Star Wars
I didn't want to use this, but since I don't have time to write 3 more blogs, this has over 1700 words, so hopefully it will count.
Whoosh! The great space ship kicks into hyper speed! The stars blur and it disappears faster than a bullet. Giant lasers fly through space, ships explode-sending massive balls of fire into space. This is what awaited millions in May of 1977, this, and a whole lot more. Star Wars was an enormous hit. Variety stated "Star Wars is a magnificent film. George Lucas set out to make the biggest possible adventure-fantasy out of his memories of serials and older action epics, and he has succeeded brilliantly. What Lucas lacks in originality is more than made up by enthralling special effects"(Supershadow). The fans seemed to think so also, opening day alone totaled $254,309 from just 32 theaters. And by the end of its first theatrical run, it was the most successful film in North American history, a gross in excess of $290 million (Supershadow). Where did such a hit come from? It came from the amazing imagination of George Lucas, who took older fantasy movies, and made whole new worlds. Star Wars was is a world famous movie and adventure, and will continue to be for generations to come.
I grew up watching Star Wars, but never was that interested when I was younger. I knew the basic story line of Luke becoming a jedi. I knew about the horrifying moment when Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke’s father. I mean, who doesn’t? But that’s not to say I didn’t like Star Wars from the start. I was still excited when Episode I came out, and I collected a bunch of Star Wars toys. Episode II wasn’t bad, especially since it’s the first time you get to see Yoda actually fight. But it wasn’t until Episode III came out, that I really got into it.
Since it was the very last episode, the one we’ve all been waiting for, who wasn’t excited to see how Anikin becomes Darth Vader? With all the excitement, a lot of things were being shown on TV about the making of Star Wars, the original trilogy. I saw part of one TV special that showed how the different characters were made, how they did the voices, and the hardships George Lucas and the other cast members went through to bring it on the big screen. I learned that the robots have people inside, that control and do things. There is a man inside C3P0, that does the voice himself, and that Star Wars was almost cancelled because of the time it took to make. After seeing that, it really got me interested. When I saw the last episode it was awesome. My little brother and I have been having light-saber battles on the trampoline ever since. We both have light up, sound activated light-sabers. I decided, that if I was going to fight like a Jedi, I had better learn about them too.
After seeing all the TV specials, and light-saber fights, I wanted to learn more about Star Wars and how it came to be. For example, how did they make the space ships fly in space? How did they do the light saber fights? Where did they shoot the scenes for the different planets? How did they make Yoda? These are some of the basic things I wanted to find out. But finding them was another story all together.
Finding information on the making of Star Wars was probably the hardest part. The internet was almost no help at all, which is kind of surprising seeing that when you type in "The Making of Star Wars", into Google or Yahoo, you get about twenty -million results. The only problem is, only about two of the fifty sites I looked at actually gave information. And those both gave the same information, when Star Wars came out, and how much money it made. It wasn’t bad, it was better than nothing, but it didn’t answer the questions I had. I spent the next week or so typing in as many things as I could into Google to find out more, and found maybe one site. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought it was. I then went to the bonus disc on the Episode III DVD. The most interesting thing there was how they choreographed the light-saber fights. This was one of the few bits of actual interesting useful knowledge I had. A few days later I was talking to a friend about it. He had the answers. He told me he had a four-hour bonus disc on the making of Star Wars. Telling how they made pretty much everything in it, where they filmed, had interviews with the actors, and George Lucas, men from the making, and a lot more. I went to his house that night and borrowed it. I watched about and hour and a half of it that night and it had all the information I needed. Man, was there a lot of stuff to learn from that DVD, which ended up being the main source of information for my paper.
I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know about Star Wars in doing this paper. The movie Flash Gordon, gave Lucas a lot of ideas for Star Wars. George Lucas, had offered Star Wars to Universal Studios, and all the rest of the studios in Hollywood, and was turned down by all except for 20th Century Fox. Lucas was given $10 million for the making of "Star Wars, A New Hope." George Lucas and crew stationed themselves in an old warehouse in California, they later moved to El street, just outside of London. After setting up from scratch, and starting on the making of all the ships and models, it was time to find the actors that would star in this galactic adventure (Lucas 2004).
Lucas did not want widely renown actors to star in his movie, so he spent the next 4 to 6 months auditioning and searching for his stars. Young 24 year old Mark Hamill, tried out and was chosen to be Luke Skywalker (Lucas 2004). Harrison Ford had played in George Lucas’s previous film called American Graffiti, and was working on the set helping auditioning actors by feeding them lines, and eventually was chosen for the part of Han Solo (Supershadow). A young actress by the name of Carrie Fisher was chosen for the part of the beautiful Princess Lea. But because she was a mite large, she had to attend a fat farm and lose 10 pounds for the part. For the evil lord Darth Vader, champion body builder David Prowse was chosen. The commanding general was played by 63 year old Peter Cushing. For the part of Chewbacca, Solo’s trusty companion, 7'3" Peter Mehew was chosen. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke’s mentor and instructor in the Jedi ways, was Alec Guiness, a more widely known actor. At 3'5" Kenny Baker was chosen to play the mischievous little robot of R2-D2. Actor Anthony Daniels played the part of his partner droit C-3P0(Lucas 2004). But for such important characters the voices had to be just write. Other wise it just didn’t fit.
Daniels (C-3P0) had previously had training as a mime artist, and did his own voice. For the voice of R2-D2, baby noises were recorded, beeps and boops were then put together and put through an electronic synthesizer. Chewbacca’s came from the recordings of different animals, such as bears, walrus’s, and tigers, they were mixed together in different patterns to make it sound like he was talking. Darth Vader’s evil breathing actually came from a microphone attached inside a regulator in a scuba tank. David Prowse fit the body of Darth Vader, but it sounded odd having him as the voice of Darth Vader as well, since he did have a Scottish accent, so instead they had Prowse act, and a stutterer, born in Mississippi ,and raised in Michigan, named James Earl Jones provided the voice of Darth Vader (Lucas 2004). But despite these characters and their unique ways of communication, Star Wars wouldn’t be the same without Yoda.
Yoda, was a two-foot tall puppet, designed by Stuart Freeborn. Yoda’s wise look, came from Freeborn himself, and the face of Einstein. Frank Oz was Yoda’s main operator, but in addition, three other men were needed to fully operate him. Yoda’s swamp, had to be built afive feet above the stage, so that the puppeteer could operate from underneath, the top of the stage was covered with rocks, trees, caves, etc. In order to hear each other, Luke had an ear piece, that would occasionally bleep out and pick up rock bands (Lucas 2004). Yoda became a famous and widely known character in Star Wars, but it was Mark Hamill’s believable performance that made people accept him as a living breathing character. While all of this was taking place in London, ILM was working hard on producing exclusive space battles.
The space ships were miniature models on a string then put on a starry back ground. Everything was a model. Blue screen technology was what mostly brought them to life. Even in the jungle, when they fly around on the speeders in Empire Strikes Back, with all the little furry guys, some of the jungle isn’t even real, it’s just them sitting on the speeder and the computerized jungle moving around them (Lucas 2004). But even so, Empire Strikes Back, had a lot more special effects concerning the space battles.
Even though some of the jungle was computer, the rest was shot in California. In order to create all the different worlds, Lucas had to travel around ours. After setting up in London, the cast went to North Africa to shoot Luke’s home with uncle Ben. Unfortunately within the first days of shooting, it received it’s first major rainfall in 50 years. With rain coming down horizontally they had to cancel shooting. Filming in North Africa created some problems and put the crew behind schedule. The snow scene in Empire Strikes Back, was shot in Norway, again, the crew faced bad luck, it was the worst winter that Scandinavia had had in 50 years, 20 below zero, with 18ft. of snow(Lucas 2004). But despite these difficulties, "Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back" ended up being another huge hit.
Star Wars is a legacy in movie making. It changed the way people think about space. It taught values, while capturing one’s imagination. A billion years in the making, and it came to our galaxy, on that historical day back in May, 1977.
Whoosh! The great space ship kicks into hyper speed! The stars blur and it disappears faster than a bullet. Giant lasers fly through space, ships explode-sending massive balls of fire into space. This is what awaited millions in May of 1977, this, and a whole lot more. Star Wars was an enormous hit. Variety stated "Star Wars is a magnificent film. George Lucas set out to make the biggest possible adventure-fantasy out of his memories of serials and older action epics, and he has succeeded brilliantly. What Lucas lacks in originality is more than made up by enthralling special effects"(Supershadow). The fans seemed to think so also, opening day alone totaled $254,309 from just 32 theaters. And by the end of its first theatrical run, it was the most successful film in North American history, a gross in excess of $290 million (Supershadow). Where did such a hit come from? It came from the amazing imagination of George Lucas, who took older fantasy movies, and made whole new worlds. Star Wars was is a world famous movie and adventure, and will continue to be for generations to come.
I grew up watching Star Wars, but never was that interested when I was younger. I knew the basic story line of Luke becoming a jedi. I knew about the horrifying moment when Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke’s father. I mean, who doesn’t? But that’s not to say I didn’t like Star Wars from the start. I was still excited when Episode I came out, and I collected a bunch of Star Wars toys. Episode II wasn’t bad, especially since it’s the first time you get to see Yoda actually fight. But it wasn’t until Episode III came out, that I really got into it.
Since it was the very last episode, the one we’ve all been waiting for, who wasn’t excited to see how Anikin becomes Darth Vader? With all the excitement, a lot of things were being shown on TV about the making of Star Wars, the original trilogy. I saw part of one TV special that showed how the different characters were made, how they did the voices, and the hardships George Lucas and the other cast members went through to bring it on the big screen. I learned that the robots have people inside, that control and do things. There is a man inside C3P0, that does the voice himself, and that Star Wars was almost cancelled because of the time it took to make. After seeing that, it really got me interested. When I saw the last episode it was awesome. My little brother and I have been having light-saber battles on the trampoline ever since. We both have light up, sound activated light-sabers. I decided, that if I was going to fight like a Jedi, I had better learn about them too.
After seeing all the TV specials, and light-saber fights, I wanted to learn more about Star Wars and how it came to be. For example, how did they make the space ships fly in space? How did they do the light saber fights? Where did they shoot the scenes for the different planets? How did they make Yoda? These are some of the basic things I wanted to find out. But finding them was another story all together.
Finding information on the making of Star Wars was probably the hardest part. The internet was almost no help at all, which is kind of surprising seeing that when you type in "The Making of Star Wars", into Google or Yahoo, you get about twenty -million results. The only problem is, only about two of the fifty sites I looked at actually gave information. And those both gave the same information, when Star Wars came out, and how much money it made. It wasn’t bad, it was better than nothing, but it didn’t answer the questions I had. I spent the next week or so typing in as many things as I could into Google to find out more, and found maybe one site. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought it was. I then went to the bonus disc on the Episode III DVD. The most interesting thing there was how they choreographed the light-saber fights. This was one of the few bits of actual interesting useful knowledge I had. A few days later I was talking to a friend about it. He had the answers. He told me he had a four-hour bonus disc on the making of Star Wars. Telling how they made pretty much everything in it, where they filmed, had interviews with the actors, and George Lucas, men from the making, and a lot more. I went to his house that night and borrowed it. I watched about and hour and a half of it that night and it had all the information I needed. Man, was there a lot of stuff to learn from that DVD, which ended up being the main source of information for my paper.
I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know about Star Wars in doing this paper. The movie Flash Gordon, gave Lucas a lot of ideas for Star Wars. George Lucas, had offered Star Wars to Universal Studios, and all the rest of the studios in Hollywood, and was turned down by all except for 20th Century Fox. Lucas was given $10 million for the making of "Star Wars, A New Hope." George Lucas and crew stationed themselves in an old warehouse in California, they later moved to El street, just outside of London. After setting up from scratch, and starting on the making of all the ships and models, it was time to find the actors that would star in this galactic adventure (Lucas 2004).
Lucas did not want widely renown actors to star in his movie, so he spent the next 4 to 6 months auditioning and searching for his stars. Young 24 year old Mark Hamill, tried out and was chosen to be Luke Skywalker (Lucas 2004). Harrison Ford had played in George Lucas’s previous film called American Graffiti, and was working on the set helping auditioning actors by feeding them lines, and eventually was chosen for the part of Han Solo (Supershadow). A young actress by the name of Carrie Fisher was chosen for the part of the beautiful Princess Lea. But because she was a mite large, she had to attend a fat farm and lose 10 pounds for the part. For the evil lord Darth Vader, champion body builder David Prowse was chosen. The commanding general was played by 63 year old Peter Cushing. For the part of Chewbacca, Solo’s trusty companion, 7'3" Peter Mehew was chosen. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke’s mentor and instructor in the Jedi ways, was Alec Guiness, a more widely known actor. At 3'5" Kenny Baker was chosen to play the mischievous little robot of R2-D2. Actor Anthony Daniels played the part of his partner droit C-3P0(Lucas 2004). But for such important characters the voices had to be just write. Other wise it just didn’t fit.
Daniels (C-3P0) had previously had training as a mime artist, and did his own voice. For the voice of R2-D2, baby noises were recorded, beeps and boops were then put together and put through an electronic synthesizer. Chewbacca’s came from the recordings of different animals, such as bears, walrus’s, and tigers, they were mixed together in different patterns to make it sound like he was talking. Darth Vader’s evil breathing actually came from a microphone attached inside a regulator in a scuba tank. David Prowse fit the body of Darth Vader, but it sounded odd having him as the voice of Darth Vader as well, since he did have a Scottish accent, so instead they had Prowse act, and a stutterer, born in Mississippi ,and raised in Michigan, named James Earl Jones provided the voice of Darth Vader (Lucas 2004). But despite these characters and their unique ways of communication, Star Wars wouldn’t be the same without Yoda.
Yoda, was a two-foot tall puppet, designed by Stuart Freeborn. Yoda’s wise look, came from Freeborn himself, and the face of Einstein. Frank Oz was Yoda’s main operator, but in addition, three other men were needed to fully operate him. Yoda’s swamp, had to be built afive feet above the stage, so that the puppeteer could operate from underneath, the top of the stage was covered with rocks, trees, caves, etc. In order to hear each other, Luke had an ear piece, that would occasionally bleep out and pick up rock bands (Lucas 2004). Yoda became a famous and widely known character in Star Wars, but it was Mark Hamill’s believable performance that made people accept him as a living breathing character. While all of this was taking place in London, ILM was working hard on producing exclusive space battles.
The space ships were miniature models on a string then put on a starry back ground. Everything was a model. Blue screen technology was what mostly brought them to life. Even in the jungle, when they fly around on the speeders in Empire Strikes Back, with all the little furry guys, some of the jungle isn’t even real, it’s just them sitting on the speeder and the computerized jungle moving around them (Lucas 2004). But even so, Empire Strikes Back, had a lot more special effects concerning the space battles.
Even though some of the jungle was computer, the rest was shot in California. In order to create all the different worlds, Lucas had to travel around ours. After setting up in London, the cast went to North Africa to shoot Luke’s home with uncle Ben. Unfortunately within the first days of shooting, it received it’s first major rainfall in 50 years. With rain coming down horizontally they had to cancel shooting. Filming in North Africa created some problems and put the crew behind schedule. The snow scene in Empire Strikes Back, was shot in Norway, again, the crew faced bad luck, it was the worst winter that Scandinavia had had in 50 years, 20 below zero, with 18ft. of snow(Lucas 2004). But despite these difficulties, "Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back" ended up being another huge hit.
Star Wars is a legacy in movie making. It changed the way people think about space. It taught values, while capturing one’s imagination. A billion years in the making, and it came to our galaxy, on that historical day back in May, 1977.
posted by -Lenny- | 12:02 AM
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