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Small details that took you FOREVER to notice in the Star Wars films — Page 13

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SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

OK, an actual “small detail” I never noticed until a week or two ago (also involving Liam Neeson):

You’ll need to go frame by frame to see it. As he whips his lightsaber out, his robes move in such a way as to indicate that Liam had the entire thing, blade and all, underneath his robes.

Yeah, you can actually see the tip of the prop poking out from beneath the robe for a few frames.

I don’t see why they did it like that though, since the droids are CG Neeson could’ve just swung the hilt-prop and it would have saved them the time needed to paint out the “stick”. Maybe it saved them the trouble of having it figure out exactly where the blade should be? However, I’ve seen photos where they used a shorter “stick” for animation reference, but that also allowed the actors to “cut through” stuff and move more freely, however I can’t remember it those were used before or after TPM.

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 (Edited)

I just realized that when Han rescues Luke during the trench run scene by shooting one of the TIE-fighters and knocking Vader out of the way, that we only see Han in close-up and then suddenly Chewie is in the co-pilot seat after the DS explodes. Since obviously someone would have had to be operating the laser cannons, and there’s no one else available but Chewie, I wonder if they cut to the CU to avoid any continuity errors as Chewie is suddenly back in the cockpit shortly after. Looking at the scene now it really seems like Chewie was always sitting next to Han and they had to cut around it.

EDIT: There is of course this outtake but I can’t really tell if this is the same shot as the one I linked to above or if it’s meant to be right before they shoot at the TIEs.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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ZkinandBonez said:

I just realized that when Han rescues Luke during the trench run scene by shooting one of the TIE-fighters and knocking Vader out of the way, that we only see Han in close-up and then suddenly Chewie is in the co-pilot seat after the DS explodes. Since obviously someone would have had to be operating the laser cannons, and there’s no one else available but Chewie, I wonder if they cut to the CU to avoid any continuity errors as Chewie is suddenly back in the cockpit shortly after. Looking at the scene now it really seems like Chewie was always sitting next to Han and they had to cut around it.

The Millenium Falcon has more weapon systems than just 2 quad laser cannons:

falcon

^Read label #50 and the armament subheading in the blue box.


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Also (another EU explanation) the quad cannons can be locked in the forward firing position and fired from the cockpit in similar fashion to the fixed guns of an x-Wing or TIE fighter.

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In SW Han was going to shoot the lone TIE Fighter from the cockpit before entering Death Star. In Holiday Special he says that he lost control of one of the remote cannons. In ROTJ Falcon used front lasers.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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I always figured the cannons could be operated from the cockpit. There are situations where it’s better to have two people in the turrets and someone concentrating on doing the driving.

They did film rebel soldiers in the turrets for ROTJ though.

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In my memory there was a deleted scene with General Madine using the guns but it’s not how that happened.

There are no forward facing guns shown on screen though, only torpedoes.

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 (Edited)

^Well, why not both of those at the same time. Of course the Falcon could just have some forward mounted laser cannons, but I really like the idea that the top and bottom quad cannons are locked in a forward position most of the time and can then be fired from the cockpit, but that they can also be manned for when the target(s) isn’t directly ahead of the Falcon. That seems like both a plausible and sensible design to me.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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Front lasers:

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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 (Edited)

It’s kind of debatable though. Even as it swings around right after the “they’re going after the medical frigate” line it’s not clear which guns are firing.

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I don’t think phasers or photon torpedoes ever came out of the exact same spot on the Enterprise either. (If there was an actual port on the model in those spots at all.) It’s whatever looked good at the time?

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Mocata said:

It’s kind of debatable though. Even as it swings around right after the “they’re going after the medical frigate” line it’s not clear which guns are firing.

This is what I was gonna say.
The turrets are manned in RotJ. But sine the gunners were, sadly, cut from the film, you can make up whatever works best for you.

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Mocata said:

It’s kind of debatable though. Even as it swings around right after the “they’re going after the medical frigate” line it’s not clear which guns are firing.

Is it though?

Those clearly do not come from the turrets. Funnily the Falcon fires only 3 times but the sound effect comes 6 times.

I’ve always thought that it had front lasers, for a guy like Han Solo it would feel really stupid if he only had the turrets. He even has hidden cannons to shoot people.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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NeverarGreat said:

I think the compositing is vague enough here to support any interpretation as to where the lasers are coming from.

I agree. The Falcon fires only a handful of times in the whole battle and they’re all similar. In the opening TIE attack it seems to come from a central position. As they swing under the frigate there’s a shot from an extreme angle as it comes in from above, then another as it cuts to an interior cockpit view. BUT this is the weird one, because if you listen it sounds like a snub fighter blaster shot not the Falcon gun turret sound effect. Is it a front cannon or just an X-Wing off to the left? Then you have the part shown above as it takes out the Interceptor.

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 (Edited)

Speaking of weird compositing, one detail that I didn’t notice until recently was that some of the ships are composited into that first shot flipped the wrong way. Here’s how they should have looked, based on the lighting:

Fixed

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/7DK7PNNX

You can also see the error of the TIE composited over the Falcon’s antenna dish.

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That’s not a compositing error. That TIE is flying from the foreground into the background, in an opposite directon to the Falcon.

THIS (a few frames later) is a compositing error.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

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Oh god the Cruisers on the left that are wrong… and this is the famous shot with the most elements.

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NeverarGreat said:

ATMachine said:

That’s not a compositing error. That TIE is flying from the foreground into the background, in an opposite directon to the Falcon.

Shouldn’t they still be behind the Falcon though, based on their size? They’re clearly too small to be in front of the Falcon.

If you watch the shot in motion, they start out much larger in the foreground and head backwards into the distance as the Falcon approaches from the opposite direction. I agree that the scale is a bit wonky, but the composition in terms of relative planes seems fine.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”