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'It felt like old-fashioned film-making'

'It felt like old-fashioned film-making'

Photographer Des Willie discusses what it's like to be an on-set stills photographer for a Star Wars streaming drama

Week 18 Star Wars Andor Season 2

Huw Fullerton

For professional photographer Des Willie, the power of Star Wars’ iconography is undeniable. “The first time I saw a stormtrooper walk towards me, it was literally one of the most exciting moments of my life,” he tells RT. “It’s really, really good design — you’d recognise them from the silhouette, almost. I had the [John Williams] music in my head and I thought, ‘I’ve got to shoot this.’”

Luckily, Willie — a fan of George Lucas’s galaxy from the very first film release in 1977 — was in just the position to do so. As the official “stills” photographer for Andor, he was on set throughout the series’ production taking pictures, later editing, cropping and “grading” (adjusting colour) 30 photographs every day to present to producers for review.

“My favourite shot is the one of Cassian [Diego Luna] in the TIE fighter cockpit [see left],” he says. “You have so little time in those moments, but Diego would see me holding the camera and he’d just adopt a pose, check I’ve got it, then move on.”

While some of Willie’s pictures become behind-the-scenes material, around 70 to 80 per cent are further tinkered with by Lucasfilm in order to reflect the show — for example, in another version of the cockpit shot, visual effects (VFX) artists added in the control panel lights. The final version (see inset, below left) is transformed into what you’ll see in the finished episode.

Still, Willie stresses how “real” Andor was, compared to many other sci-fi series. Physical sets and custom-built spaceships were used wherever possible, rather than relying solely on green-screen backgrounds
and special effects.

“[Showrunner] Tony Gilroy told me, ‘We want to be real — to really build sets and use real-world lighting,” Willie says. “Obviously, CGI is still a huge part of it, but so much of it felt like old-fashioned film-making. And that’s how Star Wars started, isn’t it?”

Authors

Radio Times commissioning editor Huw Fullerton. He sits in front of a shelving unit, looking at the camera and smiling. He wears glasses and has a moustache

Huw FullertonCommissioning editor

Huw Fullerton is a commissioning editor for Radio Times magazine handling comedy, entertainment and specialist drama. In a previous regeneration, he covered all things sci-fi and fantasy for RadioTimes.com.

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