Star Wars: A Western, Samurai, and Romantic Comedy скачать в хорошем качестве

Star Wars: A Western, Samurai, and Romantic Comedy

For this video essay I decided to challenge genre expectations by playing with typefaces, tropes, and music in three different genre-themed movie trailers, all of which being for the same recut movie, Star Wars. I chose Star Wars because it seems to draw inspiration from many different films and film genres such as Western, Romance, and Samurai films. When I just a kid I lived in Brazil for a few years because my dad’s work had him working down there. While he was overseeing progress at a local mill, my mom and I were stuck at home most days with not much to do. I don’t remember much from back then because of how young I was but one thing I know for sure is that I loved Star Wars. It might because it was three of the five movies we had on VHS, I just know I was hooked. I even named a local stray dog Leia, after Carrie Fischer’s character. When you’re a kid you have no idea why you like things, you just do. As we grow up we tend to develop likes and dislikes with the knowledge we consume. As a film major it’s our job to analyze films and discuss what we like and dislike about them. I believe that Star Wars’ success is due to that although it may be labeled and come across as just a Science-Fiction or Fantasy, it takes many different elements and tropes from many different genres. I decided to recut three trailers using only footage from a 35mm digital restoration, each being themed by different genres: Western, Romance, and Samurai. I also explored the usage of different music and typefaces, and the genre connections we make with them through past knowledge. Star Wars starts off over/on a desert planet where a farm boy seeks revenge for his murdered aunt and uncle. This was very easy to twist into having that of a Western plot. In this first trailer I show off as little science fiction elements as possible and stick to shots that take place on the desert planet of Tatooine. Most famous Westerns are full of famous male characters, so I also put heavy emphasis on the male characters, all of which are seen in some sort of action from Luke Skywalker dodging the sand people’s spear to Han Solo shooting his pistol at oncoming storm troopers where I added a revolver gun sound effect. After editing it all together I messed around with the color and gave it a little bit more of a warm feel to imitate some famous westerns such as The Searchers. Next came the Romantic trailer. As part of my research for this project I watched a bunch of different Star Wars trailers online. Some were original from 1977, other were just fan made. Although we find out that Leia and Luke are brother and sister in later movies, in some of the official trailers put out by Fox and Lucasfilm Luke and Leia are advertised as ‘star-crossed’ lovers. I decided to play with this and cut another trailer with a bit more of a Big ‘Hollywood’ where I wanted it to be borderline overproduced/corny. I took inspiration from such movies as The Notebook and When Harry Met Sally. George Lucas has gone on the record to say that Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress was a big inspiration for him while he was writing Star Wars. If you put the plots of both films next to each other you may see some similarities as two peasants(droids) try and save a princess from an evil general with an old warrior. I tried to recut this trailer with the plot of Hidden Fortress in mind, while highlighting components found in many Samurai movies such as the sword fighting, the passing of the sword from father to son, and Darth Vader’s Samurai-Armor themed mask, helmet and cloak. I also decided to put this trailer completely in black and white in homage to Akira Kurosawa’s as well as to make it distinct from the other two trailers. Enjoy, and may the force be with you. Follow me on all social medias @RikiProsper