Lightsaber

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The lightsaber is a science fiction weapon with a key role in the Star Wars movies and in the novels, games and other forms of media that constitute the Expanded Universe. The lightsaber is a sword with a column of brightly coloured energy in the place of a metal blade. Its distinct appearance was created using rotoscoping for the original trilogy, and digitally for the prequel trilogy. The lightsaber first appeared in Star Wars (1977), and in 2008 a survey of approximately two thousand film fans found it to be the most popular film weapon.^[1]

The lightsaber hilt is a polished metal grip that can project a blade about one meter long. The blade cuts through most substances without resistance, leaves cauterized wounds in flesh, but is deflected by another lightsaber blade and energy shield/wall.Vibroswords and shields are also able to deflect them as seen in The Force Unleashed. An active lightsaber gives off a distinctive hum, which rises in pitch and volume as the blade is moved rapidly through the air, and bringing the blade into contact with an object or another lightsaber blade produces a loud crackle. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them to deflect blaster bolts. Every Star Wars movie features at least one lightsaber duel.

The name "lightsaber" is often used to describe other similar weapons that appear in science fiction.

Contents 1 Production 1.1 Visual effects 1.2 Sound 1.3 Prop construction 2 Depiction 2.1 Types 2.2 Colors 2.3 Choreography 3 Appearances in popular culture 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Production

[edit] Visual effects

Nelson Shin, renowned South Korean animator, was tasked with drawing the lightsaber to match the film scenes that the film producers brought. Shin explained to the people from Lucasfilm that since the lightsaber is made of light, the sword should look "a little shaky" like a fluorescent tube. He suggested inserting one frame that was much lighter than the others while printing the film on an optical printer, making the light seem to vibrate. Shin also recommended adding a degausser sound on top of the other sounds for the weapon since the sound would be reminiscent of a magnetic field. The whole process took one week, surprising his company, and Lucasfilm demonstrated the film to him, having followed his suggestions, including using an X-Acto knife to give the lightsaber a very sharp look.^[2]

While this is a good method for on-film display of a lightsaber, it does not translate well to real world application. For live action replication of the lightsaber effect, Luxeon LED's are used to illuminate a polycarbonate tube lined with a fiber optic substrate. This is how various manufacturers like Ultra Sabers, The Custom Saber Shop, and FX Sabers create life-like lightsaber blades.^[3]

[edit] Sound

The lightsaber sound effect was developed by sound designer Ben Burtt as a combination of the hum of idling interlock motors in aged movie projectors and interference caused by a television set on an unshielded microphone. Burtt discovered the latter accidentally as he was looking for a buzzing, sparkling sound to add to the projector motor hum.^[4]

The pitch changes of lightsaber movement were produced by playing the basic lightsaber tone on a speaker and recording it on a moving microphone, generating Doppler shift to mimic a moving sound source.^[4]

Off film, advanced micro controller boards are now used to produce lightsaber sounds. These are commonly referred to as "sound boards". Three major sound boards are in use today, the UltraSound produced by Ultra Sabers, the Crystal Focus Core produced by Plecter Labs, and the Force FX board produced by Hasbro.

[edit] Prop construction

For Star Wars, the original film prop hilts were constructed from old camera-flash battery packs and other pieces of hardware. The "switched-on" sword props were designed with the intention of creating an "in-camera" glowing effect. The "blade" was three-sided and coated with a retroreflector array—the same sort used for highway signs. A lamp was positioned to the side of the taking camera and reflected towards the subject through 45-degree angled glass so that the sword would appear to glow from the camera's point-of-view.

[edit] Depiction

Lightsabers were present in the earliest drafts as mundane laser weapons that were used alongside laser guns.^[5][6] The introduction of the Force in a later revision made the Jedi and the Sith supernaturally skilled, eventually the only swordsmen. The lightsaber became the Force-user's tool, "...not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age."^[7] The more practical reason for their omission is due to the potential high cost of having multiple lightsaber-wielding characters on a film that was bound to be overbudget.

[edit] Types

Lightsabers are typically hand-built as part of a Jedi's or Sith's training regimen. Each lightsaber is as unique as the one who built it, though some may bear resemblance to others (like Obi-Wan Kenobi's and Luke Skywalker's). Lightsabers can be wielded as either one-handed or two-handed weapons. The Phantom Menace introduced a double-bladed lightsaber, essentially two lightsabers bound together at the pommels. Attack of the Clones showed Anakin Skywalker dual wielding sabers, and Revenge of the Sith included quad wielding them given a sufficient amount of arms.

The Expanded Universe adds several lightsaber types including short,^[8] dual-phase (changeable length),^[9][10] those attached to the end of a staff, those connected by a tether to emulate nunchuku, and those bearing a resemblance to a tonfa.

[edit] Colors

Lightsaber blades in the movies are green or blue for Jedi, and red for Sith. The only exception is Jedi Mace Windu's purple lightsaber in the prequel trilogy. Lightsabers were initially designed to be either blue or red, the colors of the two seen in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Luke Skywalker's new lightsaber was blue during the initial editing of Return of the Jedi, and appears so in an early trailer. The green-bladed lightsaber was created because Luke's blue-bladed one would not have contrasted enough with the blue sky in its introduction.^[11]

The various Expanded Universe sources add a multitude of colors. The Kenner figure of Luke Skywalker in his Tatooine costume from Star Wars was released with a yellow lightsaber blade, which has appeared in several computer games, such as Jedi Knight, Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Academy. The Knights of the Old Republic video games further expand the number of colors, adding cyan, viridian, violet, silver, and orange.^[8] Star Wars: The Force Unleashed adds black (with a white outline), and pink in the Nintendo DS version.

Multiple sources refer to a focusing crystal in the hilt as the source of the blade's color. Mainly displayed in the Star Wars MMO (Star Wars Galaxies).^[8]

Each color has a meaning -

Blue - Stands for a Jedi Warrior which is one who specializes in his/her combat.

Green - Stands for Jedi Consular which is one who wants to maintain peace.

Yellow - Stands for Jedi Sentinel which is one who serves the Jedi council.

Purple - Has no meaning, it is only a custom color used by Mace Windu.

Red - Stands for a Sith who has betrayed their Jedi master and serves the Dark side.

[edit] Choreography

The technical lightsaber choreography for the original trilogy was developed by Hollywood sword-master Bob Anderson. Anderson trained Mark Hamill and performed all the sword stunts as Darth Vader during the Lightsaber duels wearing the Vader costume. Bob Anderson's role in the original Star Wars trilogy was highlighted in the film Reclaiming The Blade where he shared his experiences as a fencer developing the Lightsaber techniques for the original movies.

The duels were specifically choreographed to be miniature "stories." Gillard's goal in choreographing the action for Episode I was to create stunts that flow from the story. "You can't just think, 'I'm a stunt coordinator, I'm going to make a big stunt happen'," Gillard says. "It's all about making it tie in nicely with the film so that you don't notice the stunts." Creating narrative through physical expression, Nick wrote each fight as an individual story that supports the overall structure of the movie. "All the fights have a beginning, a middle and an end," he says. "I worked hard to write them like a story."....No two sword masters have exactly the same style, and the subtleties of distinct identities are woven into the choreography of the lightsaber battles. "It was important to me that each character in Episode I have a distinctive fighting style," he says. Some of this shading came from the classic Star Wars Trilogy."^{[citation needed]}

In writing the prequel trilogy, George Lucas said he wanted the lightsaber combat in the prequels to be "reminiscent of what had been done in the previous films but also something that was more energized. We'd seen old men, young boys, and characters who were half-droid, but we'd never seen a Jedi in his prime. I wanted to do that with a fight that was faster and more dynamic-and we were able to pull that off."^[12]

According to prequel trilogy stunt coordinator Nick Gillard (who would later go on to perform in a cameo role in the third prequel), various lightsaber combat styles were devised for the prequels and intended to further characterize their practitioners.

"I developed different styles for the characters, and gave each of them a flaw or a bonus. So with Obi, for instance, he's got a very business-like style—when he was younger he could border on the flashy and might twirl his lightsaber a bit, because he was taught by Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon was brash, that rubbed off on Obi and Obi then taught Anakin, who was way too old to learn anyway." "I think the style really worked well. The Jedi style of fighting is an amalgamation of all the great swordfighting styles. Melding them together is the difficult part—to move from a Kendo style to, say, Rapier requires a complete change in body and feet movement, and this must look effortless. The style moves seamlessly between the different disciplines, but remains technically correct throughout. It's unlike any other style of fighting and I think it's beautiful to watch." ^[13]

For The Phantom Menace, Gillard set out certain styles and faults for the saber-wielding characters.^[14] He added that the Jedi's use of such "a short-range weapon" meant "they would have to be very good at it"; combining a variety of disciplines from various swordfighting styles to martial arts "with a touch of tennis and tree chopping", he created the style seen in the Episode I lightsaber battles.^[15]

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

• In 2007, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars, the lightsaber prop used by actor Mark Hamill in Star Wars was flown aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-120 to the International Space Station and returned to Earth.^[16][17]
• A mobile phone program called the Phonesaber, which simulated a lightsaber became very popular on Apple's iPhone.^[18]
• In the television series South Park, the episode "Fatbeard" depicts a character using a toy lightsaber in an act of piracy to intimidate the French crew (who believe the lightsaber to be real) into abandoning ship. The traumatized French crew, after being rescued by a United States ship, exclaim that the pirates have "le Lightsabre terrible!", to which the American official curses: "These pirates are getting better equipped every day!". ^[19]
• In Jimmy Neutron, lightsaber-like weapons are used in some episodes.
• Many mobile suits of the Gundam series are often seen using lightsaber-like weapons.
• The Game Phantasy Star Online Features many different light-saber weapons, in single blade, double-bladed and two-handed forms, their colors include green, blue, purple, red, and gold.
• Lightsaber-like weapons exist in Warhammer 40,000, but are extremely rare and are counted as power weapons.
• Kamen Rider Black RX's special weapon, the Revolcane, has some resemblances to the lightsaber, and is used as such on certain occasions, such as his duel against Shadowmoon.
• The television series The Venture Brothers episode "Tag Sale, You're It" shows Henchman 21 purchasing lightsaber like device from Dr. Venture. The item is for sale because it cost too much for Kenner to mass produce and the Army "...doesn't sword fight anymore." Later in the episode, when 21 attempts to kill Brock Samson with the it, the "blade" merely passes through his body without damaging it.
• In the Mega Man X series, and the subsequent Mega Man Zero series, the Maverick Hunter, Zero wields an energy sword called Z Saber which he uses with great skill.
• In the Kingdom Hearts series, the leader of Organization XIII, Xemnas, wields two red-coloured lightsaber-like weapons dubbed "Aerial Blades" which lack the handles and extend from Xemnas' own hands.
• The Super Smash Bros. series includes a weapon called the Beam Sword, much like a lightsaber.
• The game No More Heroes features a weapon called a Beam Katana, which is a slightly more primitive, yet upgradable lightsaber-type weapon.
• In Iain M. Banks' novella The State of the Art, the Culture ship 'Arbitrary' created a lightsabre for one of the characters during their exploration of Earth.
• In The Big Bang Theory season 1 episode 2 named Big Bran Hypothesis , Lenard is seen coming out of his bedroom shouting for sheldon with green lightsaber in his hand.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lightsabers

• Lightsaber entry in the Star Wars Databank
• Lightsaber on Wookieepedia: The Star Wars Wiki
• Lucas' Light Saber Battle, (26 July 2001, E! Online) George Lucas suing Minrad Inc. over copyright of Light Saber name on their laser medical equipment
• "Howstuffworks - Inside the Lightsaber"
• Lightsaber combat on Wookieepedia: The Star Wars Wiki