Episode V Update: Different Stages, Different Worlds

Irvin Kershner April 1, 1979 -- Shooting a Star Wars film requires a great deal of coordination, as different stages at Elstree Studios become different worlds on concurrent schedules. While the main stage is still under layers of fake ice, transformed into the Rebel's snowy hangar bay on a frigid planet, another world is being constructed on Stage 2.

Episode V Set Like the various locales of the Star Wars universe, this new world is firmly rooted in images and concepts of our own. "George Lucas gave us our terms of reference on Star Wars and we have abided by them," says Production Designer Norman Reynolds. One of Lucas' mandates is that everything relate to Earth somehow. "This prevents us from getting carried away into realms of science fiction. The Star Wars pictures are not science fiction. We're making adventure stories for which the terms of references are in the here and now. Although it is fantasy, you can feel home in the distant galaxy."

Episode V Set As a perfect example, this new world hearkens back to the art deco boom of the 1920s. The style that superceded art nouveau, art deco is the result of designers attempting to fuse mechanical and technological influences into a decorative motif. Since the new planet is one with an advanced cosmopolitan and varied culture, it fits well with that style.

With simulated marble floors trimmed in gleaming white and chrome, this new planet is a bold contrast to the undeveloped and war-torn worlds seen elsewhere in the series.

In other stages, the Rebel ice base undergoes attack not only from the Empire, but from natural predators, as realized by effects technicians. A full day was spent trying to perfect a scene involving a snowy-furred creature.

Episode V Set "In this scene, we're trying to suggest more than will actually be seen. We need to use the audience's imagination as a means of giving color to our coloring book," says director Irvin Kershner. "It's no good just to be literal in a shot like this. The effect must be one of illusion, a slight of hand, a conjuring trick. So we're trying again."

Executive Producer George Lucas, meanwhile, has returned to California to examine effects tests at Industrial Light & Magic. He will keep in close contact with the production in England using the latest in telex technology.

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