Star Wars Episode VII scene 1
A first try at Star Wars: Episode VII — a test reel, really, written and directed by Sam. The “test” was me showing Sam that we could do a scene between two battle droids when we, in fact, only own one.
Yes, I know it’s out of focus.
Sam and I both cracked up at this, but to be fair to Sam, when I suggested we post this on YouTube he looked skeptical and said “Mmm, let’s make it better first.”
oh no cat! Roger roger!
toooooo cute!
You know, I’ve been thinking- Since you’re doing the Bond films in review, how about all the Star Wars flicks? I mean you started on episode 1, why not continue?
Re: oh no cat! Roger roger!
Following the “star wars” tag at the bottom of the post will lead you to my writing on these movies. As you will see, I’ve written extensively on Attack of the Clones on two separate occasions, briefly about Return of the Jedi, and have done up a breakdown and plot analysis of Empire Strikes Back. The problem with writing about the Star Wars movies is that I doubt I have anything new to bring to the subject. If I’m watching Revenge of the Sith and some brilliant new insight springs to mind, rest assured you will know about it probably before my wife does.
Re: oh no cat! Roger roger!
I have some catching up to do. -sorry about that.
Looking forward to reading your new insights on Revenge of the Sith.
Me and my husband have been going through the whole Star Wars movies recently, which is no easy task despite loving the franchise.
I noticed something while watching A New Hope- that it’s uncanny that even in the older films, there are many of those “Lucasims” (=repeat words in dialog, bad lines that don’t work, repeat themes, etc.) that made the new movies (to me) intolerable at times, but somehow they work in the original trilogy. Is it nostalgia? Or is it editing in the new movies that make these pulpy things not work? Perhaps you’ve might have already stumbled on this before in your prior writings. But I thought it was worth mentioning.
Re: oh no cat! Roger roger!
Some of the acting and some of the dialogue in the latter movies baffles me. They’re quite outstandingly bad in places and perfectly okay in others. Extraordinary actors like Natalie Portman or Hayden Christiansen (watch Portman’s performance in Beautiful Girls and Chrisiansen’s in Shattered Glass to see what they’re capable of) come off shockingly bad for reasons that defy rational explanation. And yet it takes a quite a while for Mark Hamill to hit his stride in the original trilogy and Carrie Fisher’s accent in the first one is all over the place and it doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Not to mention the silly dialogue you bring up.
I think the reason we forgive the lapses in the earlier movies is because the story is in place. We’re engaged in the story so it carries us along in spite of a number of flaws. When I think back on a lot of movies, from The Poseidon Adventure to Touch of Evil to West Side Story, there are plenty of flaws that someone could point out, in casting and performance and dialogue, cliches that pop out in all directions, but the movies carry us along and we love them in spite of their flaws, or we love them more because of their flaws, because they say something to us, we love them like we love our flawed friends, they reflect our humanity. We watch a movie like Citizen Kane and positively revel in the bad makeup or outdated special effects or overblown line-readings because it’s a hugely compelling story and the characters are as caught up in it as we are. Whereas with the latter Star Wars movies, we can tell that the story isn’t all there, so the temptation is always to fast-forward to the next “cool” part.
Re: oh no cat! Roger roger!
Carrie Fisher’s accent in the first one is all over the place and it doesn’t seem to bother anyone.
There’s actually a reason for that. She only speaks with an English accent when in “politician mode.”
There’s some formality explanation of that someplace, but I can’t be bothered looking it up. You get the idea.
Does the Producer know that you’ve distributed a work print of your movie already? 🙂 The special effects for the cat creature are superb! It almost looks real, as opposed to a digital rendering!
…what do you mean, that’s a real cat? This is STAR WARS – all animals must either be digitally animated, guys in suits, or Muppets.
Re: oh no cat! Roger roger!
The cat is played by a man in a cat suit. Sam’s room had to be built on a sixty-foot soundstage with forced perspective in order for a cat to appear to be in the background.
In Episode X, we learn that the cat has a “life-debt” to the pit droid.
I think the startling screams at the end of both add a certain intensity to the scenes as a whole.
Wait ’til we put in the music.
ah, the ever present Alcott Williams I presume.
He truly is a budding filmmaker, isn’t he? And so concerned with quality, which is a beautiful thing to see. 😀
I’d say they’re not making action figures like they used to, but in fact I owned a few that lost their heads back in the 70s. And I was (all too typically) fussy and cautious with them. Damn you, Kenner!
Focus schmocus. Very well done. I’m eager to see the next installment of this serial. Kudos to the writer/director. That kid’s going places!…eventually. 🙂
It was Sam who noticed that the droids could lose their heads, put them back on, and switch them at will. Always thinking outside the box, Sam is.
Hah! Fantastic!
“There have been cats seen in this area”
Thats worth of putting in a signature 🙂
Love it. Love it.
The a classic piece of film. 🙂
Super incredibly cute.
Sam has the gift of improv.
Send it to Lucas as dialog notes.
“Cats? Oh, that’s terrible.”
I laughed out loud. Or as loud as I dared.