Editing Lightsaber (section)

==Prop construction==
{{quote box | quote=Covered with millions of tiny glass beads, [Scotchlite] has the property of reflecting light directly back to its source. It's the same material used for reflective road signs [and lightsaber props]. | source=''—Special Effects: An Introduction to Movie Magic''<ref name="Special Effects"/>| align=right | width=25% }}
For the original ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' film, the [[Theatrical property|film prop]] [[hilt]]s were constructed by [[Roger Christian (filmmaker)|Roger Christian]] from old Graflex [[press camera]] [[flash (photography)|flash]] battery packs and other pieces of hardware,<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42369174]</ref> while special effects that brought the blade to life on screen were made by [[John Stears]]. The full-sized sword props were designed to appear ignited onscreen, by later creating an "in-camera" glowing effect in post-production. 
The blade is a three-sided rod which was coated with a [[Retroreflective sheeting|Scotchlite]] [[retroreflector]] array, the same sort used for [[Cat's eye (road)|highway signs]].<ref name="Special Effects">{{cite book | title=Special Effects: An Introduction to Movie Magic | first=Ron | last=Miller | location=Minneapolis | publisher=Twenty-first Century Books | date=2006 | oclc=60419490 | isbn=9780761329183 | page=89 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JTIMIDNIVg8C&pg=PA89 | quote=...a material called Scotchlite. Covered with millions of tiny glass beads, it has the property of reflecting light directly back to its source. It's the same material used for reflective road signs (and the glowing light sabers in ''Star Wars'', which were sticks wrapped in Scotchlite).}}</ref> A lamp was positioned to the side of the taking camera and reflected towards the subject through 45-degree angled glass so that the sword would appear to glow from the camera's point of view.

Set decorator Roger Christian found the handles for the [[Graflex]] Flash Gun in a photography shop in [[Great Marlborough Street]], in London's [[West End of London|West End]].<ref>{{cite news|title=How the lightsaber was born|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/must_see/42369174/star-wars-set-decorator-tells-how-lightsaber-was-born|access-date=20 December 2017|publisher=BBC|date=15 December 2017|type=video interview|archive-date=October 31, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181031160610/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/must_see/42369174/star-wars-set-decorator-tells-how-lightsaber-was-born|url-status=live}}</ref> He then added cabinet T-track to the handles, securely attaching them with [[Cyanoacrylate|cyanoacrylate glue]]. Adding a few "[[greeble]]s" (surface details), Christian managed to hand-make the first prototype of a lightsaber prop for [[Luke Skywalker]] before production began. [[George Lucas]] decided he wanted to add a clip to the handle, so that Luke could hang it on his belt. Once Lucas felt the handle was up to his standards, it went to John Stears to create the wooden dowel rod with front-projection paint so that the animators would have a glow of light to enhance later on in post production. Due to lack of preparation time, Christian's prototype and a second spare were used for the shooting in Tunisia, where filming on ''Star Wars'' began.<ref>Star Wars Insider magazine issue No 98 January 2008</ref> It was discovered, however, that the glowing effect was greatly dependent on the rod's orientation to the camera, and during the [[Obi-Wan Kenobi]]/[[Darth Vader]] duel, they could clearly be seen as rods. Because of this, the glow would be added in post-production through rotoscoping, which also allowed for diffusion to be employed to enhance the glow.

While original trilogy hilts were typically constructed using found parts, during the prequel and sequel trilogies a different process was sometimes used. Hilts were first machined out of metal materials. Then casts would be made using the metal hilts to create resin copies that were used on screen.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sherwood |first=Seth |date=July 1, 2018 |title=The Lightsaber Prop Guidebook |url=https://wannawanga.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SW_Lightsaber_Guide.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310061412/http://wannawanga.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SW_Lightsaber_Guide.pdf |archive-date=2018-03-10 |url-status=live }}</ref> The resin was often molded over a metal rod that a dueling blade could be attached to for fight sequences.

=== Visual effects ===
Korean [[animator]] [[Nelson Shin]], who was working for [[DePatie–Freleng Enterprises]] at the time, was asked by his manager if he could animate the lightsaber in the live-action scenes of a film. After Shin accepted the assignment, the live-action footage was given to him. He drew the lightsabers with a [[rotoscope]], an animation which was superimposed onto the footage of the physical lightsaber blade prop. Shin explained to the people from Lucasfilm that since a lightsaber is made of light, the sword should look "a little shaky" like a fluorescent tube. He suggested inserting one frame that was much lighter than the others while printing the film on an [[optical printer]], making the light seem to vibrate. Shin also recommended adding a [[degaussing|degausser]] sound on top of the other sounds for the weapon since the sound would be reminiscent of a magnetic field. The whole process took one week, surprising his company. Lucasfilm showed Shin the finished product, having followed his suggestions to use an [[X-Acto]] knife to give the lightsaber a very sharp look, and to have sound accompany the weapon's movements.<ref>{{Cite news| title = Interview with Nelson Shin| publisher = [[CNN]]| date = November 9, 2007| url = http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/18/talkasia.nelsonshin/index.html| access-date = July 27, 2008| archive-date = June 28, 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110628201834/http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/18/talkasia.nelsonshin/index.html| url-status = live}}</ref>

===Sound===
The lightsaber [[sound effect]] was developed by sound designer [[Ben Burtt]] as a combination of the hum of idling [[Movie projector#Automation and the rise of the multiplex|interlock motors]] in aged movie projectors and interference caused by a television set on a shieldless [[microphone]]. Burtt discovered the latter accidentally as he was looking for a buzzing, sparking sound to add to the projector-motor hum.<ref name="Burttlaserdisc">{{citation|author=Burtt, Benn|author-link=Ben Burtt|title=[[List of changes in Star Wars re-releases#Laserdisc editions|Star Wars Trilogy: The Definitive Collection]] |publisher=[[Lucasfilm]] |quote=...the microphone passed right behind the picture tube and as it did, this particular microphone produced an unusual hum. It picked up a transmission from the television set and a signal was induced into its sound reproducing mechanism, and that was a great buzz, actually. So I took that buzz and recorded it with the projector motor sound and that fifty-fifty kind of combination of those two sounds became the basic Lightsaber tone."|year=1993}}</ref>

The pitch changes of lightsaber movement were produced by playing the basic lightsaber tone on a loudspeaker and recording it on a moving microphone, generating [[Doppler shift]] to mimic a moving sound source.<ref>{{cite news|title=Why We Still Love Star Wars: Lightsaber 101|work=[[Parade magazine]]|date=December 3, 2017|pages=9|quote=The lightsaber wooshing sounds are created by waving a microphone in front of a speaker playing humming and buzzing noises.}}</ref>