When fans tear open the boxed set “Star Wars Trilogy” DVD, they get more than the beloved first three films of the series — “Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” — for their home collections. Independent producer Gary Leva has packed the long-awaited release with juicy Star Wars goodies, including three audio commentaries to play along with the features and three mini-documentaries.

“Making these ‘Star Wars’ extras was a treat for me,” says Leva. “So many of the motifs and characters in these films are part of world culture now, and I think fans are going to enjoy learning where they came from. There are definitely some fun surprises in there.”

Leva edited all three documentaries with Final Cut Pro, then saved time and money in the online process by taking advantage of a new service offered by his colleagues at post-production house Alpha Dogs. Dubbed Digital Service Station (DSS), the facility offers editors a cost-effective way to capture camera tapes onto computer drives for non-linear editing.

“With DSS,” says Alpha Dogs president Terence Curren, “editors don’t have to buy or rent expensive equipment or hire additional staff. They can drop off their tapes for us to digitize, or do it themselves on our dedicated bays.”

Peeking Behind the Scenes

Leva’s three mini-features include “The Birth of the Lightsaber,” which tells how George Lucas developed the Lightsaber weapon; “The Characters of Star Wars,” which covers their evolution from inception to on-screen form; and “The Force Is With Them: The Legacy of ‘Star Wars,’” which treats the series’ influence on leading filmmakers.

Each title has interviews with cast and crew including George Lucas, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, as well as never-seen images and footage from the original movies.

The audio commentaries feature George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, director Irvin Kershner, sound designer Ben Burtt and visual effects whiz Dennis Muren. Fans can listen to their running commentaries at normal volume as each movie scene plays at low volume in the background. “Watching the film this way gives you tremendous insight into the filmmaking process,” says Leva.

As writer, director, editor and producer of the bonus materials, Leva managed the project from start to finish. “I did the interviews for the documentaries, then I assembled the stills and clips and concept art and began editing,” he relates.

“For the audio tracks, I recorded the comments of each person as we watched scenes, then edited them so it sounds as if they’re all in the same room watching the film together.”

A Wealth of Material

“Final Cut Pro is excellent for this sort of project,” notes Leva, “where we had material from so many sources. For the ‘Characters’ documentary, I used a great deal of digital artwork, jpegs and tifs and so on. Final Cut Pro makes it so easy to import and export digital files and QuickTime movies, and pass your project among a crew of filmmakers.”

Leva continues, “I was editing one of the documentaries and co-editing another, and because we were all using the same program we were able to transfer our media to other drives and give it to the other editors. They would give me a cut as a Final Cut Pro project with links to the media in my system, so we didn’t have to run from editing room to editing room.”

“So many of the motifs and characters in these films are part of world culture now, and fans are going to enjoy learning where they came from. There are definitely some fun surprises in there.”

He even credits Final Cut Pro with enabling him to strike out on his own. “I used Avid for years,” says Leva, “and the transition to Final Cut Pro has been a boon for our business. We’re a small company, so affordability is an issue. At the old prices — what it costs to buy Avid systems — I could not have started my own business.”

What’s more, Alpha Dogs’ DSS helps Leva keep costs down. “When we’re doing a big project like ‘Star Wars’ and smaller jobs come along too, I don’t have to hire additional staff — we can pass some of the work to Alpha Dogs.”

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