I'll also concur with people saying it looks a little cheap. It basically looks like what has become the "average" look of Disney's Star Wars shows.
I keep trying to put my finger on what makes something look like a big budget theatrical film vs a lower budget series. I'd say it's a combination of a lot of things: lighting, sets, costumes, fight choreography, and film direction/cinematography to name a few.
Using smaller sets and/or the led volume dictates direction somewhat, which I think is why scenes are often framed (camera-wise) in an "un-theatrical" way, for lack of a better term. I think more experienced directors can get more out of a smaller budget, but Disney seems to be hiring younger directors, or less experienced at least. I'm sure it's partly because they're cheaper to hire, and Kathlern Kennedy may think hiring people with a little buzz behind them will equal success.
The Acolyte's creator and director (of the 1st two episodes at least) Leslye Headland is known for co-creating
Russian Doll (along with Natasha Lyone and Amy Poehler), which I believe was well recieved, though I never saw it myself. Seems like she hasn't had a lot of success as a director, mostly sporadic tv episodes here and there. She directed 4 eps of the aforementioned
Russian Doll, but, again, I don't have any opinion to give on that or anything else she's done as I haven't seen any of it.
Here's a quote I found on her getting the Star Wars job:
"Star Wars: The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland is currently putting the finishing touches on a four-year journey that started with Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy buying her overall series pitch in the room. At the time, her hook was "Frozen meets Kill Bill"
Eh, not exactly what I would think would be a winning pitch, or something I'd be especially interested in. But who knows. I'll probably watch it out of curiosity, and being a long time Star Wars fan, but I'm not particularly excited to see it. She also mentions working with and being a fan of Rian Johnson, so I don't know if that helped her get the gig - it probably won't help her with a lot of
Star Wars fans (though I'm in the minority as I actually liked
The Last Jedi and thought it was the best film of the new trilogy).
There's a lot of burnout with Star Wars and Marvel right now, which Disney has acknowledged, so this series might be on the tail end of an era of Disney's over-saturation of the market. I'd much rather they took more time with these projects and produced fewer of them, hopefully with higher budgets, longer production time and more established creative teams than trying to push out as much content that they assume people want.
Rest of the article here:
The writer-producer says the series, set 100 years before 'The Phantom Menace' will have a 'Rashomon'-like quality to its storytelling.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
