I want to first preface this blog by saying that in no way does this blog post demish the epic-sized endeavor that George Lucas and his team underwent to create Star Wars IV: A New Hope
http://bit.ly/wyPZ4 . Technology was very limiting back in 1977, which meant that he was attempting the impossible or improbable at the time when he took on the challenge of making that film... but times have changed.
Filmmakers have more technology and greater techonology at their disposal. And yet few independent filmmakers attempt to do something as grand as an epic-sized film like Star Wars IV. Because of this, I will attempt to go through some things that I saw in my recent viewing of the film on how it is possible.
The begining of Star Wars starts out with a battle between a cruiser and a Star Destroyer (big ship owned by the evil Empire for those who don't known Star Wars lingo). There are no other ships in the scene, and the shots are fairly basic shots. Most of the scene is shot as an interior of the cruiser while it is captured and boarded by the enemy. By doing this Lucas was able to focus most of the scene on what was easier to create: the interior which was fairly empty halls except for a dozen or so soldiers from opposing sides that shoot at each other. The Stormtroopers (Empire's soldiers) are completely covered with their suits and helmts which disguise the actual extra's appreances. This element, which is used throughout the film, helps Lucas's ability to use the same extras over and over again in the film.
The walls of the cruiser are basic, nothing that really stands out. It works for the film because it sets up the motiff of a militarilistic society that focuses more on usuage than beauty.
The tight hallways of the cruiser (and later Death Star) also help to disguise the lack of numbers of Stormtroopers within the entire film.
By having the escape pod land on a remote planet, Tatoine, Lucas is once again able to limit the amount of extra "stuff" that would exist within an alien society. There are few aliens shown within most of the scenes on this desert planet except Jawas and Sandpeople, both of whom he has them never show their real faces. It's implied that they probably are like this to protect themselves from the harsh elements, but the truth is that it is really a cost-effeciency issue that Lucas uses to his advantage.
There is only one Star Destroyer that goes to the Death Star (space station) and only a few times do you ever see any TIE Fighters in the film, until the very end.
Back to our remote desert planet... By picking a planet like that he could be minimalistic and yet use it to create the mood for the begining of the film. The droids, like the Jawas, are simplistic in design. The inside of the Jawas' vehicle is intentionally dark to hide the lack of more "space stuff".
Luke, his Uncle and the rest of the people that inhabit his area wear simplistic outfits that look more like something of anciet Greece... in a more simplistic way. This works for this "motiff" of simplicity that Lucas uses throughout the film.
Luke's home, as well as Obi-Wan's home, are both simplistic adobe like strutures similiar to the ones in The Planet of the Apes (1968).
One of the shots in the film is a couple Stormtroopers at the escape pod with some sort of a dinosaur-like-alien and another stormtrooper, both in the background. Both the Stormtrooper and dino-alien are composited into the scene in post-production. What that means is that there are actually only 2 Stormtroopers in the original shot but the other elements are added in post-production.
If you look closer at the scenes in the film there are generally only about 4 or less actors per scene, with occasional extras to fill the frame. Even though the film has a galatic feel to it, it's actually fairly small and personal in the amount of speaking roles.
The vast majority of the film are interior scenes, book-ended with either establishing shots that show the unique exteriors or scenes in space to continue to remind the audience of the scale of the story that is being told (Most of these scenes are within the confines of the Death Star. The Death Star has the most simplistic look to it of the whole film, but this fits once again with the military look of the Empire).
Simple nuances to the film, like the two suns setting in the horizon of Luke's home planet, helped to remind the audience of the unique galaxy. The fact is that the scene is just some simple huts in the desert, but the suns gave just enough to give the audience an impression of being in a different world.
The one scene that was absolutely necessary to give the film a real "alien look", is the Mos Eisley Cantina scene. If this scene did not exist, the audience may not have entirely bought Lucas's story of an alien galaxy. With the Jawas and Sandpeople Lucas never allowed us to see their faces, and the Bantha's (the big animals the Sandpeople ride) did give some believability (elephant's dressed up in big outfits), but the audience needed to see more aliens with faces to give the film more depth and beleivability.
Lucas couldn't get enough realistic alien faces for his principal photography of the scene. Instead of holding off the principal photography, he shot the wider shots of the scene, allowing a certain amount of darkness so that audience couldn't pick out entirely who was in the background. The shots that focused on the main charecters kept the framing tight on those charecters. Later he shot extra shots with some really great looking alien faces for cutaways.
The dogfight scenes in the film are the masterpiece of the film. Lucas makes a point to edit together these shots with quick cuts around 3 seconds long. The behind-the-scenes on the films it is explained that they had a hard time making sure the track matte held together between the foreground of the shots and the background. (For those that don't understand what I am talking about it has to do with blue screen and compositing. The pilots were shot in cockpits with blue screen behind them. Then the blue screen is cut out in post-production and replaced with a background. The movement in the background and foreground need to match to make it appear to be shot in camera) To beat the track matte issue they made a point to keep the cuts short so that the shot was just long enough for the audience to know what is going on, but not long enough to see if something in the movement lines up right.
With some of Luke's cockpit shots, towards the end of the film, the camera is slightly angled down, so that we don't really see the background This trick kept the audience from being able to notice what the background is. Lucas needed to keep our attention on Luke as he is hearing Obi-Wan's voice, but still didn't want us to notice if the background is moving in the right motion with the foreground.
I could go line by line discussing more of how they were able to pull off this feat, but I think I have shown enough on how Lucas used ingenuity and what they could come up with to pull off something that many people probably thought was impossible on the budget he was given (appox. 10 million dollars).
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So how does a filmmaker create a Star Wars-like film for around 1 million dollars?
1. keep the vast majority of the film in interiors, but give the audience the impression of the setting being in another world by occasionally going "out" into that world with some of the charecters and also using establishing shots of the world between interior scenes.
2. You don't always have to have the camera moving in a composited shot! There is this thinking in the film world that if a shot has something composited into it that the camera needs to be moving to give the audience the impression that the object composited in was shot "in camera". -False! If at all possible a composited shot should have the original shot filmed on a tripod.
3. Not everything that needs to be made for something like a Star Wars-like movie needs to be CGI. There are many shots that we created for AMNESIA that people thought we either spent alot of money filming or we created with a CGI animation program. But most of the effects in AMNESIA are actually created by using Adobe After Effects... but using it like Photoshop. This same principle can be used to create "another world"-like effect.
4. Use already existent structures to create your elaborate sets of your film. A good example is The Battle For the Planet of the Apes
http://bit.ly/1DCOq where the used an old water treatment plant or The Conquest For the Planet of the Apes
http://bit.ly/11MDl9 where the used a large building complex prior to it being used for it's original intentions.
5. For CGI effects have one lead FX coordinator who sits down with the director and prioritizes which effects need the greatest attention. Then they price tag what they are willing to pay for each effect to be created and outsource each effect to artists around the world who are paid per job (effect they create). These artists would generally be people who would have just graduated from schools like DAVE school
http://www.daveschool.com/ and are looking for their big break. By prioritizing, if certain effects need more money to create them, it forces the director to come up with ways to not use the less important effects.
6. My final note, Lucas only had one big name actor in Star Wars IV on purpose, and it was Sir Alec Guinness, as Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan isn't introduced until close to the end of Act I and is killed off before the end of Act II. There are many scenes in the Death Star he is not in, which means that his actual shooting schedule was fairly small.... The point: You Don't Have To Have Name Actors!... just great talent.
These are just a few of the many ways that a filmmaker could make a Star Wars-Like film for around 1 million dollars. Lucas didn't let effects or star names to drive his film forward, but a great, simple story told well.
(my reason for writing this post isn't just to propose an idea, but because it is my intentions to attempt a feat like I described with production of the sequel to AMNESIA. I believe that it isn't just possible, but something that needs to be done to make a point. If the digital revolution has really arrived, shouldn't independent filmmakers be able to do incredible things that were not even dreamed of for a indie production in 1977)
