Ahsoka cinematographer Eric Steelberg recently implied that the show’s production was rushed and the series’ budget had been reduced compared to previous Lucasfilm Star Wars productions for Disney+.
(L-R): Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
Steelberg spoke with The Direct telling the outlet, “The whole production was pretty challenging, I’d say very challenging, in all aspects: creative, technical. It was the most I’d ever been asked to do in the shortest amount of time I’ve ever been asked to do it at a level of competency that… I’ve said before, it was like being thrown on to the Olympic team and possibly not being really ready for that.”
He added, “But yeah, in terms of the hardest… I don’t know what the most difficult was.”
(L-R): Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) with Peridea bandits and howlers in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Steelberg went on to inform the outlet, “Despite how hard it seemed, I was so excited to jump in and try it… And of course it could be done like anything can be done. You just gotta do it, you just gotta figure it out.”
“And if you don’t, if you don’t have the luxury to necessarily solve it with finances, you solve it creatively, and we had to do that all the time, with these things that were written that seem very, very complicated,” he relayed. “And that’s in all the episodes. And you knew it was all gonna get done one way or the other because it had to. And that’s what Dave [Filoni] wanted. So, it was just fantastic. I jumped all into it.”
(L-R): Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Not only did Steelberg imply the show’s production was rushed and the budgets had been reduced, but he also indicated that Filoni and Lucasfilm were treating the series as “its own thing” and “a new thing.”
He said, “”You know, honestly, as far as the things that he told me and the conversations I had with him, no, I mean, we were treating this as its own thing. A new thing. And though this show has its roots in animated series, it very much is its own thing and… in terms of live action goes, we’re starting over with, ‘Let’s look…’”
“In visual storytelling, practical, live-action shooting doesn’t have many things related to… the style of the way you do animation,” he explained. “So, beyond the exact shots we copied at the end of Episode 2 with Sabine and the mural, there was nothing specifically referenced in that way. It was more discussions about themes and tone that we had.”
(L-R): Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved
Steelberg also revealed that every shot he took was indeed used in the show.
“Everything we shot is in the final cut,” he declared. “And I mean, honestly, every episode that I worked on has such great stuff in it. The ones that were given to me, I was more than happy with the content and the opportunities that I got to do.”
As an example, he shared, “I mean, Thrawn’s arrival and Hayden’s introduction are some pretty cool things to be able to figure out. So, that was pretty exciting and had my hands full with those things. But, it was pretty great. And I’m glad there were, in the other episodes that I didn’t do, there were also fantastic things happening, obviously. Like Episode 5 and the finale also come to mind. Just really special.”
Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved
Finally, Steelberg detailed that they were shooting multiple episodes at the same time when he was asked if he worked on the younger Ahsoka scenes starring Ariana.
He informed the outlet, “I didn’t have any input on that, to be quite honest. They were shooting that while I was shooting… Episode 4. And then the shooting of Episode 5, there was a little bit of overlap.”
He added, “So, I had my hands quite full with the other things. But I got to– I mean, I was on set for some of that stuff. But yeah, I wasn’t really involved in as much as… it would have been fun to be.”
(L-R): Aktropaw (Jeryl Prescott Gallien), Klothow (Claudia Black) and Lakesis (Jane Edwina Seymour) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Steelberg’s comments echo those of Katee Sackhoff and her comments about The Mandalorian. On her BlahBlahBlah YouTbe show with The Mandalorian director Bryce Dallas Howard, Sackhoff claimed the production is rushed.
She said, “That’s why I tell people that Mando is like — they’re always so confused why it takes so long for us to shoot and why the episodes are in their mind so short.”
“And I’m like, ‘There are so many moving parts to this that you have no idea.’ We’re lucky that we finish as fast as we do. We’re rushed all the time and the fact that we finish is crazy,” she said.
(L-R): A Night Trooper, Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
However, in contrast to Steelberg insinuating the budgets had been reduced, Sackhoff told Howard The Mandalorian had huge budgets compared to previous shows she worked on.
“So the biggest difference for me — I mean budget is massive. Budget is completely different. I’ve never worked on something with a budget this big. … Our catering budget is probably the entire budget of Battlestar Galactica, granted that was 20 years ago,” she said.
Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) with purrgil in a scene from Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
As for the idea that the show was shooting multiple episodes at the same, Armorer actress Emily Swallow made similar comments back in April to Discussing Film.
Swallow shared, “We’re usually shooting more than one episode at a time because we have two crews going at the same time. So we’ll jump back and forth between episodes while filming the whole season, in between different directors.”
“Everyone has to keep track of where they are with their characters and where they are in the story. The directors have to also keep track of where they’re fitting into the overall arc of the season,” Swallow elaborated.
“I feel like all of the directors are very generous in terms of wanting to serve the overall story, no one is trying to commandeer their particular episode or put a stamp on it in any sort of way that takes away from the rest of the show,” she concluded.
(L-R): Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
What do you make of Steelberg’s comments regarding Ahsoka?
Disney/ Lucasfilm, come with me if you want to hope again! https://youtu.be/kCXV4jSC8zU?feature=shared
1:09:15 – 38 takes? That’s Kubrick’s amount, coming from a such a small-time director.
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