Noted, thanks djonesed and CMMAP. I’ll think further on these. What a tricky episode!
- Instead of opening with Republic ships taking fire, open with the speeder bikes. Your opening crawl already said that the Republic fleet had been forced to retreat to a medical station. If you want an establishing shot, maybe use one that only shows the Separatist ships in orbit?
This point raises some thoughts that are worth discussion.
Obviously a common rule of storytelling is ‘show, don’t tell’, and it’s one that Star Wars famously breaks with its opening crawls. In my edit, for reasons I’ve gone into extensively elsewhere, I need to rely on opening text for a lot of reasons, so I also have to break that rule - at least in a way that this franchise uniquely permits.
…But do we think that was unnecessary? …but do you think this was redundant? Showing the blockade above the planet would certainly follow naturally (if that footage exists), but would it be an improvement on showing the retreat so we can “feel” it more than just being told it happened?
I’m also interested in thoughts on the general case, here.
I can see your point about the establishing shot and agree with your intention (even if i like a opening shot with the speeder bikes) and i do think showing the retreat rather than only telling us is vital.