I spent part of today at the Disney D23 convention where they’ve got an entire section devoted to the Star Wars Experience at Disneyland. I spoke with lots of Imagineers and learned a lot of information. The Saturday sessions will disclose a lot more about this expansion and I’ll write up what I learned more afterward but I thought you may want to start out by looking at pictures of this remarkable model. These images are lightboxed so clicking on them will blow them up. Enjoy.
Posts Tagged → star wars
Happy May the 4th
I know these days that it seems like every day is a holiday of one sort of another but how could I let May the 4th go by without acknowledging it. Why do I love Star Wars? One reason is because of the fans. They are completely insane … like me. Last year, Adam Driver did a funny skit on Saturday Night Live where his Star Wars character, Kylo Ren, went on Undercover Boss as “Matt, radar technician”.
As I was walking through the Star Wars celebration, I stumbled into a group of people that dressed up as “Matt”. That’s right, they even cosplay the spoofs. Star Wars has some of the greatest fans in the world. May the force be with you.
Star Wars Episode VIII – The Trailer, The Poster, and the Show Floor
Today was the Episode VIII panel at Star Wars Celebration and it was pretty great. The corker was a 2 minute teaser that LucasFilm is calling a “trailer”. I don’t see how you can call this a trailer though. It’s just the barest of sketches about what’s going on with our heroes and villains in the middle act of the trilogy. It’s very well done and I like the fact that it conveys very little information about what to expect. The movie is still eight months away. Keep us in suspense a bit longer please.
About that Poster
I really like the new poster. Seeing old Luke so prominantly is awesome considering he had such a small role in The Force Awakens.
I also like the way Rey at the bottom harkens back to Luke in the original Star Wars poster from 1977. (I remember seeing that poster as a kid and not sure what to make of it. The guy holding the light saber looked more like someone out of a Spartacus movie than Mark Hamil.)
Also, did you notice how Rey’s saber transitions from blue to red? The point of the middle episode is to leave us feeling our heroes are completely screwed. Between the trailer and this poster, I expect they’ll deliver on that promise.
MacSparky’s Celebration Multi-Media Extravaganza
So far at Celebration I’ve been watching panels and meeting up with friends. Today I plan to spend a lot of time on the show floor taking pictures of both the awesome and the bazaar. It’s all here gang. Follow me today on Twitter, Instagram, and/or SnapChat for plenty of Star Wars content. I’ll even be posting video with my SnapChat Glasses. Such a nerd.
Star Wars Celebration
I remember being a teenager and talking to one of the older gents in my neighborhood. At the time I thought he was ancient but looking back I’m pretty sure he was younger than I am now. Anyway, he told me that the older you get, the weirder you get. I’ve never forgot about that and it generally rings true with my life.
As I’ve been busy with MacSparky, the law practice, and my family, I’ve disconnected from a lot of popular culture things over the years. I don’t keep up with sports and I don’t watch much TV. I do, however, spend way too much time thinking about Star Wars. I was eight years old when the first movie came out and I bonded to it like a baby duck to its mama. I’ve heard all of the critiques of Star Wars and even agree with a few of them but at the end of the day, I still love it more than a grown man reasonably should.
So this week I’m taking a little trip to Orlando Florida where I will be attending the Star Wars Celebration. It’s a gathering of the Star Wars tribe where I won’t be giving any presentations or working with sponsors or any of the other things I do at most conferences. Instead, I’ll be just another guy going to sessions, making a few new friends, and geeking out.
The organizers of the event were crazy enough to give me a media badge so I’m going to take that seriously and even write a few posts here about what’s really going on in that galaxy far, far away. I’m also going to be posting photos on my Snapchat and Instagram accounts. I’ll probably also make some noise on Twitter as well.
So if you’re attending the Star Wars Celebration, please look me up. If Star Wars makes your eyes roll, please feel free to ignore my posts on the subject this week. I will tag them all “Star Wars” so you can set your filters accordingly.
Post Visual Development in Rogue One
Alexander Gustaveson wrote a great post at ILM.com about how much digital work they did after photography ended on Rogue One. They have things to such a science now that they can even replace a live action character’s live action gun with a digital one.
Click to enlarge.
Rogue One Soundtrack Analysis
I was very interested in the Rogue One soundtrack in that it is the first Star Wars film music not written by John Williams. Michael Giacchino did a great job. I didn’t realize exactly how great of a job he did until I listened to this episode of Star Wars Oxygen. David Collins is a musical detective but don’t just take my word for it. The Maestro agrees.
Talking Rogue One on Rebel Force Radio
The day after Rogue One released, I joined the Rebel Force Radio gang to debrief the movie. I actually didn’t join in until about half way through but it’s an excellent show, start to finish.
Rogue One Props
Disneyland has a display of some props from Rogue One. So of course I made the trek and shot pictures. Enjoy. Expect more Star Wars coverage than usual this week. Rogue One releases in a few days and I’m feeling it.
Star Wars Land Progress at Disneyland
My wife went to Disneyland yesterday and documented the current progress of the Star Wars expansion. My favorite image is where she rode the Thunder Mountain roller coaster so she could get a shot down at the construction. This confluence of Star Wars and Disneyland can only be good for my marriage.
The Complete History of the Millennium Falcon
Here’s a post that I look forward to reading this weekend the exact same way I used to look forward to opening my Christmas presents. I have a lot of complaints about the Star Wars prequels. One of them is that without the Falcon, it never entirely felt like Star Wars.
(via Daring Fireball)