Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, December 15, 2017) Movie • Page 334

The Director and the Jedi showed me that Rian is a massive fucking dork and my spirit animal.

 

Yeah that too. Rian has become one of my favorite people. I loved his motivation for casting Rose as somebody who you wouldnt see in the Star Wars universe and somebody hed be friends with in highschool and then later seeing them doing fist bumps together was like full circle.

 

I think all the features are on the blu ray disc of the 4K packaging.

 

I work in the industry and it is truly like that all the time. Longest day I’ve had on set thus far has been 22 hours. Started at 8 a.m. and finished the next day at 6 a.m. which means I watched the sun rise, set, and then rise again all in the span of one shift. It can be a lot of fun, but make no mistake...your feelings of anxiety are completely valid. The hours in the film industry are physically and mentally taxing and are honestly a big problem. A lot of crew members have either died or gotten into terrible car accidents they barely walked away from as a result. That 22 hour day? The next day the AD department met with us to talk about safety protocol because a PA had fallen asleep at the wheel on the way home and swerved into traffic on the highway. She hit the median and survived, but her car was a wreck. It happens literally all the time and it’s so dangerous. Ask folks who work in the industry and they’ll tell you how they really feel if you get them going long enough. The entertainment industry gets away with things I don’t see in many other fields. Sexual assault and discrimination is certainly a huge issue (I’ve seen sexism in this industry more times than I care to count), but there are a myriad of other issues you’ll never hear about (because they don’t make the headlines) and they are nevertheless responsible for the mental and physical breakdowns of so many crew members.

Anyway, I’d say a standard day for me on just a commercial shoot is almost always at least 14 to 17 hours (and that often doesn’t include load out time which is just the worst). Everyone reaches that point during the day where they begin to question why they still do this, but then you end up coming back and doing it again. The standard phrase is “it’s just the way it is” said with a shrug. It is just the way it is, but more people and unions need to be willing to take a tougher stance to enact change. Those hours typically come down to the Producers’ need to finish the project in an alloted period of time under a specific budget and everyone feels the heat. I watch that documentary and those hours and whiteboards covered in stripboards (basically a script breakdown in strip form so you can make a calendar out of it) feels so standard and familiar to me that it makes me more nauseous and tired than anything else. Hollywood always looks fun and the special features aid in that mystique, but get on set...again, it’s great and fun and there’s a certain magic to it, but after a while you just pray you’ll be able to get your life back some day. You hope that maybe you’ll see a family member if only for five minutes just so you can ground yourself again and remember that the outside world still exists. I once did a month straight of only night shoots. After only a week of that you literally have no idea what day it is or even a general semblance of time itself. I am incredibly cynical, but every time I meet a new up and coming PA who asks for advice I always ask them if they have a backup plan or if they have thought about doing anything else. I used to think when I was younger that I would love for one of my kids to be in this industry so we could share that passion. Now I just hope I get to see my kids at the end of the day before they go to sleep and that they don’t hate me when they grow up. It is a hard, stressful industry.

 

Damn man. Thanks for writing all that. That truly sounds miserable lol I would not be able to live like that unless Im a part of the creative process. If you dont mind me asking do you think you'll stop doing it because of all this. It sounds like youre kind of over it? (and rightly so)

 

STAR WARS Fans Start Petition To Get Meryl Streep Cast As Leia in STAR WARS: EPISODE IX

 

I will gladly admit that thought has crossed my mind more than once, particularly over the last two years. It affects every aspect of your life. Doesn’t help that payment periods make a tenable living nearly impossible. More and more creative agencies are switching over to 60 to 90 day payment periods, which only compounds the stress. You have to get really good at budgeting far out in advance. For example, I did a ton of work for autoshow stuff from November to just this month. I’ve been paid for some of it, but I’m still waiting to be paid for most of it and likely won’t receive my checks until late May. You save what little you can between bills and feeding yourself just so that you can survive until the next check arrives...and then you do it again. It’s a little different in film because you’ll get paid a little faster than that depending on when checks finally go out, but that’s also the thing. There’s rarely any structure to payment periods. You just kind of get it when you get it. If you’re higher up in the food chain then you’ll know precisely when it’s coming, but the low folks on the totem pole just wait around and hope “maybe this week.” It’s glorious when the AD department announces checks will be mailed out this week...and then you wait another week or two until it finally shows up in your mailbox and you wonder what took so long.

I say all this knowing that there are plenty of people who are far less disillusioned than me and love it with every fiber of their being. The problem I tend to have is that many (not all, but many) of those people have “made it” out of either sheer luck or family connections and money. There are DEFINITELY privileged elites in the industry, people who have no idea what it means to struggle despite the tales they may spin for you. I’m currently very bitter and frustrated because it has now affected my ability to get a home for my family. I have a wife, a son, and another baby on the way. We have worked very hard to save up enough to purchase a very small house and cover closing costs, but then our cars both went kaput and there went a good chunk of our savings. We had made an offer on a home but then needed to alter the offer to request concessions because, again, my next checks won’t arrive for another two months. The seller rejected our offer and we were taken off the table. It was crushing because it was a little house that we genuinely loved. We live in a two bedroom apartment and it often feels like there’s no way out. I sometimes don’t know how people can even afford a home, least of all in this particular field.

Damn...sorry to do this in the Star Wars thread, y’all. Lol. For the record, I love this movie and the work Rian Johnson and his team put into it. I just know what that work amounts to. It tends to ruin movies for you and you have to put it out of your head when you’re watching otherwise you sit there incredibly distracted by thoughts of how long it took to get one particular shot out of the literal thousands of shots. I feel that way about awards shows as well. That Director of Photography winning that award deserves it and good on them, but they would be nowhere without the Grip and Electric department and certainly not without the Gaffer (Chief Lighting Technician who practically makes the magic happen all on their own). Those people will never be recognized for the work they put in and that sits with you.

 

Damn Nyquist that’s some heavy shit, thanks for sharing.

 

No worries man. Thanks for sharing. Learned a lot and reading all that is eye opening. It makes me feel bad I ignore the credits lol I also feel I’m going to get more frustrated when anhedonic people scold movies that they think should be made for specifically them and seem to go into a movie with their eye in the scope trying to find everything wrong with it rather than just enjoying/interpreting it.

Anyways I hope things get easier for you and your family and congrats on the baby!

 

Ive decided that in episode 9 something I really want is Finn, Rey, and Poe together for a good portion of the movie. It’s the last film and we have yet to see them interact together. The story never called for it so I’m not upset, but I think we need that adventure together and that comraderie that we had in each movie of the OT. Daisy and John had great chemistry. John and Oscar had great chemistry. I think I’d be disappointed if they were in different places on separate journies again.

 

While it’s true we got that in A New Hope, the only scene all main 3 were together in Empire was that one scene in the medical bag where Luke comes out of the bacta and Leia kisses him. That’s the only scene all 3 of them were in.

 

Would be awesome to have them all truly together on a mission. Not sure if we’ll get it though. At least they’ll be together at the yub yub celebration at the end.

 

Also on Endor. I def was too specific about like all being together at once. I don’t mean they can’t split up. I just want more interaction between everybody. It’s been very minimal.

Edit: and maybe not the whole movie but def at least some time all together.

 

Loved the documentary. The part where Mark breaks down while doing his scene was powerful. Also all the creature/makeup for the casino part was awesome.

 

Man, I hated that dreadnaught book.

 

So I picked up the blu-ray last Thursday, was going out of town Friday but had about an hour to kill that morning so I was just going to watch about 20 minutes worth of my favorite scenes, starting with the throne room fight. Which is when I realized that from this scene onward, this is an exhilarating and nearly perfect Star Wars movie; we ended up watching the entire last hour because it goes from one great scene to the next and we couldn't justify skipping anything.

I stand by my opinion that the first 80 minutes or so of this movie drags a bit, but man, the throne room fight-->Holdo's suicide run-->Battle of Crait-->Luke/Kylo showdown is one of my favorite chunks of cinema in a long, long time.

 

As much as I love this movie, there is a jarring tonal shift from the throne room to Crait that bothers me now. Things get suddenly lighter and more fun on Crait when they really shouldn’t be considering how many resistance members just died. We also go from that insanely emotional and serious Rey/Kylo parent reveal scene to her in the gunner position on the falcon going “woohoo I like this!” And kylo acting like a loony toon villain.

 

That’s the entire movie though.

 

I get what you're saying about Rey's seemingly sudden attitude change, but I've just chalked that up to her fully accepting her role as the next Jedi and also acknowledging that Kylo won't be redeemed. The breaking of the lightsaber is symbolic of both Rey's and Kylo's choices, and the rest of the movie is them fully embracing their new roles.

 

Yeah other than the light-hearted fan service of the "they HATE that ship" line, nothing about any of the Crait scenes seemed like anyone was having any fun. I think maybe they overplayed the comedic aspect of some of the moments, but I didn't really have an issue with it.

Gonna watch this again tonight or tomorrow.

 

That's Kylo though. He's a temperamental kid faking it until he makes it. I'd argue that it was more jarring seeing how serious he acted in the throne room scene because that's so different than any of what we saw in TFA or the rest of this movie.

 

Everything on Crait is a top 3 Star Wars moment for me.

 

Adam Driver might have my favorite performance in any Star Wars movie

 

It’s really just the “OUTTA THE SKY!!!!” moment that I think grates on me haha