Author Phil Szostak Shares New Details On The Process of Creating His ‘Art of Star Wars’ Books – Part 2
Phil Szostak’s behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making his ‘Art of Star Wars’ books continues. In part two of our coverage, the creative Art manager for Lucasfilm, author of ABRAMS books The Art of The Force Awakens, The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the recent The Art of The Last Jedi shares interesting details about the process of gathering art, designing book layouts, making adjustments on the fly and things that might have been. Check it out!
In case you missed our coverage of part 1, Phil Szostak, the author of this May’s The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story, gave us unique insight and details into the creative ideas that went into building his “Art of” books structure, character development, and design, as well as location usage within the films.
Phil’s most recent Tweets take a look at gathering art, designing book layouts, and making adjustments. Check out all of his tweets below….
More on my Art of #StarWars book process…
4. Gathering art: While conducting interviews, I ask the creature, costume & art department (encompassing graphics, props & set dec) & any in-house Lucasfilm/@ILMVFX artists for their art selects, usually 30-50 pieces per artist. pic.twitter.com/rs0jfAHRyP— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
Those plus the “moviescape” (the production designer’s 150+ approved selects that visually run thru the entire film) form the core of what goes into the book. On top of that, I look through every single art folder in the production database, tens of thousands of pieces. pic.twitter.com/wIKVBD4CnX
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
As Lucasfilm’s creative art manager, I have eyes on & am responsible for teeing-up concept art across all live-action projects for dissemination internally & to licensees. So even when I’m not the author of an Art of #StarWars book, gathering this art is a part of my day job. pic.twitter.com/ZF5PYhV20x
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
Looking thru all of those folders, I find some real gems which otherwise would never see the light of day. I also pull key frames from hi-res videos of @BLIND_LTD’s UI graphics. 1000s of selects get boiled down to the 500 or so which I attempt to squeeze into the initial layout. pic.twitter.com/SRSAmlOUln
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
Some pieces I found by digging around #TheLastJedi’s art department server included the ancient Jedi text pages, the Ahch-To island map and the exploded-view illustrations of the stormtrooper & Captain Phasma helmets. #StarWars pic.twitter.com/nlSyt7mRsk
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
5. Layout: Based on my previously-determined book structure, I use InDesign to start laying out the book chapter by chapter. What art ends up in this preliminary “bookmap” is completely up to me & my sense of what’s interesting/aesthetically pleasing. pic.twitter.com/UuEfpuAqvH
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
I was a film/animation major in art school but am a total novice book designer, self-taught in InDesign. So my bookmap is a bit rough & overstuffed w/ art. Despite the stress of trying to squeeze everything I love into the layout, this is one of my favorite parts of the process. pic.twitter.com/S54nkuWg2M
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
The bookmap is the first thing I turn in to the publisher. Over the next bunch of months, Liam Flanagan at @ABRAMSbooks takes my layout and makes it look good, adding new pieces & making adjustments as needed. But my core layout choices/structure are retained throughout. pic.twitter.com/PSWBg2Gru7
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
I’ll get into the finer details of how the layout gets whittled down & refined when I chat about the editorial process at a future date. And next time, I’ll get into the real panic-inducing meat of making these books: writing the manuscript! Seacrest, out.
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) March 11, 2018
We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we gather more information on this!
The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story hit stores May 25th. The book is currently available for pre-order via: AMAZON
May the Force be with you….
Interesting use of the cycle of the moon in the Jedi texts. Does the balance of the force wax and wane, so its a natural cycle between light and dark in ascendance.
Love the artwork as well – very talented.
I do like that interpretation, even the phase of the moon which can look more light or dark from a particular point of view at any given moment is in reality always a sphere that is half light and half dark. It supports the idea of light or dark generating its equal from the other
“These go to eleven.”
I’d like to know why they didn’t use the ancient symbols for light and dark somewhere, I want to know if they weren’t aware of this (wich is what I think) or if they just didn’t wanted to. They used the jedi symbol so…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4e7a62a36432aaf175b88c9e06690710740e7264a64c5a43b04df900cbf883c1.png
Did you see the video where Ryan Johnson shows his Jedi and Sith books? They’re aware of everything Star Wars man. They may have decided they didn’t like these and chose not to go with them.
Obviously they are not aware of everything, did you see the movie? they screw up almost everything…
I have to say this force projection thing from the book, is one of the things I liked.
Just because they didn’t use what you wanted them to in the movie, does not mean they are aware of it.
Also, it’s your opinion that they “screw up everything”.
It is just a question, if they used the jedi symbol, why didnt they were consistent with the light/dark symbols too? just a question, not a complain, just a question.
And yes, it is my opinion indeed, I sincerely think that way, but I’m not the only one.
Because maybe they didn’t like them? They’re pretty blah. And they had no real presence in the Star Wars Universe except in games, which I believe they were specifically created for. The seal of the Jedi Order has been more visible in Star Wars media; but it was still altered too.
You may not be the only one, but I don’t see a flood of people here defending these things like they’re one of the most sacred parts of Star Wars.
LOLOLOLOL.
What aren’t they aware of?
The new directors make the story and the story group team says if it is possible or not, it is obvious RJ and of course KK, are not aware of everything. And the story group is not directing or dictating what to do, because in this case writer/director RJ is making the movie. Each one of them have different responsibilities, so its very posible that Rian doesn’t know a lot of stuff a bout Star Wars 🙂
You said “Obviously they are not aware of everything, did you see the movie? they screw up almost everything…”
What in the movie makes it obvious they aren’t aware of something?
Because as you said, the story group would knows this stuff and would figure out a way to make it work.
So, based on TLJ, what did they screw up?
Before responding to your comment, I want to say that I don’t like the movie, but I liked some parts like the force projection, and other stuff, thats why I say “almost everything”.
Maybe “aware” is not the right word, but just to mention one thing, humor, it looks like they don’t realize what is funny in SW, this is just one example, or if you want they are aware of everything and maybe they just didn’t want to use what it is and “invent” their own SW rules instead (lol). Or maybe Rian Jonson have a book where is explained that Porgs are funny, and Chewbacca needs to cook his food first.
The story group may say if something is possible or not, and maybe sugest, but they will not tell the director what to do, they don’t figure out what to do, thats the director/writer job.
They screw up with charcter development, just to mention one thing, Snoke, Luke, Rey, almost every character is wasted, can you tell me what Rey learn? as luke did in ESB, And I’m not talking about the spontaneous abilities she got, but what she really earn because of her training or effort.
The movie is like a big pause in the trilogy story, where half of the main character were killed, it is not a step forward in the story, just a misstep that JJ should fix 🙂
Those symbols look kind of backwards to me. The ‘dark’ symbol looks like an explosion or glare coming off something, both of which would suggest light. Then the ‘light’ symbol looks a like it suggests an eclipse or cloud, both of which tend to create darkness.
I like that both symbols are made with the same shapes, only in the light the explosion is inside and in the dark the explosion is outside. I sincerely prefer this more than the yin yang they used. I understand that the symbol used is more like a prime jedi, but I wish they had used the dark/ligh one somewhere in the jedi temple, or the jedi texts.
What era are the ones you posted from? Perhaps the temple is meant to be older than they are. It is nice that they include each other in the two icons, I did think that part was clever, again it says you can’t see the light without the darkness and vice versa
I’m sure you are right, I just know this is ancient, If Ach-to’s temple is the first temple, maybe that symbols were conceived later, or maybe the people in the temple werent aware of the symbols.
But my actual question is if they (LFL/Rian Jonson) decided not to use it or werent aware of them, I know Pablo and company know all this, but not necesarely RJ.
Probably wanted to create their own design.
The bar painting looks way more classic SW than the ones we’ve gotten in the three Disney Wars films so far.
I want a Star Wars movie (or series) that really examines the day to day life. I don’t know about you, but when Rey was living in that AT-AT and making food. I was enthralled! I’m not saying there isn’t a plot or some adventure the characters wouldn’t get sucked into. I just want that grounded approach that makes it feel like your there.
Sort of like the new Blade Runner. You got a great sense of that world. I realize it may not be popular with wider audiences. Maybe just an odd experiment they could try on their streaming service.
Oh… the reason I brought this up was the artwork has that feeling of being intimate with the surroundings. Draws you in.
I suspect that when we get the live action series there will be a lot more of what you’re after
I want a Star Wars movie, where we just see a Star Destroyer floating through different star systems, similar to these rail-road-tracks-“movies”. I was so stunned by the Star Destroyer scene in the Solo trailer (the only thing that got me interested), I could watch it fly for two hours, without getting bored.
I actually get you here. The Star Destroyer is pretty much my favorite battleship design in sci-fi.
That sounds like the type of story that would thrive in the video or role playing game medium. I used to play West End Game’s Star Wars RPG with friends – back before we all had careers and children. Depending on the adventure or how the GM ran the game, there would be room for that sort of thing.
I’m currently playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild with my sons. It’s a fantastic game and there is quite a bit of just day-to-day “living” as you work around to the different quests: eating, making potions, knocking around the different towns, training your horses – that sort of thing. I don’t know how much of this thing exists outside of Breath of the Wild (I play very, very few video games) but it’s rather fun.