Speculation Please no handheld.

To me the cinematography of Star Wars is as important as the music or the characters, it's a subtle but really important part of a Star Wars film.

Abrams should respect the directorial work of Lucas (Episode IV Lucas), Marquand and Kirschner and craft his shots to fit into the visual style of the series.

I do not want to see handheld chase scenes or purposeful shakes of the camera to create realism, Star Wars isn't about realism it's a fantasy.

I didn't mind the handheld in Star Trek, but that was a reboot and besides the Star Trek films have always had different styles.

 

I definitely don't want any "digitally shaky cam" in an all digital scene, which they bragged about during the AotC (I think) promo period.
And I do want the weird scene transitions from way back when.
I'm sure "weird scene transitions" isn't the official term.

 

You don't have to worry about any of this. Abrams is going to be following the Star Wars visual template VERY closely. If there is one thing Abrams is: He is an imitator/conformist. He knows how to recreate what he likes.

 

i doubt he would use the handheld cam for something like Star wars.

 

You do realise that the prequels followed the same "directorial work" style as the first three, right? The feel that the camera work had was identical to the OT.

 

ROFL, tell that to the people that constantly try to insert real life logic to justify their hatred for the prequels.

 

Well I wouldn't say that entirely. The prequels certainly very distinct visual style.

But the original trilogy had a very diverging look from each film. Especially, The Empire Strikes Back. Empire Strikes Back looks VERY different than A New Hope.

A New Hope(or even the Prequels)Lucas liked to have large wide shots, where the viewer takes in the whole scene. Its very much influenced from something like a John Ford picture. Actors in Lucas directed films are largely "props."

Empire, on the other hand, Kirshner loved to fill the frame, many times, with the actors faces. Getting more mannerisms, and interplay between actors. Empire has more in common with noir films of the 1940s.

 

Wasn't there a bit of shakiness during the trooper scenes in the Battle of Geonosis, or am I mistaken?

 

There's plenty of hand-cam in SW. But GL doesn't hit you over the head with it, as JJA does.

 

Yeah, no shaky cams and slow motions shots.

 

Why would you hire a director like Abrams, one of the best in the business right now, and tell him "do it excatly like these other people did it".

I want to see Abrams do HIS take on Star Wars. You don't need an A-List director to copy what someone else did. You get an A-List director to get them to bring their style, vision etc... to the project. Abrams should be able to make the movie the way he sees it and wants to make it, and Kennedy is a good enough producer to let him.

 

It doesn't just go for Abrams through.

I've seen people on here and people on forcecast say things like - bring this guy back, bring that guy back, I don't want some new guy doing his verison of Star Wars music etc...."

That should be part of the excitement of Disney making new Star Wars movies, we get to see other creative people playing int he world and what their take on the characters and universe is. We've seen how Lucas and "the old guard" handle it. I don't want people who will just copy what they did, I want to see something new. If Kirschner just copied with Lucas did would Empire have been as good as it was?

There is a lot of new blood coming into the franchise (With some of the old guard there as well), they should (and I have ever confidence they will be allowed too) have the freedom to be creative, bring new things and new visions to the franchise.

 

I'm all for original takes. The problem is the new trilogy's identity. If it is the beginning of a brand new story thread, then by all means, make it completely new. But if it is supposed to conclude the story thread set by the first two trilogies, then the more it differs from those two in style, the more lopsided the whole saga will seem.

 

Empire Strikes back continued the story started in ANH, but it was different in style and tone, and almost everyone holds it up as the best in the series. And the style and tone changes didn't make it different from the ANH, they got incorporated into what made Star Wars Star Wars.

I know the idea of change adn something new is scary, but it should also be whats exciting about the new movies. Not "oh my god, what will JJ Abrams change", it should be "I can't wait to see what JJ Abrams will bring".

 

Those are film transitions and are called 'wipes' and 'dissolves' and yes they are very much a part of Star Wars thanks to George Lucas who is a student of film editing and he has said that is his favorite part of filmmaking.

 

You are correct. The only time I was aware of it was the "zooming" in of the Clone Gunships at the beginning of the battle of Geonosis. I'm a very vocal Lucas and PT defender, but even I have to concede that those scenes didn't "fit right".

The filming styles of ANH through ROTS are pretty consistent. The only real changes were the space battles, because as technology advanced, so did they way the battles were filmed. In the original theatrical release of ANH, the models moved very stiffly without panning around a lot as that was a limitation of the newly invented motion control camera. In ESB, the space battles improved and by ROTJ, we saw the insane amount of ships and different angles it was filmed at. In the Special Edition of ANH, the Death Star space battle was improved by adding CGI, which IMO, was a great improvement.

Long story short is for the most part all six films have a similar filming style. the ST should follow that model.

 

I re-watched Abrams Star Trek last night and tried to imagine it as a Star Wars film, you know, to maybe get a feel for what the ST might look like, and the shaky cam jumped out at me the most in a bad way.

 

Like there's a cameraman in that Galaxy who filmed it and sent it to earth. Na, no thanks. It won't make it feel "realistic". I think he'll mimic the Star Wars traditional style, even more so reflecting the OT. CGI has improved a lot as well so I don't think the new series will have that synthetic feel the PT had.

 

I don't think something new is scary at all! I LOVE being excited about the possible places new directors can go. I'm just saying there are aesthetic boundaries past which a "conclusion trilogy" would seem out of place. You want A, B, & C. Not A, B, & c.