ST My Prediction: re: a Jump Forward

Here's my prediction, going on the record - not sure if it's been discussed before.

With all the rumors of flashbacks, etc, here's what I see as being more likely -
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Walt Disney Pictures
Bad Robot
present a Lucasfilm Limited Production

A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away ...

A pre-title sequence taking place directly after the events of SW6, showing what happened minutes, hours, or the next day after what we saw in the end of ROTJ. Using a combo of out of focus and from-the-back doubles, old footage, and CGI [ a la Tron 2]. And then... something unexpected happens. Big and important. And then ....

STAR
WARS

EPISODE VII
[Crawl]

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And, then as the film proper starts, it's now 30 years later. It's not unlike a style J.J. Has done elsewhere, and other filmmakers as well. An interesting way to preserve the Star Wars opening style, and to still enhance it going forward.

There's even a good possibility of such an opening pre-title sequence, if one is done, being released online prior to the film as a short stand-alone teaser TO the film itself.

Thoughts? How does it fit with present rumor/insight/etc?

 

Sounds too much like Star Wars Episode 6.5 in 30 seconds to me. I'd find it too distracting from the narrative of the actual ep 7 :/

 

I hope the only set up is done in the opening crawl.

"It is a time of peace in the galaxy, but old hatreds run deep.
After decades of truce between the republic and the empire a new enemy emerges
shake up the balance. "

 

Considering the fact that ANH didn't use a pre-title sequence (even though there was no PT yet for Episode 4 to allude to in 1977...or the Special Editions in '97) to explain past events, methinks SW7 will go the route of the previous 6 films and just start with the Star Wars logo.

 

That sounds like a TV-series. You know, like "PREVIOUSLY ON STAR WARS!!!".

No. Just no.

 

Knowing JJ, there will be flash sideways.

 

Because we wouldn't want Star Wars to emulate the way Serialized Stories have been presented for the last generation, right? Not at all in the spirit of what GL was going for . . . [/snark]

Would a less objectionable idea be a short film or a series of short films - released online - to show some of the directly post Episode 6 stuff that would be very interesting to SHOW for the viewer, but not ESSENTIAL for the film?

Doctor Who did that with it's 'Night of the Doctor' online short as a pretty huge canonically-important lead-in event to its 50th Anniversary special. That was massively popular, even though something so significant being shot for and released online had never been done before.

 

Even if it was directly part of the plot?

 

Yeah, we have the opening scroll for catching us up. No need for all the jarring non-SW techniques to open the film.

 

We're going to have a non-Fox Logo and Fanfare to open a live action movie. That's going to be jarring and change the feel in and of itself. Why not be willing to expand what it a "SW technique' is?

As long as we still have a cut to the Star Wars fanfare, the STAR WARS logo zooming away over a starfield, and the beginning of the crawl as JW music plays, would it really ruin the Star Wars experience if something relevant to the story came before as a prologue?

 

Mmm, I don't know, sounds weird. Too much complicated for something that could be explain briefly in the crawl.

Still, TCW episodes have this kind of intro where the opening crawl is voice narrated over the related footage, but again, it's another type of media.

Then I conclude NO

 

You just answered your own question. The non-Fox Logo will be jarring itself. This is EPISODE 7...the movie should be consistent with the previous 6 films that came before it. As I told another poster (CoolyFett, where u at?), if you want to make changes to how a Star Wars movie opens...leave that to the Spin-Off Films.

It's all about symmetry, my dear Watson. (Yea, that was lame.)

 

Because sometimes, showing something a single important event in the moment has a cool-factor (and perhaps nuanced character development) than a grand general summary.

Seeing how something happened can sometimes tell more than that simply something happened. "By the way, this big thing happened a while ago, and you missed it, but moving forward..."

If it was directly relevant to the flow of the story, was technically feasible, and was only a supplementary prologue that did not interrupt the standard beginning flow [ which begins with the opening the star wars theme/ logo/crawl], who wouldn't want to see a brief live action scene taking place some point directly following or during the events of ROTJ?

 

So to be clear, even if the 'present day' film began as all Star Wars films do [minus the FOX logo and theme (which is when we usually also see the Lucasfilm Ltd logo)], with the CRASH of the theme, the receding logo, and the beginning of the crawl, having prologue material prior to that 'true beginning' from a time in the past would ruin or diminish the experience for you?

 

This is a theatrical movie part of the episodic saga - not a Clone Wars TV series, so whatever sarcasm you're looking for won't work here.

If its not essential for the film's story, why release it? To boost interest for the film? I expect a huge marketing campaign, but a short film that's not even connected to the main plot? Relax dude, the spin-off movies are coming...

 

I think this would be fantastic. Cuts down on character exposition during the movie. Always, IMO, better to show something happening than talk about it if at all possible. PT had LOTS of exposition. People sitting on couches talking about stuff happening. Terrible.
I hope the filmmakers aren't afraid to go away from what George did. As long as the movie is great and creative, that's all I care about.

 

The key to great exposition in a film is to let it go with the flow... Some films have a narrator speaking for like 15 minutes into the film which is usually very annoying and shows how bad the movie is going to be. The opening sequence is really the only thing we need in a Star Wars movie when it comes to basic exposition. The rest should be explained via dialogue between the characters, och things happening around the characters .

 

I was referencing the fact that the opening crawl of Star Wars is precisely a reference to how serialized stories of the 30s, 40s and 50s, etc began to catch one up to speed on what had come before. The serials which were the precursor to what we see today with televised serialized storytelling.

Adding a feature that updates and takes advantage of a new method and generation while still maintaining the classic style seems exactly true to the spirit of GL and Star Wars. Flash Gordon as a form of serial Science Fiction is for Adult Star Wars viewers in 1977 what Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a form of serial science fiction is for viewers going into it today.

 

So you are strongly opposed to an approach to storytelling where we'd:
* Show a scene of a single important and relevant event in the distant past
* Opening crawl pushing forward, describing general gist of where we are NOW
* Movie proceeds in the present, and we see through the course of this how important that opening event was for us to have seen
?

 

So have you seen the 4 Rebels shorts?

And my suggestion was always that it WAS connected to the main plot.

I think having a short film that ties into the overall story in substantial ways that is NOT a full-length spin-off film would be actually really cool.

Comics and novels are wonderful, but how much would people flip out to have a live-action short (using much of the resources, cast members, and locations already being used in the film) that showed some of Our Heroes earlier in the timeline? Would that just not be a really fun thing for fans to have?

 

One big problem remains. That is, if you first present the audience with a short flashback/short film before the opening crawl, you are actually presenting two different methods of exposition. As an audience, that's a little too much exposition to take in at the same time. You wouldn't want to confuse your audience too much already in the very beginning.

I really don't understand why you think this is such a good idea. The other 6 movies did it perfectly, and there is really no reason to change it. The absence of the 20th Century Fox fanfare won't make such a big difference as you might think.

There will definitely be comics and novels published later to explore more about the events between VI and VII, but as for now I'm sure we'll have to wait for that until after the release of Episode VII. Your ideas are fun but there are loads of things that would be fun to have prior to the premiere. The marketing campaign surrounding this movie will be huge, we just have to wait and see until the end of next summer when it really kicks in.

 

It's not exposition if you're showing it, right then and there, and THEN you skip forward. That's not exposition. That's in-the-moment storytelling. Show an event. Then tell us that 30x years have passed, and tell us the present state of affairs. Then move forward.

Again, likely not necessary. It had me thinking, though, based on some of the rumors of how the story is proceeding, and some of the thoughts concerning flashbacks, etc.

It likely won't. I'm just attempting to do a thought experiment about storytelling options and ideas to get started to think how we might feel if they did choose to do something that way.