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Establishing Shots of Scale in Star Wars (Gif/Img heavy)

Green

Green

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,412
James Cameron's Titanic has many great scale establishing shots. Not sci-fi, but this scene in particular always gave me goosebumps:


Also Christopher Nolan's Interstellar failed for me in this respect, except for one particular shot:

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Disaster/big monster movies are a guilty pleasure of mine. Even the junky ones. There's something about seeing utter devastation on a grand scale that just pops my popcorn.

Gareth Edwards' Godzilla (2014) is a good one with many great sense of scale shots, to the point that I didn't enjoy the follow-ups nearly as much because I didn't think they established the sense of scale nearly as well:
 
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Omanisat

Omanisat

Member
Sep 25, 2018
2,399
North Bay, Canada
Eye for an Eye said:
You left out the most important question.... when do we get a lego version of it to sit above the current Star Destroyer??
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br0ken_shad0w

br0ken_shad0w

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,095
Washington
God Rogue One is such a beautiful movie, it's a shame it's dreadfully bland for much of the film that makes it hard to do a re-watch.

I found the Halo games did a good job doing sense of scale



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Keldroc

Keldroc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,987
Jinroh said:
The scale is all wrong on your super star destroyer examples. It looks dozens of time larger than regular star destroyers and minuscule next to the flat surface of the Death Star when it should be heavily curved.

Star Wars has never been very accurate with scale.
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No, the scale is correct. ILM was very careful about that. And the Death Star II is almost certainly too large to show any curvature in the SSD crash shot.
 
OP
OP
RefreshZ

RefreshZ

Member
Oct 27, 2017
473
Blackthorn said:
Also the Star Destroyer warping in and smashing into the escaping ships. God damn. A screen of empty space suddenly filled, another brilliant portrayal of scale.

If anyone has gifs of those moments handy they'd be worthy examples.
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Here you go...! And a bonus...

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Say what you want about the narrative but Rogue One really did knock it out the park with its cinematography.
 
Fuchsia

Fuchsia

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,652
cyba89 said:
Rogue One was really good at this.


No surprise coming from Gareth Edwards who did the scale thing really well in Godzilla.
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Yeah Rogue One was spectacular at this. These were the shots I was thinking of when I was reading the OP. Although there are some killer examples in the OP also!
 
TheXbox

TheXbox

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 29, 2017
6,565
Rogue One has rightfully hijacked this thread. Counting on Fraser to bring that sense of scale to Dune
 
RowdyReverb

RowdyReverb

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,935
Austin, TX
CloudWolf said:
I don't know why, but I find the Death Star being upside down always very odd to see.
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I think that is the intent. The Death Star has become such a symbol at this point that it's hard to see it as the enormous death-dealing machine that it is. It's like, have you ever been up on a ladder in your house and realized you've never seen your home from that angle before and it makes you actually see the place you've been living just because it's a fresh angle?
 
TAJ

TAJ

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
12,446
Keldroc said:
No, the scale is correct. ILM was very careful about that. And the Death Star II is almost certainly too large to show any curvature in the SSD crash shot.
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Going by the official lengths of the Executor and Death Star II there should be around 30 degrees of arc visible in that shot. But I'm more inclined to say that the official size of Death Star II is wrong.
 
SpoonSpatula

SpoonSpatula

Member
Oct 27, 2017
627
Thanks for the great thread, OP. Really fascinating reading about (and seeing) all the different scenes. So much eye candy.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,046
Nice thread op, love the pics. Not big into star wars but yeah that is cool as hell.

Shitty first reply. Also doesn't mention the movie.
 
RyougaSaotome

RyougaSaotome

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,677
Y'all have made me wanna pop in 4k Rogue One.

I've always dug the film, but these gifs are making me feel something fierce, especially in a post Rise of Skywalker world.
 
RoKKeR

RoKKeR

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,393
God damn Rogue One is amazing.

I would submit some of the establishing shots from Arrival. Really drives home the initial mystery.
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Fall Damage

Fall Damage

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,061
I haven't seen Rogue One since it was in theaters but I think I'm due for a rewatch.

Pargon said:
Ah, thank you.
This thread is almost making me want to check out some of the new movies.
It's not that I hate Star Wars or anything like that; I'm just not really into it.
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You could always sign up for a month of Disney+. I'm pretty sure it's all on there.
 
Rodney McKay

Rodney McKay

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,215
Green said:
Gareth Edwards' Godzilla (2014) is a good one with many great sense of scale shots, to the point that I didn't enjoy the follow-ups nearly as much because I didn't think they established the sense of scale nearly as well:
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Yeah, Godzilla (2014) did a fantastic job with the scale. I actually miss that aspect of all the other US Godzilla/King Kong movie, none of the other movies make the monster "feel" huge, they move lightning fast in all the other movies.

Like Godzilla Vs. King Kong has Kong leaping twice Godzilla's height, and Godzilla skittering across the ground like a tiny lizard.
 
echoshifting

echoshifting

very salt heavy
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
14,756
The Negative Zone
I'm having trouble finding good images but I will never forget being blown away by the sense of scale conveyed by the first act of Alien.

Great thread op, you've sold me on a Rogue One rewatch
 
Bonejack

Bonejack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,654
Rogue One is Wallpapers - The Movie, and i love it. *Currently rocks that Deathstar appearing in the horizont one on his work PCs*

This is what i miss most in KotM and GvsK, maybe Edwards can return to the series again.
 
Jintor

Jintor

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,454
The most impressive thing about the star wars stuff is how it was made. That shit is all models! Insane model and crazy camerawork stuff!!! Isn't that just fucking wild?!?!?
 
Chromie

Chromie

Member
Dec 4, 2017
5,251
Washington
I love the Star Wars shots shown so here's something else.

2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most beautiful films. I could watch and listen to it forever. Clearly stuff are smaller but the visuals display is something else especially since it was released in 1968.


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Poor guy


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jett

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,663
It's not starwar-level hugeness but Avatar is great at presenting scale.







 
Mcfrank

Mcfrank

Member
Oct 28, 2017
15,223
DiipuSurotu said:
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Oblivion
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I need to rewatch this. I remember really liking it.


It is so nice to see a positive thread about Rogue One. I never get how people didn't like that movie and then when you ask why they are like "NAME THE CHARACTERS!!!!!!" and I get confused at how that is a valid criticism of a movie.
 
dragonbane

dragonbane

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,585
Germany
This is just a "great sci-fi shots" the thread now and I'm perfectly fine with that. Oblivion and Rogue One are two absolute stunners in that regard.
 
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