American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 14

By Noah Kadner and Andrew Fish

14

A tiny spacecraft is relentlessly pursued by a
massive Imperial Star Destroyer. A small group of Rebels
have stolen the plans for a weapon the size of a moon, and
their only hope of survival and victory lies in the last of a
defeated order of galactic protectors, and in a farmboy
destined to become a hero. The Star Wars saga began more
than 40 years ago with the 1977 release of director George
Lucas' instant sci-fi classic (shot by Gilbert Taylor, BSC).
When that film graced the cover of American Cinematographer, the issue cost just one dollar. AC has gone on to
feature nearly every Star Wars movie since, with cover
stories and in-depth reporting - and, in recent years,
documented set visits - that now serve as a vital historical record of the evolution of science-fiction filmmaking.
So it's only fitting that The Rise of Skywalker (shot by
Dan Mindel, ASC, BSC, SASC), the final chapter of the
nine-film space saga, is on our cover once again - alongside Lucasfilm's first Disney Plus streaming series, The
Mandalorian (shot by Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS and Barry
"Baz" Idoine), a production that represents the future of
the Star Wars universe.
That future includes streaming series, theatrical
features and interactive experiences both in progress and
not yet conceived. And the new creative teams that are
sure to assemble will, by nature, build upon the work of
February 2020

Taylor, Mindel, Fraser and Idoine - as well as that of Peter
Suschitzky, ASC (The Empire Strikes Back), Alan Hume, BSC
(Return of the Jedi), David Tattersall, BSC (all three Star
Wars prequels) and Steve Yedlin, ASC (The Last Jedi) -
who have all helped shape the weathered, lived-in look of
that galaxy far, far away.
By the same token, future Star Wars artists who take
on the ever-advancing visual-effects technologies are the
spiritual descendants of such trailblazers as Society
members John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, and Dennis
Muren, who lent their talents to the franchise's maiden
voyage. It was their groundbreaking motion-control rigs
and optical-printing techniques that paved the way for the
digital wizardry ILM has brought to decades of movies;
now, Epic Games' Unreal Engine, in collaboration with
ILM's StageCraft software, helps power photo-real backgrounds on a massive LED wall with proper 3D parallax
relative to the production camera on The Mandalorian.
Star Wars is about often-reluctant heroes who must
turn from the life they know and face the might of a vastly
imposing foe, and who persevere through their hope and
faith. Please enjoy these explorations into the philosophies, aims and techniques that helped bring to life the
latest adventures in the epic saga's evolution.

American Cinematographer - 100 Years

Unit photography by François Duhamel, SMPSP, and Melinda Sue Gordon, SMPSP, courtesy of Lucasfilm, Ltd.

An Expanding Galaxy
American Cinematographer - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2020
