ST Is episode 7 blowing it's "location wad" ?

Hi guys,

Curious what you think... So far I love what I am seeing with the new film, and think it's awesome they are going back to REAL locations! The thing I love about the O.T is the fact you feel like the locations exist and you could actually go there! (Something I never felt about the P.T)

That said -Do you think they are blowing their "Location wad" (so to speak) on this film...?

Sand planet
Snow planet
Green planet

That's pretty much what we got with Tatooine, Hoth and Endor over 3 films.

Earth pretty much only has several types of environments that can be used... Don't get me wrong -I'd take a desert planet EVERY film over something cocked up on a computer!

Thoughts?

 

Even though the CGI in the PT was good, it felt like you were watching a video game at times.

I am personally happy that they are going back to practical effects and real locations for the ST. That's awesome.

The number of planets shown in TFA doesn't matter to me at all. I care more about a good story that feels like Star Wars.

 

nah 'cause there's more than just that (and those three are very broad categories to begin with). even with obvious OT categories there's industrialised city planet (Bespin kind of) and swamp planet (Dagobah is different from what you mean by "green planet"). maybe they'll add a tropical planet (isn't this confirmed actually?), an oceanic planet (kind of like Kamino), a total wasteland planet (we have lots of sand planets but have we gotten a semi-arid, cold, Mongolian steppe kind of planet?). there's plenty of others to think of.

 

I would love to see something like Kamino re-done with a real location...that would be awesome!

 

Isn't Jakku a part desert/part savannah planet anyway?

 

I'm sure they'll come up with new places to blow their "location wad".

 

the ocean while beautiful is also really terrifying so to see that mood captured in a Star Wars film would actually be great and if done correctly could produce some great action sequences.

 

I feel like we have to see what Coruscant looks like now. I know Coruscant is largely 'cooked up in a computer', but if you sent the majority of the scenes there inside buildings you could avoid cg overdose.

We should have a general locations thread, preferably sans mention of wads.

 

Just to remind everyone who felt the entire PT was CGI.....

 

They never really moved away from 'real locations' so I find the sentiment to be a bit out of kilter with the reality... The OT had Tunisia, Norway and USA... The PT had Tunisia, Italy, Spain and the UK. And I'd personally take Dagobah, Coruscant and Kamino over generic sand and forest type environments... Besides, we don't know the extent of the 'real locations' in TFA... the 'snow' and 'green' planet may have as much screen time as Yavin IV in ANH (which wasn't so much a 'real' location, but studio with a couple of location establishing shots).

 

Yep... I would love to see a battle in an environment similar to the one they land on in Interstellar! Felt like a Star Wars planet.

 

I wonder if Cloud City is still kicking around. Bespin was one of the cooler locations in Star Wars.

Yeah Kamino, too. It probably went downhill after they shut down the clone facilities. Llama Su or whatever her name was probably lost even more weight lol

 

Whilst these are beautiful locations...they feel like OUR world and nothing like Star Wars! (Exception being Tatooine)

 

Yeah.

Hey is Yavin being in the movie a fact, or just a rumor?

 

Nothing official as far as I know... Even if we think it's Yavin 4 they could still turn around and call it Javin 12 or something

 

That's only if the way you ascribe them as each film has strictly only one environment.
I'm not buying the only one environment per film motif. Or that they can only be used once.

ANH had - Desert, Tech., and briefly ah.. Guatemala (tropical?) as the launch and end of the third act.
ESB had- Tundra, Swamp, and Clouds.
RofJ had - Desert, Swamp(briefly), Tech. and Forest.

You can have three in one film, and there are plenty of variations and more for other films.

 

The PT had real locations and practical effects just like the OT. The OT had bluescreen and other pre CGI effects (Rancor?) All this "practical effects" mantra thrown out there by Abrahams is just pandering to the oldtimers who hated the PT. I'm a huge fan of Abrahams work, but I wish he would tone it down. After all, we see the Vanity Fair pics and there is bluescreen in the background of the Adam Driver pic and the Pirate character is a CGI character, like Jar Jar (real actor with CGI changing their appearance).
There is a thread in the PT section showing all the practical effects of the PT. It also shows the blue/green screen effects of the OT.

 

There are LOTS of Earth-like locations that can still be explored. Mountains. Fjords. Grasslands, Lots of stuff. I also wouldn't mind a really alien world if it FELT real. That's a tough line to tread.

 

Without wanting to get into the whole PT was more practical boring debate. I'll play devils advocate and hazard a guess that the OP means outdoor locations and soundstages from the OT that look like they were actually there, like Hoth, Yavin, Endor, Tatooine or Dagobah. Not locations like Kamino, Geonosis, Kashyyk, Felucia, Utapau, Naboo, Coruscant which in some instances didn't convince due to the additions of effects around the actors where the effects didn't look the best.

 

Hire this man!

 

so "blowing wads" is acceptable to post now?

 

I don't mean it in any rude way...and you know it. "Blowing your wad" is mostly used as a sports term when a guy is gassed.

In this context I mean it in relation to using all their ideas at once.