Death Star Control room set?

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Check this out: http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/in...-plant-responsible-for-obliterating-alderaan/

Is that really what they used? I thought someone said they used some kind of tv/video editing control thing for that scene.

 

[PHArchivist]

Check this out: http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/in...-plant-responsible-for-obliterating-alderaan/

Is that really what they used? I thought someone said they used some kind of tv/video editing control thing for that scene.

Thats what I thought too....

 

[bleyd]

Doesn't mean the closeup isn't the video transfering fader thingy bob. (I know too much technical jargon :lol)

 

[blewis17]

Well, the buttons do line up with the movie stills, in that each rectangle is composed of four rows of buttons. But I suppose it could have been any similar control panel set-up from the 1970s at that time.

Wouldn't the daily production notes have mentioned this location, even for pick-up shots or second unit filming?

QUESTION: who told this guy, "Oh, and this is where they filmed the Star Wars Death Star Laser control room scenes" and how did THEY know?

I do like this 2008 comparison shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawklord/3550384857/in/set-72157618480086945/

 

[micdavis]

Because it is.

The levers and such on the "desktop" panels were Video controllers.

 

[lonepigeon]

The closeup inserts are a mixing board. Note that there are no sliding levers on location.

I realized the location was a power plant of some sort when I blueprinted the Death Star for DK.
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Ult...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217881701&sr=8-1

 

[Robot Monster]

Yup my school had very similar controls in the Tv production department. I would guess not all the shots were in the same place.

 

[TheRealFennShysa]

Doesn't mean the closeup isn't the video transfering fader thingy bob. (I know too much technical jargon :lol)

The closeups were quite definitely a Grass Valley broadcast production switcher...

 

[wbundrick]

Yes the closeup is definitely a video switcher. A lot has changed in the television business in the past 30 years, but the layout and operation of video switchers has not. That's a video transition T-bar if ever there was one.

That is the ancestor of one of these:
http://www.grassvalley.com/products/switchers/kayakdd_2me/

But for the control room, this shot immediately after the closeup is much more conclusive, I don't know why they didn't use it:

 

[darthgordon]

It does seem to look like it. Just because there's a close up shot of a video switcher doesn't mean that it was just edited together.

When I worked in a chemical plant we had a few control rooms like with all the big archaic flashing buttons and light readouts. Much like the one in picture, most of them were tagged out and not used since there was a direct control system on computers.

I always liked going in there though because it looked like what you would expect a high tech looking control room to look like in the 70's.

 

[PHArchivist]

Does the Rinzler Making of Star Wars book mention? I'm about half way through the book now.

 

[bleyd]

That IS some interesting bit of information. I found it cool that after all these years new information is STILL coming out. Wonder how much more is left unsaid.:cool

 

[Combat Baby]

whatever the case may be, this is an awesome find, and it is very interesting to see what real world sets attribute to the death star scenes

 

[HAL9000]

That IS some interesting bit of information. I found it cool that after all these years new information is STILL coming out. Wonder how much more is left unsaid.:cool

Well, there would be a whole lot more information if Rinzler had bothered to
interview any of the surviving UK crew - who aren't even touched on in
the book. Can you imagine the information people like Pat Carr, norman Reynolds, Roger Christian, John Mollo and Bill Welch could have contributed?

In fact, I seem to remember Jason Joiner working on a book like that for years. Anyone know what happened to that?

 

[jonny5]

I had heard somewhere years back that the control room was some sort of power plant.

When I was a kid my father worked for a company that among other things built computer controlled simulators for teaching people to operate things like nuclear power plants. In one room was a full mock up that looked exactly like this.

And of course the inset closeup is a video switcher as mentioned.

 

[Treadwell]

Well, there would be a whole lot more information if Rinzler had bothered to
interview any of the surviving UK crew - who aren't even touched on in
the book. Can you imagine the information people like Pat Carr, norman Reynolds, Roger Christian, John Mollo and Bill Welch could have contributed?

I agree it would be great to hear what those blokes have to say, but remember that the Making Of book was sticking to vintage interviews, so that there was a continuity of the stories being told from recent memory.

 

[The Dude]

Judging from the amount of T-Levers...it is probably a 2-ME GVG Switcher.

Looks a lot like the GVG 200-2 from the photos I have seen...but I do not think that was around in the mid-seventies.

 

[PHArchivist]

Judging from the amount of T-Levers...it is probably a 2-ME GVG Switcher.

Looks a lot like the GVG 200-2 from the photos I have seen...but I do not think that was around in the mid-seventies.

Oh THAT's it! The 2-ME GVG Switcher! I knew it looked familiar...! :wacko

I suppose these shots for the film were managed as pick-ups, after the company returned to California...? Or perhaps farmed out to a 2nd unit...?

 

[kurtyboy]

It's bloody nice that's what it is! :eek

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Cool thanks for confirming it. It is pretty amazing that new stuff is still coming out about a 32 year old movie.