We did it!
Over a year in the making, we finally shot the Star Wars / Black Milk collaboration in Death Valley NP this past November! The logistics of this little enterprise was on the challenging side, but the 'crew' we had to pull this off was amazing.
TL;DR Stats
* miles driven: 800
* fuel used: ~50 gallons
* average MPG: 16 (not bad for a 4 ton, 8 foot tall truck)
* number of 'check engine' lights: 2 (same code though)
* crew size: 7
* number of shoot locations: 3 (Stovepipe Wells Dunes, Artist's Palette, and 20 Mule Team Canyon)
* length of shooting day, including transit & lunch: 9 hours
* number of broken equipment: 1
* number of frames captured: ~500
Before we even arrived in DV on Sunday afternoon, it was fraught with anxiety. Our newly acquired land-yacht, a 2003 Ford Excursion diesel, decided to greet us with its 'Check Engine' light between the towns of Ridgecrest and Trona, an area with absolutely no cell phone reception. Or services. Thankfully, the truck did not display any signs of degraded performance and we soldiered on, but with my eyes glued to the Edge programmer and Scangauge.
Arriving at the park none the worse for wear, our first stop was Stovepipe Wells Dunes (or Mesquite Dunes, depending on who you ask) to find a shooting location with the angle we needed to match the landscape in "A New Hope". After the usual 'two steps forward, one step back' trudge through the sand, we were able to find a location that not only had the background we needed, but was in an area remote enough to satisfy our other requirements: not visible from the road & parking area and away from the high traffic path so people don't stumble onto our makeshift set. Our luck was finally beginning to change.
Since we were exhausted, hungry, and full of sand, we made a bee-line for the Atomic Inn in the town of Beatty, NV where we would be based out of for the remainder of our stay. After much needed showers, we ended the day with an always pleasant meal at KC's Outpost, a short hop away from the motel.
Day 2 in Death Valley was dedicated to final reconnaissance of the remaining shoot locations. At this point, I had decided to cut down the number to a total of 3 areas vs. my much rosier projection of 5. As we would realize the next day, it was a wise decision.
As a quick aside, we were very fortunate to run into the 'ghost town' of Carrara, where the ruins of an old mill that used to process marble quarried from the nearby mountains. It is an absolutely fascinating place to explore if you ever find yourself traveling on highway 95 just south of Beatty. Far more ruins that can be explored than a lot of the others I've visited.
That evening, our models Shelby and Sophia arrived along with their makeup artist, Myriah, and two other friends. Another meal at KC's and we were inspired to go stargazing in the nearby ghost town of Rhyolite. The night was clear, crisp, and moon-less which lent itself to spectacular views of the stars and glimpse of the Milky Way. I swear we could have stayed there the entire night, but, alas, we had a 6 AM roll-out (which meant 4 AM wake-ups for Shelby, Sophia, and Myriah for make up, OUCH!) and we headed back to town for the night.
Day 3. Judgement Day. Well, ok, it wasn't that dramatic, but I really did feel the pressures of getting this right, and right on the "first take". There was no time for re-shoots that day and the distance/remoteness of the location meant that coming back was not an option either, although I know I speak for all of us when I say that we wouldn't have minded coming back.
First location of the day was Stovepipe Wells dunes since it's one of, if not the most popular area of the park. With no less than 40 lbs of equipment on me, I was kicking myself for picking out a spot that was a 1/2 mile trek from the parking area. But once we got there, it was easy to see why we chose it. Not a soul or whisper aside from ours as far as the eye could see.
Unfortunately, the wide open nature of the dunes made it extremely windy. Constant wind + 84" parabolic umbrella = broken 84" parabolic umbrella. Before I could even use it, the wind knocked down the light stand it was on, snapping the shaft and a few ribs. Even being weighed down with a 20 lb Vagabond II, a backpack full of water bottles, and being partially buried in the sand, it still managed to topple over. Thankfully though I hadn't attached the strobe yet, because that would have been a very unpleasant.
However, walking to the location was easy compared to having to pose & hold in a stiff breeze, shifting sands, and high heels. But Shelby & Sophia were absolute professionals and real troopers, which meant that we actually wrapped at the location earlier than I planned for.
A dejected Shelby after being blown over onto her spike-studded shoes for the umpteenth time.
Up next...intermission/breakfast at Furnace Creek!
Second location for the day was Artist's Palette. This is the canyon that R2D2 and C3PO travel through to get to Jabba's castle in Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.
The top image is the actual canyon with Shelby & Sophia as tiny specks and the bottom is the scene from the movie.
Set up at Artist's Palette was not nearly as dramatic as the dunes were. For starters, we were able to drive up next to the canyon with only a slight walk down a dirt trail to the wash. Being relatively early in the morning still, I was able to make do with my disc reflector and didn't need to whip out the lights which made set up far quicker. Even though I had been here previous day, the light and shadow play made lining up the geography with the scenes in the movie was a little more time-consuming than I thought. Regardless, this location was fun to shoot and all involved had a great time exploring the surrounding mini-canyons before we left. We also managed to work up a small audience of retirees who pulled out their lawn chairs to watch us shoot, most of whom remarked that they had never seen an actual photo shoot in person before. Glad to be of service ;)
Our final location of the day was 20 Mule Team Canyon, just south of Zabriskie Point, where Jabba's castle is "located". As with Artist's Palette, this was a very easy location to get to...but parking the ginormous Excursion was a bit of an issue since the one-way dirt road through the wash is very narrow and there were very few pull outs near the spot we needed with the proper views. Another challenge we had is that the wash through the canyon has changed considerably in the 30 years since Return of the Jedi was filmed.
Shelby & Sophia hamming it up at 20 Mule Team Canyon. The location of the castle in the movie was to the right of Shelby's arm.
So that's it! We returned to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to change and wash up before making the long trek back home.
Check out the full set of finished images on my website!
If y'all are interested in seeing behind the scenes pics, hop on over to Sophia's Facebook fan page and check 'em out!
Thanks for visiting!
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