On the jungle world of Yavin IV, our newly arrived heroes prepare to face the approaching wrath of the fearsome
Death Star, now approaching their system. Thankfully, a weakness in the battle station has been found in its construction schematics/plans that must be taken advantage of no matter how small and risky to penetrate, and the thirty X and Y-wing fighter pilots, including new recruit Luke Skywalker as call-sign Red Five, get ready for space conflict that will decide the fate of the Rebel Alliance.
In the original 1977 novel adaptation of the film by Alan Dean Foster, in addition to the main temple hangar, other X and Y-wing fighters were also housed on several elevated underground levels.
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| Great establishing shots of the Rebel hangar bay set at Shepperton Studios. |
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| Airbrushed shot used for the Topps Cards of 1977/78. |
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| The new 'Red Five': Luke Skywalker, in flight gear. |
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| Luke tries to convince Han and Chewie to stay, but seemingly fails. |
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| Han wishes Luke, 'May the Force Be With You'! |
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| After kissing Luke,
Leia says “May the Force be with you” to him, too - the scene
was cut from the film, though you can hear Carrie Fisher
saying the dialogue during the Yavin hangar
Shepperton filming footage
shown in The Making of Star Wars documentary of 1977. |
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| Luke meets up with old friend Biggs in a deleted scene later partially restored in 1997. |
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| Luke with Biggs and Red Leader in the deleted scene. |
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| Another angle from behind the scenes. |
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| Rehearsing Artoo's being lifted into the X-wing fighter. |
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Memorable posed shot of Mark Hamill on set with his X-wing fighter.
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| Another posed outtake. |
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| Preparing to depart. |
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| A helmeted Mark Hamill poses for the camera. |
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| Final prepartions begin for the squadron departures. |
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| Superb behind the scenes image showing George Lucas, Gary Kurtz (far right) and the entire camera team and assistants. |
BEHIND THE SCENESFilming begins on Shepperton Studios soundstage H involving the
X and Y–wing fighters on
Yavin IV, from Wednesday June 9th, 1976, to Friday 11th, followed by Monday 14th and 15th June with Second
Unit work commencing
on the last day - shooting
pilots going to ships,
insert cockpit shots, and
craft taking off, whilst the main crew return to
Elstree to finish off
other necessary
sequences. The first two
days at
Shepperton would
have shooting extensions
until 19.30pm-due to the
large amount of scenes
needing completion within such a small filming schedule window.
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| An unpainted look at the full size X-wing fighter prop, presumably taken before arrival at Shepperton. |
Also constructed as a real prop would be the distinctive Y–wing, which would be
only partially
completed (as seen in
John Jay’s on set stills) in the finished film - it would have a single unattached engine on it’s port side, and the rear half of the main body, which is left without full detailing). A matte painting in post production would fill out
the uncompleted
segments of the vehicle. Respected British film/TV actor
Drewe Henley, now on
set and cast to play Red
Leader (filming his additional dramatic cockpit scenes at Elstree later in July), likes the X-wing fighter craft,
comparing it to a
greyhound- “all
stripped down and ready for action."
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| Establishing shot of the temple fighter bay- this image was flipped in post production. Notice the uncompleted Y-wing fighter and separate pod at the bottom of the image. |
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| Terrific close-in shot of the partial Y-wing prop, constantly re-positioned around the Shepperton Stage to give the illusion of similar types of fighter being present. |
In addition to the
specially built model
craft are three full size
two-dimensional photo
blow ups of the X–
wings and three of the
Y–wings, strategically
positioned across the
set at various times
during filming of
different scenes, so as to give the impression that the hangar is packed with fighter craft.
Though the cut-outs are stacked closer together than
would have been possible if they had wings, their
inclusion visually increases the hangars size. The
completed set would also make clever use of a few tricks
that served to enlarge the environment- one wide shot of
the hangar is created by taking one plate of the set and
creating a matte painting with two holes in, in which that
same plate is placed twice (a further new matte painting
would be created
for the 2004 DVD
release of the
movie), whilst strings
of lights in front of
a black curtain on the stage make the far wall
appear to be much
further away than
it actually was. Set
decoration around
the craft includes
fuel pumps,
landing lights and
various other
pieces of unusual
technology (as well
as a miniature
buggy/car which
would be redressed
as a transport
speeder that would
carry the various
pilots to their
ships).
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| Lucas has fun with Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford. |
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| Chewie gives Han a look... |
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| ... which Han responds to in a fun behind the scenes moment that appeared in The Making of Star Wars documentary. |
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| Filming Luke's walk away from the departing Han and Chewie. |
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| Continuity Supervisor Ann Skinner watches Hamill and Fisher rehearse their scene. |
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| Fisher has fun delivering liquid nourishment to Hamill inside his X-wing. |
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| More fun for the pair in one of the studio changing rooms. |
Gerry Anderson
TV series stalwart
Shane Rimmer,
who was between
work on two
films (including
the James Bond movie
The Spy Who Loved Me) played the
technician who says to
Luke:
“This R2 unit of
yours seems a bit beat
up. Do you want a new
one?” After Tunisia, and his
brief scene at Elstree (for the sequence where
Luke goes to the Tosche
power station), Garrick
Hagon would go on to
work on a play at the
BBC, followed by a part
in Richard
Attenborough’s epic
World War II movie
A Bridge Too Far (1977). Aware that he would be needed in July for the
next batch of filming, Hagon had kept his hair long to
keep visual continuity. Upon reaching the
Bridge set however, he is told by its director Richard
Attenborough that, being a period film, the actor would
have to cut his hair, something which he didn’t want to
do, but which Attenborough demanded had to be done,
Star Wars filming or not. Returning to the
Wars set after the completion of
Bridge, a worried
Hagon tells Lucas about his new short hair look. Lucas,
fortunately, would tell him not to worry, as the later
scenes of his re-uniting with Luke were set a lengthy
period after their last meeting on Tatooine, and that
Biggs would probably have got his hair cut at the
Academy anyway. Some of Hagon’s lines in the Rebel
hangar would be trimmed because they were thought to
be “a little too flowery”, though the actor has great
fondness for Biggs original parting words to Luke:
“We’re a couple of shooting stars that’ll never be
stopped”, loving the ring of that line, and wishing he
could have said it in the final film.
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| Conferring with Red Leader (Drewe Henley) and Biggs (Garrick Hagon). |
The scene in which Biggs
is reunited with Luke would ultimately be cut from the
original 1977 theatrical release, but would eventually be
restored, as a special
treat for fans, in the
1997 Special Edition. Also
restored but trimmed was a sequence where
Red Leader talks to
the pair and inquires
about Luke’s flying
experience (though
lost is an additional
piece of dialogue in
which Red Leader tells Luke that
he once flew with his father, a
scene that had to be cut in case it
created long term continuity
problems. The cutting of this latter dialogue was achieved by a very
clever wipe editing, using an
ILM effects inserted Rebel guard
to walk across the scene at the
precise moment that Henley is
about to deliver the unwanted
dialogue.
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| Getting the Rebel pilots suited up at Shepperton. |
All of the actors playing fighter
pilots wore several signal flares
strapped to one leg- a design
element that would be taken
directly from German fighter
pilots of World War II, who
strapped belts of flare pistol
cartridges in the same position.
The same extras used for the previously shot
Shepperton Throne Room finale filming of May 1976 would also
appear as technicians/pilots in the fighter hangar scenes.
Special care was taken for the most part with both sets of filming so that
background actors didn’t wear easily identifiable
twentieth century costuming, or real life items like
wristwatches or sunglasses.
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| The ramp that the droids descend on set. |
To make life easier for the actors in droid costumes, as
well as the remote controlled Artoo’s, half the sides of
each set of stairs within the fighter bay stairs of the
fighter bay were replaced with smooth flat surfaces.
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| Detailed look at X-wing nose area. |
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| Lucas on the massive sound stage. |
UK practical special effects coordinator John Stears
supervises the
lifting of the X–
wing fighters from
the Yavin base
(presumably shot
on June 14th as the
filming ends at
Shepperton at
a later time-21.05pm, of which the movie is now 13 days
over schedule!!). The structure of the Shepperton Stage H roof does not unfortunately prove capable of
carrying the full weight of the specially built five ton X-wing prop, and the rig (an additional weight of three quarters of a
ton), for which it was planned the craft will be hung.
Knowing that there was no other way of achieving the
sequence, Stears hires a crane to lift the ship, but finding
a place for the crane to operate becomes a problem,
because the X–wing and the set are being filmed with
different cameras simultaneously, each one from a
different angle (which, in later editing, would give the illusion of many fighters taking off); there was no way to
place the crane without it showing up in the picture. It is finally decided to have a tower crane, capable of
lifting seven tons from a distance of one hundred feet.
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| The Zealous crane opposite and high above Shepperton Stage H. |
The crane they use, called a
Zealous, stands one
hundred and sixty feet high and has to be positioned
outside the soundstage, making the task of operating it
very difficult. The operator, sitting outside the
soundstage, is unable to see what is going on inside the
sound stage. The
problem would be
solved by having
another crane
operator, familiar
with the
characteristics of
the crane inside the
soundstage,
relaying
instructions to the
operator via radio.
Amazingly, thanks
to the two crane
operators skills,
not a single re-take
is required due to
any errors. The
moves they had to
make, which had
to be precise
within a fraction of
an inch, prove
perfect.
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| The X-wing takes off! |
