it plays on virtually everything. Rick can elaborate if you want.

Dean: We have gone through the testing and it's always a very difficult thing. You get the phone call from someone who just bought their favorite title and all of a sudden it doesn't play on their player. There are a number of reasons why that might be. It's not just on the software or the disc. We do have first generation players that are just getting old. They are getting a little bit slower with the drives and things like that will effect how a disc plays. On an error when reading the disc, this player may just lose itself. So therefore it hangs up. And Van's very right, you don't want to limit the capabilities of your DVD project to the least common denominator which is the old player. The DVD format encompasses a lot of very unique and very good features that if we didn't bring those out, DVD technology just couldn't progress. That's what we are all about too.

Ward: We have to walk a very fine line here. Because it would have been easy to come in and go, "Look, we are just going to produce the most technologically advanced DVD known to mankind. Van, go at it." And we didn't want to do that. Because at the end of the day, it's all about the film and providing the right context for the film, and having fun with our fans. And even though our fans are technologically adept, not everyone has the latest tricked out DVD player. So it was really finding the fine line of accessibility, coolness, taking advantage of the platform and hopefully we have found that.

Question: Just by chance, did you test it on the PlayStation 2 system?

Dean: Yes. That has been tested and we actually have a very good report on that.

Question: Do you have the same environments for the PAL version menus?

Ling: Yes, as a matter of fact, and boy I can tell you that was a, that was a difficult task. The international menus are all consistent with the domestic menus that you've seen today. We really took great pains to make sure that the menus are consistent across all the different territories. The only concession that we had to make for some of the international territories is where you have multiple languages on the same disc. You know the domestic disc has, for instance, three different menu sets basically on it for each of the three different planetary sets. On the Latin America disc, for instance, we have an English menu set, a Latin Spanish menu set and a Brazilian Portuguese. Which means there are actually nine menu sets on that particular disc. So the only concession we made was that the chapters, the motion menus for the chapters are not motion menus on any of the multiple menu set international discs. But all the rest of the menus are exactly the same and localized for those territories.

Question: Did you localize the VAM material?

Ling: I think we have several hundred subtitle streams that we had to build for all of the different international territories, and we did have translations done for all of the value added material on the disc. So there are subtitles for the documentaries and all the other materials.

Question: What about the audio commentary?

Ling: Yes, the audio commentary was done with subtitles as well, for all localizations.

Question: What are the best players on the market?

Dean: The next ones. [laughter] There are certainly the newer platforms that I've heard that are going to be another level far superior than what we have today. I mean, this technology is not done yet. It doesn't mean, it certainly means that everything done today is going to play on everything in the future. As far as brand names you'd be surprised how many of these players are actually originated by the same OEM platform.

Ling: There's the different brand name is slapped on the outside of it.

Dean: Exactly. And so there's more commonality that you might, then, then, then you may think. It's more of a problem now of ensuring that the capabilities are fed back to the manufacturers and as we release new features or re-release the authoring for the newer features on the DVD software that they keep in stride with what we're doing on the software side as well.

Question: In other words, no endorsements on any particular brand names.

Dean: Yes. Except the THX certified ones. Did I dance around that a little?

Ward: I think you did a pretty good job there, Rick. Okay, next question.

Question: In this age where many of the studios are offering selected titles with both widescreen and pan-and-scan formats -- sometimes on the same disc, other times as a separate release -- I'm curious to know if all of the various DVD versions for all the regions of "Episode I" are going to be exclusively in widescreen-format? Will there be a separate pan-and-scan release?

Ling: God, I hope not. [applause]

Ward: Peter, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think it's all widescreen.

[Peter Staddon, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment senior vice president of marketing, confirms from his seat in the audience that the DVD will be a widescreen-exclusive release.]

Ling: I think both Fox and Lucasfilm, and myself, we're all firm believers that the best presentation is the way that the filmmakers intended it. And, you know, pan-and-scan versions don't fall under that particular category. And now that we have a medium like DVD, unlike VHS for instance, where you can keep the quality, you're not losing so much resolution by having it letterboxed or having it widescreen. I think that the trend hopefully will be more theatrical presentation of discs rather than more pan-and-scan.

Ward: Okay, let's see, next question, please.

Question: Given the success of last year's VHS release [of "Episode I"], are you anticipating similar resistance to coming out with the DVD title a year later?

Ward: Well I think, to be honest with you, quite the contrary. You know, we had a lot of inquiry when we released the VHS whether it was coming out on a DVD. From everything we can tell in terms of the people we talk to, our consumers, our core fans and certainly the retail, I think there's probably a pretty good demand out there. Yeah. So I don't anticipate that at all.

Ling: Especially since there is so much more on the DVD, and that's, you know, I think that people will see that it was worth the wait. If it had just been the movie by itself, your concern might be more valid. I think with the amount of effort and the amount of material that has been put on the DVD I think, I don't think anybody's going to have a complaint.

Ward: Absolutely.

Question: Under different circumstances, the availability of talent, etc., could a title like this, this level, be possibly released day-and-date in the future with VHS? Or is it always going to have to be at a later date?

Ward: I can't answer that in the sense that certainly putting something together like this probably precludes that, but I don't know. To be honest with you, we're here today just trying to get the "Episode I" DVD out. We've made no future plans.

Ling: To address that question, I think it's possible. I would not recommend it to anybody for a number of reasons, not just because it would kill us all, but because what you gain from the time to do it right, I mean we've had instances where you know I've had discussions on other titles where Okay, do we want to set a date that means we just try to get it out day and date? Or do we want to do it, you know, take the time and do something that people will want to wait for? And all the discussions I've ever had with the home theater community have been we'd rather wait for you to have everything you want put on it rather than having it rushed out. And I do know that in a number of cases the studios are facing that challenge with some of their titles now. And I think that in a lot of cases you'll notice the studios will put out the film first, on it's own day-and-date, on DVD with the trailer and a few things. A day and date with the VHS. And then they'll do a special edition or a five star collection or something of a little later on. And I know that there has been some consumer resistance at first to that, but I think that the results are speaking for themselves when you see. Especially when something like, some of the titles that Fox has put out. And that really shows that for the people who just want the movie you can have the movie. For the people who really want all of the other materials and all the whole experience as Rick just said, it's worth waiting for.

Ward: There are a number of ways to slice it. That's really a Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox decision to sort through that. And we've made none at this point in time.

Question: Why was the decision made to release a LaserDisc just in Japan, rather than anywhere else?

Gordon Radley [president, Lucasfilm Ltd.]: The only market.

Ward: Is that what it was, Gordon? Okay, Japan was the only market that there was enough of an installed base to make it worthwhile.

Question: Within that same realm, how long did it take you in total to produce the DVD?

Ward: We began this in July of 2000. So by the time this comes out it'll have been a 14-15 month process.

Question: I have a general question about Lucasfilm. I was curious about what you said before about having a database on hand for filmmakers. Is there sort of like a mini-school here at Lucasfilm?

Ward: No, nothing exists like that. But I think the best person to talk about that would probably be George in terms of his vision. But no school exists or anything like that right now.

Question: There has been discussion on the Internet that people might be willing to buy a movie-only version of the DVD and then a more feature-packed version at a later date. I'm sure that was discussed for "Episode I" and is there any further discussion along those lines for "Episode II?"

Ward: You know, we just we haven't gotten there yet. So no, no decisions have been made.

Question: Okay, so you hadn't gone that far as far as "Episode II" is concerned, but Episodes IV, V and VI have already been done. Have you ever thought whether you're going to release those as Special Editions or the original theatrical versions on DVD?

Ward: Well, again, we really have no plans for the original trilogy at this point. The "Special Edition" versions are the existing versions of those films. But again, we have made no decisions around the forthcoming DVDs.

Question: Were there any special features that wouldn't fit on the disc.

Ward: Yeah, there were a lot of extra value added material that pre-existed, believe it or not, that we had produced that fans always wanted to see. We had to cut a lot of some featurettes that we had done. We had to pick some specific ones, things like that. We had done some featurettes around the VHS release that went into different topic areas like sound design, things like that we couldn't put on there we had to cut.

Ling: That was probably the most challenging thing about doing the disc was figuring out what we could include while maintaining the quality because there is such a wealth of material, and there is so many wonderful, wonderful featurettes that were done. A mini-film school, in a way, about specific topics. And the challenge really was finding things, you know finding what was the best balance that really gave the maximum for the viewer and still kept the quality up. And so the basic answer to your question is yes, but that's true on, hopefully that's true on every Special Edition that is done. Certainly that I've done, you never want to have a dearth of materials to work with and then figure out how to pad it out. In this particular case we had so much material, and we had to really find the cream of the crop for the disc.

Question: Is there extra pressure to create effects for a DVD.

Helman: That's something that we go through every day when we do effects. Because we know that all the shots that we do are going to end up in the DVD some day. That's what we do every day, all day, go frame by frame just to make sure that everything is okay. So it wasn't any different than working in other project.

Question: Was there ever any consideration to put the so-called "blue screen" version of the movie on the DVD as a supplement?

Ward: What version?

Ling: There was an Internet request for wanting to see all the dailies cut together...the blue screen version of the film before any of the effects had been added.

Ward: You wouldn't even want to see that. [laughter] You don't want to see it and that's really not what the film is meant to be. So no, there was never any consideration for that.

Question: Did you ever consider a three-disc set? Like maybe making the documentary two hours, instead of one?

Ward: [laughs] No, we really started out with a two-disc set. I think you always have to balance everything in terms of the quantity of materials you have, the ultimate price point to the consumer; all those kinds of things. And we just felt that hey, first and foremost the film is the most important thing. That can be on one disc. Let's make it worthwhile, worth the wait for people, let's add some good value materials on the second disc and we never really considered a third.

Question: Just a quick follow up to that, were there any things that were filmed in the 600 hours that you would have loved to have put in.

Ward: Oh yeah, sure. Oh absolutely, absolutely. That was a tough thing for us to do, all of us that worked on that film and particularly Jon. You saw the deleted scenes documentary about making those tough choices about editing. The same thing went through on that particular film. So yeah, there are a lot of things that may have been fun. We just had to pick certain threads of storylines to focus on. We had to pick what we felt were really unique scenes that maybe you haven't seen before. You know, it's not very often you get to see George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, you know, talking about a film [at the same time], or Ewan McGregor getting his hair cut or being able to choose his lightsaber, things like that. So yeah, it was tough. But there's a lot of footage, definitely.

--END--

Click here to read Session One with Rick McCallum

Click here to read Session Three with George Lucas

Click here to view the DVD's menus

Click here to read Introduction

Special thanks to Lucasfilm Ltd. and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Look for our DVD review of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" to be posted soon