General Star Wars Random Thoughts Thread — Page 422

SilverWook said:

Baobab Archiver might know more details? He’s working on a Knight Rider music restoration.
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Knight-Rider-restoration/id/55803

I was such an avid KN watcher back then, I can’t believe I never spotted that! At least the prop guy took time to customize it a bit. And cover up the manufacturer/copyright information, even though that would have been hard to see on analog tv back then. Coincidentally, Kenner had the KN toyline.

I wonder if using a Kenner toy made it less risky, despite being a different franchise? Then again, as you said, it’d be hard to notice back then.

I’m still curious about what the gun actually did? I can’t remember there being futuristic guns in the episodes that I’ve seen, so I guess it must have played a relatively important part in the episode.

I wonder if anyone brought up Starcrash to David Hasselhoff while shooting that episode of Knight Rider 😃…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcnApjSvqkI

SilverWook said:

Sadly, they used an SE shot from Star Wars. 😕

I expect better from TCM.

rodneyfaile said:

Did anyone get the new Star Wars Archives book? It looks massive!

Look here.

The Cinematography of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”
http://billsfilms.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-cinematography-of-empire-strikes.html

I recommend reading it.

paja said:

The Cinematography of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”
http://billsfilms.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-cinematography-of-empire-strikes.html

I recommend reading it.

That is a good read and true. I remember vividly Angel talking about how poorly ROTJ was framed on this forum while he tried to make the shots more interesting and un-centered.

paja said:

The Cinematography of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”
http://billsfilms.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-cinematography-of-empire-strikes.html

I recommend reading it.

What Lexx said, an intriguing read that - nice one 😃

paja said:

The Cinematography of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”
http://billsfilms.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-cinematography-of-empire-strikes.html

I can’t say that I agree with every comparison made in the article, he ignored the context of the individual scenes a few times, and I personally think the Palpatine scenes in ROTJ are pretty well shot over all. However, he does make some great points overall, and ESB is definitely a more dynamic and interestingly shot film than both ANH, and especially ROTJ. Though much of that I think simply boils down to the script being better and more exciting than ROTJ.

All in all, I feel that ROTJ is kind of a mixed bag, though it never reaches ESB quality levels, it has several really good and solid moments, but then suddenly you get some really bland and boring moments like the Luke/Leia scene in the tree-village.

ROTJ is the film that I know the least about in therm of what happened behind the scenes, but Marquand’s abilities as a directors seems to dip in and out of of being either somewhat lazy or quite competent depending on the scenes. My guess is that he was just too unfamiliar with working on a film with such a big budget, as I’ve seen similar inconsistent cinematography from other blockbuster films made by directors that previously had only done smaller films.

the worms eye view of Vader in ROTJ when he is on the Executor being asked by Admiral Piett if he should hold the shuttle Tydyrium for using an older code is a shot with good framing that comes to mind for me .It is at 3:34 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjkHt3Iw8gk

screams in the void said:

the worms eye view of Vader in ROTJ when he is on the Executor being asked by Admiral Piett if he should hold the shuttle Tydyrium for using an older code is a shot with good framing that comes to mind for me .It is at 3:34 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjkHt3Iw8gk

^ Lighting might not be as dramatic as ESB, but the framing and editing is pretty good overall in that scene. Vader and Piett’s eye-lines are a little bit weird, but it works dramatically and in the context of the scene, especially since Vader’s also in a sense “seeing” Luke.

Although the article gives plenty of good examples, I actually prefer the ROTJ shot in the first comparison with the two Vader shots. Sure, the lighting is a bit better in the ESB shot, but the shot of Vader talking to Jerjerrod is much more dramatic, and the rouned reflections in Vader’s “eyes” in the ESB shot are kind weird. Almost makes him look surprised.

The Hoth/Endor comparisons is also kind of weird, as the Hoth shot is part of a larger action scene, and the ROTJ shot has them simply spying on the Imperial bunker. The ESB shot is more dramatic, yes, but it’s a completely different kind of scene…

I thing the Leia briefing scene on Hoth is a good example on how ESB is generally better. And the Luke/Leia conversation on Endor is a good example of one of ROTJ’s many dull moments/shots. Most of the other examples (with a few exceptions) I think mostly just shows how ESB had better lighting.

ESB in good Ol. Black & White 😃

^ interesting video ! I wonder if they talked about the symbol in the Art Of The Force Awakens coffee table book . I wish I had picked that up but it was very expensive .

^ great videos , great channel and looking at the current hit counter on there , 1.6k people were really butthurt 😃