This week J.J. Abrams picked up the visionary award and the Visual Effects Society Awards and of course he was asked about Star Wars and while not giving anything away (as usual) he did address a number of points including the lightsaber that caused all the hoopla
I will say that what’s been funny is, since the lightsaber’s come out, I cannot tell you how many contradictory emails I have received from people who have both defended it with unbelievably detailed graphics… I’ve gotten things that are nuts, and I’ve gotten people who’ve shown how it’ll kill you and how it doesn’t make any sense. It’s been the funniest thing to see the arguments that have developed over this thing.”
And IMAX fans are set to be disappointed (well if you're a diehard IMAX fan) as only one scene in The Force Awakens was shot in IMAX "It’s really one sequence so it’s not a ton, but it’s a good sequence.” Having seen the Episode 7 production in action in Portmagee, Co.Kerry last Summer, I'd hazard a guess that the IMAX sequence will involve Skellig Michael, the island where Luke Skywalker was apparently holed up.
I will say that what’s been funny is, since the lightsaber’s come out, I cannot tell you how many contradictory emails I have received from people who have both defended it with unbelievably detailed graphics… I’ve gotten things that are nuts, and I’ve gotten people who’ve shown how it’ll kill you and how it doesn’t make any sense. It’s been the funniest thing to see the arguments that have developed over this thing.”
As has been noted in the past Abrams has been promising lots of practical effects in The Force Awakens and he seems set on delivering.
"There are obviously an enormous amount of CG effects in the film, and I can’t wait for you to see the combination. But it was very important that we build as many sets as we could and that the film have a tangible, sort of authentic quality that you believed that these things were actually happening in a real space with real sunlight, if it was an exterior scene, or if we could build a big portion of a scene and not have anything be blue screen, do it where we could. It was a very important piece of work"
He continued saying "I feel like the beauty of this age of filmmaking is that there are more tools at your disposal, but it doesn’t mean that any of these new tools are automatically the right tools. And there are a lot of situations where we went very much old school and in fact used CG more to remove things than to add things"And IMAX fans are set to be disappointed (well if you're a diehard IMAX fan) as only one scene in The Force Awakens was shot in IMAX "It’s really one sequence so it’s not a ton, but it’s a good sequence.” Having seen the Episode 7 production in action in Portmagee, Co.Kerry last Summer, I'd hazard a guess that the IMAX sequence will involve Skellig Michael, the island where Luke Skywalker was apparently holed up.
