PT A Visual Essay on Lucas's directing(editing, etc)

I found this video on reddit(of all places!)

And I can't believe how insightful this is.

You guys should really give this a watch for a while

Though...I don't agree with "everything" he says.

 

gl always did his own thing. it was almost a fluke that sw hit as big as it did.

 

Good summary!

 

There is some interesting stuff in there. For example the Anakin face morph, which, after watching it at least 10 times, I still don't see it....

I am lost though in what this guy is actually saying...

Pretty much everything is about editing, so what does this have to do with anyone coming to a conclusion, good or bad, as to his directing?

Anyway... A video I recently watched that I really liked:

 

To me, the Anakin face morph is pretty obvious (at least after he pointed it out). You can tell there is a lot of editing in that scene with regard to Anakin's reactions. And slightly closer examination has clearly yielded the morph, as shown in the video.

Incidentally, there is at least one other instance of Anakin's face morphing (excluding the hand morph in AOTC which the video also shows). In the dinner scene in TPM, watch Anakin's final head turn towards Qui-Gon after Shmi's line: "He can help you, he was meant to help you." You may have to watch it two or three times.

Another sly bit of CGI I've noticed (the former example was pointed out by someone else and is therefore not my own observation: but I did look and confirm it for myself), also in ROTS, occurs as Anakin jumps out of the elevator car after cutting the hole in the roof. Watch Obi-Wan's body (specifically: his abdomen/waist region). It unnaturally tightens, or, for want of a better term, jumps, like some frames got cut out (around 9:56), perhaps to give Anakin's body better clearance as he passes him during his heroic leap.

And, as the video also shows, it's not like Lucas has ever really hidden any of this stuff (well, from a certain point of view...). Not only is there that piece from "The Beginning" which the narrator enthusiastically uses, but there are other examples he could have chosen, like comments made on the ROTS track, where John Knoll reveals that Anakin's hand was actually turned ninety degrees in editing (when he regains consciousness from the second vision sequence at the start of the "Hero Lost" chapter), because it was originally facing down, and George first wanted him to be holding the pad perpendicular to his body. Really amazing -- all the tricks they used; all the things paid attention to. A neat little cinematographic trick I like is the digital rack focus, also pointed out by John Knoll, during the shot of Palpatine turning to Anakin after he confesses to being (or leads Anakin to the conclusion of him being) Darth Sidious, and Anakin lowers his lightsaber. It's an artful blend of two different shots, and by using a post-production process, they are able to do more than the physical cameras alone could deliver. Brilliant.

But focusing on this stuff, as cool as it is, knowing that George was, once again, on the bleeding edge, and had all those cool toys at his disposable, maximally pumping them for an all-encompassing artistic effect, sort of misses the point. The small details do matter -- inordinately so! But even then, which details become important? The context is what matters. If it's just to argue that Lucas was still pushing the envelope, then that makes him more of a technician than an artisan, much less an artist. In that regard, the video narrator never really proves his broader assertion that Lucas is less director, more storyteller -- how, why? We, as prequel fans, might already hold to that, but it would be nice if the narrator had explicated his view better.

I'm not calling the video bad, however (though it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that it is bookmarked by bashing and concessions at both ends). I just wish it had gone a little more in-depth.

It does have an absolutely glorious graphic, though, which is worth savouring. It truly embodies the split-mind thinking of the Star Wars fanbase!!!

(Young George Lucas) ..................................................... (Older George Lucas)
Created Star Wars ..................................................... Ruined Star Wars



Exactly.

If nothing else, the one point the narrator does successfully make -- or reasonably so -- is that Lucas has always been ahead of the pack and follows his own instincts, no matter the opposition and adversity he has faced.

But when I watch the movies, even though I'm aware of some of these tricks and techniques, and that awareness generally adds rather than subtracts, I'm especially in love with the framing, with the colours, with the subtle glances of the actors (real and digital and real but digitally tweaked), with the general shapes and patterns, the flow of imagery, and the shifting tones, more than I am, with, well... how Lucas accomplished X. That doesn't interest me as much as letting myself become overwhelmed by the explosion of colour and detail.

Get all the way from the clinical insides of the TF ship in TPM, for example, to the middle of the lightsaber duel on Mustafar, and you can become totally filled up by the sense of oil paintings exploding to life. There's a gorgeous exultancy about the whole thing. That is the true secret of digital technology in George Lucas' hands. He was not just telling a story with better technology. He was painting on the screen in a whole new way. And through that, he was expressing an old story -- the downfall of man -- in a wholly unique register. These same techniques have only continued to advance since Lucas made the prequels, but no other movie I've yet watched has that totalizing effect that the prequels have. I've been looking (sort of), but I haven't found it anyplace else.

I saw the full version of that quite recently.

Recommended viewing.

Robert Redford and George Lucas: two glorious film legends.

And you forget how old they are when watching!!!

Maybe they are, indeed, particularly young at heart, and have drunk grandly from the cup of life.

 

Weak. George Lucas deserves better essays on his directing than this. BTW, how ignorant do you have to be to not see that I-III and IV-VI are equally cheesy?

 

Answer: Nostalgia googles...

 

While agreeing that any acknowlaegment of Lucas's methods is to be applauded, I think this is important as well Cryogenic ...

Get all the way from the clinical insides of the TF ship in TPM, for example, to the middle of the lightsaber duel on Mustafar, and you can become totally filled up by the sense of oil paintings exploding to life. There's a gorgeous exultancy about the whole thing. That is the true secret of digital technology in George Lucas' hands. He was not just telling a story with better technology. He was painting on the screen in a whole new way.

...and has definitely so far not had enough attention. I think a good analogy is the way the universe seams infinitely small and large from our perspective - and so far it is the little details that seam to impress - the easter eggs. Big the scale 'pans out' - excuse the pun- in the other direction way as well, but for some reason though these are easier to see, they seam to be lauded less, which is a shame. Some of those old Lard Buiscuit reviews touched on a lot of this stuff.

The long pans, and detailed shot breakdowns, and especially the classical 'thirds' tableau's were definitely lacking from TFA, almost as if there was a method of "if you keep the camera moving - no one will notice there is nothing here" mentality. There were really odd scenes in TFA where nothing was moving except the little ships, when you knew Lucas would have had a slow small zoom towards a capital ship that was moving relative to a planet, while the camera followed the shuttle or whatever - you know what I mean.

There is one classic Lucas move when the camera goes from the following the shuttle escort landing, and then continuing the pan to include Poe getting out of the shuttle - but as a rule the 'macro level' bag of techniques from the OT were pretty much abandonded - unless copied.

The village night scene was a mess of light and 'handycam'. Look at Maul's landing on Tattoine - there is more thought and planning and general 'Villain love' in that one scene than Kylo Ren ever gets.

SW Saga Fan L110 I was watching ANH last night and save Alec Guinness everyone has at least "I'm not sure what the **** I'm doing in this turkey", moment or - "OK George I guess I could try".

Nobody knew then of his flair for the visual and his faith that the FX would come off in the end.. even he in the end ended up in hospital with the stress of it all.

Funny how he regained his confidence, independence - became more practiced and efficient - yet they laughed even harder.

Actors in rubber masks - backgrounds to be filled in later, cheesy clunky dialog, balls on sticks - com 'on people we have done this all before !?!

 

The pervasive minimalist approval of The Force Awakens by legions of fans spits on the gathering leadership of its genuine detractors. A filthy orchestra of manipulative, nostalgic propaganda plays throughout the comparatively pale fuss that is the film’s technical execution. The dull spectrum of its imagery drinks from a river of tragic narrative economy without managing to dry even a single comic attribute therein. Irrespective of audiences wetting themselves at the mere opportunity to become translators of its minutely detailed visual information, a peculiar candy-like triviality dusts off from The Force Awakens’ surface as a socialist documentary. A true individual allows for ascension from hell while this film does not. The votes approving of The Force Awakens press against the ringing bell of sincerity when an even cursory appraisal of the other films’ existence is conducted, the unfunny joke of the plodding rhetoric behind it reckoning within the asserted phenomenon of liking things for no reason whatsoever. Without the tinge of resistance most likely felt by said voters’ conduct as anonymous clones of their cloaked, villainous hosts, the hysterical beef I have with this film checks with an exciting lifetime of intellectual beauty attained through The Tragedy of Darth Vader by George Lucas. The materiality of Episode VII alleges a farewell from that masterpiece at the exact moment of its opening logo. The sheep are attempting to herd the closing sector of the Star Wars saga. Under the rubbish of The Force Awakens as a simple commodity is a toeing of the line between definitive canon and religious zealots somehow writing tenuously official Apocrypha. The new, proportionally incompetent handler, J.J. Abrams, mutters beneath the money raised for further installments that he is attempting to “reclaim” the franchise. The drunkard thinks he is above this paragraph’s authority. Through that leak courses the biggest media terrorist this side of a studio plant. The Force Awakens is a spoof springing onto the beautiful magnetic logic of George Lucas before its true colors were ever able to complain about its infamously lacking purpose in the first place. The film’s lenient breaks from misinformed errands for the sake of both rebellion and conformity dip into the trouble headfirst. An astute reader brings a single light against this army of textual cues. An inherited future ripples across the latest nonsense ejected from a dependent Hollywood. The Force Awakens’ approach toward redemption dies without that rosy light. Its shoe struggles to fit onto a theorem baying beyond passionate timelessness. The Tragedy of Darth Vader is currently an unread classic relaxing opposite its visiting company. The partitioned scientific inaccuracy of The Force Awakens forecasts slags of ignorance permeating the nether regions of a bewilderingly unconscious imagination. It helps to judge mediums of information. An absurdly broadcast answer to George Lucas’ question sands the whole set wrong. A scratching air of monotony flags The Force Awakens as a prematurely aged photo. In a fit ecology of aesthetics, the artistic community retracts a simple media consumer. The saving grace of the film’s followers nests in an acceptance of meaninglessness. A spirit imposed by a corporation should not be allowed to bloom. A corridor of encoded information sparks the revolution. The entire digital forest malfunctions in the fire of an exploding spaceship. After the abhorrent appearances of myriad clichés snack on the otherwise dutifully oriented composite that is The Force Awakens, one unobtainable episode designates the universe in my imagination. My faux film-stock genocide challenges each antiquely-slotted component of this motion picture. Closing jargon notwithstanding, a bunch of people we do not know have budgeted a cult against this lone critique. The Force Awakens spurious sponsors kicking the injury of a demolished reactor.

 

The 1138 Awakens.

 

Pyrogenic -

1) ever heard of paragraphs?

2) This is your 'routine' isn't it ? Are we all in on this?

 

Nothing almost about it. It was a total fluke.

The occurrence of it being a hit that is.

The actual movie itself was not a fluke as Lucas had a vision of what he wanted as based on everything it came about as good as it could have been at the time.

The Dark Side shrouds everything. Those fan really can't see this. The same "cheesy" elements and quirky silly humour they love in the one they can't stand in the other just because because.

Absurd of course but that's how it is for them.

 

Yes?