SHOOTING CREATURES - Vintage Footage of the Star Wars Creature Department (1976)

SHOOTING CREATURES - Vintage Footage of the Star Wars Creature Department (1976).
Pioneering movie makeup artist and creature designer Stuart Freeborn was head of the makeup department for the original Star Wars in 1976, and was responsible for the creation of Chewbacca.

Freeborn handcrafted the mask, with an incredible amount of technical detail required to make Chewie’s face so expressive. Starting with a fiberglass skull, that was life-cast to the actor’s face, there are toggles in the lips that are connected by cables to the jaw, so when the jaw is open, the lips move, with extra attention to one side to give Chewie his trademark snarl. This mechanic design was completely innovative at time, where Freeborn was able to make something brilliantly simple to design that resulted in something that looked incredibly complex—or, more to the point, life-like.

He and his team also designed and built many of the fan favorite creatures in the Mos Eisley Cantina sequence, including Greedo, Walrus Man, Snaggletooth as well as the Tauntaun, the Wampa ice creature and Yoda for The Empire Strikes Back, and Jabba the Hutt for Return of the Jedi.

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