Removing an Unnecessary Character Element

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, one element of Kylo Ren's character is his penchant for throwing tantrums. He actually does it twice in the movie, which actually affects the movie negatively. The first time, his tantrum just gets in the way of an emergency that occurs on the Millennium Falcon. The second time, Kylo's…

Taking the Clown Out of Finn

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post concerning what I referred to as The Tragedy of FN-2187. In that post, I talk about the poor execution of the character Finn in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. In the first of my Taking the Mary Sue Out of Rey videos, I touched on…

The Importance of a Good Music Score

So, before I re-visit the character of Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I figured I’d do a quick Music Choice video to show the importance of a solid piece of music during a passionate speech. You have to admit, Hux gets kind of emotional here, and the music only helps to push that…

My First Video Trilogy Is Complete

I finally found the time to finish my third video, which is the last in the series about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I hope you enjoy it, and I welcome any and all feedback. Also, I hope you like this idea I have to offer writing and editing tips through a study and criticism…

Second Video is Up!

A little more than a month ago, I re-uploaded my first video. Now, my second video is finally up and running. You can watch it below. Remember that, as always, any and all feedback is both welcome and considered. Happy viewing! 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CeB1suWR30

Now Re-uploading Videos!

A couple of months ago, I posted my first video to YouTube and wrote a blog post about it. A couple of days ago, I re-uploaded the video after receiving some helpful feedback and doing some re-writing and re-editing. I'm actually okay with the result, so I'll finally be moving on and will record the…

Now Making Videos!

I finally did it. After far too long, I finally uploaded my first video (linked below), and it accomplishes what I’ve been vowing to do: show, not tell, how even small alterations in the editing of a scene can result in better flow, stronger energy, and improved storytelling. The reason I’ve wanted to do this…

I Think This Is About As Positive As I’ll Get With Modern-Era Star Wars

After watching Star Wars: The Phantom Menace a few times to get an idea of why some people have said the film is boring, I decided to go back and watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens, just out of curiosity as to how it compares to The Phantom Menace, seeing as how I hear some…

The Tragedy of FN-2187, Finn: How Not to Handle a Character

Now that the circle is complete on Disney’s Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, we can look back on it without hearing the classic excuse, “They’ll fix it in the next film.” There is no next film. The trilogy is finished. We got what we got, and unfortunately, what we got was a lot of good intentions…

The Fix Awakens, or, How To Respect First-Time Moments In Storytelling

Early next year, I will be taking a class called Digital Video Editing, to learn how to use Adobe Premiere, and since today is the third anniversary of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I figured it would be cool to imagine what changes I would make to the film. This is a movie that has…