TV Discussion Official Live Action Series Discussion Thread

I would hope the reason it's costing them 50K is because it takes actual money to make things that DON'T look like half the junk that airs on SyFy.

 

Maybe Lucas should just settle for a miniseries to get things started.

 

I agree. In the unlikely event Lucas' idea is terrible, he'll be able to revise it or scrap it altogether in favor of a new idea.

Plus we won't have to wait as long!

 

It's frustrating that GL can't pull himself away from his obsession with special effects even in this format.

$50 mil? Come on. What happened to character driven stories? I had hoped doing TV would FORCE GL to finally put out Star Wars with really good stories.

 

I thought I'd heard somewhere that George was impressed with the quality of BSG's effects and that had served as something of an imspiration for him.

If thats the case, well BSG didn't cost nearly that much per episode so I'm not so sure what George is carrying on about.

Now I can certainly understand if it costs a bit more than BSG did, but 50 million seems a little odd.

Use guys in Storm Trooper suits George, not CGI models - It will save money.............

 

Hmm, what else could he do?

So, obvioulsy blokes in suits rather than CGI troopers - hell - bet you a lot of the 501st would appear for free if you needed a lot of extra troops in the background. Then avoid CG aliens like gungans - stick with cantina style aliens - Rodians, Wookiees, Twi'leks.

Maybe create some entirely physcal locations to base the series in, restrict scope to more interiors - BSG could be cheaper because they could reuse ship corridors a lot.

I imagine the most expensive thing would be if they went for a "Stories from the dark Times" approach with lots of different locations, characters and sets. It would be much cheaper if they went with a consistent cast, core locations and minimise the number of ship models they need.

 

I'd imagine George would be able to get away with less ships, like a BSG sized amount anyway. Really BSG had a lot of different Capital ships that got visited over the series, as well as the couple different Battlestar designs bewtween Galactica and Pegasus. I bet if we added them up there would be a lot.

Just off the top of my head there was the two Battlestars, Caprica 1, the prison ship, the Cylon Bay Stars, the weapons station, the gamblingship, the mining ship, so on, so forth. Assuming George could reuse some designs from the films, it shoudln't take to much to come up with different ship interiors to use.

 

Each episode of BSG and Farscape had a budget of 2 million, Lucas could probably afford at least 5 million per episode (maybe more). I don?t really see there being a problem if the series is supposed to focus on characters rather than huge effects. Lucas should still have more than enough money to make the best looking Sci-Fi show yet, by far.

 

Each episode of BSG and Farscape had a budget of 2 million,
That much ? I just watched the SG1 bonus films on Hulu, and Amanda Tapping said SG1 had a budget of 1.4 million per episode.

 

[image=http://www.vimooz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/sag-logo.jpg]

I don't think it works like that. Even extras get pay. And if you're suggesting filming in a non-union location, well... look how much fun Peter Jackson is having dealing with that right now. No, I'm sure they can find non-sketchy ways to film a Star Wars series that don't involve free labor, filming on the same sets repeatedly, or otherwise compromising the whole purpose of what he's trying to achieve with the show. Bottom line is that he doesn't have to do the show if he can't do it the way he wants.

If he wants Gungans, the man should have his Gungans.

 

I'm gonna' put my intelligence out on a limb and maybe I'm a bit ignorant of CGI costs, and such; but I'm missing how CGI technology that was developed throughout the prequels (including what was developed for other films) could cost so much. I can see the time and cost of designing new CGI characters, but for stuff that's been used in the prequels (and even the OT SEs) I would think is almost like stock film to Lucas. I would imagine there has to be fully usable templates that can be re-used, especially for say CGI stormtroopers.

Again, I'm probably really ignorant about the process (so now is the time for some one more knowledgable to teach me something), but we're talking about using FX technology at least RotS level, which is over 5 years old at this point, so it makes me wonder why there is such a high price ticket to even the pilot episode?

 

Rise... the last I heard, I think the LAS was being put on hold indefinitely due to high production costs. Anybody heard anything recently about the LAS's fate?

 

That's still about all we know for now. Unfortunately.

 

The last news I heard was a video clip of a George Lucas interview from September 2010 I found linked to on the wookieepedia page about the show. He basically just said they can't do it now because the technology doesn't exist to do it cheap enough but he thinks eventually it will. Anyone know of anything more recent than that?

 

George needs to get realistic about the kind of story that should be told on Television. We need more meat to the story and plot and less special effects and CGI eye candy. There is no reason that Henson?s people could do a show as visually compelling as ?Farscape? on a realistic TV budget and George can?t other than he has the bar set to high or is aiming for the wrong thing entirely. The fact that they have the per episode sticker price set so high for me is a really bad sign that they are relying on Special Effects more than they are story.

 

50 million per episode sounds silly. No way a single episode could cost more than an entire season of BSG or Farscape, no way. I don?t think any of the OT movies cost that much to make, and I?m pretty certain CGI is supposed to be cheaper than models. What is it really that would draw that much money? If he instead spent ?only? 10 million per. episode he could still easily make the best looking Sci-Fi series ever, easily.

 

I?m personally getting to the point where I could care less if they ever do a live action series to be honest. They can do so much more and have way fewer restrictions in an animated format and as we have seen with Clone Wars can do pretty much anything they could ever imagine. We would NEVER see something like ?Landing at Point Rain? in a live action format.

However I am still intrigued by the whole ?Deadwood? in space thing that was being rumored as the kinda feeling the show was aiming for. I could see Cad Bane fitting in quite nicely if the show had that kinda of tone.

 

Thanks. Yeah, $50M per episode is just insane... I'm hoping that was not a "real" number, but even the real number should not be anywhere near that. If the story requires good CGI effects that's fine, but a price estimate like that suggests effects overkill. So I guess I'm back to what I raised a few pages back when I wondered about doing the same "dark times" stories, but with animation like TCW instead of live action.

 

Yea, since they supposedly have 50 scripts already written it would be a real shame if they were never used. Would be great if TCW team started making ?The Dark Times? once they are finished with this series.

 

George must have lost his mind- 50 million per episode is ridiculous what he is going to put there if it costs that much? still i disagree with previous statement that Landing at Point Rain could work in liveaction as well- CGI for sure but still- i cannot believe Lucas cannot suddenly do liveaction star wars since he did it well before CGI- now it should be easier and cheaper what the heck is problem? - if tv-series is too long then they should select best ideas and do few movies and do the rest of the story in animation format like TCW....

 

Agreed! He even said the series was going to be more character driven so it's hard to imagine how the price could be so high especially considering that.

Agreed! Seeing these tales in an all-CGI format certainly has its advantages. I don't know about you guys, but in Eps. I and especially II it can sometimes be hard for me to stay "in the movie" when I'm seeing shots of, say, Mace Windu surrounded by CGI Yoda and CGI Clone Troopers on a CGI vessel in front of a CGI background. Ep. III pulled it off much better but there are a lot of moments like that for me in I and especially II where I have a hard time buying it because of the stark visual contrast.

On the other hand, The Clone Wars series has none of those faults whatsoever. Once you buy into the kind of cartoony way that Anakin and Tyrannus' faces look and Obi-Wan's blocky beard, everything just flows so smoothly. The Clone Troops as well as the Separatist droid army (and Kaminoans, and other aliens that are CGI in the films) don't stick out like a sore thumb at all like they often do in the films, and all the other characters look pretty much normal. Once you buy into it visually there's nothing to jar you out of that like there frequently are in the films. Does ANYONE believe CGI Jabba the Hutt when they see it? I know I don't.

 

there is CGI-Jabba in ANH-special edition and original 1997-one is just horrible - dvd-version works well enough for me - i don't have any big problems with CGI in PT either- it's just as believable as obvious masks and models in OT (sorry but it's true IMO) both trilogies has these weaknesses in effects they won't ruin the movies or it's believability if you don't watch with too critical eye-
droids are well done and kamino has lighting that makes kaminoans look better, Watto and gungans work but gungan army needs updating.... Dexter Jettster is pretty bad and they made mistake when clones were not real-armors in AOTC- would have been better looking- Yoda needs minor updates in AOTC and i would like to see TPM-Yoda replaced with CGI-model ...

ROTS CGI looks great but TPM and AOTC need minor updating

- i hope all movies as 3D versions have improved effects in both trilogies but since changes in OT are always taboo let's not talk about that there is not much needed in OT though anyway- green edges around ships are the worst thing... and i would personally love to see more believable Greedo....

Still movies are fine enough as they are- if they would do TV-series with similar weaknesses i would be just happy- TCW-kind of animation is nice too but i still want CGI/liveaction whatever it would be...

 

I guess it's just an individual thing then. I personally buy into the aliens in the original trilogy. As long as something is physically there, the production values are usually good enough for me. For example, all the aliens in the Cantina on Mos Eisley in Ep. IV are totally believable to me. Same for creatures in Ep. V (ugnauts, wompas, tauntauns, various bounty hunters). But Boss Nass in Ep. I? That dude that tells Obi-Wan the dart came from Kamino in Ep. II? I don't believe those characters at all, because it's just so obvious that there was never anything physically there (except maybe a person they CGI'ed over). It really takes my mind out of the story and reminds me that I'm watching a movie, which I don't like. I never have that problem with The Clone Wars, which is part of why I love it so much.

 

many people seem to have that prob with PT- but truth is that i cannot see that clear difference in believability since Greedo is obviously man with mask and tauntaun is stopmotion while Yoda is puppet but i don't have to think it that way since story takes me in the universe well enough. Same with CGI i really see no difference between these two techniques- neither one is perfect but both work for me and i can watch the movies without having that "it's just a movie" effect- i think i should be happy then ... still i have that dream of seeing perfect Saga one day- but unfortunately that would require changes for both trilogies to me.... and changing OT is considered taboo after Lucas did it- still i like new version better..... don't kill me OT-fans... i like it I really do- but that's why i would like to see it perfect.... same with PT it's worse because of some bad acting and some bad CGI- little improvements wouldn't hurt- i agree Dexter is need of work- still Nass never bothered me that much -but both worked just as well as Greedomask and served their purpose to create something alive that doesn't exists and i believed in all of them well enough

 

I see what you're saying. But I see two issues here. One is a movie potentially being ruined by over-thinking about the movie's production, it's a separate issue when something is visually out-of-place and noticeably fake. Yoda in Ep. V is a perfect example. The way the puppet is manipulated is so life-like, I completely buy into Yoda as a character. I'd have to be consciously thinking about the fact that he's a puppet for it to be ruined, visually nothing suggests that Yoda is fake. I feel the same about Greedo (though his mouth moves a little oddly, he is an alien after all). Boss Nass and Dexter just aren't like that. I wish they were puppets making life-like movements! Instead they're painfully obvious constructions of computer imaging. There's a stark visual contrast that exists there that involuntarily takes me out of the story. Luke talking to Yoda in Ep. V is believable, Qui-Gon talking to Boss Nass in Ep. I is not so much.

Or we could use Stormtroopers as an example. The only way that gets ruined is if one consciously thinks that it's just an extra in a costume. The visual is realistic and blends with everything else because it's something physically there, not generated after-the-fact by computers. Clone Troops on the other hand are entirely generated by computers, and in Ep. II in scenes where they're talking to actual people they stick out like a sore thumb visually in a way that Stormtroopers don't because they're actual people in actual outfits that are caught on film.

Hopefully that makes a bit of sense.