adywan said:
I was going to keep this under wraps until closer to the time of ANH:RHD’s release, but what the hell… (still a work in progress & the gif conversion has screwed up the colours a bit)
I didn’t have enough time to go into this recently, but although I’m all for a few ‘surprise’ touches for this HD release, I’m so glad .Mac.'s comments/mock-ups led you to reveal this particular alteration early. I LOVE IT! - as when the ‘Throne Room’ score begins at this point, it will make for a much grander-looking, final ‘establishing’ shot of the rebel base than the existing one seen below -
According to a quick squint online, the Great Temple, also known as the Massassi outpost, Base One, or the Yavin 4 Rebel Base was a particular ancient stone structure on the jungle-covered fourth moon in orbit around the red gas giant Yavin Prime. It was refitted to contain a grand ceremonial chamber (throne room), a control room, and a vast hanger for starfighters.
While some of George’s alterations and additions to A NEW HOPE were poorly conceived (in my opinion), there were others that were very successful. And one of the better enhancements was this excellent new Yavin 4 rebel base shot as shown in doubleofive’s comparisons - CLICK HERE
However, due to only a lower portion of this ‘main’ temple’s exterior being shown in A NEW HOPE, it was always unclear where exactly the ‘throne room’ was located. But then the ROGUE ONE movie eventually came around, and included an excellent view of the Great Temple’s full exterior shape as a ship swooped towards it, as seen here mid-shot -
For the sake of distinction, it seems it was given a more ‘pointy’ uppermost section than the more ‘stubby’-looking temple tops around it.
I’ve always enjoyed the various speculative ‘cutaway’ designs for everything ‘Star Wars’-related, and this is quite a good one of the ‘Great Temple’ that I came across. Despite it not matching the exact shape of the ROGUE ONE temple design above, it’s good enough to show that the ‘throne room’ (or ‘audience chamber’ as it’s called here) was possibly situated at the top of the wide ‘main’ body of the temple, inside the lowest part of the ‘pointy’ uppermost section - CLICK HERE (Then click on the image again in any area to enlarge it’s details )
Okay, so far so good.
However, here’s a couple of little quirks I’d like to bring up. Firstly, If you go back up and click on the ROGUE ONE temple pic above, you’ll get an enlarged look at the long vertical ‘slits’ on the ‘pointy’ uppermost sections…and see that there are SEVEN of them on the lowest part where it’s likely that the ‘throne room’ is situated. Except, when our heroes go for their medals, we only see FIVE ‘slits’ inside -
It looks like the (speculative) ‘cutaway’ graphic shows ‘slits’ at the ‘NARROWER END’ widths of the ‘pointy’ uppermost sections, but we aren’t able to see if there are SEVEN ‘slits’ on the ‘WIDER SIDE’ widths to match the look of the ROGUE ONE temple, which seems to have those ‘slits’ on the outer side(s) of the long ‘throne room’ part which Luke, Han, and Chewie walk along inside.
But while I’m not sure what those SEVEN ‘slits’ are meant to be on the WIDER outer side(s) of the ‘throne room’ part of the ROGUE ONE temple, there seems to be a ‘hollowed out’ section just visible on the ‘NARROWER END’, on the left-hand side of it that we see…so I’m just going to imagine that those FIVE ‘Slits’ are definitely located inside there, with the ‘turbolift’ doorway situated opposite at the other end that’s unseen!
The second quirk is that although it looks like there is ‘daylight’ flooding in through those initial FIVE ‘slits’ we see in the shot above, there is actually some other ‘stonework’ and ‘foliage’ BEHIND them in the more close-up shots of that area. It’s not another temple immediately behind them outside, so I guess it’s just some kind of ‘double outer stonework architecture’ which leaves a gap allowing for daylight to shine through in some way -
(Come to think of it, Artoo should really have gotten a medal too, considering all his efforts! But I suppose repairing him was reward enough. 😃 )
Personally adywan, I REALLY like the particular ‘framing composition’ that you’ve chosen from the very end of the ROGUE ONE shot, as I like the ‘offset’ look of the ‘Great Temple’ on the left, and prefer to see the whole entire base of it and it’s surrounding foliage in it’s fullest, widest view. And we can still see the uppermost section that supposedly contains the ‘throne room’, luckily. ‘Flipping’ it over to the right-hand side would mean it wouldn’t gel so well with the layout of the original shot in ROGUE ONE, of course. As for whether you decide to include a hint of ‘Yavin Prime’ in the distance somewhere or not, I’ll wait and see what you decide.
Loving the replacement ‘sky’ with it’s subtly moving clouds by the way. (Click on adywan’s initial GIF at the top for a better, enlarged look at that)
Great stuff.