Star Wars: Episode 1 THE PHANTOM MENACE. See it on the big screen! Photo: Andrea Schwalm
As I wrote in GeekMom previously, my oldest son Ben and I were recently invited by 20th Century Fox to attend a series of events out in San Francisco at two of George Lucas’ production sites–Skywalker Ranch and The Presidio–in order to promote the Star Wars: Episode 1 Phantom Menace 3D reboot. We have been back from our whirlwind weekend visit to San Francisco for over a week now and with the movie coming out this Friday, it is definitely time to share this experience with everyone!
ON FRIDAY…
Driving in San Francisco. Photo credit: Andrea Schwalm
We arrive in San Francisco in the evening and are dropped by our driver with great pomp at our hotel, The Ritz-Carlton. Bags unpacked and bell-hop dispensed, Ben and I meet up with a favorite uncle who has driven in from Oakland to take us out for Chinese food. We eat salt and pepper shrimp that stares back at us from the plate, Kung Pao chicken, and noodle soup. Later, we drive down Lombard Street’s eight hairpin turns, and before he drops us back off at our hotel, we three each take night-time cell-phone photos of each other under the Golden Gate Bridge. When my son and I finally turn in, it is 4 am back at home. We feel comfortable in this new city now that we’ve seen some of it, though, and the pillows on our bed are so soft and perfect that I actually start to giggle in exhaustion before falling right to sleep.
ON SATURDAY…
Skywalker Ranch: Rolling hills and a bit of the technical building. Photo credit: Andrea Schwalm.
The following afternoon we meet the rest of our parent blogging group (including Matt Blum from GeekDad) for lunch in our hotel’s swanky restaurant. Then it is off to the bus that is taking us about 30 minutes away to Skywalker Ranch, a working farm, ranch, and retreat that is home to Skywalker Sound, the sound effects, editing, design, mixing, and music recording division of George Lucas’ “Lucas Digital” motion picture group.
Upon arrival, we are initially allowed to simply walk the grounds and look around. The smaller children in the group get their pictures taken against a truck from the Skywalker Ranch Fire Brigade. Lowing cattle dot the rolling hills around us as we turn to walk past first olive then grape vineyards. After a brief hike past Ewok Lake and a visit to the gift shop, however, the more structured part of our Skywalker Ranch tour begins.
Meeting Matthew Wood, Sound Engineer
Droid voice-over in the Kurosawa Sound Studio, Skywalker Ranch. Photo credit: Andrea Schwalm
Our first stop of the day is the Akira Kurosawa Sound Studio where we meet sound editor Matthew Wood. As a sound engineer, Wood has edited almost 70 movies, including all three of the Star Wars Prequels, WALL*E, and The Clone Wars cartoons. Additionally, in a second career, he does voice-overs and acting, most notably as the luminously-tentacled Bib Fortuna in The Phantom Menace and the just generally-badass General Grievous in The Clone Wars.
An apparent fan of learning by doing, Matt has each of the kids in our group separately read Droid dialog into a microphone as we all watch a scene from The Phantom Menace play on a large screen in front of us. After each take, while a second sound engineer tweaks the audio in ProTools, the room’s conversation ping-pongs as Wood alternately answers questions from our group and shares snippets of insight into the work that went into re-engineering the sound on The Phantom Menace’s seminal podracing scene:
- The studio is named for the Seven Samurai director Akira Kirusowa–George Lucas’ favorite director.
- The sound board we are sitting at can layer thousands of sounds together.
- The Phantom Menace’s podracing scene contains none of John Williams’ famous musical scoring–so the sound editing really had to be flawless, there was nothing to hide behind.
- The most unusual sound Wood has probably ever engineered is the glottal signature of the Geonosians–which is actually a combination of two fruit bats (fighting over a banana) mixed with a penguin’s mating call.
- Sound editors took ‘sound samples’ from hundreds of cars and jet engines in order to create the perfect mix of engines for the podracers.
This is absolutely one of the highlights of the trip, both for me and for my son. No matter how much anyone stumbles or stutters, the post-production results of each child’s voice-over have everyone in the room grinning and clapping and high-fiving–meanwhile each trivia tid-bit feels like a secret we are all sharing together.
“That guy Matthew Wood has such a cool job!” Ben gushes excitedly afterwards. “All I could think while I was sitting at that sound board was I want to do work like this when I have to get a job!”
Meeting Craig Derrick, Kinect Producer
The next stop on our tour introduces us to Craig Derrick, a LucasArts video game producer and director, and gives us a hands-on opportunity to play the new Kinect Star Wars game slated to come out in April.
Later, when I ask about the game, Ben tells me, “I’m not normally a huge fan of motion controls or 3D gaming, but really, this was great! I’ve never played something like this–using your whole body in such a sweeping way. I liked the graphics a lot, too–they were amazing…gorgeous…almost like a painting…”
On this day, he plays the “Rancor Rampage” module and “goes all-Godzilla” on the city and its people, causing as much mayhem and destruction as possible. “The physics in this game are incredibly accurate,” he calls over, mid-rampage, “if you fling out your arm and knock down a building, there’s no glitchiness or delay: it immediately crumbles to the ground!”
As I stand to the side in 3D spectacles and watch, I have to admit to myself that rather than being annoyed or bored with the 3D elements of this game, I am instead blown away and having a great time–even as a bystander. Back at home, we do not currently own an XBox/Kinect. Up until now I have been of the hardline-puritannical belief that the Wii, Playstation, Gameboy DS, iPod Touches, desktop, and PSP we already own should adequately cover any one family’s gaming needs. With each beautifully-rendered innocent citizen swallowed whole in front of me now, though, I can feel that resolve weakening. When Derrick mentions that the game also has a Jedi mode where players fight the Sith by “using the force,” Kinect-style, my eyes connect with Ben’s excitedly and suddenly I am combining everyone’s birthday presents in my head, envisioning us all huddling around our new game console like modern-day Norman Rockwell characters by no later than mid-summer…
Meeting John Goodson, Concept Model Artist
Anakin's podracer, Skywalker Ranch. Photo credit: Andrea Schwalm
At the third leg of our tour we are introduced to concept model artist John Goodson. As we later discover, Goodson has been involved with almost every franchise my family holds dear, including Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminator, Men in Black, Star Trek, Batman, X-Men, Planet of the Apes, Lemony Snicket, and Transformers.
Today he explains that he was responsible for designing and building Anakin’s podracer in The Phantom Menace and patiently recreates the design process for us again, showing us smaller prototypes that were created along the way and sharing with us what worked and what changed as he labored to bring George Lucas’ concepts into reality.
Goodson ended his part of the tour with a story: He told the kids about how he started to write letters to George Lucas when he was in middle school and high school, telling Lucas about how much he wanted to come work for him some day. Goodson studied engineering and set design in college back in North Carolina but as soon as he graduated he found a way to move out to San Francisco. Years later, now employed by Lucas, Goodson was given a new work space. In one corner was a file cabinet that he could use if he cleaned it out. There inside, among sheafs of fan mail, were the letters he’d written as a teenager.
“Don’t give up on your dreams,” Goodson tells us. “That’s what I want you to remember from my talk.”
“That,” Ben tells me, pulling me aside as our group leaves the room, “was definitely a cool story.”
Meeting ObiShawn, Stunt Coordinator
The first day of our Phantom Menace Adventure ends with lightsaber training lessons from stunt coordinator ObiShawn. After a brief discussion of the history of lightsabers, the significance of their colors, and acknowledgement of the fact that Mace Windu had the only purple lightsaber in Star Wars history, it is time to commence training. As gentleman and friends, our group all agree to duel not to the death, but to the touch.
“If I tap your arm, you must put it behind your back,” Obishawn explains. “If you strike my leg, I must hop about without it.”
As I sit in the theater watching my laughing, lunging son slowly lose an arm and two legs to pernicious saber taps, I cannot imagine how tomorrow’s activities could be more fun than the day we’ve just had…
Lightsaber training with ObiShawn, Skywalker Ranch. Photo credit: Andrea Schwalm
This is the end of Part 1 of our Phantom Menace Adventure. Tune back to GeekMom tomorrow for Part 2! Want to read more? Check out Matt Blum’s Phantom Menace post on Wired’s GeekDad!
Andrea has two jobs, two kids, and can't find her car keys. She was on Team Jacob, thinks Katniss and Gale would have ultimately made each other miserable, and firmly believes that fast zombies are against the rules. She adores serial commas and lives on Long Island.
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3. SketRobo
Kathy Ceceri writes activity books for kids and teaches hands-on enrichment programs at schools, museums and libraries. She is mom to two teens, one a future video game designer and the other a budding filmmaker, and married to an ultracyclist. They live in New York's Hudson Valley. 
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