Page 63 - Star Wars Insider #177

JOHN DYKSTRA

the effects shots, however,
ILM opted for the all-but-
forgotten VistaVision format,
which runs standard 35mm

film horizontally through the
camera’s gate to create a
widescreen frame that is eight
perforations across.
“VistaVision was something
that Doug had lodged in my
mind,” Dykstra recalls. “Optical
printing gives you an inherent
degradation: an increase in
contrast and reduction in
resolution. But by using the
larger negative and reducing
it in optical printing to the
four-perf negative that would
be cut into the movie, you
ended up with an image that
was comparable to original
photography.”
VistaVision’s sideways
orientation also meant that

the film magazine would sit

03 flat at the back of the camera.
This was an important
consideration when fi lming
that had been nicknamed which you ran the camera. We 02 (Left) The dynamic space scenes, as it
Dykstraflex
the “Trumbullfl ex,” and chose to move the camera gave the camera a lower profi le,
system is set
that camera’s predecessors relative to the model—rather up to film a and allowed it to get very close
included Panavision’s Panafl ex than move the model relative to TIE fighter to the starship miniatures.
model
and, before that, ARRI’s the camera—because otherwise “Another critical component
against a

Arriflex. The Arriflex got its the lighting would have had to bluescreen. in making the miniatures
name from the fact that it was travel with the model, which look big,” says Dykstra, “was
03 Don Trumbull

the first motion-picture camera would have been a nightmare. was essential swinging and tilting the lens
to incorporate a refl ex-viewing “Al Miller had to build all to the to tailor the depth of fi eld. If
camera’s
system, allowing its operators the microprocessors that ran you put a spherically ground
development.
to see through the lens while the motion-control system. lens too close to an object, the
the camera was rolling. This was all custom-designed, foreground’s going to be out
purpose-built, and custom- of focus and the background’s
DESIGN DETAILS programmed. Pins were going to be sharp. But with
The Dykstrafl ex system inserted through blank circuit swings and tilts, you can tip the
comprised three main elements: boards according to Al’s lens to offset the focus plane
the camera; a mechanical drive design, and then wire-wrapped and end up with the entire
system that could track, boom, for connections. It was TTL thing in complete focus.” With
pan, tilt, and roll the camera; [transistor-transistor logic], the Dykstraflex, this complex

and the electronic control which required a huge current process was built-in, with a
device for programming the draw. The amount of power follow-focus system offering
drive system’s sequence that the system drew was programmable control of the
of movements. enormous compared to today’s focus ring on the lens and the
“The purpose behind it digital technology.” position of the tilting lens board.
was to simulate the reality of Principal photography on The VistaVision format
[live-action] cinematography A New Hope was done in the was also compatible with a
as opposed to stop-motion anamorphic 35mm format, wide array of 35mm-format
animation,” Dykstra explains. which squeezes a widescreen still-photography lenses. “I’d
“The system could operate image into an almost-square been using still-camera lenses

with mechanical accuracy film frame measuring four with Doug,” says Dykstra. “But
independent of the speed at perforations on a film reel. For with A New Hope we were

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