Supertrooper (Boba Fett) conceptualized during ANH post production?

For the few who still don't know this, original concept of Boba Fett was a spinoff from a much earlier concept.
The "supertroopers". All white costumed super elite force stormtroopers.
This concept was dropped in favor of a single character that was transformed into what we know as Boba Fett.

I've always speculated that part of the reason this supertrooper costume was so extremely tricked out was because the prop/costume guys had nothing to work on before getting some direction for the SW sequel, so funneled all their creative juices into this character.
Also, I think they wanted something cool that could be used for touring along with Vader and all the tricked out gadgets (like the flame thrower, smoking rocket pack, and mic and speakers inside the armor) would make for quite the crowd pleaser.

So when exactly did the idea for the supertrooper come about?

Here is what we know:
5-25-1977: ANH is first released in theatres.
1-?-1978: This is the date of the earliest concept drawings we have seen.
6-28-1978: Test footage of the supertrooper costume was shot.
11-?-1979: The earliest shots of the PP1 Boba Fett costume on tour (which is what the Supertrooper was converted into).

So then I see this photo in the Making of Star Wars book pg. 239.
It shows a concept drawing of the supertrooper helmet posted on the wall.
The caption reads, "Ben Burtt in his basement editing suite at Park Way"

Now the question is, when exactly was this photo taken?
Was it taken after ANH, or during the ANH editing process?
Judging by the storyboards on the wall, they look like ANH storyboards.
And why would there be a Supertrooper concept drawing mixed in with them?

So was the Supertrooper conceptualized during the production of ANH?
If so that would make it much earlier than we ever thought.

Thoughts?



***There are parts lists for the supertrooper where they actually label the character as "supertrooper" and has the production title of "The Empire Strikes Back".
Another question would be, how long during or after ANH, did Lucas know what the title of the ANH sequel would be?

PS, thanks to Art Andrews for the above dates. :thumbsup


Here are the photos I'm referring to:






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Also, when was the Holiday Special cartoon put into production up at Nelvana, the Canadian animation studio? The storyboard phase, sometime in 1978, would've been that summer at the latest, putting the supertrooper-to-Fett conversion having taken place (in concept, at least) at least by then. The "Leica reel" (storyboards put to a rough edit of the voice track) that sw.com posted a while back has no date.

It's hard to tell for sure which movie those storyboards are from.
They could be ANH, ESB or a mix. I skimmed through some storyboards but didn't recognize any. My complete storyboard sets are packed away right now.

Hey Chris,
If you have the making of SW book, check out the pic in there.
There are more storyboards on the left hand side that I cropped out of the pic I posted (for size reasons).
There are a couple that look like the two star destroyers to the bottom left of the planet after the falcon leaves mos eisley. The ones that are trying to intercept them.
Also it looks like some boards of the tantive getting shot by a star destroyer as well.
And to the left of the supertrooper helmet, you can see the opening shot of ANH with the tantive just coming into scene over top of tatooine.
Let me know what you think.

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It would help date that picture of Ben if it could be identified as the basement of the "big house", where Burtt worked during ANH and shortly thereafter, or if it is part of the San Rafael facility, shared with ILM, that Sprocket Systems used before moving up to the Ranch years later.

Thanks to Lufo1138 over on TDH, looks like we have a date on that concept drawing.

It's dated 1978.




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Specifically it was dated 03/1978. Some of the earliest drawings we have are 01/78 and by 06/78 they had moved away from the supertrooper concept and full on to boba fett, with color and identifying marks.

The Holiday special was aired November 17, 1978, so it must have been switched to Boba REALLY early on.

** which looks like it was just posted above**

Pat

patsmear said:

The Holiday special was aired November 17, 1978, so it must have been switched to Boba REALLY early on.

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It is a bit odd.

On June 28, 1978 George Lucas was shown the Supertrooper in all its glory... but unless he dated his artwork retroactively or sketched it up on the very last couple of days of June, there is artwork from Joe Johnston dated 06/78 which clearly shows a sketch of what would come to be the PP1 Fett, but there are almost 70 sketches missing between 03/78 and 06/78, assuming they are all numbered sequentially and they are all Fett related... so no telling what went on in that time.

Ok so here is an updated timeline:

5-25-1977: ANH is first released in theatres.
1-??-1978: This is the date of the earliest concept drawings we have seen.
3-??-1978: More dated supertrooper concept drawings.
6-28-1978: Test footage of the supertrooper costume was shot.
6-??-1978: PP1 Boba Fett sketches
11-17-1978: Animated Boba Fett appears in SW Holiday Special.
11-??-1979: The earliest shots of the PP1 Boba Fett costume on tour (which is what the Supertrooper was converted into).


That right so far?


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I have a b/w photo of the PP2 that has a copyright of 1978... not conclusive... but there you go.

So what is the question you are wanting to answer? When was Fett conceptualized as the bounty hunter character by George? Or when did Fett turn green? Or when were the parts of Fett first conceptualized by artists? Or just to establish a timeline?

Very interesting information in sorting out the timeline. The history seems to be so fluid, I appreciate the efforts in trying to pin these dates down. I'm looking forward to pulling my Making Of book when I get home from work!

We've established that the pic is from at least March '78, right? So I guess he's not editing ANH in that shot, unless he's tweaking sound mixes for the re-release, maybe? For all we know, he's just listening to some smooth jazz, heh.

I was a little bummed to hear a story that a lot of what I thought were "ANH making of" shots were actually taken after it's release (staged shots), for use in promotion, magazine articles, etc. Most of the Edlund-in-a-Star-Wars-shirt shots were apparently taken after the film wrapped, as they didn't document enough to satisfy the public demand for "behind the scenes" stuff, and a good visual aid to showcase what was then cutting edge tech. Apparently the tip off is that that particular shirt didn't exist during the initial VFX production timeline, lol! It's still a very cool time capsule though.

That's a Wampa in the staryboard above his right elbow.

Nick

I know the animator who animated Boba fett for the Holiday Special; John Celestri. He told me the entire thing, from script to final mix, took 6 months at Nelvana. Too bad, cause if they had more time it would have been MUCH nicer. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the animated segment, but DRAT! What if.....

So that maybe gives you an idea of when Boba was established, unless he was un-named at the start of the segment's production?

Another question, I wonder if maybe he was coloured that way he was coloured in the animated segment, because the final costume colours weren't finalised?

Just a thought.

Another date to throw out there (and to confirm) is August 1978. That's the month (I believe) ILM moved from Van Nuys to San Rafael.

Gene

Brinn 71 said:

Another question, I wonder if maybe he was coloured that way he was coloured in the animated segment, because the final costume colours weren't finalised?

Just a thought.

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Interesting. So, could it be that the White Fett, wasn't ever supposed to be white? I mean, maybe the did the armor white because that is all they had to work with.

patsmear said:

Interesting. So, could it be that the White Fett, wasn't ever supposed to be white? I mean, maybe the did the armor white because that is all they had to work with.

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No, the supertrooper was supposed to be white.
What he's saying is that the Holiday Special started production after they changed the trooper to the Fett character but before they finalized Fett's colors.

patsmear said:

Interesting. So, could it be that the White Fett, wasn't ever supposed to be white? I mean, maybe the did the armor white because that is all they had to work with.

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Judging by other imperial troops, I would say that the original idea was to have it all white. All other OT stormtroopers were white.