Octorox said:
Darth Venal said:
Ghost said:
Sometimes you need to break from the story a little bit to make the overall movie better to watch.
Christ, are you joking? If there is one, single cardinal rule of film-making, it is that you never, ever break from the story. Everything else is secondary. Everything, be it some fantastic scene that you really want to keep, or a great FX sequence. If they don't contribute to the plot, they have to go. If you don't get that, don't waste time trying to do anything with movies.
Correct, one, single cardinal rule of Hollywood filmmaking. If you're talking about a 3 act narrative structure yes. If you're talking about an episodic structure, no. Ever heard of Italian neorealism? It tends to "waste time" on small everyday events that often don't have anything to do with the narrative, but allow the characters to breathe and reflect their reality, as if they were you and I. Also, when a film has a very deep message, it is usually a good idea to force some long takes to give the audience a chance to reflect on what they just saw.
You're also completely throwing experimental or non-narrative structure out of the window.
But Star Wars is classically structured, both within the first three films, and those three films as a three-act trilogy. The episodic structure you're referring to is the trilogy, and that also clearly follows the three act rule. They are very conventional, not that that is a bad thing. But the prequels...
Sorry, I'll shut up now. I believe you are in the industry and I'm a lowly first year film student so I probably don't know what I'm talking about...but yeah I would say in a Star Wars film you wouldn't want long breaks from the narrative.
I was also a film student once and it doesn't have much bearing on how much you know. Do a Masters, PhD, then you're talking. Some Bachelors students are gifted, others are not, and that carries through into work. Trust me, there are very many people in this industry that have no idea what they're doing and only got into it because they thought it would be glamourous/cool/enjoyable/blah. Seriously. (Nepotism also has a lot to answer for!)