While CGI can bring modern fantasy to life on the big screen, things were very different in 1997 when A New Hope was first released. Up till that point, the apex of special effects in Hollywood had been the ingenious stop motion work of VFX legend Ray Harryhausen on titles such as Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans. In the course of producing the original three films, George Lucas’ production company Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) pioneered VFX technology to such a degree that it changed the landscape of the film industry. The company remains an inseparable force in the Star Wars story. Even today, the company and visual effects coordinator Eric Rosengard are contributing to recent installments of the franchise like The Mandalorian. Fans are still discovering new tricks and techniques that helped contribute to the soaring action and masterful world-building of the Star Wars universe. Here are some of the most novel VFX tricks that helped bring a galaxy far, far away to life on our screens.
Jabba the Hutt
The Tatooine-based crimelord from Return of the Jedi remains one of the series’ most iconic grotesques. His enormous, sedentary bulk is crucial to his striking visuals, but was also probably necessary to animate his puppet. Articulating his actions required three crew members to conceal themselves inside the character, each one operating a different controller. One had to operate his right arm and mouth, another his head and tongue, and the final crew member had to maneuver his tail. Monitor screens inside Jabba’s body allowed them to observe the scene and hit their cues at the right moments.
Ewoks
Hailing from the moon of Endor, the Ewoks were the subject of intense costume work to bring them to life. Practical costume work was required to disguise actors as the teddy bear-like species, which, according to reports on set, weren’t very breathable for long periods. The leading Ewok, Wicket, was portrayed by Warick Davis, who would later go on to show his face in Willow and the Harry Potter films.
Dykstraflex
The Dykstraflex was a camera controlled by a computer that proved vital to capturing the breathless space battles of the original trilogy. Controlled by a computer, the camera could move while props and models remained stationary but with the on-screen appearance of motion. The camera could be programmed to repeat an exact sequence of movement, so different models could be filmed and then layered into a single composite shot, allowing the creation of flowing, action-packed dogfight sequences that have become such a hallmark of the series.
Optical Printing
Another VFX trick to get multiple on-screen elements in the same shot, Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic had to devise a brand new type of optical printer out of the blue to produce the images they wanted on screen. Designed with four different projector heads, the film allowed these different elements to inhabit a single frame of celluloid at once. This allowed for what, at the time, were much sharper VFX images and a process that saved filmmakers a great deal of time and effort.
Miniaturization
Miniatures in Hollywood VFX certainly existed before Star Wars, but it’s arguable whether any preceding film had such a technologically intense production. Industrial Light and Magic’s Paul Huston was charged with bringing Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art to life. The ship models were made using silicons and resins that were groundbreaking for the time, to create smaller props that would allow more space onscreen and let the camera work generate a greater sense of movement throughout the action.
C-3P0
The only character to appear in every single Star Wars motion picture, C-3PO helped set the tone for the series’ visual creativity in the first minutes of the saga. The costume department on A New Hope was initially doubtful that they’d be able to bring Ralph McQuarrie’s vision to life, but with time they managed to stick the landing. The costume was arduous to fabricate, and not much easier to wear according to actor Anthony Daniels, who said the plastic and aluminum outfit would often break and prod him in a most unpleasant fashion.
Banthas
The pack animals of Tatooine’s sand people, Banthas weren’t built with costly animatronics or clever rigs. Banthas were, in fact, uh… elephants! The bantha in A New Hope was played by a 22-year-old elephant named Mardji, on loan from an American theme park. The very tolerant animal was fitted with an elephant saddle covered in interlocked palm fronds to create the appearance of a shaggy coat. In between takes while shooting in Death Valley, Mardji would frolic in nearby creeks, and footage of her at home was recorded to provide a visual representation for the hulking gait of The Empire Strikes Back’s AT-AT walkers.
Go Motion
Stop motion was a well-established VFX form by the time of the first Star Wars release, but for the sequel Industrial Light and Magic went one better be developing “go motion”. This process involved filming a conventional stop motion sequence but later painting a motion blur effect on each individual frame of film. The effect helped speeding ships appear to fly more smoothly, reducing the tell-tale judder visible with most stop motion footage.
Steadicam
Industrial Light and Magic usually used blue screen for capturing space battles, but when the action was taking place with actors on a planet’s surface, another approach was called for. For the speeder bike chase sequence in Return of the Jedi, the VFX team created a new kind of gliding Steadicam. The device was walked through a Californian forest to record a long, lateral tracking shot that could be underlayed behind bluescreen footage of the actors aboard their bikes.
Lighting
With dozens of different models appearing in a single space fight, lighting was a big challenge for the VFX crew on the original film. It proved especially difficult to make each model appear realistically lit whilst appearing uniform alongside the other craft in a shot. The team solved the problem by employing fluorescent tubing to help light their prop models and illuminate the blue screen they were being filmed against. The fluorescent lights were critical to the process, since they didn’t create any flickering on the final footage.