This is not a plug for the books but rather i wanted to show you what these books are about. Any die hard Star Wars fan will want to put his mitts on these two books and will feel enlightened after the reading experience. These are worth the price of admission. And a similar Book for Return of the Jedi is slated for fall 2013 release apparently.



Review: Making of Star Wars

I am writting a review of this book and it will be written in several sessions.

The book itself is big. It is oversized and just a tad over an inch thick.

Product specs from Amazon:

Product Details
Paperback: 324 pages
Publisher: LucasBooks (April 24, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345477618
ISBN-13: 978-0345477613
Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 1 x 10.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

I got the paperback version.

The book is full of photos, concept drawings, paintings etc....

The book will leave you with a impression of how it was hard to make the film and will clarify a lot of the urban myths that have been circulating in amateur documentary and professional documentaries on the makign of the film.

It was not as easy as it might have been reported in documentaries as " empire of dreams " once you have read the book. you will find that empire of dreams is a very diluted and romanticized version of the making of ANH.

The books pics up when George was at American Zoetrope and then when he went on to make american graffiti and then really picks up soon after Graffiti and how George had to go against unsurmountable odds in order to get his movie done.

The book is divided into some sort of time line.

example: Boundary Busters: january 1975 to august 1975

The author explains what happened within that timeframe. The entirety of the book is based on that timeline format.

Within that timeframe the author delivers facts, anecdotes, pictures, concept drawings and other relevant info related to the film.

Strenghts of the book: The format. It is done in a timeline fashion which makes the concept and the filming process make sense.

another strength is the photos and drawings. The book is full of them.

You will discover thru the book of lot of interesting details that you rarely see or hear about.


Weakness of the book: The book lacked a lot on the props and costuming aspect of the film. The author while explaining who did what as far as costume go did not dedicated any book pages to how the costumes were really made or how many of the props came into being. Just a few lines. So the people who are avid about those details will be left hanging dry with this book which is a shame.

This book is big, almost too big, it is not easy to just sit in a chair and enjoy reading this book as you have to continually shift around the reposition yourself to read the book. You get tired quick and then have to read the book in several sessions. Some people like this some people don't.

There is no real modern view of the story. It would have been nice to have people reflect on their work and have that inserted in the book to see how they feel now versus back then. The book is built around interviews of that time, nothing recent.


The book could use a re edit with more pages or some sort of companion book to show more about the logistic aspects of the film.

Topics covered in the book at a glance:

Pre-American Graffiti

Pre-Star Wars and George Luca's financial difficulties

Lucas shopping Star Wars around after script writing

Foundation of ILM and the special effects of the film

The contract and financing of the film

Casting and what happened

Choosing locations to shoot the movie

Choosing a director of photography

movie sets

Editing

post production

publicity

Theater release

Aftermath of the movie release.


Making of Star Wars book video review

Sorry for bad sound on this particular video





Making of Empire Strikes Back Review Book:



amazon.com stats:

Hardcover: 372 pages
Publisher: LucasBooks (Oct 12 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345509617
ISBN-13: 978-0345509611
Product Dimensions: 30 x 3.5 x 27.9 cm
Shipping Weight: 2.3 Kg

no paperback ( as far as i know ) Kindle edition coming in fall of 2013????


Is it worth it?

a big Hell yeah it is!

Once again you are being transported behind the scenes of the making of the movie. The flow of the book is better and more fun and more intimate.

There are tons of anecdotes on how a lot of things worked out wile making the movie. This time around you are very closed to the experience that the director had during filming. His high, his downs, his successes and struggles to make everyone happy while making the film.

The books follows more of less the format of the previous book, but it better laid out and you can jump in and out of the book easily which makes the reading experience more fun.

here are a few themes from the book:


How the script came to be and how it was fine tuned.

Choosing director

Going to Finse to shoot the Hoth scenes.

How the director worked

How the creative artists worked to make the sets.

George Lucas' involvement during the film.

Financial woes during filming.

Stages used or built to make the film.

How Yoda came into being.

How Dagobah was made.

How the special effect were made.

Sound effect process

The editing

Publicity

Music

Post production

Release and aftermath

Making of Empire Strike Back book video review

Another great indepth write up from you bud, thanks mate i really enjoyed it mate, cheers

Thanks for this iniative! I actually bought them 1 year ago, and its true they are really fun to read! Thanks!

Nice write up Bud, I've always fancied the Star Wars book, and will now probably go for it. By the way, is there a Making of ROTJ, or is it in the pipeline, because I wasn't even aware of the ESB one until now?

Apparently coming soon. This is gonna be awesome.

The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi