Star Wars

How the Dykstraflex brought Star Wars and ILM to the forefront

Let's start with the obvious question: What the hell is a Dykstraflex? Quite simply: The Dykstraflex is a computer-assisted camera system that allows precise movements that can be repeated as many times as needed. Why is this important? Because without such a camera system, George Lucas could never have realized his epic space battles for Star Wars. But let's begin from the start: George Lucas envisioned action-packed space battles for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. His inspiration came from war documentaries that he edited long before filming to explain his vision. For the desired dynamism, not only the spacecraft but also the camera had to move, which was difficult to achieve with the technology of that time.

In itself, it was easy to make two spacecraft fight each other, even in the mid-1970s. All you needed were two models, for example, an X-Wing and a TIE Fighter, maybe even the Death Star or a planet as a background to construct your image. The individual elements were then filmed separately and combined as different layers to create a single image. It was crucial that these layers perfectly aligned. Read: The camera couldn't move an inch. Or in the case of Star Wars: The camera movements couldn't differ even in the tiniest bit between different shots.

The same problem was faced by Stanley Kubrick in his science-fiction milestone 2001: A Space Odyssey. The master resolved this with a highly complex and gigantic mechanical camera system that repeated the same movements, which could then be reused for different components of the image. However, the process was equally elaborate and error-prone, requiring months of manual work in parallel.

John Dykstra, responsible for the visual effects in Star Wars, had technological progress on his side. With his crew, he developed his own Motion-Control camera system, which was extremely precise and controlled by a computer processor - long before affordable and powerful computers were available. The Dykstraflex system, named after him, was movable on seven axes and also controlled the focus and exposure of the camera. This finally made it possible to film the elaborate models of the X-Wing, Millennium Falcon, Star Destroyers, and more, from precisely the same position with exactly the same movement - as often as George Lucas wanted.

Thanks to the Dykstraflex system, Star Wars became a pop culture phenomenon not only because of its story and characters but primarily due to its effects and space battles. The system was also a blessing in other ways: The Academy recognized the technology with an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and the Dykstraflex represented the innovative power of George Lucas' effects company, ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), which subsequently received numerous orders from clients.

The Motion-Control camera system was used for another thirty years before Lucasfilm, like all studios today, fully transitioned to digital technology. And in fact, the idea still works as well today as it did back then, as Jon Favreau demonstrated with the series The Mandalorian. For his Disney+ hit, he drew inspiration from many old techniques, including the use of detailed spaceship models. He then logically filmed them using a modern (and much space-saving) version of the Dykstraflex system.