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The Lightsabre Interview J W Rinzler
Welcome to
Lightsabre. Speaking to us from his
office at The Presidio, our latest interview is with the man who was allowed
unprecedented access to the production of the final chapter in the Star Wars
saga. You may also know him as Lucasbooks executive editor and the author of The Making of Revenge of the Sith. Please give a warm welcome to J W Rinzler. Q -Jonathan, welcome
to Lightsabre. A –
Its great to be here. Q – As the executive
editor at Lucasbooks you must have had all manner of interesting projects to
oversee, but none more so than the marathon job of writing and editing the
Making of Revenge of the Sith. Can you
put into words the experience of being constantly on set for all that time? A – (Laughs) Well I think the first
word that comes to mind is exhausting.
I don’t think people who haven’t been on a set don’t realise just how
physically exhausting it is, and I was getting the easy part of it. I mean you get up at 5.30 in the morning,
you get there at 6.30 or 7.00, and then you’re basically on your feet until
8.00 or nine ’o’ clock at night, and it just starts over again. Q – So it’s a grind? A - Yeah it’s a grind, and obviously it’s very exciting when
the camera’s are rolling for a rush, when the digital cameras are recording,
and even when they do the scenes over and over it’s exciting to see all the
sets go up and it’s really just physically very tiring. Q – From your perspective, on the
ground, you’ve seen things that us, as fans, would never have seen, so that
must be quite an eye-opener. A -
Yeah, I mean
I’m not…you say fans, I guess for some Star Wars fans it would
be…particularly exciting for me, I look at it more from just how you make a
movie, because I came here because I was interested in the film. I guess I was too old or something, I
wasn’t really into the toys or that sort of thing, although I think they’re
fantastic! (Laughs) But I didn’t know anything about the
Expanded Universe, but of course I love the characters so it was great seeing
Christopher Lee, who of course I know from 250 other films, notably the Three
Musketeers, so that was exciting. And
then of course watching George direct is the most interesting thing. Of course that was my job. Q – He’s a very underrated director
isn’t he. A – Yeah he is, he’s very underrated, most people think of
him as just the special effects guy, visual effects guy, he has an amazing
eye and also he knows what he’s doing in every department. The camera, the costume, working with the
actors. And he’s written it of course.
Most directors are working on films they haven’t written, so he’s got
a total view of the whole thing, and he’s amazingly concentrated. And he’s working weekends too. Q – It’s a real passion with him isn’t
it? A – Yeah, and ten weeks, ten years non-stop, and then that’s
the other thing too, I started going to the concept art meetings back before
Episode 2 was finished, so getting to the set is just a teeny piece, it’s the
part that gets the most exposure, but in terms of actual time being on the
set is just a fraction of the work that goes into the film. Before that he’s been working ten hour days
writing the script and working with the artist and working on the
pre-animatics, and then you get to the set, and afterwards there’s no break,
it goes into high gear as ILM, which is more people, and then you get to the
finals where there’s no room – this is it.
There were some moments there (laughs). A couple of meetings, which I think are in
the book where people are looking and saying “This is it, if we don’t get it
right now we are screwed.”
Q - Tell us something
of your career. How did you begin in publishing
and what led you to the position you are today? A – Let’s see, how did I get
here…I just entered a certain ad on the internet, on the Lucasfilm website. Q
– Really? A –
Yep, they were looking for an editor and I was working at a
video game magazine as managing editor, and I’d always wanted to work for
Lucasfilm, I was regularly looking at their website, and I just applied, and
it was Lucy (Autrey) Wilson, who is still working here, she’s basically the
first hire, and the interview went well and I was hired as a non-fiction
editor. How I got into publishing, I don’t know. (Laughs) Q
– By accident. A
– Yeah, I kind of did fall into it, I had a literature background
and it was pretty much the only thing I could to make a living. I never thought I’d be a writer. Q
– What did you think you would be? A –
Well when I was a kid I wanted to draw comic books. I did that for about ten years, not drawing
comics but painting, I couldn’t make a living doing it. Q – So you’re very
happy where you’ve ended up? A – Yeah, because I’ve always been interested in the cinema, as a kid reading Famous Monsters magazine, seeing a lot of Kung Fu movies and watching the classics. My Dad (took me to) an old theatre in Berkeley which ran old films, all the Fred Astair, Ginger Rogers movies, Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood. I have always been a movie fanatic. No matter what I’ve been doing I’ve always believed in films, whether at school or teaching or whatever. So now, being here, and I’m still working with George (Lucas) on another book we’re doing, but I can’t say more than that.
Please check back next month for the second part of our exclusive J W Rinzler interview. |
