Without further ado, as the saying goes, let’s start…
“At the end of the conversation, as you know, anakin intimidates watto into cutting the crap by puffing his face and say "i'd like to know". I thought what would be cooler is if you had anakin look at watto and then say something along the lines of " if you don't tell me , i'll tear both of those wings right off", THEN have the shot of padme looking from watto to anakin and then cut to watto's reaction of "sure , ah sure, lets go look at my records".”
I actually like that idea a lot. I can definitely see Anakin saying something like, “You’d better find out before I tear both of those wings off,” particularly when it’s involving his mother, the most important person in his life. So this actually helps the new plot a lot as well. Anakin isn’t messing around.
I like it
“I remember watching in the theaters and thinking it was an awkward cut because anakin hardly made a groan. Since your doing the adr, maybe you could throw in a nice painful yell (similar to luke in ESB) to give the scene more of a shock effect. Maybe have the music effect the action as well with something creepy.”
Absolutely. And before I record this yell, I will think about what it would feel like to get a limb cut off. Which brings me to another point- my own problems with Padme coming back to the hangar/shooting at Dooku are that 1. Padme looks silly shooting at Dooku 2. Obi-Wan just stands up, after being immobile ever since getting a little cut from Dooku (by the way, in my cut, Obi-Wan really is hurt- he doesn’t toss the saber to Anakin. I was able to cut it so that Anakin uses the force to get the saber. Obi-Wan isn’t involved. 3. Anakin stands up at the end of this scene and hugs Padme. Give me a break!- if I just lost an arm, I would be seriously hurt.
So I very much like the idea that came up that we cut away to Padme at the end of the fight (with dark chords- somber music) and then go back to Yoda. Cut to the two limp bodies of the Jedi, and end scene. The Jedi never get up and Padme never enters the hangar. This avoids all of those contradictions, is darker, and most importantly, it’ll definitely work fundamentally- I already have it in my mind. And thanks Twister- but I do already have access to the “Yes” line from the theatrical. I won’t say how
“And finally, those shots of the outlander club with the creepier residents is a very nice step forward for that scene as well.”
“I like the Blade Runner stuff. As long as the coloration is consistent throughout, it should be fantastic.”
“I'm stunned by what I'm seeing in those pictures. Well done.”
“I really like the new look for the bar. It's much more crowded.”
I’m really glad you all like my new idea of how the nightclub should be. Maybe I’ll call that the “Death Sticks Bar”
. I particularly like how right before we cut away, the bartender on the right points towards the two Jedi, just like the bartender in Ep. IV. The clothing is a bit outlandish in the Blade Runner shots as well, so they fit in very nicely. Several nice close-ups I’m using, too. But anyway, to match editing-wise, I’m going to be doing a lot of cropping from full-screen for the original shots. Let’s hope I get the anamorphic calculation right this time! The thing I didn’t tell you, though, is that for this to work, I’ll have to ask some kind person that downloaded the 15 gig HD broadcast of Blade Runner to supply the shots I need. I haven’t had a whole lot of luck with some my previous requests (look at the “Original Logos” thread in the requests forum, for example), but with any luck, it’ll work out and I’ll have the DVD quality shots that I need for this. A couple other simple establishing shots I’m looking for are a city sunset (for Coruscant) and a shot showing a moon in one corner of the screen, and perhaps a smokestack on the other side, again for Coruscant. I have a very specific image of this shot that I want (that I’ve never seen). Has anyone seen any shots in any films that look similar to what I described? “So if the Blade Runner idea works, could we have a Harrison Ford cameo? This would take care of many of the criticisms that the prequels have no Han Solo.
” Ha ha- look closer at the screenshot I posted. Harrison Ford is actually in that shot (which will be more clear in motion).
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InfoDroid- that’s a very interesting idea of yours. Took me off-guard a bit! However, this is a really radical change for this late in the game, and I kind of think it’s more interesting (for me) to see how they fell in love in the first place. So I don’t think I’ll do that…but, I hope someone else doing an edit might be able to figure out the thorny issues with this and give it a try! Sorry I can’t do it at this stage; it would indeed turn the structure on its ear. But if there are significant advantages to this I’m too dense to pick up on, please tell me- I just see more problems than good with that particular solution.
“And Trooperman, PLEASE consider excising the Banking Clan guy from Dooku's conference room! Seriously, he looks like the stretched-out corpse of Peter Cushing. It needs to go.”
“People complain about the Tech Union dude, I actually liked him. But that Banking Clan guy...*cringe*.”
My view- I hate every single one of them
No close-ups of those CG guys survive in my cut. It’s a personal irritation thing, a general style/design thing, and also, as Rebel Scumb pointed out, everyone has come to Geonosis. Of course they’ve all already decided to sign the treaty. If they had actually used men for this scene and not CGI, I might have felt differently. So this scene is basically Obi-Wan spying on Dooku as he briefs the Separatists about what’s going to happen. Since the whole Padme interrogation scene will not be in my cut, but it contains good dialogue, I’m using some of that in this scene as well, like Rebel Scumb. Lines like “The Republic cannot be fixed- it is time to start over,” make sense and give some substance to the scene.“How would you feel about using a different musical cue for Shmi's death scene?”
Very strongly. It won’t be the Burning Homestead, but it’ll be something good.
OK. Regarding the duel with Dooku (and yes, force lightning is cut- Palpatine is the only user of this now):
You all have brought up some very interesting and difficult questions and ideas (MTH, CC, twister, etc.). While I wish I could comment on the merits and disadvantages of each scenario, I don’t have time, so I’ll just outline what I’d like to do with this at this point, after having read all of the posts…
As shy and reserved as the new Anakin is in this film, I don’t believe that his standing around and watching his “inferior” master fight the duel and potentially get killed is the answer. When it comes to a fight, I don’t think that Anakin would hold back whatsoever. However, it’s also true that no matter how you look at it, Anakin does NOT have a good enough reason to want to rush a Sith lord. Unless….
As MTHaslett suggested, Anakin is upset because Dooku is somehow responsible for Padme’s “death”. And I actually love the line “You’re going to pay for killing the woman I love.” It’s delightful old-fashioned and classic sounding (although perhaps a bit cliché- I don’t care). And most of all, it provides a motivation for Anakin’s rush. Now, Anakin can run in, Dooku makes a hand motion, close-up of Obi-Wan as we hear Anakin yell and then hear a loud “thump”. We cut to Anakin lying on ground. And then I can still use the very exciting version of the duel that I already cut.
But now the question is…why is Anakin blaming Dooku for killing Padme? I thought he was blaming Obi-Wan for that. Well, I have a really crazy idea of my own for the gunship scene that I’d like to leave you with.
Nobody on the gunship knows where Dooku is. “Dooku! He’s behind us!” shouts Anakin suddenly. We cut to Dooku as he makes a hand motion to his wingmen. In the original cut, this meant that his wingmen were to accelerate. Instead, they each open fire immediately. They aren't doing a good job. So Dooku comes up behind them and HE shoots at the ship personally. It's a big deal music-wise. The gunship rocks, Padme falls out (for an actually good reason, this time), and Anakin knows EXACTLY who did it. He also knows that Padme’s lying on the ground and it would be quite easy for Dooku to blast her to pieces. Dooku disappears from sight for a while as Obi-Wan and Anakin argue.
THIS might be a motivation to run at Dooku and also a reason to be arguing with Obi-Wan about turning around to save Padme. She’s actually in danger and Dooku did something that makes Anakin despise him with good reason- he is personally responsible for Padme's "death" and Anakin knows it. This makes the shot of Padme getting up an actual revelation- Dooku shot at the ship for some reason, but when Padme fell out of the ship, he let her live, for some reason we don’t know. Perhaps he had instructions from a Sith lord we all know and love…
Talk to you soon
EDIT: Actually, this doesn’t work because Dooku’s speeder doesn’t have a laser cannon. Still, more can be made of the whole thing. Maybe there’s audio somewhere of Christopher Lee saying “Kill them,” which could be turned into a radio transmission to his wingmen.