Thanks for reminding me of your thoughts-- I get it now and I see where we depart. I would object to hearing so much Qui Gon spread around as you suggest. I want his link to be just with Anakin -- you seem to feel it would be more in line with established Jedi powers for him to spread good advice as he "crosses over," in a way similar to Obi Wan in ANH. I'm reaching for something new, something that only "the Chosen one" makes possible.
Here are the beats as I imagine them:
--Anakin's Naboo Fighter crashes into the droid ship hanger and stalls-- surrounded.
--Padme and her team get captured.
--Qui Gon meditates behind the red shield waiting to reach Maul/Grievous -- AS HE MEDITATES: he contacts Anakin with advice: "Concentrate on the moment"
--Anakin receives the message: he looks around, flipping switches -- no good.
--On Qui Gon: the red shield opens. Qui Gon fights with Maul/Grievous. He gets stabbed. Obi Wan Screams! CUT TO:
--Anakin screams (Using a shot from his dogfight/sound from Danny "The Shining") --
-- Red shield opens again, letting Obi Wan attack Maul/Grievous. Qui Gon lies in a heap...
--Qui Gon's voice in Anakin's head " be mindful of your surroundings..." Anakin pops the trigger on the torpedoes. He blasts away, yelling.
-- Cut outside, the chain reaction starts destroying the ship. Anakin gets the ship going and leaves.
-- Droidship explodes.
--Droids fail on battlefield.
-- Obi Wan kills Maul/Grievous
-- Anakin flies home, looking distraught (using Naboo fighter footage and Anakin shots from the dogfight -- montaging into nicer end of battle stuff) hearing Qui Gon's Tone Poem. We establish the victory which Anakin has brought about. Finish on the saddest shot of Anakin we can find.
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That's the headlines of the idea. I don't know if we're really so far apart on this. I think the major difference is I want the construction of a shocked/hurt Anakin reaction to Qui Gon's death. I think that's the moment this whole movie should have been building toward. This is, after all, a saga about Anakin.
That was the promise made to me by all that great marketing! (Great points about that stuff, InfoDroid -- especially about the music, I hadn't thought of it, but you are right in my opinion).
Last point: it's these quiet moments about character decision/reflection/change that are so powerful in the OT and so stilted, truncated, or just fouled up in the PT. I think the tone-poems feel OT as trailers because they have a similar poetic quality. They represent a real resource for getting that kind of poetic quality into the Prequels. We should think creatively about ways to get them in-- not just any old excuse, but great, creative ideas that could allow them to be incorporated as voice over, inner monologue, actual dialogue or whatever.