"Star Wars": how the film was made without computer special effects. More than a movie
Millions of fans around the world, hundreds of fan clubs, costumes for masquerades - all this is the world of Star Wars. The recognition of the heroes of this film is simply off scale. After the release of the first episode, all the boys dreamed of becoming Jedi, and the girls - Princess Leia
90 unique shots from the set of the legendary film are waiting for you below ...
Hollywood, California. August 1977. An epochal event in the history of cinema. In the world-famous Chinese cinema, there is pandemonium - thousands of people are striving to break closer to the entrance in order to have at least one peek at two robots - barrel-shaped R2D2 and golden C3PO welcome their enthusiastic fans on the carpet. Historic moment: the feet of robots are imprinted in the cement in front of the entrance to forever leave the memory of their appearance here.
It all looks like some kind of insanity. Suddenly, a science fiction film becomes something much more than just entertainment - it is already a real sociological phenomenon. The emergence of the first Star Wars series was like the dawn of a new religious movement.
"A long time ago, in a distant galaxy ..." A romantic and large-scale story about the struggle between Good and Evil, about love, hatred, betrayal and heroism, captured the minds of millions. Now it is already difficult to say what exactly was so impressive - after all, one cannot explain such inconceivable popularity with only one innovative special effects with all the desire ... the pictures of the young director George Lucas, few people believed.
George was only 32 years old at the time of filming. In his creative baggage there were already two full-length films - "Galaxy THX-1138" (1971) - also science fiction, but of a completely different kind, and "American Graffiti" (1973) - a youth comedy about teenagers from a Californian town. The second film was a commercial success, but what happened to the third came as a complete surprise to everyone. The effect was like a bomb exploding. Now, more than thirty years later, it was very difficult to imagine what kind of psychosis has risen all over the world because of this film - people have been queuing up at the cinema box office since the evening and have been sitting at the window all night to get on best places... Today it seems like sheer madness.
“What was the secret of success? I think that this is a bright and kind film, with heroes and villains, and most importantly, it is really interesting, it was able to entertain the viewer better than anything before. I tried to recreate the spirit of adventure romance that was in the old pirate movies, but I transferred this spirit into the vastness of space, and the result was an unprecedented fusion of fantasy and adventure. "
Adventure movies hit the airwaves in huge numbers in the sixties, and Lucas watched a lot of them. Old westerns, the entire Flash Gordon series, and 19th century fencing movies all merged into Star Wars.
Luke Skywalker, the main character Star Wars is a direct descendant of Flash Gordon, the most popular hero comics, which first saw the light of day in the distant 34th. It was invented by the artist Alex Raymond. Flash was a brave young man who, thanks to an incredible coincidence of circumstances, ends up on other planets and goes through amazing adventures while fighting evil.
He was the personification of the ideal adventure comic book hero - and Luke became the embodiment of the spirit of adventure for any teenager who dreams of traveling. For Lucas, Luke became something like an "alter ego", a second "me", the director projected onto this image his own ideas about the ideal hero of a science fiction film.
Mark Hamill, 25, played his character perfectly.
Luke's mentor was to be a wise Jedi, the last of the order, named Obi-Wan Ben Kenobi.
He was played by the outstanding British actor Alec Guinness.
Together with the space smuggler Han Solo and his two-meter-high Wookiee friend Chewbacca, Luke and Obi-Wan rescue Princess Leia ...
... performed by Carrie Fisher.
And the main villain, according to Lucas' idea, was to be Darth Vader, breathing asthmatically through an ominous black mask. The sound of breathing was received with the help of a breathing apparatus for scuba divers - this was the final touch to the portrait, simple, like everything ingenious, and it became a kind of "visiting card" of the villain.
Lucas spent more than a month on casting, in the process of which he changed some of his priorities - for example, he abandoned Leia's Asian image (as planned at the beginning), and made not Han Solo himself an alien monster (the director had an idea for a long time to make him a green-skinned giant with gills) and his friend Chewbacca.
As a result, he began to look like a giant upright monkey. By the way, according to the script he is two hundred years old!
“Actually, I copied Chewbacca from my dog named Indiana. It looks exactly like a Wookiee, just a little smaller. "
The colossal saga was written by George in the mid-70s, and it felt like a lifelong endeavor. A 200-page tome (Lucas worked on it for over a year) included all the events of the Star Wars universe (including the new time trilogy and a lot of other things), hundreds of detailed characters - with names, biographies, carefully written characters ...
Lucas was inspired by Kurosawa's adventure film Three Scoundrels in a Hidden Fortress (1958). The famous term "Jedi" also came from Japanese - this is a paraphrase of "jidai-geki" - the names of historical stories about samurai. The concept included a lot of components - including historical events of reality, such as the confrontation between Napoleon and the Senate and the transformation of the reformer into a tyrant, numerous myths and legends - the design became so cumbersome that no one, besides the author himself, could figure it out before the film adaptation. Lucas hoped from the very beginning to create two trilogies, and to present the events "from the end" - to film the second half of the script at once, and leave the first "for later" for intrigue.
Later, Lucas admitted that he himself did not believe that he could bring the colossal project to life - his creation was so ambitious. So at first he was going to shoot only one film, and based on the results of the rental, he was going to evaluate whether it was worth shooting the second and third. So it could have ended with Episode 4!
Having collected preliminary material - a script and sketches with images of the main characters, Lucas began to promote his project, namely, he began negotiations on the launch of production. To do this, it was necessary to conclude an agreement with the film studio and find the necessary funding. For half a year, Lucas pounded the doorsteps of the heads of companies, and for a very long time suffered failures - and Paramount and Warner Brothers, after some deliberation, refused to work with George, citing the "unpopularity of the topic." Still - a magical romantic tale about cosmic princesses and mysterious knights to the music of a symphony orchestra - but who will be interested in this in the era of disco? Besides, the fantastic surroundings will surely require a lot of money, and the famous actors are not expected in the film ... Typical failed project!
No wonder - in the seventies, science fiction was synonymous with the horror genre, and in such films (mostly very weak ones), the topic of alien monsters was increasingly exaggerated, and not at all the spirit of adventure. In vain, Lucas tried to convince the bosses of the film studios that his film was completely original - several times in a row they called him and said that the project had been rejected by the authorities. Ironically, one of the most successful films of all time was considered potentially unprofitable!
But in the end, Lukas was lucky - the film company "XX Century Fox" agreed to give the project the green light - and then only after the desperate director signed an agreement with a clause on the refusal of the fee paid in advance ... Moreover, the film company set a condition ... the release of the book about the events of the fourth episode! Perhaps, in order to "test the waters", to determine audience sympathy... By that time, George was ready for anything to bring his plans to life. A brilliant writer, he co-authored this novel with Alan Foster, and the book was such a success that later Lucas even received the prestigious Hugo Prize for it. And so, having knocked out eight million dollars in funding (in the process of work, more than five million will be required), in the summer of 1976, Lucas began work on the film.
Tunisia, North Africa. It was here that George Lucas, led by a team of 130 people from England and the United States, shot the first frames of his new film, creating the world of the desert planet Tatooine (named for ... a city in Tunisia!), Where robots found themselves, according to the plot, escaped from the Empire. Time was running out - due to the months spent on publishing the book and negotiating with other companies, Lucas had less than six months for the entire process, including editing and voice acting. Several tons of sets were hastily brought to Africa by plane to create the director's ambiance.
The decorators worked for 2 months, building the city of Mos Eisley in the desert, where Luke and Obi-Wan met the space smuggler Han Solo. The entire film crew sat on starvation rations - even the director himself and the main actors flew only in economy class and ate in the common dining room. Later, everyone remembered how enthusiastic the young director had infected the team - no one had any doubts about success, so energetically George walked towards the cherished goal.
Among other decorations, robots arrived in Africa - 25 different models (there are 33 of them in the picture), made under the guidance of the famous master Carlo Rambaldi. Controlled by radio, wheeled and tracked, or even with a dwarf inside, these robots have created the necessary surroundings. Shooting in the desert was another challenge - the ubiquitous sand constantly jammed the mechanisms, so most of the time the robots were repaired.
This robot, which looks like a walking refrigerator, was portrayed by a dwarf. Sometimes they forgot to get him out of the building, but he himself could not get out.
Worked great vehicles... The sand crawler of desert java scavengers (played by a dozen dwarfs), who picked up robots in the desert, was created in the form of a small meter model, which was used for shooting in motion, and in the unloading scene, an expensive huge decoration with tracks from a mining excavator was used.
For one of the scenes (the crawler after the attack of the imperial soldiers), the scenery was "destroyed" by sawing the tracks with autogenous machines, adding holes in the skin and smoke from smoke bombs.
The floating speeder, in which Luke moved across the surface of Tatooine, during the filming of general shots, moved along the surface of the earth on wheels, which were then removed using combined surveys.
In several scenes, it was attached to something like a huge carousel - a speeder hung at one end, and members of the crew, who set it in motion, at the other.
After spending a total of three months in Tunisia, the film crew filmed the entire material with almost no incident. But still, there were some troubles: in the midst of filming, a sandstorm broke out, which literally scattered part of Mos Eisley across the desert, delaying the process of working on the film for a week. According to local residents, such storms are not uncommon here ...
When the film crew returned to England, Elstree had the set ready for the next scenes, and the most impressive was, without a doubt, Han Solo's nearly fifty meters long ship, the Millennium Falcon. It was so large that it was built and filmed in the largest studio of the company, which was a vast hangar outside the city. The set weighed forty tons.
Separately, and in a completely different studio, they made the Falcon's cockpit, mounted on a spring-loaded platform. V certain points During filming, assistants shook the cockpit with their hands, creating the illusion of vibration.
To save money, the shooting was carried out simultaneously in three pavilions, with Lucas moving between them on a bicycle. Working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, the team was able to complete filming with the actors in the sets in just eight weeks. The main time was spent working on special effects, of which there were a colossal amount in the film.
A total of 365 special effects were used in the picture - an absolute record at that time. Spaceships, various mechanisms, famous laser swords, even opening credits - all this was embodied in the most impressive and innovative way. Until now, the viewer has not seen such special effects in films. They were created in California, at a studio that Lucas founded specifically for Star Wars (the tiny firm then grew to a giant called Industrial Light and Magic) and combined with footage shot in England.
Except for Stanley Kubrick's A Space Odyssey, in which effects were only a pale addition to the artistic intent, " New Hope"became the first film with such a level of entertainment. Comparable to" Star Wars ", Spielberg's film" Close Encounters of the Third Kind "was released at the same time, and was no longer perceived so revolutionary.
For filming spaceships moving in space, Lucas applied a revolutionary technology - instead of trying to move the ships relative to the camera, as has been done so far, he ... moved the camera relative to stationary ships! The result was impressive: the most natural and smooth movement created a complete illusion.
The model of the ship was photographed using a camera mounted on a special mechanism controlled by a computer. The position of the camera was saved in memory for each shot, and the creators were able to add any background at the editing stage in full accordance with the shooting angle. The clever use of lighting and moving shadows resulted in an astounding effect. No computer graphics in the seventies it was not even in sight!
The creation of thirty-three moving robots was also a technological achievement. Chief among them, of course, were the famous friends R2D2 and C3PO.
“From the very beginning, I decided to unfold the story around two robots, make them a kind of core of the whole story, add a comic note. I was fully aware that this would be difficult to do. But I did not suspect that it was so ... There were many difficulties - they constantly broke down, did absolutely not what was needed in the frame, and generally wasted our time terribly. We coped with a huge number of problems - sometimes it seemed to me that I could not stand it. But it was still a hell of a lot of fun! "
The result was worth the effort - a funny pair of robots became an integral part of the whole story, and the characters played an important and sometimes decisive role in the fate of the main characters.
When creating C3PO, the artist was inspired by the image of a robot from Fritz Lang's old dystopian film Metropolis (1927). For this role, a thin actor Anthony Daniels was selected, who was dressed in a golden metal suit. In total, half a dozen designs were created (even with ears and antennas).
When walking, C3PO loudly crunched the joints of the suit, and, by the way, he saw absolutely nothing in the helmet, moving around the set almost blindly, and constantly bumping into the scenery, which required many takes to create all the scenes with him.
As for R2D2, it was invented by Lucas himself. The robot's mechanisms were constantly malfunctioning, so it was constantly being repaired and debugged.
Combined shots were also revolutionary - for example, the authors applied backgrounds hand-painted on glass, which were combined with real-life footage to create a surprisingly realistic illusion of space.
In the scene where Obi-Wan turns off the power on the Death Star, according to Lucas's sketch, a shaft of immense depth had to be created. There was no question of building a scenery tens of meters high for the sake of a single plan.
Then they made the decoration of the central part, together with the walls of the mine surrounding it ...
... and thousands of miles from England, in the USA, they hand-painted on glass a backdrop in the form of a deep shaft, going down to a dizzying depth, and then filmed it.
Combining real shooting with a painted backdrop gave amazing realistic effect... This technology was successfully used in many other scenes, including the following episodes.
The famous laser swords are another impeccably made special effect. When filming, they used wooden sticks covered with a reflective compound, the same as on road signs.
Then they applied a hand-drawn glow and flashes when the "blades" collided (by the way, the laser beams were also drawn manually, using a ruler), and sound effects completed the illusion.
The climax of the film - when rebels use fighters to attack the Imperial Death Star - was the most expensive and technically advanced part of the film. The spectacle and flawless production made this attack one of the most impressive scenes in world cinema. But behind the inspired footage were months of hard work by hundreds of professionals - the entire final battle was essentially one big special effect.
When staging battles between fighters, Lucas was inspired by Hollywood films about World War II with air battles between aircraft, as well as newsreels of those events - the turns of fighters and their maneuvers were copied from real maneuvers of combat aircraft.
Models of spaceships were filmed against a blue screen by a computer-controlled camera. The footage was then combined with a moving background shot in another studio using miniature cameras moving over a huge mock-up of the Death Star's surface.
All general shots of the Death Star in the film are hand-drawn on huge surfaces. But when filming a fighter attack, drawings alone were indispensable. Several "miniatures" (multi-meter sizes) were built, depicting the surface of the Death Star and the corridor in which the fighters rushed.
These were huge models (up to ten meters in length) containing thousands of small details. It took a lot of work to make them, and subsequently also to restore them after moving cameras repeatedly crashed into them during filming, hundreds of squibs depicting explosions were triggered on their surface ...
The creators of the picture recall that this scene took the greatest amount of time and effort - quite expected, given that it was the ending that was especially important for Lucas, and he spared no expense to bring his plans to life properly. To complicate matters, many of the special effects were made for the first time in the history of cinema, the creators were forced to act by trial and error, and this led to an impressive expense. The special effects for the first "Star Wars" took almost four million dollars, which is unprecedented by the standards of the seventies.
Yes, Star Wars was an incredibly ambitious and innovative project. It is all the more surprising that on the day of the premiere, the picture was released in only thirty cinemas across America - the producers simply did not have the means for more, besides, no one believed in the success of Wars. After the first screenings of the magical spectacle, the fame of the "incredible film" spread like wildfire, after which the film studio hastily released hundreds of copies, which were sent to all cinemas in the country. The next month made Voina a legend, Lucas a multimillionaire, and all history a cult.
Since then, it has been one of the greatest successes of cinema, and not only at the box office (by the way, the success of "Wars" saved "XX Century Fox" from bankruptcy). Seven "Oscars" (and another quarter of a hundred other awards) - for sets, costumes, special effects, editing, sound, character voices and John Williams' ingenious soundtrack - completed the picture of a colossal triumph. The fate of the saga was sealed - Lucas got every opportunity to bring his super script to life in full. Which he did - to the sincere delight of the Star Wars fans.
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Source: en.wikipedia.org
Star Wars is a cult movie saga, the first part of which was invented and directed by director George Lucas in the late 1970s. By that time, Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) had already been released, showing that the public was ready for mass entertainment cinema. However, Lucas' project was not taken seriously at first. No one believed that a high-budget science fiction film without a single famous actor can become successful. However, the industry soon underwent significant changes, caused, among other things, by the appearance on the big screen of a space opera, the events of which unfold "a long time ago, in a distant, distant galaxy ...".
Signing a contract
"Budget and box office of the films of the Star Wars series" Source: sivilink.ru
Twentieth Century Fox signed a preliminary contract with Lucas for the first Star Wars prior to the release of his previous feature American Graffiti (1973), the success of which allowed the director to negotiate a renegotiation of the terms. The budget of the new film "Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope "was to be increased to $ 11 million, and Lucas himself received the rights to distribute the soundtrack and other related products. The merchandise industry was still in its infancy at the time, and the studio readily agreed to the director's demands. It was only a few years later that it became clear that Lucas had struck an incredibly successful deal that would bring him billions of dollars. The Star Wars films have spawned myriad products with the symbols of the saga: books, video games, children's toys and much, much more - in fact, the series became the first franchise that successfully settled in several areas of the cultural space.
sources of inspiration
Source: codigoespagueti.com
Lucas wanted to make a film for teenagers, which was unprecedented at the time. He began writing Star Wars in 1972, influenced by the work of Joseph Campbell and Carlos Castaneda. From the latter's books, he borrowed the concept of the Force, the cornerstone of mythology in Star Wars, and Castaneda's Don Juan inspired him to create the character Obi-Wan Kenobi. It is believed that Lucas took the stylistic basis for his MCU from Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey (1968) and the science fiction television series about Buck Rogers, and the main storyline from Akira Kurosawa's film Three Scoundrels in a Hidden Fortress (1958). Many other elements migrated to Star Wars from life: the Senate and the Empire have a non-coincidental resemblance to the US government, the rebel resistance is largely copied from the hippie movement, and in the friendship of Luke and Han Solo, it is easy to see Lucas's relationship with Francis Ford Coppola.
Scenario
Source: albaillustration.com
Work on the script progressed slowly, and by the end of the year, Lucas had only 13 pages ready: the director was struggling to find the right tone for the narrative. The replicas of some characters every now and then were erased and returned back, and the characters themselves underwent serious transformations. Interesting fact: In one draft of the plot, Darth Vader and Obi-Wan were conceived as one character, but later turned into two separate characters. The power was divided between light and dark sides and Annikin Starkiller became Luke Skywalker. Two and a half years later, on the verge of mental and physical exhaustion, Lucas finally finished writing the script and began preparations for filming, which became an equally difficult test for the director.
Casting
Source: 24smi.org, ifitshipitshere.com, screenertv.com, geektyrant.com
A large casting for the film was held in Los Angeles. Lucas made the decision that there would be no movie stars in his film, partly to save on royalties and partly to attract new faces. Hundreds of actors auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker, but Lucas chose Mark Hamill, whose open young face convinced the director that he had found a hero for his saga. Many famous Hollywood actresses were eager to get the role of Leia, including Jodie Foster and Amy Irving, but the role went to Carrie Fisher. Han Solo was played by Lucas' longtime acquaintance, Harrison Ford, despite the fact that several young stars of the 70s, from Kurt Russell to Sylvester Stallone, claimed the role of the charming smuggler. The only actor with the name who eventually took part in the filming was the Oscar-winning Sir Alec Guinness, who played in Obi-Wan Kenobi's A New Hope.
Music
Source: Getty
To write the music, Lucas invited the rapidly gaining popularity of John Williams. Inspired by the soundtrack to the film King's Row (1942), Williams composed his brilliant theme for the opening credits. His Star Wars soundtrack - majestic and solemn, dark and disturbing - perfectly complemented Lucas's film and is still considered one of the most recognizable in the history of cinema.
Filming
Lucas and the Death Star Model The history of the creation of the most legendary Saga. Full version
BEFORE SHOOTING
Because of:
Mythologization of things and events that have great value for a colossal number of people;
- the passage of half a century without a half century of time;
- scattered statements of the George Lucas
today there is no version unanimously approved by the Party that would clearly explain to us the miracle of the idea of creating “ Star Wars". For example, myself Lucas mentioned an inspiration at the stage of work on his first full-length film “ THX 1138"; his friends hint at a much earlier enlightenment rooted in a long-standing affection Lucas to so beloved Mark Wahlberg the universe Flash Gordon... But most of all I like the version that Star Wars- this is a kind of rethinking of the picture " Apocalypse Now"Which Lucas personally going to shoot during Vietnam in the midst of the war.
Ideas are ideas, but real actions have a very specific date. And if Happy Birthday Sagas is may ’77 th, then, let's say, the Day of her conception is April ’73 th. Exactly 17 On the 1st, Lucas started writing ... no, not even a script, but a short story about a boy living with gnomes (!), brought up as an exemplary Padawan (in the first versions of the script - PadawAan) by respected Jedi bindu ... At that time George could afford to dream up to his heart's content: his second film had just done well at festivals and at the box office - “ American graffiti"- and the young director had carte blanche for a dream project.
Shrinking the synopsis of this very dream to two pages of printed text, Lucas went to the studios, but got a turn from the gate with the wording "too confusing": a seemingly simple story was powerfully overloaded with names and terms invented by the author ... Of course, nothing was wasted and all this was used later (invented by one of the first Mace Windu will appear 20 years later in the new trilogy), but at that stage Lucas I had to fill my typewriter with a new blank sheet.
From the second call, things went much better: perhaps the secret is that George just slamzil was heavily inspired by the plot of the film Akira Kurosawa « Three villains in a hidden fortress". Under the revised synopsis, he immediately managed to knock out as much $150.000 , which he himself called "an investment not in the film, but in me", hinting that the studio was more inspired not by his story, but by his enthusiasm.
By May 1974 the scenario skeleton # 2 was ready: now it contained Jedi with Sithami(by the way, the word Jedi comes from “ Jidai geki"- a variety of Japanese soap opera about samurai); Corellian Smuggler appears Han Solo(however, so far as a noseless green-skinned thug-alien with gills) and Chewbacca(copied from Lucas's dog). There was still uncertainty with the main character: Lucas was seriously thinking of making Luke an experienced General or even a woman! .. And, by himself, it appears Darth vader, but then he was very far from the image of a megavillain.
After a significant break ( Lucas at the same time was busy in other projects), work on the script resumes in January 1975 th. But the story still contains significant differences in the description of the heroes from what we know today. So, the image of the protagonist was to be revealed through relationships with numerous brothers. And call Luke and at all should have not Skywalker, a Starkiller... No, seriously, that's what George wrote - “ Starkiller».
The final literary breakthrough occurs from August to January: versions # 3 appear (proudly titled “ Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Starkiller") And, which became the final version No. 4, which they wanted to call the wrong" The Adventures of Luke Starkiller", not that " SagaI: Star Wars"... By the way, at a certain stage, the script helped to write Brian De Palma, he also took part in the casting.
So, having an unnamed script and $8.250.000 (which he miraculously knocked out from the new head of the studio), Lucas proceeds to screen tests. For the role Luca De Palma offered William Catt, which he filmed in " Carrie"(Attentive viewers saw Catt in" DoctorHause"), But in the end the director almost without hesitation gave the role to the 25-year-old Mark Hamill.
With image Princess Leia it was much more difficult. Sissy spacek, Glenn Close, Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Kim Basinger, Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Melanie Griffith-In total, more than 30 (!) actresses fought for the role! But she got Carrie Fisher who was almost forced to audition by her actor friend Miguel Ferrer, with whom they read the script together. The most interesting thing is that the only character she desperately wanted to play was ... Han Solo!
Han is our Solo. As you remember, he was supposed to be a green alien, but closer to filming. Lucas decided to make it ... black! But not an alien, but a man. And only the descendants of the liberated reached out for samples Django, how Lucas again changes the decision - "X ochu white man ! "... All sorts of Mr. Nika Nolte, Christopher Walken, Pacino, DeNiro, Nicholson, Slay and Kurt Russell who even passed screen tests ...
…before Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Travolta and even Robert Englund! But all of them were bypassed by a lucky carpenter Harrison Ford(which, again, was filmed at Lucas v "American Graffiti") ... By the way, the image Hana Solo was largely written off from a friend Lucas- some Francis Ford Coppola... Well, who still has a daughter, a director.
Role of the Jedi Elder Obi-Wan Kenobi(whose young years in the new trilogy depicted Ewan McGregor) the director really wanted to give Toshiro Mifune- favorite actor Akira Kurosawa, whose work, as I have already mentioned, was probably inspired by himself Lucas... Another candidate was Hammer's perennial headache Dracula - Peter Cushing... But neither Van Helsing, they did not manage to get a Japanese, but they got a very difficult Englishman: an Oscar-winning knight, sir Alec Guinness, who, although he was skeptical about science fiction, accepted the offer under the impression of the aforementioned "American Graffiti".
By the way, the name Obi-Wan Kenobi- not a simple set of beautiful sounds. Lucas composed it from quite meaningful components: the Obi syllable means widespread in the West Indies, Africa and in South America pagan ritual, something akin to witchcraft practices; Van is an archaic designation of darkness and sadness; Ken is Barbie's girlfriend knowledge and range of vision ... And why did he pick it all out?
How to ignore yourself Darth Vader? Another resident of Foggy Albion, a former athlete, two-meter tall, was invited to play the role of the antagonist. David Prowse... By the way, the character of Dart was one of the first to be invented by Lucas.
And the three squires? C3-RO was played Anthony Daniels, thanks to whose British accent the robot, described in the script as "the type of mannered dealer of used cars", acquired the features of a prim butler. Tiny R2-D2 depicted another subject of Her Majesty - Kenny Baker, whose height is just over 110 cm! By the way, Lucas wanted to name a couple of cute robots A-2 and C-3.
Role Chewbacca went to an ordinary hospital attendant Peter Mayhew just ten seconds after meeting Lucas. All Pete had to do was get up from the table: 220 cm tall, you know. By the way, in the camp of the followers of the universe, it's a shame not to know that the name Chewbacca consonant with the word sobaka. The same applies to Jabba-zhaba ... It would seem, what does the Russians have to do with it?
So, having gathered such a motley audience under his wing, Lucas was ready, headlong, to rush into a daring battle for the right to enter eternity. He really had a serious fight, because the studio was so sure of the collapse that awaited her that it began negotiations to sell the rights to the painting. The one that will be the first in history to overcome the bar in $ 300.000.000 and will become a deafening pop culture phenomenon.
SHOOTING
Having solved the casting questions, the director had to create a universe in which all his actors could be placed. With annoyance to discover that the studio's special effects department XX century fox disbanded, Lucas founds a company ILM: Industrial Light & Magic, whose production facilities are located ... in an ordinary warehouse in a tiny Californian town Van Nuys!
Such a humble beginning did not hurt ILM become true pioneers: the first fully 3D character in history - intelligent water-sausage in " To the abyss"; the first ever main 3D character - T-1000; the first ever three-dimensional animals and dinosaurs in " Jurassic Park"- all this and much more is on the conscience of ILM! To date, ILM has created special effects for hits such as “ Avengers», « Men in Black III», « Time keeper», « Super 8», « Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2», « October sky», « Starship Troopers», « Titanic», « Maze», « Alien"- more than 300 films in total! Not bad for guys starting out in a barn, right?
By the way, a fan of destroying some legend Jamie Heineman and the director of such incorruptible people as “ Jumanji" and " Darling I have shrunk the children» Joe Johnston- people from ILM! Moreover, Bobba Fett and Yoda, such as you know them, were created precisely Johnston: it was he who developed and brought to mind the concept of their "bow".
Let's go back to filming.
Phrase " Motor!"Sounded for the first time on Tunisian soil, and it was on March 22, 1976. Very soon the omnipotent colonel intervened in the filming process Gaddafi... The leader of the Jamahiriya did not like the fact that some suspicious military equipment... Not wanting to conflict, the government Tunisia asked politely Lucas run over. And the suspicions of the Libyan ruler aroused ... Jawa sandcrawler- the ship of the slavers!
Alas, the problems were just beginning: the electrician was constantly dying, there were problems with the decorations. On top of that, a multi-day rainstorm began in the desert where filming was taking place ... for the first time in 50 (!) years! Lucas decides to move to a comfortable studio under London... By the way, to this day in Tunisia there is a hotel where some of the interior scenes of the house were filmed Luke... And the hotel is located in a small town ... Tatooine!
Leaving Tunisia behind and lining up in England Scenery, Lucas came up with an interesting thought: why not show futuristic locations / props / etc not cosmosteric, but, as he himself said, "filthy." The idea was to make everything look habitable, and for a long time. So, by R2-D2 walked around with a saw, dumped in the dust and kicked off ... But there were problems that came from where they did not expect: one evening a team of cleaners looked into the site, which carefully licked all the dirt - in the morning Lucas again had to make all the beauty.
However, the difficulties were not only external - not everything went smoothly on board either. Lucas ridiculed for the stupid-looking characters and the general strangeness of what was happening, and most willingly scoffed ... his own actors! Ford, for example, was perplexed by a giant in a monkey costume, buns on his head Lei and killer dialogues that "you can write, but it is simply impossible to pronounce this shit out loud!"
The director did not remain in debt - the dissatisfaction was mutual. V and denia Lucas the captured picture, scenery and costumes did not match. He began to rarely communicate with actors and all that was heard from him was “ Faster!". One day Lucas burst out so violently that he lost his voice; his team immediately presented him with a sign with one single word - “ FASTER!».
With such "successes", George stopped meeting the deadlines and estimates (it was eventually exceeded by $3.000.000 !!) - the studio cut off his phone, threatening to close the project. Seeing that the captain was getting depressed, the team began to cheer him up, trying to make him smile at least occasionally. But a perfectionist and a workaholic Lucas he still earned diagnoses of "hypertension and exhaustion" and thundered into the hospital.
But pleasant moments did happen. So, in one of the scenes, due to the incorrectly placed light through the clothes of Princess Leia, her breasts became clearly visible ... As she later joked Carrie Fisher « As far as I know, no underwear is worn in space.».
By the way, about the clothes.
Famous costume Darth Vader was designed based on the clothes of the Bedouin warriors by the designer Ralph McQuarrie(it was he who created the promotional art that convinced the studio, like those that were in “ Argo"). So here Ralph sewed-cut with the thought that in such clothes Dart could even float in zero gravity. But why the villain always walks in it - was explained only in the sequel. And, yes, the legendary mask - it was so great even for a giant Prouse that on his face it was fixed with special foam.
By the way, on the screen, the villain of the villains shines miserable for a person of this magnitude. 12 minutes! 12 nondescript minutes. Why nondescript? Because the legendary " Imperial March", Accompanying any of his appearance, was simply not written yet and did not sound in the first film!
Bye David Prowse sweated in silence Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill had fun in full. Ford, for example, did not always bother to learn the text and sometimes was engaged in pure improvisation. But fooling around Ford and Hamilla immediately stopped when Sir Alec Guinness: he had a very organizing effect on them.
Alas, the strength of the organization was not always enough. Or not everyone: during the filming, it was not without incidents.
In the episode "trash bin" Hamill he held his breath, fleeing the stench, and tried so hard that his eye capillary burst, so much so that in subsequent scenes he had to be removed all the time from one side. Well, the eye has healed, but Chewbacca less fortunate: the suit was saturated with a stench, which was not taken out until the end of filming ... By the way, the studio was trying to force Lucas to put Chewie in shorts - you see, they were embarrassed by this shaggy shame.
The shaggy shame remained undisguised, but the lamp and pistol of the 19th century were covered so well that the first turned into a lightsaber (its handle is just a part of a flash lamp, laced with rubber and eyelets; this lamp can be bought to this day ... for fabulous money , Certainly); and the second into blaster X Ana Solo(under the layer of "make-up" you can find the usual Mauser).
By the way, Lucas filmed all this masquerade splendor on cameras VistaVision... No, not because they were cool: just Lucas could only rent such old stuff from 50 -th. But then such cameras just skyrocketed in price!
AFTER THE SHOOTING
After the filming was over, it was time for editing. Seeing the end result Lucas was horrified: the scenes looked dull, with a kind of sleepy book tempo. Moreover, in the first version, completely different variants of scene duplicates were used, and the total number of "matches" with the canon version reached miserable 40 %!
The grief-editor immediately lost his job. On the advice of your friend Scorsese, Lucas uses the services of an editing wizard whose work in the film "New York, New York" Martin was very pleased ... Lucas was also satisfied, so much so that he even took the craftswoman as his wife.
Meanwhile in ILM conjured over special effects. But the number of scenes requiring processing was so great that instead of the required 6 months of work threatened to stretch out for a year. The budget has also grown by a third. Wanting to motivate the team and show what he would like to see in the end, Lucas regularly viewed old recordings of air battles. By the way, five of the eight million of the budget "ate" ILM, and half of this money went to the effects of 4 - our scenes.
There was also a lot of work to be done on the voice acting. An impressive library of sound effects has been created, which Lucas nicknamed the "organic soundtrack". So, the blaster was sounded by a chopped off high-voltage wire; and the iconic lightsaber sound was created by mixing the idle hum of a 35mm movie projector and a bare cable.
A couple of droids were also tinkered with. Voice for C-3PO searched among 30 candidates, until one of them hinted to Lucas that pronouns himself Daniels(who played C-3PO) is quite good. On that and decided. As for the sounds made R2-D2, then these are the voices passed through the synthesizer Baker(who played R2), Lucas and even babies.
If C-3PO lucky to leave your vote then Vader ended up in a double span. At first Lucas really disliked the Bristol accent Prouse(on the set he was even called Darth the Farmer). As a result, the Oscar-winning king speaks for him. Zamunda, sworn enemy Conan and Mufasa all Disney - James Earl Jones. Secondly, the famous wheezing vultures do not belong to Vader either: they belong to the master of sound effects, who recorded his breathing through the oxygen supply system in scuba diving.
Although Jones and Prowse never met in person, Prowse to this day harbors resentment, calling Lucas' act "racism on the contrary": they say, there were no blacks in the caste and inviting Jones, the director got out in front of the studio ...
I don't know how sincere Prowse, but this cut of scenes in which Vader speaks in an original voice is ridiculously ridiculous: indeed, Darth Farmer.
Having dealt with the voices of everything and everyone in the film, Lucas had to give voice to the film itself. At first he only wanted to use classical music(following the example 2001: A Space Odyssey). But Spielberg introduced him to John Williams, who created the legendary soundtrack, which has also become a modern classic.
I can't help but say a few words about Williams... The amazing gift of owning seven notes allowed the creation of such music, which in itself is the property of the Republic: themes from “ Jaws», « Star Wars», « Indiana Jones" or " Jurassic Park"Confirmation of this ..." John Williams is a man!! ” (c)
So the movie was ready. The studio wanted to release it by Christmas '76, but due to delays, the release was pushed back to May '77. The bosses were indignant and afraid of competition with new job Burt Reynolds... Oh, what short-sighted fools! Premiere " Star Wars"Just blew up the box office!
The film did not just break the record " Jaws", Which were the first in history to raise $ 100,000,000. The film broke this record three times (!) And remained an unattainable leader until the release “ Alien", And after the re-release in the 90s he regained the palm ... However, not for long ..." Titanic", do you know. By the way, the fabulous revenue allowed the studio XX century Fox release next year instead of the usual 20 films - less than ten.
Following the box office success came critical acclaim, whose enthusiasm showered Lucas and his team with 11 (!) Nominations for Oscar, 7 from which George took with him. By the way, this is the only one of all parts of the Saga and the first sci-fi in history that fought for the title Best movie of the year.
With such and such fame, the blast wave from the film began to spread all over the place. So, it is “ Star Wars"Spawned a merchandise industry that was previously in its infancy. It is noteworthy that the studio did not want to pay much to Lucas and agreed to give him almost all the rights to related products. Needless to say, due to the short-sightedness of the leadership, George quickly amassed a phenomenal fortune.
And even music world could not get out. Disco-processing of music from the film, made by the arranger Meco for several weeks topped (!) the Billboard chart. In addition, the title track, released as a single, became the best-selling instrumental single of all time.
THE AFTERWORD
"Star Wars"- an undoubted "watershed" that changed and influenced the entire industry.
So, it is precisely the concept of a "shabby future" invented by Lucas. Ridley Scott successfully applied in " A stranger" and " Blade Runner". Among the other "impressed" we can safely name Peter Jackson, Roland Emmerich, Kevin Smith, Christopher Nolan, David Lynch…
But he annealed the coolest James Cameron who quit his job as a truck driver to devote himself entirely to filmmaking! What did you do for hip-hop in your years ?!
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We all know that one of the most iconic and grandiose films is the Star Wars saga. So why was it so exciting and interesting? First of all, the screens were attracted by the striking visual effects for that time and the proximity to open space. Let's reveal the secret over the classic trilogy and find out how the legendary trilogy was created literally from simple cardboard and drawings.
Like any masterpiece, Star Wars started with an idea.
Great storyteller new era Cinematography George Lucas conceived the epic when he was not yet 30 years old. In the mid-1970s, a preliminary script was ready, which, however, was almost completely rewritten more than once. How do you, for example, one of Lucas' ideas to make Luke Skywalker a 60-year-old general, and Han Solo an alien with green scales and gills?
The written story included the plot of all six episodes known today. There is a version that George Lucas decided to shoot the episodes from the middle because the skill of visual effects specialists was allegedly lacking for the first three episodes at that time. This is not so, the director could well have realized his idea from the very first episodes. He initially decided to take on the adaptation of the fourth episode. Firstly, it was done in order to intrigue the audience. Secondly, George Lucas did not know at all whether he would be able to shoot more than one Star Wars episode, so he took up the most “driving” moment of the script.
It only got worse from there. For a long time, not a single studio wanted to take on the adaptation of a fairy tale with, to put it mildly, a strange plot. In the courtyard, the influence of the hippie movement was still felt, venerable directors made serious films about the Vietnam war, and mediocrity riveted trash articles about evil aliens from outer space. The work of George Lucas was immediately ranked among the latter, but the budget in this case required a rather big one - $ 8 million. Fortunately, there was a producer who believed in the genius of the young director and allocated the necessary amount.
And still, only a few believed in the success of Star Wars. Lucas himself sometimes doubted that something worthwhile would come out of his venture. Later, the actors recalled the filming as the most ridiculous episode in their life. A tall guy dressed as a monkey, dwarfs, simple pretentious dialogues ... The film was perceived as a children's fairy tale or trash, but not an adventure fantasy that claims to be cult status.
"The scene in the bar reminded of the delirium of a stoned man: some frogs, pigs, a cricket - a nightmare!" - the performers of the main roles told with a smile. Apparently, the Hollywood bosses adhered to the same point of view, who for some reason considered one of the main questions of the picture whether Wookiees should wear panties. At some point, they wanted to cover up "Star Wars" altogether, then they decided to throw out all the special effects from the film and turn it into a television series. Only the persistence and stubbornness of George Lucas saved the tape.
The lion's share of filming took place in the Tunisian desert. In the same country, they found a suitable name for the planet on which the action takes place in the first third of the film. The name of the city of Tataouine was quietly transformed into Tatooine. Here, in North Africa, they found suitable scenery: the house of Luke Skywalker's guardians was not built specifically for the film, it is an ordinary hut in one of the villages of Tunisia. They found suitable interiors at a local hotel.
And here is the city of Mos Eisley, from whose spaceport Luke finally went to space trip on the Millennium Falcon, had to be built from scratch. Tons of sets had to be flown from Hollywood. It took about two months to build a settlement from the material that was received, ideally fitting into the desert surroundings.
Han Solo's spaceship was built in full size in one of the largest cinema halls in England. The colossus's length reached 50 meters, and its weight was several tens of tons. A gigantic model of the Millennium Falcon sometimes flickers in the frame, but most of all the film crew came in handy with its insides, because the main characters spend a lot of time in the ship. True, the cabin still had to be made separately.
George Lucas wanted to literally put the viewer in the shoes of the heroes. The Millennium Falcon is racing at the speed of light, the ship is fired upon, it shakes from side to side. All this should be accompanied by shaking inside. The 40-ton dummy is difficult to vibrate, so it was decided to build a small cab and place it on a spring platform. In scripted scenes, she was shaken by hand.
Another gigantic model had to be done to recreate the crawler described in the script, in which the Javs drove around Tatooine in search of robots. For some episodes, a huge metal "box" with tracks from a mining excavator was built. For shooting general scenes, a compact crawler model was used.
Like most pre-computer science fiction tapes, Star Wars had a lot of toys. All the spaceships that we see in the film (from the Millennium Falcon to fighters) were made in the form of miniature plastic or even cardboard models. The Death Star was drawn at all, and for the shooting of the final large-scale scene of the attack, the film crew built a model measuring 15 × 15 meters. It has carefully reproduced each of the hundreds of turrets and guns that bristled with the Death Star. The tunnel, through which the rebel toy fighters flew, became the dominant feature of the layout.
Who knows, Star Wars would have received cult status if only space shootouts were in the film, without all that “zoo” that still settled in the film. Hundreds of dolls and masks great amount makeup and, of course, a park of dozens of robots. All this organically blended into the new universe and even now looks good.
Robots invented a variety of
Today it is difficult to imagine Star Wars without robots C-3PO and R2-D2. It was too expensive to make the real mechanisms, so George Lucas agreed to have the actors play the astromech droid and the robot secretary. Anthony Daniels fits into the plastic "armor" C-3PO. According to him, the plates were so fragile that they broke on the first day, injuring the actor's leg.
Anthony Daniels was completely blind in his suit
Inside R2-D2 sat the dwarf Kenny Baker, who played the nimble robot on wheels in all six films in the franchise. The actor recalls that he could not get out of the metal bowels of R2-D2 on his own and sometimes he had to spend several hours inside, as he was simply forgotten. All in all, in the film, in one form or another, there are more than 30 robots, most of which were controlled remotely.
Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels had a tense relationship on set
Sometimes the assistants had to roll R2-D2
The true face of Chewbacca
But the hardest part was Chewbacca, that is, excuse me, Peter Mayhew, who played the Wookiee. Before joining the cinema, the man worked as an orderly in a hospital, but thanks to his height of 221 centimeters, he made his way to the big screen. Every day during the filming of "Star Wars" he had to put on a woolen suit, put on a "head" and shoe "feet" from a native of Kashyyyk. In Tunisia, the actor was haunted by unbearable heat, and in the pavilions, openings that were too low for him sometimes interfered.
After filming, George Lucas said that in many ways he borrowed the image of Chewbacca from his dog Indiana. As for the name, they say that it is a derivative of the Russian word "dog" - the young director liked it very much.
During filming, the Wookiee did not utter a word or growl, only opened his mouth as the script required. Later, sound technicians had to experiment with hundreds of the most different sounds to find suitable ones for Chewbacca's speech. For example, when you hear an angry and outraged Wookiee, it's mostly the sounds that the bear makes, while the happy Chewie gets the tiger's "purr." Darth Vader's famous hoarse breathing was achieved thanks to the scuba diving mask, R2-D2 “talks” with a mixture of various synthesizer beeps and even babbling babies, and the sound of fighters had to be combined from the roar of an elephant and the sound of a car rushing along a wet highway.
The layout of the plot "Death Star"
The camera pans over the mock-up, filming the final battle.
And yet, first of all, "Star Wars" was remembered for its amazing special effects. When I first saw the fourth episode in the late 1980s and walked out of the cinema with a jaw drooping with surprise, I could not believe that something like this could have been filmed more than ten years ago. According to George Lucas, when he saw the first versions of the installation of his tape, he lost heart. The film turned out to be so weak and miserable that even the director could not believe in the bright future of the film. However, the impression changed dramatically when special effects were added to Star Wars.
And here is the famous tunnel - one of the main "chips" of the film
For all the prettiness, the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) studio, which Lucas created specifically for his space epic, had to take the rap. In total, almost four hundred special effects were included in the film - an incredible indicator for that time. The creation of flights of ships, shots from blasters, luminous swords took a third of the budget of the tape and most of the man-hours spent on the production of the picture.
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Star Wars is a cult epic fantasy saga that includes 6 movies, as well as animated series, cartoons, television films, books, comics, video games - all imbued with a single storyline and created in a single fantastic universe Star Wars, conceived and realized by American director George Lucas in the early 1970s and later expanded.
Today, May 25, marks the 38th anniversary of the release of the very first film in this truly iconic series of science fiction films. Let's remember together how it all began.
The first film was released on May 25, 1977 under the title Star Wars. The film was a huge box office success, which effectively saved 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy. When doubts about the payback of the project disappeared, the first film received the subtitle "New Hope", and two sequels soon followed - in 1980 and 1983.
Genre: action, science fiction, adventure, family movie, fantasy
Nobody expected this film to be a success. The management of the film studio was so convinced of the failure of the film that they gave Lucas the commercial rights to all subsequent Star Wars episodes for free. The bosses clearly underestimated the film's potential, and did not expect it to be followed by two sequels, three backstories and many byproducts - cartoons, computer games, toys, books, and even clothing and food. The film's budget of $ 11 million seemed very small, and it has already brought the director half a billion, and continues to do so.
The plot of the picture comes down to how strong-willed the young man Luke Skywalker, after the death of his uncle and aunt, teams up with the old Jedi Knight Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi, two squeaky robots, the ship's commander Han Solo (Ford) and a furry alien to save the princess from the villain.
The film stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, David Prause, Phil Brown, Shilag Fraser, Jack Purvis, Alex McCrindl, Eddie Byrne, Drew Henley
Director: George Lucas
Screenwriter: George Lucas
Operator: Gilbert Taylor
Composer: John Williams
Artists: John Barry, Leslie Dilly, Norman Reynolds, Leon Eriksen
Producers: Gary Kertz, George Lucas
Awards, nominations, festivals
1978 - Academy Award
Best Production Designer
Best Costume Design
Best visual effects
Best Editing
The best music
Best Sound
BAFTA Award (1978):
Best Music - John Williams
Best Sound (Sam Shaw)
Lucas took the military chronicle of the Second World War as a reference for the battle scenes ...
George Lucas wanted to make a semblance modern myth, in contrast to the dark, pessimistic science fiction characteristic of the cinema of the early 70s.
Some interesting facts:
1. There were people in the funny robot comics C3PO and R2D2, and in the big robot there was a specially found very thin comedian, and in the small robot there was a dwarf who controlled the robot. When filming ended, the dwarf was often forgotten to be removed from the robot. He himself could not get out.
2. Since there was not enough time for filming, different episodes were filmed in 3 pavilions at once, while Lucas himself moved between pavilions on a bicycle.
3. Benchmarking in movies: as a reference for battle scenes, Lucas took the military chronicle of World War II, and in some of the scenes he simply copied the scenes of air battles: the movement of planes, changes in close-ups and general shots, etc. reproduced very accurately.
4. The breath of a man in an aqualung was used to sound the sinister Darth Vader. To sound the speech of the alien Chubaku, samples of the lion's, bear's and tiger's roars were used, which alternated, lining up in some "phrases."
5. Wooden sticks covered with reflective compound were used as "lightsabers". The "swords" were constantly breaking during fights.
6. The Death Star space station was the size of a desk, and a miniature camera was dragged along it on a cable. The camera was controlled by a home-made computer (there were no personal computers at that time).
7. In one of the scenes, Luke is attacked by a "sandman". Dropping Luke to the ground, he raises the stick high above his head. During the editing, for greater expressiveness, this frame was "looped" and repeated several times: it turned out that the sand man was shaking the stick with a belligerent force.
8. Producers have repeatedly tried to close the picture. Because:
Who will watch the stupid fairy tale?
There are no famous actors in the film.
The soundtrack is symphonic, and now everyone is listening to disco
9. Nobody believed in the success of the film, and only one small company decided to release toys in the form of movie characters for the premiere of Star Wars.
After the premiere, a huge demand for toys began, and the capacities involved in the production of toys were not enough. Therefore, by Christmas, the company ran out of goods! Then the company began to sell "certificates" for toys. As a gift for Christmas, the child received an empty box and a certificate on which it was written: "With this certificate you will receive toys in March."
10. In the second part of the film, the alien Yoda was played by a special doll, which was controlled by several people. All the scenery in the scenes with Yoda (including trees, etc.) was raised above the ground to a height of human height, and the puppeteers hid under the floor.
This created difficulties: Mark Hamill, who played Luke Stiwalker, did not hear him in his dialogues with Yoda. Finally, they guessed to insert an earpiece into Mark's ear. Now he heard Yoda, but from time to time, when he turned his head, the earpiece began to pick up the radio (sounded “ Rolling Stones”), And it was very distracting.
11. Scenes on a snowy planet were filmed in Iceland. We were very unlucky with the weather, the whole time there was a 20-degree frost. The moments when Luke wanders the snowy desert were filmed through open door from the hotel lobby. At the same time, Mark Hammil was freezing outside, and the entire film crew was basking in the hall.
12. During the filming of the flight through the asteroid swarm, they used…. regular potatoes... The flyby of each "asteroid" was filmed separately, against the background of a blue screen, and then all this was assembled along with the flying starships. There was no computer graphics then ...
13. To make the acting more believable and to create an atmosphere of "mystery", George Lucas did last moment hid from the entire film crew that the sinister Darth Vader was actually Luke Starwalker's father. Lucas informed Mark Hammil about this a minute before the shooting of the decisive fight with Vader. And the actor who played Vader, even during the filming of the episode where he tells Luke: "I am your father!" Then this scene was voiced "as it should": after all, Vader's face is hidden under an iron mask.
14. In order to keep the audience in suspense from the very first frames of the film, Lucas moved all credits to the end of the film, thereby breaking the Hollywood tradition. The first time he was forgiven. But when he repeated this number in the second part of the film, the Directors Guild obliged him to pay a fine of 250 thousand dollars.
15. When preparations began for the filming of the third part of the film, for all suppliers of equipment, in all papers the film was called "Blue Harvest". They specially came up with the most non-brand name - because when suppliers saw the name "Star Wars" - they immediately doubled the price.
16. Monster-like gangster Jabba was controlled by many people - someone with their hands, someone with their mouth, someone with their tongue, someone with their eyes (which were radio-controlled). And Jabba's tail was set in motion by 2 dwarfs. When Princess Leia, about to strangle Jabba, walked behind him, she accidentally stepped on the dwarf. To prevent this from happening again, a special platform was made.
17. One of the most exciting episodes of the 3rd part - racing on flying motorcycles at breakneck speed through the forest. In fact, the flight through the forest was filmed with a hand-held movie camera, which the operator slowly carried along the route. The shooting was carried out at a speed of 1 frame per second. Then, at a normal playback speed of 24 frames per second, the effect of a dizzying race arose.
In 1997, 20 years after the release of the first film, the original trilogy was reworked with CGI and re-released. The films were re-released, respectively, 256.5 million, 124.2 million and 88.7 million dollars.
In 1999, the movie Star Wars. Episode I: The Phantom Menace ", which marked the beginning of a new trilogy - the prehistory of the original. Further in 2002 - Star Wars. Episode II: Attack of the Clones and 2005 - Star Wars. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
According to George Lucas, the idea of the film arose under the influence of Joseph Campbell's research on comparative mythology ("A Hero with a Thousand Faces", etc.).
1976 is considered to be the beginning of Star Wars history. It was then that the eponymous novelization book by AD Foster and George Lucas appeared, telling about the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. The producers of 20th Century Fox, fearing the film's failure at the box office, decided to release the book early in order to evaluate its success. In 1977, at the Congress of the World Community science fiction George Lucas received a special Hugo award for this novel.
At the end of 2012, the seventh film was announced. The release date is set for December 18, 2015 .. In March 2015, the eighth film was announced and the premiere date: May 26, 2017.