Behind the scenes image of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren in a scene from Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens. The camera in this shot was actually on a crane! I don’t know if that’s a normal thing to do or not but yeah, insane, right?
The Star Wars Cinematic Universe – Behind the Scenes #3
darksiderconfessions.blog 
Hi Julie, yes it is common practise to mount cameras on cranes as the film maker can attach sensors to track and program movements so they can later recreate those movements or have detailed positional data to help add FX to footage later. And guess who pioneered this computerised camera control? Yep, Lucasfilm! They needed a way to repeat shots to create the FX back in the 70’s. So they would film a “dry pass” of the Death Star trench, then reset the camera to it’s first position then add an X-Wing model and refilm the shot, then…they reset the camera and reshot the scene a third time with pyrotechnic effects added. Afterwards they could combine the three layers of film into one and get a final take. But they needed the data from camera/tripod sensors to make sure the three takes were aligned! (Some of the hardest shots to create were those of the Millennium Falcon when it performed it’s famous Loop Flip maneuvers)
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Sorry, forgot to add this link to an interesting article describing ILM/Lucasfilm’s computer controlled cameras. John Dykstra was a genius (along with Roger Christian and Nelson Shin who helped create the Lightsaber) The link is:
https://www.cnet.com/news/john-dykstra-star-wars-anniversary-industrial-light-and-magic-special-effects/
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Thank You! I’ll check it out 😀
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Yes, sorry I clicked the submit comment button by accident before I had finished typing it! I have a really sensitive Trackpad on my laptop and it moved the cursor over the send button without me realising and I clicked ok by mistake – technology huh? 😆
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Lol 😆
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Wow! Thanks for that Tyeth 🙂 I didn’t know any of that. Admittedly, while I do call myself a film geek, I don’t really know a lot about the technical side of film making. I’m really only any good at writing about the finished product and know hardly anything about how the magic happens off-screen 🙂
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You’re welcome. I am fortunate, I like geeky/nerdy stuff and it helped that a family friend of mine was the town’s cinema projectionist so I got first hand experience of movie camera magic. (He taught me how to operate the cinema’s projector and was one of only three people in my town who could 😎) The projectionist also showed me how all these tricks worked. It might have ruined the “illusion” and magic of film but for me it made it better.
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That’s really cool 🙂 I think I prefer not to know 🙂
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