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star wars and me
Oct. 6th, 2003 07:14 pmstar wars was my first movie. i was little enough to have a baggie of cereal to eat and be afraid of the banthas and the loud noises. my childhood was filled with lightsaber duels and "guys" although i only got to play with "guys" at my friends houses i think because my parents got upset at my assertions that i was a boy. (why little girls suck is a whole other entry)
while i didn't know it at the time, i was learning about pacing, character relationships, and the power of the iconic story. i learned that involving another person or group of people is absolutely the most healthy thing you can do for your art. about choosing to use craft so seamlessly that the audience isn't marveling about how they did that, just following the characters and believing. about how design can support character and story. that's some important shit, when you're learning to direct and how to collaborate.
the problem is, i learned all these great lessons from Mr Lucas, and then he disregarded quite a bit to do Phantom Menace. i admit that nothing could have lived up to twenty plus years of expectation. i also admit that if i had seen star wars as an adult i would have cringed at the dialogue. i reminded myself that my favorite film was Empire, and that was scripted by a brilliant man that a wise creator hired to bring his story to a higher level. but Attack of the Clones didn't have a wise creator. Lawrence Kasdan, Nick Meyer, Joss Whedon, and Carrie Fisher (Tom Stoppard too, but that's a little far fetched) all do this thing where they take someone's story idea and polish it to brilliance. no one hired them. there are also many directors who know how to talk to actors. Mr Lucas is not one of them, but he could have hired one.
the thing is, he still knows about structure and pacing. he can throw away an effects shot. but i think there's something that is gone. the ex-wife says that Lucasfilm is a pyrimid built on a pea. i don't think that the pea is a super-dense neutronium kind of a pea anymore. it's just a pea.
C says i have to go to bed now.
while i didn't know it at the time, i was learning about pacing, character relationships, and the power of the iconic story. i learned that involving another person or group of people is absolutely the most healthy thing you can do for your art. about choosing to use craft so seamlessly that the audience isn't marveling about how they did that, just following the characters and believing. about how design can support character and story. that's some important shit, when you're learning to direct and how to collaborate.
the problem is, i learned all these great lessons from Mr Lucas, and then he disregarded quite a bit to do Phantom Menace. i admit that nothing could have lived up to twenty plus years of expectation. i also admit that if i had seen star wars as an adult i would have cringed at the dialogue. i reminded myself that my favorite film was Empire, and that was scripted by a brilliant man that a wise creator hired to bring his story to a higher level. but Attack of the Clones didn't have a wise creator. Lawrence Kasdan, Nick Meyer, Joss Whedon, and Carrie Fisher (Tom Stoppard too, but that's a little far fetched) all do this thing where they take someone's story idea and polish it to brilliance. no one hired them. there are also many directors who know how to talk to actors. Mr Lucas is not one of them, but he could have hired one.
the thing is, he still knows about structure and pacing. he can throw away an effects shot. but i think there's something that is gone. the ex-wife says that Lucasfilm is a pyrimid built on a pea. i don't think that the pea is a super-dense neutronium kind of a pea anymore. it's just a pea.
C says i have to go to bed now.
