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A. Why Space?
When we left off, you may have felt lost in space. Undecided if space was an appropriate outlet for the next three weeks or six months of your writing life. If there is any doubt about the space genre keep reading, and if you have no doubts keep reading. Space films make big bucks, that is one reason to write this genre. They require big dollars to produce and often loose the initial budget dependent on cast, editing and distribution.
As a speculative genre it is great due to foreign film sale and DVD distribution where any budget can be recouped with the right effort. While you may find that hard to fathom it is true. This website has in-depth information on budgets and films for several decades. http://www.leesmovieinfo.net/WBOdecade.p...
B. "Attack of the Clones" If you remember " Attack of the Clones" a movie assailed for bad plot and bad acting. Yet it made a profit. After reading " The Technique of Film and Video Editing", 2nd Edition by Ken Dancyger (1997) I sat down and studied this force film yet again. Like its predecessors it contains conflict between three characters, pre-teen Darth Vader, Obi Wan and the new Leah.
In twentieth century film the main character remains on stage. Here in " Attack of the Clones" the premise of the quintessential American film maintains this in part. The protagonist is conflicted. He hates his unknown jedi father and is disrespectful of the adopted father figure Obi Wan, who has him under his wing. This second film in a trilogy had a big budget, and while not highly lauded exceed its domestic and international budgets. While the story line is note as in-depth, a la the "Hobbit" series it disappointed many fans because of the jumps cuts and the semi-french style of close ups and other idiomatic directorial and editorial revisions.
Action films have different shots. In fact they require them, short long intermeshed with close ups are seen in this film. But the jumps distract. As a writer you won't write these shots but you should visualize the action as you write. Despite this it had a gigantic pay off and the cinematography and basic script sold tickets and discs.
C. Writing the Space Film But your goal is to write a western/samurai/love story and advance the art of the space genre. Like " Attack of the Clones, and " Contact" you will need a love story that lies beneath the surface of the protagonist's scientific quest. In "Attack of the Clones" love and the need for it is the glue that builds the story. Love of a mother, of a future wife, of friends, of jedi is the mortar. Intermixed with faint yet obvious hints of twentieth century life, Lucas takes the audience into a familiar theme of hope and our fear of evil.
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