Just now I watched a recording of the Holiday Special that was followed by three or four TV trailers for Star Wars and ESB.
These left me with these questions 3. What is your favourit… sorry, I’ll start again.
The actual Darth Vader scene from the Holiday Special. Am I right in thinking that it was some sort of deleted scene from the original movie? It seems to be set on the late death star and is very short and ends a bit abruptly, not to be continued.
In the TV trailers for both SW and ESB I saw that Darth Vader’s light sabre is white just like Obi-wan’s. What’s up with that and when did it become red?
In both ESB TV trailers you can see C3P0 tearing a sticker off a door. I don’t recall something like that happening in any of the movies. Does anyone know what that was supposed to be all about?
In ANH, the lightsabers were reflective rods wielded by the actors, and lights were shone at the rods to create the illusion of a “laser sword.” The over-all effect was a mostly white blade with a hint of color. The scenes in the YouTube video you linked to look even rougher than what I remember from ANH; they look to me like unfinished sequences.
Starting in ESB, the lightsabers were enhanced in post-production, so that the colors were a little more distinct. I believe that by the time RotJ came around, the lightsabers were completely digital effects (well, their appearance was digital; the actors still used solid props during filming).
The scene of C3PO tearing something off the wall was definitely not in any version of ESB that I’ve ever seen. No idea what it is (I can’t even think of anything from the novelization).
There had been some scenes scripted and shot involving multiple Wampa (Wampas?) being in the rebel base – after they’d been captured and the base was being infiltrated by the Imperial troops, C-3P0 tears down the sign warning against entering the room where the Wampa(s) were being detained. Hapless stormtroopers were to have entered said room, much to their regret.
This page describes the subplot pretty well (scroll about halfway down).
Almost correct. The sabres in all three films were all rotoscoped over with enhancements, using the same technique every time, though it improved in definition as the years passed. There were no “digital” effects used in any film, apart from some of the computer displays, until the Special Editions in the late 90s.
The red vs blue sabre colours were decided in post production. The reflective tape just didn’t work at all, so they had to draw over the top of the image with a glow, which is where they added the colouration.
One factor that is interesting to note, is the rotation of the rods in the sabres causes an organic shimmer that is still visible in the first film, but was not in any subsequent film.
Oh, I see. That explains about the sticker. The white lightsabres may have been there because the footage used for the TV trailer was unedited or did not have the special effects. That website still doesn’t explain about the Darth Vader scene in the Holiday Special though.
Why didn’t George ever include any of that on DVD…
Good guess on the Vader footage in the Holiday Special. That’s exactly what it is.
The lightsabres were coated with front projection screen material. They were hoping that it would glow in the camera. Turns out it didn’t, so they rotoscoped (animated) the glow in post production and colored it then. The trailer was made before they had finished the effect. Also, the material they used was the same material they used for the Kryptonian costumes in Superman the Movie. You can actually kind of see what they were hoping for in Superman’s effect when the costumes glow.
By the way, the lightsabres were animated the same way in Jedi as the other films. They didn’t do them digitally until the Special Editions and Prequels.
Strange that some officer should openly doubt someone as effective as Tarkin. Oh well. Obviously that last line is also cut from the HS as it couldn’t be redubbed to anything useful.