Thanks for your suggestions, Sluggo
Allrighty, Here's my 2¢ about the Ghost of Gui-Gon Jinn. (Thanks character map!)
1. The body of Qui-Gon can not dissappear. As it has been mentioned, this would create more problems than it would fix. In addition, Yoda and Obi-wan pretty much evaporated soon as they were dead. If this is the norm, then he would have to dissappear in Obi-wan's arms in the reactor room. Otherwise, he'd still be alive when they put him on the pyre and would have died in the flames.
2. I've been trying to talk somebody into re-editing the Anakin destroying the Droid Control Ship for quite a while. Having Qui-gon speak to Anakin through the Force is the way the movie needed to end up. The allusion to Luke destroying the Death Star would be perfect. The only problem would be that in the final edit, Qui-Gon is still alive. He dies after Anakin destroys the ship. Having Qui-Gon 'communicate' with Anakin while he is still alive seems problematic. Moving the scenes around fix the problem. Incidentally, the revised 3rd draft has Qui-Gon dying before Anakin does his stuff.
3. As far as having Gui-gon communicate with Anakin or Obi-wan later in the movies....I think I'd leave the communication to a minimum. Qui-gon is a prequel character. If he is talking to everybody and appearing to everybody, then there's no reason for him not to be in the classic trilogy. If I had him appear, I'd have him only at the very end of the movie, As Obi-wan is walking back to the Eeopie. He'd appeas as Obi-wan walks towards him.
1. I see what you're saying, but...could someone explain to me again what happened with Darth at the end of ROTJ? We're going on the original Sebastian Shaw scenario, by the way.
2. Absolutely- this has been brought up before and you don't need to convince me a bit. When I FINALLY get to Episode I in a couple years, then this is sure to happen.
3. I'm not sure about cutting the communication, because I do think Qui-Gon is an important character and needs to be somewhat more involved, if he has retained his identity. But that's a VERY interesting idea, showing the ghost of Qui-Gon at the end of the film, almost like the end of ROTJ. That would tie things up very, very nicely. So what we would have in my PT is: Qui-Gon dies. Then, he helps Anakin destroy the Control Ship (like Obi-Wan in original SW). Qui-Gon doesn't have any contact with Obi-Wan (until the very end, when Obi-Wan sees his master at the end of the film), but Qui-Gon continues to be in touch with Anakin, through dreams and whatnot. This would make sense because he did this immediately after dying in Ep. I. Then, Yoda does NOT make the casual comment about communing with Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon simply appears to Obi-Wan at the end, kind of de-emphasizing the "learning" part of becoming a ghost and still retaining some mystery. What do you guys think? I'm very happy with this particular solution.
Anybody ever hear of a guy named Michael Giacchino? He started out doing video game soundtracks (Jurassic Park: The Lost World, the Medal of Honor series, etc.) and has recently done his first major movie which was "The Incredibles". Anyway, my point is this guy sounds VERY similar to classic John Williams. So much so, that some of his action cues from the games he's done, the World War II-themed games in particular, could be useful as a viable John Williams alternative for you, Trooperman, if you needed to stretch the music in certain areas.
YES- heard the "Incredibles" soundtrack more than once. I had never heard his vid-game soundtracks before, and after listening to those links, I conclude that....
This is great stuff! Thanks SO much for this. My favorite was the "Rowhouses" track- definitely sounds like something that goes in either the arena or the Clone War. What I like to do with these new themes is hint at them a couple times earlier in the movie, and then blast a full version of it at a dramatic moment. The punch of the music is added to by the familiarity; you've heard it before. I'd love to get hold of more of these tracks- are they on the game in .mp3 format, or uncompressed .wav? (sorry- not a big gamer here). If they're in the .wav format, I'll definitely want to get hold of them for better fidelity (I'm one of those people who try to pick out the compression artifacts in mp3 instead of just listening to it. Also worth noting that I can't stand watching a PAL movie because I have something called "perfect pitch" that enables me to identify and produce all 12 musical pitches, and I can't stand hearing the SW theme in B Major instead of B flat- it drives me nuts).
Also Trooperman... You mentioned there would be some original music written for this edit. Could you elaborate on that?
Sure!
1. I am trained in composition and tonal harmony
2. I write music
3. I play many different instruments
4. I hate MIDI and other computer generated sounds when used in movie soundtracks
5. I have equipment enabling me to record in stereo at home
Don’t want to ruin all the surprise, though
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-Almost finished the Obi-Wan/Dooku saber fight sound effects. Began on a stereo version and got bored, so…
-Starting working on the Shmi death scene with the alternate binary sunset cue before it. Unfortunately, I noticed through very revealing headphones that there's a slight buzz at the climax of this cue. Wondering if I did something wrong, I checked the actual CD, and it has the same defect. Not a big deal- just 70's recording technology, I guess. This certainly won't keep me from using it. Darkened the Tusken scenes outside and added chilling scream to scene, but except for a couple Anakin lines I've cut, the indoor part of the scene isn't changing much. I'm getting more and more efficient at this, which is a good thing.
-Those impact flashes are going to be a blast (no pun intended), and not difficult at all. And they will be white (not pink like the 2004 SW trilogy).
-I have four different edits of Ep. II now: Clone War, Path to the Dark Side, the “re-edit”, and the matinee edit. Of course I also have the plans for RebelScumb’s unreleased edit, thanks to Mr. Freeman. This will allow me to incorporate any superior changes that any one of these folks have made. The one I’m missing is the one by the “Phantom Editor”. Could anyone who’s seen it let me know if there are any worthwhile cuts or changes, however small?
Thanks!