“The crew, the last couple of months, started taking little vacations,” Kershner says. “They had only contracted for a certain amount of time and I wanted them to stay on and finish, so they would take off for a few days and come back, while somebody else would fill in for them. But I had no rest; Gary had no rest. We just stuck with it.”
“I remember Stuart Freeborn was under the gun and it was very tense,” Frank Oz says. “We had to get this thing done, we’ve got to start shooting with Yoda. And so, while we’re talking to him, I was just playing with Yoda’s head—and I dropped it and it cracked. Stuart said, ‘I think I need a drink.’ It was terrible, because here we’re pressing so much and I’m the one who screwed it up.”
“Ivor had to go back into the hospital while working on Empire,” McQuarrie says. “He had cancer.” (Beddoes would pass away in 1981.)
“I think that we’ve put in more hours than anybody,” Bill Welch says of his construction crew. “It’s been very difficult at times when one has had to plead with individual chaps, saying, ‘Come on, give us one more weekend, because we’re in trouble.’ I’ve been very lucky that we got the response from the people.”
“We had constant meetings with the art department about how much labor we could expend on certain sets because at some points we ran out of available people,” Kurtz says. “There were just no more people available anywhere in the English industry, no plasterers or carpenters. We even thought of bringing people from Spain or Italy or somewhere. As we got to the end of our schedule, Flash Gordon [1980] had started and they were using a lot of the other available people.”
“The actual script itself was more complicated,” says Watts. “There were more sets and more effects. My own impression is that the whole feeling of the film was very different. Last time around, on Star Wars, we were making a film where nobody knew what it was. It had no aura about it; it was a much lighter experience in some respects. This time around, everybody was conscious of what they were living up to, and obviously trying to do as good if not a better picture than last time. I think from that point of view it was possibly more formal a feel.”
Mayhew and Baker take a break.
Ford and Kurtz.
Fisher (perhaps having nightmares on the set).
Kershner and Reynolds make plans with a maquette of Yoda’s house.
Effects technician Dennis Lowe works on the animatronics inside the Yoda puppet as it slowly takes shape.
Freeborn shows Oz and Jim Henson the work-in-progress Yoda.
Kershner with Freeborn examines the same Yoda.
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With four weeks’ work completed and four more weeks of work to go on the animatronic Yoda, Stuart Freeborn discusses the creation of the spiritual Master, even speaking as the Yoda puppet at the end of the clip, early July 1979.
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Stunt coordinator Peter Diamond talks about sword stunt double Bob Anderson. (Interview by Arnold, August 20, 1979)
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DUELING
REPORT NOS. 83–84: MONDAY, JULY 2–TUESDAY, JULY 3: STAGE 4—INT. CARBON FREEZING CHAMBER, 384 & S391 [LUKE BATTLES VADER]
“Everything is in motion again,” Arnold writes. “Mark is working, bright as a button. Filming of the first scenes of the confrontation between Luke and Vader has been resumed.” Dr. Collins had pronounced Hamill fit, and main unit shooting recommenced on Stage 4 in the Carbon Freezing Chamber.
Stuart Freeborn, however, had toluene splashed in his eye and had to go to the hospital; Harrison Ford boarded a plane for LA.
“After four days, the swelling went down and he was fine,” Kurtz says. “Mark then did an outstanding job.” Facing Hamill as Luke was Bob Anderson as Vader. In addition to 30 years’ experience as Britain’s senior national fencing coach, Anderson had film experience that included Star Wars and action with Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks.
“That uniform was terrible,” Anderson says. “I’m six feet one, and I had three extra inches on my helmet and two inches on my boots. I had a couple of cloaks on. Quite often, I could see only Mark’s feet, so I was doing it virtually blindfolded.”
“Bob Anderson was a double for Darth Vader,” says Peter Diamond. “Bob trains the British Olympic team and has himself appeared in the British Olympics, in 1948 and ’52. I first met Bob in 1952 myself and we’ve been friends ever since. We’ve done hundreds of fights together as such, whether as the heroes or the villains. Bob to me was the best man in the country to have on this picture for this particular swordfight.”
“As it turns out, we never did a long-enough sequence so that I would have to remember every move,” says Hamill. “We’d say we’re gonna do this bit, and I’d say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s this one, right?’ And we’d go over it. But it was good for my peace of mind that if they’d asked us to, we could have done the whole swordfight from start to finish.”
The architect of the fight was of course Diamond, who also worked with the props and special effects department on the evolution of the lightsaber. “I have given a lot of thought to it and a lot of new ideas because, from a laser sword point of view, I don’t know anybody who runs a laser-swordfight school,” he says. “So obviously I had to be very inventive and think up a lot of new ideas which were new to swordplay and would be acceptable to the public.
“The actual blades of the laser swords have to be photographic if possible. We do this by covering some blades with front projection material which reflects the light and glistens with a small glow; then, in the process of the film being completed and through animation, they’re able to widen this, so it gives us the effect of a laser glow.”
“It’s a very difficult sequence to sustain because you’re dealing with a man whose face you can’t see and who’s twice as big as his adversary,” Kershner says. “You’re dealing with a swordfight, which is sort of an anachronistic idea these days, except it’s a laser sword, which, if it touches something, immediately atomizes it. It’s full of problems, but we’re gradually getting through it and we’re almost finished now.”
“That Carbon Freezing Chamber [whistles]—I thought I was going to faint today, really,” says Hamill. “I got so dizzy. They say it’s because I’m hyperventilating—you know, I’m supposed to be out of breath—but if you do that, the oxygen disappears because of the steam.”
“We had steam, slippery surfaces, very dangerous falls which could have happened unless we took extra precautions for the safety of the artists,” says Diamond.
“Everyone’s tempers were on edge,” says Hamill. “Since Kersh knows so much in his mind what he wants to see, he has a tendency to act things out for you, which is not one of my favorite things in life. One time, he said, ‘When you do that, don’t do’—and he did some sort of face; it was his interpretation of what he thought I did, which peeved me to the point where it got into a tug-of-war. I said, ‘I didn’t do that.’ He said, ‘Yes, you did.’ Blah, blah, blah, to the point where he said, ‘Okay, you just go see the movie and you’ll know you did.’ And I said, ‘I don’t even want to see this movie!’ It was real baby. But probably that was good, because then he said, ‘Oh, really? You’re not going to see—? Okay, cut the lights, cut the camera, cut everything. Why even shoot it? He doesn’t even want to go see it.’ Then everyone feels terribly guilty seconds later.”
“Mark and Kersh both got angry,” Kurtz says. “They were working under very difficult circumstances. In this case, I think Kersh felt that Mark wasn’t listening to what he was saying about how he was doing something, and Mark felt that Kersh was acting out everything for him and he didn’t feel good about that. Now it’s gotten to the point where I’ve made sure that they talk at the beginning of each day and go over the material in advance.”
Hamill and Anderson prepare for their duel as Luke vs. Vader.
Two pages of storyboards by Beddoes illustrate an early “continuity idea only” in which Luke acrobatically flees Vader.
Stunt man (swordsman) Bob Anderson during a break in filming.
Many moments of the duel between Luke and Vader.
“They have to pull their blades, because it’s very soft material, so the blades could easily break,” says stunt coordinator Peter Diamond. “We’d just be breaking blades all the time and it would be very difficult to shoot the sequence.”
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Printed dailies from July 20, 1979, in which Luke duels with Vader (Bob Anderson) on the carbon freeze set.
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YANKEES, GO HOME
REPORT NOS. 85–92: WEDNESDAY, JULY 4–FRIDAY, JULY 13: STAGE 2—INT. EAST LANDING PLATFORM AND CORRIDORS, 390 [LEIA AND CHEWBACCA IN HAIL OF LASERFIRE]; 399 [LANDO ORDERS EVACUATION], 406 [RUN UP RAMP OF FALCON], 405 R2-D2 [LAYS DOWN CLOUD OF FOG]; STAGE 8—INT. MEDICAL CENTRE, STAR CRUISER, 432 [DROID WORKS ON LUKE’S HAND], 435 [LUKE SAYS GOODBYE TO LANDO, OS]; STAGE 9—INT. FALCON COCKPIT, S431 [LUKE THINKS ABOUT VADER], U430 [LUKE REBUKES BEN]
With the full-sized Falcon scenes nearly finished, the art and construction departments were hard at work completing the next environment for the Star Wars Stage: the bog planet, home of Jedi Master Yoda. Adding to the building costs, the British pound was on the rise in relation to the American dollar, which threatened to tack on $800,000 or more to the making of Empire.
“They had to try and build the bog planet in seven weeks instead of fourteen by working nights and long hours of overtime and weekends,” says Kurtz. “That was very disruptive on its own.”
“We’re prefabricating enormous trees in readiness for that set because we don’t have very much time to prepare it,” says Reynolds. “The director seems happy enough with the set, but things never work out quite as well as one hopes. It should take twelve weeks, ideally, but I think we’re going to be pushed for time, so we’re looking for, hopefully, eight or ten weeks.”
Waiting for the trees to be installed “may force us into a small hiatus,” Kurtz adds. “If that happens, then we’ll just have to hold the crew over that time period as part of our insurance claim because of the loss of Stage 3.”
“I’ve been going up to the Star Wars Stage like once a week just to see the bog planet progress,” says Hamill. “Once we heard this thunderous explosion. It really gave us a start, like, ‘What the hell is that?!’ We went rushing out just in time to see that one of these water tanks had blown off its metal top with such force that it had ripped right through the tarpaulin. It was about 30 feet up in the air and water was just gushing out of the tank. What scared us was we had just passed it eight seconds earlier.”
“The bog planet is 112 tons of plaster,” says Bill Welch. “There’s 23 or 24 trees, at four or five tons apiece. Scrim, which is the thing that’s put into plaster to hold the whole thing together, we’re using 48,000 meters of it. We have an area which is about 65 feet by approximately 45 feet with 3-foot depth of water. We therefore have to bring all the ground levels up 3 foot plus, to get the water to flow from the falls at the end, down the riverbed, back into what one would call the swamp. So everything has got to be built up on steel work. Then you have a big pan backing around the stage, plus your cutouts of your trees for extra depth to the set; the pan backing must be about 450 feet by about 44 feet high.”
On Wednesday, July 4, Fisher felt unwell but was allowed to continue working. That evening, all members of the crew were invited to a screening of the Show Reel of the film in the Administration Theatre, at 6:30 PM, followed by a buffet in the Studio Restaurant. Two showings were required, given the large turnout, and they were also treated to the film’s 90-second teaser that featured McQuarrie’s paintings (which cost $12,061.45 and did not contain the potentially confusing “Episode V” as part of the film’s title).
“As soon as you begin to show something that’s not finished, you react very strongly to every sound and every shift of a person in a seat,” says Kershner. “You assume that they’re all trying to tell you something. You’re quite tuned up. So you must be careful not to react with the shifting moods of, let’s say, the uninformed audience, and certainly the crew itself is uninformed in terms of what the overall final effect will be.”
“The screenings for the crew are not really intended to give us an idea of how the film is coming together,” says Kurtz. “It’s more to give the crew a sense of what the film is like.”
“I got there a little bit late,” Hamill told Arnold. “Some of the crew had had just enough to drink so that they got very, very honest: ‘We don’t call it Independence Day, we call it Good Riddance Day’; ‘Go home, Yank,’ and all that. They weren’t being malicious in any way, but you can see there’s an underlying hostility. Still you’d think, since I’ve been here seven months or something, it’s not like I’m a tourist. I live here now. I know what it’s like to pay bills here, drink your milk, use your post office, use your phones—so be fair.”
The next day, it was Peter Mayhew’s turn to feel unwell, and he was sent home. (Milton Johns, Vader’s aide, completed his work on the film that day; on Friday, John Hollis, Lando’s aide, wrapped his role.) “Working in 90-degree heat wearing a 15-pound costume of yak wool and mohair would be fatiguing in itself,” Arnold writes. “But if you also have to carry 35 pounds of metal on your back, it becomes a test of endurance. But not having Peter here has meant running further behind schedule.”
“Poor Chewbacca almost broke down,” Kershner says. “He was physically drained. He just couldn’t run anymore. We gave him a couple of days off to recover.”
“When I realized I’d first gotten the part, I did go and sort of study a monkey family just to see their reactions amongst each other,” says Mayhew. “This I think has helped in the characterization. And some of my character has gone into Chewbacca: The way he walks is my own walk, the way he reacts to things is my own way of doing things.”
“I extended the range of Chewbacca,” Kershner says. “He has a much larger role in Empire. I made him more vulnerable; we show him frustrated, exasperated, angry. These things make him human.”
On Day 90, Wednesday, July 11, production was 33 days over and Kershner moved the main unit to the medical center on Stage 8 with bluescreen and technical adviser Stan Sayer on hand for the film’s complex last shot.
Long before that day, Kershner had written a letter to Lucas: “Whenever I see an amputee, and I’m sure most people feel this way, they wonder how it is not to have any feeling, any sensitivity in the fingertips.” Consequently, a rewrite had the medical droid poking Luke’s prosthetic fingertips, which then react as would real ones.
“The audience had to know that Luke has feeling in his hand,” Kershner says. “That way, even though he has a mechanical hand, it isn’t creepy when he puts his arm around Leia at the very end of the film.”
Hamill drinks champagne with the grip crew (in the middle with dark hair is Alan Williams).
Final frames from the theatrical teaser for Empire, which featured only McQuarrie artwork (with added rippling effects), as very few of the visual effects had been completed—photos of the characters, however, did “introduce” Lando Calrissian to the world.
Construction work progresses on the Dagobah set.
The Dagobah set was being built on the Star Wars Stage.
Hamill and Fisher clown around with Kurtz, on July 12, 1979, before Take 1 of scene 432D, the medical ship.
Kershner directs.
Fisher and Hamill.
The last shot of Leia, Luke, and the droids looking on.
Building the medical droid.
The last shot, looking into bluescreen.
Daniels, Baker, and Fisher.
* * *
JULY ILM: ANIMATICS
On July 2,
Herman’s notes read, “Joe and George are redoing snow battle boards. Will need some more animatics.”
“George came up with the idea to create animated cartoons in place of some of the special effects scenes that weren’t going to be finished for a while,” says Peter Kuran. “That way, he would be able to determine the timing and the cutting, and whether or not a shot was actually going to work from the original storyboarded creation.”
“I couldn’t use storyboards because they didn’t really tell you what happened because it was an editorial process,” says Lucas. “It wasn’t one shot followed by this shot, followed by that shot. It’s really, ‘What is the movement?’ It was very Sergei Eisenstein in its design, which meant it really had to do with movement across the screen more than it had to do with what the shot was. So, given that, I needed some way to create movement. That was most important to me.”
The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Enhanced Edition) Page 37
