Star Wars Archive

Stuart Freeborn designed the appearance of Yoda, by using his own facial likeness as inspiration and adding wrinkles that he compared to that of Albert Einstein. The set of Dagobah was actually built five feet above the ground, which allowed the likes of Frank Oz to successfully puppet Yoda. Despite the communication difficulties this caused, the end result was a revolutionary use of practical effects.

It is known that, originally, it would have been Obi-Wan training Luke, but then George Lucas decided that it wouldn’t make sense to have him standing next to Luke in all the films and not help him fight, and that’s why he is killed in the first film. He then created Yoda to have someone that would train Luke.

Later, in The Phantom Menace, Yoda was redesigned to look younger, and was computer-generated for some distant shots but he remained mostly a puppet, based on the one made by Stuart Freeborn for the first trilogy.

Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher on the set of the rebel headquarters on Hoth - The Empire Strikes Back

On the set of Hoth - The Empire Strikes Back

Shooting Luke's near-fall into a Death Star chasm - A New Hope

Shooting the scene where Luke is hanging on the Wampa’s cave on Hoth - The Empire Strikes Back

Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford behind the scenes - The Empire Strikes Back

When it came to capturing the lumbering steps of the AT-AT walker, Ben Burtt and his crew started ideating from the earliest days of pre-production. “We had seen Ralph McQuarrie’s paintings of them, and there were some sketchy videomatics that ILM did, almost like animated storyboards,” Burtt recalls. “Ink drawings done crudely. It was the best we had for videomatics at the time, action poses that George could cut together and make an animated sense out of the battle.” He gathered many of the individual sounds that would be mixed together to put the Imperial walkers into motion. “That was a particular focus of mine,” he says.

For “the metallic sounds of the squeaking joints,” he recorded the squeaky lid from a dumpster in front of his home. For the stamping of the feet and the rhythmic sound of the engines, the sounds came from two sources. One were the metal shearing machines from a factory at Oakland, that made a loud stamp when the sheet of metal was embossed with a pattern. The other element, which is running constantly while the walkers are in motion, is an oil derrick pumping.

To give the towering mechanical beasts a feeling of crushing mass, Ben Burtt captured the exploding sounds of artillery shells, which were the sound of the weight of the walkers’ foot.

Irvin Kershner getting Yoda and Stuart Freeborn ready for a photo - The Empire Strikes Back

Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher between takes of the swing sequence - A New Hope

Four actors that played the Ewoks behind the scenes - Return of the Jedi

Modelmaker Paul Huston with some AT-STs under construction in the model shop - Return of the Jedi

Carrie Fisher between takes - The Empire Strikes Back

Effects cameraman Ken Ralston animated a creature puppet made by Phil Tippett - The Empire Strikes Back

George Lucas acted the part of R2-D2 when they had to translate the character’s emotions into sound effects with Ben Burtt, the sound designer. “George would sit down with Ben, and Ben had a tape recorder, and George would do all the little beeps and boops by himself, because each one has got an expression,” Dennis Muren says. The final sounds were translated into electronic effects, but the emotion was all acted out by George Lucas. “People don’t know that,” Dennis Muren adds. “That show and so many of these trippy shows really are going through a filter, through a mind that is making decisions that are consistent with an overall feel.”

Mark Hamill, Gary Kurtz and Carrie Fisher - A New Hope

Harrison Ford behind the scenes - A New Hope

Gary Kurtz, Irvin Kershner, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford going over the script - The Empire Strikes Back

George Lucas and his team shooting some takes - A New Hope

Neil Krepela prepares to project live-action elements onto the painting of Cloud City and photograph them together - The Empire Strikes Back

Mark Hamill between takes on the Dagobah set - The Empire Strikes Back