A Day In The Life... on the set
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Day In The Life... on the set |
| Creator: | Shelley Ward and Cindy Korman |
| Date(s): | 1981 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Wars |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A Day In The Life... on the set is a 1981 essay and RPF meta-fic by Shelley Ward and Cindy Korman.
It was published in Trackless Voids #1 where it is labeled "a farce."
The essay topic was the three main characters in Star Wars (plus supporting characters: George Lucas, an anonymous crew member, Anthony Daniels, and Irvin Kershner) and what tropes the publicity machines were generating for fan consumption.
The second page of the fanwork is RPF and is a script of fan-created interview.
The fans who created this work were very aware of how they were being manipulated by both the press and by TPTB, and they also understood how this was how the game was played.
From the Essay
When a group of Star Wars fans get together often, they develop their own set of private (usually inane) jokes concerning the movie, and in our case, the actors too. Our compilation of ridiculous "in" jokes came about over a long period of time and were usually born in the wee hours of the morn when bad taste is least easily recognizable.
As far as our views on the actors go, well, we love 'em! We honestly think that they are nice, normal human beings. But it is easy to joke about someone when you like that someone... especially when you can capitalize on their standing with the press!
When Star Wars first came out, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford did an extensive publicity tour that was very uncomfortable for them--I'm sure we all appreciate what they went through for us. As time went by it became easy to type a typical Harrison reply or Hamill enthusiasm. From this, we would exaggerate greatly their respective idiosyncrasies (at least the ones they displayed on T.V.) and would crack jokes about a very slow, spaced out Harrison, a hyper Mark, and a flippant Carrie. When their popularity increased and they hit the prestige of Gossip magazines, this was just more fuel for the fire.
We realize that 99% of that stuff is basic crap, so why not have fun with it? It seems that the press liked to depict them in the following ways: Mark is an enthusiastic, hyper-active kid who had a crush, crush, crush on Carrie; Harrison is a quiet, sensitive man who hates, hates, hates publicity, dropped out of college in his senior year, and he likes to play with wood, saws and stuff like that. Carrie is a movie stars kid, is very sarcastic, sarcastic, sarcastic, and dates every available man on the east coast (and then some).
Well, Mark is a nice enthusiastic guy and I'm sure he did like (does?) Carrie quite a bit, and sure. Ford is kinda quiet and it seems he ain't too thrilled with the press too. And Carrie does seem to know quite a few interesting guys... but C'MON! Gossip is gossip and is really just there to be laughed at, not believed. But when we laugh at something we LAUGH at it, poke fun at it and basically enjoy ourselves! The following script is a product of these stupid, probably criminally offensive jokes.
One part must be explained if you are to get anything out of it at all. Months before TESB came out, we (as everyone else does) have our sources and they informed us that Mark Hamill had injured his hand and that this would bring about an interesting moment in the movie... Luke would lose his hand in the duel with Vader. It has been learned that Mark did indeed injure his thumb but whether or not this played a part in that particular scene we do not know, but we used it to it's fullest extent any
way.
The Script
Some excerpts from the script are below.
