BTS Special effects query about ANH

When I first saw Star Wars decades ago there were two special effects that really impressed me and I wondered how they were done. Does anyone have any technical details? They were...

The speed at which the laser blasts moved in the gun battles, first seen when the storm troopers board the Blockade Runner, and again in the cell block shoot out.

The laser blasts were 2,3 foot long beams of red energy that flew across the screen at great speed, yet we're highly visible. If film runs at 22 or is it 24 frames per second, how long does each laser blast stay in one position before moving? Is it stationery for 2 frames, or 3 frames? If it is only in a position for one frame before moving it would become barely visible.

The second effect is; the speed at which the door opens and closes to the control room that the heroes make their way to after leaving the Falcon. It opens and closes SO fast. How was this acheived, as the actors are in front of this door and do not seem to move wrongly in front of it at all. This same effect also happens in ESB when luke exits a tubular shaft when fighting Vader. It is a triple door. How is the speed of the door opening and closing so fast acheived with actors standing in front of it? We're they told to stand perfectly still and some frames taken out, or was it some other effect such as matting?

Anyone able to explain in detail these matters or provide a link? Much appreciated.

 

There's an interesting essay on Death Star, starship, and hand-held blaster bolt speeds:

http://www.wired.com/2012/05/star-wars-blaster-speed/

Basically, hand blasters seem to fire bolts at around 78 mph on average.

 

Thanks for this. Just off to read it now.

 

Who says those doors were actually effects? Couldn't they have simply been...doors? Actual functional doors that were built into the set?

 

It's still an effect. There's special FX and then there's visual FX.

Pretty sure those fast opening/closing doors were "animated" on set. Probably halfway open for a frame and then fully open or closed, resuming filming.

 

the blaster bolts were animated i believe. the doors were a film trick. if you watch you can see the actors stood still for a while as the doors were opened and they under-cranked the camera while the actors froze. so the actors stood in place for like a minute or so while the door opened normally. when the film was run at regular speed you get the resulting effect. if you watch alec guiness' eyes you can see a sped up blink.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. If the actors do stand still then they are damn good at it as they don't move a millimetre, but I suppose that's how it was done.

Now for how long each blaster bolt remains in one position; 1, 2 or 3 frames then move?

 

the blaster bolts were animated (as in hand drawn) after filming was complete. the blasters the actors used shot off real sparks, smoke and sounds like a cap gun. the actors didn't stand still for that, just the door opening scenes.

Functional Sterlings firing blank cartridges were used in some scenes with the laser bolt added later in post-production. These blank cartridges are responsible for the muzzle flash seen on screen and, in some scenes, the cartridges themselves can be seen being ejected from the guns, or the actual sound of the blank cartridge is not dubbed over by a sound effect.

In a chapter of the book Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars, Michael Kaminski, writing about the influence of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa on the Star Wars films, said that Kurosawa's Ran influenced the exchange of blaster fire. Like in Ran, color-coding and an "onscreen sense of direction" of blaster fire are used to depict opposing forces. In the Star Wars original trilogy, rebels employed red blaster fire and often attacked from the left, while the Empire employed green blaster fire and attacked from the right. In Attack of the Clones, the second film of the prequel trilogy, the color and the direction were reversed. In that film, the Republic employed green and blue blaster fire and attacked from the right, while the villains employed red blaster fire and attacked from the left

 

Theres one scene in the Death Star control, I think where Luke closes the door after Obi Wan leaves, you can see a slight jump in posture of Luke as the door closes, it seems it wassped up to give the effect tha the door closed very quickly.

 

The blaster effects were only in the same spot for a single frame, but the subsequent positions frequently overlapped a bit. It's not hard to see something that appears in only one frame. Not as hard as you might expect, anyway. I've watched most SW action scenes frame-by-frame, so I should know.