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Original Star Wars Camera Sells For $625,000
An anonymous reader writes "A Panavision PSR 35mm motion picture camera used by George Lucas to film Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope was was sold for $625,000, surpassing all expectations and setting a new world record. The camera package included a Panaspeed motor, matte box, follow focus, a Moy geared head, Italian-made Elemack camera dolly and lens, and two 1000-foot magazines. True Star Wars fans will be delighted to know the camera is still functional and has been completely restored."
But they decided to repaint it anyway, since it had seen a lot of action.
...coming soon; All new revisions, extra footage, Han Solo shot accidentally!
In an extended version, a digital version, a re-digitized digital version and a Jar Jar Binks version at a later date.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
It's a freaking camera. A book by it's operator would be more interesting.
Next up, the coffee pot that was used on set during the filming of SW:EPIII
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That guy probably has the best sci-fi cinema collection in the world; TFA doesn't say who bought it, but I bet it's him.
The full-size science fiction museum he opened in Seattle seems to get mediocre reviews, but when I saw a small traveling exhibit of his collection I almost creamed my pants. An original, full Darth Vader suit, Arnold's leather jacket from Terminator, Luke's severed hand model with lightsaber, Dan Akryod's suit and proton pack from Ghostbusters, several Bladerunner costumes, the original witch's hat from the Wizard of Oz, many artifacts from Star Trek and TNG, etc.
Best damn hour of my life.
Yes, that was for the effects work. All the live action was shot with a Panavision camera, as Panavision has a near-monopoly on Hollywood due to contracts/union deals.
However, because of the demands of the effects work, the only thing accurate enough to shoot 10 passes exactly the same (at the time) was Disney's Vistavision cameras.
Remember that hardly anybody had been doing blue-screen at the time for over a decade. Even 2001 was shot mostly with "in camera" effects work (which is why it's not grainy, you never see matte boxes but to it's detriment, nothing can pass in front of each other, which would have made shooting the battle sequences near impossible).
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Star Wars fans should know better by now when something from that franchise is "restored"
... so Han can shoot first!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I thought that one of the big advances at the time was the computer controlled camera mechanisms, to _do_ the multiple passes.
The cameras themselves also have to spool the film accurately. Slippage means a bad composite.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Paramount, not Disney, first used the VistaVision format.
The advantage of using a larger format, such as VistaVision or 65MM, was the greater detail captured on the larger negative. That allowed the copying required to produce the effects shots to still retain the same quality as the original 35MM non-effect filming
The more stable image was also helpful, but not the primary reason to go with a larger format.