updated Wednesday, January 18, 2006 3:57 PM

It wouldn't be a Star Wars film without a cockpit, now would it? Much of the film takes place in the Jinkuru Freighter, and we needed a set that would allow enough different angles to keep the sequences interesting. Also, we had to keep the cost down to under $300 and build the set in under a week, so we turned to our amazing friend Andy Cheatham to help us achieve our goal.

Andy and I sat down and watched scenes from "The Empire Strikes Back" for inspiration, and in the mystical way that only Andy can, he saw immediately how to build something that would feel similar, look awesome, and remain easy to use and ridiculously inexpensive.

The back wall is the first piece Andy constructs. Here is it finally being stood up. Andy and Kitty generously donated their soon-to-be-remodeled living room as the work-space to keep us out of the cold December air. The rest of the structure relies on the sturdiness of this back piece, so Andy is sure to support it vigorously.

Much of the depth of the cockpit will be an illusion created by having adjustable side panels made out of a very durable foam (that black and silver stuff at Home Depot that goes for less than $10 a sheet... this stuff is the miracle substance). Since we don't have the money or time to build a 'full' set, we're using perspective to give you the sense of space.

We grabbed two old seats out of a Starcraft conversion van at the local junkyard and Andy assembled them on an elevated 'bomb-proof' platform. Andy is so cool, he kept the seats adjustable.This is us taking a wee break and enjoying his handiwork!

Detail, dimension, and shape are everything, so we spent the next three hours attaching things to the plywood. I shaped and cut the foam into designs and support structures while Andy brilliantly constructed the door moulding and attached the obligatory random junk that we found for next-to-nothing at a construction surplus store. Looking better already!!! I asked Andy to pose for a few shots so I could investigate camera angles.

And here's how we left her for the night, ready for a coat of primer in the morning, spraypaint in the afternoon, and lights in the evening. Still left to build is the dashboard and center control-console, and the seats are going to be painted and taped to lose that cushy blue-velvet look.


Weekend of the Shoot

On Thursday, Andy laid on a primer coat and then we went to Home Depot and picked out an orange color to form the foundation on which we would detail. Believe it or not, having an orange under-layer over which you spraypaint black and silver gave the cockpit an incredibly realistic, rusty metal feel.

Then came the big move! The soundstage was a ten-minute drive away, so we rented a large U-Haul and Jeffrey, Andy and me loaded the cockpit into the truck and reassembled it at the soundstage. Andy had designed it so that all the pieces were held together by large nylon cable ties ($2.95 at Home Depot) and hinges, so assembly was a breeze. Everyone was there, and by 2 PM every hand on deck was working on painting and lighting the set. The whole detailing process took all of Friday and Saturday.

Here's Mark modeling Bando's seat. Notice the first of many light arrays behind him and the lack of a door. We drilled holes through the foam and inserted Christmas lights from the back. Then we glued metal washers around the drill-holes to give the impression of the lights actually emitting from some structure.

And here is Martin having too much fun with Photoshop...

All this detailing work is hard! We couldn't open any doors for the majority of the spraypainting, so we had to take turns running out to the hall and breathing. Martin had one of his patented Allergy Attacks™ from his paint mask and all of us got pretty dizzy. Notice how Jeffrey "looks" high from all the fumes...

Here's Steph modeling the enemy paint-mask...

Starting to look like a cockpit now? The once blue-velvet seats have been covered in two huge rolls of black duct tape to give us that Original Trilogy feel for our freighter. Transparencies that Luke designed and printed out were placed into the foam walls and with a light shone through them do an AMAZING computer-screen impression.

Below you can see Sahn and Bando (Dan and Mark) before the first shot on Sunday getting used to the Jinkuru Freighter. The dots behind them are actually small holes we drilled in the plywood. We had run out of Christmas lights and needed a way to get more lights into the cockpit, so Martin suggested that we drill the holes and then shine a light through them from behind.

We refined this technique later for use in the fighter cockpit, where we taped party gels behind the holes to give the lights different colors. To give the blinking light effect, someone from the crew stood behind the cockpit and covered random holes with their fingers.

It sounds ridiculous, but you won't believe how good this looks.

You'll notice from earlier that we built the control console far too small, so what we ended up doing was detaching it from the chair-mount and cheating it much closer to the camera. The forced-perspective makes it look like we built a large console in front of the actors, but in fact it was right in front of the camera! We couldn't afford to build a real command-console for the actors to interact with, so the actors had to pretend there were nobs and switches in front of them and reach off-camera to give the impression of controlling the ship. The illusion is completed by the addition of sound-effects, good lighting, and good acting.

Here's a still from the first take of the first shot in the new cockpit. No one in attendance could believe how good it looked...

After an exhaustive but incredibly satisfying shoot that didn't end until 6 AM on Monday morning (totaling 20 hours), the time came to strike the set. Before we dismantled our hard work, we decided to pose for a few glamour shots. We were exhausted but happy, content in the knowledge that we had done our best work yet!

And so ended the cockpit shoot, an amazing cooperative effort that went from start to finish in ONE WEEK FLAT and was built for less than $250! How's that for a movie miracle!!!