NeverarGreat

Just what we needed on the Scriptwriting forum, more Silence.

:P

MattMahdi said:

I love your signature:

The changes that George Lucas has made over the years to Star Wars is the equivalent of someone keying your car. On an intellectual level, you know that the car still works, and its only marred a fraction of a percent of the paintjob. On an emotional level, every time you see it, it's all you can focus on, and it makes you want to rip someone's face off.

But technically a movie is "the paint job". And if by "keying" it you mean removing all the paint, replacing the expensive sound system with a cheap knockoff, putting sawdust in the engine, painting it a subtly different color, then plastering it with distracting decals and bumper stickers, then you would be approaching what they did to Star Wars. It's the same car, it just looks, sounds, and feels entirely different.

penguinofgreatness said:

The only change that was for the better was the new music at the end of ROTJ. I think it ties up the film more satisfyingly. And I still like the original music. Everything else is pointless or utter crap.

I agree that the victory celebration music was better, but not so much that it warranted a change.

In Star Wars, The new shot of the sandcrawler approaching the camera was a definite improvement from the original, and the cell block extension fix. The swooping motion of the Falcon after Han blasts at Vader in the battle of Yavin was much better, as well as the cleaned up optical effects shots. There were a lot of little improvements that I enjoy, but completely destroying this effect were the pointless cgi additions.

In Empire, I can't think of anything that was better in the special edition.

In Jedi, apart from the victory celebration song, there was nothing that I remember that was improved.

This looks fake. I don't know the industry standard for format and tone of a show treatment, but I can't imagine that this is real, as it has some amateurish bits leaking through (OUR story instead of THE story, the fact that it's dated which instantly makes the story "old" in the eyes of producers, saying that the "entire galaxy is fair game").

On to the substance of the treatment, it makes little sense to alienate a large portion of the Star Wars fanbase by rewriting EU history. I could understand it if the changes to the galaxy are massive, like the Empire immediately returning after Endor and crushing the rebellion, but as it is, it doesn't seem all that much different than the EU. The presumed conflict of the galaxy against whatever exists in the bowels of Coruscant seems too much like the live action Star Wars series which keeps not happening, as far as the focus on Coruscant is concerned.

In short, pointless and fake. Good try though.

I also have a crush:

*sigh* Isn't she just out of this world?

Wait, it's a suit, right? Like a personal spaceship, and thus feminine?

So Tony Stark has a bunch of female suit-ors behind glass in his basement, and...

I think I've just creeped myself out.

Gomu69 said:

Putting Yoda on it would be a nice touch just like it was back in the day, who else to choose from is up to anybody really from Luke or one of the Ewoks. Definitely looking forward to seeing these covers finished and ready to go from what we're seeing so far.

See, it always bothered me that they put Yoda on the posters and covers like that. I mean, Yoda's reveal in Episode 5 was supposed to be something of a surprise, albeit a small one. And if someone is looking at all three of the old vhs tapes side by side before watching them, Yoda's reveal is instantly ruined, as it was for me. Besides, it makes little sense to put him front and center on a cover of a movie where he appeared in all of two scenes. Sebastian Shaw would probably be an equally perplexing choice for the same reasons. Akbar would be a good choice, if you're going for a new hero, as well as Lando or an Ewok as said above.

One day I counted all of the scenes with lightsabers in them from all 6 movies -  from memory. The ignition count is probably accurate. It's amazing the extent to which they relied on the lightsaber in Episode 3. And it's not like they used it in inventive ways, like cutting through a blast door. It's just lightsaber battle after lightsaber battle. I hope that the lightsaber is used in cool ways in the new movies. For example, a Jedi falling off of a building or spaceship in the atmosphere could use it to arrest his fall by slicing into the building or spaceship on his way down. During a lightsaber battle, one of the combatants could deactivate the lightsaber for an instant, allowing the enemy's blade to fall through it, then reactivate it in their stomach. Length adjustments during battle could also change the dynamic, or using the Force to levitate it while activated. Or using it while on a speeder, slicing through enemy after enemy with abandon.

Of course, the best idea would be to find something more interesting than lightsaber battles to occupy screen time.

"The best of the best of the best, SIR!

...with honors."

"Nick, I'M MAKING THIS ONE UP! I'M MAKING IT UP!!! YOU CAN'T SAY YES TO IT BECAUSE IT DOESN'T &*$%ING EXIST!!!!!"

darth_ender said:

[no caption necessary]

Caption: (right to left: Obi-wan Kenobi, CreepyPuppetYoda, CreepyPuppetAnakin)

And there are still people, many people, calling for new nuclear reactors to be built in America. This is the very apex of insanity.

georgec said:

"All I have to do is squeeze..."

"All I have to do is scream."

For anyone who claims that The Last Crusade is not the best Indiana Jones movie, I merely direct them to the fact that Hitler signed Jones's diary. That wins at moviemaking forever.

Mrebo said:

I know it will happen! I prefer Jedi War to Holy War.

Lol.

I don't think that Jedi War will stay either.

The thing is, I don't want to have Jedi in these movies at all. The goal is to have it be completely Jedi and lightsaber free, so that we first learn about the lightsaber when Obi-wan gives it to Luke.

As for Owen not knowing about Anakin, I would have liked him to be ignorant of Anakin's powers throughout the movies, but as Anakin becomes the poster boy for the war in the EU, I'll work in the fact that Owen and Beru are vaguely aware of Anakin's Jedi status in the 2nd and 3rd movies.

Okay, I've changed the title to STARS OF WAR, and the working titles of the two sequels are OPEN WAR and HOLY WAR (or JEDI WAR).

Blast it, I was kind of expecting this new thread to galvanize me into actually beginning to finalize the writing of these movies. Oh well. It will happen eventually.

Thanks. I think Open War is a better title for the second in the series, the first being between Episodes 1 and 2 and called something like STARS of WAR. This will cover the first breakaway of the Separatist systems, around 24 bby. The second will be directly after the death of Cliegg Lars and the beginning of the Clone Wars, and the third will be at the same time as Episode 3.

The whole idea behind this is that a good trilogy of movies could exist within the prequel and EU timeline, a series of movies that can be watched before the original trilogy and that don't give away Anakin's fall, Yoda, or Leia. They center on Owen and Beru, and their untold adventures throughout the galaxy. These 3 movies will be unnumbered, as Episodes 1, 2, and 3 already exist, but as STAR WARS was unnumbered, this could be seen as a thematic tie-in to the ORIGINAL original trilogy.

Hard to answer such a broad question.

Take Sunshine for example. It was made for about 30,000,000 dollars, which for a big sci-fi movie is very little. However, the effects look like the work of a much larger production.

Several years ago I made a 30 minute movie with a MiniDV camera which cost about 300 dollars. We used wooded locations, used few props (this was a medieval setting), and the "actors", including myself, were all unpaid because it was for fun. Premiere Elements cost 100 dollars, and with all of the supplies the production probably ran close to a thousand dollars. The movie was pretty shit, but with a better script it would probably have been watchable. So a thousand dollars doesn't buy that much in terms of quality.

To cover the basics, hire people with acting experience, write a good script, and get permission to film in interesting locations. The costs of shooting digital should be very small compared to what is in front of the camera. Anyone can create passable CG sequences these days, the trick is primarily in story, secondly in acting.

If you want to know what it takes to make a good movie on the cheap, look at The Movie Hero. That is one of my favorite movies, and it uses extremely little in the way of sets and effects.

The fact that there was little outcry to the CGI is what makes the CGI historic.

BeyondStarWars

StarWarsHistory

StarExplorer

StarReadouts

StarWarsDataTapes

StarWiki

Ewokopedia

Yodapedia

Windipedia

Jedipedia

...aaaand now it's just getting silly.

I'm thinking either StarWiki or the aforementioned Wiki of the Whills.

So I've calibrated my screen the best I can, looked through the comparison pictures, and the thing that stands out the most, colorwise, is the reddish haze in the final scene. It's plainly apparent even in the comparison shots, where it is even redder than the GOUT! I've seen Mike Verta's color correction and his 35mm source, and the atmosphere is nowhere near as red as 2.1.

It's difficult to get the colors corrected from the DVD or Blu-ray (I've tried for weeks), but it is possible, especially if the movie is being corrected scene by scene.

So I've been thinking about this for a while (read: years) and I've come to realize that every discussion of philosophical or religious matters is doomed to failure because nobody bothers to define their terms, or explain their basic assumptions.

So what about you? What assumptions do you base your life on? Remember, I'm not necessarily talking about all of your religious beliefs, though that could apply. I mean in a philosophical sense, what are your first principles? Do you have any?

My terms and principles are as follows:

Principle: Something cannot come from nothing.

That is my first principle.

I define Something as "that which has dimension in either space or time" and I define Nothing as "that which has no dimension in either space or time".

Principle: "Nothing" is the natural state of being.

Basically, nothing is the natural state of existence, and something cannot come from it. This is an appeal to logic. If Something was the natural state of being (as it appears to be, what with the universe and all), all bets are off. Anything can happen, for whatever reason. Basically, say goodbye to philosophy and reason. Many people believe this. This is probably why they disdain philosophy.

So it would seem like we are at an impasse. Nothing is the natural state of being, and something cannot come from it. Case closed. No universe. End of story.

I beg to differ.

Let's look at what we have to work with. Nothing. Hm. Not looking good for the universe. By the way, I was stuck on this one for over a year.

Let's take a closer look at Nothing. What are we saying when we say "Nothing"? No space and time. Got it. A point, in other words, generally speaking, if you were to look at it from the outside, which would be impossible without space. But whatever, a point will do for our discussion.

So we have a point. What are the properties of this point? If Nothing exists, and can be represented by a point, then naturally it is all that is, and must account for the appearance of reality, the space and time of it all, the matter, energy, as well as self-awareness, the mind, etc. A tall order, it would seem.

Does a point know anything? What kind of a question is that? Humor me for a moment. Let's try to explain Self Awareness with only a point. A point cannot know anything, as knowledge implies the passage of time. Basically, you learned something, and now you know it. Without time, knowledge is not an option. However, Awareness is. Awareness is present tense. A subtle distinction, so let me define it.

Knowledge: Information with a time component.

Awareness: Information without a time component.

So we've allowed for a point to have awareness, as awareness doesn't require time. But can it be aware of space? Well, no. If you have nothingness, represented by a point, you can have no space or time. Definitions and such. So what exactly is the point aware of? Well, again, the only thing that it could possibly be aware of is itself. So it has Self Awareness.

See what I did there?

To recap:

Nothing is the natural state of being.

Something cannot come from nothing.

Nothing can have self awareness. (notice that this changes in meaning depending on how you interpret the word Nothing)

Finally, we have some idea of what is possible with little old nothing. Now let's rephrase what we have done.

Inferred Principle: "Nothing" can exist.

Inferred Principle: "Something" cannot exist.

This is just rephrasing the combination of the first two principles. So let's describe these two principles. If something exists, then it is True. If something does not exist, it is False.

The existence of Nothing is True.

The existence of Something is False.

Binary. Simple. Childishly so, from our first principles. So to say this another way, Truth is Nothing, Falseness is Something.

So the universe, being made of dimension, both of space and time (or space-time if you want to be modern) is False.

This follows from first principles.

Self Awareness, however, is True, again from first principles.

I define Self Awareness as simply "I".

I am self aware. See?

As self awareness is an acceptable quality of Nothing, all people are nothing. They are also True. They are without a space or time aspect, which means that they did not begin, and they do not end. As nothingness has no space or time component, all people from all times are in truth one nothingness, or one Truth. They truly exist, whereas the universe does not.

So much for the universe.

And as for people:

People are one.

People are immortal.

Not bad at all for an understanding of two first principles.

Man, what I would give to argue about religion a little.

I always wanted to see a Star Wars story that looked more like a Ralph McQuarrie painting, what with the sparse, open expanses and the stark, "alien" atmosphere. It looks like this may be the closest we get.

In the case of what was put on screen in 77, it seemed to me that Star Wars was just too "well done" to be real, if that makes any sense. No story, even in Hollywood, was ever that perfect in so many ways. It makes you think that it was itself a remake of a single, pretty good movie instead of a unique entity, and that we can now get a glimpse of this "merely good" movie.

Probably making no sense.

Ah, well...

I can just imagine how the meeting went.

Executive 1: "What should we do for April Fools this year?"

Regretful Guy: "I know, let's have a fake contest to see what the best video on Youtube is!"

Executive 1: "...and then claim that we're shutting down the site after we find it! (Regretful Guy), will you make the video?"

Regretful Guy: "Sure!"

Executive 1: "Oh, and make it a live, all day streaming event."

Regretful Guy: (is regretful)

Best. April. Fools. Ever.

You managed to fool me.

For a second.

Seriously though, great thread.

(Here follows an account of the great civil war, later known as the Clone Wars, from the eyes of Beru Whitesun and Owen Lars, who, having no personal stake in the war, were nevertheless swept up in a life and death struggle across the stars. Their tale will not disprove the account of Anakin Skywalker, the dark and mysterious figure who claimed to Owen and Beru to be merely a navigator on a Spice Freighter while in hiding on Tatooine. However, this tale will expose the conditions on the ground for a galaxy at war, the plight of the poor and underprivileged, those with no allegiance and no home. It will reveal the true origin of Anakin and his abilities, and the curse that drove generations to despair. Finally, it will tell of the onetime greatness of the Old Republic, before it was destroyed from within, and its resurrection in the birth of the Rebel Alliance. But the story, to state it simply, is about a boy, a girl, and a universe.)