Watching Star Wars Episode VII the Force Awakens (2015), the first two topics from our class that came to my mind was remediation and compositing. Watching a new Star Wars film was amazing, not only because it was impressively done, but because it manage to evoke feelings of nostalgia and déjà vu. I felt like a kid again the first time I watched the original trilogy. Afterwards, I asked myself why that was.
Obviously, the plot was a variation of episode four, but I noticed something else. Digital special effects were used during the film, but in my mind, at least, there was only one instance, where I was taken out of the story. The effects done for Kylo Ren’s master were glaringly noticeable, but that was all that stood out after one viewing.
What was so brilliant was, what was new about this new media, was the particular ways in which it refashioned the old media (Grusin 14-15). An updating remediation was being used to full effect, not just narratively but special effects wise too. With the intermingling of practical effects and digital it was harder to detect, and with the two composited together, it was difficult to distinguish one from the other. Perhaps after multiple viewings, this opinion will change, but as of right now Star Wars Episode VII is a perfect example of Manovich’s definition of compositing. The “assembling together a number of elements to create a single seamless element” (Manovich 139).
So why did I have feelings of nostalgia and déjà vu? I had these feelings because I was seeing something I had seen before only better. Often times when you ask a Star Wars fan which one of the first three movies is their favourite, they’ll either state the title of the first one they saw or Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. For me, the first one I saw was Episode V, and I make no attempt to hide my displeasure at how boring I found Episode IV which was the last of the three I saw. Episode VII took what few elements I did enjoy from Episode IV and put it in the latest film, coupled with better effects (digital), and storyline, Episode VII felt like the Star Wars A New Hope I always wanted but never got.
While the remediation establishes this nostalgic connection, this link also makes it rather impossible for the film to establish immediacy. Even with the 3-D viewing we experienced at the theatre, didn’t immerse me in the diegesis of Star Wars. If anything, it drew my attention even more to the digital technology. By the time we talked about the film in class, I was able to see the film without the 3-D in the theatre. It was interesting reading my own reactions. With the 3-D, I was in a state of hypermediacy, “I’m watching a Star Wars film, this is so cool”! Without it, I was able to enter immediacy more easily, because I was focused on, Fin’s story, who is Rey, what is going on?
The conclusion I came to is that while movie theatres are trying to sell tickets by using technology like the 3-D, and the D-box to making the viewing of a film more interactive, if the film cannot survive without them, then the film is not very good. What is so wonderful about Star Wars the Force Awakens is that the digital effects, do what the film needs, but it is simply one instrument in the orchestra. This film possesses many elements that cause the audience to be engrossed into the Star Wars world.
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