Discussion Buzzkill - Debunking the latest Episode VII rumors and more.

Read back on McWeeny's history with Star Trek 2009 and other works. He's more credible than most.

 

that's true

 

Not all physical builds are kept.
Some of the biggest physical builds are in the PT. The biggest and most complex of all, in all of ILM history up to that point, was the Mustafar Lava rivers. The latter took three months to build and shoot. This build was not retained.
If they are making builds it could be with model designs both physical and digital. Models have to be designed for CG characters and that takes along time.

 

I agree with the article in general, not because this guy is credible (he may or may not be, I've never heard of him); but because it simply makes sense....

1) Disney didn't pay 4 billion to remake someone else's work, I do not think we'll see Ben Skywalker or the Thrawn Empire, or anything even remotely resembling something that already been written, I'd bet money the people writing this movie have not read that stuff and have no plans to... I'd go so far to say, they may even have the scripts, characters, storylines scrubbed to be sure there have 0 resemblance of the EU stuff...

2) Sure they are going to build the biggest and baddest set ever... This is freaking Star Wars Episode 7 for crying out loud... Expect nothing less....I think they will pick their spots and use an effective mixture of CGI and real life stuff..

Just my humble opinion(s)...

 

And it wouldn't look as good, so maybe Abrams has opted for models like Lucas did back when he did the OT.

The OT has effects that still look good today, physical stuff ages much less than CGI. While we have advanced in terms of how to make fantastical creatures move around (so Harryhausen-type things are not going to be done since CGI can make creatures that move around in a much more realistic & time-efficient way) stuff like Fire still looks better when it's real, as do big explosions. Back in the day when you saw stuff blow up it's because people actually blew it up, so what you saw was real. Now that stuff isn't even really there.

Plus actors act better with physical stuff they can see and interact with. Look at the poor performances in the OT, some of that (aside from bad dialogue and not great direction of the actors) was down to actors being surrounded by green or blue screen stuff and not having anything real to perform with. They had to assume stuff was there, talk to balls on stick and whatnot.

Mark Hamill actually acted with Yoda, because Yoda was really there moving and talking to him. He saw the Rancor because it was made for shooting, not edited in long after he'd done the scene never knowing what it would be like and therefore not sure how to react.

 

Actually, paying 4 billion to remake someone else's work is EXACTLY what they did. They're playing in George Lucas' universe, just like the EU stuff--you know, the EU stuff Lucasfilm LICENSED.

This is not to say that they're going to stick to what the EU's done--today's casting call proves that. But there's no reason to scrub thru the scripts just to make sure there's ZERO resemblance to preexisting material. That's something one might do if a fan submitted a story treatment, unsolicited, set in an existing franchise that someone is in charge of... maybe. But there's no reason to do that in THIS case, because it's all official Lucasfilm stuff. They don't have to use anything from outside the movies, but likewise they don't have to prevent anything from outside the movies from becoming part of the ST. George did it (Coruscant, Aayla Secura, Quinlan Vos, etc). Kennedy & the creatives might do it, too.

 

When I see most elaborate physical build since return of the Jedi... I think of the whole Jabba the Hutt Sequence to start of the film.

You know if they have something that big and that detailed, they can't go into it with nothing already built before they go to the UK for shooting. They need to get started on it ASAP, so when the set has completed it's build for shooting, they have most everything they need to get started.

Just as with Dagobah in ESB, they didn't build everything spur of the moment on site, they built a lot of it prior and shipped it over. Too detailed to build and shoot in the short schedule they have for shooting... when sets are going up and down all the time.

 

Wouldn't Dagobah be the biggest set in ESB/ROTJ? I never thought of those scenes as a location shoot (like Endor). Everything looked very alien and man-made (in a good way).

 

http://www.theasc.com/magazine/starwars/articles/jedi/pdir/pg1.htm

A rebel briefing room and the rebel bridge were combined into one set and other sets were scaled down, but for the most part there was not that much need to redesign sets in order to cut costs. In fact some of the sets built for Return of the Jedi are as large and as elaborate as any set ever constructed for a movie.

 

That's not exactly what they meant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setpiece

Edit -- As I see Chewgumma has already pointed out.

 

Whoever mentioned that physical model explosions look better than CG explosions was right on. And it's especially noticeable in Star Wars, where there's this weird pinkish hue to a lot of the CG explosions. The reworked OT really highlights that flaw.

I hope that the scenes are shot better than the PT, too. The opening sequence to RotS had a lot of stuff happening in the background, but it was really just Anakin and Obi-Wan flying in almost a straight line to their target. Contrast that with RotJ, where the fleet first fights above the Death Star, then engages the Imperial Fleet at close range, where afterwards the fighters skim over and through the surface of the battle station, before plunging into its heart.

The glue that held that scene together were the in-cockpit shots of various Rebels getting killed and shot at. It reinforced that these were people fighting and dying. It added a much needed human element to the spectacle.

SFX don't matter if the scenes are boring, and that's what plagued the PT. Lots of stuff on the screen, but none of it meaning anything. Just CG army men and toys bashing into each other. I hope that the new team can inject a sense of drama and tension into the fights.

 

Something else that I have just found on Bleeding Cool:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06...line-of-star-wars-films-to-shoot-at-pinewood/

Apparently the crew are being hired and work is already being geared up at Pinewood to get everything ready.

 

That is my hope as well. Kat and Co. do care about us fans, they have outright said so. Coruscant will remain Coruscant. I'm pretty sure they won't change anything drastically. Judging from the casting call recently released, they are either ignoring some EU material, or they are moving the story forward in the timeline far enough that they can avoid damaging existing EU. I'm fine with whatever Kat and LFL decide to do, it'll be cool either way.

 

Drew McWeeny says the casting call is total BS. YET, LFL confirmed it. So yeah, he's always 100% deadon.

 

OK Thanks. I didn't read the false one. LOL

I've been behind on the news the last 8 weeks.

 

Oddly, schmoesknow also released the official one, in its most official-looking format (i.e. I think they copied the HTML formatting of the casting website the info appeared on, so there was a table with fields for the producers, writer, director, project--which was "untitled"--production studio, etc, and then a list that didn't 100% match the way the OTHER sites released 'em. The characters were ordered by age, mostly, youngest to oldest--tho I THINK the two 20-something males were listed first, THEN the females, then the 30-ish intellectual, 40-ish military, and 70-ish tough demeanor guy, and only the 2 20-somethings, 2 teen women, and (I think?) the 40-ish guy were listed as "fit"--the 30 & 70 didn't have the commentary "apparently doesn't need to be fit" after 'em like the other sites reported, nor were the ladies separated with the "tough" one described as "another/other/whatever"

 

I think schomesknow was be trollin with their first, very complete BS "Legacy of the Force" casting scoop then popped in the real deal on their 2nd one.

 

It's all economics. And Disney is ALL about economics (note all their recent layoffs at Lucasfilm). It's plain and simple: CGI is cheaper than model building. CGI animators overseas are far cheaper to pay than union model builders. Also an army of CGI clones are cheaper than hundreds of extras in clone armor. Whatever can be CGI in the ST will be CGI.

The only things I see being "physical" is "sets". Unlike the PT where Lucas saved money on sets (especially union set builders) because he used almost 100% green screens, I see J.J. building sets. As far as ships, people, creatures, etc, all CGI..

 

If what he said is good, than I am more than happy that they will use nothing from the EU novels.

I hope they think and dream gigantic on this one. After so many years of SW drought, I am extremely thirsty for more. Don't think too much will water down the interest. There will be something for both old and new fans. ST both crap load of tv series and spin offs and the interest are still up there. Time for SW fans to be spoilt for more.

 

If CGI is so cheap, why do all the modern movies cost so much more than stuff made with real sets and models and fake monsters?

 

Well, I see a bunch of assumptions about the movie in this thread stated like they are fact, speaking of false conjecture and unconfirmed rumors....

I think most of us knew this will be a new story that is NOT going to involve the EU characters (that had already been said, this is not news), some are just in denial, wishful thinking is powerful.