Business Insider: One of the big factors Star Wars fans cite when explaining why the “old” films are better than the more recent prequels is the loss of the charming practical effects, anchored by old-school puppets. Puppets like Yoda set the tone for the series, and were an integral part of its soul.
The creation of Star Wars' puppets was helmed by visual effects wizard Phil Tippett, who won Oscars for “Return of the Jedi” and “Jurassic Park.”
11 comments:
I hate that movies and film are using so much CGI now instead of puppetry and special effects. Although it may be cheaper, and probably easier in some aspects to get exactly what a director wants, it just isn’t as cool. We all know it’s not really there, and often times the CGI isn’t up to the same quality as people would like. Good, realistic looking CGI is becoming more prevalent but it just isn’t the same. My love for theater began with puppetry and special effects. I always wanted to be the person who made the monsters and puppets, and I still do. My biggest problem is that my desired industry is dying thanks to computers. Special effects makeup is incredibly difficult, but it is harder to do with a computer, so I still have hope that it will still be around. These two crafts require such skill and artisanship that not as many people have any more thanks to the invention of CGI.
When I look back on it now, the behind the scene features on DVDs was the first sign that I was going to end up loving stage tech. I think at the core of it, what I love about stage tech is taking something imaginary, be it a world or a creature, and turning it into a physical reality. Now when it comes to film and TV, with digital effects rapidly becoming better and cheaper, practical effects are becoming less and less common, but these sorts of effects will probably always exist, albeit differently, in the live theater world.
In terms of this particular puppet, the complexity of it is amazing. I watched the video that accompanied the article, and I think it is really cool that the director ended up referring to Jabba as if the puppet was a single actor, and then trusted the puppeteers to figure out how to act as a unit. It is crazy how natural Jabba seems given the number of people who are all operating him at once, blind, literally without the head knowing what the tail is doing. I’d love to work on a project like that one day, for any industry.
This puppet always used to gross me out as a kid. I always watched the Bonus features on movies like star wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, or even Toy story. I thought that Jim Henson was behind it sense he did Yoda but i guess they meant jim Henson studios. I wish that we still did this type of puppetry in high budget films, i know it is not as easy as special effects and is not as cost effective but there was a weight and a realness to Jabba that wasn't captured in the newer star wars films. I think special effects has a long way to go before we see them as real as these puppets. The making if the puppet was amazing too, how he worked and moved always made me think about who had the job to design that? I think that is why audio animatronics are so interesting as well. They amount of design and time that has to go into every single movement is surreal to me. The amount of people operating him is great and it really makes him unique and great to watch. We take computers into our projects too quickly now i think to truly appreciate human involvement in a show or film. Hopefully we can continue to practice these techniques as we continue to create entertainment.
As much as I love how many possibilities the world of CGI has created, there's something so magical about puppetry that it just cannot beat. Learning that Jabba was actually operated by up to seven people is mind blowing! Each of the people working inside the puppet put a little bit more character into him, which I think makes him seem even more real.
On another topic, the complexity of the puppet is incredible! I love that they have incorporated breath and slime and little twitches into his mechanics so that he seems all the more realistic. One of my favorite TED talks is about the puppet makers for War Horse, and how their whole puppetry career is based on the idea of bringing life to the puppets through breath. Jabba comes to life through the sweat and tears of the operators inside, and they certainly bring him to his full slimy, worm-ridden potential!
Its crazy to think that so many people were working behind Jabba to create the minute or so of screen time that his character takes up. When we think of film, we often think of larger overarching ideas that expand the entire length of the movie, but its interesting to see how the particular nuances of a scene or character really contribute to our perception of that role. In terms of the Jabba puppet I had no idea that the rig for his character involved as many as six people bringing his intricacies to life, from his remote controlled eyes to his hookah smoke a team of operators all had to embody the giant space slug. From a certain perspective needing this many operators may seem like overkill, but the thoroughness of Jabba's movements and behaviors made his character believable to the point where I never even registered the idea that his character was a puppet until the article made me consider how he was created. Although it must of taken a ton of time to get each shot right, like knocking C3PO over or eating the frog, and a ton of money to even build the complicated puppet, the careful development of Jabba paid off in creating a well thought out and believable character.
I think hands down one of the coolest parts about this is the idea that the director would address the puppet as a unit and not as individuals. From a management perspective I think this is a really awesome case of recognizing that by spreading out the artistic creation of a piece you can really create something magical. I am sure that over their time with the puppet the four to eight people coordinating the puppet became experts in the craft of that puppet in a way the director never did because he never worked with that character. In this case the design team is being treated much more like actors than typical design staff. The director decides on a direction but the implementation of that direction and the interpretation of the character is left to those in the suit even if the director comes back and changes something to make it seem more cohesive this kind of collaboration is something quite impressive to me and is probably just one more of the reasons I love star wars as much as I do.
i am definitely in the group of Star Wars nerd who agrees that practical effects totally trump CGI, in Star War's case. If you watch the newer Star Wars movies, like Phantom Menace, the CGI just does not hold up to date, so for multiple reasons the movie hard to watch. I think CGI used in its right context is incredible. When using it for background creation, or effects, do it, and do it well. But when it comes to characters.. practical effects serve their purpose much better than CGI. When an actors communicates with a puppet it reads much better than poor outdated CGI Yoda in the early 2000's films. A good example of this, is that in the most recent Jurassic Park Film, they used CGI dinosaurs, but in a close up shot where Cris Pratt's character was examining a brachiosaurus, they used a puppet to make it more lifelike, and the connection stronger.
Not only that, but I'm a huge fan of the Jim Henson company and I will advocate their use anytime. THey never fail to make whatever they're doing charming, from Star Wars to Babe the Pig. So my only hope is that they took they advice of many of Star Wars' most ardent fans in the newest films, and mixed practical effects and CGi to create a world far, far away, but still charming enough for the most outlandish of characters- like Jabba the Hutt- to resonate close to home.
I may not be as avid a fan of the Star Wars movies as John Walker is, but I am just as excited about Jabba. The specifics of the puppet are fascinating. I love that the designers thought of a mechanism for allowing Jabba to breathe. I'm sure I've commented about this before, but breathing is one the the most vital things a puppet can do. It adds a whole new layer of realism, since one of the first things we, as humans, notice about a creature-shaped being is whether or not it breathes. Honestly, non-breathing puppets just don't read well, to me, and they're kind of off putting. I also love the incorporation of the smoke, although I can't imagine a cigar-smoking technician would go over well today.
On another note, I believe that, like Fiona, even though CGI opens up a ton of opportunities for film, a puppet almost always reads better. I was really excited when Jurassic World came out since they based they're dinosaurs on puppets. That crew, in my opinion, mixed together the best of both worlds by layering CG on top of the puppets (those puppets also breathed). Although some film and television series pull off an almost entirely CGI creature (for example, Game of Thrones with their dragons) it is rarely 100 percent effective. Actors, and audiences, tend to respond better when there is something actually there.
This was a neat video; totally worth the 20 minutes if you’re a fan of Star Wars. I respect the large amount of work that went into both the construction and operation of Jabba. In today’s world, where practical effects are used less frequently, it’s important to remember that practical do have value. The video mentions that George Lucas wanted to make Jabba out of CGI, but the technology wasn’t there yet. I’m glad it wasn’t. Having to create a huge and complicated practical requires creativity and determination, which this team definitely had. There’s a definite parallel to theatre here. A lot of what we do is imitation. Figuring out how to make things look real when it’s impractical or too costly to have the real thing is all part of the fun. That’ the magic of theatre. Of course, theatrical effects are different from film effects (we can’t use CGI holograms or anything like that yet), but they definitely have some similarities. Both require the highly valuable skill of ingenuity.
First off, I loved that somebody's job on Star Wars was Jabba's tail wiggler. I also didn't know how many people it took to operate the puppet. I will be the first to admit that I am a product of the generation I was born in, so when I first saw the puppet when I first saw these movies (I was about 16) It seemed so rudimentary. Especially because from my sixteen-year-old perspective, it could have been so much better if it were CGI. But now that I know more about the puppet and what went into it, it has such a more impressive quality to it. The actions seem more human or at least have emotion to them, just knowing that he was being operated by a person.
A great deal of the previous commenters have said that they dislike CGI and puppetry is definitely the way to go. I think that both of them have their pros and cons and they should be equally well represented in the movie industry. They both have qualities about them that can not be achieved by the other. Especially in modern movies, whenever puppetry is used, it becomes so much more impressive that it wasn't simply done with computers.
Everything I thought I knew about Star Wars is only a smidge of what actually went down when creating Star Wars. I was actually planning on watching the movies later this week, because why not. Jabba the Hut is one of the most intriguing characters I have ever watched. Then again, the puppeteers did their job well, because I did not like him. I’m more of the good guy type, and Jabba is gross and disgusting. I’m assuming they used the various types of materials they did, so that the puppeteers could be able to stay cool. With all of the intricacies involved to creating Jabba, being able to have a diagram explaining the breakdown of the various crew involved and how each moved the different components from the tail, to the lips, body, eyes, arms, it is quite a bit to have to sync with everyone else. They did it, and created one of the most memorable puppets seen on film or on television.
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