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Mixed critical reviews aside, The Phantom Menace demanded great ingenuity from its makers. Richard Buskin talks with the sound editing rerecording, Foley and effects team about their work on the Star Wars prequel
'A LONG TIME AGO, in a galaxy far, far away.' Today, these words could be a reference to the first appearance some 22 years ago of that phantasmagorical, trend-setting outer space action-adventure movie, Star Wars, that, together with its successors The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi - not to mention a trio of 'Special Editions' - would pave the way for so many of the effects extravaganzas that were to follow. As it happens, these were also the very words that flashed across the screen at the beginning of that original, ground-breaking box-office smash, and so it was that the legend was born.
Now, over two decades and a couple of generations later, director George Lucas has decided to dig deeper into the gold mine by way of a series of new 'episodes', starting with The Phantom Menace, which actually takes us back to before it all began. Featuring a 9-year-old Darth Vader as well as a youthful knight by the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi, this initial chapter pits corporate power against a small and peaceful planet and its young and glamourous Queen Amidala. To the rescue come the Jedi forces, and to the screen come the assorted acting talents of Liam Neeson, Samuel L Jackson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Terence Stamp, Frank Oz, Ray Park and Pernilla August. Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels once again assume the guises of R2-D2 and C-3PO, and computer-generated animation produces a new, childlike - and, some say, nauseating - character known as Jar Jar Binks.
Shot during the summer of 1997 at Leavesden Studios - a former Rolls-Royce factory in England which was converted to ten sound stages and 60 sets - Episode 1: The Phantom Menace also made use of locations such as the Caserta Royal Palace near Naples and the Tunisian Sahara Desert before returning to Leavesden in early autumn. Then there was all of the digital work created at Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic facility in northern California. Indeed, around 95% of the frames...