'Star Wars,' Social Media and Collaborative Effort

Posted Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 4:41 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 8:45 AM Central

by John Couture

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, George Lucas came up with an idea for a series of films called Star Wars. When Star Wars was released in 1977, it was considered a revolutionary step forward in technology and special effects in film making.

Now, imagine how much the world these films were created in has changed since 1977. While the Internet was in its infancy when Lucas filmed the prequel trilogy, it is nothing like the ingrained part of everyday life that it is today.

And social media? Texting wasn't even a fad yet when Revenge of the Sith finished filming in 2004.

So, what does that mean for Star Wars: Episode VII and its subsequent sequels? Well, for one thing, with Lucas only serving as a "consultant" on them, his notorious penchant for secrecy probably won't be so strict.

And really, can you honestly prevent all leaks from your set in today's social media age? The better question is, should you?

Although, to be fair, Lucas really did leverage the official site StarWars.com to release exclusive images from the set and updates. At least, I think they did. You'll have to forgive me, but filming on Attack of the Clones took place over 12 years ago and I've lost many brain cells since then.

What I do remember though is this odd image and others like it that. Sure, these images were frustrating at best, but with so much green screen work, what could you really show anyhow?

Now that we've gotten older and more jaded, not to mention more comfortable with the concept that Goerge Lucas can make mistakes, I think the microscope of social media will be firmly focused on every little move that Disney makes concerning Episode VII. You only have to do a quick Google search for Episode VII and you will see just how crazy the talk has become for the upcoming trilogy.

There are articles speculating what the story will cover, who the writer or director will be and even imploring the as yet unnamed film makers to film the movie in Ohio. Yes, there really was an actual blog that seriously pleaded for them to film Episode VII in Ohio.

At least, I think they were serious. It's the Internet, so it's tough to tell sometimes.

Use the Force, er Twitter

So, now that the next trilogy is moving forward and everyone knows about it, what makes more sense, keeping everything a secret or crowd-sourcing your decisions? Naturally, I'm not talking about setting up a website and voting on who should write or direct the film (although that idea isn't half bad), but Disney didn't pay $4 billion for a franchise so it could stick its head in the ground.

No, what I'm talking about is getting a pulse or feel for something and then using that information to help make better decisions. I'm not saying this would have helped, but let's say that back in 1997, Lucas released a short video of Jar Jar Binks to see what the reaction was to this new character.

It's quite likely that the instant reaction would have been similar to the one experienced by audiences two years later when he instantly became the most hated character in the franchise. I'm not sure if Lucas could have completely changed or written out Jar Jar Binks at that point, but he could have edited the movie in such a way that his inclusion wasn't a point of so much ridicule.

If I were Disney, I would certainly hire a team of social media experts not only to properly oversee the new trilogy's reception in the sphere of social influence, but to monitor potential choices. There's been a few interesting and peculiar things that have happened in the last week that make me think that perhaps Disney is doing just that.

Suspicious Leaks

Since last week's announcement, there have been a few "leaks" from "insiders" that are anything but ordinary, especially from a Lucas film. The first leak claimed that the film would be based on an original story and not existing material, like the Thrawn trilogy.

This one was quick and served a few purposes. Everyone immediately turned to Timothy Zahn's books as the logical next trilogy in the Star Wars universe. Had Disney simply stayed mum on it then I think it would have become generally accepted that the new trilogy would go this route, thus setting up the potential for disappointment.

This leak also allowed them to float the idea of the next trilogy being set 20 to 30 years after the events in Return of the Jedi. It also opened up the possibility for original stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford to return to the franchise, playing age appropriate versions of their characters.

While I think it's a no-brainer for the original cast to at least make a cameo in the films, the idea has had a few detractors. Had the idea met with vile derision from the Star Wars fan community, then it's an easy problem to solve and one that's better to deal with now then when the script is complete or they are in the middle of filming.

Another interesting "leak" came courtesy of Collider in which they claim that there's a rumor that X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn may be in talks to direct Star Wars: Episode VII. That article has over 200 comments and most of them give their opinion on whether they would like to see Vaughn in the director's chair.

And that doesn't even count the countless number of stories that were written on other sites about this news and the comments on those stories. It's like a real-time pulse of the fan community, or you could call it a collaborative effort if Disney is leaking this information on purpose.

A Darkhorse Director Candidate?

If Disney were leaking it intentionally, you would almost expect that other names would start leaking so they can compare and contrast the reaction. Cue little known site (at least to me) Celebuzz!.

They are reporting that a "source" has confirmed to them that Safety Not Guaranteed director Colin Trevorrow is on the short list of possible directors for Star Wars: Episode VII.

I know what you're thinking, why would Disney intentionally leak such a story to a lesser known site? Well, for one, they know that all Star Wars news is blowing up right now, so it won't take long for it to get picked up by bigger sites. Like Film School Rejects, or /Film, you get the idea.

It also allows Disney to maintain a bit of distance to these "leaks" if they are intentional. If they leaks were consistently made to the top web sites, it wouldn't take long for them to figure out what is going on.

Personally, I loved Safety Not Guaranteed and yes, there are a few Star Wars references in it so Trevorrow is clearly a fan, but I side mostly with most of the fans. Trevorrow has directed one film, a small indie one at that, and it would be extremely ballsy for them to turn over the keys to the Millennium Falcon to such a green director.

That being said, I think the dialog issues would be a thing of the past if they brought Trevorrow on board.

Now, naturally you can't make all of your decisions in such a way, but I think it would ludicrous not to use social media as the tool that it should be. I think this is the logical next step in social media's influence on Hollywood.

The reality is that films are only going to get bigger and bigger, so the impact of having a bomb on the scale of John Carter will be multiplied exponentially. Studios can't afford to take this much risk given how much money they are shelling out and why should they when social media is right there, simply begging to be leveraged.