"It is said that certain creatures are born with a higher awareness of the Force than humans. Their brains are different; they have more midi-chlorians in their cells."
?George Lucas, establishing guidelines for the Expanded Universe in 1977[src]
Midi-chlorians were first conceived by George Lucas as early as 1977. In this time the first Expanded Universe products were being created, including the ongoing Marvel Star Wars series and Alan Dean Foster's novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Lucas sat down with a member of his staff, Carol Titelman, to dictate a number of guidelines for these works, explaining various concepts of his universe. Among them were an explanation of midi-chlorians, which Force-sensitive beings were said to have more of in their cells.[33] However, Lucas did not feel he had the time to introduce the concept of midi-chlorians. The idea would not appear in any Star Wars product for twenty-two years; Lucas chose 1999's Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace as the opportunity to first mention the midi-chlorians, explaining why some were sensitive to the Force while others were not, an issue that he had left unresolved since the original film Star Wars. Lucas incorporated the explanation of midi-chlorians into the film as part of Anakin Skywalker's journey towards understanding the Force.[34] That Lucas had planned the midi-chlorians as far back as 1977 was hinted at on the DVD commentary of The Phantom Menace, but the details would not be fully revealed for another eight years, coming to light in the 2007 book The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, the hardcover edition of which had, among its appendices, Lucas' notes for the Expanded Universe authors.
HOWEVER, knowing that Lucas continually changed the stories he would tell the media and fans and various people, I doubt he was completely solid on the idea even back in 1977. He would move things around all the time and then claim he "always" was going to do this or that. He's a storyteller... sometimes it looks like Lucas just couldn't make up his mind and stick with it (in much the same way he continued to screw with the films, adding effects and, most famously, making Greedo shoot Han first).
Lucas wanted to create a movie for 12-year old boys. That's exactly what he said and I remember him saying that like it was yesterday. By introducing the needless genetic issue of midichlorians to the Jedi, he instantly destroyed the mythology.
Yeah I'm sure 12 year old boys are now devastated by the explanation, the Force itself didn't change at all. Midi-chlorians aren't used as a means to determine force power just potential. What you have thought about the originals was wrong all this time. What did you think Luke Skywalker meant when he said 'the Force runs strong in my family'? That was in the original trilogy. There was no instant destruction of anything, it was an explanation of the entire story. Without midi-chlorians, the original trilogy wouldn't make sense. How could Leia, Luke and Vader have been aware of each others' presence, especially Leia who had no training at all? Why were Luke and Leia the last two hopes? Only the genetic explanation works.
It didn't mean Leia was an all-powerful Jedi, she was completely useless and was captured by Jabba. She just had higher potential than someone of a different bloodline. That's exactly the right lesson to teach kids because that's how it works in the real world. If you are born attractive, have good parents and live somewhere you can make a success of your life then you are far more likely to have a good quality of life than people without those circumstances. It doesn't exclude the possibility of someone overcoming their circumstances e.g someone with low midi-chlorian count putting in the hours and becoming more connected to the Force than someone privileged but it makes it harder. It still allows for anyone becoming a Jedi or Sith.
"These structures are sometimes described as "the powerhouse of the cell" because they generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a source of chemical energy. In addition to supplying cellular energy, mitochondria are involved in other tasks such as signaling, cellular differentiation, cell death, as well as maintaining the control of the cell cycle and cell growth."
That's a good thing to do because it makes the story more relatable rather than just purely fiction.
I doubt he was completely solid on the idea even back in 1977.
Based on what? The only things that may not have been solid would be the names or behaviours of the genetic parts. As I said above, there was a genetic theme in the original trilogy. His discussion of midi-chlorians came after the first movie.
It's funny that a semi-rational ( within it's own universe) explanation of how the force works causes so much grief. It's still a bit mystical -- the force itself isn't explained, just people's propensity to be able to use it.
[SPOILER=Possible spoiler about cloaked figure]There was some concept art put online last month showing possible clues about the cloaked figure being a cyborg:
The bad guy will have to be deformed in some way. It would make a nice change to not have them with breathing problems. There's a rumor that this figure is Luke but we know he had a beard and a Jedi cloak on during shooting (might be a decoy). Plus I don't think he would make a lightsaber like that. The arm matches the picture though as he had to get a metal hand. In the trailer, the figure is wearing gloves.
I suppose that is one way to bring Vader back into the picture - father is bad, has nice kids, kids defeat father, kid turns into father.[/SPOILER]
There was some concept art put online last month showing possible clues about the cloaked figure being a cyborg:
The bad guy will have to be deformed in some way. It would make a nice change to not have them with breathing problems. There's a rumor that this figure is Luke but we know he had a beard and a Jedi cloak on during shooting (might be a decoy). Plus I don't think he would make a lightsaber like that. The arm matches the picture though as he had to get a metal hand. In the trailer, the figure is wearing gloves.
I suppose that is one way to bring Vader back into the picture - father is bad, has nice kids, kids defeat father, kid turns into father.
Objects in space would be a bit easier to cut out because you can use the black as a mask. I suspect there's also some CGI elements added in the trailer like the crowd of fighters at the end, those would be done in 3DS Max or similar.
Rotoscoping is described in the Star Wars III effects feature (18:16):
[VIDEO]
The part about the matte painting at 9:25 is crazy, that guy took 7 months to do a single 25,000 pixel wide animated backdrop for one scene in the movie. Imagine if they decided they didn't want it.
John Knoll (co-creator of Photoshop) is in that video too:
It makes sense that there will be a decade of films as they have another 6 to make at least. Sometimes I think it would be bad to move too far away from the original story and characters but the cinematic trailers for the games are ok:
[VIDEO]
They show similar figures to the one shown in the ep 7 trailer. Visceral Games ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visceral_Games ) has been commissioned to make a Star Wars game on Frostbite 3, the engine used in Battlefield 4. Here's what the engine is capable of:
Comments
He said ‘midichlorians’ in 1977? Source.
This is what I found online: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Midi-chlorian
Behind the scenes
Origins
"It is said that certain creatures are born with a higher awareness of the Force than humans. Their brains are different; they have more midi-chlorians in their cells."
?George Lucas, establishing guidelines for the Expanded Universe in 1977[src]
Midi-chlorians were first conceived by George Lucas as early as 1977. In this time the first Expanded Universe products were being created, including the ongoing Marvel Star Wars series and Alan Dean Foster's novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Lucas sat down with a member of his staff, Carol Titelman, to dictate a number of guidelines for these works, explaining various concepts of his universe. Among them were an explanation of midi-chlorians, which Force-sensitive beings were said to have more of in their cells.[33] However, Lucas did not feel he had the time to introduce the concept of midi-chlorians. The idea would not appear in any Star Wars product for twenty-two years; Lucas chose 1999's Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace as the opportunity to first mention the midi-chlorians, explaining why some were sensitive to the Force while others were not, an issue that he had left unresolved since the original film Star Wars. Lucas incorporated the explanation of midi-chlorians into the film as part of Anakin Skywalker's journey towards understanding the Force.[34] That Lucas had planned the midi-chlorians as far back as 1977 was hinted at on the DVD commentary of The Phantom Menace, but the details would not be fully revealed for another eight years, coming to light in the 2007 book The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, the hardcover edition of which had, among its appendices, Lucas' notes for the Expanded Universe authors.
HOWEVER, knowing that Lucas continually changed the stories he would tell the media and fans and various people, I doubt he was completely solid on the idea even back in 1977. He would move things around all the time and then claim he "always" was going to do this or that. He's a storyteller... sometimes it looks like Lucas just couldn't make up his mind and stick with it (in much the same way he continued to screw with the films, adding effects and, most famously, making Greedo shoot Han first).
Where are your atheists now Dawkins?
Well, Han was one until he saw the Force in action. Expanded Universe turned him into a Jedi, so take that!
Think he’ll be one in VII? I can certainly see Leia with a blue lightsaber, but they might just keep Han a blasters-only guy.
Yeah I'm sure 12 year old boys are now devastated by the explanation, the Force itself didn't change at all. Midi-chlorians aren't used as a means to determine force power just potential. What you have thought about the originals was wrong all this time. What did you think Luke Skywalker meant when he said 'the Force runs strong in my family'? That was in the original trilogy. There was no instant destruction of anything, it was an explanation of the entire story. Without midi-chlorians, the original trilogy wouldn't make sense. How could Leia, Luke and Vader have been aware of each others' presence, especially Leia who had no training at all? Why were Luke and Leia the last two hopes? Only the genetic explanation works.
It didn't mean Leia was an all-powerful Jedi, she was completely useless and was captured by Jabba. She just had higher potential than someone of a different bloodline. That's exactly the right lesson to teach kids because that's how it works in the real world. If you are born attractive, have good parents and live somewhere you can make a success of your life then you are far more likely to have a good quality of life than people without those circumstances. It doesn't exclude the possibility of someone overcoming their circumstances e.g someone with low midi-chlorian count putting in the hours and becoming more connected to the Force than someone privileged but it makes it harder. It still allows for anyone becoming a Jedi or Sith.
It's also apparently based on mitochondria:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrion
"These structures are sometimes described as "the powerhouse of the cell" because they generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a source of chemical energy. In addition to supplying cellular energy, mitochondria are involved in other tasks such as signaling, cellular differentiation, cell death, as well as maintaining the control of the cell cycle and cell growth."
That's a good thing to do because it makes the story more relatable rather than just purely fiction.
Based on what? The only things that may not have been solid would be the names or behaviours of the genetic parts. As I said above, there was a genetic theme in the original trilogy. His discussion of midi-chlorians came after the first movie.
[VIDEO]
[VIDEO]
[SPOILER=Possible spoiler about cloaked figure]There was some concept art put online last month showing possible clues about the cloaked figure being a cyborg:
[IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/52924/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
[IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/52925/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
[IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/52926/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
The bad guy will have to be deformed in some way. It would make a nice change to not have them with breathing problems. There's a rumor that this figure is Luke but we know he had a beard and a Jedi cloak on during shooting (might be a decoy). Plus I don't think he would make a lightsaber like that. The arm matches the picture though as he had to get a metal hand. In the trailer, the figure is wearing gloves.
I suppose that is one way to bring Vader back into the picture - father is bad, has nice kids, kids defeat father, kid turns into father.[/SPOILER]
[random garbage walking in front of the frame for absolutely no reason, ripped from Mos Eisley]
10/10; would mock and deride again.
Beautifully done; I want to learn how to cut elements in motion out like that.
That was pretty hilarious. I burst out laughing several times.
Rotoscoping like this:
[VIDEO]
The guy who worked on the trailer uses After Effects and was interviewed by Adobe here (11:00):
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/create-now/create-now-video/
https://latenitefilms.com/team/
Objects in space would be a bit easier to cut out because you can use the black as a mask. I suspect there's also some CGI elements added in the trailer like the crowd of fighters at the end, those would be done in 3DS Max or similar.
Rotoscoping is described in the Star Wars III effects feature (18:16):
[VIDEO]
The part about the matte painting at 9:25 is crazy, that guy took 7 months to do a single 25,000 pixel wide animated backdrop for one scene in the movie. Imagine if they decided they didn't want it.
John Knoll (co-creator of Photoshop) is in that video too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knoll
It looks like he'll be involved in the upcoming Star Wars movies:
http://makingstarwars.net/2014/03/john-knoll-says-were-getting-a-decades-worth-of-star-wars-films/
It makes sense that there will be a decade of films as they have another 6 to make at least. Sometimes I think it would be bad to move too far away from the original story and characters but the cinematic trailers for the games are ok:
[VIDEO]
They show similar figures to the one shown in the ep 7 trailer. Visceral Games ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visceral_Games ) has been commissioned to make a Star Wars game on Frostbite 3, the engine used in Battlefield 4. Here's what the engine is capable of:
[VIDEO]