James Lloyd, writing at StarWars.com, reveals 7 little-known facts about the making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back which celebrates the 40th anniversary of its release later this month.
There were women in the trenches.
According to Alan Tomkins, who was nominated for an Academy Award as the art director for The Empire Strikes Back, several women played rebel troopers in the trenches and snow-covered plains for the Battle of Hoth. Personal photos taken by Tomkins show several extras showing off their nail polish in between takes, filmed on the Hardangerjøkulen (Hardanger Glacier) above Finse, Norway. While a call for extras drew a handful of interested Norwegians — imagine not enough people showing up to a call for Star Wars extras today! — eventually more rebel troopers were needed, and even some members of the staff of the hotel in Finse were drafted into the Rebel Alliance.
A different kind of Imperial March.
You might know that some of the sounds of blaster fire were made from the twangs of metal guy wires, as recorded by Ben Burtt, but do you know where the Imperial walkers get their distinctive mechanical marching sound? The mechanical sounds of AT-AT marching were captured by giant sheets of metal being cut apart and stamped at two metal-working sites in Oakland, California. “I spent quite a bit of time recording metal shears, giant machines that cut sheet metal into segments,” recounted Randy Thom, sound effects recorder. “They were useful because they have this multisyllabic sound. In order to come up with a really convincing, compelling sound for the walker’s motion, Ben knew that we would need these multisyllabic mechanical sounds on a very large scale.” Burtt added, “The objective was to give the walkers a real sense of mass and weight. Randy went out and recorded some of those big metallic stamping machines. Then I picked out parts of the recording I liked and made it into a rhythmic walk cycle. In addition, I needed squeaking sounds, like a knee joint. That I achieved by playing with a dumpster lid, which had been dropped off in front of my house.”
Read more at the link below.
