Episode 448 - King of franchises: Star Wars!
Oct 14, 2019
Continuing on our focus on movie franchises for the month of October, THIS time we focus on the king of them all: STAR WARS! This was a genre defining series, not only for movies but for space opera, “SciFi”, and science fantasy on all media! The original trilogy was quite a milestone. Predictably further instalments weren't quite as well received but it still remains popular even so! Currently it's having a resurgence in popularity once more.
Topics and Show Notes
We on the Quackcast LOVE Star Wars because it's a beautiful teaching example for so many things about story creation: the hero's journey, story beats, plotting, world building, suspension of disbelief, lore building, climax, ending, beginnings, heroes, good, evil, villains, influences, inspiration, drawing from history and the classics, costume and prop design etc.
The original trilogy were not clever, advanced, intellectual films, rather they are very simplified in their structure and themes and this makes them perfect for looking at in terms of technique.
Conversely, the later Ja-Ja Binks trilogy is a great teaching piece for how not to make a story. It's muddled, without a clear direction, filled with poor dialogue, uneven plotting, too much deus Ex machina and coincidence, bad use of cliché, and just generally poor writing.
The newer films make great talking points but the entire series is great for our purposes because its reach is ubiquitous: most people have seen the films.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to The Shootin': Futuristic, down home country… echoes of Journey of the Sorcerer by The Eagles… This track brings to mind figures relaxing around a warm cheery campfire, lit by its feeble orange glow as they marvel at the vastness of the star filled blackness above them.
Topics and shownotes
Link:
Holst, Mars, inspiration for The Imperial March in Star Wars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmk5frp6-3Q
Featured comic:
Interstellar Dust - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/oct/08/featured-comic-interstellar-dust/
Featured music:
The Shootin' - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Shootin/, by Arborcides, rated E.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
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Episode 443 - sticks and stones
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Episode 438 - You just don't get it
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Episode 432 - How to get more readers
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Episode 431 - Political messages in your work
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Episode 430 - Good beginnings!
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At the beginning of a story how do you grab and KEEP your readers? This comes from the Friday newspost by Emma Clare. Her advice was pretty brilliant. From my own perspective it's generally characters that grab me first before anything else. Great art and a fantastic cover can hook your eyes, but without a great story or interesting characters there's zero to keep you there.