Visual Effects Legend Dennis Muren Still Doesn't Know What To Make Of Star Wars' Success
Let's pretend you like "Star Wars." Based on the box office numbers alone, you probably already do but, just in case you're one of the few hold-outs, let's pretend. You adore Mark Hamill and religiously follow his Twitter. You quote Yoda whenever someone complains about hard work. You used to quote Han Solo but your partner threatened to dip if you ever responded to "I love you" with "I know" again. You're less shy, however, about your love for space and its many wondrous inhabitants. Sure, you probably could do without the Gungans but you day dream about having enough arms to do glorious battle against General Grievous. The point is, at the end of the day, you love "Star Wars."
And Dennis Muren has no idea why. If you don't know who that is, that's okay! You didn't forget about one of your favorite character's actors (remember, we're still pretending). Muren might not be an actor but he's been a part of the "Star Wars" creative team since the very beginning, first as a visual effects cameraman, later as a visual effects director of photography and supervisor. In recent years, he's served as a creative consultant for the franchise and, in 2017, he confessed that he simply never understood the massive success of "Star Wars." Here's the story, as according to Muren.
Production on A New Hope was chaos
In a 2017 interview for the official "Star Wars" website, Dennis Muren admitted that he doesn't fully understand why the first film ever became as popular as it did. In his mind, the special effects that he helped create for George Lucas' science fiction narrative weren't all that special. What's more interesting is how he felt that other sci-fi flicks were doing the same work ... but better. Muren said:
"I knew we were doing something different. I didn't necessarily think it was going to change things, because I didn't think it was nearly as realistic as '2001,' which was done the same way, but without all the flexibility of the cameras and the blue screen, and that looked just phenomenal. To me, even in seeing the work in 'Star Wars' while we were doing it, most of the shots looked very crude. The ships were doing funny maneuvers, they don't seem to be responding the way inertia would actually move something, and there's just huge matte lines in some shots. [...] It's amazing that some of those shots are even in the show because it was such a rush. Things were changing all the time in the edit."
For the curious, matte lines are the visual seams in a composite shot (i.e. a shot that involves present and non-present entities. Think any live-action shot that includes a blue screen or CGI elements). If matte lines are noticeable, then it means that the composition was either completed without proper time or proper skill, perhaps even both. According to Muren's claim, "Star Wars" did not offer the special effects team proper time to edit. Despite this, the franchise launched to vigorous aplomb.
'I was just as surprised as everybody that the effects had this huge response'
So, Dennis Muren thinks that "Star Wars: A New Hope" mishandled the special effects and that the final product isn't nearly as clean as it could have been. That being said, he's aware that audiences left the theater lauding the visuals. For such people, Muren has a possible explanation but no definitive answer. He told the official "Star Wars" website:
"I was just as surprised as everybody that the effects had this huge response. [...] I think maybe I was just seeing the mechanics of everything, and the public is comparing it to other movies with spaceships where everything is static camera. But I didn't think the public would care about that. Another possibility is they don't care about that stuff. They're following the story [...] and it's so compelling. If you could tell the story, no matter how real it looks, then when you ask them to explain [the effects], there's no words for that stuff. So they tend to say, 'Well, the space battle was amazing,' but they really don't mean that. They really mean the speed that Han escaped from the Death Star at the end was phenomenal, but they don't know well enough to say that. So I still don't really understand it."
Of course, anyone praising the effects could really just mean that they liked the effects, but this hypothetical person we're talking about would probably to have to do some serious leg work to convince Muren otherwise. But you wouldn't struggle with it because you love "Star Wars." Sorry, you'll just have to keep pretending forever now.