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Episode 8: Cultural red herring of ze Internets for make benefit Glorious productions from Lucafilm

Discussion in 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' started by MarsPhoenix, Jun 22, 2016.

  1. MarsPhoenix

    MarsPhoenix Sith Psychiatrist

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    I tagged this as Spoiler with irony.

    Let's take a look on Star Wars movie productions VS Internet as a medium for the last 20 years.
    I want to explore how the medium is used in conjuncture with fans, actors, Lucasfilm, etc. for their own benefit.

    Where is Episode 8 sparks players in this game in 2016. Is it different from circa 2004 with Revenge of the Sith? 2001's Attack of the Clones... or even 1996's Special Editions?

    Let's share our comments and experience.


    1996 - A year before the release of Star Wars Trilogy: SE

    These were the stone age of the Internet. As I remember how it was, a website was almost a full time job, often managed by a single individual or small teams. Lucasfilm was still using the CD-ROM to promote the Special-Edition, including special preview discs with LucasArt games packages (Behind the Magic). It took forever to download the teaser trailer and material was hard to find. Web Pioneers were creating and managing websites as a hobby and dreamt of bringing as many hits as possible and-or people in their fanbase. We were really far from a business model and to make a living out of it. Most of the news and material reported were second-hand, not much spoilerific, we were just happy to make contact with other Star Wars fans around the world. The "Net" wasn't taking seriously yet, but was an extraordinary medium to create worldwide communities, exchanging scans of magazines, clips, soundclips, photos, memorabilia.


    1997-98 - The Prequel Era

    Some websites gathered communities. That was the reign of Web 2.0. The popularity of messageboards started to rise. The average Joe wanted to use internet to draw attention. Supershadow was born, fake spoilers were popping here and there. It was the far west. Still... Lucasfilm used Internet to promote Star Wars with "official news"... sell toys and stuff... promote their fan club etc. They cared very little of these fan websites and it was hard for their editors to get a Press pass for special events and interviews.

    2000-2002 - Before Attack of the Clones

    My favorite era of Intermet as a true spoiler medium. Storyboards leaking on the net years before the movie (Jango Fett vs Obi Wan fight - The Arena scene), leaked set photos, actual spoilers, web documentaries from Lucasfilm. If YOU were on the Internet at this time, you knew much more than everyone else what was going to happen in the next Star Wars episode. Internet was taken more and more seriously. The security around the sets was tightened. Actors were taking part of Q&As on forums. Lucasfilm knew then that Internet could be used to create hype around their movie and make a $ out of it. Of course, there was lots of fake spoilers but, maybe a lot more speculation by the fans, these were the days. It was mysterious... it was dangerous.

    2003-2005 - Hyperspace

    While fan boards and sites were doing their usual stuff (actual spoilers, hoaxers, discussions and predictions, insulting and banning), Lucasfilm just decided to broadcast the filming of Revenge of The Sith live on the Internet. For 10 bucks a month, you were almost 24-7 through the virtual eye of webcams all over the sets + the exclusive photos, videos (released by the Internet Piratez hours later). Lucasfilm was making $ during the baking process...like American Idol or X-Factor. The movie was so spoiled that with what was on the Net, in the movie clips from the videogames... we walked in the theater in May 2005 with very little surprise left to us. The day after the movie was released, it was available online.


    Then we jump 10 years later...

    2014-2015 - The Force Awakens

    Internet is in the palm of your hand. Technology has evolved to the point of...you just can't avoid it. A lot of fans found now a daily struggle into avoiding spoilerific "official" info from Twitter, Facebook, toys, Superbowl Games, messageboards...etc. At the same time, fans seeking for spoilers and insider info are becoming suspicious while it has become a LOT easier for kids seeking attention to become viral using Youtube, reddit, etc, posting fake info, just for the sake of drawing attention. During the production of The Force Awakens, we were exposed to actual insider info, fake info, increased security VS the newest techno (drones, mobile phones, etc), and Lucasfilm used Internet to play with our minds... releasing cryptic card sets, twitter images...and so on. Still... I saw Han Solo's death a couple of days before walking into the movie theater. It is the Far West again... there is just such a huge mix of fake and real that we are just becoming dizzy in the tornado. We are then spending less time speculating and using our minds and more time trying to take down the latest spoilerman, spoilerbabe or spoilerdog.

    Now.... 2016.... EPISODE VIII

    How do you feel, this time, Lucasfilm is using Internet to keep the movie a surprise? To promote some of its elements? Are we just now to the mercy of a generation of human beings wanting their 5 minutes of glory creating hoax after hoax just to see the fans' reaction? Do Lucasfilm need as much security as before since we are becoming cynical being exposed to such an amount of distortion?

    Here is my opinon:

    We became cynical. And, we haven't quite identified yet people and websites that have credibility over the years. I tried doing such an exercice a year ago on this very board. We now trust pictures and videos, not insider info. Lucasfilm is using that distortion to keep their secrets safe. They want, one more time, to keep all the secrets from Episode 8 as long as possible and they learn from their past mistakes. At this moment, we are not speculating enough... we are debating on if a reddit post or a Youtube video is trustworthy or not... We are playing this game. Lucasfilm is also playing the same one.

    Please share your insight, comments, opinion on the subject.
    I think it is fascinating... how Internet and its relationship with Star Wars fanbase has evolved or mutated during the past 20 years...

    May the Force be with you.
     
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  2. oldbert

    oldbert Guardian of Coffee Breaks

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    "...we are not speculating enough.. " jumped into my focus as reading through your thread-intro. I sometimes wonder why people put that much of their energy in searching if one post or the other is trustworthy. I for myself love the different directions of speculative guessing.. SW-galaxy is a place outside of the determined daily"facts" and "routines". I like the dive into this huge ocean of imaginative sources we have the pleasure to get access to nowadays. The studious can only try to hide their more or less surprising plots but imo the creative powers of web users around the world can easily outmatch lacks of "official" news, that often are not able to correlate with ultra-high expectations of countless numbers of self declared experts. Instead we could simply enjoy this new SW era with all its possibilities.
     
    #2 oldbert, Jul 17, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2016
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  3. AstromechRecords

    AstromechRecords Jedi General

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    I think that marketing firms and LFL/Disney's marketing teams know how to play around...I'm sure a lot of "leaks" are them directly on top of the 5 -minutes-of-fame people...I read an article recently about how this one video game company tried to do the same thing and the internet trolls "Researched" and found that the company who made the game created the domain and everything after digging VERY deep...I'm sure that's a similar tactic being used now
     
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  4. AstromechRecords

    AstromechRecords Jedi General

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  5. AstromechRecords

    AstromechRecords Jedi General

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    @MarsPhoenix I posted this link on your profile page and it was deleted because apparently I'm "spamming" you? :p (SECRET: I'M NOT) .
     
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  6. MarsPhoenix

    MarsPhoenix Sith Psychiatrist

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    Lol, I assure you, I didn't do it... and I wouldn't know how to do it. Thanks @AstromechRecords , this is very very interesting. I will try to dig a little deeper on the subject, I find it fascinating.
     
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  7. Maximus

    Maximus Reel 2 Dialogue 2

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    wonderful post @MarsPhoenix. thanks for sharing what obviously took a fair bit of time and thought.

    after a couple of years at marveling at what the internet was becoming, i find myself regretting what it's all becoming.

    when it comes to rumours/leaks i miss the good ol days when you used to hear...
    "bloke down the pub told me"

    i remember reading the entire script for ROTS online a few weeks before the film was released. I didn't for one split second think that is was real, as i wouldn't have read it. It was practically word-for-word and it ruined my trip to the cinema.

    in terms of Star wars, mis-information is beginning to draw level with information. I don't work in the film industry, but i can only guess that vast resources are being put into mis-informing the online world to pro-actively protect the truth.

    the truth is out there... but in the future i don't think we'll ever recognize it.
     
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  8. bluemilk7

    bluemilk7 Rebelscum

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    so what you're really saying here is... snoke is plagueis
     
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  9. aml435

    aml435 Rebelscum

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    With Attack of the Clones, I remember the script actually leaked to the internet about a year before the movie came out, but it was massive and dismissed as a fake, because it would have been like a 4 hour film.
    I remember sitting in the theater a scene or two in and exchanging an "Oh blast" look with a friend of mine who had also read it when we realized a lot of the dialog was coming out verbatim.
    There was just a HUGE amount cut from the script to the final film: Jar jar's "diplodect" speaking, Padme's parents, most of the Lars homestead subplot and completion of Threepio, etc.
    --- Double Post Merged, Mar 14, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 14, 2017 ---
    I also remember in the year before Revenge of the Sith came out, when the first rumblings of General Grievous (and I think storyboards) came out, people ridiculed it as the worst fan fiction they'd ever read and "Batman & Robin" levels of terrible.
    I remember getting a chill as I read the ridicule because I realized "No fan would make this up. It's got to be real."

    To be fair, Grievous turned out better than the rumors made him sound.
     
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  10. Protocol Droid

    Protocol Droid Rebel General

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    Speaking of "Batman and Robin", I remember the Aint It Cool years, when Schumacher straight up blamed Harry Knowles in an interview for that movie's failure at the box office. This was the late 90s I believe, and a pivotal moment in the history that @MarsPhoenix has so eloquently outlined here -- it signaled the moment when Hollywood recognized that it had to develop strategies for engaging with internet fan culture, that this space was as much an opportunity as a risk.

    Pivoting to the current era, I had a moment in the lead-up to TFA where I realized what a bummer it was to have my first experience of several scenes from a new SW movie be via the clumsy prose of Making Star Wars. I appreciate that site and what they bring to the table, and generally speaking I like learning little details that aid in speculation (to emphasize @MarsPhoenix' point about the joys of speculation), but scene descriptions are where I should probably draw the line, since you only get one chance to experience a scene for the first time, with the sound and visuals washing over you.
     
    #10 Protocol Droid, Mar 14, 2017
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2017
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  11. tm0910196

    tm0910196 Guest

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    I'm sure the leaks were out well before this, but I was looking at a couple websites and forums from January 2005 the other day about Revenge of the Sith, and whadda-ya-know! People knew the entire plot, with lots of details and leaked images, four months before the movie was out! Compare that to how Lucasfilm and Disney treated spoilers with TFA. The difference is night and day.
     
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  12. SKB

    SKB Force Sensitive

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    Less than ten years ago, there wasn't a "spoiler" culture. You could choose to buy the novel of a SW film weeks or sometimes months before the official SW film release date. You had the choice of reading the book and then going to see the film, or just seeing the film without any prior knowledge.

    But now, since the ruthless greedy grip of Disney took over SW, everything is hidden, embargoed and controlled. They guard their hidden secrets, fearful of any bad press and fan reactions and reviews damaging their precious profits.

    I genuinely despise what Disney has done to Star Wars since their ownership began. We may be getting lots of "new" (Ha!) stuff, but most of this "new" stuff is old stuff in new clothes, or "new" stuff of such poor quality that it needs an overly dramatic finale tacked-on to make us forget the rest of the awful film.
     
    #12 SKB, Mar 15, 2017
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2017
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