WHEREWITHAL OF IMAGINATION IS A VISUAL EFFECT.: December 2015

It was all good, all good that the Star Wars franchise comes out from the dark side and on the spotlight for the eclipsical fandom. Russovoir sympathizes for them because he was once, always, part of a fandom, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hunger Games, e.g. We get it. Especially since the last episodic Star Wars feature was a decade ago (not including the 2008 computer-animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman, clear as day, was a match made couple galaxy far far away - heroic, the kind of romance the journey is admired ultimately when gazed as a constellation.

The story, the worlds, including family tree and galactic empire ranking, is nothing short of impressive. George Lucas, hats off.

Portman and Christensen in Revenge of the Sith (2005).

Until recently, besides Russovoir never followed through since because of personal reasons, long after Star Wars of Lucasfilm Ltd. was sold for $4 billion in 2012, Disney has become the very mascot they profitably represent: a rodent. The 'corporation clout' has had been right under our feet, and infested the channels of film distribution. It's like they're making (so much) money off of someone else's work to recover from the $200-million snafu with John Carter (2012).

Revered screenwriter/director, while he didn't come up with lightsabers and the Jedi clergy; he only took 'experience point' type of action/adventure quest to bloodbath and carnage in Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino, a while now, has a gift for us Tarantino fans and movie goers altogether this holiday season. The gift of The Hateful Eight, starring Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, and Christoph Waltz. The proof is in the filming when this eight feature of Tarantino is impressively shot in actual film. The extent of this directorial choice didn't affect Russovoir until it was recently explained (in his defense, he's concerned of the storytelling than film equipment). Simply put, Tarantino films are made by film stock, not digital. A film stock is that sheet of plastic film base (below left) used to record motion pictures, the linchpin of traditional filmmaking, whereas digital video (below right), also known as camcorder, video camera, or camera, is a newer recording device by which of encoded digital data, while understandably is efficient and universal, serious filmmakers including but not limited to Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, and J.J. Abrams frown upon digital video in making films because 'cinematic' picture is always compromised.

Film stock

Digital Video

The point of all this is here: Arclight Hollywood Cinerama Dome.

Granted these big shot filmmakers are doing the same thing differently, there must be some kind of order, and etiquette among each other. You would think so, but apparently not. In a radio interview with Howard Stern, Tarantino awakens the force:

“We were gonna play at the Cinerama Dome on the 25th. We were gonna open there and play there exclusively for two weeks. And ‘Star Wars’ was gonna play the two weeks before us. I grew up in LA, so I think of the Cinerama Dome as a real big deal and imagine seeing it at the Cinerama Dome. So the thing about it was, Disney, who owns ‘Star Wars,’ decided ‘Well, you know what? Maybe we wanna play throughout the entire holiday season.’ So, we’re gonna go to the Cinerama Dome and say that they can’t honor their contract with us to show the ‘Hateful Eight.’ And the Archlight people that own the Cinerama Dome said, ‘No, no, you can’t do that, we have a deal with The Hateful Eight.'

As of [yesterday], Disney came to the Archlight people and said, ‘No, you are going to play Star Wars in the Cinerama Dome for the entire holiday season. And if you don’t, if you honor your deal with The Hateful Eight, we will not allow you to have ‘Star Wars’, the biggest movie in the world, we will not allow you to show it at any of your Archlight theater... It’s vindictive, it’s mean, and it’s extortion. They literally threatened the Archlight to do this."

Now, Russovoir knows what you're thinking. No, he's not writing this because he loves Tarantino to bits and he'll do anything for him. It just so happens Tarantino is an influential filmmaker, which compounds, alarms, and escalates the issue by itself because it's Tarantino, and he's such a good man. If it were somebody else, maybe not, because 1) they might have no use of Cinerama Dome on the novice choice of digital over expensive 70MM film resolution, and/or simply 2) not well-connected to market and distribute their film. Again, this is Quentin Tarantino. He obviously has a reason why he chose to premiere his film on Christmas day. It's heavily snowing in his film for God's sake, maybe that's why. So the characters in fur coats in the film don't come off weird to the audience - we don't know! He didn't just go 'Oh, Star Wars? The biggest film in the world? Yeah no, let's see about that'. There was a deal. And that deal was breached.

Greed.

What does this mean to all of us? To aspiring filmmakers? It's a new breed of a 'film buff', corporations who appear larger and think they can trample over a relatively smaller group of people, let alone an individual the luxury to showcase their earnest, life's work on the big screen - what will happen to Russovoir? He can't possibly file, let alone win a lawsuit against Disney! He's the type that cries in the corner if his movie didn't sell, but that's another story.

If it can happen to a Tarantino, it can happen to anyone (or maybe, it's been happening. In which case, it took a Tarantino to see it). Russovoir weeps for the industry; it's not fair play, it's foul ploy.

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