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This Date in Star Wars History
Celebrating a birthday today is Gavin Bocquet, who cut his teeth on Return of the Jedi and went on to become the Production Designer for all three prequel trilogy movies! And for those who don’t know, production designers are in charge of the whole art department for a movie (or TV show), and charged with creating the overall visual feel and look of the film.
Life on “Tweet”-ooine
.@Terry_World any chance you could get me a shoot for Vogue? I’d do anything.
— Emperor Palpatine (@LordPalpatine) April 21, 2014
Star Wars Swag Bag
Star Wars Sunglasses, in Vader, Boba Fett, and Stormtrooper styles – click the pic!
Trivia Time!
Yesterday’s answer: Luke Skywalker
Today’s question: Who sat directly behind Chewbacca in the stolen Imperial shuttle?
Force Feature: Mistakes in The Phantom Menace
We’re talking movie mistakes this week, and starting into the prequel trilogy with Phantom Menace. Now, of course, these are all visual things, so we’ll have the images linked from the blog post for this episode. I’m gonna share 7 of my favorites from MovieMistakes.com, and if you have others that you love, please add them to the comments for the episode post!
#1: No water for you, Jar Jar! In Shmi and Anakin’s home, Shmi pours water for Qui-Gon at dinner, then goes to pour for Jar Jar, but no water comes out. And rather than acknowledge that fact, she just goes on with dinner. And he probably needs water more than any of them do! How rude! Sorry Jar Jar, you’re outta luck.
#2: I whip my braid back and forth! Obi-Wan’s padawan braid switches from one side of his head to the other, and even changes lengths! Either that, or it’s just another series of shot flips. I swear, these Star Wars movies flip shots more than Yoda flips in a lightsaber battle.
#3: Watch my hands closely… if you have eyes to watch them! When Anakin shows off Threepio to Padme, he’s shown using his left hand to stick Threepio’s eye in place, and as the shot switches angles, he’s suddenly using his right hand to do it. if he’d been born closer to the core worlds, the Jedi would have noticed him pulling this trick sooner.
#4: It’s a comlink, it’s a razor, it’s a comlink, it’s a razor, wait, it’s both! Clearly, Qui-Gon is not on friendly terms with razors, considering the unevenness of his beard. But indeed, the comlink he uses to communicate with Obi-Wan and send him midichlorian samples is actually the handle, sans blade, of a Gillette Sensor Excel Razor for Women.
#5: Shadows with minds of their own. When the battle droids are escorting Padme and her people to Camp 4 to “process them” – oooh, doesn’t that sound dastardly, “process them,” but I digress – you get two looks at the group, one from the side, one from the front. From the side, their shadows go in front of them, and from the front, their shadows go off to the side and elongate. Unless the queen has a handmaiden whose sole job is lighting her correctly, this is a “D-oh!” moment.
#6: Magic color-change. Maybe it’s just that they have fancy color-changing cloaks on Coruscant, or maybe it’s a hitherto unknown Sith trick the Jedi should have picked up on. Either way, Senator Palpatine’s cloak manages to change colors in between shots.
#7: Disappearing C-3PO. This is one that I’ve never seen mentioned, so I may be the first one to have discovered it, and I’ve got the screenshots to prove it! When the flag parade happens right before the start of the podrace, C-3PO is carrying a flag, presumably to represent Anakin. But when the podracers all start their engines, and the shot cuts to show the flag bearers leaving, C-3PO and his flag are nowhere in the shot. Maybe he pulled a Jedi trick and super-fast ran out of there? Nah…can’t be.
Again, these are just seven of my favorites, and if you want to go deeper, there are a few more photos, and dozens upon dozens more mistake notes, linked right here. Enjoy!