Direction
While watching pretty much every dvd release of the Star Wars prequels and now the new Blu-Ray special editions, something has always bothered me about the making of's that I could never put my finger on and I think I have a better idea of why the movies were shot the way they were more than just how. And the argument of, "He over used cg" is over simplifying what his actual problem is. The famous images of behind the scenes on the prequels have always been the vast vast vast array of blue/green screens used so extensively on the films. The idea of cost is debunked by the fact something like LOTR uses every trick in the book to show their "alien" worlds. From models, to digital compositing, miniature substitution to forced perspective. Jackson always tried to have as much in frame as possible while softening the edges, extending, or enhancing with digital effects. And full digital shots only used when absolutely nessisary to sell this "Fantasy" world as a "Real Fantasy" world. People defending the films have always used the argument that George has such a specific idea of the look and feel of the films that they need to be fully cgi to properly control how they are presented. Control is something that George likes to have, and he claims to be a very visual director. He doesn't seem to know what Star Wars actually looks like. Behind all the reverence and ass kissing that the producers and ILM artists do, one glaring fact continues to come up when making any of the 3 prequels after principle shooting is finished: Shots will be completed, then approved by George, shots are fully rendered. More shots completed, George approves, then previously rendered shots will have ideas added, or the setting changed, or the time of day. More shots are approved and rendered. Other completed shots will be approved. Rendered shots from earlier will have notes added that there needs to be more elements in the background/foreground. Most of the movie is completed and edited together. Rewrites and reshoots are done. Completely rendered shots need new footage composited onto older footage. Time of day and lighting is changed on more shots. Different takes are composited into a completed scene and the setting is changed, practical elements from the set (and there were a few sets that were actually built, then had elements replaced or removed later with cg). Shots are then approved and rendered again. The final months are for making sure all the changes and scenes work together to make a coherent movie. Now, this sounds about like your standard blockbuster postproduction process, but George has literally every element at his disposal. He owns the effects company. He's financing the movie himself and he has no time limit or deadline for any of these films. And has all the time in the world to write the damn things... and he starts shooting without a finalized script. It's as if NOTHING is planned ahead of time and George simply makes the shit up as he goes. How many times they praise George with, "We'll almost be done with a scene and then George will come along with one of his great ideas and we'll have to play catch up trying to get it all done." It's enough to burst a blood vessel in your brain how many scenes and shots were completed and scrapped. That isn't a fucking good thing, when 90% of your film is made in post production. It's true a film truly starts to come together in the editing process. It's not so good when you're trying to finish writing the film in the editing room a few months before release. It's because he hates working with actors, cameras and the writing process. He likes walking into a room and telling a group of people smarter than him, "Do it more like this" and walks out. He likes to fucking make movies backward. |
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