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Post by emperorferus on Apr 13, 2020 17:29:17 GMT
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on Apr 14, 2020 6:17:07 GMT
Moonshield You've posted several shots from the veranda scene. So if I were to ask you to pick one, that is the defining shot, which would you select?
Cryogenic Have we spoken about this scene in the past? I'm sure you've written plenty about it, right?
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Post by Moonshield on Apr 14, 2020 8:29:33 GMT
Moonshield So if I were to ask you to pick one, that is the defining shot, which would you select? About 30 minutes I thought. Third. "Something is wrong". Padme worries. At all, there is a lot of very beautiful shots in the PT. I like this one. I don't know why.  |
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Post by Subtext Mining on Apr 14, 2020 11:24:01 GMT
My answer is of course All The Frames!!! But I guess I could start here.  To continue, I'd like to also highlight this shot. Because these two combined say much more than 2000 words.  I see so much going on with Obi-Wan here.  He's experiencing an inner struggle of his own at this moment.  I feel he does want to connect with Anakin here, but decides to come back to going by the book.  And gives the best advice he can while maintaining a proper tone.  This shot is so pregnant with that feeling you get when you don't say what you really want to, when someone close to you needs a good "off the record" heart to heart. Especially when they do end up doing something unfortunate later on. I see this sequence as one of the most crucial in the trilogy. |
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Post by Cryogenic on Apr 14, 2020 15:03:48 GMT
Cryogenic Have we spoken about this scene in the past? I'm sure you've written plenty about it, right? I've written plenty about many of the scenes. That's actually what is causing me such anxiety at the moment: Where do I begin? This is such an epically great thread. Easily one of the best on the board. Pat yourself on the back double-time for this one, Arch Duke! What I'm thinking of doing is quoting everyone and adding some additional thoughts to each selection. The veranda set is one of my favourites in ROTS. I love how it is shown in three configurations: first at night with a relaxing and almost-mournful air (Anakin's nightmare), then in an evening/sunset light recalling a lot of the imagery on Coruscant in TPM beginning with Anakin being tested at the Jedi Temple (Anakin and Padme complaining/discussing politics), then in a kind of late-afternoon, dreamy sort of creamy-white light (Obi-Wan going to Padme to try and get Anakin's whereabouts from her). In the latter, Anakin has fled to Mustafar, but his presence lingers like a ghost. It's a very lush and beautiful set, carried off very well by the three different daytime settings. And the way it transitions through these three different settings lends a kind of fateful, transcendental quality to the proceedings. It can be taken as in-movie evidence for Pyrogenic's suggested RETRO ORDER (i.e., watching the movies in a kind of reverse, countdown-to-launch order: III, II, I). As dire as things become, the veranda set seems to be brightening in a way that is inversely proportional to the happenings of the movie, as if the night-time setting of the first scene embodies ROTS (particularly the theme of death/loss and Anakin dressed in a kind of sleek, bathing-house black robe), the sunset tones of the second encapsulates AOTC (where the closing scene of AOTC is even alluded to by Padme), and the bright quality of the third symbolises TPM (accentuated by Padme's innocence/naivete toward Anakin's crimes). It's a weird thing when you notice it, but very George Lucas. I love it. It also led to this image, so the veranda set is really the set that keeps on giving...   |
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on Apr 15, 2020 3:48:23 GMT
Moonshield Wise choice! It does stand out, for some reason.
Here is a similar shot, except you have an overlap. Notice how the two illuminate as one:
So much work must have gone into this one scene! Does anyone have the "Making Of" book at hand? I've only got the final chapter (which was given as a free download), and it doesn't dwell on it.
Or maybe we should save that for later? You know: discuss the scene to death, before then bring in the book to show how how our magician George did the trick.
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Post by emperorferus on May 7, 2020 4:49:11 GMT
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Post by Moonshield on May 19, 2020 19:10:20 GMT
George Lucas cinematography The Phantom Menace  Attack of the Clones  Revenge of the Sith  |
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Post by Moonshield on May 21, 2020 7:23:53 GMT
Another examples of Lucas' composition Proportions  What's new in the Binary Sunset?  |
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Post by Moonshield on May 21, 2020 10:17:03 GMT
Memorable shot, like in the film Shawshank Redemption  |
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on Oct 25, 2020 20:53:49 GMT
Round 7:
Episode I is well known for its phantoms, but it's also one of joy and warmth. And nobody exudes this more than Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi who puts his full faith in the Force.
Wholesome, indeed.
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Post by Somny on Oct 26, 2020 1:25:57 GMT
Even at the tender age of 13, I remember leaving my first screening of TPM feeling a distinctive air of regality and dignity because of this character. As I followed my older brother and his girlfriend back to our ride in the mall parking garage, I felt oddly compelled to straighten up my posture and clasp my forearms behind my back in much the same respectful, deferent manner Qui-Gon does at moments throughout the film. All that astounds me in retrospect and I often think about the peculiar effect this film had on me right from the start. Boy, how certain aspects of these films can reach so far into us and jog how we so much as hold ourselves - again and maybe not surprisingly - even in our youth.
Here's a favorite Qui-Gon-related frame I was thinking about recently (probably due to my recollection above):
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Post by Cryogenic on Nov 23, 2020 17:06:01 GMT
This thread is honestly so fantastic and inspiring! I have had to suppress my muse, my urge to comment on every post. I see that a number of posts focus on the first veranda scene between Anakin and Padme in ROTS, right after Anakin has his nightmare. I commented on it myself in my first reply, but it got brought up again after that. Just so much I could say! This thread eats away at my prequel-loving soul like few others. The cinematography of these films is so solid and so brilliant, you can't really run out of things to say. Oh, man... Seriously, I have so much love to spill over the "frames" of the PT (and so many image compilations I've done on my PC)... How on Earth do I come even half-way close to saying it all? It's overwhelming to even think about. Every frame in the PT deserves its own essay. To paraphrase that video: The most beautiful things that have ever been filmed. Describe the universe. You have fifty words. LOL. Moonshield Wise choice! It does stand out, for some reason. Here is a similar shot, except you have an overlap. Notice how the two illuminate as one:
So much work must have gone into this one scene! Does anyone have the "Making Of" book at hand? I've only got the final chapter (which was given as a free download), and it doesn't dwell on it. Or maybe we should save that for later? You know: discuss the scene to death, before then bring in the book to show how how our magician George did the trick. I love the way there's an amber backlight on the lovers in this scene. A dark moment for the two (in some ways, the darkest moment in the saga), yet a wisp of light remains. It's almost like chalk outlines tracing around dead bodies. Yet these people are still warm, fleshy, living: a reminder made all the more potent with Padme's bare shoulders (and what a fantastic dress she on -- again). The pillars in the background lend a Greco-Roman air to the proceedings (very apt given all the historical references to Ancient Greece and Rome in the PT), while the deep blue that the walls and floor of the veranda are stained in, along with the general "sad gloom" of the scene, lends the feeling of these characters drowning underwater in the murky depths (there's a "Titanic" vibe to this pair's romance, and to the PT as a whole, is there not?). But that light! "Hold on, Anakin... (you're going to get us both killed)." Honestly, that lamp kills me. It's very elegant: understated, dreamy, and beautiful (like Padme). I suppose it is loosely intended to evoke the organic underwater Gungan cities. It is very much like a third character in the scene. "I'll just shine away while you two love birds think about how doomed you are." Note that there are two specular highlights within the lamp, as if two Tatooine suns are trapped inside: destiny and "looking to the horizon" in miniature -- ornamentalised. The drooping "legs" of the lamp also match Padme's drooping pearls. What a spectacular piece of art direction! The top of the lamp, meanwhile, looks like a flying saucer; adding subtly to the "Silver Age" 1930s-and-1940s Flash Gordon/Roswellian vibe of the PT. It's appropriate that it has a bulbous bottom and there appears to be two suns inside: Padme! Carrier of the Skywalker twins. And recall that Padme discreetly emerges from an amber curtain in Anakin's previous nightmare scene in AOTC: (But also note, compared to the lamp, there are much richer and deeper amber tones in this shot -- Padme's light in ROTS is fading...)  Yellow, generally, is such an important colour within Star Wars. Heck, it's the colour of the opening logo. I think this image says STAR WARS as much as anything:  See? You can even make new frames. As for the scene generally, I wrote this on TFN all the way back in 2005 (partial quote): Yep. I still love this saga. |
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Post by Somny on Dec 16, 2020 1:15:56 GMT
Circling back to my experience first seeing TPM in theaters, I can distinctly recall the appearance of this particular establishing shot in the film and how I felt an uncanny sense of coldness and sterility in response - even as a 13-year-old. I remember looking past the Council's towers for the few seconds that the shot lasts and getting an intense impression of desolation evoked by the extremely featureless and far-stretching Coruscant cityscape. Years later, I would realize the rather poetic connection between Coruscant and the Death Star (there's more to be mined here, of course) but the base layer of emotion behind such a connection was powerfully planted in this first viewing. I'm reminded of Padme's line about space being "cold" as our heroes make their way to this city planet. Curiously enough, that moment also sticks out in my mind as one I can still recall being unusually struck by on that rainy Wednesday evening in May '99. No character had ever described space itself in the OT.  |
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Post by Somny on Dec 26, 2020 6:25:36 GMT
Kinda related to my post just above.
I've been feeling a sort of malaise about new SW lately. This shot, from Obi-Wan's perspective during ROTS's climactic duel, illustrates my unease about recent developments with its reveal of the vast, volcanic plains of Mustafar beyond the lava-fall. I feel as Obi-Wan does here as he approaches the significant precipice where all ahead of it is lifeless terrain of rock and fire as far as the eye can see. He may evade the steep drop for his own safety but we all know the trajectory of the galaxy at large. He knows what's ahead. It's all over his face in the preceding close-up. Tragic.
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Post by Ingram on Dec 26, 2020 9:50:48 GMT
The internet ate my selections from the previous page. Round two.
Neon Killer.
Teacup perspectives.
Sixty-six degrees of Separatism.
Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Streaming service.
Anakin
4D c̶h̶e̶s̶s̶ c̶h̶e̶c̶k̶e̶r̶s̶ Mouse Trap.
Total Starlog cover!
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Post by Moonshield on Dec 26, 2020 13:53:33 GMT
Ingram, you deserve 20 thumbs up. Damn, Lucas really loved cinematography...
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Post by smittysgelato on Dec 26, 2020 23:54:25 GMT
Padme's apartment is my favourite Star Wars set ever. I want to live there. Preferably with Padme.
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Post by thephantomcalamari on Dec 27, 2020 12:11:47 GMT
I love the audacity of this shot, just from a technical perspective. Live actors on a partial set mixed with miniature photography mixed with CG characters and environmental elements. Obviously not the only occasion where this is done, but I don't know where else it comes together quite so beautifully. I love Otoh Gunga. An underwater world of windows. |
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Post by smittysgelato on Dec 27, 2020 20:54:14 GMT
![]()  I love the Flash Gordon style ship and the placement of Anakin and Padme in the frame.  Padme would throw me off balance too.  R4 gets shot at by Jango. Cool light show. |
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