QUESTION: You said you used steam as one of the means of diffusion. Did you use smoke at all?
SUSCHITZKY: The steam in this particular set was there because it suited the scene that was being played. I used very little smoke, except occasionally when the scene actually called for it because of explosions. I used to use smoke quite a lot a number of years ago, but I have always been a non-smoker and I've gotten more and more around to the idea that breathing in smoke all day and going home smelling of smoke is far from a pleasant experience and probably not worth it in the long run. It may be better to have a cleaner image and better health. (This doesn't mean to imply, however, that I haven't admired the results that other cameramen have got with smoke. In fact, I have enjoyed what I got by using smoke.)
QUESTION: Was there any one set that was especially awkward to work in?
SUSCHITZKY: We did have one set which is probably the most awkward set I have worked in for many, many years. There were plenty of difficult sets, but this one was really physically awkward. It was the house belonging to the Wampa creature, played by a Muppet, and as he was quite small, they built the house to suit him and not to suit a human being. Then we had to place Luke Skywalker (a human being) in the set and he could only sit down in it. Even so, he just barely escaped knocking his head against the ceiling. The set had three sides and virtually nowhere to conceal the lights. It had a fire going and that's about all. I found it very difficult and painful to light and I had to crawl on my hands and knees into it, as one would in a mine at the coal face.
QUESTION: Did the robots present any special lighting problems—reflections from their metallic surfaces, for example?
SUSCHITZKY: The mechanical characters in the film didn't present any special problems, apart from C-3PO, who was very shiny, thus causing one to be very careful about reflections—seeing oneself with equipment reflected in his surface, to be specific. There were people inside both of the robots. C-3PO, in fact, has an actor inside of him all the time and that gives him a very particular character. I think the actor is very clever at it. R2-D2 was portrayed by a series of different models, sometimes radio controlled, sometimes pulled along, and sometimes with a small man inside him, according to the demands of the scene. Some of the models will roll on certain surfaces and do special things, and others will perform different functions. They don't seem to be able to put all of the functions into one model.
QUESTION: Are there any other particularly unusual lighting set-ups that you can recall?
SUSCHITZKY: I can recall many, but they would not be too unusual. However, I can recall one instance when we were filming inside what we called "Cloud City". I think it comes toward the end of the film, and it was basically a series of corridors and one long hall. Although we had quite a few corridors, one often wants to make a set look bigger than it really is. For example, in one particular shot—where the camera tracked down a corridor, around a corner, up another corridor, and then back into the same corridor—I wanted to make the return into the same corridor look like a different one. So whilst the camera was round the corner, I worked out a series of light changes to be done rapidly during the shot, so that by the time we got back into our old territory, it looked like a new and differently lit corridor. I think the film was full of demands upon the mind like that, which amused me tremendously and made the whole thing much more interesting than it normally would be.
QUESTION: Most cameramen have their own little secret tricks or techniques and tend to guard them rather jealously. Do you have any of those?
SUSCHITZKY: No, I'm not a cameraman who has secrets. There aren't any secrets, really. There are few technical tricks of significance. I don't go into a film saying that I'm going to do the whole thing with a wide-angle lens or a #5 diffuser, because I think that is inflexible. I really feel that a cameraman should serve the film, serve the director, and not feel that he is going to superimpose his style upon every film, because the photographic style should ideally change from film to film, evolving from the dramatic demands of each particular film. I hope that I don't sound pretentious when I say that, in terms of my own career, it may be the experiences outside films that affect me more than anything else—for more than other films, for instance. Hence, it's probably the paintings seen, the music heard and the book read which may influence my work more than anything else. Now I don't think to myself that I am going to manage a scene or film like—Mondrian or a Rembrandt, but I believe that if you are functioning well as a human being, that later on (maybe years after the event), you may subconsciously draw upon a personal experience that may have nothing to do with films—a piece of music heard, a book read, or somebody you met, and you just never know how it is going to come out. If you go into a film saying, "I'm going to do it all with a 50mm lens or a #5 fog"—you are locking yourself down and preventing yourself from being flexible. On the other hand, if you go into a film with a degree of uncertainty and an open mind—and you are secure enough to be a little insecure—I think that you will emerge with a far more interesting result than if you go into it knowing precisely what you are going to do.
QUESTION: In summing up, do you have any final observations regarding your assignment on The Empire Strikes Back?
SUSCHITZKY: Only that I haven't enjoyed myself so much on a film for a very long time. I worked with a director with whom I really got along tremendously, who encouraged me to do my utmost, and so I had a ball on it really, and lots of large toys to play with. What more could one want?
