Fang Zei

Harmy said:

And the whole film just looks somehow unrealistic - I think the frame-rate conversion from 48 to 24fps may be at fault there, or maybe it's the fact that the film's been shot digitally, I don't know - either way, it is a visual disaster, as well as a storytelling one.

The big problem with shooting at double the normal framerate is that it necessitated an increase in the shutter speed, which results in a somewhat more choppy image than we're used to from the original lotr trilogy (and most movies in general, for that matter). They split the difference and instead of keeping a 180-degree shutter angle, which would've made the 24p version look ultra-choppy and unwatchable, they made it 270-degree. This results in a shutter speed of roughly 1/64 of a second. It's faster than the pleasant, 1/48 shutter speed we're used to, but not as harsh as the 1/96 we would've gotten with a 180-degree shutter.

There were reports that the 24p version had the motion blur digitally added back in, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. Either way, I think it's a plain fact that the movie wouldn't look the way it does if Jackson had just stuck to shooting in 24p. Shooting on Arri Alexa would've also given the movie a more filmlike texture. I think the big reason they went with RED was its ability to shoot 48fps in 3D (Jackson said the company had only just released the firmware upgrade for it as The Hobbit was about to start shooting).

This grand experiment with shooting in 48p has essentially resulted in a compromised 24p version of the movie. I saw both movies in the theater in 48-frame 3D because that's how they were actually shot and intended to be seen. It's just that they happen to be prequels to a movie that wasn't shot that way at all.

Yeah, Dark Horse did the "one hundred years later thing" already. When Lucas Books decided to close off the NJO era and start the Legacy era, they also decided to do this comic book that jumped ahead a hundred years from where they were in the chronology. Kinda like how TNG started as the TOS movies were still being made. I'm not sure if stories in the "hundred years later" setting are still being written, though.

The only time in either of the trilogies when exact numbers are actually mentioned is AotC, and it made sense because the audience was jumping ten years in just three. Episode VII, on the other hand, will be continuing on from a thirty-two (and a half) year old movie. Whether it's 30 years later or 40, it doesn't need to be brought up in the movie itself.

Yeah, I hate that directors can't leave well enough alone and have to digitally erase stuff from their older films. It becomes frustrating when a movie like Evil Dead gets a beautiful restoration for its blu-ray debut but is then altered from its original version because the director wanted to "fix" things.

By the way, did Cameron actually make alterations to T1? I remember reading about one or two shots that people had spotted, but I never saw screenshot comparisons. It's probably a given that he's made "fixes" to True Lies and The Abyss, which are hitting blu-ray later this year. I should probably brace myself for when the eventual remaster of T2 suffers a similar fate.

That bar was kinda BWW-esque, come to think of it.

I just happened to be watching late night tv a couple weeks ago, checked the lineup to see who was on Carson Daly, and stayed up to watch when it said Ron Moore would be on.

So cool how they just opened with him talking about working on the live action show that now may never be.

Actually, the night after Agents of SHIELD's pilot episode aired, the execs at ABC and Disney were apparently so enthusiastic about the high ratings they started rumbling about a live action Star Wars show. It wouldn't be surprising, though, if this ended up being set in the era of VII-IX, taking place concurrently with the ST and "spin-off" movies. In other words, just like SHIELD is set in the midst of the MCU movies.

You gotta wonder if those scripts for the originally planned show will ever get used in any way. They'd written, what, 50 episodes or so? Could the team behind Rebels be using them as a basis for their show?

On a side note, isn't it kinda baffling the way Lucas covered the PT era? The "real time" depiction of the three years between eps II and III were the one high point. I was so suprised to hear, just as RotS was hitting theaters, that there would be even more clone wars material coming down the pipe in another couple years. Talk about milking it. And then there's the live action show which would've finally shown what many were hoping for in Episode III .... just on the small screen. Now it might not even happen at all.

It's funny how several years ago, as the Marvel movies were being made (one of them by Joe Johnston), I thought to myself how this was exactly how the prequels should've been handled, and now, with this live action show taking place alongside the movies, it's true in more ways than one.

I'd be happy if he didn't do any homages at all. We had enough of that in the prequels, like Anakin and Obi-Wan walking into that bar on Coruscant.

The only connective tissue I really care about is the style of the filmmaking itself. We already know this will be shot in the same format as the OT, but I hope Abrams and Mindel are able to make it fit with the overall aesthetic established in those movies.

"GENESIS?!"

Nimoy even mentioned on the commentary that the alien guy's weird speech pattern was Yoda-inspired.

Padme said:

That is interesting.

I really liked JJ's rendition of Star Trek, but did notice a bunch of Star Wars themes throughout. (even without them being stranded on a desert planet with a cantina!) Not that I minded, since I love both Star Wars and Star Trek.

By the way, I am new here. Anywhere I am supposed to go to introduce myself? :)

 JJ's Star Trek had a cantina, it was just in Iowa instead of on Tatooine.

Harrison Ford's age actually match's up much better with Han's if they go with 40 years later, actually.

Han is supposed to be 33 in RotJ. Harrison Ford was 39 when they started filming. He'll be 72 in July and they start shooting this in May. If Han is 74, that's much closer to his actual age.

Mark's and Luke's ages actually match up perfectly, as Luke was 23 and Mark is now 62.

Carrie would be playing a Leia who's several years older than she is, due to the five year gap between her and Mark.

Lando and Billy Dee are both 76.

Wedge and Denis are both 66.

It makes way more sense to set this 40 years later.

You're probably right, but if some official publication like, let's say, the novelization, comes out with a timeline in the first couple pages that places ep7 at 40 years post-Jedi, is anyone really gonna go back to this moment from what'll then be 21 months earlier and really care?

I mean, as long as they don't bring up an exact number in the actual movie (just as they didn't bring up exact numbers in the OT except for Ben's "a thousand generations" line about the Jedi Knights), it truly won't matter if it's officially 40 instead of 30.

Tobar said:

It's not just coming from Iger. The official Star Wars blog stated the same as well.

Yeah, but the quote had to have originated with an actual person. The third paragraph in this article confirms it originated with Iger, not the filmmakers.

http://badassdigest.com/2014/03/18/star-wars-episode-vii-still-shooting-in-may-set-30-years-after-jedi/ 

Maybe I'm placing too much emphasis on this distinction, though.

Tobar said:

KilroyMcFadden said:

1. I saw it in a tweet that was captured and posted either here or at TFN by someone from Lucasfilms (Dave Filoni?).  I'm not going to be able to link because it was weeks ago and is lost to me.  

2. The point is that I was answering the OP... "What do you hate about the EU?" answer being, that people continue to take it seriously after it has been rendered a pile of pro fan fic, referring back to the "nothing counts anymore" nature of the tweet to which I referred.

 Again, no such announcement was ever made.

What was announced is that the tiered classification system for the EU has been eliminated. Now whether it be movie, game or book they're all equal in the Star Wars canon now. With this, some material will most likely be labeled completely non-canon but what that material is has not been announced.

Exactly.

Everything made from here on out is either canon or non-canon. What remains to be seen is whether they'll leave the existing EU intact as canon or if it will retroactively be rendered non-canon or a toss up of both.

The biggest deciding factor is gonna be just how much Abrams and Kasdan care about the post-RotJ continuity. If their script for Episode VII is conveniently compatible with the books, great. If not, then I doubt they'd want to change even a single thing about the movie just to make it fit.

The tweet Kilroy refers to was from Pablo Hidalgo back in December. It caused quite a stir because he basically said the only things that were ever "canon" are the movies and the clone wars series. In other words "only what's up on screen." Everything else in this model is merely "continuity."

Since the "thirty years" line came from Iger and not from Abrams or Kasdan or Kennedy, I'm taking that news with a grain of salt. He's probably just saying that because it's been thirty years IRL since Jedi was made. Setting this at the forty year mark the books are currently at would make way more sense, since Luke's son is now almost twenty.* It's also worth noting that the actors in the OT were older than the characters they were playing, so setting it an extra ten years later basically evens it out.

I am, of course, still assuming that the existing EU isn't getting steamrolled to fit with the new movies, which remains a distinct possibility.

*Then again, who knows. There's been a lot of rumor and speculation from all the casting news. Abrams could very well intend Luke's son to be a kid only Anakin's age in Episode I. The guy made a whole movie starring a mostly younger cast (Super 8), so it's not like he'd be a stranger to this kinda thing. Also, Iger's line about "a new trio" can probably be taken at face value.

The "30 years after RotJ" line from the official site's announcement (and everything else in it, for that matter) apparently came from Bob Iger in a recent meeting with shareholders.

Ryan McAvoy said:

Going to an Indie Cinema is my preference.

They attract a better class of person than the multiplexes, people who respect the cinema, the film and their other cinema-goers. They're often cheaper, have better films, better snacks and if you're lucky some quality Ales on tap. Or on the other end of the scale, a gigantic iMax screen is often trouble free as the steep price of the ticket seems concentrate the minds of the viewers somewhat.

I shall be trying to book early for the latter where EpVII is concerned. Although funnily enough I hope my first screening of EpVII is packed to the rafters with loud cheering and boistrous fans (Some dressed in costumes and waving Lightsabers above their heads) just like there was for the SE Trilogy and EpI (EpII and EpIII just got silence). Let's face it I'm gonna go see it more than once, so I can go to a quiet screening the 2nd or 3rd or 4th or...

Ironically (or maybe not), I've found that the Saturday morning screenings - when the tickets are at their cheapest - always result in a better experience. The audience is as behaved as possible and there are zero projection problems.

You would think the people who payed more to see a movie would actually want to, y'know, put away their damn phone and enjoy the movie, but that's somehow never, ever the case. Maybe they feel like they've paid for that privilege, who knows.

Of course, you're absolutely right that skipping the multiplex and going to an indie cinema is the best solution.

Wazzles said:

CO said:

This is just a guess, but I wonder if they release the OOT on BluRay for Christmas of 2015 to coincide with the release of Episode 7?  This movie is made for the OOT generation, so what better time to release the OOT?

 I'm thinking the 40th anniversary is the most likely time. And in all likelihood, it will be a Fox release with no contribution from Disney, sort of like their way of saying "screw you" to Lucas for selling Star Wars to Disney. I also think it's likely that it will only be included in an expensive box set, possibly including the PT and the most recent cuts of the films. 

Waiting until after Episode VII to re-release IV-VI seems unlikely to me, anniversary or not. I'd think Disney would probably work out a deal with Fox to get the 3D versions in theaters September/October of 2015 before putting out a blu-ray with all versions on it in December to coincide with Episode VII.

Anchorhead said:

SilverWook said:

 Maybe the Bad Robot will be made into a droid?

 If it were done as a background droid, that would be a fun sort of cameo nod.

Maybe they could have a scene set on a planet with tall grasses in which a droid is running around, only to stop in front of a group of children who point at it and yell "bad robot!"

SilverWook said:

Even if they put music up front, nobody will be able to hear it, as the audience will be going nuts anyway. :)

There is that certain something about the way the existing six movies start. You hear the percussion of the Fox fanfare several seconds before you see anything at all. It's a signal to the audience that "the movie is about to start." It's deliciously old-fashioned.

Part of me still hopes it happens....

Bingowings said:

I hope they don't have a roll call of company logos, Disney..Bad Robot...Lucasfilm etc.

Just kick in with

and put all that stuff in the end credits.

 Scratch what I said earlier, this is the more likely scenario.

re: timdiggerm

Funny, I hadn't even thought of that, and yet it's probably exactly what they'll do. Just like how you hear Michael Giacchino's score over the red-tinted Disney logo at the beginning of John Carter. The music-less, electronic version in Tron: Legacy also comes to mind. 

Do you think they'll put the Bad Robot logo at the front of Episode VII as well?

If they were to go the "fresh start" approach, you have to wonder how they'd take into account future viewers who will have watched the first six movies. When this one is called "Episode 7," it's a little jarring to have an entirely different intro from the films that preceded it.

SilverWook said:

Probably too early to tell if Disney will let Star Wars go as dark as it needs to be. They might not even put the Disney logo on the new films.

Does the Disney logo appear on any of the recent Marvel films?

Nope.

The new Thor movie was the first completely Paramount-less Marvel Studios production, and there's only Marvel's title at the front of the picture. I feel like Disney will leave their logo off any future Star Wars films as well, perhaps just opening with the Lucasfilm logo.

It still stings that we probably won't hear the 20th Century Fox fanfare at the beginning of the movie, although I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.

I'm only just now catching up on the series thanks to the netflix deal. I saw almost all of season 1 when it aired, so I had a slight head start. I'm maybe six episodes into season 2. I'm digging the action and cinematography. It's a nice bonus to be able to watch the show in its full scope ratio, which the broadcasts did not offer.

I was convinced Lucas was gonna eventually get around to it before any of this Disney business happened. The guy reversed himself on so many other subjects. Why would the OOT be an exception?

Now that Lucasfilm is part of a larger corporate entity, I'm all the more convinced it's gonna happen. The o-neg might not be the best starting point anymore, as skyjedi pointed out. Robert A. Harris should definitely be consulted on some level.

To me, they have two options to create a Blade Runner style ultimate set:

-They do a new scan of the o-neg. Right there, you've got the '97 version. They could then use this scan to do a "final cut" equivalent for the inevitable 3D/2D theatrical re-release. The tedious part would then be using the source scan as a basis for reconstructing the OOT.

-The other option is what they did for Blade Runner, using the new o-neg scan only as a basis for the final cut, meaning: color-time it however you want, cut it however you want, "fix" whatever you want. But I would sure hope this ends up the final revision of the movie, and I would think GL would want this as well. The guy won't be around forever, and considering how many times he's changed it I would think he'd want one last go at it before he literally can't anymore.

The '97 version could be scanned off the '97 IP. Assuming they don't ruin it with DNR, you'd have a nice transfer of how the SE's looked, restored colors and all.

The OOT could then be scanned from the best available source(s), be they IP's or seps. This is where Robert Harris' advice would really be useful.

Of course, there's no guarantee Disney won't just cheap out and continue to use the decade-old Lowry master (one that was really never good for theatrical exhibition), holding it up as the best the films will ever look, a "digital negative," et cetera. I'm probably letting the fact that the Indiana Jones movies got new scans get my hopes up when it comes to Star Wars. Hell, even Willow got a brand new transfer for its blu-ray release.

Artoo and Threepio are pretty much a given since Lucas always joked "it's ultimately their story." As for Billy Dee, I can only assume he's gonna be in the movie. Abrams threw out Arndt's draft in part because he wanted to give the original characters a bigger role. Let's also not forget we've now got Lawrence Kasdan, the guy who helped write Lando in the first place.

Dancing with the stars.... which is on ABC, which is owned by Disney, which now also owns Lucasfilm....

The corporate overlords must've put out a gag order ;)