ESB Medbay

part 3,720 in my on-going series called "Where does that fit inside the Falcon?"

The medbay in ESB is weird little room. What we see on screen is very brief, just a quick shot with Luke and Leia, and then from another angle with Luke getting up. But there's really not much visible.




There were maquettes built that show a room in the same placement as the bay in Force Awakens; in the main hold essentially opposite the couch and holo-chess table.

On the set of ESB, they never built anything there. There's literally just a hole in the set that they use for camera placement.



so what did they build?

There's not much to go on, but years ago I noticed that there's part of a ring that's the same piece used on the corridors in the rest of the falcon.

so, knowing the dimensions of that ring from various blueprints, I was able to construct this photomatch.

at bare minimum, we're looking at a set piece that looks like this:

I'm skeptical, to say the least, that this could fit into the area in the maquette or the Force Awakens set....

So I ask you.... where the hell is that supposed to be?


well here's my favorite solution.

Escape Pod Bay

Finally got to take a look at some footage of the escape pod scene in Last Jedi...

next up... how in hell does this connect up to the rest of the interior?

ESB Fullscale Falcon

Been a while since I posted an update on this

Falcon Lands at Cloud City

I made this render years ago, 2015-ish as a test, and just redicovered it in my archives.

I made it primarily to showcase the landing gear extending and ramp lowering, which I'd never seen before.

Also just for fun, here's the first ramp animation I made way back in 2012. I may be wrong, but at the time I was pretty convinced I was the first to show the ramp in motion... prove me wrong, cause I'd love to see other takes on it!

be sure to stick around for an interior view of the ramp opening (there's a big pause in the middle of this video that makes it seem like it's over. Didn't know how to edit video then...)

Stay tuned...

This explains a great deal...

The nose of the full-scale prop of the Falcon that was built for the Force Awakens and updated for Last Jedi has bothered me for years now. It's SO HUGE. it's a big weird box in the middle of an otherwise perfect reproduction of the props used on A New Hope and Empire, and by extension the 5' filming model.


Set of the Last Jedi

set of ANH


the difference is so extreme that they even fixed the nose in post at the end of TFA, you can see the fullscale details on the left (starboard) and the CG asset based on the 5' Falcon on the right (port) composited on top of it.








 I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out why they did it... but maybe I now have an answer.

 

the lines converge a little too perfectly....

Now I'll admit that it makes no sense for the design phase of Solo to be in the works when TFA was in production....

But then again... the nose is just so glaringly wrong. Every other part of the ship looks fine, and they had all the original blueprints, no other falcon looks like that, even the 32" has a jaw box that's looks more normal. I'm just saying, it's a possibility. Or a hell of a coincidence.

Actual Depth of Docking Bay 327

There's a little known forced perspective feature of the Deathstar Docking Bay in A New Hope. Right below the main port there are stripes and chevrons similar to the ones on the deck beneath the Falcon in overhead shots.

They've been tapered so that they appear to converge on the same vanishing point as the rest of the bay, when viewed from a certain angle

Now, the overhead shot in the movie shows that airlock kinda right behind the ship. This matte paint has a lot of other weird issues, but the airlock is pretty much where it sits on the soundstage.

here's an orthgraphic view of the docking bay as it appears on the soundstage (note the distorted stripes on the left hand)

but if you extend the forced perspective chevrons out so that they match the size and spacing of the markings under the Falcon...

that's a much deeper bay...

and should look something like...