emanswfan

Full Vanity Fair article on TFA:

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/05/star-wars-the-force-awakens-vanity-fair-cover

So many great insights into the production of the movie, and very much worth a full read.  Note some small segments of it had been posted previously.

Out of everything, what some are saying makes me so confident that this will be great, but I've really got to tell myself to hold back the hype train.

Nice to see that Michael Ardnt and Lucas really had essentially no influence whatsoever on the movie.

Well the rumors have been stating that they have one or two doubles that they use in addition to Lupita's motion capture performance, so the arm may very well be real with the face CG'd.  However, I wouldn't be surprised if the arm was CGI though, since there is the technology to do a shot like that.  I mean Gollum in The Hobbit looked amazing, if only the other CG in those movies looked as good.

I have little doubt it's Maz Kanata handing the lightsaber to Leia, though I guess it could just be some other alien.

Also on the weird theforce.net forums, there was a fully organized compilation of all the rumors/speculation into a full plot, mostly from Making Star Wars stuff.  Who knows how much is legitimate, I'm betting maybe 20% of it is correct at most.

yoda1138 said:

I also had issues, it downloaded fully, but playback (vlc) was very choppy, like a slideshow. (also use firefox) any ideas?

 make sure you don't have any video filters on.  1080p videos will lag when you apply anything.

Wouldn't mind if only they could have restored Boba's original voice in ESB. *cough, cough*

Another interview with JJ:

Bruce Handy: Your movie is taking place 30-something years after Return of the Jedi. Are you going to give it some of that fill-in-blanks quality, in terms of whatever’s happened in the Star Wars galaxy across those decades?

J.J. Abrams: Well, what’s cool is we’ve obviously had a lot of time [during the development process] to talk about what’s happened outside of the borders of the story that you’re seeing. So there are, of course, references to things, and some are very oblique so that hopefully the audience can infer what the characters are referring to. We used to have more references to things that we pulled out because they almost felt like they were trying too hard to allude to something. I think that the key is—and whether we’ve accomplished that or not is, of course, up to the audience—but the key is that references be essential so that you don’t reference a lot of things that feel like, oh, we’re laying pipe for, you know, an animated series or further movies. It should feel like things are being referenced for a reason.

Bruce Handy: Tell me about what it was like working on the new film both as its writer-director and as a hard-core Star Wars fan going back to your childhood.

J.J. Abrams: Maybe the weirdest moment, which came months after production, was the first time I sat down with John Williams to show him about a half an hour of the movie. I can’t describe the feeling. All I will say is, just to state the facts of it: I am about to show John Williams 30 minutes of a Star Wars movie that he has not seen [and] that I directed. That’s probably as surreal as it gets in my professional life experience.

Bruce Handy: The first three Star Wars movies had a certain knowingness, because of the way the characters are, so archetypal, and the way they reference a lot of film history, like Luke gazing out at the two setting suns the way someone would in a John Ford Western. That was such a part of the whole “movie brat” thing in the 70s, that George Lucas was a part of. Did you fool around with any of those kinds of nods at movie history?

J.J. Abrams: There are a few specific references that are kind of my own little stupid, secret ones. But what I realized early on was it was all about point of view—meaning it’s not like you just objectively throw in a star field or a spaceship or a desert planet or whatever the thing. The question is, who is that person in that experience? Why does it matter to them? What are they desperate for or afraid of? For me, you could reference all the stuff you want, but the experience of the audience in this is that they’ve got to be sitting with someone who happens to be on-screen going through these experiences. And then that’s not just a desert planet; it could be the most desperate place in the world. Or that’s not just a spaceship flying by; it could be the greatest, most heroic moment of your life. That, to me, has been the constant struggle: to make sure that none of these things are treated like either they’re a museum piece and we’re trying to honor them or they’re gratuitous and thrown in because, well, it’s a Star Wars movie so you’ve got to put these things in. Everything has got to be essential to the characters in the film.

You’ll geek out over this, too.

Interesting to see the youngest reactions.

https://youtu.be/KWQPo34LUvg

Best part is at 1:03 with the timing of Kylo Ren's force push

grainger said:

Overall, I'm worried about the overall set-up of the film. I really hope the Rebels aren't still fighting the Empire, having never beat them.

 For sure the resistance and the first order are not the respective rebels and empire, especially since they mention the new republic in the description of the battle of jakku for the Battlefront game.

I would guess that the new republic has simply struggled to maintain control over all they desire, with empire themed groups rising up over the years.  I'm a little confused as to how they are going to make it look like stuff happened over the last 30 years, and yet not feel sad because the ST didn't come in the late 80's when it should have.

pittrek said:

I love the trailer! But wasn't Rex a bad guy ? Or did he turn back?

 You can see in one of the shots that all three of the clones had their chips removed to prevent them from reacting to Order 66 (reference to the clone trooper arc from TCW season 6).

Well they do refer to the "new republic" and the "empire" in the description about the battle of Jakku.  First cannon mention of the new republic, though it seems to not be existent in TFA so far.

Meaning that maybe both fell greatly, eventually causing the "resistance" and "the first order" to rise by TFA.

I'm guessing this game won't go into story allowing "Aftermath" to cover it, OR it could be an opening for TFA much like how Trek '09 started, with a battle taking many years before the present story takes place.

Here's some 4K shots from the new teaser, including the IMAX shots uncropped.

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-star-wars-episode-vii-force-awakens-hires-stills-4k-imax-format-74958/

I shot first said:

bkev said:

For the record I'm annoyed as well, but not "f*ck you" annoyed.  So much for seeing this at the theatre I've seen them all in... they'll definitely be doing 3D.

Conversions don't make as much money.  People seem to know the difference between native 3D and postproduction 3D.  
I really hope the Village Theatre in Westwood has 2D showings, too.

 I used to say the same thing until I saw Gravity in Imax 3D. Was shocked when I found out the 3D was done in post.  That being said, I will probably see this in 2d if possible.

 But so much of that is CGI, that much of it could just be rendering the CG from two different cameras like real 3D.  This would have given them more time to convert the 2D live action footage.

That said, odds are that the space scenes will be with CG, so they can probably do native 3D on those shots, unless they don't have enough rendering time.

Have to say that the cinematography is so good in this, and unlike many films I see today, wisely uses its aspect ratio, utilizing the enhanced horizontal space in 2:39:1.

And while certainly not every shot, a few shots did look like they were picked straight from the OT.

My one question is where the hell did they get his lightsaber back from cloud city for that one shot, unless that god-awful opening shot rumor is still true...

TV's Frink said:

emanswfan said:

Umm, no one is being forced to see it in 3D.

 Apparently people in Northern Europe are.

 I see now.  Weird, never heard of that before.

Well I'd hope it to have a conversion as good as the Wizard Of Oz, but I kinda doubt...  That conversion was at least as good as native 3D, if not better.

Umm, no one is being forced to see it in 3D.

So I know that you can take a CD and convert it into Itunes onto your iphone.  And I've known you can convert the Bluray or DVD you own to the digital format onto that same device via something like DVDFAB (the ripping program I use), so I was wondering if either is actually legal to do?

Or is it different between music and a movie?  I wonder if it's not since virtually any movie you buy now comes with a free digital copy.

Saying this since it's actually less expensive to buy such a program and convert your existing copy rather than buying a digital version.

I never thought of the PT in this way, but looking up a list of films covering characters w/ various mental disorders, it showed AOTC and ROTS under borderline personality disorder for the character, Anakin.  Now, I'll have to watch the films again, to see if that diagnosis is really accurate.  Maybe I could view at least very small part of the PT in a more positive light from a very obscure point of view.

generalfrevious said:

Here's what makes me cautious about TFA:

1. What worked in the late 70s/early 80s won't necessarily translate well for modern audiences.

2. JJ Abrams's last film was Star Trek Into Darkness; and the rest of his filmography isn't exactly stellar.

3. Harrison Ford hasn't been in a good movie since maybe The Fugitive, and the last time he played an iconic character it was Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.

4. Remember when we were excited about Episode I, and thought it would bring Star Wars back to its glory days? History might be repeating itself, as the motivations for making TFA are the exact same as Prequels 15 years ago.

 1. If visuals, I'm sure JJ is not making it look exactly like it is from then.  If story, the OT is still cherished now.  We just need a little extra freshness from modern screenwriting thrown into attract today's audiences.

2. JJ didn't grow up as a Trek fan, so he didn't have the same passion, love, and care for the series as he did very much for Star Wars.

3. Lucas isn't here to F things up, since he was the one that pretty much ruined everything that could have been good about that film.

4. It's still too early to prove any of that happening just yet.  And so far, of the one trailer we saw there was nothing completely stupid in it like Jar-Jar and clumsy robots like in the TPM teaser.  Sure though, I still don't think TFA will be as good as SW and ESB, from what has been officially seen so far, there is little reason to doubt it could be the first good SW film since ESB, but things could change in the upcoming months, since you just never know.

Hal 9000 said:

emanswfan said:

I could justify the purchase if the deleted scenes were HD, since I wouldn't know whether the mixes match till I go through the multi-step phase cancelation.

 Are you waiting to find out, or do you know they're SD? 

if, not sure yet.  Really doubt it though, I guess we'll hear soon.  I especially think this since nearly every BD that has special features from previous releases are just ports from the previous DVD's (although I think they usually end up being less compressed as they get sourced from the SD masters).

TV's Frink said:

emanswfan said:

Just thought if this release has support for multiple languages.  Finding a matching English Dolby 5.1 and Spanish Dolby 5.1 mixes would allow extraction of the voices and music as separate elements, which is an absolute necessity for PT edits.

Any know if the specs on any of the digital formats have two different languages both in Dolby 5.1 so I could test it out?

 If previous releases were only 2.0 for alt languages, I don't know why it would be any different this time.

 They had 5.1 dolby alt languages on the blurays... just the english was dts so it didn't match.  unless I could just take the dolby 5.1 english from the digital release to use against an alt language from my bluray copy...

I could justify the purchase if the deleted scenes were HD, since I wouldn't know whether the mixes match till I go through the multi-step phase cancelation.

Just thought if this release has support for multiple languages.  Finding a matching English Dolby 5.1 and Spanish Dolby 5.1 mixes would allow extraction of the voices and music as separate elements, which is an absolute necessity for PT edits.

Any know if the specs on any of the digital formats have two different languages both in Dolby 5.1 so I could test it out?

Apparent leaked images of Kylo Ren from a style guide given to game/toy companies.

Doubt this other trailer description is legit (like I feel all these are fake, or just have bits and pieces right), but it sounds pretty cool for the most part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS4ntHja0Xo

SilverWook said:

They are people too. If they prefer the SE's (all three versions and counting) and the prequels, then more power to them.

It's when people insist the OOT stay in the vault I can't fathom. I can't see Disney passing up a revenue stream that's been untapped for years though. If they have the rights free and clear that is...

 Completely agree.  It's less that the SE's are bad, and more so that the OOT just isn't available.

Gosh, I really hope with all my heart they announce something at Celebration.  It's far more important to me than some new TFA trailer right now.

Interview w/ Simon Pegg on TFA set.  Again, practical FX, a real surprise. :p

Collider: Since you and J.J. Abrams are such good friends, what are your thoughts on Star Wars?

PEGG:  I’m immensely excited, having been lucky enough to visit the set. I’ve never been on a film set where everyone has been so invested in the material because they are emotionally and intrinsically linked to it, as people who work in an industry that was informed by the original films. Suddenly, they’re back in those environments, seeing those sets again and seeing J.J. work with real physical things, and models and puppets and masks. Also, the new technology will, of course, be involved in it. The original films were always about the cutting edge. They weren’t retro movies. They were very forward-thrusting, technological masterpieces, and as such, there will be that stuff. It’s going to be extraordinary. I’m so excited for people to see it. It’s going to be everything that we wanted 16 years ago and didn’t get.

Collider: It’s so cool because it’s a combination of this vastly different technology with a franchise that makes you feel the wonder of being a kid again.

PEGG:  Totally! I took my daughter to the set, and she met BB-8, the droid you see in the trailer. She sat with him for ages, and just talked to him. The guys were operating it, just off camera, and she was there. I said, “Come on, we’ve gotta go,” and she said, “I just want to spend some more time with him and have another hug.” It’s just a ball with a thing on it, but it’s a testament to that character, how much he’s going to impact on audiences because he’s so full of life. And that goes across, for everything. Also, to see the old staples again is going to blow people’s minds.

Source

Well worth the read interview with Dave Filoni.

Best quote:

Filoni: "Season 1 is like A New Hope. Season 2 becomes more like Empire Strikes Back for our heroes. They’re starting to pass through this new part of their journey and things become ratcheted up, more exciting, more adventure; but darker, more dangerous like you would expect."