This Star Wars Open Letter to J.J. Abrams is Beautifully Animated [VIDEO]
2013.09.28
There are so many open letters and essays telling J.J. Abrams how to make Star Wars great again. But this video is something unique. It points out four simple rules for Star Wars, with excellent animation.
The video was created by Prescott Harvey from the creative agency Sincerely, Truman, who was actually a production assistant on J.J. Abrams' directorial debut, Mission Impossible III. Harvey had had one conversation with Abrams in which Harvey recommended some games for the Xbox 360. "He probably doesn't remember that, but he might remember the PA who got an earpiece stuck in his ear and had to go the hospital," says Harvey.
Harvey also the authored 'The World of Warcraft Guide to Winning at Life.'
He explains why he created the video:
Like so many people, I've spent most of my recent years wondering why the original Star Wars trilogy was so awesome, and the new movies were so terrible. What are the factors that make Star Wars, Star Wars? I took an empirical approach, determining what elements were in the original movies that differed from the prequels. My first major epiphany was that, in the originals, the characters are always outside somewhere very remote. The environment and the wildlife are as much a threat as the empire. All three movies had this bushwacky, exploratory feel. Contrast that with the prequels, where the characters are often in cities, or in the galactic senate. In order for Star Wars to feel like a true adventure, the setting has to be the frontier, and this became my first rule. After that I started brainstorming with friends, and reading online opinions. Gradually a script took shape.There were some rules that they experimented with that didn't make the cut — for example, some rules were about film technique, but "that didn't seem fair since the original trilogy was so revolutionary, and filmmaking has changed so much in three decades," says Harvey. So they stuck to rules that had to do with story elements and setting. He adds:
My favorite rule that didn't make the cut is "The Jedi are Pacifists". In the prequels, Qui Gon, Mace Windu and Yoda are a bunch of acrobatic ninjas with crazy special abilities. But what makes the original movies so interesting is that the Jedi (Yoda and Obiwan) are true pacifists. They refuse to fight, even to the point of death. Now, that doesn't make them as interesting for the action sequences, but it really contrasts the good guys from the bad guys. It also made Luke's internal struggle more compelling. Who do you choose, the morally sound boring guys, or the corrupt guys with all the awesome abilities? I think this rule really contributed to the strong mythology created in the original films. But it was difficult to explain this concept in twenty seconds of video. Plus I don't speak for all fans on this one. Lots of people cite the Darth Maul lightsaber battles as the best part of 'The Phantom Menace'.It took Harvey five months to put the video together, mostly after working hours because the team had to do actual client work during the day. The team didn't expect a two-minute video to take that long, says Harvey.
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