Annotated Bibliography
According to this article, those trailer shots werent meant to be part of the film at all anyways. They wernt storyboarded, and was just the crew "messing around". From this I can infer that the recording process was very loose and hardly professional to getting the job done, which would have shown in the final product they showed Disney as they clearly were not happy with it.
From the trailer, there are many shots and scenes that cant be found in the final product of the movie. This tells us that even the earliest scenes were affected by the re-shoots and Disney wasnt happy with what was being created and made the executive decision to move the important last stand from the beaches to the Citadel tower.
However, Disney saw a problem with this as the film didnt feel like a Star Wars premire, and got Tony Gilroy to reconceptualise the film to bring darker overtones and a darker ending.
This source tells me that the original shots that were premiered to Disney behind close doors was very soft and conformative to the Disney, child-like brand and thought that Disney would not approve of a dark film.
When word got out to the public that the film was reconceptualised, this brought anxiety into many Star Wars addicts, and audiences - creating worry about the potential shift and change of tone in comparrison to A New Hope.
And it was a good idea for Disney to reshoot this film in the end as it was praised for being a darker story. Disney and Lucasfilm were clearly prepared to experement as it paid off in the final project. This would made sense as for the first standalone Star Wars film, they didnt want to discourage audiences of watching their next projects in the Star Wars universe.
All in all, Disney done a good job and made the right decision in re-shooting this film. However, this brings to attention a bigger worry within the original production teams and a lot of pressure to do better next time. It seems as if this film was created with a release date, rather than with a good storyline first. If future films start in this way, there will always be a need for re-shoots and reconceptualizations.
Andrew Liptak, Rogue One's reshoots show how Disney saved the first standalone Star Wars movie (2017) <theverge.com/2017/1/15/14268850/star-wars-rogue-one-reshoots-disney-gareth-edwards-tony-gilroy> [accessed 20 January 2021].
00:17 - 00:49
It was planned that Lyra Erso, Jyn's mother, was to be a Jedi in hiding. This would have made sense and fit in to the chronological order of things, however there was confusion within the team as to if Jyn would have had connections to the force and was able to use it. To solve this confusion, Lyra's backstory is that she is just a sole beliver in the force, however there are instances where we can see has somewhat of a slight connection in the film.
1:09 - 1:37
The actor who played Bodhi, Riz Ahmed, was supposed to play a different character with a different story. This character was called Boukun he would have been an engineer who was captured by Saw and developed Stockholm Syndrome. His character was changed to bring a more historical and emotional aspect into the film as he would change the storyline because HE wanted to. Not because he was forced to.
1:44 - 2:44
According to Gareth, the communications tower and the citadel were originally split into two seperate buildings and the characters had to retreive the plans, and run to the other building to upload them. Gareth feared this storyline was dragging too long and decided to combine the two buildings and create one to save time. With the buildings seperate, Jyn and Cassian were to die on the beaches, however with the buildings being one, they needed new death scenes. There is footage of the characters dying outside the communications tower on the beach by the hands of Krennic himself which was inevitably scrapped.
2:44 - 3:18
The original and earliest plan for the characters was for Jyn and Cassian to survive the battle of Scarif. They were to be rescued by a rebel ship that would have been chased into hyperspace by Vaders star destroyer. They would have met up with the Tantive 4, transferred the plans, and only then would they have been destroyed by Vader. However, Jyn and Cassian had made it to an escape pod that blended in with the rubble of the attack. This was written with the thought that Disney would not let them kill off all the characters and that, that storyline was too dark.
3:50 - 4:12
Krennic was not supposed to originally die from his own weapon. It was planned that he was to escape Scarif and then killed by Vader for punishment for his failures. It was decided that it was very unlikey for him to be rescued mid-battle for this scenario to occour, and was instead left there to die.
Star Wars Explained, Rogue One Deleted and Altered Scenes (2017) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8_LGhfltWA&ab_channel=StarWarsExplained> [accessed 27 January 2021].
This source tells us that Cassian Adors introductory scene was reconceptualised to emphasise how far the character will go for the Rebel cause. This is a very important aspect to this characters development as it will establish his motivations and morals.
The rescue of Jyn was not an originally planned scene in the film, and neither was the clothesline by K-2SO. From this source, we can tell that this was part of the reshoots to develop the characters and bring more audience attachments towards them.
Saw Gerrera was originally a much younger and visually different personality. Through the reshoots, it was decided to give the character longer, grey hair, and breathing problems to show his age and weakness. There was also a cut out dialogue from Saw to Jyn which would caution her of the risks of joining the fight against the Empire. However in the end, this was not Saw's role.
Nick Cannata-Bowman, 10 Changes Disney Made to ‘Rogue One’ With Their Reshoots (2017) <https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/changes-disney-made-to-rogue-one-before-it-released.html/> [accessed 27 January 2021].
Taken from trailers, promos, and teaser footage released before the movie was finalised, this video compiles forty six shots that were not used in the final product. It shows differences in costume, dialogue, storyline, and character development which I will use to visually link to my paragraphs. The most noticeable difference in one of these shots is with Saw Gerrera. We see him looking much younger, bald and stronger in himself. This is just one example of how the movie changed as in the final cut - and mentioned above - Gilroy changed his role to becoming an older, grey-haired character to add further character development and to make it seem as if more time had passed.
Vashi Nedomansky, ROGUE ONE - 46 SHOTS NOT IN THE FINAL FILM (2016) <https://vimeo.com/196155136> [accessed 29 January 2021].
In this article. Gilroy explains that the state of the film before the reshoots was "just in such terrible, terrible trouble that all you can do is improve their position". This tells us that the original crew didnt do a great job all in all. From the previsualisations, to shooting final scenes. This source tells us at what point Gilroy took over to improve the film and was contractually signed to fix the "mess". From my other sources, I can infer that the film was very dull and lacked any personality as the crew didnt think they would be allowed to add dark tones and dark scenes with it being a Disney creation.
Gilroy explains that there was confusion within the writing of the film. The old crew must have overthought the storyline as Gilroy says it to be "very easy to solve". I dont think the original crew understood that the film was heavily based of sacrifice. And with the confusion of if Disney would allow this dark storyline, I can see how that happened. However Gilroy was a new set of eyes and a new brain to bounce ideas off of and made a film about sacrifice.
Nick Romano, Rogue One writer says film was in 'terrible, terrible trouble' with reshoots (2018) <https://ew.com/movies/2018/04/05/rogue-one-reshoots-tony-gilroy/> [accessed 27 January 2021].
This article speaks on how common film re-shoots are. I especially like these paragraphs as it starts with telling the audience what they would expect, then counters them thoughts with the truth and facts. The reasons given, such as studio interference and heavy restrictions in budget, are great examples of what could happen spontainiously throughout the production line. This source also gives many examples of why other films have been reconceptualised. For example, in "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial", it was planned that the protagonist was to die in a government facility tent. However Speilberg decided he didnt want to create another dark film like his other titles such as "Jaws", therefore overruling this decision. And without this decision, we would have never gotten the iconic shot of ET flying across the moon. This article also includes a page about Rogue One which repeats and enforces information that I have already gathered from other sources. However the repeating information gives it more weight and allows for it to become more trustworthy.
Tim Saxby, 12 Movie Scenes You Didn’t Know Were Reshoots (2020) <https://whatculture.com/film/12-movie-scenes-you-didn-t-know-were-reshoots-2> [accessed 29 January 2021].
This essay, with interviews from crew in the industry, explains further how common reshoots are. It was said that "Back to the Future" was originally with a different actor playing the main character. And that they shot with the original cast for 5 weeks before decided to reshoot. However, Keith Calder reportedly said that 75% of the movies he has worked on has had reshoots, and the other 25% would have had reshoots if budget and time permitted it. This shows exactly how common they are in the filmmaking industry. Keith, being known for "Blair Witch" and "Youre Next", also said that 100% of movies that had reshoots benefitted from it. This information and statistic shows how vital and useful film reshoots are. In my final magazine spread, I will make sure to use this interview from Keith Calder to show awareness on the importance and likelihood of a film having to reshoot.
Peter Sciretta, Why Movie Reshoots Aren’t Necessarily a Bad Sign (2016) <https://www.slashfilm.com/reshoots/> [accessed 29 January 2021].
On this website, there is an archive of concept art and matte paintings that were used to plan and produce Rogue One - taken from an official book published by LucasFilms showing this process. I am interested in these images and texts because they show how characters such as Chirrut Imwe differed from costume and apperance when compared to the character in the final cut. As we can see in the images, there was a concept for Chirrut to be bald throughout his apperances in the film. There is also a debate as to which weapon he would yeild on this page. This shows the planning was overruled by the production team for reasons i can only infer to be budget, effect, and dramatic irony. I plan to compare the matte paintings to the final scenes to see what differed, and use this as evidence that films are constantly changing in direct context to Rogue One.
Josh Kushins, The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, ed. by LucasFilms ([n.p.]: Abrams Books, 2016).
00:50 - 01:44
During this timeframe, Chris says that he is very happy with the final cut and feels great about the movie. He explains that this was a huge relief because he was stressed about what the final film would look like after Gilroy took over. This suspence grew until he finally saw the film at the premiere where he really enjoyed it. Weitz says that he would have enjoyed "bitching and moaning" about the changed that was made but in the end he "didnt have that satisfaction" and he "really really liked it". It was said that he would high-five his other co-writers as if he was proud of what happened to the film which shows just how much he liked it.
01:48 - 02:39
Here Chris explains that most information on the internet about what was changed in the movie is truth. This validated my researched articles and allows me to trust them more convincingly as I have confirmation from a writer that their information is 99% true. He says that structually the second scene was flipped in order and that he cannot take credit for the Darth Vader scenes. However the battle on the beaches stayed much the same.
02:40 - 03:05
Weitz explains his confusion as to why many scenes were changed. For example Chris shares that he doesnt fully understand why K2's death was changed to a different location.
03:08 - 03:31
Chris says that a lot of the production has become a bit of a blur however he does remember that during his time in charge, there was a budget cut of "20 million" and that he decided to cut a planet to get around this - but judging by the cadence in which he said this, we can infer that doing so and continuing was difficult to do.
03:40 - 04:40
In the start of the movie, Chris wrote unexplicitly that the Death Star was being built. And this grew confusion within the audience as if they have watched the original series of films, they would already know of the Death Star. Why did he keep it implicit if the audience already knew? Weitz expresses that he understands this questioning, but wanted to include dramatic irony. I agree with this as it allows for new audiences to watch the films in chronological order without it getting spoilt or misunderstanding.
Cult Popture, Screenwriter of ROGUE ONE Discusses the Deleted Scenes and Reshoots | The Cult Popture Podcast (2019) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAvTn2uG01U&disable_polymer=1&ab_channel=CultPopture> [accessed 28 January 2021].
This source goes into detail about the reasons why the film 'All the Money in the World' was re-shot, and how the director got around this speedy recovery. The article tells us that the original cast included Kevin Spacey, however after allegations of sexual-assualt, the director, Ridney Scott, decided to remove this actor from the final cut, and cast Christopher Plummer instead. This was a last minute endeavour which meant there was convincing in order for the cast to come back during thanksgiving to reshoot. This was done very quickly over this holiday so that the released date didnt have to be changed, and the results were 'seemless' juding by this audience. I will use this information as an example of a reason why films have reshoots. I think this is a very useful source which will clear up any misinformation to my reader as this change was vital to the movies, and brands, success.
Kyle Buchanan, Ridley Scott’s Very Candid Account of How He Saved 'All the Money in the World' (2017) <https://www.vulture.com/2017/12/ridley-scott-all-the-money-in-the-world-reshoots.html> [accessed 10 February 2021].
This source includes 4 pages of storyboarding, visual planning, for Rogue One. At first sight it looks normal, however with further inspection, this source is for the Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One DLC. It has storyboards for the cut scenes in the Star Wars game. I was planning to use this visual planning until I saw this, and I shouldnt have trusted the source anyway as the website is not reptuable for giving trustworthy information. The website is for Freelancers to advertise themselves and their work. They can upload whatever information they please. Because of these reasons, I will not be using this source for my magazine essay because it is not directly relevant and will not give me any information about the real storyboarding process for the Rogue One movie.
Josh Zingerman, Storyboards -- Star Wars Battlefront: Rogue One DL (N/A) <https://www.freelancer.com/u/joshzingerman/portfolio/Storyboards-Star-Wars-Battlefront-Rogue-One-DLC-3525638?w=f&ngsw-bypass=> [accessed 3 February 2021].
This article speaks about how the actor who played Galen Erso, Mads Mikkelsen, allegedly said that there was not much of a difference with the reshoots, and that they have been exaggurated in the media. I will not being using this source as I have many other articles that tell me the opposite, interviews from the directors that tell me the opposite and there is not enough evidence or direct quotes from the actor to make me believe the title. Adding on to why this source is unreliable, Mads Mikkelsen was just an actor on the set who wouldnt have seen all the work and changes during post-preduction. There may not have been many changes for his role, but that does not mean that there were no drastic changes at all.
Daniel Gillespie, Rogue One Reshoots Didn't Change The Story Much Says Mads Mikkelsen (20221) <https://screenrant.com/rogue-one-movie-reshoots-story-effect-mads-mikkelsen/> [accessed 3 February 2021].