We reveal how George Lucas’ epic first Star Wars film was created
In 1977, the first film in the Star Wars franchise broke new ground with pioneering special effects that paved the way for a whole new genre
FROM stop-motion photography to giant puppets, George Lucas had to think outside the box when it came to making Star Wars in 1977.
Episode IV - A New Hope used innovative pre-CGI special effects and here are just a few...
To shoot the movie’s climax, Lucas had his team construct the surface of the Death Star in the most minute detail.
These huge models were either propped up or laid flat for the bombing run shots.
For the explosions, squibs were used to detonate silt, magnesium and gasoline-based explosives.
These were dropped from overhead and filmed using high-speed cameras.
The original trilogy was made long before the prominence of CGI in cinema.
The team used stop-motion photography to film scenes with the mechanised AT-ATs.
Models were created through a painstaking process – every second of footage took over an hour of tiny movements filmed frame by frame.
In post-production, a slight blur was added between each frame to smooth out jerkiness.
Some things couldn’t be faked.
The galaxy’s biggest, nastiest gangster Jabba The Hutt really was as huge as he looked.
This massive puppet was operated by three men squeezed inside – one to operate the right arm and mouth; another to handle the head, left arm and tongue; and a third to manipulate the tail through a system of pedals and a control lever.
Lucas insisted on creating a whole new sonic universe to match his visuals.
To capture the scream of the TIE fighters, sound engineer Ben Burtt mixed the bellow of stampeding elephants from Errol Flynn’s film The Roots of Heaven with recordings of cars speeding through puddles outside his hotel.
Originally intended as a temporary sound for an early screening, it impressed so much that it stayed in.
Each prop had to be created by hand by a team led by special effects artist John Dykstra.
Bounty hunter Bossk’s outfit was a borrowed spacesuit from Doctor Who and the head of one of the droids was a recycled drinks dispenser.
Qui-Gon Jinn’s communicator was a modified Gillette razor, while in the asteroid sequence in The Empire Strikes Back, the crew used a potato to make the asteroids.
For the Tatooine scenes, Lucas actually constructed real buildings on location in Tunisia.
Plus, for 1999’s The Phantom Menace, the entire town of Mos Espa was constructed.
Many of these monuments are still standing in the desert.
Among them is Luke Skywalker’s house from the original film, which is now the Hotel Sidi Driss – guests can check in for as little as £10 a night.