News Skeleton Crew
- Thread starter tenmei
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Not every country has suburbs per se, but there are other options for depicting a similar way of living, like traditional villages in Europe or Japan, say. Or they could've at least come up with more exotic-looking buildings for their space-suburban setting.
I say this as someone that lives in a traditional (and so old it's in the Domesday Book) English country village; why the hell would a show deliberately aping a specific era and genre of movies famous for being set very specifically in American suburbia use anything other than mid-to-late 20th century American suburbia as it's main point of visual reference for it's starting point?
Yeaaaah NO. Obviously that's not going to work for this particular concept, is it?
That it doesn't look exotic is kind of the whole point. If it looked exotic, then none of the weird and exotic things these kids are going to encounter are going to seem weird of exotic by comparison, are they? A vital part of any campbellian journey is crossing the threshold from the known and into the unknown. It's often the very first step on the journey once the call to adventure has been accepted. For any of that to have meaning to the audience (who I stress is mostly intended to be of the not-adult persuasion) then the "known" part of that equation should ought to at least resonate if not directly reflect with said audience's concept of what is familiar, no?
And again, since the message doesn't appear to be penetrating with some people; this is the *starting* point of the story. It's not going to be the whole show, or even a significant percentage of the show! It's a jumping off point, and presumably a constant idea of what home and safety means to the protagonists.
"Hey everyone, check out this show that's just like those old Amblin adventure movies!"
*cut to: planet rural Japan circa 1985 but with floating rice paddies*
Yeaaaah NO. Obviously that's not going to work for this particular concept, is it?
That it doesn't look exotic is kind of the whole point. If it looked exotic, then none of the weird and exotic things these kids are going to encounter are going to seem weird of exotic by comparison, are they? A vital part of any campbellian journey is crossing the threshold from the known and into the unknown. It's often the very first step on the journey once the call to adventure has been accepted. For any of that to have meaning to the audience (who I stress is mostly intended to be of the not-adult persuasion) then the "known" part of that equation should ought to at least resonate if not directly reflect with said audience's concept of what is familiar, no?
And again, since the message doesn't appear to be penetrating with some people; this is the *starting* point of the story. It's not going to be the whole show, or even a significant percentage of the show! It's a jumping off point, and presumably a constant idea of what home and safety means to the protagonists.
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It's also worth keeping in mind that Star Wars is mostly produced by Americans, and while it's a worldwide franchise, it does tend to come at things from an American perspective. So when the people making the show are calling back to the things they were familiar with from their childhoods, both in the real world and from movies, most of that stuff is going to be American.
With Luke Lucas was clearly going for something very generic, but the Skeleton Crew are clearly going for a specific style of story that is specifically based around the kind of suburban America childhoods that we saw in movies from the '80s. It's kind of hard to do that without referring to suburban America from that era.
I think I need to wait and see it in context. If person knows what Tunisa looks like or Death Valley then Tatooine suddenly looks very Earth like. Same with Italy and Naboo.
Context means a lot more in this story.
Context means a lot more in this story.
I think that this will be one that the story needs to be seen and watched and taken as a whole adventure rather than just a clip.
I didn’t even notice the suburb thing, but then as a viewer I tend to watch the characters as opposed to what’s behind them.
I like your optimism.
Has anyone considered replicating the look of North American suburbs is intentional and perhaps even relevant to the story of the Skeleton Crew?
Of course it's their intention. That's how creativity works. You don't make a multimillion-dollar TV series by accident. Everything in a story is decided on intentionally and for a reason that makes sense to the creators. That doesn't mean we aren't allowed to criticize their choices.
If they thought the only way to evoke the feel of American suburbs was to recreate their look so literally, I find that a failure of imagination, settling for the most obvious design option instead of doing the work to come up with something better. This is a franchise that, for decades, has shown us visually striking and imaginative vistas of exotic settings. That's one of its greatest strengths and greatest attractions. So to say "The makers of Skeleton Crew deliberately chose to be visually boring and conventional" is hardly flattering toward them.
I love the trailer. Feels like Prodigy meets Stranger Things in all of the wonderful ways.*
*There is zero reason to overanalyze this comment. Let people enjoy their comparisons.
*There is zero reason to overanalyze this comment. Let people enjoy their comparisons.
Yes. I think it's deliberately evocative and will be a bit "ho hum" to the characters in contrast to the wider galaxy. In context will determine how interesting that is to the story.
As is it's another environment in Star wars that I have long wondered about and am curious to see more of.
