ST The Cinematography/Film Techniques of The Last Jedi

Also, Rian named Letter Never Sent as one of his influences and that one is big on silhouettes:







Also this

 

Gigoran Monk

So i was watching TFA cuz....Why not. And i did notice something....TFA has....this is going to sound negative but....a very "Un-cinematic " look to it....I can't say it's TV quality or anything because i've seen TV quality but...watching it on TV idk....While watching ROGUE ONE and seeing the TLJ trailer it looks like it's made for theaters. TFA...while in theaters looked fine watching it on TV IDK....something feels a bit...off. You're a movie expert so many you can help me articulate this better.

 

Check your TV menu and disable any motion smoothing setting.

 

Yeah, I think you might have "smooth motion" on, which interpolates extra frames and gives almost a BTS or soap opera look to it.

Though Rogue One's cinematography (and the specific wide lenses Edwards used) are more pleasing to me, and more "cinematic," in the sense that I enjoy, I think this may just have to do with that setting.

 

Different television companies will have different names for their motion smoothing effect.
Samsung calls it Auto Motion Plus, Sony calls it Motionflow, and LG calls it TruMotion.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/lcdtvs/turn-off-these-3-features-in-every-tv

 

Which, incidentally, could each double as a different brand of laxative.

 

What do you think the odds are that the dissolve from what looks like stars to rocks and then Rey's hand is the exact transition from crawl to the start of film?

I know the rumor is that it starts off exactly where 7 ended, but this seems like it would work a lot better and was designed with that transition in mind.

 

The odds are low. Very low.

 

Yeah, I'd say R1 often tops TFA in cinematography, but I still think TFA looks gorgeous (and v cinematic).

 

Very low indeed, as close to the ground as possible so they're not detected by the radars of logic.

 

Dissolve could be just for the trailer or it could be Rey having a vision or communication through the Force (stars could emphasize that the Force connection transcends space and also may reveal her location if, lets say, someone saw the star system). Either way, it won't open the movie cause shareholder footage revealed the possible first scene (saber handover).

 

Per the influence of Letter Never Sent, one of the key set pieces in that film involves an intense and visceral forest fire. I'm wondering if that carries over into the flashback destruction of Luke's Jedi temple.

 

ewoksimon And lets not forget the fire behind Kylo in that one brief scene that we see him. So forest fire must have definitely influenced both proceedings.

 

Out of curiosity, did you (or someone else) tweak the brightness on this image? Seems a little overlit, with not enough black in the shadows.

In fact, while I love the trailer, I was a little surprised at the lighting, which seemed a tad overlit for a Johnson film.

 

It's funny that you should say that because when I watch the teaser it seems a lot darker than screencaps from it. The last shot in particular, I can barely see any of the detail in the wall of the tree cave, just making out Rey's staff from the lighter wraps around it, but when I take a screencap I can see Rey's staff itself. I can't explain it.

 

Looks like there is grass.

 

That might be your computer rather than the footage itself, or the brightness might be boosted on the screencaps to allow for more detail to be seen. I saw the trailer in theaters when I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and I could make out detail in the last shot just fine.

 

yeah, grass is a strike against the theory that the temple was on Tatooine, unless they irrigated the garden around the temple or something.

 

Maybe the moistsure turrets of uncle Owen went crazy since Luke left?

 

maybe though the size of that place indicates that Luke likely didn't build it but rather found it.

 

Wait, there was a theory that the temple was on Tatooine? That seems weird, did it predate the teaser or did it come about after we saw the above image?

 

It came out of thin air, as most Star Wars fan theories do.

 

I pulled the shot from the film gallery on the official site. I'm guessing the color timing was specific to the trailer, and the final film might have more contrast.

 

can't disagree though this theory has something to do with a legit concept art and comparison between vision boulders in TFA and Tatooine ones (don't ask).

 

Dantooine is grassy right?