When you think of Star Wars, you quickly think of lightsabers. The iconic weapon of the Jedi and Sith is probably the most distinctive feature of the movies and series. Today, a lot can be done with CGI, but in the old films, they had to rely on tricks.
Star Wars is a franchise that has always been highly regarded in special effects. Although some effects may seem outdated today, at the time, the films were ahead of their time and looked quite good.
They didn’t always use CGI, but came up with tricks. For example, they used cotton swabs to simulate audience members. The lightsabers also required trickery. They employed a technique similar to that used for street signs and safety vests.
Lightsabers are like street signs
How did they trick it? The Corridor Crew channel had special effects experts react to effects from Star Wars in a YouTube video. They also discussed the first lightsabers from Star Wars: A New Hope from 1977.
They explain several techniques. The very first lightsabers were normal rods, covered with reflective material. This is similar to street signs or safety vests. When shined near the camera, the rods reflect the light back. This provided a reference for where the blade of the lightsaber had to be.
The film on which the scenes were shot had to be edited, similarly to how cartoons are produced. For that, they projected the film onto a so-called cel sheet, and an artist drew on it. You can see the video here:
In some scenes, the effect didn’t work
What did they do in scenes where the trick didn’t work? The video explains that in some scenes, no rod could be used. The training sequence with the flying robot is given as an example; it was not CGI, but a stop-motion element.
In the version of the film, the animator had to estimate where to insert the blade of the lightsaber. As a result, the blade isn’t always positioned accurately.
Interestingly, the game that Chewbacca and Han are playing in the background is also a stop-motion animation. In other words, they took many images of figures that only moved slightly and created an animation from them. This is just one of the examples that show how much love and work went into the films. Later films also had their problems during filming. But that was due to different issues: Star Wars: “Anakin Skywalker” particularly remembers a certain situation during the filming of Episode 2
