With an unbelievable 4140 effects in season 2 of Star Wars: Andor, the visual effects teams led by ILM were kept tremendously busy, and speaking over at The Hollywood Reporter ILM’s Mohen Leo and SFX supervisor Luke Murphy discuss some of the incredible scenes and shots we saw in the season.
THR: What was the hardest effect to pull off in season two?
MOHEN LEO The TIE Avenger escape [in the first episode]. I didn’t want to start the season off with something that was only computer generated, so we designed a sequence that starts with a practical set where we can use practical effects.
LUKE MURPHY That thing was [actually built] and it sat on its wings. It was one of the most challenging builds we’ve ever done. It had a steel core and materials used in aircraft — loads of aluminum composite panels, carbon fiber. Actors could touch it and walk into it. Then we could literally lift that thing up with a crane and fly it around.
THR: Back in the day, George Lucas famously used World War II dogfight footage for creating aerial scenes. What do you use now?
LEO: I try to avoid referencing other movies. There’s almost no excuse not to look at real-world references. There’s a shot in episode three when Cassian arrives with the TIE Avenger and he overtakes a troop transporter — that came from looking on YouTube for Apache helicopter shots.
THR: You also had a speeder bike scene, which has come a long way since Return of the Jedi.
LEO: One of the things that always bugs me with Star Wars speeder bikes is you can tell that it’s someone on a blue screen with a wind machine, and then we put the background in. Luke came up with a fantastic solution.
MURPHY We got a speeder bike built onto the actual V-8 of a high-speed all-terrain vehicle. It feels believable because the stuntman is really gunning it. But there was a lot of paperwork involved in satisfying [Disney’s] risk management assessors.
THR: What shot or effect are you most proud of this season?
MURPHY We had to create a 17-ton electric snowplow for the heist sequence. When that vehicle comes down the street and crashes, it rips up the street for 80 feet. It was so cold that the breakaway material we were using in the street was sticking together. So at the last minute, we had to lift up 400 paving slabs and loosen all the material underneath.
LEO We just had to paint away the camera rail and that’s it. We didn’t augment that in any way. It looked fantastic just as it was.
Next Saturday at Fordingbridge Town Hall, Mohen Leo will take the stage alongside fellow ILMers TJ Falls and Marcus Dryden at AndMore, which will allow the crowd in attandance a deep-dive into the making of the show. Stay tuned for more over the coming days.
