Pre-Production: Writer/Director J.J. Abrams

Mystery

Abrams credits his interest in using mystery in his work to a mystery box he bought in a magic store which he has never opened, because of the infinite possibilities and potential it symbolises to him – thus, he sees stories as mystery boxes (The Mystery Box | JJ Abrams, 2008). Abrams uses mystery in several different ways: to keep the audience engaged (Campbell, 2016), to withhold information (The Mystery Box | JJ Abrams, 2008), and to create an experience for viewers as they are propelled to the work’s ending, with the story being allowed to unfold on its own terms (Abrams, 2009).
To keep audiences engaged, Abrams suggests opening with an element which is unknown to the audience, so that they question it, building on this by answering this question or creating more questions, encouraging them to keep watching to find out more (Campbell, 2016).
He frequently does this when introducing characters, such as Sydney, the main character in Alias. The first time the audience see Sydney, she is being held underwater (the red emphasising the danger she is in), in an unknown location (see fig. 1 & 2), with the only dialogue heard being in other languages without subtitles. This then cuts to Sydney taking an exam at college (see fig. 3), this contrast creating the questions of who she is and why she seems to lead a double life in this way.

However, Abrams has also stated that this can be done by withholding information from the audience by not allowing them to hear or see something – this can help sustain interest in the narrative by creating “mystery in terms of imagination”, encouraging viewers to speculate on the possibilities of what isn’t visible/audible to them by coming up with their own ideas (The Mystery Box | JJ Abrams, 2008).
Abrams also creates an experience for viewers by using mystery to build to the film or show’s ending, believing that “there’s discovery to be made and wonder to be had on the journey that not only enrich the ending but in many ways define it” (Abrams, 2009).

For example, over the course of Alias, the number 47 was used as a hint to point towards the work and prophecies of philosopher Milo Rambaldi (Abrams, 2009) – (see fig. 4), building to the show’s ending when Rambaldi’s final prophecy was revealed, the result of all these clues, defining the fate of the show’s characters.
Thus, Abram sees mystery, like spectacle, as needing to be grounded in character, since often there is what an audience believe the story tells, and what the story is actually trying to convey – Abrams uses the example of ET (1982) seemingly being about a kid who befriends an alien, despite really dealing with divorce, a divided family, and a child who has lost his way (The Mystery Box | JJ Abrams, 2008). For this reason, to Abrams, what is really essential about mystery is how it encourages the audience to invest in the character(s) (The Mystery Box | JJ Abrams, 2008), by causing them to “stop and consider – or, at the very least, slow down and discover” (Abrams, 2009).

Writing Film vs TV

Abrams believes audiences should do this when watching both TV shows and films, despite the differences between the two (Abrams, 2009). Since TV series evolve over many episodes, they are free to explore possibilities not related to the main story, although, many of these possibilities need to be set up or at least hinted at in a show’s pilot to be feasible, making the focus of the pilot to deliver a promise on what could come next – this makes the ending of the pilot especially important, since it hints at what could happen over the course of the rest of the show (J.J. Abrams: On Filmmaking, 2013).
For example, at the end of the Alias pilot, Abrams sets up the rest of the series by having Sydney take her first phone call – as a double agent for the CIA. This sets up the possibilities of missions to come in later episodes.
In contrast, according to Abrams, “films, by their nature, require a more kind of disciplined story telling where there’s less opportunity for smaller, sort of nuanced scenes that might not be serving the main story” – yet, despite this meaning there is less room for infinite possibility, Abrams still favours film over TV (J.J. Abrams: On Filmmaking, 2013).
This is because he likes boundaries when working, since, sometimes they can help the creative process – Abrams found this when developing Lost, as he was asked by ABC chairman, Lloyd Braun, to make a show about survivors of a plane crash, allowing Abrams to come up with weird ideas because the brief was specific, making the show more original by opening up more possibilities (Dadich, 2015).

Possibilities & technology

Collaboration

Nevertheless, Abrams put some logistics for The Force Awakens in place during pre-production by deciding to involve the production designer in the writing, so that designs could be created from ideas formulated during story meetings – these helped visualise the ideas, and led to concepts such as wanting to show through visuals that events which the audience do not see had happened in the gap between the movies, such as by C-3PO having a red arm, and the Millennium Falcon’s antenna having changed from circular to rectangular (Dadich, 2015). Abrams thought the involvement of the production designer in this way was important since every decision he made for The Force Awakens had to fit the Star Wars universe (Dadich, 2015).
For this reason, one of the first discussions Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, had was about using real locations, and as many practical effects, such as costumes and puppets for the creatures and pyrotechnics for explosions, as possible (Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Behind the Scenes In Abu Dhabi, 2015) – (see fig. 8 & 9).

However, Abrams believes that “there’s no difference doing a big Star Wars film as there is doing a dramatic scene in a TV series – it’s all going to be about who the characters are and what they’re wrestling with” – yet, due to the scope of The Rise of Skywalker, Abrams found he had to focus on the emotional intimacy of the story whilst also dealing with many logistical challenges, giving him a new appreciation for every department working on the film, as so many pieces had to be brought together to achieve the sequences (‘Star Wars’ Director JJ Abrams on Using Less CGI and Focusing on Story over Spectacle, 2019).

Fig. 10  Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Behind the Scenes In Abu Dhabi (2015)

For example, when filming The Force Awakens in Abu Dhabi, Abrams and the crew built a large set in the desert (see fig. 10), so that, as Abrams has stated, “it just felt like we were in this world” – however, it took a lot of people and technology to enable this to be possible, with even the country’s military providing trucks and helicopter support (Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Behind the Scenes In Abu Dhabi, 2015).
For The Rise of Skywalker, Abrams has done similar, but on a larger scale, since some of the film’s sequences required filming on location in a desert valley in Jordan, where it’s so remote, the cast and crew were the only inhabitants, having to create new roads, and set up a new settlement of tents in the  sand so that they had shelter when sandstorms hit (Grossman, 2019). Despite these logistical challenges, the imperfections which come from them are why Abrams and Kennedy – following on from George Lucas in the original trilogy – intended to film on location as much as possible (Grossman, 2019).
Although Abrams still used some green screens whilst in the desert, it was necessary to do this on location, since he felt that “the way that the sand interacts with the light, and the type of shots you would set up – if you were designing the shot on a computer you would never even think to do that” (Grossman, 2019). Thus, this combination of using green screen effects and being in a practical location allows the special effects to be grounded by the authenticity of the location, making it seem more realistic for the audience (Grossman, 2019).
This sense of realism is important to Abrams, shown through his signature of using lens flares. A lens flare happens when bright light is picked up by the camera lens and is thus reflected, scattering to produce an effect which either looks like haze, or starburst shaped marks within the frame (Masterclass, 2019).
Although evident throughout much of his work, Abrams most notably used lens flares in Star Trek, intending to create “a visual system that felt unique” to the movie, because of the futuristic setting, which Abrams thought would be more brightly lit than the present (Woerner, 2009). Abrams had these lens flares created on set, not added in post-production, by the director of photography using mirrors when filming outside, and a torch inside, as the bright light source which would be reflected off the lens – this is because Abrams’ main aim for using lens flares was to add some realism to the film, which required a lot of CGI and green screens, by giving each scene this element of light which was unpredictable and therefore seemed more natural than the visual effects (Woerner, 2009).
Thus, during scenes in Star Trek each lens flare occurs for seconds, before disappearing (see fig. 11 & 12).

Yet, budget is also a logistic a director has to keep in mind when filming on location, as Abrams did on Super 8 when shooting in West Virginia since he began to realise that production was going to exceed the budget – from this Abrams suggests that once the director knows a scene may need to exceed the budget to work, they should then think ahead to the next scenes which need to be filmed, considering what they can do later to save budget and make up for exceeding it (J.J. Abrams: On Filmmaking, 2013).

However, despite this focus on realism, Abram also likes spectacle, shown by the action sequences frequently in his work – yet, Abrams has said that, “what’s important to me is that the characters are at the centre, that emotionally you know where you are, and you’re tracking characters that are taking you though those spectacular moments” (J.J. Abrams: On Filmmaking, 2013).

For this reason, Abrams uses a lot of camera movement within these sequences, so the audience can literally follow the characters and stay with them even during the chaos of the action. This can be seen in The Force Awakens when Rey and Finn use the Millennium Falcon to escape Jakku. During the sequence Abrams follows the ship’s movement, giving the audience a point of identification among the chaos and showing the struggles the characters face as they dodge obstacles. Tracking the ship in this way often causes upside down shots – another element Abrams frequently uses (see fig. 13 & 14).

This identification is backed up by shots inside the ship which show the characters’ reactions in close-up – with these often shaking to show the ship’s movement – shots which position viewers behind the characters, as if they are in the ship with them, and point of view shots to place viewers in the characters’ places (see fig. 15, 16, 17 & 18).
Using these types of shots is what helps Abrams achieve a balance between focusing on character and the spectacle of the action sequences and/or special effects used (J.J. Abrams: On Filmmaking, 2013).
Yet, because of his focus on emotion, some of Abrams’ favourite scenes are sometimes when the characters are simply talking – his favourite film is The Philadelphia Story, which was adapted from a play – since this provides opportunities for them to confront each other, or make revelations (‘Star Wars’ Director JJ Abrams on Using Less CGI and Focusing on Story over Spectacle, 2019).
Abrams uses a scene like this in Super 8, during which Alice reveals to Joe that she feels it was her father’s fault for his mother’s death. Abrams chooses to frame this scene by tracking over to and pushing in slowly on Alice as she makes this revelation, going from a two shot to eventually cutting Joe out the frame (see fig. 19 & 20). This framing forces the audience to focus on the emotions of the characters and thus the actors’ performances, which is the element of film Abrams believes can convey the most emotion (‘Star Wars’ Director JJ Abrams on Using Less CGI and Focusing on Story over Spectacle, 2019).

Casting

Thus, it can be seen that casting is an important part of the pre-production process for directors, especially for Abrams when casting The Force Awakens, since the actors were going to play the characters for three movies (Dadich, 2015).
Abrams and the casting directors found casting Rey was one of the biggest challenges, since they wanted to cast an unknown actor, yet needed them to be able to be “vulnerable and tough, sweet and terrified” (Casting Rey | The Force Awakens Bonus Features, 2016).
For this reason, during auditions Abrams had actor Daisy Ridley read the scene where Rey is tortured by Kylo Ren, since this would show if she could perform what was needed for the character – to do this, Abrams had her read the scene once, finding she could perform what was needed, stopped her to give her some adjustments, before asking her to read the scene again (Casting Rey | The Force Awakens Bonus Features, 2016). Doing this within the casting process can help not only determine if the actor can perform what is needed for the character, but also how well they take direction.

Therefore, it can be seen that J.J. Abrams’ writing is based upon mystery to keep the audience engaged, with Abrams relying on collaborators to help him solve story problems and set up logistics in pre-production. This affects his directing style as he frequently works with his collaborators to improve the film even if this means a story idea changes lines, or even entire plot points during production.
Yet, mystery carries through to Abrams’ directing style by how he uses camera movement to focus the audience, typically on character, since, although his films often involve the spectacle of action sequences and special effects, Abrams likes to ground this in character and focus on emotion to make the experience of the film more realistic for the audience – backed up by using practical effects and lens flares to make the film’s world more believable.

Influence

Writing

List of Illustrations

References