Robert Blalack, the supervisor for composite optical photography on A New Hope and a key figure in the establishment and blossoming of Industrial Light and Magic has passed away age 73. In a week when fellow innovator Doug Trumbull left us, it marks a tough few days for those in the visual effects industry as two greats step away.
As the supervisor for composite optical photography on Star Wars: A New Hope, Blalack was responsible for establishing ILM’s first optical department in Van Nuys, California, including the acquisition of cameras and optical printers for the compositing of visual effects shots. By piecing together separate film elements of starships and laser blasts photographed by the ILM crews, these tools actually made the effects audiences would glimpse onscreen.
Among these tools was Blalack’s own customized Praxis Printer and the historic Howard Anderson Optical Printer, the latter originally built at Paramount Studios and now on private display at Lucasfilm and ILM’s San Francisco Headquarters.
In 2021, Blalack penned a narrative about ILM’s odyssey to realize the visuals for Star Wars. Writing in the present tense, he recalled attending a public screening at Mann’s Chinese Theater during the first week of the movie’s release:
“The lights go out,” he wrote. “The Fox logo appears. The Lucasfilm logo. ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…’ John Williams’ first notes blast. But louder is the roar of cheering and applause for the words Star Wars. The audience keeps screaming and applauding as the Star Destroyer moves endlessly overhead. Shot 101, as I know it, blows open the doors of perception, takes the audience into the cosmos where they dream and points to a universe limited only by the desire to adventure deeper into unseen arenas of the imagination.”
