Producing The Phantom Menace - Q&A with producer Van Ling

Q: When did you come on the project, and what were the initial processes in terms of putting it together?

Van Ling: I came on the project in about October of 2000. I was asked to come in and do a proposal on the disc. And with great trepidation but a lot of enthusiasm I came on project and I really wanted to do a good job. I've been a big Star Wars fan for most of my teen and adult life, so it was quite a dream come true.

Q: For the DVD menus how much of it was custom generated versus existing already in the film?

VL: It was about half and half but I have to stress that all of the material started off as material that was provided by Lucasfilm and by Industrial Light & Magic. I was able to take photographs and basically extrude them into 3-D to generate so that the images were of actual footage in a number of cases. And in other cases we used material straight from the height of transfer of the film and then worked away to make it longer. And then in some other cases we did generate things entirely from scratch. But, really tried to maintain the look and feel of the Star Wars universe.

Q: What other DVD discs did Van worked on, and how does this disc differ from those?

VL: Well I produced and did the menus for Terminator II The Ultimate Edition, The Abyss Special Edition and Independence Day Special Edition. And this, in terms of approach and design and challenge, was far and away the most challenging disc that I've undertaken. And also in many cases the smoothest I have undertaken taken because I had, the filmmaking side really behind the projects. In a lot of cases the filmmaker is off working on other movies, they're not able to really participate more than cursorily on the disc.

And in this particular instance everybody really took the time to be there and be part of it and be in the decision making process and so it was never a question of my thinking are they going to like this? In this particular instance everybody was really involved and that's one of the things that made this far and away different from other discs that I've done. Also on those other discs I was able to actually work on production of those films at that time. So that had a different approach to it. Here I had the benefit of the entire team at Lucasfilm and at THX to provide me with all the materials that we needed to make a great disc.

Q: How many Easter eggs are on the DVD?

Jim Ward: Van just so you know I've already told them we're not going to tell them. (laughter)

Q: How conscious were you of setting a new standard in terms of technology and entertainment value on this DVD?

VL: I try to take the same approach that most filmmakers do on that kind of question, which is we try not to be conscious of it at all. What we're conscious of is trying to create the vision or to put together the vision or to, in this particular case for me, maintain the vision of the Star Wars universe. And whatever it takes to do that is what we try to do. And oftentimes that does involve being on the cutting edge or straying into territory that hasn't been really explored before in terms of the technology.

JW: The adjunct to that too I might add is that very early on we sat down with Van and we made it very clear, we're not out there trying to just do technology for technology's sake. We were very much into let's make what we think is the best thing for our fans and for the consumer out there, so let's not load this with wacky stuff that nobody ever uses or goofy technology and interactive games and all this kind of stuff. Let's just do what we think is cool and what we think the fans will like. And Van definitely led us down that path very well.

VL: The key is to take care of the movie first, that's the most important thing about the disc. You know as much as we all love doing the bonus materials, we want to take care of the movie first. And everything builds around that.

Q: What kind of input and discussion did you have around the vision of the disc?

VL: I think again coming into this, a lot of the previous discs that I'd done have been whether or not correctly so, have been formally called Van Ling discs because they have a particular kind of approach. And I was very adamant on this disc, as is correct, to make sure that this was never perceived as a Van Ling disc. This is a Star Wars disc, and this is a Lucasfilm disc. And the most important thing there is to make sure that it doesn't overshadow any of the content and the quality of the presentation.

That was one of my most important personal goals on the disc was to make sure that when people look at it they think this is a Star Wars disc, this is exactly what we want from a Star Wars disc. And from that standpoint it was a matter of reviewing the materials that Lucasfilm and George and Rick and everybody wanted to put on the disc and work with them to create the best presentation that maintained it as a Star Wars disc. I tried my best to kind of be "behind the scenes" as their producer, as their consultant on the project and never get in the way of the vision.

Q: Was there anything taken from the (Japanese) laserdisc, or was the DVD made from the ground up from the beginning?

VL: the Japanese have one laserdisc, that's the only laserdisc that has been available for the show. We didn't take anything from that. We started from scratch with height of transfer and all sorts of things. Nothing came from the laserdisc that we used.