Mise-en-scène (French: [miz. ɑ̃. sɛn]; "placing on stage") is the stage design and arrangement of actors in scenes for a theatre or film production, both in visual arts through storyboarding, visual theme, and cinematography, and in narrative storytelling through direction.
Quarrie’s workshop is the setting for much of the season 2 episode, “Wings of the Master.” It is the home to Quarrie, a ship builder who invented the B-Wing, and is situated on the planet of Shantipole, famous for being a death trap to pilots. Hera is able to fly through with Zeb and Sabine and they meet Quarrie, and the famous B-Wing. I’d like to take a look at how the details of Quarrie’s workshop create the perfect setting for the little ship designer to live in.
Quarrie’s Workshop on Shantipole
Shantipole itself is a pretty dangerous planet. We’re told that the winds there make it extremely difficult to fly through, and then you have to add the fact that tall rock spires rise above the planets surface for pilots to navigate through as well.
Hera is able to make it though, and we find ourselves at Quarrie’s workshop. Already, we can see that Quarrie’s workshop isn’t a clean, sleek, organized place like some of the other places we visit in Star Wars Rebels, but it definitely feels fitting as the workshop of an old eccentric ship builder.
The B-Wing’s hangar in Quarrie’s workshop has wires hanging from the ceiling, and holes in said ceiling as well. It’s very obviously not in the best shape, but Quarrie doesn’t seem to mind at all. We can make some assumptions about his character from this, assumptions that are supported by the personality we see in the show- he’s extremely focused on his work, above all else, and doesn’t pay mind to the little things around him that he could fix, letting them deteriorate over time.
The overall feel of Quarrie’s workshop is to me, very much like my dad’s garage. A big focus on the projects being worked on, with an organization that is perfect for his mind, but isn’t immediately obvious to anyone else. Though Quarrie doesn’t get very much screentime in Star Wars Rebels (even if he does appear again in The Freemaker Adventures), his character is one that feels very immediately familiar to us as the “eccentric old crafter,” a popular archetype in fantasy and sci-fi genres, and the atmosphere of the workshop he lives in helps reinforce that for us.
Next week, we’ll continue the trend of looking at settings from Hera-focused episodes, by taking a visit to Ryloth.