With the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens less than a year away, lots of fans are looking ahead to the next installment of the iconic sci-fi franchise, but a current exhibit at the British Film Institute offers a fascinating look back at the film that started it all, 1977’s Star Wars.
“On-Set: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” is a BFI exhibit featuring various photos, script drafts, and other ephemera from the production of the original Star Wars (back before the “Episode IV” tag was necessary). The photos included in the exhibit are the property of the film’s script supervisor, Ann Skinner, who saved some of the Polaroid images she shot throughout the film’s production to provide visual notes for editors.
Along with depicting some of the film’s stars in some candid, between-shot poses, the photos also feature some interesting perspectives on characters like Darth Vader (in a rare shot of actor David Prowse without the iconic helmet) and Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing).
Skinner’s shooting draft of the script is also included in the exhibit, and it provides a fascinating look at the way Polaroids and script notes were used together to maintain the continuity of an ambitious project like this one.
You can see the scanned Polaroids — and images of her shooting draft of the script — at the British Film Institute’s website for the exhibit, which runs through January 4, 2015.
