The International House of Mojo

Also in the room were loads of headsets where you could hear commentaries by Ben Burtt, the sound designer, about the making of certain sounds in the films like Lightsabers, Tie Fighters and Battletanks. Another interesting fact was that Lightsabers sound effect was produced from a lawnmower and film projector, while the Episode I battle tanks were made from whirling an electric shaver in a metal bowl.

At the end of the room was more headsets where you could listen to all the different soundtrack CDs from each episode.
Then you entered into another room with several different video films running at once which were all about the visual effects of characters like Jar Jar Binks & Jabba the Hutt in the Special Edition Trilogy.

Also there was the model of the Spectators stand in Boonta Eve from the Mos Espa Pod Racer Stadium. This model was filmed against a blue screen and then used as a matte video against the CGI environment later created by Industrial Light & Magic, a sister company to LucasFilm originally setup by George Lucas just for doing the Star Wars effects.Then you entered a LucasArts heaven as you entered the "Resource Room" which was basically 10 different screens & controllers showcasing all of the most recent Star Wars LucasArts titles like Jedi Power Battles, Episode I Racer, Episode I Insiders Guide, Star Wars- Making the Magic, Rogue Squadron and some Lucas Learning titles.

Sadly there was none of the recently announced titles being showcased like StarFighter, Battle for Naboo, Obi-Wan or Bombad Racing.

I saw lots more LucasArts there then me (Narrative) and Spaff did at ECTS the next day! :-)After struggling as hard as possible, I finally pulled myself away from Episode I Racer and followed the Stairs up to the Upper level of the gallery for the biggest and final section of the Gallery...

The Costumes & Props!

There was far too many different costumes & outfits for me to remember but I'll try to list as many as I can physically remember;

Darth Maul
Darth Vader
Boba Fett
Chewbacca
Han Solo
A Imperial Officer
A Royal Guard
A Stormtrooper
Qui-Gon Jinn
Luke Skywalker's Jedi robes & A New Hope outfit
Several Queen Padme Naberrie Amidala Dresses
Padme and other hand-maidens

And many more I can't remember them all...

All costume were fresh from the LucasFilm archives in California and many had props along with them like guns, lightsabers amongst other things.

Also with the costumes were the life size models of many creatures used for filming in all Episodes. These included Yoda and many other rubber creations including many used in the scene from Return of the Jedi in Jabba's Palace.

After the different creatures were the Droids section featuring the actual models/costumes used in the original and prequel trilogies like R2D2, C3PO and the Hoth Medical Droid from The Empire Strikes Back.

Along with the various droids were concept and production paintings and sketches from the design process from the original trilogy. Some of the early concept drawings of the famous droid duo were very interesting. One concept drawing or R2D2 looked more like my dust-bin then the familiar little droid we all know and love.
Most interesting was a hilarious video feature near the section about R2D2 documenting how getting the model of R2D2 to work was absolute hell in every film from A New Hope, all the way up to Phantom Menace.

After the different creatures were the Droids section featuring the actual models/costumes used in the original and prequel trilogies like R2D2, C3PO and the Hoth Medical Droid from The Empire Strikes Back.

R2D2 was constantly falling over, having its gears getting clogged and just walking straight into walls. Luckily, most of these out-takes had been with the remote controlled version of R2D2 rather then the Kenny Baker manned version! The end of the video contained 6 hilarious out-takes of the little droid getting battered. The final out-take was the scene on Coruscant from The Phantom Menace after the Senate Cruiser lands on the platform and R2D2 rolls too close to the edge and falls off the set, hitting the blue screen and smashing on the floor into 4 different parts!
After that you came to the end of the exhibition with some interesting foreign film posters of each film on the walls, but not before coming across the LucasFilm cash-in where eager fans spent away their small pounds on various different Star Wars merchandise in the Star Wars shop.

Then I walked down the steps and went through the main entrance and stood looking out on London skyline and thought to myself "that was definitely worth the small £10 charge to get in".
If you didn't catch it before it closed, you don't know what you missed because this article didn't do it justice and there are several small things that I've missed.

Even though I haven't been to the small Star Wars section in the Smithsonian in the USA, I gather from what I've heard that The Art of Star Wars is 10x better.
Now its left London, I believe its touring a few other places around the UK, although I'm not entirely sure. As for the US, I think from what I've heard, the exhibition will only return to the US when the various models, costumes and props are put away deep in the belly of the Lucas Archive at Skywalker Ranch California.

Huge thanks to the Barbican Gallery who let me take these photos for this feature.