GOODBYE, MARCIA LUCAS...

STAR WARS AFICIONADO was deeply saddened by the news that Marcia Lucas, one of America's finest Academy Award-winning film editors, and a vital contributor (in so many ways) to the success of the original Star Wars Trilogy, has passed away at the age of 80. She was the heart of the original Lucasfilm family and truly the 'First Lady' of the saga, whose real contributions to the films that made us all what we are have only properly come to light and been celebrated in the past ten years with her warm return to the Hollywood film community. Marcia's talent and personality will be greatly missed...

STAR WARS AFICIONADO WEBSITE: BEHIND THE SCENES: THE MARCIA LUCAS FACTOR!

Marcia's film-editing skills and storytelling instincts made her a vital asset to her husband (who called her the film's 'secret weapon') when creating/making the Star Wars saga... 

Deservedly winning an Oscar for her work on Star Wars in 1978, alongside her co-editors Richard Chew and Paul Hirsch, presented by Farrah-Fawcett Majors.

With the 50th Anniversary of the original Star Wars soon upon us, her passing is even more sad and poignant. Let us hope that her vital contributions to the film that launched a phenomenon will be officially explored and celebrated further for the future...

A sadly all-too-meagre official entry on her passing: Marcia Lucas: 1945-2026 | StarWars.com

Marcia Lucas Dead: 'Star Wars' Editor Was 80

Marcia Lucas dead: 'Star Wars' editor and former wife of George Lucas was 80

The memorable career of Marcia Lucas.

CLASSIC IMAGE: DESTROYING THE SENTRY SHIPS!

 

The TIE fighter sentry attack on the Death Star-escaped Millennium Falcon intensifies as the smuggling vessel takes multiple blast hits. Thankfully, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo soon get into their stride within their gun turret pods and demolish the four fighters with ingenuity and spirit.

Richard Chew talks to the Hollywood Reporter (March 4th, 2022) on his editing work for the original Star Wars: 

"It was a walk in the dark, really. When you think of it, it was fabricated in the pre-digital age. Our editing team was up in San Rafael, which is where the initial Lucasfilm headquarters and Industrial Light & Magic were based in a warehouse. [Fellow editors] Marcia Lucas and Paul Hirsch and myself were working on different sections of the film. George [Lucas] assigned to me the sequence where Han and Luke and Princess Leia, along with Chewy, jump onto the Millennium Falcon and try to escape, and they have to shoot the TIE fighters. Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford were in separate shots against a greenscreen. Princess Leia and Chewbacca are looking out the cockpit windows, and that’s also greenscreen. They’re reacting to directions from George from offscreen on which way to turn and which way to look up. When George asked me to put it together, I had to follow the cues of the direction. It was a pretty crazy exercise for me, having come off straight dramatic films."

"It was my third “movie movie” — it was a job, it wasn’t trying to create something iconic. I remember after one screening, we were looking at a couple of reels that included the robots. I’m a much more literal guy than George, and George has this fantastic mind. After the screening, I remember making some crack to George, like, “Well, you know, if it doesn’t work out, you could also market some toys based on what these guys look like.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/richard-chew-ace-eddies-lifetime-achievement-1235097465/

'STAR WARS' AT 40: ENTER: JOHN DYKSTRA!

Adapting and improving on existing technology and techniques to revolutionise the realms of special effects in 1977 for Star Wars, Special Effects chief John Dykstra, former assistant to another effects legend, Doug Trumbull, was a lucky hiring for Lucas and Kurtz, at a time in 1975 when none of the Hollywood effects elite were available to work on the project, or thought that the film's effects couldn't be realized for the screen from the printed page and concept paintings. From scratch, building a whole new computer controlled camera system along the way- the Dykstraflex, Dykstra and a variety of fresh talent would prove them wrong, though the setting up time for the equipment and filming proved an early and continuing irritant for Lucas, and a strained relationship with Dykstra, founding the director' Industrial Light and Magic company with much of the income that came in with Lucas's long-awaited profits for American Graffiti.

Dykstra and editor Richard Chew talk about Star Wars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=sgQL-ckabuQ