Page 60 - Star Wars Insider #177

JOHN DYKSTRA

Developing the

Dykstraflex

The motion-control camera system designed and built for A New Hope made the fi lm’s
groundbreaking effects shots possible. Jon D. Witmer charts its evolution and speaks to its
Oscar-winning developer, John Dykstra.

W ORDS B Y JON D. WITMER

TIE fi ghter elements would all line up, but Inspired by existing

shoots its made the finished effect look systems at other facilities, but
A lasers as it static, and obviously a piece combining functions in ways
of carefully staged camera
never done before, the camera
chases an
X-wing. trickery. Lucas’ innovation was that would become known
Both ships to demand effects imbued with as the “Dykstrafl ex” helped
bank as they skim over the energy and motion. He wanted to usher in a bold new era of
surface of the Death Star, A New Hope’s battle scenes visual effects.
space stretching to infi nity to look like they had actually

in the background. been filmed from inside the TEAM BUILDING

A shot like this from fighting, by a combat camera In April 1975, Lucas and Kurtz
A New Hope might be on operator following the action found Dykstra working at
screen for only a second, wherever it took him. Future General, an effects
but its execution would have To realize this vision, Lucas company headed by Douglas
spanned days or even weeks. and producer Gary Kurtz opted Trumbull—a man celebrated for
Separate pieces of fi lm needed to start from scratch, setting his visual effects work on 2001:
to be created for each of the up an effects facility all their A Space Odyssey (1968). With a
elements—the TIE, the X-wing, own. They found a willing and background in industrial design,
the Death Star, the background enthusiastic collaborator in Dykstra had joined Trumbull’s
starfield, the lasers—which the 27-year-old John Dykstra, previous company, Trumbull

would then need to be who pulled together the team Film Effects.
successfully combined using a that Lucas would soon name “I was a designer, so I did
device called an optical printer. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). design work for Silent Running,”
As well as those elements, Among the team’s fi rst tasks explains Dykstra, referring to

there was something else that was the development of a the 1972 sci-fi thriller directed
writer-director George Lucas motion-control camera system by Trumbull. “I was also a
was determined to see in his for the model photography: photographer, and I did some
film’s effects: movement. When a machine that could be miniature photography for The

A New Hope was made, the programmed to carry out Andromeda Strain (1971).
standard method of producing precise movements in seven I had gone to Long Beach State
special effects scenes involved axes—track, traverse, boom, [University], which didn’t have

using a “locked-off” camera swing, pan, tilt, and roll—and a film program, but I took some
that couldn’t change position. to repeat those moves exactly, still-photography classes.
This ensured that overlaid again and again. “In those classes, we did

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