Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens is scheduled to be released on December 18th 2015, and I have to say, I couldn't be more excited. Star Wars was my childhood. My father loved the series and introduced me to it at a very young age and I have been obsessed with it ever since.
It has been many years since the last Star Wars movie so in order to get my fix I had to resort to Watching The episodes of the children version. While I an not proud of this I have to say I ended up loving that as well. I guess its just something about the Jedi and there code that I find intriguing.
Regardless, the new Star Wars is directed by J.J. Abrams and will be top on my list of movies to go see. If you are someone that hasn't checked out Star Wars in the past I would recommend that you watch the other films before watching this one.
The big news this past week was the release of the first Star Wars: Episode VII teaser. For the two people who haven't seen it or for anyone who wishes to watch it again here it is:
Within hours of its release, minutes even, speculation and strong opinions were flying. Complaining drooling, attacks and parodies...every aspect of internet reaction to new content was present. Personally, I was thrilled to see some footage so early, but as time went by, I started to become more interested in analyzing people's hyperbolic reactions than analyzing the trailer itself. The theories ranged from reasonable to outlandish and the conclusions people were jumping to were nothing short of hilarious. Whether the comments come out of enthusiasm or derision, I think everyone's going a little crazy about this and we all need to take a breath and really consider what it is we're looking at.
First of all, let me just say that I've been a Star Wars fan since I was a kid, so while I have become detached from the series in the past few years, the announcement of a new film (several, actually) is definitely a source of excitement. At the same time, I'm reigning my feelings in and not allowing myself to be swayed too much by the new footage. I certainly liked it, but it doesn't assure anything.
Most important to realize here is that this trailer is a gift (or at least that's how I'm considering it). This early on, I didn't expect anything from the marketing department. Principal photography ended only a month ago, so the fact that anything is ready (most surprisingly a couple of VFX shots) should be seen as miraculous. Also, this is a teaser...as in meant to tease. There are only 11 shots in the whole thing and how anyone can make broad generalizations from that is amazing to me. We get a slight feel for the tone and visual style, but nothing more. It's a great teaser precisely because it only gives us that small taste without hinting any plot strands. It whets the appetite, provides some nostalgia and stirs up buzz. And man, is there buzz...
The last Star Wars film was released nine years ago and in that time social media and the nature of the internet has changed, radically shifting the way people engage with such early marketing for hyped films. I remember the excitement for Revenge of the Sith, but it's nothing compared to what I've seen this past week. Various articles and blogposts (just like this one) have been written, breaking it down shot by shot. Memes have been created, trailer re-cuts have been done, a couple new fan posters (like the one above) based on the imagery of the teaser have been made...hell, a guy got a tattoo of the little soccer ball droid (a droid that is likely an insignificant element in the film- I wouldn't be surprised if it was some transition piece that ended up getting cut). Being Star Wars, the most beloved film series of all time (a subjective statement, but you know it's true), I can't blame people for buying into the hype. At the end of the day, folks are just having fun with it, which is exactly what JJ Abrams intended, I'm sure. It'll make over a billion dollars easily next year and toy sales will be just as impressive, but until then, we'll just have to wait for that second trailer to drop. Take your time, Disney, what you just delivered is more than enough to satisfy this fan for months.
Today Bob Iger announced that in 2017 Disney and Pixar will release Toy Story 4. Just that sentence gives me a bad taste in my mouth because Toy Story 3 ended the trilogy and my childhood so perfectly. After the announcement there was an outcry online about ruining the story that the three films completed. The director John Lassester who directed the original made it very clear that the decision to make the film wasn't about money but was instead just a great idea. “We love these characters so much; they are like family to us. We don’t want to do anything with them unless it lives up to or surpasses what’s gone before. ‘ToyStory 3’ ended Woody and Buzz’sstorywith Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another ‘ToyStory’ movie. But when Andrew, Pete, Lee and I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was so exciting to me, I knew we had to make this movie—and I wanted to direct it myself.” I'm not the type of person who will rule out any film or idea until I see it. Yes it's still annoying that they are changing the trilogy but just like Star Wars, the more films the better. They have built this wonderful universe and I trust that they will honor all the previous installments. I can't wait to see what Buzz, Woody, and the gang are up to and where their next adventure will take them!
Since it's Halloweekend, I thought I'd take the time and make an appreciation post for possibly one of the greatest special effects makeup artist Hollywood has: Rick Baker. He's done a lot of makeup effects for some pretty famous films like: - The Incredible Melting Man (1977) - Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) - An American Werewolf in London (1981) - Batman Forever (1995) - The Nutty Professor (1996) - Men in Black (1997) - How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) - Planet of the Apes (2001) - The Ring (2002) - Click (2006) - The Wolfman (2010) - TRON: Legacy (2010) - Men in Black 3 (2012) - Maleficent (2014)
He's well known for his amazingly realistic creature effects, especially when it comes down to werewolves and apes. Not only has he worked on such highly acclaimed films, but he also is the first recipient of the Oscar for Best Make-Up for American Werewolf in London in 1981, which was when the category was first introduced. And to add on to that list, he holds the most Academy Award wins and nominations among every other makeup artists, with 12 nominations and 7 wins. Because this is an appreciation post, I shall leave you with some pictures of his awesome work, and let you soak in just how realistic his magic with makeup is.
We have talked in class about Paramount's film Rango and how it is a film that has hundreds of film references throughout. Another film that caught my eye and does the same thing is 2000's Chicken Run. Essentially the film is a claymation parody of The Great Escape but with chicken famers instead of Nazis. In some parts the film is almost exactly the same but not only that the film references so many films on top of that.
From films like Psycho, Ace in the Hole, Enter the Dragon, and Alien. The list goes on and on. When Rocky is giving a inspirational speech he even directly quotes a line from the Italian Job. And even the famous Star Wars jump that wasn't even original in Star Wars. If you haven't seen the film I suggest you watch it, not only is it spectacularly written but it is also beautifully animated.
When I started trying to write my first blog post for this class, the first topic that popped into my head was the way Dan Harmon, creator of Community and Rick and Morty and one of my favorite creative talents, structures the stories he writes. Harmon, whether he's writing a half-hour episode of a sitcom, a feature film, or a three-minute comedy sketch, utilizes "story circles," which he says allow him to tie narrative and character development directly together. Unfortunately, as I searched for visual aid to illustrate my blog post, I discovered that a past CP2 student had already covered the topic (Kyle Vorbach's excellent post can be found here: http://filmword.blogspot.com/2013/02/dan-harmons-story-circles.html). I decided to delve into the origin of Harmon's story circles, which can easily be traced back to the writings of Joseph Campbell and his theory of the monomyth.
Joseph Campbell was an American author and educator who specialized in examining mythology and religion for similarities across cultures. His life's work as an author came together in the form of his most lasting theory, that of a monomyth. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Campbell argued that the structure of the hero's journey remained consistent throughout cultures, with only surface changes made to create the heroes that define a culture's mythology. Campbell was heavily influenced by Carl Jung, one of the most prominent psychologists of the 20th century, who developed a theory of collective unconsciousness. Jung's assertion that all of humankind shares certain archetypes heavily influenced Campbell's analysis of both mythological stories and more modern pieces of fiction. Harmon's story circles draw their cyclical structure and many of the narrative steps from Campbell's theory of the Hero's Journey:
Campbell's structure, however, goes into more detail than Harmon's. However, it should be noted that Harmon often cites steps such as the Crossing of the Threshold when talking about his writing. Campbell's basic steps on the Hero's Journey are as follows, broken roughly into three-act structure:
1. The Ordinary World
2. The Call to Adventure
3. Refusal of the Call
4. Meeting with the Mentor
5. Crossing of the Threshold
End of Act 1
6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies
7. Approach
8. The Ordeal
9. The Reward End of Act 2
10. The Road Back
11. The Resurrection
12. Return with the Reward End of Act 3
The division by act structure can be debated, and different sources often re-name the specific steps, but the basic structure of the Hero's Journey stays constant over much of fiction, regardless of genre or artistic medium. Campbell's theory originally was formulated as a way to discuss mythological texts like The Odyssey and Gilgamesh, but has come to influence some of the most prominent novels and films of the 21st century. Want an example?
George Lucas and Mark Hamill on the set of Star Wars
George Lucas was one of the first filmmakers to take Campbell's theory and develop a feature film around it. It was Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces that helped Lucas flesh out his basic ideas for his first big-budget film. Star Wars and the entire original trilogy owe their structure and storytelling beats to Joseph Campbell. Dan Harmon has since taken the same basic structure and applied it to over 90 episodes of Community, in addition to using the structure for projects such as Rick and Morty and Monster House. Studying Campbell's monomyth can help young storytellers master the basics of character development, pacing, and plot structure, regardless of medium.
Hollywood has always been known as the cutthroat heart to the American film industry, usually filled with professionals and never much room for laughter. And all of this is totally acceptable when many budgets cross over a hundred million dollars and studios are looking for the biggest bang for their buck. But it was the seventies and the rise of the American auteur that gave Hollywood some of the most iconic films and at the same time showed that directing is really just about the inner child's imagination. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both created so many films that will be ingrained into film history for the rest of time. And as they dominated the seventies box office looking back it almost seems as if they were playing a game with each other.
In the late seventies George Lucas was nervous about his new release Star Wars. So when he turned to his friend Steven Spielberg and saw that he was was working on Close Encounters of the Third Kind it just made him feel worse. Lucas believed that Spielberg was creating "the biggest hit of all time" and that Star Wars would fail miserably. So as a small bet at the time Lucas bet 2.5% of Star Wars in exchange for 2.5% of Close Encounters. What was a small bet at the time turned into a forty million dollar investment for Spielberg. But even that wasn't the end to their game.
For the next decade the two would play box office ping pong and when it came to video rentals the two would send letters to each other publicly about the others success.
The two showed that what they were doing was something that was fun no matter how serious it was, and that through the millions of dollars it wasn't about money.
For a long time in Hollywood I feel like we have lost that. The sense of fun behind the movie making and that no matter what, film should be about making something that you feel should be made and having fun with it. But hope is not lost! There has been a new resergence in the industry and in a way it comes from the same franchise, Star Wars.
J.J. Abrams is deep into production on the new trilogy and is bringing the same atitude as Lucas once did. Meanwhile on the other spectrum Zack Snyder is working on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and between the two films they are both approaching the situation just as the original duo did. With a twenty first century twist the two have been crossing their respective franchises in a way to respect the massive amount of pressures they both hold. It's the fun that Hollywood was missing and I hope it continues to stay.
These images have been sent back and forth to each director. And the video below is the most recent gag from J. J. Abrams.
No one has to explain why there are sequels and I'm not here to say that sequels should or shouldn't be made. But if someone is trying to make a sequel, here are the best things to do and things to think about before you make one. First off, you should always always ask why. Why does there need to be a sequel and what does it offer? Do we need to see more robots blow up buildings or does the fifth installment tell a tale about an aspect the viewers have never seen. Does Optimus Prime fall in love with a human in Transformers 5? I would watch that. A film isn't interesting if you just slab the same plot with the same characters in it, no matter how interesting the characters. The key is to make a film feel new but by using character you love and a world you know.
So it's hard not to look at superhero films on this topic but it's the easiest to compare to sequels because as you know there's a lot of them. So let's look at a great example, earlier this year Marvel Studios released Captain America: Winter Solider the sequel to 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. The film released to rave reviews and shows how to make a sequel. The film takes these characters people love from the first film but breaks deeper into their lives. Anthony and Joe Russo created a film in a completely different genre but with the same characters. Now a spy thriller the film feels fresh and explores themes that are exciting but continue the story from the original. All of this plus beautiful cinematography, it's well written and it's well acted. Basically, if you have two more hours of the same characters lets learn something new and explore new ideas in this world.
Someone should never make a sequel because of money, but sorry folks that's just the way the world works. Obvious sequels are created to make more money but I believe Marvel is trying to prove that sequels aren't always a bad thing. And this could be for the good or the bad. I believe every film could have a sequel in some way or another but the question is not whether you can, but if you should. (Well that reminds me of the moral of Jurassic Park. *crossing my fingers for Jurassic World*
We are in an odd time for film where many films are created with the use of so much green screen and special affects that it's become frieghtning to some filmmakers. Directors like Quentin Tarantino will one day leave the industry because of the increase in special affects and the decreasing use of film in the medium. Some say it is the death of cinema and to a degree I would agree. Cinema as we knew it is dead, but it is not gone.
With superheroes soaring over the box office it's no surprise why cgi and special affects are dominant in the industry today. But the question is can there be too much of it? Well lets look at a some examples. If you compare the Star Wars prequels to the original trilogy it is easy to see that the more recent films use a ton of cgi and special affects. And because of that so many fans of the series will immediatley credit that to why the prequels are abysmal compared to the original trilogy. The way I see it is the reason those films are not as great is because of a lot of other issues that could be discussed for hours on end. But in short that is not even close to why those films are not amazing. I'm not saying that there can be bad cgi and special effects. Oh no there can be really bad special affects that can ruin a whole movie (I'm looking at you The Mummy Returns) but as time progresses the use of cgi only helps the film industry.
Stories, stories and more stories. I said it now and I will say it again, with more ways and deviations to creating a film the more different stories can be told. Look at Gravity and ask yourself if that movie could have been created ten years ago. Or Life of Pi? Both of these films used so much cgi and special effects that it becomes hard to know what's real and what isn't. Without special effects both of these films would not exist. It's all about how you go about using them really. Look at The Guardians of the Galaxy and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and their use of special effects. It may sound dumb but both of these films made me cry. And the even worse part is that it wasn't the human actors that made me cry, it was a talking tree, a talking raccoon and a talking monkey (this is just as hard for me to type as it is for you to read). The use of motion capture has advanced so far that these creations have become believable and at times really something special. So at this moment in time it's not about how much special affects you want to use but how you go about using it. Write a good story, with great characters, make a film beautiful, and then you can add as much special affects as your little heart desires.
After having a Star Wars marathon today, I began become excited for the next trilogy that will be brought to us by Disney. But then is thought, "Should I really be excited?"
The original trilogy is highly respected and beloved by sci-fi fans the world around. And the second, while still an important part of the Star Wars saga, is mostly ridiculed and condemned by fans and critics. So will the next chapter of Star Wars continue down the same slippery slope to film infamy? Will it shortly end up in the $5 dollar movie bin at Wal-Mart with all of the rest of the ambitious but failed movies? That's what I'm dying to find out.
The first trilogy was wildly successful because of its special effects and narrative that was literally out of this world. (Spoiler)
At a time when we were just exploring space travel and recently landed on the moon, people's imaginations were running wild and these movies captivated audiences. The lasers and lightsabers were every boys dream and a Jedi was what they aspired to be.
As the original Star Wars generation reached adulthood and began having children a new trilogy was released. This, a prequel, followed young Vader (Anakin Skywalker) and his journey to the dark side. These movies were released after the internet boom when technology was advancing exponentially. These movies were seemingly targeting a younger, new crowd instead of the older longtime fans. There is a general consensus that these movies were now where near as good as the originals. Many people, myself included don't even bother watching them when doing a marathon. Whether its the actors, the sfx's, the story or the overall feel of the movies, "true fans" grimace at the mention of them.
Then that leaves Disney, the new trilogy and Episode 7. J.J. Abrams who is an award winning producer, writer and director believes he is the man for the job. He has has a lot of success with the new Star Trek movies and wants to continue that with Star Wars. In my humble opinion I'm not sure thats what he'll find. The problem: Disney. Disney has a way of taking something great and making it something else. Maybe not necessarily bad, but just not what it was. Disney's demographic is more of an adolescent one and their movies are too 'shiny' and too fairytale looking for this type of film. I think to find success, a company with experience in more gritty and adult looking movies would need to take the reigns. If the movies and stories become too childish then I believe they will ultimately fail. With that said, if J.J. Abrams and keep creative control and pay close attention to the writing and casting, the saga may still have a breath of life.
Have you ever been to a retail store that sells DVDs and have seen knock off movies; DVDs that have a similar clipart covers and even have similar names. Well those DVDs are called mockbusters. They are films created with the intentions of piggy backing on the publicity of a major film with a similar title or theme and is often made with a low budget. Most of the videos are released directly to DVD as the mainstream film is just released in theaters. There are have a couple different intentions behind making the mockbusters. One intention is to deceive the consumers to mistakenly purchase the derivative title. The mockbuster is normally placed right next to the original in the stores. Another is to add legitimate add-on buying opportunity. Here are just a few of many examples of movies and their mockbusters.
The original movie is Star Wars (left). The mockbuster is Star Crash (right).
The original movie is the DaVinci Code (left), while the mockbuster is the DaVinci Treasure (right).
The original movie is Transformers (left) and the mockbuster is Transmorphers (right).
I personally find it really annoying that people actually make these. I understand that you want to make money, but doing that by tricking people and ripping off another movie, someone else's idea, now that is just low. Also the fact that the animation or the recreation of the movie is crappy, not only is that lower but it is just insulting. I find it absurd that services like Netflix and Amazon are helping the people who make these mockbusters, by allowing viewer to stream them. They are just being cheap. But one studio has finally made a stand, Universal has filed a lawsuit against Global Asylum, a major mockbuster maker, claiming that they are infringing on their property and piggybacking on their multi-million dollar marketing campaign for Universal's movie Battleship. I am glad that somebody is finally standing up for something that they spent millions of dollars on and hopefully more studios will do the same for their own movies that have been ripped off.
Like many of us in this class I am a huge movie buff. I enjoy watching movies almost to a fault, and one thing that I am very good at is remembering lines and scenes. Mainly because I watch films again and again. This is why I wanted to clue some of you in on arguably the most famous sound effect in movie history. The Wilhelm Scream. This sound effect is a stock sound effect that has been used in over 200 films, usually to represent someone dying. Whether you've noticed it before or not, you have undoubtably heard it if you have seen films like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Saving Private Ryan, and even animated films like Toy Story and Hercules.
The sound effect is credited as first being used in the 1953 films The Charge at Feather River, it gets it's name from the character, Wilhelm, who gets shot by an arrow. Since then it has become sort of a running gag among some movie directors. Most notably George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, and Peter Jackson, who pretty much use it in every film.
The thing that I find so funny about it is that the director's are making a conscious choice to include this sound effect in their film. I originally thought it might just be a coincidence, but the sound effect is used in too many movies for nobody to know. Christ it has it's own Wikipedia post for it.
However if you still don't believe me, here are two videos dedicated solely to the use of the Wilhelm scream.
There have always been three stages to the
filmmaking process: pre-production, production, and post-production. These
three components rely on each other to create a polished final product.
Regardless of being a documentary, a promotional video, or feature film, all
film productions require these three steps. "Over the next decade video game engines will be used in film-making, with the two disciplines combining to eliminate the movie post-production process." This is the ambitious claim made by Lucasfilm, the production company behind the Star Wars franchise.
Speaking at the Technology Strategy Board event
at BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), the company’s chief
technology strategy officer, Kim Libreri, introduced a new style of filming:
As you can see, the company has figured out a way to implement special effects in real-time, moving a large amount of post-production work into the pre-production and production phase. Although Lucasfilm is able to show off this technology now, it is still
more of a future concept and calling it a complete replacement to post-production
is laughable. As you can see from the video, the graphics are not exactly feature-film quality. But this is, more then anything, is a sign of things to come. It
could also be considered an advanced style of storyboarding, enabling special
effects artists to see their work before actually implementing it. All of the effects in the video have been possible in the past, except before you had to process, tweak, and render the footage. Now they are able to do it incredibly faster to the point where it's instantaneous. In movie making time is money, so what this means is that films will be able to implement special effects on a much smaller budget. I know some people favor practical effects so this may not be an entirely good thing... but I'm very interested to see what happens when high-end graphics become assessable to a very wide audience.
Oh... and speaking of the future. Check out this cool film I found that interviews Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese. They ask them about the future of movies... but in year 1990. Quite the interesting perspective.
