Where's William Shatner? Star Wars VI

Posted to Flickr on 01 November 2014. Part of the Stormtroopers series.

Over the years William Shatner has played iconic roles in some of Hollywood’s most important films and television series: The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Boston Legal. But in spite of his popularity most people don’t realize the true depth of Shatner’s acting resume.

For example, most fans are unaware that he played a scout trooper in the 1983 film Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Can you spot William Shatner in this photo?

(Just kidding.)

Stormtroopers: the Empire’s finest.

Origin

As a kid I was always frustrated by action figures that were designed to sit on motorcycles and similar vehicles, because they rarely stood up quite right. So finally in 2010 I decided that I would turn a “weakness” into a strength and determine how to make the awkward design of this scout trooper funny. I started with a photo in my Duel 365 series. Not too long after that I put him in my (Girl) Scout Troopers photo. And then recently I realized that the scout trooper reminded me of all the parodies of William Shatner, and the idea for this photo was born.

Setup

The scout troopers are standing on top of sheet of clear acrylic laying on a dark elevated shelf. The backdrop is a couple of black glittery scrapbooking pages.

Setup

The blue bokeh backlighting was accomplished with two light sources. The first was a flashlight positioned with a jeweler’s “third hand” tool atop a clear plastic cup. The second is an LED with its own tripod.

Setup 2

And above it all is a large circular diffuser, softening the ambient light in the room.

Elsewhere

William Shatner can also be found here:

Karen Woodward

Have you seen this photo somewhere else? Or are you using it yourself? I would love to hear from you! It's always fun to learn where my photos turn up.

Flickr Facts

This photo was posted to Flickr on 01 November 2014. The last time I checked, it had 32,558 views on Flickr.

The media type of this image is "photo." The original file type was "jpg." The photo's dimensions are 1024 x 681, giving it landscape orientation.

Unless otherwise noted, the image was created by me, JD Hancock.

Selected imagery background information.

Stormtroopers

The stormtrooper is the elite soldier of the Imperial forces in the Star Wars universe. They typically wear white armor and helmets and are armed with blasters. Imperial stormtroopers were first depicted in the film Star Wars (1977). As shown in the Star Wars prequels Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), the stormtroopers were preceeded by the clone troopers, an army of soldiers cloned from the bounty hunter Jango Fett and loyal to Emperor Palpatine. In many ways stormtroopers are an iconic symbol of the Galactic Empire.

JD Hancock Photos

Use This Photo!