1. Star Wars: Of course Tatooine was Tunisia. How much of the Tatooine scenes were actually shot in Tunisia? I'm sure all the outdoors shots were, but what about the indoors shots? Was the scene in Ben's dwelling shot in Tunisia? How about the scenes in the Cantina? Or the scenes in Luke's home? Etc. Yavin-4 was Guatemala, but it seems to me that there were only a handful of establishing shots actually shot in Guatemala. I doubt that Hamill, Fisher, Ford, etc. were ever actually there. Is that right? 2. Empire Strikes Back: Hoth was Norway. Same question: While of course the outdoors scenes were done in Norway, what about the many scenes inside the Rebel base, or the scene inside the wampa's cave? 3. Return of the Jedi: Tatooine in this movie was the Yuma Desert in Arizona. Same sort of question: Where were the scenes shot inside Jabba's palace? How about in his sail barge? The Endor moon was the redwood forests of California. How much shooting took place there? In short, I'm interested in anything related to the question of shooting on location vs. shooting on a set elsewhere.
Outside shots were done on location, the indoor shoots were done on a set, with the exception of the Ewoks home. Someone else would know more then me.
1. All the exteriors were shot in Tunisia. Lars Homestead (surface) was in the Chott-el-Djerid desert, while the "hole" was shot in Matmata (Hotel Sidi Driss). Shots were edited together to create the illusion of one place. Exteriors of Toshi Station (Anchorhead), Mos Eisley (arrival only) and Ben's hut were shot on the Isle of Djerba (close to the boarder of Libya). Except for the Lars Homestead dinner table scene (side hole of Sidi Driss), all the interior scenes (including homestead kitchen) and the (later) streets of Mos Eisley were shot on sets in the UK. 2. All outdoor scenes (snowspeeder flight background Rocky Mountains) were shot close to Finse, an isolated train station next to the Hardangerjokulen glacier. The Rebel troops fighting the walkers were Norwegian military extras. All interior scenes were shot in the UK. 3. Jabba's Palace and the sail barge interior were a UK studio set. Only an empty life size prop of the barge (and the skiff) was erected in the Yuma desert. All the Endor moon exterior senes were shot in the redwood forests near Crescent City, except the nighttime landing platform scene (studio set) and the Ewok village (same).
That's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Thank you! All that remains is Guatemala: Am I correct in thinking that the cast was never there, and that actual filming in Guatemala consisted in getting a handful of shots (such as the guy standing in that upside-down trash can)?
I'm pretty sure a couple of shots of Tatooine for ANH were shot in Death Valley, CA. I think they were long shots of Luke & Threepio in Luke's speeder, with none of the main cast involved. I don't have a copy of "Making of STAR WARS" handy; can anyone confirm this?
Correct. A very small unit travelled to Guatemala in March 1977 (two months before the premier) to shoot the establishing shots, and none of the actors were involved. So, episode by episode: -IV. They shot in Tunisia for two weeks, only exterior scenes and the dinner table scene. Everything else is studio work. (also, keep in mind that not every exterior Tatooine shot is Tunisia: all the "technical" shots were done in California, Death Valley, including the R2 wandering alone before being captured, Sandcrawler shots, Landspeeder shots and Tusken Raiders) -V. They shot for a week in Norway with the principals, then second unit work for the battle for several weeks. Wampa cave and Rebel base are sets. Dagobah is a set. Oh, and there is a shot done outisde the studio in London, in which you only see the sky (Luke jumping into his X-wing in Hoth). -VI. They shot two weeks in Yuma (Sarlaak battle) and two weeks in the redwood forest. R2 and C3PO approaching Jabba's palace is Death Valley.
Interesting how much flak the PT gets for lack of location shooting when, in reality, the OT didn't do all that much location shooting either
Yeah, none of the SW films have been shot extensively in real locations. I think Return of the Jedi is the movie that has more location shoot days, but only because they decided to do the Sarlaac sequence on location (which was, apparently, a mistake). Episode I shot in Tunisia, Caserta palace, and outside London (Naboo forests), while Episode II was shot in Spain (1 day), Caserta, Lace Como and Tunisia. In both cases they did more location work than ANH or Empire.
It is Tunisia. Death Valley was only used to shoot technical stuff that was impossible to do in Tunisia: Landspeeder shots, Bantha shots, Sandcrawler shots, and R2 travelling alone (up until the jawas capture him). None of the main actors were involved (Mark Hamill was SUPPOSED to work, but had his infamous car accident, and only doubles were used)
To oierem you listen. Unless I'm mistaken the obvious clue to distinct the locations is this: The flat and dry river bed Artoo travels on is in the Death Valley area. As soon as the flat river bed disappers it's footage from the "Star Wars Canyon" in Tunisia (located halfway between Tozeur in the south and Kairouan in the north) where they also shot Raiders of the Lost Ark (above). Interestingly, the location where Artoo is stunned by the Jawas is essentially the same where Luke and Threepio catch him later, so he had really gotten close to Obi-Wan Kenobi's hut...
Yes, exactly. In Tunisia, R2 could barely move straight. The only bit shot in Tunisia (right before he is captured) has him marching down the canyon in a close up (so we don't get to see his legs, because he's going down a wood plank) Another small clue to what was shot where: most of the stuff shot in Death Valley has either no soundtrack (R2 captured) or has the music tracked (sandcrawler), edited (banthas) or looped somehow, since John Williams did the music before those shots were done.
FYI, the landspeeder shots were pickups shot in Death Valley after the principal shoot, as what they shot in Tunisia wasn't useable - they did attempt to shoot material in Tunisia for use in rear-projection FX (with Luke & C-3PO shot in the speeder in the Elstree studio), but it didn't really work, and wasn't included. Hence why the search for Artoo was reduced to a couple of long shots with considerably less dialogue. Here's what was originally attempted (jump to 5:44): http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com/swcs/episode4/Artoo.html The landspeeder pickups, along with inserts for the cantina (most notably the band) and other material, were what GL was desperately trying to get 20th Century Fox to provide additional funds for in order to finish the film. Despite the board's indifference/contempt for this weird space movie, Alan Ladd Jr, Fox's head of production, backed him all the way.
Here's a great page about the Death Valley locations: http://www.panamintcity.com/exclusives/starwars.html
So would it be correct to say that ROTJ was the most "location heavy" of the three, with ANH coming in second?
ROTJ definitely, and ANH would come second if you don't count second unit location shooting (in Empire the second unit spent several weeks shooting battle scenes). Also, it's correct to say that Lucas was not present in any of the location shooting of Empire.
Wow! That's the spirit. And I had believed the valley matte painting from the deleted beginning scene of ROJ to be something the matte artist made up...
The on-location shots in the CT made the entire experience more realistic overall. They did quite a bit of that with TPM and TFA. More movies should emulate this pattern.
Well that is simply because those who aren't interested in finding out the facts don't like it because it gets in the way of the story they want to tell. It's no different with the practical effects or anything else. Oddly it seems that the new movies are doing quite a bit of location work which is actually is a very un-Star Wars like thing to do.
Here is the cliff shot from the film watched from the other side. The actors are looking down to the Tunisian "Star Wars Canyon" but in the final film it appears to be the cliff from Death Valley.
