[maclamb]

1. What would you say is the most innovative technology to come out of SW?

2. Where would you say SW had the biggest influence?

[Dark_Sith]

1) From the Original Trilogy, I believe Star Wars was one of the first movies to use minatures in a movie.

2) I don't really know...

[azryan]

SW wasn't even close to the first film to use minatures by many many decades.

I'd say in general the first SW was state of the art FX but they didn't technically do anything that hadn't been done in say 2001 or Close Encounters before it.
And I believe many of the same key guys involved?

I think it was the sheer amount and spectacle, the in your faceness of the FX's of the OT that just shocked so many people.

That really showed people what was possible for the future of FX plus developed the the first modern FX department of it's kind -ILM.

Much like Jurrasic Park wasn't the first film to use advanced CGI work, but it was the one that made everyone say 'Holy Crap! Computers can make ANYTHING real!'

JP was what lucas has said made him feel he would be able to do all the crap he wanted for these new prequels. Sad how cartoony and unreal so many characters are in it for being about a decade more advanced than JP was.
All in how you use it right?

In ESB ILM came up with the ability to add a slight blur effect to the minature of the Tauntaun running making it mimic how real life motion is captured on film.

"-2. Where would you say SW had the biggest influence?"

Are you still asking 'technology-related' or is #2 a TOTALLY open ended question about influence?

Open ended it had a HUGE effect on so many things I could make a long list.

If it's just technology... lucas has pushed FX and the digtial realm of film making more than anyone. Every step of the film making process -to the benefit of other film makers who actually make good films.

Edit- note -it pisses me off how much credit lucas gets for all the FX innovation. He doesn't do any FX work at all.
He just stamps 'fabuloso' on art he likes and says 'make it bigger and add extra horns on it.' Nothing a little kid couldn't do.

This post has been edited by azryan: 16 May 2005 - 05:36 PM

[StarWarsIsUs]

""If it's just technology... lucas has pushed FX and the digtial realm of film making more than anyone. Every step of the film making process -to the benefit of other film makers who actually make good films. ""

He made it famous in a bad way, if you count ROTJ! Using this as inspiration, other film makers pretty much copy off his overused ideas, in my opinion.

[azryan]

Why do you say RotJ specifically? I don't recall anything in that flick that FX-wise hadn't been done in the first two?

Maybe the speerbike chase but I don't see that superfast chase scene being copied 'cept by lucas himself in the pod race.

And not like lucas invented a chase scene. It was just a FAST version of a western where they're all charging on horses and shooting off their guns.

[StarWarsIsUs]

If you want to see it that way. I refer to ROTJ, because that is the time more technology on making films was starting to reach a new era, and plus the fact that I do not like ROTJ. The speeder chase is one of the only good parts in the movie, IMO.

[azryan]

IMO we've got to try to sepp. the fact that a lot of awesome FX wizards and artists have done incredible things in all 6 of these movies from the fact that lucas ruined most everything else about them.

Don't hate the only people who did their jobs flawlessly -'cept CG Yoda in Epi- I.
I thought lucas was saying yoda was mentally retarded in that.

And the crappy cartoony CG characters don't count as flaws against the people who made them either IMO. The flaws are that lucas wanted that crap.
The FX people did mostly state of the art work throughout all 6 flicks.

[StarWarsIsUs]

The artists could have VERY WELL stepped up and said something against what Lucas was doing. But to my knowledge, none of them did, so I do blame them to some extent. Just like the actors, to some extent (but not all), do I blame for the crappiness.

[azryan]

You think the artists had the power to tell lucas what to do? No.
I'm sure they were just backflipping to have gotten such rare and coveted jobs.

Actually though... just read in Ent. Weekly that some people on lucas's team watching an early RotS told him it wasn't clear why Anakin ended up turing to the dark side and lucas decided to go back and fix that -which is the version coming out.

So seems like they did speak up but c'mon.... if everyone opened their mouth they'd all be telling him everything he came up with was stupid.

This post has been edited by azryan: 17 May 2005 - 04:07 PM

[StarWarsIsUs]

*shrugs* Suggestions. Not commands. Lucas has always wavered at other's opinions.

[maclamb]

IMHO

one word

Photoshop

[barend]

what pisses me off is all this CGI as i've said so many times...

because...

the speederbike chase on endor with luke and leia was one of the greatest achivements in SFX ever...

it's a shame to see the same 'filmmaker' get so lazy...

[Devout Catalyst]

I guess I don't really know enough about the technical side of filmmaking to answer the first question.

But as for where its influence has been most profound, I would say that SW permanently changed the movie-marketing business. Product tie-ins may have predated SW, but Lucasfilm really made them ubiquitous. Part of that has to do with the fact that Lucas retained all of the licensing, since Fox didn't believe it would do well.

I'd also say that Star Wars set the bar for movie epics. The Star Wars franchise has really defined movie sagas for the past 28 years. Sure, lots of movies have had sequels and prequels, before and since, but very few have been meant to tie together in the way that the Star Wars movies have.

Star Wars has become its own brand. Have any other movies ever had such a wide-reaching effect on pop culture? Nowadays Hollywood tends to scoop up the rights to existing novel-series and adapt them to film. Star Wars has gone the opposite route, in that the movies have inspired novels.

[Despondent]

The opening scene in Ep 4 changed the notion of what could be done. The final sequence shattered that. There were a lot of improvements between Jedi and the JP dinosaurs. And most all of it came out of GL's house.

what's that line Malcomb says in JP? "Just because you could doesn't mean that you should."

If they'd have gone back to what is now considered trendy and retro, it could have been great. Would've been consistent anyhow.

--
But sound. You can't overlook LFL's contributions there. '77 SW was one of the first films screened in doubly, btw.

This post has been edited by Despondent: 17 May 2005 - 11:52 PM

[StarWarsIsUs]

Was the speederbike chase even Lucas' idea to begin with?