How the Setting in Star Wars Was Made
- George Lucas pioneered the use of blue screens and green screens to create artificial settings for his "Star Wars" films. Many of the settings in Episodes I through III were created on a computer and never existed in real life. It's easy to forget, then, that the original "Star Wars" (subsequently known as "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope") used traditional sets and location shoots to bring the high-tech space opera to life. The settings were modified by computer imagery for the 1997 re-release of the film, but the first time around, the crew did it the old-fashioned way.
- The Saharan nation of Tunisia served as the location for the desert planet of Tatooine, the principal outdoor site for the film. Towns such as Matmata had underground dwellings built out of white stone to help stave off the effects of the desert heat. They offered a strange alien architecture with an air of authenticity, giving the setting a cultural identity that the audience could accept as belonging to another world. More important, the Tunisian settings had a well-used look that fit in with Lucas's vision of a "lived in" science-fiction universe.
- The interior settings for "Star Wars"--including those aboard the Death Star and on Han Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon--were shot in England's famous Elstree Studios, just outside of London. These settings were constructed in the traditional manner, with a British crew assembling walls, floors and corridors within the confines of the set. They conform more closely to "traditional" sci-fi settings, with a cleaner look and metallic surfaces. Lucas infamously clashed with the crew members constructing the sets. They had little interest in their work and believed that the movie was going to be a colossal failure.
- The forest moon of Yavin, seen at the end of the film, was shot primarily in a studio as well. However, the establishing shots were filmed at Tikal in Guatemala. Lucas used it for the same reasons he used Tunisia: Tikal contained a series of Mayan ruins, which provided a suitable sense of an alien culture while adding to the well-worn look he wanted the film to convey.
- Even in 1977, however, special effects played a big role in "Star Wars," and while they weren't as elaborate as they later became for the second trilogy, Industrial Light and Magic helped establish many of the film's settings. The ILM crew built and shot the spaceships in the movie, as well as provided the artificial landscape on the surface of the Death Star, the setting of the big finale. The crew attained the look by gluing together different pieces from thousands of plastic models--ships and airplanes cobbled together so that they resembled some far-off technology rather than more mundane, earth-bound vehicles.