Rick McCallum & LFL

Actually I think Jedi comes off as the less chopped up SW film, it also seems the most boring for whatever thats worth.

 

zombie, I appreciate your insight in this thread. I've never been a McCallum basher, but at the same time I don't think I ever really appreciated his role in the prequel trilogy. Star Wars is a pretty big production, so my hat is off to him for making the whole thing work.

And yeah, I think short, choppy scenes are pretty much a trademark of GL/Star Wars. I'm surprised to hear somebody complain about it in AOTC/ROTS. Star Wars is quick and to the point.

I'd love for somebody to go through each movie and break it down, scene by scene. Which movie has the most scene-breaks? What is the average scene length for each movie? The PT might be a little faster paced, but I don't think it would be a huge difference. I could be wrong, though.

 

ANH had short scenes, but the pace and rythm of the film makes it flow--things never really feel too "rushed" or abrupt, the pace is swift but each scene moves into the next with such grace that you never are taken out of the film. But contrast, AOTC is choppy and abrupt, without any sense of flow or rythm. ROTS and TPM are much better in terms of their flow, especially TPM. ROTS gets flack as being too quick, but its about as quick as TPM and ANH, I think the difference is that it is the emotional payoff of the whole saga and needed to have more time devoted to the emotional end, ANH and TPM don't have much emotional gravitas so it was permissable when scenes were only 3 minutes long because they are just lighthearted adventures.

 

I also think it has to do with the number of planets/locations and storylines that Lucas is cutting between. In ANH you had three location. Tatooine, Death Star, and Yavin 4. Plus space. It was easier to keep track of where you were at. By the time we get to RotS Lucas is cutting between seven planets and space which actual gets underused because there isn't enough time to show any space travel.

The Star Wars film progressed editorially like most films of today which are cut much, much faster. Although still nowhere near Jason Bourne levels. I think that's one of the reason why KotCS wasn't well received by some as it was cut much slower and may have been perceived as being boring because it didn't move as fast as most modern action movies.

Anyway this is getting off topic.

 

So I was looking through the Art of/Making of Prequel books yesterday.

To the topic:

McCallum talks about begging George for the scripts numerous time before start of principal so he can get the actor's their pages and build more sets.

So he can push a little. He's not just a lapdog. Honestly, on enterprises this big, you have to have a good producer handling the production if you're directing.

 

I don't know if that's true or not, but the real thing (the movie) is that anyone with responsability in AOTC or ROTS had to rise his voice, it's not only about scheduling times, etc. But in the end, it's what Zombie said: hands-off or hands-on; and Rick McCallum is a my-hands-are-clearly-off producer.

 

I don't think this thread would be complete if someone didn't reference Rick's 3 part interview at Lightsabre.com.

Great read that touches upon many of the issues being discussed here.

 

Here's part one of the interview. Go to Interviews. Then A to Z. Scroll down and find McCallum.

Here: McCallum at Lightsabre PT. 1