Richard Edlund

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

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Richard Edlund (born December 6, 1940 in Fargo, North Dakota, USA) is a multi-Academy Award-winning US visual effects photographer.

After first joining the Navy, he developed an interest in experimental film and enrolled in film school in California in the late 60s. On the strength of a couple of short films he was picked by John Dykstra to work as first cameraman at the embryonic Industrial Light & Magic on the production of the first of the Star Wars films for which he shared an Academy Award.

Edlund continued to work with Dykstra on Battlestar Galactica but was invited back by George Lucas to work on The Empire Strikes Back. Edlund's considerable technical challenge on this film was to optically composite miniatures against a white back ground resulting in a second academy award. Edlund also did distinguished work for Lucas and ILM on Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Poltergeist series.

Following the completion of the original Star Wars films with Return of the Jedi, Edlund set up his own effects company, Boss Films, whose credits include Ghostbusters.

He also worked on other projects such as Masters of the Universe, Die Hard, Ghost, or Alien³.

Works

Filmography

Year	Title	Series	Format	Contribution
1977^[2]	Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope		Feature film	First cameraman: miniature and optical effects unit^[2]
1980^[3]	Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back		Feature film	Special visual effects^[3]
1983^[4]	Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi		Feature film	Visual effects^[4]
2004^[5]	Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy		Feature film	Interviewee^[5]
2010^[6]	Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible		Television Film	Interviewee^[6]
2022^[7]	"Gang of Outsiders" (S1E1)	Light & Magic	Television episode	Interviewee^[7]
2022^[8]	"On the Bucking Bronco" (S1E2)	Light & Magic	Television episode	Interviewee^[8]
2022^[9]	"Just Think About It" (S1E3)	Light & Magic	Television episode	Interviewee^[9]
2022^[10]	"I Think I Found My People" (S1E4)	Light & Magic	Television episode	Interviewee^[10]