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labingiIn today's news:
Star Wars
A friend and I watched Star Wars this weekend, rather distractedly, with much talking throughout the whole thing. Still, some thoughts that have been thought a million times before:
* I miss the 1970s. Their modernity has a raw, analog quality that seems in some ways more progressive than today and in some ways comfortingly old school.
* Models are better than CGI, or as my friend put it, "more organic." In fact, despite being much higher budget, the whole thing feels a bit Blake's 7. It gives the impression of a bunch of hard-working set and prop people painting a lot of cardboard with a lot of love.
* Alec Guinness is made of awesomeness. I think he once played T. E. Lawrence on stage, and he must have been a great cast; he really looks like him. If Lawrence had lived into his 60s, he would have looked just like Obi-Wan, but he would not have had a beard. He might well have been in flowing robes though.
* The acting in general is not half bad. It may not be Oscar-caliber, but it gives a very real and immediate sense of character. If only they could have gotten it for I-III.
* And this is the crux of why this story works for me, despite being 100% formulaic: movie script formula, hero's journey formula. Usually that would be a big turnoff for me (admittedly less so as a little kid, which is when I bonded with Star Wars). But the problem with formula is not that the story has been done before, it's that the formula usually becomes an excuse not to tell an interesting story. Star Wars is formulaic, but it embodies its formula in interesting, fun characters who stand out as individuals living individual lives.
* It's interesting--but not implausible--that after the destruction of the Death Star no one seems to notice that a whole bunch of their friends, including one of Luke's best friends, have just died. Ditto the deaths of Owen and Beru. It's plausible because these are circumstances of such extremes, dire consequence, and fast change that there is no space for grief. I'm sure grief happens later, and I'm sure there's no dearth of novels that deal with it.
* Leia is the most kickass damsel in distress ever. When I was in a mythology class in college, my professor told a story about his daughter watching Star Wars as a little kid, and he said that when Leia took the blaster and started shooting Stormtroopers in the corridor, his daughter leapt into the aisle of the theater, exclaiming something along the lines of, "Princess Leia! BANG! BANG!" He said, "She knew that myth had been rewritten for her." It's a shame about Padmé. I choose to give Lucas the benefit of the doubt that much of her fall came from not knowing how to write a strong wife/pregnant woman rather than a complete lack of interest in writing strong women.
The Hour before Morning Rough Cut
Watched it with Grayson, our composer. It ain't Star Wars. But while "rough" is the operative word, it's looking good on the whole. I think our biggest sustained difficulty--and a sign of our relative inexperience as filmmakers--is the lack of sufficient pauses for inserting things like voiceovers. This is going to require some creative post-production thinking to make for smooth transitions to flashbacks. I'm thinking we might develop a standard looking of fading out on a still frame or something.
As I watched it, I didn't notice a lot of things, which is a great comfort to me. I didn't notice the editing much. I only rarely noticed the 1001 different configurations of tattoos (Elek got the wrong design in one scene; oh dear.) I didn't notice red cup discontinuity. I didn't notice cheap costuming (except for Matt as a Tral, who stepped in in his street clothes to be an extra for us). I often didn't notice the acting, which is a compliment to our cast. Once I got into the story, there was rarely a moment where a weak performance pulled me out--and this is with a very under-rehearsed group of people.
I do wonder how well the story will communicate, purely on the level of my writing skill. Grayson voiced a couple of confusions, but not major ones. As for me, I have no clue. I can't even parse what's in the movie when vs. what I wrote in the novel or just thought long ago.
I hope that by the time we show it, I will have gotten over laughing every time we reach Jenchae and Akhté in bed. Yes, they are supposed to be lovers. And yes, it's my fault for telling my extremely het actors that it wasn't a very romantic scene. But they look like they're having some weird slumber party. I don't know...:-)
I must report to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
louderandlouder that "Trals in Love" are a blur. But they're there.
Making a Friend and Discussing Introversion
I made a new friend the other day. I had dinner with one of the ladies who replaced me at my former job, and it turned in to one of those two and a half hour discussions of the depths of our personal lives. We talked a lot about how hard it is to be an introvert and connect with people and meet other introverts.
When I told her I once had a discussion forum for introverts, she waxed enthusiastic about developing an introvert networking service of some kind, so we're going to look into that a little more. We might try an LJ community.
Star Wars
A friend and I watched Star Wars this weekend, rather distractedly, with much talking throughout the whole thing. Still, some thoughts that have been thought a million times before:
* I miss the 1970s. Their modernity has a raw, analog quality that seems in some ways more progressive than today and in some ways comfortingly old school.
* Models are better than CGI, or as my friend put it, "more organic." In fact, despite being much higher budget, the whole thing feels a bit Blake's 7. It gives the impression of a bunch of hard-working set and prop people painting a lot of cardboard with a lot of love.
* Alec Guinness is made of awesomeness. I think he once played T. E. Lawrence on stage, and he must have been a great cast; he really looks like him. If Lawrence had lived into his 60s, he would have looked just like Obi-Wan, but he would not have had a beard. He might well have been in flowing robes though.
* The acting in general is not half bad. It may not be Oscar-caliber, but it gives a very real and immediate sense of character. If only they could have gotten it for I-III.
* And this is the crux of why this story works for me, despite being 100% formulaic: movie script formula, hero's journey formula. Usually that would be a big turnoff for me (admittedly less so as a little kid, which is when I bonded with Star Wars). But the problem with formula is not that the story has been done before, it's that the formula usually becomes an excuse not to tell an interesting story. Star Wars is formulaic, but it embodies its formula in interesting, fun characters who stand out as individuals living individual lives.
* It's interesting--but not implausible--that after the destruction of the Death Star no one seems to notice that a whole bunch of their friends, including one of Luke's best friends, have just died. Ditto the deaths of Owen and Beru. It's plausible because these are circumstances of such extremes, dire consequence, and fast change that there is no space for grief. I'm sure grief happens later, and I'm sure there's no dearth of novels that deal with it.
* Leia is the most kickass damsel in distress ever. When I was in a mythology class in college, my professor told a story about his daughter watching Star Wars as a little kid, and he said that when Leia took the blaster and started shooting Stormtroopers in the corridor, his daughter leapt into the aisle of the theater, exclaiming something along the lines of, "Princess Leia! BANG! BANG!" He said, "She knew that myth had been rewritten for her." It's a shame about Padmé. I choose to give Lucas the benefit of the doubt that much of her fall came from not knowing how to write a strong wife/pregnant woman rather than a complete lack of interest in writing strong women.
The Hour before Morning Rough Cut
Watched it with Grayson, our composer. It ain't Star Wars. But while "rough" is the operative word, it's looking good on the whole. I think our biggest sustained difficulty--and a sign of our relative inexperience as filmmakers--is the lack of sufficient pauses for inserting things like voiceovers. This is going to require some creative post-production thinking to make for smooth transitions to flashbacks. I'm thinking we might develop a standard looking of fading out on a still frame or something.
As I watched it, I didn't notice a lot of things, which is a great comfort to me. I didn't notice the editing much. I only rarely noticed the 1001 different configurations of tattoos (Elek got the wrong design in one scene; oh dear.) I didn't notice red cup discontinuity. I didn't notice cheap costuming (except for Matt as a Tral, who stepped in in his street clothes to be an extra for us). I often didn't notice the acting, which is a compliment to our cast. Once I got into the story, there was rarely a moment where a weak performance pulled me out--and this is with a very under-rehearsed group of people.
I do wonder how well the story will communicate, purely on the level of my writing skill. Grayson voiced a couple of confusions, but not major ones. As for me, I have no clue. I can't even parse what's in the movie when vs. what I wrote in the novel or just thought long ago.
I hope that by the time we show it, I will have gotten over laughing every time we reach Jenchae and Akhté in bed. Yes, they are supposed to be lovers. And yes, it's my fault for telling my extremely het actors that it wasn't a very romantic scene. But they look like they're having some weird slumber party. I don't know...:-)
I must report to
louderandlouder that "Trals in Love" are a blur. But they're there.Making a Friend and Discussing Introversion
I made a new friend the other day. I had dinner with one of the ladies who replaced me at my former job, and it turned in to one of those two and a half hour discussions of the depths of our personal lives. We talked a lot about how hard it is to be an introvert and connect with people and meet other introverts.
When I told her I once had a discussion forum for introverts, she waxed enthusiastic about developing an introvert networking service of some kind, so we're going to look into that a little more. We might try an LJ community.
