Half a century ago on Monday 22nd March 1976, on a salt flat sat at the edge of the Sahara Desert in Tunisia, the very first shot that would be seen onscreen 429 days later on 25th May 1977 when Star Wars arrived on 32 screens across North America, was filmed. That scene was of the late actor Phil Brown as the gruff but fiercely protective Uncle Owen telling the Chief Jawa played by the late Jack Purvis, “Alright, fine, let’s go,” and with it the first shot of what would become a galaxy-changing cinematic classic that would grab the zeitgeist in a Force choke and never let go. Lucasfilm historian Lucas Seastrom delved deep into the day over at StarWars.com, looking at Anthony Daniels only day spent entirely in the C-3PO costume (never again would he remain fully costumed as Threepio for a whole shooting day again), the already legendary cinematographer Gil Taylor, the problematic droids, and the filming of the iconic twin suns scene.
After many shots from the droid sale were completed, the crew made what would be their first of multiple attempts at Scene 29, in which Luke gazes at the fateful twin sunset. Ultimately, none of the March 22 sunset takes were used in the film. According to J.W. Rinzler in his seminal book, The Making of Star Wars, the weather was uncooperative. Scene 29 wasn’t completed until a week later.
The shots that were attempted on March 22, however, are surprisingly different from those depicted in the final cut, newly revealed in continuity reports from the production. One view looked towards the igloo home, away from the setting sun, as Luke emerges. The white vaporator boxes are at the bottom of frame, and Luke stops near them, placing his hand on one as he gazes past the camera at the twin suns. An alternate, improvised take was then captured by Gil Taylor himself, the camera positioned behind Luke, towards the sunset, but with the character still in frame.
The March 22 continuity report for Scene 29’s twin sunset also includes a note that “there is a matte shot to go into this sequence – from behind Luke – to matte in the twin suns.” This brief annotation signifies the first visual effects plate ever captured for a Star Wars production, and thus the first ever captured for Industrial Light & Magic, at the time still less than a year old and rapidly building up its visual effects pipeline back in California.
Scene 29 was also notably captured without sound in anticipation of the film’s musical score being added later. Lucas had already met with John Williams a year before in 1975, when the composer agreed to join the production, though by March of 1976, he had yet to formally begin work. Just a week after Star Wars began shooting on March 29 – the same day that the crew finally captured the sunset shots – Williams won his second Oscar for the score of Jaws (1975).
By spring 1976, although not known by that name at that point, ILM were already a year into its own journey towards creating the 365 visual effects required to bring the galaxy to the big screen, and they also celebrate this momentous day in the GFFA calendar.
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Skywalker Sound mark the day, reminding us that while the day saw the first actors shooting to camera, Ben Burtt had already been at work for many months compiling a sound library and creating the sounds that would not only win him an Academy Award, but would be heard and used for decades to follow.
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Finally, my fellow writer over at ILM.com and SkywalkerSound.com Clayton Sandell, who put together this wonderful video celebrating half a century since the start of filming.
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