Here's a great shot - a classic moment - of the Rebels retreating from the Hoth battlefield whilst General Veers' lead AT-AT Walker is about to destroy the power generators. This is a clever image but it also shows a mistake. The mistake is that the Rebels look like they are running away from the battle, and the Walker, but they are not. Look carefully, and, despite the rear explosion near a troopers leg, you'll see that they are running forward into battle- you can see the gun emplacements and some still dug in Rebels pointing their weapons the other way. Obviously, Lucas, Editor Paul Hirsch and ILM made the most out of existing live-action plate photography in post production, and one of the then unused angles from the battle - part of a sequence that had never been fully completed by the Second Unit, due to bad weather at Norway in early 1979. By doing this, they skilfully extended the action and created a whole new moment of tension and excitement.
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| ILM stop-motion reference track for the scene. |
Amazingly, thirty years on, it was only whilst watching EMPIRE recently that I noticed this.
Very ingenious, eh?
Really? Because their shadows would indicate otherwise.
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