The Ultimate Guide to Lightsabers eBook

[Gregatron]

I’d call that an optical illusion caused by light reflecting off of black screws.

Now that we know the on-location screws were also black (and the “silver” look an optical illusion caused by snow), I think we can safely assume that the screws were consistently black during the entire production.

Think logically about it. The screws and notches were a production necessity, NOT a stylistic design choice. Therefore, they would have wanted to keep their solution for holding the grips on as discrete and unobtrusive as possible. Thus, black screws to blend in with the black grips. We weren’t supposed to ever see them onscreen.

 

[v312]

Yes, I also think it is an optical illusion of some sort, but that's the only scene that I've noticed it, so I thought it's worth sharing to get few more opinions.

 

[E Williams]

What's going on in the broken grip promotional photo? The screw on the broken grip is particularly bright and seems like more than just glare from shiny black metal -- is the coating thinner as it was exposed to more wear? Also curious is how the Phillips cross shape is sometimes more visibly silver than the screw head in other photos.

 

[Sym-Cha]

Chaïm

 

[Sym-Cha]

Chaïm

 

[SethS]

Well now I'm back to seeing silver screws and not snow... hahaha
IT WILL NEVER END

 

[Gregatron]

I still think it’s simply light reflecting off of dark screws. Metal—especially curved metal—has different properties of reflectivity than flat plastics grips, hence the contrast between them.

 

[v312]

So I'm confused - do you really see this white stuff as a sliver screw? To me it is so clearly not a screw ...

 

[teecrooz]

There are other pictures that are very clearly silver. Seth knows I wouldn’t say that if it weren’t true.

 

[v312]

My post was about correcting the statement in the guidebook about this specific screenshot, and by the coincidence of this being the only outdoors scene in the movie where the t-racks are not clearly completely black, that this is also incorrect: "In EXTERIOR scenes shot on location in Norway, the screws are silver. For all INTERNAL ESB scenes shot on stages in London, the screws are black."
I'm not trying to argue about silver vs black screws in general...

 

[MastahBlastah]

Just because there's snow on it doesn't mean the screw isn't still silver.

I see silver every time

 

[Gregatron]

I literally just took these photos under different lighting conditions in my home—incandescent and CFL. You can see how the black screws catch the light.

Now imagine how they’d catch the much brighter lights used in professional studio photography.

Silver screws are an optical illusion, I think!

 

[v312]

Just because there's snow on it doesn't mean the screw isn't still silver.

I see silver every time

The screws are silver, that's for sure, only there's black paint/anodizing on top and only then comes the snow

Snow is mostly on the side of the screw. Only about half or less of the screw is covered. Maybe it's hard to see - here I've pulled the shadows and maximized contrast to the extreme to separate the black screw from the black t-track. Still it is barely visible - but you should be able to recognize the phillips x-slot and the contour where it is not covered by the snow.

 

[v312]

There are very few frames in that scene that are not totally blurred so here they are - I've marked where I think the screw is in each of them.
I don't really have anything more to add to this, so if I still failed to convince you - I'll just have to give up on this.

 

[Sym-Cha]

These are most of my pictures of Luke's ESB ... some show clearly silver screws others less so ... :

These next two pictures have no screws at all in the grips ... so were taken before the repair with x-screws :

Again no screws at all :

Chaïm

 

[SethS]

My post was about correcting the statement in the guidebook about this specific screenshot, and by the coincidence of this being the only outdoors scene in the movie where the t-racks are not clearly completely black, that this is also incorrect: "In EXTERIOR scenes shot on location in Norway, the screws are silver. For all INTERNAL ESB scenes shot on stages in London, the screws are black."
I'm not trying to argue about silver vs black screws in general...

This is the downside to the book. As I say in the intro, stated truths only take one photo to suddenly be not true.

I haven’t updated the thing in a year because information has been changing so quickly and people don’t agree about what they see. I’ve dug myself into a bit of a hole.

 

[vadermania]

How about silver screws painted black (perhaps with a permanent marker) and the paint starts to wear off from handling the prop? Like this:

 

[cdyoung]

Agreed, SethS. In some photos, the saber looks like it had silver screws (or black paint or ink rubbed off), while in other photos the saber looks like it had black screws. Clearly, with other photos posted by Sym-Cha, screws were also missing. Two or even more possible sabers, then? The D-rings look different in some photos, too.

 

[v312]

This is the downside to the book. As I say in the intro, stated truths only take one photo to suddenly be not true.

I haven’t updated the thing in a year because information has been changing so quickly and people don’t agree about what they see. I’ve dug myself into a bit of a hole.

The effort you've put into this book so far is amazing and appreciated by the whole community! I think everyone understands that this is a volunteer effort and you cannot possibly update it with every little detail uncovered in a random thread in this forum or elsewhere.

But I assumed that's what this thread is for - to collect the little updates or corrections meanwhile.
I mean to me in this particular scene it is so clearly that the screws are black and only partially covered with snow that I didn't think it is necessary to start a separate discussion thread about it.

Anyway, I've posted all the frames from the scene. If anyone sees a mistake in my interpretation, please point it out, show where the silver screws are. So far, unfortunately, it kind of went sideways and people started posting unrelated images in what shapes as another round of general silver vs black screws.

 

[v312]

These are most of my pictures of Luke's ESB ... some show clearly silver screws others less so ... :
...

Chaïm

Nice collection! But maybe this should be the start of the "Ultimate ESB Lighsaber(s) discussion thread?"

Here's another one, that is related to the same scene with Chewie where it looks like there's silver screws in the notches although I still can't quite figure why it looks like two small dots or dashes on each side of the t-track fin, rather than one big dot inline with the fin