A Thousand Stars: Episode I, Part 16
Apr. 28th, 2022 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilApologies to anyone concerned when no entry showed up last week; I should have mentioned that I would be out of town. Mark and I had a rare and exciting chance to spend a week in New York City to celebrate our 20th anniversary! There was a quixotic part of me that somehow imagined I'd still be able to post something, but obviously that didn't happen.
Anyway, here we are again. I'm going to explore the portrayal of the podracing sequence with a few representative images. You likely already know that there are references to classic films such as the chariot race in Ben-Hur and other famous cinematic races, not to mention the simple truth that Lucas has always loved fast chase scenes. At its most basic, we can appreciate that he knows the essentials of filming a viscerally satisfying race.
It's simple, yet I'd never considered it until it was pointed out to me: the camera is always positioned so that the pods move from right to left. Why is this important? So we feel on an instinctive level that they're moving in the same direction.
It's a physical reality that we could just as easily view things from the opposite side and see the pod going left to right, but our brains wouldn't like that. Something would seem backwards. It's a similar principle if you're showing closeups of two people facing each other. You'd want to keep one of them looking toward the right, the other toward the left. It just makes cinematic sense. We as the audience hardly even register the trick, but a good filmmaker has to deliberately maintain that consistency in perspective.
There are also well-timed cuts to the reactions from the crowd, thrilling at every explosion and incident of destruction, as well as our heroes and their more serious responses which give us some emotional grounding. We can feel outrage at those who consider this entertainment in contrast to the anguish on Shmi's face as she can no longer watch her son encounter mortal danger over and over again.
It's her reactions, most of all, that tell us what to feel. When she beams with relief at the end of the race, we know it's going to be fine.
Though "fine" is a relative term. Big changes coming for the Skywalker family next time...
Anyway, here we are again. I'm going to explore the portrayal of the podracing sequence with a few representative images. You likely already know that there are references to classic films such as the chariot race in Ben-Hur and other famous cinematic races, not to mention the simple truth that Lucas has always loved fast chase scenes. At its most basic, we can appreciate that he knows the essentials of filming a viscerally satisfying race.
It's simple, yet I'd never considered it until it was pointed out to me: the camera is always positioned so that the pods move from right to left. Why is this important? So we feel on an instinctive level that they're moving in the same direction.
It's a physical reality that we could just as easily view things from the opposite side and see the pod going left to right, but our brains wouldn't like that. Something would seem backwards. It's a similar principle if you're showing closeups of two people facing each other. You'd want to keep one of them looking toward the right, the other toward the left. It just makes cinematic sense. We as the audience hardly even register the trick, but a good filmmaker has to deliberately maintain that consistency in perspective.
There are also well-timed cuts to the reactions from the crowd, thrilling at every explosion and incident of destruction, as well as our heroes and their more serious responses which give us some emotional grounding. We can feel outrage at those who consider this entertainment in contrast to the anguish on Shmi's face as she can no longer watch her son encounter mortal danger over and over again.
It's her reactions, most of all, that tell us what to feel. When she beams with relief at the end of the race, we know it's going to be fine.
Though "fine" is a relative term. Big changes coming for the Skywalker family next time...
no subject
Date: 2022-04-29 11:33 am (UTC)