Celebration of Star Wars

Star Wars was THE movie that got me hooked on the process of making movies. Whenever people ask me who my favorite writer is, I tell them its George Lucas. His creative ideas such as Indiana Jones and of course Star Wars have stretched the minds of audiences everywhere beyond their wildest imaginations. Particularly in Star Wars Lucas has made some of the most creative characters, worlds and story lines  the world has ever seen. I mean, who would have thought a enormous talking slug would be the galaxy's most notorious thug or tiny teady bears would be responsible for the destruction of an evil empire.

  
But I digress, I think that Star Wars is a prime example of how something so imaginative can be brought to life through film. This is what filmmakers can look to as an example of a cast and crew working together to make someone's idea come to life. The cast and crew threw away their disbeliefs about this film and trusted each other to make a movie that many would say is their favorite of all time (me being one of them).

 

Now that the Star Wars saga has been passed down to J J Abrams one can only hope that the creativity and imagination magic of Star Wars continues. I will admit, there have been times when the series has lost its edge, but theres a very good chance we can have a new appreciation for the saga.

(I don't want to point any fingers but he definitely had something to do with losing some edge)   

And the recent trailer, In my opinion, didn't disappoint. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, I will tell you theres going to be some new things that look exciting and some familiar things that will have the fans jumping for joy. (Check out the trailer in the video below!) 

I ask you J. J Abrams please, please don't make this movie suck! Help us J.J Abrams you're our only hope!  

Movies: to Score or not to Score?

The simple fact that films typically have a musical score always seems to slip right by me when I'm actually making any kind of short film or TV show myself. It's just not something that I would typically think about. Good audio? Sure. Sound effects? Yeah, why not. But never a score. This lead me to thinking, hey, who says that films need to have any kind of music or instrumentality at all? That, in turn, lead me to google, which lead me to some interesting websites, which lead me here, to this blog post.

As behind-the-scenes as they typically are, we all know the names of a few movie composers: Hans Zimmer (please click that link for your own sake), Danny Elfman, and of course, the legendary John Williams. Their scores don't just add noise to all of their respective films: they add feeling, and set a tone for any given scene or even the movie as a whole  If you need an example for a really amazing score that is spot on in terms of creating an entire atmosphere for a film, look no further Howard Shore and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It doesn't just add tension or give scenes a certain flavor: it's music that like, I could actually see hobbits playing out on their front porches. Or whatever hobbit holes have instead of porches. Dirt clods? I don't know. 

 But what I'm curious about is if some films rely too heavily on composers and a musical score in order to fix what would otherwise be a weak script. Recently, there was a video going around the internet called "Star Wars without Williams." While it was meant to be funny, it also pointed out something pretty important: this throne room scene is super awkward without music. What was once a jovial and triumphant scene is now just echoey and weird. Don't get me wrong, I like Star Wars as much as the next guy or gal, but Audio (and script) - wise, Lucas kind of dropped the ball here. 

On the opposite side of things, however, is it possible to have a good film without any scoring at all? Sure. Just check out No Country for Old Men, The Birds, and 90% of Castaway. The key to scoring films, as I'm slowly but surely finding out, is to balance a good script with subtle yet powerful music. Emphasize certain emotions or themes that you want to have emphasized, while at the same time making sure that your film could still be successful without the music shoving those emotions down your throat. If you're looking for some more interesting info on how composers mess with our emotions, you check out a BBC article on that very topic right here.

Money, Money, Money

             A long, long time ago, in a boardroom far far away, George Lucas had just sold the foundation for which his career is based off of, for what seems like a small country to Disney. Four billion dollars, that’s how much Mr. Lucas sold Lucas Films and all its properties, those include Star Wars, Indiana Jones, among the more profitable ones. I could talk about what this means for the future of a film franchise that was so ingrained in my childhood, but no I want to talk about what George Lucas is doing with this newfound mound of wealth. You would think that he would go off and buy an island somewhere near Richard Branson’s, but no he’s giving it all back….to education. Here is a quote from the man himself “I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race,” Lucas said in 2010. “We have to plan for our collective future — and the first step begins with social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt — as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.” A lot of fans give him a lot of slack for “ruining” Star Wars but I see him now in a brand new light, and heck maybe Disney won’t f***k this one up.

Red Tails Trialer

History has always been a big inspiration on movies today and I very much look forward to Red Tails this coming January. It is the story about the Tuskegee Airmen that served our nation during WWII. I very much am intrigued since George Lucas is an executive producer for this and this looks very good.

Since we're working on trailers, I thought this was a good example of a trailer. It sets the scene and the conflict early on and then takes clips to explain the movie. In this day, I think the voiceover is out of date, it's just a cheesy cop-out. The reason I feel this way is because it allows us to relate to the characters and connect with them on a humane level. You truly get a sense of brotherhood from these characters and what type of man Terrance Howard is going up against the air force in that scene.

This biggest issue with creating a movie based on history is that it can be very predictable. We know the outcome but it's what happens in the middle that counts in this movie. What are the struggles aside from segregation that these characters face? The trailer is always a make-or-break decision because it can look amazing and dazzle audience members but there may not be enough of a story behind it.

I don't know what to expect from this movie but I definitely want to see Red Tails when it is released in January. "From the last bullet, to the last plane, we fight!"