have you ever wondered why people hate the Star Wars prequel trilogy more than the sequel Trilogy
or why despite some pretty incredible advances the visual effects were so heavily criticized
well we think the Star Wars films at least the prequels should have avoided using digital effects
altogether and this is why firstly practical effects are limited to the physical world and
therefore they force filmmakers to work within their constraints for example in the original
trilogy you couldn't put a tremendous number of ships in one shot because each one had to
be a detailed miniature model that was filmed in front of a blue screen by a motion control
camera then each motion control shot had to be reprinted using an optical printer and filters
to change the blue screen background into a black background to create something called a foreground
mat this foreground mat when combined with the original shot isolated the model so that it
could be projected along with all the other model shots into the optical printer and composited into
the final shot you also couldn't have extended shots of actors riding imaginary beasts because
the only way to achieve this was by building miniature puppets and animating them frame by
frame a process known as stop-motion animation which could easily take up to an hour to produce
just one second of stop-motion fill this meant that the original trilogy screenplay had to be
written within the confines of what was physically and economically possible to produce using visual
effects nowadays almost anything you can imagine no matter how crazy can be achieved using digital
effects if you want an absolutely insane number of ships in the sky firing laser cannons and
exploding you've got them and you want an army to be riding Space horses on the top of one of those
ships you got them to but bigger isn't always better especially when concerning visual effects
and with nothing to limit the imagination things can go from believable to ridiculous very quickly
the second reason is that practical effects are real and digital effects only look real
the original trilogy has its own unique look and feel the puppets Miniatures and matte paintings
may seem dated now but because they are real things in front of the camera as an audience
we can still accept them as real even though they aren't completely convincing just like stop-motion
animation may seem jerky and crude but because we know it's a real model being manipulated it
doesn't feel fake digital effects can look a lot more realistic than practical effects but if they
are just slightly off if the lighting is a little wrong if the physics aren't quite right the eye
lines don't line up or the interactions with the actors are unconvincing the whole illusion
is completely broken and as an audience we feel cheated and so we disconnect but with
practical effects it's different take Luke's land speeder for example this effect was achieved using
two different land Speeders one was mounted on a rotating crane arm and the other was mounted on a
small three-wheeler car they then mounted mirrors underneath to conceal the wheels and reflect the
desert sand back at the camera but you notice over the rough desert terrain that it's bouncing on
its Wheels even if you can't see them and when on the crane arm even with the camera movement
you can tell the car is rotating rather than just going forward but even though these things break
the illusion we know they are real and so don't feel cheated and therefore remain connected the
final and perhaps most interesting reason is the visual timeline when you look back through
behind the scenes footage of Star Wars you can see a definite difference between then and now
technology has advanced images are clearer and more defined colors are more vibrant and lighting
is more dynamic as we mentioned before due to the technology and practical effects available
at the time the original trilogy has its own characteristic look and feel much like an old
video camera recording or other classic films like Mary Poppins or E.T if I show you a video
of back in the 70s or 80s you would expect it to look older and grainier not all new and
shiny episodes 1 2 and 3 supposedly happened before the original trilogy so subconsciously
you expect them to look older and yet thanks to advances in technology and digital effects
they look smooth polished and futuristic and this just doesn't follow the Star Wars visual timeline
and so the prequels feel detached from the Star Wars universe as though they're not really part
of the Saga the last three films combined more practical effects with digital effects the look
and feel of the Practical effects tied them to the original trilogy and the smoother digital
effects set them in the future this meant they were more coherent with the Star Wars
universe's visual timeline and therefore easier to accept as being part of it so while the three
prequels did wonders for the advancement of digital effects the films themselves might
well have been better off without them what do you think let us know in the comments foreign