Rogue One Cinematography/Film Techniques of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

ST at least pretends to adhere to the basics of actual physics/science. SW, never has.

 

If this was Trek, we could say that the Star Destroyer merely reversed the polarity of its graviton induction coil, thus allowing it to effectively use the planet's atmosphere as a buffer against field distortions.

 

A lot of you are real science nerds. I feel.....un-evolved. Just go with the flow, maybe?

 

I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.

 

Agreed. But even given that, there are a number of things fans label "scientifically inaccurate" in Star Wars that simply aren't so cut and dry. Much of what Star Wars shows us, fantastical as it looks, is theoretically possible. Only occasionally does it venture into the completely impossible, such as with the space slug and the breathable atmosphere within its belly...

 

By the way, does anyone know where this was filmed? I don't recall much location-shooting news about Rogue One, apart from the Maldives and Iceland.

 

Its almost like they're set in different universes or something....

 

Star Trek is science fiction, Star Wars it's space fantasy.

 

Once again, Star Wars isn't sci-fi, it's fantasy.

 

In all seriousness, the only real difference is in the levels of technobabble.

 

It looks like an old foreground miniature shot. Clever.

 

Well, it is the same city we had seen seconds before in the trailer.

I am getting echoes of Tibet with Jedha, and I like that.

 

Jedha was partly filmed in Jordani. I was surprised because there was zero leaks about this location! good job lucasfilm!

 

Cool. Yes, it looked familiar. Around the Mountain Heights Plateau, maybe. Stunning scenery. A more visually interesting location, IMO, than the comparatively featureless Abu Dhabi.

 

The planet is Jedha, but what's the city called?

 

Don't know.

 

I'm going to cover two (and one minor) things in this post:
1. Having a SD in the atmosphere that close to the ground has (as far I as I can tell, too early to judge as no one has seen the movie yet) no sound tactical purpose to it. You are giving up total control of at least a whole half of the planet's orbit to sit on top of a city smaller than a mile long. I guess you could deploy troops faster but if you have air superiority you can take as long as you want. The thing most people forget when they talk about the role of the Star Destroyer class is that it has the word Star in it. Clearly the role allows for a ship of the class to destroy and entire star system (and not merely a Destroyer in the position of supporting lager Battlecruiser's flanks in a flotilla). ISDs are large important ships in the Empire, why is it parked in a place were it's not being utilized to it's full capabilities? We have yet to find out.
2. I'd hate to burst someone's bubble but, the "upside down" shot of the Death Star, while stunning and brilliant, isn't exactly new. Ralf Mcquarrie did something similar




Brilliant shot, absolutely stunning, not exactly new. What I can praise more about this shot though, is that it isn't a carbon copy of Ralph's original concept art (a common occurrence these days, Ralph was a great concept artist. But that is what the purpose of his drawings were, to inspire the content that would be made based on them. Not to be the content). What makes the DS "upside down" is because we are used to seeing the DS oriented with it's equator parallel to the equator of the planet it is near. In this shot, the equator of the DS is perpendicular to the surface of the planet it is orbiting.
p.s. do you think the Death Star is close enough to hit the planet without missing?

 

You're not bursting anyone's bubbles.

 

This is the same franchise where "blockading a planet" apparently means just parking your ships around the Equator of said planet, but leaving pretty much every other direction uncovered or barely covered. So yeah, sound tactics are optional, the "rule of cool" is much more important in SW films overall.

Just going by this trailer, I think that there's a very good chance that, visually and directorially at least, these could end up being the best-looking SW movie to date. The effects, the cinematography, the camera angles and framing devices, etc all look spectacular.

 

I don't think they're concerned about tactical issues at that moment. I think we do have enough pieces to know why they're doing it.

All of the "turtle" shaped ships are transporting resources (kyber crystals as far as we know or suspect at this point). Why waste time getting them out of orbit? Get them from the ship to the ground as fast as possible, fill that destroyer and get it where it needs to go.

 

The holy city on Jeddha, which as you can see from the trailer is a place from which kyber crystals are being transported off world (likely to Scarif), is an absolutely critical resource hub for the Empire - particularly if those crystals are being mined for use in the Death Star. In that context, it makes a huge amount of tactical sense to park an SD above it, so as to intimidate both adversaries on the ground (and it seems we have some of those) and anyone approaching the city from the air, and to deploy TIEs and other ships to and from the SD quickly in case of emergencies on the ground in the city (such as supply lines being attacked by Rebels within the city - something we know is happening). Sitting hundreds of miles away from the city in space does not, comparatively, seem like a smart move when you're trying to protect operations in one very specific location on a planet.

Lastly, how do you know the Empire doesn't also have some SDs in space around Jeddha? You don't, of course, and are making far too many assumptions.

Face it, you're grasping for more reasons to object to an SD in the atmosphere, and those reasons are thin. And in terms of military tactics, you don't seem to know what you're talking about.

 

I read and love that interview, and his explanation for the difference in shooting style. Edwards is really saying all the right things here, and it makes me really excited to see what different style Lord/Miller bring to the Han film.

 

science has no place in star wars, I mean there is no sound in space.
and its not really science fiction, it is actually science fiction/fantasy leaning more to the fantasy end of things...

 

I've always said Star Wars is Dungeons and Dragons cosplaying as Star Trek.