Thanks everyone for the quick feedback! Keep them coming if you can!
For #2, the Palpatine hood, I’m wondering if it would be best to just have the audio Sith Whispers, and skip the visual Palpatine reference. It would be very difficult to make the shadows start as Palpatine and then split into the two figures we see. I also think it would be confusing for a single hooded figure to emerge after Rey asks to see her parents, which splits into two, and then merges back into one. The way I looked at it with what I have currently is that the hood could be Palpatine himself or Rey in a Palpatine cloak (as she appears in TROS), and the idea is just to tease the imagery. However, if it doesn’t feel right, I would consider abandoning the visual reference entirely.
For #4, I think I may proceed with a hybrid of A and B, with the goal of shortening the message (removing “it is your destiny” and the laugh), making it vague as to whether it actually is the radio, and removing as many duplicate shots as possible. It may a case of having your cake and eating it too, but I’d like to have both the Kylo/Rey moment and the brief radio tease!
AbramPT said:
Kylo looks in the wrong direction when he goes to look at the computer screen.
Thanks for calling this out, because I didn’t mention this before! I added radios to the other side of the room, which you can see in the early wide shot when Kylo-Ren crouches down. The closeups of the radio are flopped from an earlier scene (“They’ve heard us, but no one’s coming”). I’m not sure if I need to call more attention to it, but I did try to edit it so that Kylo’s sightline makes sense.