TFA filmed in an outdoor tank (a return to Otoh Gunga?)...

No Gungans. I'd be happy to see Naboo get obliterated in the opening scene of The Force Awakens.

 

Mon Calamari homeworld?

Was this guy onto something:

He (Luke) leaves his friends and lives in solitude on Mon Cal in a fortress of some Blast old sith lord because the dark side that clouds the place puts him in chains.

 

That was my first thought, too. Not sure I like the idea of Luke on Mon Cal, seems a bit unnecessary, tbh. Could possibly be a boat crossing to the Skellig set? Would make sense to film that in a tank if the conditions are rough (for safety) or if the scene required a giant sea monster (which would be easier to composite if filmed in a controlled environment, and also safer if CGI.)

 

I thought mon cal first too, but also, didn't they have an assault coming from an ocean in RoTS on Kashyyk as well as some underwater scenes in the clone wars?

 

No, my phone made a duplicate of MY post in this thread. I edited it so you wouldn't have to read it twice.

 

this stage CAN be used to film more than just underwater scenes.
here it is without water.

 

Unless the perspective is misleading, doesn't look like the tank is really all that deep. Maybe more useful as scenes on the surface of a body of water than under it. Wonder of they have any wave generation capability in there as well to make it look like it is more than just a small lake. Possibly a double for the shores of Skellig Michael?

 

Good point @Rogue 13!

 

That's what makes the most sense to me at the moment. In fact it doesn't even need to be a boat crossing, just a bit of exterior set stuff that requires the water to be there...

Indeed. Although I doubt they would choose that stage, without utilising what it is actually designed to do, unless it was out of necessity (all the other available stages already being used)...

Yeah - that is precisely what this exterior stage is for. The "underwater" stage is a separate thing altogether.

 

Yeah, I was just looking at the Pinewood site and saw the underwater stage listed as next to the outdoor tank. However, the underwater stage was not listed as one of the stages used by TFA.

Underwater Stage: http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/our-studios/uk/pinewood-studios/water-filming/underwater-stage
Exterior Tank: http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/our-studios/uk/pinewood-studios/water-filming/exterior-tank
TFA: http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/production/star-wars-force-awakens

 

Well. To clear 1 thing out.
Maybe they have filmed there w/ actors and we dont know anythign about it.
Or/And they are filming thenes without actors. That could mean that they are filming unterwater battles? Underwater or floating towns from Mon Cal if it is indeed in the movie. And flying scenes too like in Ep 4-6 but with bigger models not like 1:46 more like 1:3 and X-Wings are in 1:1 size we know that.

I would love to see a BIG swamp scene. Like Dagobah but bigger, deeper water and more plants, amybe big animatronic animals. Imagine what they can do there. *AWESOME*

 

And looking back at my earlier post, I realise it looks like I'm contradicting myself a bit.
I presumed people were using "underwater" has shorthand for meaning the set is covered with water, rather than having action filmed underneath the water!
So what I meant earlier was that I doubt they would book time on that exterior stage and have it completely dry, and yes, the underwater stage - for fillming underwater - is not the one being used.

 

My guess: Daisy's character crash lands near the island. Go to Skellig Michael. Finds crazy Luke. A throwback to the dagobah scene in ESB?

 

Depends how she arrives I suppose...

 

http://media.radiokerry.ie/mediamanager/embed/player/podcasts/9/item/29476

^ They said the Irish board was first contacted in February 2014 about filming there. At first, the production was pushing for filming to happen in early July but there was pushback for it to happen instead in September. The end of July was reached as some sort of compromise. The production had to provide details as to who would be there and where on the island they would film. Some information was blacked out and redacted, but the journalist says that a character was filmed on the lower staircase on the island and he believes the monastic huts will be featured.

 

Yeah, some of the activity was definitely focused around those domes... and Hamill and Ridley were both there...


Getting back to sets and stages, a couple of other things became apparent to me looking at the pics on the official Pinewood site...

Firstly, the Falcon interior set is clearly built on Pinewood's L or M Stages (looks more likely the M to me); the nature of the brownish panels on the walls is pretty distinctive if you compare them, and the dimensions appear to match up.


Which if you look closely enough, seems to confirm that these pics which surfaced in August were probably legit...


Either that, or someone has done a lot of research and gone to a lot of effort to include the exact same power points and that white tubing running around the circumference of the stage through the open door - on top of actually going to the effort of building the Falcon ramp in the first place. I reckon it is more likely they were genuine set pics.