J. K. Rowling has revealed that the inspiration for Dementors came from her bout with severe depression before her phenomenal success. She described the feeling as an "absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad."
Not conclusive either way, really... but it can be debated.
All creativity is a synthesis of experiences and ideas, many of which are taken from others. Artists Tolkien borrowed heavily from Norse and other mythologies, and fantasy in general borrowed heavily off of him. Nobody is purely original and that's fine; can you redefine it in a way that's meaningful, that's the question.
True, but there also has to be a certain honesty about it. If an author or screenplay writer acknowledged those inspirations and sources, that's fine, and is entirely appropriate.
I get on these George Lucas rants because sometimes he acknowledges those sources, but then always seems to want all the credit. Mind you, this is the same guy who "borrowed" liberally from other sources and then tried to sue the makers of the original Battlestar Galactica on the grounds that spaceships and laserbeams were too derivative of his work.
I think hearing that story is what triggered my distaste for George Lucas himself.
Unfortunately, the line's fuzzy. Really blatant ones are easy to point out, but when they get grey, it should just be left alone.
ArcticFox wrote:I get on these George Lucas rants because sometimes he acknowledges those sources, but then always seems to want all the credit. Mind you, this is the same guy who "borrowed" liberally from other sources and then tried to sue the makers of the original Battlestar Galactica on the grounds that spaceships and laserbeams were too derivative of his work.
Yeah, totally disgusting. Not to mention his plea in his younger years to preserve movies in their original formats and not alter them, but then goes ahead and not only alters his movies, but locks up the originals. It's like original trilogy Lucas is a completely different person from new trilogy Lucas.
... Gentlemen, it's time for evil twin conspiracy theories.
ArchAngel wrote:Yeah, totally disgusting. Not to mention his plea in his younger years to preserve movies in their original formats and not alter them, but then goes ahead and not only alters his movies, but locks up the originals. It's like original trilogy Lucas is a completely different person from new trilogy Lucas.
Yeah I don't know if it's an ego thing or a greed thing. It's like somehow he's an exception because now we have the technology to show th eeffects the way his vision had always intended...
Know who I feel bad for? The guys who put so much time, effort, creativity and talent into making some pretty awesome effects in the original trilogy. These guys invented entirely new technologies in order to depict X-Wings blazing TiE Fighters, the Millenium Falcon blasting out of Mos Eisley, the Death Star... and now all of that's for nothing because suddenly all that work and brilliance isn't good enough anymore, and gets replaced by CG.
I liked it better when the X-Wings were in formation, each opening its S-foils in sequence... like a military drill formation... 'twas cool.
Yeah, during IV when they were approaching the death star and the S-foils locked into position. So cool. Till this day, I have a massive love affair with the X-wing.
And, as for SFX, I don't mind CG. I think there's a lot of potential for great story telling that it opens up, not to mention cutting down the cost and increasing some of the realism, or better, create a whole new surrealism that really can speak to the theme of a movie. In fact, I often prefer CG.
But when you think you can substitute proper story telling with CG glitter, then you lost focus, and Lucas has done exactly that.
ArchAngel wrote:Yeah, during IV when they were approaching the death star and the S-foils locked into position. So cool. Till this day, I have a massive love affair with the X-wing.
Same here, man. A combination of the N64 game Rogue Squadron and a certain awesome lego set made me an X-wing fan....
...4lief.
In my circle of friends, owning one of these made you an instant bad apple brother trucker.
...that is, until another friend of mine got the ginormous 100 or 200 dollar Star Destroyer set. It was tragic when his cat knocked it off his desk and onto the floor, shattering it XD OH, TO BE 9 YEARS OLD AGAIN.
I'll just take your word for it XD
