The truly innovative aspect of the Star Wars trilogy,
in purely filmic terms, was the quantum leap it represented in special
visual effects, production design, and sound effects. While most
of the techniques used in the trilogy, such as digital matte painting
and blue screens (when the actors perform before an empty screen
only to be edited into a painted or filmed background later on),
stop-motion animation, and computer-generated images, had been used
to a certain extent before, never had they been used so extensively
throughout the picture. Practically every frame of a Star
Wars film has some sort of effect added in, whether as
part of the main action or merely in the background. Lucas also
combined the latest high-tech effects with classic Hollywood techniques,
such as elaborate creature costumes and even puppetry. Yoda, for
example, is performed and voiced by the master puppeteer Frank Oz,
who worked for years with Jim Henson’s Muppets.
A typical scene in the trilogy could feature a relatively
normal-looking actor interacting with another actor in costume,
with another being operated by an off-screen puppeteer, and with
yet another who was added in later with a computer—while the scene itself
takes place before a matte painting giving the illusion of an alien
landscape. With the Star Wars films, special effects
became a box office draw in and of themselves, as viewers were willing
to pay just to see the amazing things Lucas’s team at Industrial
Light and Magic (including such famous effects wizards as John Dykstra
and sound designer Ben Burtt) were able to come up with.
This highly artificial approach to filmmaking has not
been without its critics. From the beginning, there have been those
who have condemned the films as little more than eye-candy or as
coldly technological artifacts with a lot of spectacle but little
in the way of true wonder. Lucas himself has been dismissive of
such concerns and has often seemed eager to dispense with the formality
of having actual human actors. As the technology has improved, Lucas
has continued to tinker with the films, adding more creatures and
more detail to the backgrounds and even reshooting certain scenes
to get them closer to his ideal vision. With the new Star
Wars trilogy, Lucas again is striving for a quantum leap
in what can be done with special effects. Now, the digital revolution
has allowed him to create entire landscapes and settings without
relying on stage sets or location shots at all. Soon the concept
of “special effects” will no longer apply, as every aspect of the
films will be in some sense an “effect.” The irony is that one of
the themes Lucas plays with in the original trilogy is of the dangers
of surrounding oneself in a completely technological environment—even
as he creates just such an environment in his recent work.
