Empire Strikes Back Graflex Screws??? What your opinion?

Deciding what to do when making a prop is hard.:( While I'd like to go for screen accuracy with my build, I'm not fond of those added screws.:unsure If only they had "HD" cameras back then!:D

Technically they did-- 35mm film is incredibly high resolution. 4K was the first time digital actually caught up to film. The problem more is that the lightsabers got very few close-ups for study, and pretty much every image we see has at least a few stages of reproduction involved. If we got a 4k scan of the Wampa cave shot, or the R2 bump directly from the original negative, we'd be able to see everything.

Most of the images we see are scans of printed stills of the final cut of the film. That's three levels of reproduction, each of which degrades. Even the current digital releases of the OT SE were captured and scanned (I believe) off of internegative work prints of the films, not the original shot film itself, as Lucas didn't want to subject them to any undo stress. Even that said, Adywan's revisited fan-edit was able to pull detail out of the latest digital release and give us enough detail to put the screws vs rivets debate to rest.

And could I bother you for a picture of how your saber looks now?

I haven't done it yet-- and there are FAR more skilled sabersmiths than me.
 
I personally don't like the little screws at the top. They make the saber look unprofessional for Anakin's hilt, which was supposed to be all fancy and stuff. I get why they are there from a practical standpoint, but I just wouldn't bother with them since they are not that important personally.
 
I remember reading they started filming in Elstree in March '79 through summer, during which the Cloud City carbonite and duel scenes were filmed. Guinness did only one day of shooting in September, so couldn't that have been during the time the Dagobah scenes were shot?
Guinness was shot against black cloth, so it didn't need to happen when the Dagobah sets were up.
 
IIRC Dagobah was filmed last because if the intricate set build, how long it took to finish the Yoda puppet, and rehearsal time for Frank Oz. I’ve read that in multiple places including the Making ESB book.

In this case I’ve got to put Rinzler above Seth, no disrespect to Seth.
 
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I agree. Seems logical that the primary hero prop had reached a state where it was missing a red button and had the extra screws on the grips by the END of filming, during the Dagobah scenes. You can chart the prop’s evolution by looking at the filming order: Early Hoth shooting: No screws in grips, then silver screws/rivets added to combat the effects of the cold. Bespin: Grip screws replaced/colored black so as to be less visible. Dagobah: Extra screws added to help keep grips on, red button missing.
 
I agree. Seems logical that the primary hero prop had reached a state where it was missing a red button and had the extra screws on the grips by the END of filming, during the Dagobah scenes. You can chart the prop’s evolution by looking at the filming order: Early Hoth shooting: No screws in grips, then silver screws/rivets added to combat the effects of the cold. Bespin: Grip screws replaced/colored black so as to be less visible. Dagobah: Extra screws added to help keep grips on, red button missing.

The ESB Graflex always had screws in the lower part of the grips. I'm wondering though if there is correlation between silver and black screws and Hoth filming locations.
 
The ESB Graflex always had screws in the lower part of the grips. I'm wondering though if there is correlation between silver and black screws and Hoth filming locations.

Im pretty sure there was a photo posted somewhere here a while back from the first days of filming the Hoth scenes clearly showing the Graflex with no screws on the grips.
 
The ESB Graflex always had screws in the lower part of the grips. I'm wondering though if there is correlation between silver and black screws and Hoth filming locations.

I think they were silver first, then colored black because they are only ever silver on Hoth.
 
Ooh fascinating! If you happen to remember where you saw that at, I'd love to look at it!

I think this is the one I was thinking of, though there may be others IMG_1034.JPG
 
It is amazing how much time is devoted to these screws. Here I was convinced that (i) they were always present, from Hoth onwards and (ii) they were black to begin with on Hoth.

I think there's a religion in this.
 
I think they were silver first, then colored black because they are only ever silver on Hoth.

So I skimmed through ESB last night and seems, though I could be wrong, that the silver screws version only appears in shots filmed in Norway. The black screws version is only in the shots filmed in the studio.
 
The prop guys on the flik loved screws it seems. There are supposedly "lost" photos from the LFL archive that surfaced awhile back.

Rare-LFL-Lucasfilm-Archives-Movie-Prop-Lost-Photos-Star-Wars-Indiana-Jones-Historic-Visit-Origin.jpg


Rare-LFL-Lucasfilm-Archives-Movie-Prop-Lost-Photos-Star-Wars-Indiana-Jones-Historic-Visit-Origin.jpg


Rare-LFL-Lucasfilm-Archives-Movie-Prop-Lost-Photos-Star-Wars-Indiana-Jones-Historic-Visit-Origin.jpg
 
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