STAR WARS 1977 miniature effects

Lorne Peterson and David Jones talk about the miniature effects work done by Industrial Light and Magic for Star Wars. Extended segment from the Sense of Scale documentary. Photos: Chris Casady, ILM, Lucasfilm.

[@boomerdiorama]

It was the original Star Wars Trilogy which inspired me to become the model maker I am today. I'm still doing it in retirement as well. 😁

[@alonespirit9923]

There at the end, to have a job AND have the doing of that job be fun is a true blessing.

[@barbarianlife]

The first time I saw Star Wars, I was a kid in London's Leister Square 1977. Those models, the story, the music - it changed everything. It was pure magic thanks a lot to these amazing and creative people.

[@DVincentW]

Seen it in 70mm in DC , i noticed the mat around the tie and x wing fighters it didn't bother me as a 13 year old. I learned about special effects from observing that in the film. That summer, also Jaws was a big deal. What a time to be a kid!

[@kingrichard1759]

When I saw the first Alien movie I thought it doesn't get better then this, Also Back to the Future blew me away

[@StreetComp]

I’ve built some Tamiya, etc car/plane models and tried to add some extra detail and weathering and its just stunning what these guys accomplished. May sound strange but one of the secrets of SW success is that the world Lucas created looked lived in, ships looked like they’d been in battles, etc. and that’s thanks to these model builders - crazy!

[@GatchamanG4]

Awesome to see how he Draconian Marauder behind him. Cool ship from Buck Rogers!

[@piercefilm]

Dave Jones designed it.

[@decibelfilm]

Nice to hear some insight on this well-trodden material from someone other than the same three or four ILM all-stars yet again.

[@LextheRobot]

At 1:54, young Lorne is holding a Six Million Dollar Man doll by Kenner which he's modifying into either Luke, Obi-Wan, or Threepio to fit in that Landspeeder model on the table at left. I always think it's neat that Kenner toys were used in the movie before they landed the license to Star Wars, which is what turned them into a real toy-making powerhouse in the following years.

[@Akm72]

Good spot!

[@DrWhom]

you are right - also funny that they had stashes of Tamiya kits for the kit-bashing, but it wasn't Tamiya that got the licence...

[@brick72]

Cool to See some other guys making the Movie too.

[@RobinTJKershaw]

Imagine being the guy who introduced cyanoacrylate superglue to ILM

[@digitalmagicAR]

@Norwindian LOL

[@justinplayfair4638]

Possibly one of the best Sense of Scale shorts...and considering the quality of the others, that's really saying something! Big Thanks!

[@piercefilm]

Thank you! More coming soon.

[@only257]

@@piercefilm cool if you did the classic 60s tv show thunderbirds☄️

[@rexmundi3108]

Just some of the talented and creative people who made Lucas' career.

[@Deuteromis]

We got another hater here, thinking Lucas didn't make his career. 😆

[@deanrussell2224]

Without Lucas I don’t think there would’ve been the opportunity for most of these guys to get work let alone a career - Model making and even SFX was a bygone art in the 70’s - without Star Wars and the resurrection of Sci Fi and fantasy that it brought about it was all gritty dramas so nothing for these guys to do and therefore no work or career, people may hate what lucasfilm has become but never underestimate the impact it had on the world of film and television

[@NobodyQuiteLikeMe]

I feel like it's the other way around. He really helped the film and model industry by creating star wars. Seems like you just don't like lucas.

[@eternalnut]

Do you know how much Lucas has written? How much years it took him to make the whole story for six epsiodes which are usually around two hours!?

[@Durwood71]

What an experience it must have been to work on something for months and then suddenly realize how huge it's going to be.

[@Bootrosgali]

Goose bumps to hear a one of a kind moment of them seeing that 10 minute show piece. That THEY had worked on. YES,, YOUR WORKING ON STAR WARS! Like in creative artistic history that moment has to be recognised as something , as the guys say how it was for them in that moment , but as in a historic moment thst transcends movie making,,, something really truly extraordinary.

[@joemck74]

What a time to be alive.

[@jvcpaints]

This was the job I wanted as a kid! The 'multi-media' craze took over special effects just as I was leaving high school, so I studied other things. Still painting and modeling though. Really love these videos on your channel. I've been binging on them while painting in the mornings before work and after work too. Great stuff! Thanks a million.

[@piercefilm]

Thanks for watching. More coming soon!

[@appalachianunderground8474]

I was 8 years old in 1977... you guys without me knowing, back then are my heroes....the Star Wars story is cool but the Ships were always the stars to me.... the action scenes?? Porn to a 1970s nerd like me....

[@darthwizzywizard]

That’s what carried Star Wars. The vehicles, and overall Imperial fleet was absolutely critical too long term Toys and model sales. That and the original costumes and character designs, stormtroopers, droids etc etc.

[@bletheringfool]

Great insight. All the more reason we should be able to see the original work before it got remastered

[@planetdisco4821]

Absolutely love this channel. These guys actually built the Millennium Falcon!

[@jasoneaton2662]

I love this so much, and Lorne and Dave are such lovely people!!

[@valueofnothing2487]

Makes you want to watch Star Wars (1977) again.

[@digitaljustin92]

It''s sad that the budget practically evaporated by the time it came to pay the model makers who were directly responsible for creating the movie magic that built the Lucas empire.

[@robatsea2009]

Fantastic! As mentioned elsewhere the fresh take on the background of this film's effects was both highly interesting and greatly appreciated.

[@Bootrosgali]

Similar , in terms of innocence to movie making, is the experience of Philip K. Dick watching the SFX show reel of Bladerunner... an amazing experience to be caught unawares like that, and because of the nature of the environment,, dark room , immersion,, just sensory revolutionary transplanting in instants.

[@ProducerMode]

Absolutely fantastic. Thanks for keeping this alive. True artists. Also, great sound on this video.

[@JC-qx5hd]

These guys lived my boyhood dream!

[@user-yl4lf9mh1w]

These guys were all my heroes as a kid

[@RIXRADvidz]

I can relate to the long hours of Hollywood Magic, my exposure involved the musical end of it all, I was with a creator of show themes, incidental music, character definers, background scene movers and mood setters. he worked for Saban early on so the coke flowed freely and the days lost in the studio equate to about 18 months

[@only257]

Huge Star Wars fan📀

[@berendharmsen]

It keeps amazing me how this channels keeps uploading new content all this time. The model stuff is easily the most interesting thing about movie production for me and it's so rare to see content in this area that is truly original - and you keep coming up with these interesting clips. I see that there's a screenshot in front of this one of a documentary, which this material certainly deserves. Is it out yet? Great stuff. If I had to voice any complaint it's about how you torture us by releasing this material in such small increments; I can watch hours of this stuff. In fact, every time you upload another clip, in my head I even say: Aha! There's another installment from my favourite special effects channel: Piecemeal productions :-) Please don't be offended; it means I love this stuff so much that it will never be enough.

[@piercefilm]

Thanks. The DVD of the documentary came out in 2012. There are still some copies on Amazon, but I am busy uploading the entire extended doc here, and on the Facebook page. Every two weeks I will be uploading a new segment (until about December 2021.) Coming up next is Blade Runner! Stay tuned.

[@berendharmsen]

@@piercefilm It's genuinely my favourite ongoing series online at the moment. Keep it up! There hasn't been a dull one yet and I'm compiling a mental list of favourite people showing up. None of them are boring, but some have a real gift for storytelling and are a joy to listen to. The added shop images are icing on the cake; whenever those show up I'm especially happy. This was one of those; so many pictures I had actually never seen before. How did you get all those images?

[@SandCrabNews]

I'm not a modeler. My dad was a construction electrician and he taught how to work with PVC and PVC Cement. When I learned of Kydex, I would create things using PVC Cement. Now I use CA Glue on Kydex and get things done sooner.

[@jaywright9820]

Literally "Living the dream".

[@offworldatom8850]

Fantastic work!!!

[@WillN2Go1]

Americana movie theater Southfield, Michigan May 25th 1977. I remember it like yesterday. My first thought was, "Hey! there's no sound in space." Then I was pretty sure I recognized shots from WWII gun camera footage, I think it was an ME 163 rocket plane zipping through a B-17 formation. And then the Empire Fighters had a German Luftwaffe quality. We know they're the bad guys... Then the huge battleships... The world shifted. We used to laugh at Buck Rogers and other 50s SciFi movies. 2001 and NASA made us all space snobs. Star Wars just pulled it all together. Then I drove home on the Southfield Freeway which was a trench with vertical walls. I'm pretty sure I was borderline hallucinating. I'm sure when Dojo uploads Elon Musk's brain to the cloud it will draw straight lines from Star Wars models and clips directly to Space X, Starship, Starlink, the Cybertruck... Sure just a bunch of nerd model makers doing a cool job... You changed how we see. In a hundred years no one is going to talk about Warhol and Hirst, they're going to talk about Star Wars. Cyberpunk is from the 1980s, it's a combination of Punk and Star Wars.

[@TheKingTubby1]

what a true Gentleman -

[@danielcliment8251]

This man is so cool...

[@fazian_music3185]

Giants of ILM FX... The Masters who are Pioneers who created amazing FX with Nothing !! Lorne Peterson !@ sculpting a Galaxy 🏹🌌🔥🔥👑👽👁

[@EEVENEEVEN-vb5qy]

This guy is so cool

[@TeddyLeppard]

Interesting about the SuperGlue connection for the model shop.

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

interesting bit at the end, something that was 'fun' rather than something you didn't enjoy. sadly of late, I get the impression the people working on older franchises despise what there working on, from star trek to star wars to even cartoons series (she-ra, ThunderCats, etc). I get that the younger generations often want to do things their way, yet some things are a bit in your face insults of the originals. let the young mess up things the way they want, at least the originals are good because it was created by people that liked what they were doing.

[@jimmythx1]

cool , more please

[@piercefilm]

More coming soon! Every couple weeks I upload a new segment.

[@dannycruz5446]

I wanted to make miniature models for movies when I was younger. That huge ILM 15th anniversary book was my bible for a time lol. Years later, I somehow got into creating 2d designs for tabletop miniatures for a living, so it ended up working out ok for me. When is the documentary coming out?

[@Clay3613]

Whats the name of the book? The documentary was released in 2012.

[@dannycruz5446]

@@Clay3613 industrial light & magic: the art of special effects

[@MarCuseus]

Twenty years later George decided to replace a lot of this amazing hard work with subpar CGI. :(

[@hxhdfjifzirstc894]

George Lucas is a sick, sick individual.

[@starlighter93]

You should watch the other video on this channel that is about the prequel miniatures. Lorne Peterson literally starts with "we spent more money on miniatures for Revenge of the Sith than for the making of Star Wars".

[@davidgeisler9885]

I think that’s a bit of a myth. Check out the KZbin videos noted in other responses. The CG certainly amped up but not as much to the detriment of the models. To the detriment of other areas arguably.

[@Deuteromis]

The fact that you still believe that myth is just sad.

[@crystanubis]

@@starlighter93 I thought Phantom Menace had the most miniature work of all the films.

[@bergfruehling]

I wonder if there was ever any model maker who said "yeah, I made a lot of money by doing that film".

[@flyprojector]

I had totally forgot that it was Blue screen before it became green!

[@piercefilm]

Digital cameras and technology seem to prefer green for matting.

[@darthkurland]

Does anyone know if the NATO reel still exists?

[@pebblegarden]

You can watch it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqm6pXWmqZqZgtE

[@pangrac1]

7:31 Where I can see that 15 minute NATO reel, which sold the movie to distrubutors? Doest it exist? I would like to see it. 🤓

[@marctronixx]

comment above you posted the link

[@darthbuzz1]

Nice documentaries but it would be great if you put names to all the talking heads.

[@piercefilm]

The names are all up above. Under the photo. Scroll up.

[@ralph5450]

I was using 'superglue' in the late 60's on bulsa wood models.

[@DavidSmith-wr6vj]

I was working on that........????...

[@piercefilm]

You never know how a film will turn out. When I was a model maker on Wes Anderson's, Grand Budapest Hotel we all cringed when the hotel model had to be painted pink. But when the film came out, it all worked and looked great!

[@ansiaaa]

is this ever going to be released on blu-ray?

[@piercefilm]

Unfortunately not since I am uploading it all free here on my channel. Much more coming up!

[@ansiaaa]

@@piercefilm it's a real pity, but thank you for letting us enjoy all of this awesome content for free

[@PeachLover94]

Macewan? I thought it was McCune.

[@piercefilm]

Yes, Grant McCune.

[@EdNorty]

How long is the Sense of Scale documentary?

[@piercefilm]

The DVD is 3 hours, which is sort of a teaser trailer. I haven't added up all these extended segments, but it will probably be around 10 to 12 hours. Maybe longer. I will be posting segments until end of 2021. More to come!