Duwayne Dunham: In Pursuit Of Perfection

Film director and film editor Duwayne Dunham is best known to Star Wars fans for his editing work on Return of the Jedi. He returned to the saga to direct two episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and tells us about the experience in the latest issue of Star Wars Insider. This taster of the interview begins with Dunham explaining how the opportunity came about...

Star Wars Insider: How did you come to work on The Clone Wars?

Duwayne Dunham: George Lucas wanted to have guest directors come in, to give his directors a rest. Also, he wanted film directors to bring a different sensibility to the animation process.

George is always saying, "Oh, give me that shot, but do this..." and the guys who draw storyboards sometimes don't understand what is needed, so I would become almost an interpreter. I would try to learn how they're doing it, but do it as if it were live action.

The first episode you directed, "Pursuit of Peace," features more intrigue than action. Was it a tough episode to direct?

The way I look at things, everything’s hard to direct. Sometimes you think, Oh, I wish I just had a story with four people in one room; but when you get one of those you think, I've got to have something else! That script that I got was very dialogue heavy and had very little, if any, action.

Did you add any action to it?

Yeah. I did. The whole speeder bike chase wasn't in my script. There was a conversation in a dark alley and it led to the chase, and I said "No, I don't want the conversation in a dark alley! I want that bar. Give me a bar or a nightclub!" So we did that nightclub scene with dancers and saxophone players. Then I said, "These guys will jump Padmé, and there's a fight, and then they'll get on this speeder bike and then the guy’ll shoot his rocket-hand-thing and it'll blow the other off his feet!"

I changed it to bring it to life, and add entertainment. It's funny, because when I was doing that, I'd be doing these shots and quite often the guys would turn to me and say, "We've never done a shot like that!"

You can read the full interview with Duwayne Dunham in Star Wars Insider #133 (US numbering), on sale now.

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