10 Movie Scenes With Hidden Tricks You Totally Missed
7. Star Wars - The Landspeeder
In the modern era a lot of blockbuster films use post-production to drop their characters into locations after being filmed on a bright green soundstage. On the flip side, they can also scrub elements out of footage; be that cameras, microphones or whatever else isn’t needed or desired. It’s so easily done now that it's accepted practice.
Not so much the case with classic movies of the past and 1977’s original Star Wars had to make use of practical effects and workarounds to achieve its desired effects. Famously the film used a lot of models for its various ships and crafts, but Luke Skywalker’s land speeder was a fully functional vehicle. Based around the chassis of a small three-wheeled car, the craft was often filmed from angles that would obscure the wheels but from greater distances the vehicle was fitted with mirrored plates on the sides.
Since the Landspeeder was driven around a big open space, it gave the illusion that it was floating and production designers on the film even included a broom under the Landspeeder in certain shots so that it could naturally kick up dust.
A wonderful example of beauty in simplicity.