Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is getting ramping up to its 3D blu-ray collectors edition which will feature several deleted scenes as well as a commentary track with director JJ Abrams providing new insight into the production of the incredible film.
The Force Awakens struck a perfect balance between visual and practical effects to the point that it was able to trick your eye into believing a visual effect was actually practical and vice versa. Plenty of scenes featured visual effects that you would have never guessed were CGI and this morning it has been brought to our attention thanks to io9 (h/t CBR) just exactly what one of those scenes were.
In a clip, which you can view over at io9, Abrams discusses how Kylo Ren’s face was to first be revealed in the scene that introduced Supreme Leader Snoke, however. It was later decided to add Ren’s mask back onto Adam Driver in post production. This marks the second scene where Ren’s face was going to be revealed instead of when he removed his mask to show Rey he was not a monster, but a human underneath what was simply an intimidation device. The shot when he slammed his mask down into what I believe were the ashes of Darth Vader, was actually shot for the scene when Ren spoke to Vader’s mask in his chamber. The shot was lifted and then placed back into the interrogation scene later in the film. This has me wondering what other scenes Ren’s mask could have been a visual effect in but I don’t think when he spoke to Vader’s mask was one of them. I believe they actually shot that scene twice, once with Ren’s mask on and once with it off as they were still trying to figure out when the right time for the reveal was going to be. Hopefully, the 3D blu-ray will shed more light on this.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens 3D blu-ray collectors edition hits shelves November 15th.