Behind the Effects: Star Wars Spaceships

Welcome to Behind the Effects, a running series exploring and explaining classic movie effects.  This first entry is all about Star Wars, I hope you enjoy!

The original 1970’s Star Wars was, and still is, one of the most important and influential movies of all time.  And its contributions to the realm of special effects may be the most influential of all.  Even today, when movie special effects rule the earth, people are still impressed by the fantastic visuals that were created for the film, especially the spaceships.

In this very first Behind the Effect, we will be looking behind the scenes to find out exactly how these special effects pioneers created convincing spaceships, fighters and space stations for this 1970’s popcorn classic.

The easy part of the spaceship sequences was a blue screen and a small scale model, but you probably guessed that.  What you probably didn’t know is that the ships usually never moved in front of said blue screen.  It was only the illusion of movement.

Below you can see a picture of two effects specialist rotating between two different kinds of Tie-Fighters on a fixed stand.  The illusion of flight would be created by filming the ships on a camera that would focus in on, or rotate around, the still model.  Once the blue screen was digitally replaced by the endless blackness of the universe, it would create the illusion of the Tie Fighters moving through space.
                 

For shots where more than one ship was seen at the same time they would use a special camera that could be programmed to make the exact same precise movements repeatedly.  They would film one ship, say an X-Wing, with the special camera; Then they would repeat the exact same movements, but with a Tie-Fighter on the stand instead of the X-Wing.  In post production they could simply put the two shots together to create the illusion that one of the ships was chasing the other, and that the two occupied the same space.

When a spaceship had to make more specific articulate movements, the effects artist would simply rotate them on an axis.  In the bellow shot the Millennium Falcon is being rotated on a special blue stand, this will become the sequence where Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and the gang land in the hanger bay of the Death Star.
                                    

Finally when the models were no longer needed, they would be blown up.  In the final action sequence of the original Star Wars there are many space ships sacrificed when the Rebels attack the Death Star.  So the effects artists filmed many shots of various spaceships exploding in order to accomplish the required carnage.  The ships were simply rigged with small explosives, which were detonated whilst the fancy memory camera was rolling.  They even hung the ships from wires instead of the normal stands so that, when the ships burst apart, they would fly apart like there wasn’t any gravity.

There were many techniques other than the motion control camera used to create movement.  The ship below, from Empire Strikes Back, was strung on a wire and rigged with explosives.  This way it would look like it was exploding when it impacted the ground.

There were many other techniques used, I’ve only scratched the surface.  Needless to say;  Exploring the history and making of Star Wars is definitely a rewarding and educational experience.

Thanks for reading!  If you have any questions, comments or smart remarks you can email me at atchleyosaurus@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter at @atchleyosaurus.  Look for more reviews and more Behind the Effects in the coming days!