New Elstree Studio documentary with discarded Graflex.

[JunkSabers1138]

View attachment 996308

By the way, the new side-rivets/screws would be located (on the right-side, “production” image) in-between the grips located at 6:00 and 8:00.

I know these are OLD blueprints, but how accurate are they in comparison with current consensus in regards to clamp, grip, and D-ring placement, particularly in relation to the bunny ears?

I keep seeing 3:00 and 9:00 thrown around as commonly accepted clamp positions when according to these it seems more like 4:00 and 10:00, and from what I can tell in screenshots it sometimes appears to be a bit lower, closer to 8:00.

Then again, given the many possible positions that can be achieved with a Graflex, is there really even one commonly accepted position as "official/definitive" as to what the "idealized" version is supposed to be?

 

[Gregatron]

Well.... if you squint your eyes REALLY hard...

It’s really hard to tell, though, even in motion. Mind you, my particular source for viewing was in 2K, not 4K. Perhaps the extra resolution would be more revealing.

 

[Gregatron]

I know these are OLD blueprints, but how accurate are they in comparison with current consensus in regards to clamp, grip, and D-ring placement, particularly in relation to the bunny ears?

I keep seeing 3:00 and 9:00 thrown around as commonly accepted clamp positions when according to these it seems more like 4:00 and 10:00, and from what I can tell in screenshots it sometimes appears to be a bit lower, closer to 8:00.

Then again, given the many possible positions that can be achieved with a Graflex, is there really even one commonly accepted position as "official/definitive" as to what the "idealized" version is supposed to be?

When I cite 3:00 and 9:00, that’s really just shorthand for “left side” or “right side”. When comparing photos and screencaps, the upper half moves around a lot when in both configurations. There’s a lot of minor variance in the clamp position relative to the upper half.

 

[indignate]

If you take a look into the belt buckle, the publicity photo shows a buckle much more weathered, with more zones in silver, than in the two pics during filming, in tunisia and in elstree studios.

So my guess is these publicity photos are also postproduciotn.

 

[Gregatron]

Lighting conditions can make it hard to tell, though. But, yeah, the buckle seems to have more metal exposed in the publicity photos.

The inherent problem with pinning down the publicity photos is that there are four distinct flavors of the prop(s)—onscreen lever open/lever closed, and publicity photos lever open/lever closed...but with the rotated upper half.

One single prop which was constantly being tweaked? Two props (lever open and lever closed) which both had their upper halves rotated for publicity photos? Four different props, pairs of which happened to match in terms of lever position?

I’d the photos are indeed post-production, did they maybe swap out parts from two hero props to try and make the best-looking one possible, and rotated both upper halves? And yet, they seemingly shot photos with both versions, anyway?

 

[kurtyboy]

I've looked at a lot of it. Any time codes in particular?

Someone may have to examine a teensy little thing called 4K77–which may or may not exist, of course—to see if any additional details can be discerned from moving, onscreen footage, since the Blu-Ray version of the movie (which is only 1080 HD) is full of DNR, crushed blacks, and other artifacts.

 

[Gregatron]

I've looked at a lot of it. Any time codes in particular?

The timecode for the moment where the usually-unseen side of the prop—where the “side rivets” between the grips would be—is from 0:58:35-0:58:37.

There’s also a decent look at the bottom endcap and d-ring within those frames, but it’s too blurry to tell how many rivets there are, in 2K.

 

[kurtyboy]

Sorry, I meant other than the obvious red and blue transparent rotoscoped glow.

Both the Luke and Ben spinning blades in the original release have white rotoscoped in some shots possibly to hide artifacts of the spinning blade or where the reflective effect wasn't great. It's most obvious on the Falcon.

Vader's only seems to have the red glow with no rotoscoped white blade core.

I‘m quite confident the Vader blade wasn‘t spinning in ANH. And the ANH lightsabers received a transparent rotoscoping for the original release. The later versions (special editions etc) received further (digital) treatment of the lightsabers.

 

[kurtyboy]

I'm also scratching my head at another very strange detail on the hero. I need to investigate when I get back on my PC at home...

 

[Dann]

Now THIS I love!

Is this the first time we see a circuit card in a Graflex? I realize this was after filming, but how long after? Was this right before they started shooting Empire?

I can just see Roger Christian having a hissy fit about his beloved bubbles not being there!

I'm guessing this is the ranch saber, it looks to have the embossed tape on the clamp.

 

[Gregatron]

Now THIS I love!

Is this the first time we see a circuit card in a Graflex? I realize this was after filming, but how long after? Was this right before they started shooting Empire?

I can just see Roger Christian having a hissy fit about his beloved bubbles not being there!View attachment 996426

I'm guessing this is the ranch saber, it looks to have the embossed tape on the clamp.

Check the previous page, Dann. I went into this in detail. That’s a post production photo, with the modern-day ESB Ranch saber Photoshopped over the HOLIDAY SPECIAL saber, which was the saber used in this photoshoot.

 

[JunkSabers1138]

Now THIS I love!

Is this the first time we see a circuit card in a Graflex? I realize this was after filming, but how long after? Was this right before they started shooting Empire?

I can just see Roger Christian having a hissy fit about his beloved bubbles not being there!View attachment 996426

I'm guessing this is the ranch saber, it looks to have the embossed tape on the clamp.

I've heard these are just later photoshops that embossed the ESB over the infamous Holiday Special hilt

The modern blade glow effect serves as egregiously obvious evidence of later digital touch-ups

 

[JunkSabers1138]

Check the previous page, Dann. I went into this in detail. That’s a post production photo, with the modern-day ESB Ranch saber Photoshopped over the HOLIDAY SPECIAL saber, which was the saber used in this photoshoot.

Whoops. Gotta love my workplace computer; never adds any comments to the page until AFTER ive read through all the posts and replied to someone with the exact same retort as somebody else has

 

[Gregatron]

Great minds, eh?

 

[Gregatron]

I'm also scratching my head at another very strange detail on the hero. I need to investigate when I get back on my PC at home...

Looking forward to hearing about it!

 

[R5D4]

So now we have to add the two side rivets to our Luke ANH Graflex replicas?

 

[Dann]

Check the previous page, Dann. I went into this in detail. That’s a post production photo, with the modern-day ESB Ranch saber Photoshopped over the HOLIDAY SPECIAL saber, which was the saber used in this photoshoot.

Man I'm an idiot! Duh!! I remember reading that when you posted it, sorry about that. I'm SO off my game, today! Shish!

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

[Halliwax]

Here we go again, dann starting trouble!!!

 

[Gregatron]

Skimming Pinterest for gems and rarities...



Alternate version of a familiar photo:


Alternate version of another familiar photo:



Glimpse of the hero prop during the “buckling up” scene:



Hamill holding the hero prop during the training sequence:



...and now holding the stunt.




The full context of the toe pic, which proves that it matches others taken during the same session (including the photo which shows the rivets in-between the grips):



Proof that the hero prop was used during the Docking Bay 94 scene:

 

[teecrooz]

Gregatron, Jim posted the highest resolution scan of the Toe pic on page 1. Here is the link to the post so you can save it.

New Elstree Studio documentary with discarded Graflex.