Director for "Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens" J.J. Abrams let a few details slip about filming the movie, revealing that there's a good balance between using CG effects and using traditional techniques on the film's set - including the cross-guard lightsaber everybody is talking about.
"I feel like the beauty of this age of filmmaking is that there are more tools at your disposal, but it doesn't mean that any of these new tools are automatically the right tools. And there are a lot of situations where we went very much old school and in fact used CG more to remove things than to add things," said Abrams in a report from Empire Magazine.
"There are obviously an enormous amount of CG effects in the film, and I can't wait for you to see the combination."
He adds, "But it was very important that we build as many sets as we could and that the film have a tangible, sort of authentic quality that you believed that these things were actually happening in a real space with real sunlight, if it was an exterior scene, or if we could build a big portion of a scene and not have anything be blue screen, do it where we could. It was a very important piece of work."
He'll have to answer a few more queries regarding the movie as it nears its December release this year. Here's one about that much discussed cross-guarded lightsaber shown in the trailer.
"I will say that what's been funny is, since the lightsaber's come out, I cannot tell you how many contradictory emails I have received from people who have both defended it with unbelievably detailed graphics...I've gotten things that are nuts, and I've gotten people who've shown how it'll kill you and how it doesn't make any sense. It's been the funniest thing to see the arguments that have developed over this thing," Abrams said in an exclusive with Collider.
"Star Wars Episode 7" stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hammill and Carrie Fisher reprising their iconic roles and will introduce new cast members Oscar Isaac, Adam Davis, Gwendoline Christie, Lupita Nyong'O, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.
"The Force Awakens" in theaters on Dec. 18.
