Our interview with Helidubai helicopter pilot Andy Nettleton, who worked on the Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens shoot in Abu Dhabi last year, has certainly got the Star Wars buzz going again in the international media, not least because of his revelation that British actor Simon Pegg was on the set.
Pegg had previously admitted he visited the movie's Pinewood set, but has strenuously denied he will be appearing in the movie. If indeed that is the case and he was visiting the set purely as a fan – he is a good friend of director J J Abrams, after working with him on the Mission Impossible films and the rebooted Star Trek movies – then fair enough.
However... Abu Dhabi is a very long way to travel just to have a look at a movie set. Especially when you’ve already seen the main set at Pinewood. Make of that what you will.
In the interests of critical theory, here are few other main things we've learnt from our interviews with Nettleton and his fellow pilot Andrew Masterson:
#1 Simon Pegg
I'm very disappointed in you. You've been in Abu Dhabi, seemingly to work on Star Wars, and you never got in touch. I'm not some fly-by-night post-Mission Impossible fan, you know? I'm not even a massive fan of Star Trek if I'm honest. I'm an old school, own the Big Train Box Set, used to actually stay in on a Friday night to watch Spaced and can-probably-recite-the-script-better-than-you-these-days type. I've stuck by you through films of debatable quality such as Paul and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. And you never even gave me a shout when you got to Abu Dhabi. Not even a quick coffee in Starbucks, Qasr Al Sarab. You knew I was watching. "Anyone for a bourbon," indeed.
#2 Airspace
I thought this was probably made up to put us off last year. To recap, you may remember the fateful day, almost exactly a year ago, when The National published what are widely regarded as being the first on-set photos of the new Star Wars movie as workers rolled the foot of an AT-AT out of a tent in the Western region's desert.
We went back the next morning (at 5am, Simon, we didn’t hang around) but by then the photos had been plastered around the international media and the site had been cleared overnight.
Our next plan was to hire a helicopter and find out where the mystery object had been taken – but we were told that the airspace had been closed.
That seemed a bit extreme and an excuse to put us off, but it turns out we were correctly informed. “All of the airports in the area, including the military, close airspace where they know we’ll be flying,” said Nettleton.
#3 CGI
On a positive note, the fact J J Abrams had helicopters acting as markers for TIE Fighters and the Millennium Falcon at least further demonstrates that the director has abandoned George Lucas’ much maligned turn towards green-screen technology and CGI for his prequel trilogy. I’m inclined to book a flight with HeliDubai and find out whether they can make the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs.
#4 Pilots
Are there really only two ‘motion picture-approved’ pilots in the Middle East? Both working for HeliDubai? Either they must be really busy, or the numerous videos taken from aircraft circling the Burf Khalifa, Burj Al Arab, Atlantis, et al have been filmed by amateurs. What would the Union of Motion Picture-Approved Middle East Helicopter Pilots have to say about that? All two of the members.
#5 Editing
“As soon as the footage is shot, it’s put in a secure safe or box, then carried by hand and flown back to the States for editing,” said Nettleton. If the footage is all being flown back to the States for editing, it rather makes you wonder what the production crew at Star Wars’ HQ in Pinewood Studios, London has been doing for all this time. We have it on good authority that some interns from twofour54 Abu Dhabi are working there, so we’ll find out just how long those teas breaks are as soon as we can tear them away from daytime TV.
#6 Fairy things
When asked about the costumes he’d seen on the set, Nettleton said: “There were big fairy things, sasquatch [Chewbacca] and dwarfs dressed in ragged clothes.”
I’m going to assume “fairy” means “furry”, or has Abrams decided to extend the franchise’s reach to the eight-year-old girl demographic, with a new subplot in which the queen of the fairies has to rescue her magic tiara from the clutches of an enchanted stormtrooper? While we’re being pedantic – it’s a wookie, not a sasquatch...
#7 Security
“Very strict, with a boundary well away from the actual scenes we were shooting miles into the desert,” says Nettleton. He’s not kidding!
#8 Millennium Falcon
"In the case of the Millennium Falcon, there was a mock-up of part of the ship and I had to then simulate a departure from the ground behind it, while being CGI shot at and with real explosions going off around me – all at a safe distances. The camera angles compress the shots to make them look closer than they are and the explosives are actually minimal charges with very little explosive quality. They are directed charges so all of the energy in the explosions is sent in a particular direction and so contained. On the 'action' call, we go flying through the scene. The Millennium Falcon will be put in using CGI, but all of the actual flying on camera is real."
I think I might need a lie down now. December can’t come soon enough.
• Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is due to be released on December 18
cnewbould@thenational.ae
