Star Wars: Visions Memories 01

Hi team! I'm back to my Star Wars: Visions Memories - my personal recollections and lessons from our time creating and making Screecher's Reach, our Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 episode. Being so hyped to watch Volume 3 as a fan (coming in October!), it's a great time to look back on this incredible experience. Let's dive in with Part 01. Part 02 is coming soon so look out for that! Here goes...

Remember the scary cave in Empire? Yoda said it was strong with the dark side of the Force and Luke failed in there. Rey then went through something similar in The Last Jedi but in a different place and had a different experience. So this is based on the idea that there are hidden places like this dotted around the galaxy. It would have a spirit of kids adventure at the start (Stand By Me type of thing maybe) but then gets some J-horror vibes before going very Star Wars.

This was at the top of a document I sent to Paul Young and Will Collins in March 2021. It was one and a half pages of a story about a girl and her friends who go on an adventure to see a ghost and get a lot more than they bargained for. As I explained to Paul and Will when I sent it, I woke up at 3am with the story idea almost fully formed. I added “I know we have strong ideas already so I'm just sliding this over for consideration in case we need an alternative”. 

I had no idea at the time that this email, this story, would dominate our lives for the next year and a half and become the acclaimed Star Wars: Visions episode, Screecher's Reach.

Let me back up a bit. How did this all happen? I hadn't been in Cartoon Saloon long, working as a development producer, and things were going really well in Kilkenny, Ireland. Somewhere across the world in San Francisco and LA, a Lucasfilm team were working on Star Wars: Visions. An anthology series of anime short films, each leaning into the vision of the Japanese studios involved. And they were already planning Volume 2, with the intention being to widen it out to the rest of the world. Paul Young, producer at Cartoon Saloon, got a call: “Do you guys fancy doing a Star Wars?”

OMG YES!

Except that's not how it happened. The response was actually tumultuous. Cartoon Saloon is known for its original features, for its own IP, for its handcrafted work staying true to the art and the soul of challenging stories. The studio has turned down many opportunities from big brands, all with good reason. We're known for our own stories. We only make what we believe in. That integrity is core to the studio. So saying yes to a Star Wars wasn't a given. In fact, it would actually contradict many previous decisions. This needed very careful consideration.  

Of course, you know the end of the story. We said yes. A couple of factors led to that. One was the Visions ethos:

Lucasfilm did not just want a Star Wars story animated by Cartoon Saloon. They wanted a Cartoon Saloon story in the Star Wars universe. 

And they seemed absolutely sincere on that. We would have the ability to create and craft something true to us.

The other factor was Paul Young. Paul is known as the main producer of Cartoon Saloon (he tells the story of how that happened much better than I would) but he's always been a creative. And Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey have always been encouraging him to direct. And Paul loves scifi. So even before this call came in, we had been talking through scifi ideas for Paul's movie. But a movie is so big and starting with a blank page is daunting so this was a slow process... until we got that call. This could be the perfect way in for Paul. A known universe. A short run time. And yet still a Cartoon Saloon story.

I'm not sure how much influence I had on it but I'm choosing to believe that me following him around all day for weeks shouting “YESYESYESYESYESYES” was a factor.

For me, making a Star Wars was a dream. As it happens, we did say yes, with all those creative assurances, and due to me following around shouting “YESYESYESYESYESYES”, nobody specifically told me I wasn't the producer on it. 

And so I was.

We quickly put together a little team. Paul would direct. I would produce. And we would bring in Will Collins to write. Will wrote WolfWalkers and Song of the Sea and he is known to be incredible, although I had never worked with him before. When I met him, just as everyone had said, he was wonderful. An incredible collaborator and a lovely guy. Will is absolutely the best. This felt like a perfect team.

So that's how it started. We had the team. We had the freedom. We even had the galaxy. Now all we needed was a story. 

That part took a minute. That's for the next post, so come back for that or sign up for the email updates so you get it right in your inbox. See you soon!