Kinect Gag Reel Shoot from July 13, 2011

Similar to the proverbial unheard tree falling in the forest, if a droid is involved in a video shoot that is never published, does it still get a blog post? Let's try it and see what happens.

Waaay back on July 13, 2011 I was involved in Lucasfilm shoot for the Kinect Star Wars promotional videos at Hollywood Center Studios, in Hollywood, CA. The original blog posting is here.

R2's role was not to be in the primary video itself, but to be in a sort of documentary gag reel for the behind-the-scenes fun. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that particular video will ever see the light of day.

Since the primary video has been released, and it's been over a year since the shoot, there aren't any secrets to guard anymore. Here is the primary video (never intended to feature R2), starring Ciara Bravo as "Girly Vader":



Besides featuring director Ron Howard's brother Clint, the video also has an awesome cameo by Richard LeParmentier in the white Imperial uniform, chuckling as everyone gets Force-choked except for him. Star Wars fans know that Richard played Admiral Motti in the original Star Wars, and received the first Vader Force-choking in the saga.

Richard was kind enough to sign R2's back panel that day.




While the main shooting was taking place on Stage 7, R2 teamed up with Clint Howard on Stage 2 for a few humorous scenes, where Clint discussed union wages and lunch breaks with R2, and R2 withdrew money from an ATM. I was so busy operating R2 and time was so tight with Clint that I didn't have much of an opportunity to take pictures, but I managed to get one.



Speaking of lunch breaks, during the actual lunch break for everyone involved in the shooting, I was asked if R2 could hold a plate and fork and line up for lunch to shoot a quick scene, so I made that happen.



We also did a take without the plate, in case Lucasfilm preferred something a little less odd.



Of course, the crew got the usual pictures with R2.





Once we were done, I visited the green screen set on Stage 7 for a while, where they were still shooting Girly Vader. More pictures, some blurry and without the flash for the times that the cameras were rolling.






It was a really enjoyable day, and as much as I would have liked to have stayed and watch the rest of the shoot, I hit the road before the onset of rush hour.

So the tree fell, no one heard it, but it did still make a sound. Now we know.

The full photoset is here.