Death of a Princess: How Star Wars can go on

With Episode 8 wrapped up and final impressions neatly being supplied by nearly everyone across the internet, we now get to enjoy the next year and some number of months speculating until the next saga film to carry on the story of Rey, Finn and Poe.

As far as I see it, there’s a small collection of big questions remaining when we talk about the future of Star Wars. Perhaps none as important as how J.J. Abrams will deal with the real life passing of Carrie Fisher. When we left off on The Last Jedi, presumably the entire Resistance movement (or the main fighting force at least) fits aboard the Millennium Falcon, including General Organa after having taken horrific loses over the course of Episode 8. 

But how J.J. Abrams deals with the death our favorite Princess is a question J.J. and by extension Disney is likely to not take lightly. The options before them, to put it simply are as follows: Either the film acknowledges her death sometime between Episode 8 and 9, in the days, weeks, months, or years between Last Jedi and Episode 9, or the ball is kicked down the road, and her character is not revealed to have died until further into the film. This option however raises its own risks, including the blowback if her character, even if in a minor scene- is CGI’d into the film, or various leftover footage is used to composite her into the new footage; and it doesn’t meet audiences expectations. It’s my personal belief Disney won’t take the risk, not after the blowback they’ve already received from Tarkin’s CGI inclusion in Rogue One and from The Last Jedi’s bold thematic decisions I’ve outlined in previous articles. This and in addition to Solo’s release, which many are already speculating to be a flop (which honestly is unwarranted speculation prior to any footage being released).

It seems, at this point that Disney likely won’t want to risk the blowback on the “final” saga film and makes sense they’d either push her death to the opening crawl of Episode 9, or the very opening scene of the film itself. But honestly, this could be the best thing for the film, next to Carrie Fisher being alive and well.

To put it simply, rather than leaning away from her death, Disney should lean into her loss. Using General Organa’s death as a form of catalyst for the events of Episode 9, may provide the proper backdrop for a strong thematic framework for our characters overcoming overwhelming loss and grief. By referencing the void left by Leia, the audience too is reminded of the loss of such a central character and the challenge of overcoming impossible odds despite it. By confronting the hard truth immediately, it quickly shapes the narrative around the problem- rather than shying away from the responsibility and weight of that loss. 

In addition to this, I would be all but shocked if the film didn’t take place at a minimum of weeks, if not months after The Last Jedi. With a proper amount of time left between the films to ensure our heroes are positioned to respond to the catalytic moment of Leia’s death.

How the series deals with the death of one of our favorite characters, not to mention just one of our favorite actresses is hard to say at this point. But I can hope they take the bold path to embrace the reality they face, then try to soften the topic. Carrie Fisher from my experience both in person listening to her speak, or the interviews I've witnessed over the years paints the picture of someone who has challenged life head on- and it would disrespectful to now treat her character as a delicate matter. 

Rogue One vs The Force Awakens - How we do Judge?

Recently, I had a discussion with a good friend of mine in which I made the bold statement that 'Rogue One was a better movie than The Force Awakens.' While I'm not sure I would stand behind that statement today after a bit of thought, it still sparked a rather engaging conversation in which I realized something I hadn't considered before.

Franchise's are on the eve of a New Era. We no longer can simply grade a franchise film by its own merit- not to grade it fairly. With so much mixed media content, from novels, TV series, films and beyond; how can we judge a film as an independent piece when it was never intended to be viewed as such?

To be fair, I do believe criticism of a film, novel, comic or whatever medium you choose is fair, but so too is looking at the greater puzzle this piece may fit into. This idea was only compounded as over the weekend I binge watched Star Wars Episodes IV-VI. From that I picked up on something else, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is pure eye candy.

What's a Sequel/Prequel in a Shared Universe?

I love Empire it's certainly one of my favorites. But if I look at this film as an independent film, far away from the surrounding franchise films- the film looses value quickly. We're left with an open-ended ending and the film itself seems to hang on the reveal that Vader is Luke's father. But this doesn't bring a ton of value to the film itself. It's a great reveal, but there's no conclusion to this news. Luke is simply defeated and narrowly escapes. In fact other than some eye candy in regards to a new Super Star Destroyer, TIE Bombers, interesting new locations, an improved lightsaber fight and Imperial Walkers, we're left with a pretty simple story about Luke visiting a hermit before confronting a bad dude and loosing.

Only when we view Empire as part of a trilogy, or saga can we begin to see the big picture and how fantastic it was to marvel and play in this 'play pen' of new material. The plot was pushed along just a little, but we were given new toys to 'awe' over and play with in our minds. Many of the best lines from the series are from Empire because the characters had plenty of time to simply exist without pressure of starting or ending the story. And there's nothing wrong with that. Empire is so great because it's a piece of candy stuck between two films that begin and end our journey. This is not so much a criticism as much as it is an observation (and before anyone starts to talk about storytelling principles, I'm way ahead of you, but it's important to remind ourselves of what Empire is)- and it leads me to an issue I have with criticism of Rogue One or The Force Awakens.

Star Wars has a selection of 'saga' films that have convenient numbers that string them all together. In the past this has worked for Star Wars- it was the way it was intended on being told. But I doubt Lucas or much less anyone else back then had dreamed up the concept of a shared cinematic universe. Certainly no one could imagine the Marvel Universe being told from the perspective of 'Episode 1: Captain America...' Because Marvel and DC have changed the way we view these expanded universes. When we get a film like Ant Man, the superhero isn't a main hero like Captain America. So where does that fit into the greater story arch? If we looked to the Monomyth for clues on story structure, would Ant Man be near the beginning or middle of this grand story? The answer is none of the above. While Ant Man itself may follow the story structure of the Monomyth, the film itself only nudges the film universe forward and from that respect- is just candy for the Marvel Universe.

More to the point, Rogue One was 'candy' for the Star Wars Universe. It's story nudged the saga forward, but the film itself was a new cinematic path being forged. Our expectations for quality should be just as high as The Force Awakens, if not higher.  But what we expect in terms of content should be wildly different.

Criticizing Rogue One

Namely, a lot of the issues I've heard with Rogue One is that it was too much 'fandom' Too much of what fan's have been drooling over- Action! X-Wings! Stormtroopers! Battle! New Tech! To be fair, we should have expected this from the moment they said it would be a war film, but beyond that I find those who criticize the film for the new vehicles/weapons to be just as silly as those who criticize the film for having the classic Imperial Walkers 'just because it'll get people into theater seats.' Because frankly Star Wars is about the characters as much as it is about the universe they inhabit. It's a bad reason to dislike the film when a more reasonable reason could be the lack of character development. Which I would take as a reasonable excuse, especially considering some of the key characters don't survive and understanding their motivations more clearly in this one-off film becomes even  more important.

But to complain that the film was ruined because they added new vehicles in the same way Empire Strikes Back did, is just silly. To complain that cutting edge special effects didn't 100% convince you that Tarkin was living and breathing, probably just shows you're not a fool. But to suggest it ruined the film is a bit dramatic. The special effects are pretty amazing all things considered and perhaps one day Disney will update them as the technology improves. I guess my point with this one is simple- when Star Wars came out in the 70s, the technology that was presented to movie goers was new and revolutionary. But don't kid yourself into thinking that anyone thought it was real. It was just really amazing to see what they achieved on screen. Why audiences today can scoff and suggest they simply shouldn't have bothered, defeats the point. It's not about being photo accurate, it's about telling a story with all the tools you have at your disposal.

Future Films

Real complaints about Rogue One exist and I hope Disney listens to them and uses that as motivation to create something truly spectacular in the future. Personally I don't think they nailed The Force Awakens for different reasons than Rogue One, but TFA's story isn't complete and we're bound to have our opinions change once Episode VIII arrives. Though considering Episode VIII's position as the 'candy' episode in this new trilogy, we shouldn't be surprised if many of the same complaints start to show up after the credits roll. I could only hope much like Empire, the characters become richer, the universe deeper and the new tech cooler. 

The Cirlce is Nearly Complete

It's really wonderful to see things coming together so smoothly. Enjoy it while I can I say- as harder times are sure to come. It's been a few days since I've been able to update anyone, much less work on our project due to a busy weekend with family. But, there have been some very exciting updates. Chief among them, the first draft of our revised script has been finished and the Gallimimus model is nearing texture completion. Another critical step in it's development.

When I tasked myself to work on the script as I've mentioned previously, I knew there were a number of criteria that had to be met, for production reasons and so forth. I spent about a week just letting the thoughts rumble in the back of my mind as I pressed on with other issues. To be fair, I really wasn't looking forward to writing a first draft. It was a daunting task: take everything we've written before, capture the spirit of it, remove the fluff, polish the good parts and implement as much as we could into a compact spot. It just wasn't something I was looking forward to, but having a bit of time to let the ideas marinate did me some good. Best yet, it let the good ideas stand on their own and the bad ones fade to the background. I found I could focus on what was important when all the ideas of our previous script weren't jumping out at me at once saying 'well what about me?' So finally, I gathered my courage and dived in- and it didn't take longer then about five hours. Not too shabby for a days work. Next I'll be sending the draft to my other colleagues for them to review and I'll be setting up an appointment with 'James', a previous writer I've worked with to smooth out any details. Honestly, I don't foresee the script taking too many revisions, perhaps changes in verbage or slight actions sequence changes. But nothing dramatic- which is good news.

Having such a concrete script from the get-go also means organizing the film in a much more productive way. Storyboarding is an easy one to spot, but there's other advantages. Like the complementary use of B-Roll. For those who don't know, B-Roll is typically used in advertising. In a feature film for instance there's often a 'Secondary Film Unit' which goes around and shoots all the filler stuff- like rolling landscapes, the big master shots of a city, or other details that the main shoot isn't focused on. It's a time saving move for the production. Well, Ranger Corps don't have a second unit to go out and film with, and going to locations like Hawaii to film would certainly cost us a lot more than the roughly $500 we have to make this film. So that puts us in a pickle it would seem. But that's where B-Roll comes in. B-Roll is essentially the same thing, but more often than not it's filmed by someone else, so there's no control over what is being shot- but because there's so much footage you usually can make good use of some of it. You just have to be creative.

In the case of Ranger Corps, filming in Hawaii was out of the question. We're filming in Florida, so we do have some varying levels of passable jungle- but where we're lacking B-Roll can sometimes be used to fill the gap. Knowing this beforehand and designing the script with this in mind, has meant I can produce an animated storyboard, complemented with B-Roll, and temporary audio to create the film in pre-production before ever having to set foot outside. It's a big step forward for us, as it shows us a glimpse of what we're shooting and has huge implications from a storytelling point of view. As it stands currently, about half the film has been constructed this way and I imagine after tonight the latter half will also be constructed.


Last but not least, the Gallimimus model is nearing the end of it's texture stage of production. It's been nice to work on an organic model again, as it's been a while since I've animated anything, much less an organic. But truthfully, I over did it. The model really doesn't need to be as fancy as I made it for the screen time it'll in. But hey, it was nice to get things moving again. Next comes rigging, in which I place a bone structure in the creature to give it degrees of movement, then the run cycles begin, then animating the sequence, then rendering, compositing... and finally it'll be done. But the big thing is just finishing the textures.

Muscles Groups

Quick update today, last night I worked pretty hard to define the Gallimimus' muscle groups even further and smooth out some of the rough areas across the body. From about the shoulders back I'm pretty happy, even the feet have come a long ways since the beginning. The fingers still need a bit of work, they're a bit too sharp and fearsome in my opinion. The shoulder blade needs to be refined too to make for smoother animation when they're curled up into a 'traveling position'.

The head has brought about a new set of problems. I took a crack at it last night, but wasn't too satisfied with the results I was getting. I'll probably start from scratch again today and see what I can do. The skull is a very odd shape, namely around the eyes. It's a very angular shape that softens into deep wells for the eyes and chubby cheeks. I decided against designing the mouth to open, the animals simply won't be seen long enough to bother putting in that level of detail.

Galli- Galli- Gallimimus!

It's nice to see progress being made on the Ranger Corps front. Last night I got the change to flesh out the body and feet on our Gallimimus Model. This might just be the first herbivore model I've ever made and there's some unique challenges in that alone. Rather than teeth and a certain about of 'snear' Gallimimus are all about speed and raw power. Which has meant a lot of emphasis on muscle groups and giving the Gallimimus the right look that conveys speed. There's a silver lining however when it comes to this model and it's simply the fact that you won't see the animal resting in place but running in a group. This is beneficial because I won't have to put an extreme amount of detail into the model, considering it'll be blurred anyways. Which means a faster turn around for production. What you're looking at now is a good first past, but the final model will likely have twice the level of detail when complete. The feet still need additional work, they have this odd shape in which the toes are thin, the heel is thick and the lower leg bone bulges- finding the right ratio is a bit of trial by error. Tonight, I'll begin work on the hands and head too- which will have come with their own set of challenges. The fingers won't be difficult and again aren't required to be animated too heavily, the head on the other hand will be defined a fair amount. Not that it'll be seen in any high resolution, but I tend to think people's eyes gravitate to the head of most creatures. So I'd like to see it moderately fleshed out.

Other interesting aspects of the Gallimimus I've learned along the way are in response to its growth patterns. The young often has shorter snouts and grew in length with age. This has lead to me to consider creating a secondary model, tweaked to be a sub-adult. It would be a minor variation, but perhaps needed variety for the film.

On the scripting front, not a whole lot of progress has been made. I've been putting a bit of thought into the storyline, but I haven't taken the time to sit down and flesh it out. The problem really comes down to the main antagonist. With so little time for this story (I'm thinking under 5 minutes) that puts a lot of pressure to focus on only one main antagonist, rather than two- which was the original story design (like a one-two punch). But who knows, I have a clever approach to involving two antagonists, but it's really a question of logistics. Not to mention this means double the work.

At the moment, the idea stands that a Ranger has arrived on scene to a truck crash. He realizes the truck operators are dead and the animal cages have been torn open in the chaos that ensued. The problem is what was on board- creatures that were on their way to be euthanized. Predatory creatures with teeth like serrated knives and deadly saliva filled with a slew of incapacitating toxins. Finding and killing them is the Island's top priority. The problem is the Rangers are already deeply involved in a security threat. The island has just received it's first Tyrannosaurus Rex and she's scheduled to wake up soon. It's up to our hero, with limited chopper support to hunt down the creatures before they can escape the area. But even with the advances of 1992 military grade technology, is he the hunter or hunted?

The other issue is physical manpower. I'd like to produce this was as few of people as possible. Two or three would be ideal and I have people in mind- but the problem is again, logistics. More people, more problems. I'd also like to keep the speaking parts to a minimum, but again this becomes an issue with ideas of never before seen dinosaurs or abstract concepts. How do we explain to the audience its mouth is full of toxins if we don't say it? Showing it opens up a new set of problems. In these cases I often look back to Metal Gear Solid, where as an audience member we met Solid Snake, a fielded agent who still had a million questions about the complexity of the the 'Metal Gear' world around him, much like the players. We might be able to field a similar solution here too- perhaps the Rangers in the chopper are experienced, senior members and our hero is still a bit of a rookie. But they provide invaluable radio support and logistics from the air.

That's about all the film notes for today however- hopefully I'll have a much more rendered out picture by tomorrow!

Jurassic World Ate My Lunch

Let it be said- Jurassic World's trailer that was released today was bad ass. After months of waiting and worrying my favorite childhood franchise might be ruined (again, Jurassic Park III anyone?) It was really happy to see the production quality appeared pretty top notch and the story seemed fairly solid. There's been a bit of pissing and moaning about a few issues, but nothing that can't be explained away.

First, there's been a lot of annoyance over the 'low' quality of the CGI in the film. While I admit, the CGI doesn't appear as top notch as even say 'King Kong' where I was extremely impressed by the lighting and textures of the creatures depicted. Lets keep in mind the film won't be released until next June and the CGI itself doesn't look poor aside for a couple of shots. The main gate in particular looks a tad fake. With such a span of time between now and the release there's no doubt in my mind work on the film, post production in particular is still chugging away- and that means the CGI will make improvements.
Another issue that's been circling the message boards has been the credibility of a made up dinosaur. This is a real fine line, because on the surface a 'genetically built from scratch' dino sounds pretty lame. But lets take a moment to realize that A) None of the animals in Jurassic Park were 'real'. They had already been altered. A fact I'm sure will be made clear in the film. B) Cross genetics isn't really that lame unless this thing has wings, spits venom and can survive outer space. Lets remind ourselves to be rational. The trailer as a whole looks very well thought out, there's no reason to jump to conclusions. The brief glimpse we get at the dinosaur itself appears to be very... well. Dinosaur like. I get the impression it's going to be fairly familiar- perhaps it's real threat is its intelligence.
The last issue I've heard is the fact that Chris Pratt's character is working with 'trained dinosaurs'. A fact that Pratt himself acknowledged sounded silly- and again, this is one of those ideas that sounds lame until we stop to think about it. First, lets keep in mind that humans and seemingly dangerous animals such as lions or sharks have managed to be studied in extremely close proximity. There's no reason to believe that the Raptors are simply killing machines, a fact I'm sure Chris Pratt's character will attempt to drive home. The second thing to consider, is that Pratt's made a point to say that 'trained' doesn't mean tricks as much as it means the broad sense of the word. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the Raptors might be used as bloodhounds in a sense. Especially considering there's a dinosaur on the loose. On the flipside I could be wrong and maybe the Raptors are so smart they're using their relationship with Pratt for their own advantage. Sneaky bastards.

So there you have it. That's been my day. Oh and kissing Vanity without a beard f'n rules.