One of the best books that I ever read about filmmaking is the Journal of making The Empire Strikes Back by Alan Arnold. I read it maybe a year or two ago, so it was very much like taking a time machine back to before STAR WARS was the complete success that it is now.

At that point in time, Empire was merely a sequel to one of the greatest space-fantasy films ever made. It was an unproven commodity that could have bombed. Lucas was still worried about utter failure.

The best part of the book was a transcription of a tape recording of Irvin Kershner trying to rehearse the Carbon Freezing scene. 

It is in turn hilarious, depressing, frustrating, and oh-so-true. I remember marveling at the fact that this man, this accomplished director, was going through the same type of bullshit that I have gone through while working on a film.

I mean, this was the fucking EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, the fucking CARBON FREEZING SCENE he’s trying to figure out, and he’s got David Prowse coming up to him and talking about some sort of unrelated body-building bullshit, Carrie Fisher arguing with him about how the scene should play out, and all the while standing atop this platform 40 feet in the air.

To see the same problems, to hear the same frustration in his voice as I’ve felt in mine, it gave me a whole new layer of respect for that man.

RIP, Mr. Kershner.