‘Star Wars Begins’:-
https://vimeo.com/32442801 - at the Filmumentaries - Jamie Benning vimeo channel. (A 2011 Documentary - 139 mins)
The blurb:-
"Filmmaker Jamie Benning has finally finished his trilogy of documentary-commentaries. This final chapter concentrates on the first Star Wars film. Like his two previous documentaries, Building Empire (2006) and Returning to Jedi (2007), Star Wars Begins is an unofficial look at the creation of the classic movie and features deleted scenes, alternate takes and different angles, bloopers, original on set audio recordings and a huge amount of commentary from cast and crew, culled from every corner of the galaxy.
What’s interesting about the format is that Benning’s documentary is feature-length, and follows the flow of the original movie itself with the deleted scenes added where they would have been, with interviews placed over the top of the action they’re describing. The overall effect is much more engrossing than a DVD commentary track and the wealth of material contained makes it well worth sitting through the entire runtime of 2hrs 18mins.
If you’ve never seen the deleted scenes of Jabba the Hutt or Biggs Darklighter on Tatooine, or heard David Prowse saying Vader’s dialogue, then you will get a real kick out of this. Many reviews and comments have centered on the fact that it’s like watching your favourite movie but from an entirely different perspective.
Benning has obviously invested rather a lot of time and effort into creating this film, and the other two parts of his own trilogy. Lets hope that on the forthcoming Blu-Ray box set LFL will go into as much detail and exude as much love for the subject matter as these films do."
IMDB Page
OT•com thread
‘Building Empire’:-
https://vimeo.com/36158111 - at the Filmumentaries - Jamie Benning vimeo channel. (A 2006 Documentary. 137 mins)
The blurb:-
“Building Empire is an unofficial commentary on The Empire Strikes Back. Starting with the movie itself, it adds behind the scenes footage, audio interviews with the cast and crew, alternate angles, reconstructed scenes, text facts and more to give an in-depth look at the process which brought the film to the big screen.”
IMDB Page
OT•com thread
‘Returning To Jedi’:-
https://vimeo.com/36474256 - at the Filmumentaries - Jamie Benning vimeo channel. (A 2007 Documentary. 148 mins)
The blurb:-
“Returning to Jedi is an in-depth look at the making of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. It features rare alternate takes, production audio, on-screen facts, cast and crew commentary, storyboards, behind the scenes footage and reconstructed scenes.”
IMDB Page
OT•com thread
Jambe Davdar (aka Jamie Benning) has also produced some other quality Star Wars projects and content, too…
Slimy Piece of Worm-Ridden Filth - Life Inside Jabba the Hutt - a mini documentary about puppeteer Toby Philpott work on Jabba the Hutt for Return of the Jedi, and more…
Return of the Jedi - Special Location Effects - Kevin Pike talks to Jambe about his location special effects work on ROTJ.
Do or Do Not - a mini documentary about the team who brought Yoda to life…
Star Wars In Numbers - a short fun video pointing out some interesting facts.
Blast it Biggs! Where are you?! - Jambe talks with Garrick Hagon, aka Biggs, about his role in Star Wars.
Robert Watts - A Life In Film - fascinating interview with the production manger of SW, who then became a producer on ESB & ROTJ.
as well as outtakes and rare scenes from the Original Trilogy too.
And also some non-Star Wars projects - covering films such as Back To The Future, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Labyrinth and Chinatown - amongst others.
There are also many interviews with people who contributed to the making of the Original Trilogy (as well as other Star Ware content, Lucasfilm releases, and other quality films and TV series in general) in Jamie’s Filmumentaries podcast series…
The Filmumentaries Podcast - OT•com thread by Jamie Benning
