Video Blog: TRON LEGACY Set Visit

It’s Friday, June 26, 2009.  I’m sitting across the room from Jeff Bridges and he’s talking about playing Kevin Flynn in Tron: Legacy.  All around me are the most amazing concept drawings of what the film is going to look like.  If fans could see what Disney has planned for them in this room they’d be counting down the days till the film gets released.

Last summer, when the movie was being filmed, Disney invited a few lucky online journalists to the Vancouver set.  At the time, Tron: Legacy was shrouded in secrecy and the few of us that walked on the set were treated to an amazing visit and given a ton of access to the story, shown the practical sets, and we were able to interview the cast.  Since that day, I’ve waited patiently, wanting  to be able to recount all of my experiences on set and to be able to tell you what I saw and learned.

Fortunately, today is that day.  Hit the jump for more.

As some of you might remember, I posted a preview video blog of my set visit with Peter from Slashfilm back in March.  As I said back then, we both got to visit the set on the same day and as soon as we got back to our hotel, we recorded an epic video blog about our experiences.  Since the video was a full recap of what we saw and learned on set, Disney asked us to hold it until a later time.  But with Comic-Con around the corner and Disney about to open the floodgates of info on Tron: Legacy, they’ve finally allowed us to post the rest of our set visit.

While I could write pages about standing in The End of the Line Club or watching the movie get filmed in 3D and having to wear special 3D glasses to look at the monitors, I really think you’ll enjoy hearing Peter and I talk about being on set rather than reading about it.

Finallylet me say getting to visit the set of Tron: Legacy was truly an amazing experience and something I will never forget.  I grew up watching Tron.  It’s still one of my favorite movies and being able to ask Jeff Bridges questions while on the set of the sequel is something I’ll take with me forever.  And, thankfully, everything I saw and learned on set leads me to believe the sequel to Tron is going to be something very special and fans will love it.  But you’ve all seen the trailer and know that already.

Since the video blog goes on for a long time, I’ve time indexed it so you can get a feel for where the conversation goes.  The only thing left for me to say is sorry Peter and I used the words “cool” and “awesome” so many times.  But everything we saw on set was both cool and awesome.  While some filmmakers and studios spend big money to make something cool, Tron: Legacy just is.  And for the people that want to hear what it was like and not hear spoilers, the video blog starts spoiler free and then we say “spoilers are about to start.”  You can watch the first 5 minutes without worrying….

Actually, one last thing, the video blog you’re about to watch was recorded the day after Michael Jackson died.  That’s how long ago they were filming the movie…

Video Blog: TRON LEGACY Set Visit

• Starts off spoiler free
• 5:20 – we start really talking
• 10:00 – The boardroom and concept art. We talk about the new vehicles
• 13:00 – The costumes
• 15:00 – We talk about how it’s the end of June 2009 when we are recording the video blog and Michael Jackson had died the day before
• 15:30 – The End of the Line Club and practical sets
• 19:35 – The costumes and suits
• 21:30 – Filming in 3D and what was that like to watch
• 23:30 – We talk about the props and weapons
• 26:00 – The look of the movie
• 30:00 – The rules of the Tron world
• 33:00 – We argue about the merits of Speed Racer
• 34:00 – The things Sean Bailey said the film needed
• 37:00 – What if one of us died…you’ll need to watch this to understand.  We lost our minds when we got to this point

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For more on Tron Legacy:

Jeff Bridges On Set Interview

Steven Lisberger On Set Interview

Garrett Hedlund On Set Interview