What do you think about Rey’s crackling Saber reflecting her mood? I’m just working on the Cave scenes and the aggressive effect really doesn’t look right. What if it’s calm when she is and out of control in battle scenes?
I agree with Hal that her crackling saber doesn’t really reflect her mood…although I personally wouldn’t mind a slightly softer crackle in the cave scenes. I think it should be more about the visual clarity of the shots - like in the training sequence, I seem to recall some discussion about making it way more crackly than usual, just to make the effect more noticeable to the audience. Granted, that scene was very kinetic, and in bright sunlight, so it needed a lot for the crackle to be seen. That amount of crackle wouldn’t be needed in a dark, slowly moving cave shot.
Like, you say it doesn’t look right, and it’s hard to weigh in without seeing it; but I don’t think the effect should ever be distracting. And since they make a point of the saber being the main source of light in the scene, you don’t want the audience’s main thought in the scene to be, “My god, that lightsaber is about to explode.” (Not to mention, will this affect any of the light that’s cast on the actors and set? Would it even be possible to make it flicker on their faces? I don’t think it will break the scene if that can’t be done, but it may create more of a disconnect if the saber is flickering way more than the light it’s casting.)
All of that being said…would it be possible to share a quick look at the effect, so we can get a better sense of how it looks?