DroidBuilders UK

Uniting all droid builders.

Working on a Tier 2 Event.

2020-03-07
By: Lee Towersey

Disney have kindly allowed me to shoot the following footage as a small insight in to what goes on behind the scenes when attending a high profile event such as a Live TV Show.

Darren Poulson has already posted an article on MOTs and the meaning of Tier 2 so please follow this link if you want to know more about achieving Tier 2 with your build.

Just as an introduction as to how this process starts. Lucasfilm first contacted me as all higher profile jobs have to go through Lucasfilm, even if it’s a Disney request. If Lucasfilm are happy with the request and the work involved they will reach out to me and ask for availability of a droid, in this case R2-D2. I then reach out to our database of Tier 2 R2D2 owners to find out their availability on the date given. Sam Prentice had recently appeared at the UK Premiere so it would normally fall to someone else so distribution of work is fair. Stuart Winstanley was unavailable, Paul Felski and Sam Prentice were, therefore it was decided that Paul would supply his R2D2 and would be supported by myself. I then contact Lucasfilm to confirm droid availability and once they are happy I then deal direct with the company, in this case Disney. For weeks we know the dates involved which did change from three days to two days and then a week or so before the event we were informed it was for Saturday Night Takeaway which was confidential at the time and we are placed under a Non Disclosure Agreement.

So without further ado, here’s the video I put together of our two days at BBC TV Centre Wood Lane working on an ITV Show!

As a footnote, I’ve had a lot of people ask if we met Ant & Dec. The answer is no! We were a very small cog in a huge machine. Times like this are not the best time to be bothering them, before, during or after work. Ant is a Star Wars fan and did however grab a photo with the droids.