As much as we hold the original models in such high regard, believe me, back in the day, they were just "chunks of meat on a stick". All that mattered was getting the shot, quickly. Which if you think about the cost per day of a shooting stage and crew, it makes sense. Back in the good old pre-digital days you basically got one shot per day. You would set all the lights, blue-screen (back in those days they were "transmission" blue screens, (translucent screen material backlit by solid walls of fluorescent tube fixtures. A royal PITA to use!), flags, etc. then you'd program a motion control shot which could be recorded on special 1 or 2 frame per second VHS tape machines (VHS... anybody remember those?!) Typically you'd be matching a move to a previously filmed background plate. The VHS playback deck (black and white video only) could DX (double expose) the motion control model shot with the back ground plate to see how they lined up. But sometimes we would literally put a freeze frame of the background plate up on the monitor, trace key elements of the plate on the monitor screen with a grease pencil, then line up the model to that. Really low tech!
Once everything was set, programmed and checked filming could begin. A typical motion control model shot would be composed of several passes, a beauty pass, basically the model with the overall lighting, then a pass of only the practical lights built into the models (engine glows, running lights, cockpit glows, windows, etc. Sometime these practical lights required several passes, one per type of light so they could be balanced in the composite, especially for things like laser blasts from on-board guns etc., then a separate blue screen pass with no lights on the model (it was easier to extract a matte from a separate pass), and often a couple of other specialty passes. At exposure rates of one to several seconds per frame, all this could take hours! Then pack the film off to the lab for overnight processing (hoping to make the 11pm cut-off). Since you wouldn't know if the shot was good until you screened the dailies the next day everything was left "hot". Which means "You Touch, You Die!" The following morning you would get to screen the dailies of the shot, if all went well, move on to the next set up, if not, make adjustments and do it all again.
God I miss it!
The MoM Y is easily identified by blue cockpit pod sides with a white/light grey stripe, which is unique among the ANH Ys (but copied by Bill George´s Y). My favourite Y. :love
