With just a little over four months to go until the release of the film on December 16, we finally have another official trailer. Check it out, and make sure to watch until the very end!
Showing posts with label George Lucas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Lucas. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
New Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Official Trailer!
As the release date for Rogue One gets closer and closer, marketing for the film is continuing to ramp up.
With just a little over four months to go until the release of the film on December 16, we finally have another official trailer. Check it out, and make sure to watch until the very end!
With just a little over four months to go until the release of the film on December 16, we finally have another official trailer. Check it out, and make sure to watch until the very end!
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Visual Storytelling: Star Wars A New Hope Opening Scene
If you live anywhere civilized on planet Earth, I'd venture to say you're probably more than well aware of a little movie called Star Wars. Before its release nearly 40 years ago, many people in the filmy industry thought it was going to flop. It took writer and director George Lucas more than a few pitches to get the backing of a studio and throughout the entire shoot, film crews thought the ideas were more than a little strange and called it a kids' movie. Even stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford (I instinctively wrote Han Solo) were guilty of goofing off on set and not taking the whole thing very seriously.
But as we all know (well, you should know by now) Star Wars turned into a huge success. Among other things, the movie was praised for its ground-breaking special effects, which indeed played a very large part in the success of it all. But are a few flashy effects and stunning visuals all it takes to turn any movie into a smash hit? As much as Michael Bay wishes, that's not the case. If that were true, movies like Gods of Egypt would be enduring classics. What does, however, go a long way in propelling a movie to success is the use of special and visual effects to help the story of the movie. It may seem like common sense, but there's actually a lot of subtlety involved in telling a complex story visually. It's something that a lot of movies have a hard time with it seems. It's one thing to show what's going on, it's another to imply so much more about the characters and underlying situation while doing so.
Star Wars is an example of a movie that nailed the subtlety of visual storytelling. I believe that this artistic (and technical) success is one of the reasons why Star Wars ultimately blew people away. In fact, I'd go so far as to argue that without this successful visual storytelling, the movie probably would've been a flop. From the very first scene, Star Wars relied heavily on visual storytelling, and the first scene itself is probably one of the most impactful uses of visual storytelling in the entire series.
It's the scene where (after the opening title crawl) the camera pans down to reveal a huge planet with the Rebel ship flying in from the top of the screen, followed by the approach of the massive Star Destroyer. It seems so simple, yet it really is quite a powerful scene. But when you think about it, there's plenty of ways that this scene could have been set up, and each of these would've had a different effect.
According to the book Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of Special Effects, this scene was described very simply in the original script of Star Wars as a ship flying towards a planet. Perhaps the simplest way to set up a shot like this would be to have the planet on one side of the screen with the ship on the other and the camera at a flat angle. While this would accomplish what is described in the script, it does so in a way that is far less dramatic as the final version in the film.
Having the ship fly from above the camera towards the planet below, as it does in the film, helps add perspective to the shot and helps us have a better idea of the size of the ship. Having the ship essentially fade off into the distance also gives us clues as to how vast the planet below is, and how vast space itself is, making it all seem much more convincing and real than if a flat angle shot was used.
But the shot wouldn't be complete without that giant Star Destroyer looming overhead. With the previous few seconds establishing the scale of everything, we can now get a sense of the scale of the Star Destroyer. It's clearly gigantic since it takes several seconds to reveal itself in its entirity, while the Rebel ship was fully on screen in a fraction of a second. The Star Destroyer is obviously much larger than the Rebel ship.
In just a few seconds, this tells us so much about the Rebel Alliance, the Empire, and the relation between the two. From this shot we can infer that the Rebel Alliance its much smaller and weaker than the Empire, which is overwhelmingly powerful. As the Rebel ship fleas from the Star Destroyer and its bombardment, we instantly know that the two are at odds and that the Alliance is just barely avoiding utter extermination. The similar fly in from above the camera also makes the Star Destroyer take up a large portion of the screen, which implies power and dominance
And you don't even have to think about any of this while watching the movie. You just know, because the shot is so wonderfully constructed and shot. It's subtle elements like these that no doubt won over the hearts of movie goers way back in 1977.
But as we all know (well, you should know by now) Star Wars turned into a huge success. Among other things, the movie was praised for its ground-breaking special effects, which indeed played a very large part in the success of it all. But are a few flashy effects and stunning visuals all it takes to turn any movie into a smash hit? As much as Michael Bay wishes, that's not the case. If that were true, movies like Gods of Egypt would be enduring classics. What does, however, go a long way in propelling a movie to success is the use of special and visual effects to help the story of the movie. It may seem like common sense, but there's actually a lot of subtlety involved in telling a complex story visually. It's something that a lot of movies have a hard time with it seems. It's one thing to show what's going on, it's another to imply so much more about the characters and underlying situation while doing so.
Star Wars is an example of a movie that nailed the subtlety of visual storytelling. I believe that this artistic (and technical) success is one of the reasons why Star Wars ultimately blew people away. In fact, I'd go so far as to argue that without this successful visual storytelling, the movie probably would've been a flop. From the very first scene, Star Wars relied heavily on visual storytelling, and the first scene itself is probably one of the most impactful uses of visual storytelling in the entire series.
It's the scene where (after the opening title crawl) the camera pans down to reveal a huge planet with the Rebel ship flying in from the top of the screen, followed by the approach of the massive Star Destroyer. It seems so simple, yet it really is quite a powerful scene. But when you think about it, there's plenty of ways that this scene could have been set up, and each of these would've had a different effect.
According to the book Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of Special Effects, this scene was described very simply in the original script of Star Wars as a ship flying towards a planet. Perhaps the simplest way to set up a shot like this would be to have the planet on one side of the screen with the ship on the other and the camera at a flat angle. While this would accomplish what is described in the script, it does so in a way that is far less dramatic as the final version in the film.
Having the ship fly from above the camera towards the planet below, as it does in the film, helps add perspective to the shot and helps us have a better idea of the size of the ship. Having the ship essentially fade off into the distance also gives us clues as to how vast the planet below is, and how vast space itself is, making it all seem much more convincing and real than if a flat angle shot was used.
But the shot wouldn't be complete without that giant Star Destroyer looming overhead. With the previous few seconds establishing the scale of everything, we can now get a sense of the scale of the Star Destroyer. It's clearly gigantic since it takes several seconds to reveal itself in its entirity, while the Rebel ship was fully on screen in a fraction of a second. The Star Destroyer is obviously much larger than the Rebel ship.
In just a few seconds, this tells us so much about the Rebel Alliance, the Empire, and the relation between the two. From this shot we can infer that the Rebel Alliance its much smaller and weaker than the Empire, which is overwhelmingly powerful. As the Rebel ship fleas from the Star Destroyer and its bombardment, we instantly know that the two are at odds and that the Alliance is just barely avoiding utter extermination. The similar fly in from above the camera also makes the Star Destroyer take up a large portion of the screen, which implies power and dominance
And you don't even have to think about any of this while watching the movie. You just know, because the shot is so wonderfully constructed and shot. It's subtle elements like these that no doubt won over the hearts of movie goers way back in 1977.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Creators of High Quality Entertainment
In the present day in age we are almost constantly surrounded by entertainment. It's almost harder to not be exposed to it than it is to be surrounded by it. However, the fact that we are consistently exposed to entertainment doesn't mean that the majority of it is good, quality entertainment. In fact, I'd argue that most entertainment today is passive and designed to do nothing more than make a quick buck. Sure, it's still entertaining, but there's nothing about it that resonates with us or is open to interpretation or any kind of discovery.
Fortunately there are companies and individuals who almost consistently create and distribute high quality entertainment, the kind that you can look at 50 times and still find something new, or the kind that opens up an entire new world for you imagination even after the end credits have started rolling or you put away your game controller. Entertainment associated with Disney, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Bungie Studios, and Peter Jackson are just a few of my favorite, and some of the more popular creators of high quality entertainment.
More often than not these individuals and organizations understand entertainment on a deeper, more psychological level, giving them knowledge of how to effectively produce and apply the power of entertainment. Makers of high quality entertainment understand that the best final product is often fashioned out of hundreds, possibly thousands of hours passionate creation. Putting in the extra effort required not only make the end product more monetarily successful but connects with the audience and gives them something more to do than just watch a movie or play a video game. Entertainment that has such a profound effect on its audience is bound to build up an extremely positive reputation for the company or individual and practically guarantees the success of their next product. Once you take this into account, it's not hard to see why more and more entertainment is being crafted in a more careful manner.
Fortunately there are companies and individuals who almost consistently create and distribute high quality entertainment, the kind that you can look at 50 times and still find something new, or the kind that opens up an entire new world for you imagination even after the end credits have started rolling or you put away your game controller. Entertainment associated with Disney, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Bungie Studios, and Peter Jackson are just a few of my favorite, and some of the more popular creators of high quality entertainment.
More often than not these individuals and organizations understand entertainment on a deeper, more psychological level, giving them knowledge of how to effectively produce and apply the power of entertainment. Makers of high quality entertainment understand that the best final product is often fashioned out of hundreds, possibly thousands of hours passionate creation. Putting in the extra effort required not only make the end product more monetarily successful but connects with the audience and gives them something more to do than just watch a movie or play a video game. Entertainment that has such a profound effect on its audience is bound to build up an extremely positive reputation for the company or individual and practically guarantees the success of their next product. Once you take this into account, it's not hard to see why more and more entertainment is being crafted in a more careful manner.
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