Chapter 900: Just Because I Took One More Look at You in the Crowd

To help Chinese audiences understand the American obsession with Star Wars, there was another good approach: shifting perspectives. Someone once said that Harry Potter was the Star Wars of the current era. If Chinese audiences could grasp the obsession with Harry Potter, they could somewhat understand the devotion to Star Wars.

Whether Harry Potter or Star Wars, both franchises created a world capable of growing on its own.

When George Lucas released Star Wars: A New Hope, he specifically added an opening crawl to tell the audience that the upcoming story was just a small ripple against a much larger backdrop. Star Wars recounted only a brief moment in the Galactic Republic's long history. He also embedded information into the dialogue, hinting at events that had occurred in this universe but were never shown on screen.

This "tip of the iceberg" approach was widely used in artworks seeking to create a complete world. In The Lord of the Rings, for instance, Middle-earth had existed for many, many years long before Frodo Baggins encountered the One Ring. Countless epic figures and events had already made their mark, yet the audience only saw Frodo's part of the story.

Star Wars was the same. The Galactic Republic had long existed, and the Death Star was not just beginning construction. Everything the audience saw on screen was merely a corner of this massive world and a drop in the river of time.

This open-ended framework had a distinct advantage: it maximized the audience's imagination, allowing them to freely envision and automatically fill in the rest of the iceberg beneath the surface. Drawn into this fictional world, people would constantly discuss, debate, and share, as if they truly lived in it.

This was how Star Wars fan culture formed. It was also likely the earliest gathering place for fan-fiction culture.

Since Star Wars premiered in 1977, it had sparked the creative inspiration of countless people, giving birth to numerous fan novels, comics, games, and videos. These works, in turn, nourished Star Wars, constantly supplying it with fresh blood and allowing its universe to continuously enrich, grow, and expand. This unspoken collaboration between creators and audience established a continuous virtuous cycle. Ultimately, it snowballed, expanding the franchise's influence further and further.

To global fans, Star Wars was far more than just a few movies; it was a way of life. Through roleplay, fashion and art creation, technological research and development, and endless academic discussions about The Force... fans kept the vitality of Star Wars alive in different ways, adding to the legend's cultural significance.

This was exactly what the promotional campaign for Star Wars: The Force Awakens could best utilize.

Entering May, as Star Wars Day and the start of filming for Star Wars: The Force Awakens drew closer, a series of cultural promotional activities appeared globally.

The tenth Star Wars Celebration kicked off in San Francisco. A total of over 150,000 people from all over the world gathered near Lucasfilm to participate in the grand event.

On this day, Star Wars elements were omnipresent at the Lucasfilm headquarters. The entrance featured a three-dimensional statue of Master Yoda, while the figures of Stormtroopers and Darth Vader populated every floor and corner of the company.

Even Lucasfilm employees put on various Star Wars costumes, appearing before the media cameras alongside the fans.

One major hiring standard at Lucasfilm was the requirement that employees be die-hard fans of Star Wars. Lucasfilm had dedicated staff researching Star Wars lore to compile the Star Wars Encyclopedia and build the franchise database. They also had their own fan relations department, which spared no effort in educating fans on Star Wars knowledge.

Through these methods, Lucasfilm connected Star Wars fans all over the world.

The Star Wars audience had already become a unique phenomenon.

According to statistics, the franchise had accumulated over 300 million die-hard fans. These fans enjoyed everything related to Star Wars, even incorporating its elements into their weddings.

In May, Warner's media outlets heavily reported on the wedding of a pair of Star Wars fans.

"Members of the Galactic Empire, Duncan and Sammy, met a long time ago in a place far, far away. The Force between them is unbreakable."

These were the vows of a newlywed Star Wars fan couple at their wedding ceremony, calling themselves "members of the Galactic Empire."

When these fans had children, they would buy them Star Wars toys and watch the movies with them, passing their obsession on to the next generation.

On May 4th, Star Wars Day finally arrived.

Just how popular was Star Wars Day? One only needed to look at the displays from fans around the world to be astounded.

In Australia, a Star Wars-themed rugby match drew cheers from countless fans. In Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, six-kilometer Star Wars runs were held. The Colosseum in Rome, Italy, was also "occupied" by Star Wars fans. And these were merely a fraction of the global celebrations.

Celebrities such as Simon Pegg, Charlize Theron, and Robbie Williams also participated in fun photo events, wishing fans around the world a Happy Star Wars Day.

The scope of the Star Wars Day celebrations even extended beyond Earth!

NASA specifically released a roughly one-minute video titled R2-D2 Saves the International Space Station.

In the video, R2-D2, the reliable companion of the film series' protagonists, once again became the character to turn the tide. In fact, the video was named exactly that: R2-D2 Saves the International Space Station.

The story went like this: the astronauts on the International Space Station wanted to send their blessings and greetings to Star Wars fans on Earth on Star Wars Day. However, the Galactic Empire conspired to sabotage the transmission of this wonderful wish. Thus, the courageous and resourceful R2-D2 took up the mantle once again. Arriving in space, R2-D2 repaired the space station's communication system at the critical moment, allowing the blessing to successfully reach Earth—"May the Force be with you."

Meanwhile, Duke, who had begun a busy filming schedule at Warner Studios, also released a video through his official Instant Sharing account.

In this brief video greeting, Duke stated that although he really wanted to celebrate the holiday alongside other fans, he had to get to work filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the soundstage.

At the end of the video, Duke also issued a casting call from the crew, recruiting extras from among all Star Wars fans.

The recruitment criteria for these extras were quite unique. Anyone over the age of sixteen with an "unforgettable face, bizarre appearance, unusual bone structure, or exotic charm" was an ideal candidate.

This sparked immense enthusiasm among the fans.

Duke and Lucasfilm certainly wouldn't miss the Chinese market, which occupied "half the realm" of the global box office. On Star Wars Day, Stormtroopers had already "captured" the Great Wall. The tops of four beacon towers sequentially lit up with four massive characters spelling out "The Force Awakens," letting everyone in the world know that this stretch of the Great Wall had been claimed by Star Wars.

The outside activities didn't affect Duke in the slightest. After several months of intense preparation, Star Wars: The Force Awakens started filming on schedule on the Warner Studios soundstage.

The massive soundstage was exceptionally quiet, filled only with the hum of operating machinery. Duke stood behind the director's monitors, earnestly watching every set on the stage. The very first shot to be filmed didn't feature any real actors; the only thing in front of the camera lens was the two-sphered form of BB-8 rolling around.

While John Schwartzman recorded all of this with the camera, a still photographer was also shooting stills of BB-8, which would be the very first promotional still released for the film.

The reason for this was simple: BB-8 was not only one of the most important future merchandising profit points for the film, but also a crucial component of their current promotional plan.

Starting tomorrow, the crew would release a concept trailer. After the trailer dropped, Instant Sharing would launch three custom Star Wars emojis—C3PO, R2D2, and BB-8. They wouldn't appear in the regular emoji bar; they would only pop up after a user typed out specific hashtag symbols.

Nowadays, cute pet marketing was not uncommon, but what Duke formulated was cute robot marketing. BB-8 was a new addition to the film. Those who hadn't kept up with the movie's updates would suddenly get curious: just who was this adorable little thing? It was simply too cute, capable of pushing the movie to the trending list at any given minute.

To deeply root BB-8's adorable image in people's hearts, the first batch of released stills was of vital importance.

But after Duke yelled cut, the pictures of BB-8 taken by the still photographer failed to satisfy him.

To meet the crew's filming needs, Duke had specially designed the scene BB-8 had just shot. This spherical robot was acting just like a human; upon encountering danger, it hid behind the spaceship's cargo containers and quietly peeked out half of its head and the single eye atop it...

Lucasfilm's professional marketers had even specially paired a promotional slogan for this scene: "Just because I took one more look at you in the crowd."

However, in the still photographer's pictures, BB-8 looked more like a stiff, cold robot, utterly lacking any of the traits of an adorable pet.

"Jack, tell me..."

He called over the still photographer, who had recently joined the crew.

"Did you have a specific idea in mind?" Duke asked directly.

The still photographer showed no sign of self-reflection.

Instead, he said with a beaming face, "I think I did a good job. I captured a highly creative piece of work."

"Creative?" Duke frowned.

This still photographer, introduced by Sofia Coppola, clearly couldn't grasp the difference between independent films and commercial blockbusters. Duke couldn't be bothered to waste any more breath on a person like this.

"Alright, your work ends here," he said directly. "You don't need to come in tomorrow."

The film was hitting theaters at the end of the year, and the shooting schedule was extremely tight. Duke didn't have the energy to groom a still photographer whose self-proclaimed mission was creativity into someone who met commercial needs. He simply fired him.