Slashdot Mirror
Unesco Probing Star Wars Filming In Ireland
First time accepted submitter wijnands (874114) writes Star Wars crews have started filming on the small Irish Island of Skellig Michael. This island, listed as a Unesco world heritage site, features the remains of a 6th century monastery as well as breeding populations of puffins, manx shearwaters, storm petrels, guillemots and kittiwakes. Currently the Irish navy has deployed one vessel to maintain a two-mile exclusion zone around the island. Unesco is now concerned about what is going on the island, which is only visited 13 times a year by tourist groups, and has asked the Irish government for an explanation.
"... puffins, manx shearwaters, storm petrels, guillemots and kittiwakes" are NOT from a Harry Potter novel but real world animals. I am going to have a lot of fun looking them up.
Keep an eye on them so they don't do something stupid... Like Jar Jar. Or Hayden Christensen.
There are 13 tour companies one can take to visit the island. The tours run each day during the summer but only once per day. So there are 13 boats of visitors per day for 5 months out of the year, not 13 visits per year total.
"We can't tell what the filming of Star Wars on the site will do to the wildlife."
I can see a whole lot of lawsuits from all of the puffins, manx shearwaters, storm petrels, guillemots, and kittiwakes who don't want to appear in a modern Star Wars film. Can't say I blame them, not after Episodes 1 through 3.
That person should tell the UN to mind its own business!
The island is owned by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, i.e. the Irish government.
From the UNESCO web page on Sceilg Mhichíl:
When in 1578 Queen Elizabeth I of England dissolved Ballinskelligs following the rebellion of the Earl of Desmond, under whose protection it had been, the island passed from the Augustinian Order to John Butler. However, although the monastery no longer existed, it continued to be a place of pilgrimage. Around 1826 the owner sold the island to the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin (later to become the Commissioners of Irish Lights), who built two lighthouses on the Atlantic side.
Sorry to burst your little libertarian bubble there, dude. Better luck next time.
Thanks Obama!!!
Obama is also responsible for why you can't get a date.
They can go about their business. Move along...
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Of course they're filming in Ireland, its the worlds largest green screen.
Aside from special effects, they really didn't do much shooting in the US. The studio work was mostly in the UK, and planets were represented by Tunisia , Italy, Spain, and a few others.
What I get from this is that Episode VII is basically going to be a documentary about puffins.
Sorry to crush your cocky statist attitude, but he'd simply assumed the island was privately owned and was incorrect. It has nothing to do with whether he's a libertarian or not, although I'm greatly concerned if the concept of private property is now only the province of libertarians.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
~ They ate all the lobster salad and the chocolate chip power bars. Look at the feathers and tracks. It's just I never heard of them hitting anything this big before.
~ They didn't. But we are meant to think they did. These tracks are side by side. Puffins always march single file to hide their numbers.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
The power to destroy a habitat is nothing next to the power of Money.
One must really wonder what is so special about this location, that they A) feel the need to risk damage to the habitats to film, and B) could not be reproduced in a green screen environment like they do everything else.
These are not the bribes you were looking for.
if the concept of private property is now only the province of libertarians
The way it's going, if you "still" believe in private property you're either a libertarian or you've given up on compulsory political systems entirely. All the other factions believe in some degree of community ownership of everything.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
If there was really such a major conservationalist issue with them filming there at this time, how did they get the permits to film there in the first place?
If it was just as a result of miscommunication, then it would seem that the permits should probably be revoked (and fees for them refunded, obviously), unless those making the movie can show that film crew's activities will not introduce things to the environment there which may damage the ecosystem.
I'm as big a Star Wars fan as anybody else that I know, but it's still just a movie, for chissakes. It's not worth harming wildlife over, even if it's only accidentally.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The power to destroy a habitat is nothing next to the power of Money.
One must really wonder what is so special about this location, that they A) feel the need to risk damage to the habitats to film, and B) could not be reproduced in a green screen environment like they do everything else.
Excessive use of green screen likely helped Episodes 1-3 be so terrible- wooden acting being one of the many problems. An actor's performance can only be improved by actually being in the environment their character is supposed to be in.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
I'm not clear on who your people are. Are they the ones who boil food until it is completely bland and tasteless, or are they the ones who buy politicians every time one comes up on the market? I hope that you do understand that the reference to not being bound by the laws of a land of potato eaters was intended to reflect the view taken by the corporation that feels it can do anything it wants.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
There's a difference in believing in private property, which most people in liberal democratic countries do, versus belieiving that private property makes you lord and master over every square inch of it (puffins be damned!). There is always some community responsibility involved everywhere, unless and until someone manages to live somewhere with no community and has no effects on anyone else. So even if this island was private property there are still large community effects involved (this is usually countered by the notion that economic benefits are far more important than environmental harm, maybe by saying something silly like "people are more important than birds!").