The Prequel Radical Redux Ideas Thread — Page 313

It’s not. They’re a scrappy rebellion, not a government-funded security force.

That’s why I personally think something as simple as making the display screens more rudimentary, really retro like all the targeting computers in ANH, it would really make the two trilogies feel more like they’re in the same universe. Like, sure, the Naboo starfighter is really different, but retro displays could help make it look more familiar.

If you look at the displays of like the Naboo starfighter, or the pod-racer or whatever, it is in the vein of the old displays, the style is similar, but they’re too detailed. Too clean. They could be made to look a lot more basic, like all the targeting computer displays in ANH were really really simple.

The prequel ship body’s can still look nice, but the software should match the original trilogy. And you could make the argument about how they’re in the golden age or whatever, but if you look at the OT, even Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced had really retro software, and if anyone would have the best UI it would be him. So in my opinion, that is as good as it gets in this time period.

I know people probably want me to shut up about this, but I think this would be a realistic change that would make a difference toward the feel of the prequels, to make them still different, but also familiar.

I absolutely agree with you on that.

Exactly! You would just be creating new motion graphics and then throwing them on top of what’s already there. I think that would go a long way to making even Padmé’s sleek Naboo ships feeling more at home in the Star Wars universe.

It’s kinda like how a lot of US federal offices to this day use outdated operating systems like Windows 95. The Star Wars galaxy is like that, plus 1000 years.

What I would like to have would be like an imgur album of pictures or gifs for every shot in the prequels of any screens or displays. Basically anywhere where the tech/software could potentially be “retrofied”, and then make a separate OT album to use as reference. Then we could make a vfx shotlist that we could work through over time. I don’t think every display has to be changed, but a lot of them could be.

A big problem the prequels have aesthetically is the ‘cleanliness’ of environments. Temples that have existed for thousands of years feel like they have a cleaning crew of millions just to keep everything looking squeaky clean. A big part of the charm of Star Wars is the grimy, lived-in feel.

Here’s an attempt to add texture to the boring temple:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/YGD7NNNX

RogueLeader said:

It’s kinda like how a lot of US federal offices to this day use outdated operating systems like Windows 95. The Star Wars galaxy is like that, plus 1000 years.

Domino’s Pizza still has either that or Vista. Or 98.

I always felt the Jedi Temple, especially the Council Chambers, should have greenery and vines on the walls.

Anakin Starkiller said:

RogueLeader said:

It’s kinda like how a lot of US federal offices to this day use outdated operating systems like Windows 95. The Star Wars galaxy is like that, plus 1000 years.

Domino’s Pizza still has either that or Vista. Or 98.

So do most schools and colleges.

TK42-WAN said:

I always felt the Jedi Temple, especially the Council Chambers, should have greenery and vines on the walls.

Yes! Making the Jedi Temple more organic is a great idea.

A clip of my previous idea:

https://streamable.com/28squ

Agreed. While obviously Adywan has shown off his incredible skill, if anything his projects are a testament to the growing democratization of filmmaking. If a man in his garage can do all of that, then others can do it as well.

That’s cool snooker! It definitely kind of alleviates an issue with a lot of scenes feeling a bit flat. I know this is like a first pass trough, but it might hard to do a lot of since you have to rotoscope around the actors for a new skyline, and it could be hard to do seamlessly. But I think that works if that is the pace of the scene for your edit! Were you planning do this for other scenes in the movies as well?

Some idea for the retro graphics overhaul. While obviously we could just replace existing ship graphics with simplify/dumb down versions of them, or change some fighter cockpit graphics to match X-Wing and TIE Fighter graphics (I would say Jedi Starfighter graphics should be more like TIEs, and it looks like Anakin’s sort of is in ROTS, just more polished), I had some other ideas too.

In TPM, when Obi-Wan pulls up Tatooine on the Nubian ship display screen, it should look more like how planets look on the big Death Star viewscreen. Either the big planet graphic or the graphic of Yavin and Yavin IV coming around it. In TPM, it looks like we can see Tatooine’s actual surface, and it looks 3D.

I think this one would be harder to do, it would require some masking, but there are a few instances in AOTC and ROTS where the war room is centered around the table with a holographic view of the battle they’re watching (Geonosis war room, Jedi war room on Coruscant, Mustafar war room). I think it would be cool if that could be replaced with a flat display screen that it more reminiscent to the war room display screen on Yavin IV, where you have the flat, 2D Death Star making its approach around Yavin. Maybe we could just have multiple arrows or triangles facing each other on the display screens to represent units on the battlefield (maybe in formations). Like I said, it would require a bit of masking since gunship holograms occasionally fly in front of characters, or people walk in front of the table. But I think that would end up looking pretty cool if it could be done.

I know Snooker (I think it was Snooker?) replaced the AOTC Death Star cameo with the ANH version where the dish is at the equator awhile back. That’s is the exact thing I’m talking about!

And maybe we could replace some screens with just images of rows buttons or blinking lights if we felt there were too many screens in certain shots. A lot of options. And that way we wouldn’t have to animate as many graphics either.

I also remember a past user Aalenfae had replace the hologram of the Invisible Hand from ROTS with a screen that showed the ship’s map similar to the Death Star map R2 pulled up during Leia’s rescue in ANH.

Which reminds me, one scene where this idea would be a pain is the control room on the Invisible Hand, with probably like dozen different green touch screens. Not sure what the approach (if there is one) for that would be.

Here’s a quick album of ‘technology’ images from the OT/Rogue One

https://imgur.com/a/3TSF4Qr

Some things to note:

In Rogue One and ANH, holograms seem to be at a lower frame-rate than the surrounding footage.

Whenever screens ‘switch’ from one display to another, there’s some VHS-looking static.

Did you put that together or find that album? Either way, thank you for sharing it!

Here’s one for the prequels:

https://imgur.com/a/Rn5Dwcu

I made them! 😃

Wow, those are perfect. Thanks for the effort, Snooker!

Could you possibly add the X-Wing and TIE Fighter targeting computers to the OT Album sometime when you have the chance? As well as the X-Wing screen when it is showing R2’s dialogue typed out on the screen in ESB when Luke leaves Hoth to go to Dagobah? There is a similar moment in TPM when R2 is talking to Anakin through the N1 Fighter screen, that’s why I ask.

And since you added Rogue One to the OT album, you probably could add bits of Solo at some point to it as well, since the Falcon navicomputer has some pretty old school graphics, as well as the screen showing the Falcon’s trajectory as they’re getting in position for their jump.

Anyway, no rush on those! Just some extra ideas. These albums will be super useful for reference and discussion!

I think the difference in exterior ship design is ok. The Naboo royal ship is a yacht for the queen of a pretty wealthy planet, so of course it’s going to look flashy. And the Naboo fighters are probably not that great on a tech level, because they’re part of a planetary defense force. So they didn’t see much action. likely they mainly exist to be shown off, so they were made to look sleek and futuristic.
In the OT, you have a faction that’s basically keeping its old ships together with duct tape fighting a faction that employs very utilitarian and brutalist aesthetics for their ships. So there’s no room for sleek designs. I still think internal stuff like the Separatist ships having touch screens is dumb though.

Making some things sleeker is one thing, making it look like it came from a different universe/franchise is another. Naboo gets more leeway but the Republic in general should not look as different as it does from the Empire, aesthetically speaking. We are not talking about that big a time jump, and the idea that this is the heyday of the Republic is deeply misguided - this is the downfall of the Republic. The series’s iconic approach (used universe) would not have been out of line for the PT at all.

The other big thing too, it’s not just ship design and architecture, it’s the costumes. Again it makes sense that we’re seeing fancy outfits that we haven’t seen before, but there’s ultimately little continuity in costume design on the whole. Unfortunately that is not as easily fixed in an edit.

I think it would be cool if that could be replaced with a flat display screen that it more reminiscent to the war room display screen on Yavin IV, where you have the flat, 2D Death Star making its approach around Yavin.

I prefer the opposite approach Adywan took making the Death Star in ANH 3D.

Looking at these albums I notice a few things. The OT doesn’t have many curves, and those that are there are perfect circles. Next, the color palette in the OT is usually one color per screen. The screens themselves also tend to have black backgrounds compared to the colored ones of the PT. Like I said before, everything in the OT is line based, but the PT uses more than that. There’s also a prominence of the “astromech plug” shape for some reason.

Something I rendered a while back but never uploaded:

https://streamable.com/g8kgm

There’s some weird slowdown stuff happening with it, ignore it.

Quick trims and neat scene transitions are everywhere to hurry this damn movie up. There’s a lot of little ideas you might notice. (Yoda doesn’t speak, for instance. When I was editing this I was toying around with removing him from the movie.)

If I were to edit this again, I’d put the Palpatine conference scene after the council scene, before transitioning back to Padme’s apartment.