MovieChat Forums > Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) Discussion > 1930's Space Opera

1930's Space Opera

posted 17 years ago by VISIONIST
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I'm asking around so as to get the most opinions, about the possibilities for the creation of a full blown, sci-fi space opera epic ala Star Wars, Dune etc, in the late 1930s?

Assuming the ideas were there (those for lightsabers were around in writing around the mid 30s and those for complex starships, fighters etc, i'm not sure), what could such a film/trilogy have looked like, with the technology of the day? How, for instance, would you animate a lightsaber?

Was extensive modelling of ships etc, possible?

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[–] grendelkhan 12 years ago

These serials were about as good as they got, with budgets equivalent to a feature film. In regards to the technology, you have several techniques but they won't give the same effect. Lightsabers could be rendered by the same techniques that were used for lightning bolts (I believe they actually scratched those onto the film stock, or some similar method). The ships were the problem, since you didn't have motion control cameras and the film cameras were much bulkier, making it hard to move them around the models. Instead, they just moved the models within a limited space. A lot of the camera techniques that were standard in Star wars were just beginning to be developed here. One area that was always a problem was makeup for the monsters/aliens. Frankenstein was the height of movie makeup for that period.

Really, the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials were about as technically proficient for their day as Star Wars was in its.

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