Star Wars Episode III: Behind the Scenes Webcam

securitas writes "Soon Star Wars behind-the-scenes webcam goes live when shooting for Episode III begins in Australia. 'The webcam will be moved every day, shooting live for 12 hours and then replaying in a loop while the cast is sleeping.' Of course it's only free until next week when you will have to join StarWars.com's newly relaunched site to view the cam as part of a package of services that includes online chats, outtakes and deleted scenes." I'm not sure if it's worth $20, but it's worth something....

Comments

Hmmmm...

[Vengeance]

Pay to watch them shooting a movie I probably won't bother bringing myself to pay to see?

Not bloody likely.

Star Wars was hot in the '70s, cool in the '80s, retro in the '90s, and turned into a joke by the Phantom Menace. When I first saw that they were setting up a webcam, I thought it was mildly interesting. The pay thing is the final proof I needed though, that the SW franchise has had enough of my attention.

Hmmm..

[Verteiron]

You know, after viewing both The Phantom Plot and Attack of the Special Effects, I haven't the faintest desire to spend a dime on anything involved with Star Wars anymore? Lucas has killed it... it's gone.

I seriously doubt I'll be seeing episode 3, much less spending time/money watching a "behind the scenes" webcam that you know is going to be scripted and rigged just like all "Behind the Scenes" specials are.

Re:Hmmm..

[the gnat]

I'm sorry the Mario^H^H^H^H^H Foundry scene was just the most childish insult to the audience I'd ever seen.

One reviewer compared it (unfavorably) to the pie-machine scene in Chicken Run. A good example of how effects can't make up for plot - Aardman does more with clay than ILM can with thousands of computers.

Re:Who is planning on paying for this?

[s20451]

Only fanboys would actualy pay for it, but there seems to be no shortage of those. Good business case.

Re:Spend Your Money You Will, Yes.

[benwb]

Shouldn't that be "Path to the dark side, greed is"

I know, I know

[Monkeylaser]

It's somewhat flameish to just decry this as another whore for money from Lucas, but it seems that the star wars license has gone from something nearly sacred to the developement of geeks to just another schlocky blockbuster, only with more questionably wooden acting than most, and a more disturbingly loyal fanbase.

But paying for a webcam, and deleted scenes? C'mon now guys. When you've merchandised everything else in the movies already, watching the blue screen work that presumably these actors are going to be doing really doesn't sound like much fun to me.

A question posed to the other slashdot readers here. How many folks are just a little bit more disillusioned with one of our childhood geek heroes (Lucas) every time we see a news post about the prequel trilogy?

It's become something of a car-crash phenomenon for me. I just can't look away. But I will balk at paying 20 bucks. It leads one to wonder if this is a result of the nature of Hollywood, for creating larger, more expensive, less true to the original concept material, or if it's the nature of man as the director, when they start believing their own hype.

The Matrix, our new Sci-Fi trilogy?

[Mish]

It only fully hit home when discussing "The Matrix Reloaded" with a few friends a few weeks back, but "The Matrix" has a good chance at being "The New Star Wars".

If the Wachowski Brothers can pull off 'something special(TM)' with the third Matrix movie then it'll live on for quite a long time as a classic cult sci-fi/fantasy trilogy, something the latest set of Star Wars films show no sign of doing.

I (as did most of us) loved the original Star Wars films; I still watch them from time to time. I've watched the first Star Wars film (TPM) about three times and may never watch it again, it lacks something... the same unfortunately goes for the second, which has left me with no desire to be there on opening night for the third Star Wars film.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this will happen, maybe the third Matrix movie will fall flat on its face and fail to deliver, but its set up for a way better chance than what looks to amount to another shallow CG laden Star Wars movie, hell rewatching the older Star Wars movies recently I was surprised by how good the old spaceship models look when compared to the new CG versions.

I think the best quote I've ever seen about the whole "Star Wars vs. Matrix" situation was by a Matrix crew member who summed it up perfectly with:

On a basic level, though, "The Matrix" was simply good storytelling. "I've heard the 'Star Wars' people boast about shooting frames that are 97 percent digital, and lo and behold, the movies are soulless," says John Gaeta, visual-effects supervisor for all three "Matrix" movies. "They traded the whole idea of depth in filmmaking for this supertechnological hype. It helped us focus our own philosophy: the story drives everything."

I agree wholeheartedly.

Re:The Matrix, our new Sci-Fi trilogy?

[Lumpy]

I (as did most of us) loved the original Star Wars films; I still watch them from time to time. I've watched the first Star Wars film (TPM) about three times and may never watch it again, it lacks something... the same unfortunately goes for the second, which has left me with no desire to be there on opening night for the third Star Wars film.

I'll let you in on a secret.... Star Wars was the FIRST movie to do a Space based SCI-FI with lots of semi believeable special effects. The sci-fi movies before it sucked because the effects were lame.. and felt like a kid playing with the super-8 in the back yard with holloween costumes and fireworks.

Star wars was a hit because nobody ever saw anything like it before.. it was the first, fresh, and brought them in because of that.

Matrix... DITTO! the same thing. people are getting tired of the same crap over and over and over and over.. now comes the Matrix.. it's "fresh" and has a plot that is innovative.

in 20 years when they make 3 prequels to the matrix you will feel as poorly about it as you do about starwars now.

Re:The Matrix, our new Sci-Fi trilogy?

[dswensen]

I think you're right about The Matrix being the new Star Wars. After all, when the Slashdot story reviewing the sequel was posted, people came out in droves to say how much it sucked and wasn't worth their time, and how it was a brainless, empty exercise in excessive (and let's not forget crappy) digital effects. The original Matrix, on the other hand, retroactively became a revolutionary epic which produced an effect that could never be repeated by any further expansion of the story.

Yup, sounds like the heir to Star Wars if ever I saw one.

Re:What it's worth...

[curtisk]

Ignoring ?

Perfect response!

Lucas , you have to give him credit for more -or-less starting(or refining) the whole mass-merchandising thing, but its so spun out of control and just tired

This scam may have nothing to do with him, but its unlikely. How many more "new editions" of Episode 1-5 releases are we gonna see after 6 comes out on DVD....with new,new,new deleted never before seen footage or something.

But, if you're willing to pay, thats your loss... besides, Star Wars was cool when I was a kid, yeah the effects are slick, but the movies themselves are truly pretty weak, even the old ones, but again I was a KID then.

money doesn't stink

[dorfsmay]

Holywood is a business. The primary goal of business is to make money, not to entertain.

I am not sure why the guy should be criticized for being old. Everybody grows old, some better than others. I hope you loose your anger as you grow older... Yes, sorry to break the news to you, the "olds" is not a group of other foreign people, you too will grow old.

I have to admit that being fat is a health risk, but that is his problem that has no consequence on what he does (producing movies), and apparently he has the money to deal with the consequences of his life style choices.

I am not sure why slashdoters tend to be very quick to criticize the successfull rich people out there... jealousy ?? Now if you are truly interrested in entertainment and talent, forget about big holywood production, start looking at what's produced locally in your area. Everywhere I've been, you can easily find incredibly talented musicians, singers, actors, etc... They typically are not rich, and paying to see them at your local theatre will make a big difference to them.

Enjoy your day.

Real world vs. Lucas world

[Sabu mark]

Real world: Behind-the-scenes shorts are a form of preview, designed to whet the audience's appetite.
Lucas world: Behind-the-scenes shorts are a saleable product, offered at twice the price of the actual movie being made.

Real world: Buying the VHS or DVD is like owning the actual print of the film, in a cheaper format.
Lucas world: There is no such thing as the print of the film. Films are like operating systems; a new version is released avery year or so, and the customer base must pay to replace their DVDs with the latest version.

Real world: The special effects exist to serve the story.
Lucas world: The special effects exist to improve sales of the upcoming Xbox title.

Real world: A franchise goes downhill when the original creators are replaced.
Lucas world: The franchise went downhill when the original creator came back.

Re:Lucus gets points

[greenhide]

Do I plan to see Episode III... yea, but not at prime time rates, or perhaps on bittorrent. I enjoyed a new hope, empire strikes back, and return of the jedi. I don't plan to be first in line, I don't plan to trade a laptop for tickets as seen with episode 1. I won't drive up to canada to see it first.

Actually, I plan to go to the midnight showing. Way I figure it, I probably will go to see it while it's in the theaters, and if I do I may as well see it when it's fresh and new and see it surrounded by the most hardcore geeks possible, who will laugh at all the inside stuff, if there is any, and who will cheer really loudly at the end, so I can at least fool myself into believing that I enjoyed the film.

My profound hope? It's unlikely, but maybe Lucas will think, "Hey, this is the *last one* I can do! I'd better marshall any talent that I, the actors, my dialogue writers, and my special effects crew have to make this the best one ever! All of my fan base really have bitched about episodes 1 and 2. Maybe I should take a look at Empire and see just what it was that made it so successful (Answer: tight editing, interesting philosophies, exciting interstellar chase scenes, genuine humor -- "It's not my fault" still the greatest line of all time, and realistic emotional connections between the characters)"

But not very likely, really.

If only there was someone to put Harrison Ford back into the movie. Man, he was the glue that held it all together.