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Star Wars Episode II Wraps
ucribido writes "StarWars episode II, as yet untitled film, has wrapped up shooting ahead of shedule. No advanced story lines given although the just freshly completed script was apparently stolen and offered of sale for $100,000 big ones to the fan site The Force.net. More about the shoot here "
I heard Episode 2 will have the best (or worste, depending on how you see it) of both Jar-Jar and the Ewoks. It turns out that on the way home from Episode I, Jar-Jar stops off on Endor and through the wonder of Natural Genetic Manipulation, becomes father of a race of half-Gungan/half-Ewoks known as JarWoks. They're cute, they're annoying, they're tribal. But best of all, polls show they appeal to the prime demographic that will heighten the ST:E2's profitab...er...appeal!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Episode II is going to suck in terms of picture quality. Episode I looked bad enough (the whole movie looked soft and fuzzy, due to the use of low resolution computer processing on nearly every shot), but Episode II is just going to look plain awful.
The camera they used is built by Sony (with lenses by Panavision), and captures images at 1920x1080 resolution at a 16:9 aspect ratio, the same aspect ratio as HDTV (basically, it is an HDTV camera). In order to form a 2.35:1 widescreen image, this will be cropped to about 1920x800. Compare that with this resolution chart for 35mm film scanning. 35mm film still has scannable information on it at resolutions up to 4096 x 3112.
Of course, the real resolution of Sony's video camera is effectively only about half of the stated 1920x1080, due to the fact that the images are color sampled in a 4:2:2 fashion, which means that every other pixel is just a black-and-white pixel, with the color sample from the adjacent pixel added in. That's not the same thing as true 1920x1080 resolution. And don't forget that the image data is heavily compressed in-camera 9at about a 7:1 compression ratio) using MPEG-2, just to make it fit onto the tape. Can't wait to see all those nice compression artifacts!
Finally, as you pointed out, there are slow-motion shots to consider. Well, guess what? The Sony camera can only shoot at 24fps! Therefore, the Episode II crew had to keep film cameras around for any shots that required slo-mo. Notice that they've been pretty quiet about that. You won't find any information about that on the official Star Wars website! It's a bit of a dirty little secret.
To be fair, shooting with video does have one advantage -- instant feedback. You don't have to wait for dailies to see if you got the shot right. Of course, with video assist systems on most film cameras these days, you can tell a lot already, even though the video assist playback doesn't exactly show you what the final product is going to look like. But when the video is your final prodcut, you know exactly what you're getting right away.
I know I'll probably sound like a Luddite with this post, but I'm really not opposed to video taking over film. It's just that the quality really isn't there yet. Until the resolution and color range of video is increased to match that of film, it just won't look as good. I think George Lucas is getting ahead of himself in deciding to go with video today. However, I think he's so anxious to be known as an "innovator" that he's decided to just do it anyway, quality be damned. Oh well, that's my take on it anyway.
(Note: Sorry if this comment shows up twice, slash seems to have eaten it the first time, yet it's still complaining about it being a duplicate.)
Free Hans!
Put it this way: the computers will be melting down 24/7 at full crank until the very last moment. Lucas has reduced principal photography to the importance of something like matte painting- it's no longer anything like the primary creative source for what he's doing. There's a section in this issue of 'Cinefex' that explains how a two-shot between Amidala and Anakin used take one from Jake Lloyd, take seven from Natalie Portman, take 15 from Jake Lloyd so that his mouth closed at the end of the sequence, and a backwards clip of Natalie Portman with steam rotoscoped so that Natalie's glance downward was in reverse but the steam also in the shot was forward!
(wonder if Taco's dweebproofing software will throw away this post for having said 'Natalie Portman'?)
Anyhow, that should give you an idea of what's really happening. At this point, film to Lucas is like samples to a tracker-using music composer- this is not only a new approach, but interestingly it's something that could be approached on the desktop as well (just in much smaller amounts). Once the initial wizbang fun of rendering 30,000 ships or a battlefield with a million footsoldiers has become boring, then we'll start to see what people do with essentially unlimited scope to their imaginations. It's like digital synthesis- contrast modern techno/DnB with early-seventies pop and rock. The capacity to digitally imagine just about any sound (in a sense, anyway) has led to strikingly different genres than anyone could have imagined, ones that use tonality as a key musical element. The capacity to do this with cinematography will lead to strikingly different films, and Lucas may not be the one to pioneer them- but he's doing a lot to establish the new technology.
"No advanced story lines given"
:)
Right, there are probably no advanced story lines, judging from episode 1 !
Hmmm.
I suspect what you say, re: low quality (ie. a true low resolution that's been upsampled to get the 1920x1080, MPEG2 compression and 24fps fixed framerate), is true.
Which I'm afraid leads me to just one conclusion: Lucus has given up on movie theatre experiences, and is targeting this for home DVD playback.
See, it *used* to be that movie-makers made movies with movie-screen dimensions and qualities in mind. That the movie would also be on video was just happy conincidence.
I suspect that in this case, the movie-maker (Lucas) is making the movie with NTSC television and DVD in mind. Seeing it on the big screen is just happy coincidence.
From what I understand, a number of directors now frame shots to be compatible with television format, to avoid letterboxing or pan-and-scan when the movie goes to video.
But this would be the first time a director has chosen the recording media to be compatible with tv, by sacrificing the quality of the big screen.
There's no hope for Hollywood. It ain't art, it ain't storytelling: it's just cash greed. Of course, what's new about that?
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Okay links first then comments: Fake trailer for Episode II
Well for those die hards out there, this is something I found a few weeks ago. If you have seen it before, watch it again, its cool. If not then grab quicktime and get some popcorn.
Fake .sig
and the reason i refuse ot see it:
[ ~ ]$ cat script.txt | grep -iE "Jar.*jar" | wc -l
328
*Shudder*
If you know anything about camera, (like, has shoot >30 rolls a year or own a camera that can change the frontal element known as lense,) you will know that digital has nothing to do with the quality of the picture, just like brush and paint.
The most expensive camera are all mantal. While I don't have anything against technology advanced, what Lucas doing is nothing but making buzz word. "Hey I'm using all digital equipment"=="Julia Roberts and Richard Gere were really hot for each other on the set"==BS
There has been comments that the digital replacement of traditional film editing tool has make the feel of certain movies loss a bit of raw and gritty feeling. The point is that you don't replace the thing with digital unless the quality is actually improved.
Right now the best (technically, 35mm format) camera EOS1, F5 Minolta9 etc can do about 10 frame a second with motor. The digital backs can do only 4. You have to wait probably 2 more years.
And the digital film whoever is pushing to Hollywood is actually worst than film. Hollywood has already replaced 70mm/3D/VistaVision with now standard less 35mm. I don't want them to go even lower quality unless they lower the ticket price.
CY
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Star Wars II: The Search for Plot
who would steal a script and then make it known to everyone that they were trying to sell it for $100,000?
on that note, for 100,000 big ones, that mofo better cook me breakfast, suck my cock and sing the star spangled banner for me. That's ridiculous.
on the subject of jar-jar, i think i know how this should go...
STAR WARS, EPISODE TWO: DIE GUNGAN BITCH!
The movie begins with Yoda , Anakin, and Jar-Jar in a room discussing the status quo. Anakin is visably pissed
Yoda: Anakin, you must not have hatred in your heart, for lead you to the dark side, that will!
Anakin: But master yoda, I FUCKING HATE JAR-JAR, and i'm going to kill him!
Jar Jar: Yousa say i'ma gonna die?
Anakin then unsheathes his light-sabre and rips jar-jar a new one, and jar jar dies.
Yoda: Kill jar jar you did! Relieved I am, but now Darth Vader you become!
Anakin: Small price to pay, bitch! Now i don't have to listen to that BITCH for the next 2 HOURS!
Yoda: Thank you! Complete your training has now become!
end scene 1
"I hope I don't make a mistake and manage to remain a virgin." - Britney Spears
- Does anyone know if Natalie Portman will be reprising her role as the young Princess Leia?
- If Luke already met Obi-Wan as a nine year old, why didn't he recognize him in Episode IV?
- Wouldn't it be really cool if Darth Maul came back? Even cooler if only the top half of him returned from the dead.
- Will the evolution of Mace Windu into Darth Vader occur in Episode II, or will Spielburg wait until Episode III?
I'm definitely posting this as AC, so why not go for broke? Beowulf cluster hotgrits goatpr0n beowulf CmdrTaco Gary Coleman.