-The Geonosians are not actually seen until the dark tunnel with Anakin and Padme- artistic thing.
Remember the alien in Coruscant that goes, “What the…” in a high-pitched, corny voice? I’ve replaced that voice with a recording of George Lucas himself doing that line in a falsetto.
I really like the way you are handling the dreams, and would suggest altering those in RotS to match. It seems MagnoliaFan is doing something similar in his dream, incorporating dialogue from Qui-Gon and Shmi as well. I would edit it just a bit different from you however:
Qui-Gon: It will be a hard life. One without reward. One without remorse. One with regret.
Shmi: Don't look back. Anakin...
Anakin: Mother...
(Images and sounds of Tuskens attacking (from ANH), and beat up Shmi)
Anakin: No...please, no...mom!
(Cut to the close up of Anakin awakening from his nightmare)
I'd be against intercutting Anakin squirming in bed, as it takes focus away from the dream and just look awkward. The final shot of him opening his eyes at the end would be more effective, IMO.
I now have a final cut of the nightmare, with music. Now, all I need to do is add sound effects and dialogue and I’ll be done. As I was editing this and looking at my very limited Tusken Raider footage, I started experimenting with different things (horizontal flips, color changes, reversing the footage). When it was done and synchronized with music, it was magic. The music is very well synchronized with the dream. However, the dream turned out to be a lot more brutal than what we had talked about. I think this is justified because it can be argued that this is one of the two most critical scenes in the saga (the other being the dream from Episode III). I also have not blurred this dream in the same way as in III- perhaps, as you suggested, I can modify the one in III to match this one:
(black screen)
Qui-Gon: It will be a hard life. One without reward. One without remorse. One with regret.
(fade into footage of Tusken tents with flickering fires. Fade into shot of Shmi as dialogue goes…)
Shmi: Don’t look back. Anakin…
Anakin: Mother…
(Anakin is not seen)
Tusken Raider raises his staff. Red/orange clouds in background- scary. Also, scary lighting- slight gaussian blur effect are used for Raiders. Quick fade to large closeup of Shmi- still alive but clearly in pain.
Then, using only about three short usable shots of the Tuskens from the original SW, I’ve created a sequence where two (or maybe more- we don’t know) Tuskens beat Shmi to death. We see this in surprising detail. The sequence was created with color changes, vertical flips, and quick cuts/editing tricks. There are a few frames where you can see a figure in rags that they’re beating- this is actually Luke Skywalker, but you can’t tell and assume that it’s Shmi. Shot by shot:
Tusken slams his staff down on Shmi.
Other Tusken raises his staff with both hands.
Both Tuskens have raised staffs.
One slams his staff down, then the other.
The first Tusken raises his staff in the air. (from here on, it’s pretty brutal)
One Tusken hits her, then the other one, then the first one again…
Then, by reversing and forwarding the same shot, we see a Tusken beat her, raise his staff, beat her again, raise his staff (very quickly), etc. He does this about 5 times, beating and beating her. Meanwhile, we’re crossfading this with image of dead Shmi, eyes off in the distance and mouth hanging open.
During this sequence, we have sound effects of 1. Tuskens grunting and howling 2. Shmi screaming 3. The thump of every hit as the gaffi sticks hit the body.
The Tusken finishes beating her and raises his staff up and down in triumph. Scary lighting again. This shot is slowed down by a bit. Then, we fade to a close-up of Shmi, clearly dead. Then, we crossfade this close-up of dead Shmi with a slow zoom of Anakin in bed (from the dream). Cut to a close-up of Anakin in bed (at which time crossfade of Shmi goes away) and music builds and climaxes at the transition. We’re at the next scene, with Anakin staring out through the window.
Now, THAT is what I call an incentive to turn to the dark side. I hope others agree. Many shots in this sequence were actually accomplished by taking shots from the full-screen DVD and turning them into anamorphic widescreen to get the close-ups I needed. That took a while to figure out.
But watching this with just music (no sound effects yet)- it’s really magic for me. Very, very powerful scene now. I’ll post screenshots after I’ve finalized everything.
If you're going to change Mace's blade color, blue is definitely what to make it. I'm sure you'll be a good judge of whether it looks good or not.
I agree with CC that blue would be the best color.
Sure-I can make it blue. Is the problem with green that the purple might show through, while if you use blue, it wouldn’t be a big deal?
I quite liked the "Seperatist Theme" used in AotC, very subtle, but effective. The Holst will be a neat alteration though. And I'm glad you decided against using the 2001 motif at the beginning of the duel (too recognizable).
I liked the Separatist theme as well- I’m definitely not cutting any of that. The Holst motif is just used at several dramatic points involving Dooku, when formerly the music was just an indistinct blur. By the end, when you hear those four notes, you can identify them with Doou. Similarly, in Episode III, when Palpatine says, “Count Dooku,” and we see Dooku accompanied by battle droids- the motif will go there as well. It’s important for me to tie things up musically between the films as well.
And yes, I decided against the Space Odyssey theme for the beginning of the duel. Although I liked the idea, I realized that that is way too well-known to use for this. Even so, what do you think of a small hint of the “Lawrence of Arabia” theme when Anakin and Padme come to Tatooine?
You seem to have thought through everything about Dooku being a Sith, and I do like him and Sidious' final scene. A future RotS change I think is necessary with this would be a sound clip of Christopher Lee saying something along the lines of, "Wait! You don't understand!" Then Anakin cuts his head off.
That’s a good idea-would you know where to find the audio?
About the final scene with Dooku and Sidious- Palpatine no longer addresses Dooku as Tyrannus (the reference is also cut during the talk with Jango)
I can't believe I made the short list-- Righteous!
I'm honored to be on the short list! My extreme nerditude is paying off!
Indeed! You two have consistently provided excellent feedback with this (while nearly everyone else has lost interest) and therefore it seems fitting that you should be rewarded accordingly. Of course, a disc goes to Rikter because he distributes these and puts them on the Internet for others to see.
EXT. SPACESHIP
Anakin (OS): His signal's coming from deep underground. We have no idea where he's gone. We need a plan.
INT. SPACESHIP
Padme: See those columns of steam straight ahead?
Anakin: That'll do.
This sounds good.
I don't have much enthusiasm about Padme always being a queen (although I'm sorry to differ in opinion with our comrade, Commander Courage). I agree that her being a queen makes "princess Leia" sound more sensible -- except isn't it supposed to be a secret that Padme is princess Leia's mom? That point doesn't really matter because it seems muddled in the current Saga anyway. But my objections center upon this: the theme of democracy vs. totalitarianism is the strongest, most important theme in the overall PT. Making Naboo a monarchy kind of defeats a lot of that-- which I'm against. Padme's best line in Ep III may be the one to the effect of: "So this is how freedom dies, to the sound of loud applause." Kind of an ironic statement from a born Royal. As a non-democratically chosen leader, she should be at home seeing an Emperor take over the Federation.
I had never thought of that…hmmm. The way I really wanted to do this was for Padme to be a queen from birth, and then she resigns for some reason and becomes a Senator for II and III. Maybe she resigns because she doesn’t believe in the monarchy. I’ll really have to think about how to do this.
I keep looking at the way the beasts come at Anakin/Padme/Obi Wan in the arena. I'm convinced the order they attack can be changed so Obi Wan comes last. The effect of this change maintains story momentum because it keeps the roles as they've been established: Obi Wan is the captor; Anakin and Padme are the rescuers. Having Obi Wan get attacked first chops off the connection between this scene and the ones that precede it.
That’s a very good idea- I’ll try cutting it in that order.
The real trick would be if Jar Jar could be made into a truly fun and interesting character in Episode I -- I suspect he could actually be made cool as opposed to just tolerable if his material were massaged enough.
Ha ha- every PT editor is confronted with the problem of Jar-Jar. There’s only so much you can do with a CG character that looks like he does. The problem is that I have to confront this problem now, instead of just waiting until I- because Jar-Jar is a character in this one, too.
What do you think of Jar-Jar…speaking in English with either an uneducated British accent or an Australian accent? This would make him different and in contrast with all the other Gungans. It could also possibly give him some charm and wit lacking in any of the other versions. Utilizing some of the Magnoliafan subtitles and some of the original material (and my own ideas), his new dialogue would be recorded in synch with the character’s lips (not hard, as it’s a CG character).
Jar-Jar’s greeting: Obi-Wan- so nice to see you! Nice beard you have there. And who is this lad? It can’t be…
Obi-Wan: Anakin.
Jar-Jar: Anakin- great to see you again, old boy! Senator- the Jedi are here!
You may laugh (at how different this would be from the original Jar-Jar), but this could work out very well. There’s only one problem- I can’t personally do six different voices and expect them to all come out differently. Nobody who has the technology and talent wants to help because I haven’t contributed anything yet and they don’t trust that I can do a good job yet. Look at MagnoliaFan’s thread- the “Bizzle” is offering to record dialogue for Kevin’s new edits. He goes to my thread and says, “What a waste of time.” The truth is, not too many people are interested in my edit. And they won’t be until they actually see it (at which point it’ll be too late).
Thanks- more updates soon!
Trooperman