Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/929567
island location used on The Force Awakens. In the Los Angeles Art Department, Art Director John Dexter Google scouted the entire coastlines of Ireland and Scotland, looking for the ideal spot. "Rick and I would review images each day, and our selections were immediately sent to the location scouts on the ground. Often the next day, we would receive ground-level photos back from the scouts for further review. When Rian and Rick left for the director's scout, they were able to go right to the places that seemed to offer the most cinematic, and practical possibilities." This intense scrutiny netted an ideal location, on the Dingle Peninsula coincidentally within distant sight of Skellig Island. Art Director Dean Clegg took a 3D model from a drone scan and designed an arrangement of huts that nestled into the topography, beautifully exploiting the natural assets of the site. Absolute accuracy was essential since the village would have to be first constructed on the backlot at Pinewood to accommodate the night and rain shooting in a controlled setting, i.e., not next to a 700-ft. drop on a windy cold precipice at night on the southwest Irish coast! After the backlot shoot, the entire Jedi Village was disassembled and trucked from the UK to Ireland to be reset for the company a couple of months later. Other Ahch- to environments were scripted. Art Director Neal Callow describes the practical exploration that brought the massive Jedi Tree set into physical fruition: "We used the Incline Slopes at Longcross Studios to form the base of a 3500-square-meter mountainside, to be constructed using large precast sections of plaster rock-face. The design for the mountainside topography was created using a section of the visual effects lidar scan of Skellig Island. This was then imported into SketchUp, and a complex subframe of steel and timber was designed to support the upper rock-face components. The tree itself needed to be extremely robust; not only was it thirteen meters high and very heavy, but it had to allow actor access to its interior, house a large special effects fire effects rig, and be completely fireproof for its final fire-engulfed scene. A 1/12-scale maquette was carved and scanned to create a Rhino model, within which a bespoke steel frame was designed with radiating formers wrapped in stiff metal mesh to create the shape of each two-meter section. These were rendered in a fireproof plaster compound and then craned and bolted into position on set. The final surface for the set was two hundred tons of black earth to dress into the crevasses of the landscape, seventy- five tons of real rock and shingle and then five truckloads of moss, heather turf and plants that matched those found on Skellig Island." Rian referenced the Monte Carlo of To Catch a Thief for the casino city of Canto Bight, an artificially green jewel of a resort on the desert planet Cantonica, characterised by opulence and unrestrained A. The Jedi Tree. Art by Rick Heinrichs. Pencil with 2B lead, Moleskine sketchbook. B. Jedi Tree Maquette. Conrad Thompson, sculptor. C. Jedi Tree. Set photo by Neal Callow. D. Jedi Tree. Set photo by Ben Munro. E. Dubrovnik. Croatia. Location photo by Rick Heinrichs. F. Canto Bight establishing sketch. Art by Rick Heinrichs. 2B pencil scanned with Photoshop tones. B C A