Dave Filoni is the supervising director of ” Star Wars: The Clone Wars .” He’s been responsible for keeping the animated version of “a Galaxy Far, Far Away” running like the hyperdrive motivator on the Millennium Falcon for the past four seasons. I had the opportunity to talk to Filoni about the process of making the show and what that entails.
The show just keeps getting better and better looking every season. You’re consistently stepping up the production and moving forward technologically. Does it feel that way to you?
I appreciate that. As you can imagine a lot of work has gone into making that transition. It all stems from trying to find our footing. We wouldn’t be where we are at this point in the show with the quality we have now if we hadn’t started where we did. We always remind ourselves of that.
We’ve all looked back on the early seasons and, while we appreciate them for what they are, ILM visual effect supervisor Joel Aron and I do think “If we had a chance to do them today, imagine the better scale and type of shots we could bring to something like the Malevolence.” It would be pretty staggering.
I think we’re better storytellers today than we were early on, too. We just really found our groove. Early on we were just finding out how to make the show work. I had to build my relationship with George and build trust with him. I needed to show him what kind of director I was and what I would be doing with “Star Wars.” There were a lot of early factors.
There are some very fun episodes that were done back then. I particularly like the “Ryloth” series in Season One. Those are among my favorites. “Rookies” was an inspiration for a lot of what came later with the clones. There were a lot of good things we discovered in that exploration that paid off. Bringing Joel Aron on and Keith Kellogg in for animation and lighting helped us take a huge leap in quality. Those are two guys that are very experienced.
I think I’m safe to make this joke. Have you ever asked George about doing “Special Editions” to improve those old “Clone Wars” episodes? (Laughing)
(Laughing) Believe me, I have asked George. There are things that I would do … I’ve always joked that I am one person who fully understands the value of the “Special Editions.” There are so many things that I would do just because I know more now. I think I’m a much better director and I could help guide people to reach a better outcome. I’ve joked that it would be a fun thing to do. I could do that … or I can go on and make better and more interesting episodes for the future for now.
For more articles by Eric Shirey, check out:
Interview: Sam Witwer Talks About Playing Darth Maul for ‘The Clone Wars’
Interview with ‘Boba Fett’ Actor Daniel Logan for ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’
Interview: ‘Clone Wars’ Voice Actor Nika Futterman Talks About Assajj Ventress
Eric Shirey is the founder and former editor of Rondo Award nominated movie news websites MovieGeekFeed.com and TheSpectralRealm.com. His work has been featured on Yahoo!, DC Comics, StarWars.com, and other entertainment websites. Eric has interviewed and worked with actors like Harrison Ford, Brooke Shields, Kenneth Branagh, Gerard Butler, Brendan Fraser, Selena Gomez, and many more.
