Star Wars: Visions Memories 11

Aside from having to wrestle the finished episode away from the compositors or they would never stop tweaking, production on Screecher's Reach went perfectly. It was a lovely experience. Paul had been working closely with Leo Pearson on the score and that was almost ready to go. Now, we just needed colour grading, sound effects and a mix and we were done. Final sound makes all the difference and it requires people with truly special ears and abilities.

We had heard of this little company called Skywalker Sound and we figured we would give them a shot. See how they handle sci-fi.

And that’s how we talked our way into staying in Skywalker Ranch. Yep, we had our own little house right on the ranch and stayed there for a few days while we got all of that final work done. We were living a dream.

We would come down each morning to a well-stocked kitchen, we would go for walks across the ranch, see the vineyards where they grow grapes for Skywalker wine, and we even got to visit the Main House house, where so much work on Star Wars was done over the years. 

We did the colour grade at Industrial Light & Magic with the incredible J Schulte (Almu got so excited about those grading tools), and we did sound on the ranch at Skywalker Sound with Mac Smith. Incredible talents well used to working on Star Wars. Will Collins and I took time to decompress, hang out, and dream a little about what might come next.

And before we knew it, we had a finished short. And I was off to Mexico to watch some Lucha Libre.

An incredible dream come true final experience for our time on Screecher’s Reach. It was weird to think it was over. We had lived this story for so long. It dominated every day. But it was done. What now? 

Finishing a project should feel like a celebration. I’m going to be honest with you though - it never feels like that for me. Projects don’t go out with a big finish. Departments come to an end one by one. People drop off, and things get smaller. In a weird way, projects just sort of fizzle out. The ranch experience helped make this one special but I always find myself crashing hard when a project is done. The thing that took all your thoughts, your energy, your emotion, is gone.

All that’s left is a void.

I find it tough. And that never got any easier for me over the years. But I loved what we made.

And as it happens, it wasn’t quite over yet. We still had to launch and release it. That would give us one final experience on Screecher’s Reach. Come back for one last journey in the next post...