Original Lightsaber found at LFL with ROUND blade

[kurtyboy]

Here's some of the clear evidence James was talking about showing that Vader's blade doesn't spin. Follow the ding in these consecutive frames!

Now follow the bump and see the blade colors switch.

Bump is now on a blue blade:

Blade spinning artifact on red Obi-Wan blade:

 

[joshvanrad]

That was awesome.

 

[thd9791]

Can you guys maybe edit a small section of pic to show the dings in the filler material clearer, or something. Not seeing it over here :lol

that being said, the idea occurred to me way back that they could have drilled through the old set screw and put another in the blade holder but I thought that was kinda dumb

 

[kurtyboy]

Maybe you need to adjust your monitor. Set brightness and contrast to 50%. Most people have these set way too high for proper calibration.

Can you guys maybe edit a small section of pic to show the dings in the filler material clearer, or something. Not seeing it over here :lol

that being said, the idea occurred to me way back that they could have drilled through the old set screw and put another in the blade holder but I thought that was kinda dumb

 

[kurtyboy]

Hope these show it any better. Looks like two indentations very close together.
The angle is not the same so it will look wider in the video screenshot.

 

[thd9791]

Thanks for these! I THINK I do see it, they're almost like little lines/ridges. You guys have an incredible eye for these things.I bet there's even marks on the rim that match up.

weird that they added black tape/skin/whatever lower on the emitter.

 

[Halliwax]

Wait a minute wait a minute.... obiwans blade turns red in a few frames!?!?

 

[blewis17]

Thanks for these! I THINK I do see it, they're almost like little lines/ridges. You guys have an incredible eye for these things.I bet there's even marks on the rim that match up.

weird that they added black tape/skin/whatever lower on the emitter.

My guess is that a Luke ANH saber was quick modified to serve as a Vader ESB dueling saber, and black paint or tape was added at the shroud/emitter and clamp to make it look more like a Heiland


BY THE WAY: were there one or two Hero ANH Obi-Wan sabers? There's one in the Chronicles book, but have these ever been seen outside of that publication? Do the ANH Hero Obi-Wan sabers still exist?

 

[Anakin Starkiller]

Here's some of the clear evidence James was talking about showing that Vader's blade doesn't spin. Follow the ding in these consecutive frames!
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderding1.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderding2.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderding3.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderding4.jpg

Now follow the bump and see the blade colors switch.
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderbump1.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderbump2.jpg

Bump is now on a blue blade:
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderdbump3.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderbump4.jpg

Blade spinning artifact on red Obi-Wan blade:
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderbump5.jpg

I don't think this is evidence that the blade doesn't spin, because the consistency of the artifact that you're seeing in the blade does not look to me to be an element of the stunt blade, but instead an element in the rotoscoping done on top of the on set blade.

The ANH fight scenes were shot with spinning reflective blades because they thought they could make to lightsabers with practical on set effects. But when they didn't like how they ended up coming out, they rotoscoped on top of the blade to make it look better. So we really can't look at screen grabs to show us the blades as they were on set because the rotoscope blades have been drawn over the on set blades.

- - - Updated - - -

Here's some of the clear evidence James was talking about showing that Vader's blade doesn't spin. Follow the ding in these consecutive frames!
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderding1.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderding2.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderding3.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderding4.jpg

Now follow the bump and see the blade colors switch.
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderbump1.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderbump2.jpg

Bump is now on a blue blade:
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderdbump3.jpg

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderbump4.jpg

Blade spinning artifact on red Obi-Wan blade:
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv142/kurtyboy2/props2/vaderbump5.jpg

I don't think this is evidence that the blade doesn't spin, because the consistency of the artifact that you're seeing in the blade does not look to me to be an element of the stunt blade, but instead an element in the rotoscoping done on top of the on set blade.

The ANH fight scenes were shot with spinning reflective blades because they thought they could make to lightsabers with practical on set effects. But when they didn't like how they ended up coming out, they rotoscoped on top of the blade to make it look better. So we really can't look at screen grabs to show us the blades as they were on set because the rotoscope blades have been drawn over the on set blades.

 

[scarf man]

My guess is that a Luke ANH saber was quick modified to serve as a Vader ESB dueling saber, and black paint or tape was added at the shroud/emitter and clamp to make it look more like a Heiland

MPP microflash, not Heiland.

BY THE WAY: were there one or two Hero ANH Obi-Wan sabers? There's one in the Chronicles book, but have these ever been seen outside of that publication? Do the ANH Hero Obi-Wan sabers still exist?

The jury is out. There may have been two, there may have been one that was repaired/rebuilt. The saber does look different from the location shoot in Tunisia, to the studio shots on the Death Star.
No clear pics of the prop have been seen outside of the Chronicles, and Mechismo books.
The saber may be in some black hole collection, disassembled & returned to the rental company (Bapty), or who nows really. One day the saber may just show up like the Blade Runner blaster.


Interesting thread fellas! By gum, it's been a while.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Filmed on set as a practical effect the Lightsaber blades were white as seen in the original trailer and any behind the scene shot.

The rotoscoping was a translucent color added on top of the white blades. You can 100% still see the actual, as filmed blades in the duel. Not only can you see non-rotating artifacts on the Vader blade but you can see the line from the black side of the Obi spinning blade.

The blades were not 'covered' with animation, they are in plain sight. The rotoscoping merely added color. If you watch the 'Birth of the Lightsabet' documentary you will see the translucent rotoscope colors being added to ANH.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Theory/speculation: I remember an interview about the filming of the lightsabers saying that based on dailies, the spinning lightsabers effect was not working as they would have liked. So that's when they decided to rotoscope but the sticks made nice guidelines. I also remember a story stating that on day the sticks came up missing so they had to fake it. This would leave me to believe that they knew rotoscoping would be used why still filming. So here is where I am going with this... If they knew during filming that the spinning blades were not going to matter, how do we know that every footage of film in the duel had spinning blades? And if that is the case, then if we determine that blades are not spinning, that would not automatically mean a round blade, just that they no longer decided to not spin the square blades.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

I always liked this old photo: http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=47462

It really shows off the glow of the reflective material when hit with light.

 

[kurtyboy]

You can tell which blades are spinning and which aren't. The spinning ones have a black line that shows up every now and then.

Theory/speculation: I remember an interview about the filming of the lightsabers saying that based on dailies, the spinning lightsabers effect was not working as they would have liked. So that's when they decided to rotoscope but the sticks made nice guidelines. I also remember a story stating that on day the sticks came up missing so they had to fake it. This would leave me to believe that they knew rotoscoping would be used why still filming. So here is where I am going with this... If they knew during filming that the spinning blades were not going to matter, how do we know that every footage of film in the duel had spinning blades? And if that is the case, then if we determine that blades are not spinning, that would not automatically mean a round blade, just that they no longer decided to not spin the square blades.

 

[kurtyboy]

Some examples. You never see this on Vader's blade (other than when they switched the colors round).

 

[Sym-Cha]

Perhaps that's the balanced way the Light Side of the Force works ... The Dark Side is more straightforward and steady :lol



This looks like Vader's G R A F L E X ROTJ Stunt ... with still a D-ring in the shroud and having T-tracks on.

Chaim

 

[kurtyboy]

The rotoscoping on Luke's in Ben's hut is much better than the other scenes so it's not quite as obvious.

- - - Updated - - -

I always thought that was the usual Vader Graflex (Vader RotJ) with a blade added onto the short rod in the emitter.

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz258/Sym-Cha/josh-jediknight_zpswtlpfybc.jpg

This looks like Vader's G R A F L E X ROTJ Stunt ... with still a D-ring in the shroud and having T-tracks on.

Chaim

 

[Halliwax]

i love this thread! was it true that they used pool sticks as the poles and painted them with the reflective paint?

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

As long as I've ever researched Star Wars I've heard that the Obi blade rotated, and Luke's blade rotated, and the Vader saber did not rotate.

On the Falcon they didn't really even change the color of the blade on those front-on shots. I'm not sure any rotoscope was done at all except for the wide shots. When he says "You mean it controls your actions?" you can actually hear the saber motor spinning.

Maybe it's because when the duel starts and Vader walks so far toward Kenobi that they didn't want wires running out his back, I don't know. I didn't think anyone thought the Vader saber blade rotated.

One thing we do know now is that the original stunt Luke/Vader saber was not permanently converted to a Vader saber and used for promo/touring.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Perhaps that's the balanced way the Light Side of the Force works ... The Dark Side is more straightforward and steady :lol

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz258/Sym-Cha/josh-jediknight_zpswtlpfybc.jpg

This looks like Vader's G R A F L E X ROTJ Stunt ... with still a D-ring in the shroud and having T-tracks on.

Chaim

That is in fact THE 'ROTJ Vader' saber reproduced in so many figures and toys starting in the 1990s. The blade was cut off.