How I realized I was over Star Wars completely

[Jargo]

Artist's Palette is exactly where this alleged filming took place. Supposedly the whole sandcrawler facade was there and then a bunch of tents pretty much how McQuarrie depicted the Jawa encampment. I'm only reporting what I read on a scanned magazine article. I'd guess they filmed this stuff at the same time as the capture of R2 in the canyon/gulley so the original shot of the Jawas carrying him to the sandcrawler would be the same location as this Jawa camp as the sandcrawler facade was rebuilt for the R2 capture scenes.

Another piece of re-used set I just found today. The kiddy pool tactical display in the yavin base is the re-used ceiling of the Tantive IV area where Vader snaps Cpt. Antilles neck. I was looking through a series of BTS pics and alternate angles thinking I've seen that detail somewhere. All of the Tantive had white perspex ceiling panels to give a diffused light on the white set. So too the kiddy pool roundel part of the ceiling. They flipped it over, added some computer panels and painted the frame grey. Then added the uplighting and tactical data.

In the back of the control room on Yavin there's a whole bank of computer wall panels lifted from the Death Star sets. I think it's from the cubby hole 3PO and R2 hide in at the docking bay.

One last point of nerdism for today; In the Emperor's throne room you have all those huge round windows right? And from the establishing exterior overhead view we know it has four sections exactly like the one all the action takes place in. You can see part of two of them when the camera looks toward the elevator. What you don't see in any of those elavator facing shots is a single glimpse of the exterior structural walls for those other sections. Like, you should be able to see a tube like structure and another window beyond the window you're looking through. Not there. Long lingering shots as Luke and Vader banter and face off but the tower is apparently open to the vacuum of space. Silly.

[Ran]

http://www.panamintcity.com/exclusives/starwars.html
Found this site that lists the filming locations of Star Wars in Death Valley. I worked in or near most of the areas.

Now that you mention the Emperor's throne room, it just occurred to me that in ANH or ROTJ, the gravity in the death star isn't pulling everyone towards the center. It is pulling everything towards the south pole.

[Jargo]

That's very cool. I've seen a diferent location hunt page where the lightsaber build cave was still open. Looking exactly as it does in the deleted scene.

You're right about the gravity. But then all the spacefaring vehicles have southern pull on their gravity. And none of them show any means of generating that gravity. Must just be a standard thing like repulsorlift. Most vehicles in SW either hover permanently or lift off without the need for downward thrust engines. Even those star destroyer thingies at the end of AOTC. Not a single vertical thruster on them. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, physics counted for shit.

(I just noticed you come with an alternate sneering hissy fit head sculpt, Ran. I vaguely remember posting that description many aeons ago. Can't recall which character I was referring to though. Anakin maybe?)

EDIT:
Well now I'm irked. Ordered the blueprints book at some point this morning and browsing google images for a decent shot of Max Rebo's Red Ball Jett keyboard I found the forest moon bunker set technical drawings at a ridiculously huge size of scan good enough to print and use. Which is great. I can begin modelling something now. It does kind of mean that the rest of the book is bound to be out there as massive scanned images too though. Probably. GAH!

On another investigative note, I remembered having the making of ROTJ paperback that came out decades ago. No idea what happened to my copy but in it I distinctly remember there was talk of burning the sail barge set after filming. So wondering if they did I went searching and discovered that they just broke it up and buried it in the desert. I'm guessing it was mostly the mock desert floor top section and barge facade plywood with all the internal structures wood salvaged and sold off. They used a small forest to build the set and the whole sub structure of pylons and wooden scaffolding so there's no way they could have dug a hole deep enough in the sand to bury all that. Apparently the debris surfaces now and then like a horrible remnant of tragedy. Much like the Mos Espa set currently being swallowed by a sand dune in Tunisia will do in years to come. In some ways, using bluescreen and not building physical sets is better for the environment. Part of the deal for filming in the redwoods of crescent city was that they had to return the land to it's former state when they'd done filming. Bet there's still shit buried there though.

[Ran]

The gravity on Death Stars stuck out to me because they were spherical and is referred to as a "moon". After giving it a bit more thought, it seems like most of the exterior shots take place at the equator or north.

Anyway, I dug up a couple pictures I took while in Death Valley. One is from Artist Drive, which I believe was part of the Jawa scenes. In fact, if you go to that link I posted earlier, this picture is taken not too far from the picture they call "R2's Arroyo".

Artist Drive

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The other is from Badwater Road. I was at the foot of the mountain and south west of where the "Mos Eisley Overlook" picture was taken. The elevation of that mountain is about 5000 ft. The picture I took is probably just below sea level. I have pictures from on top Dante's View somewhere.

Badwater

FHWA Pics 020.jpg (310.68 KiB) Viewed 3333 times

[anarky]

If it was filmed at Death Valley, why didn't the Jawas use Bun Boy's giant thermometer as a landmark?

[Jargo]

So is that a salt or a mud flat out there where Mos Eisley was supposed to be? It looks baking hot out there. Part of me thinks it would be cool to go take a photo from the exact site of Mos Eisley and the rest of me thinks that'd be a pretty dumb idea. I don't fare very well in sunshine.

Unrelated, I noticed last night that the round doorways from the Falcon are also on the Tantive IV. while those pod things hanging from the ceiling in the death star chasm and the Emperor's throne room are on their side in the scene where the Stormtroopers stun Leia on the Tantive.

An obvious one that everyone should have spotted is the Yavin base and Echo base landing lights stuck on the wall and painted grey in the scene where Vader speaks to the giant holographic head of Palpatine.

And the most obvious one is the floor gratings on the Falcon which appear in the death star cell block and almost every other set. Those were called 'stock palettes' and they had a ton of them. I'm not sure but I think they may have been a staple of the movie studio as a basic set construction element that would be clad with dressing. Using them without dressing was just a case of looking at whatever seemed a bit sci-fi and cobbling it all together.

One more thing. In the death star 2 docking bay was a gantry. seen top of frame as Jerjerrod walks to greet Vader's arrival. The whole set piece was later used as the corridor the heroes come down just before they invade the bunker control room. It has angled archway columns and had very little changed on it between appearances. besides the stock floor panels being used as ceiling with down lighting.

Found a photo of what appears to be the Imperial shuttle passenger compartment with a row of sideways facing seats. It only shows one side and the set isn't painted. It looks as comfortable as a subway train. I'd post photos but A: they tend to be humongous, B: it's such a pain to find them again, C: an even bigger pain to upload to flickr and D: I'm really lazy.

[Ran]

So is that a salt or a mud flat out there where Mos Eisley was supposed to be? It looks baking hot out there. Part of me thinks it would be cool to go take a photo from the exact site of Mos Eisley and the rest of me thinks that'd be a pretty dumb idea. I don't fare very well in sunshine.

That area is the salt flat. It is about 200 feet below sea level. I was out there on and off between February and June. It starts to get hot towards the end of April/early May. http://www.currentresults.com/Weather/C ... verage.php If you were to ever go, I'd suggest going somewhere between March or early April. Apparently they misjudge the size of the area because it is so wide open.

Those temps in that link are taken in Furnace Creek, which is the approximate location of Mos Eisley. It isn't a spaceport, but it does have a small airstrip, a golf course, a gas station, hotel, museums, restaurant, and general store. If you go to the top of Dante's View where Luke and Ben overlook the city, the temp is easily 10°F cooler because there is a 5,500 foot elevation change. If you look on the map in that other link, you will see it a the Mesquite Sand Dunes. It is where they filmed R2 rolling through the sand. The park rangers told me that tourists, especially from Germany, like to walk the dunes in the summer when it is well above 100°F. They don't always make it back.

If you're not from the desert, Death Valley does almost feel like you are on another planet.

[Jargo]

Yeah I'm kinda screwed at temps above 25 degrees C. Weird that it's sometimes warmer at night than in the day there. I like that bit about Germans not coming back. Not because I hate Germans but because I was thinking only a fool would venture into territory like that without a guide and proper preparation. I'm thinking helicopter would be the best way to see this area.

I just noticed the Borax museum on that map. People curate the oddest things. That's not a judgement btw, just an observation. I've just discovered we have a poo museum over here. I'm resisting the urge to go...

[Slicker]

I'm actually loving this thread Jargo. Just the detail you've put into it and the fact that others have spotted this shit. I've watched each of the movies probably over 75 times and didn't notice the majority of this stuff. I wish I had more to contribute but I don't. So you should probably keep doing all of the work.

[Jargo]

I will run out of steam at some point.

Annyhoo, looking at the production artwork for ESB I was struck by how Flash Gordon-esque it looks. I'm not very knowledgeable about Flash Gordon besides the 1930's serial with mud men that was always on TV when I was a kid and the 1980 film. So I did a quick read of the Wikipedia pages on the planet Mongo and the original Flash Gordon comics. When you compare the two universes it kinda looks like this:
Hoth = Frigia/Ice kingdom of Naquk.
Endor/Dagobah/Yavin = Arboria
Cloud city = Sky city.
Otoh Gunga = Coralia
Mustafar = Flame world/Volcano world
Kashyyk = Land of the Lion men
Naboo = Tropica
Coruscant = Mingo city
Tatooine/Geonosis = Great Mongo desert/Fiery desert/Kira the cave world

The more you look at Flash Gordon the more you realise GL skated pretty damn close to copyright infringement.
GL didn't just make a set of films like a Saturday morning serial, he pretty much just filmed Flash Gordon anyway with a few changes here and there to throw people off the scent. I'm way too tired right now to dig deeper but there's stuff like land of brown dwarves and a tribe of desert bedouin. Shark men that are probably what turned into the Sullustans. And then there's the Emperor, a character who like Ming the merciless rules with military might and a firm grip on political law. For all this crap about Joseph Campbell and the heroes journey agrandising GL's skill at story telling there's just too many similarities between Flash Gordon and SW. SW doesn't have the earthlings crash landing on an alien world but it pretty much has everything else. Which isn't to say I like SW less because of this realisation. I find it amusing that GL basically made Flash Gordon without the rights. I just feel a bit dumb for not seeing it sooner.
I dunno if you'll agree. It's obviously not a direct rip-off and there are obviously other influences playing into the story of SW. it's kind of funny though that in the same year that Flash Gordon hit screens we get ESB with Cloud City and Lando who is very Prince Barin like. Coincidence? I think not.

I'm going to bed now. My head is exploding.

[jjreason]

1980 Flash Gordon had Freddie Mercury singing, which is a huge plus.

[Ran]

A lot of actors from the 1980 Flash Gordon movie were in various Star Wars movies. Boss Nass, Porkins, Kenny Baker, and a bunch of Ewoks. Max von Sydow was also in it and he's in The Force Awakens.

[vynsane]

For all this crap about Joseph Campbell and the heroes journey agrandising GL's skill at story telling there's just too many similarities between Flash Gordon and SW. SW doesn't have the earthlings crash landing on an alien world but it pretty much has everything else. Which isn't to say I like SW less because of this realisation. I find it amusing that GL basically made Flash Gordon without the rights.

and then Joss Whedon made "The Han Solo Chronicles" without the rights - but that's sort of Joseph Campbell's point, isn't it? that we all tell the same stories in slightly different ways? and the base narrative evolves to suit the time?

[Diabolical]

These recent posts reminded of this thread elsewhere, where many of the names used in SW were derived from (or thought to be).

I want to find my posts dealing with the historical fine art influences, mainly in the PT.
Edit: Here it is.

[anarky]

There are a lot of things Lucas lifted straight from the John Carter of Mars books. The names "sith" and "bantha" come to mind. Also his fascination with desert planets.