Don't get me wrong- I'm all about explaining important plot points that don't get resolved. But on the introduction of a humourous character like C3PO, I think this will be great. The problem people seemed to have was the "500 credits" line by Owen. That was off the top of my head; if you really want to get picky about it, they're not even supposed to use credits out on Tatooine (according to Watto). Anyhow, it's wonderful that there is already a man lined up to play Owen, but before I give InfoDroid the lines, I just wanted to make sure that none of you had any final suggestions or tweaking of this script:
C3PO: I am See-Threepio, human/cyborg relations. At your service. So pleased to meet you, sir. I need not take the liberty to inform you that…(or some other typical 3PO ramble).
Anakin: I’m here to find my mother- Shmi Skywalker.
C3PO: Your mother! Well, the proper procedure is ….etc. etc. (blah blah blah- establishing him as a very annoying character from the get go).
Anakin: Just take me to your master.
C3PO: Oh, yes. I see. My master. Follow me, please.
CUT to EXT: Owen’s place.
Anakin: I’m Anakin Skywalker.
Lars: Owen Lars.
Anakin: It took awhile for your droid to take us here.
Owen: Don’t even get me started on the robot. He’s a protocol droid and he can’t even speak Bocce. The Jawa traders dumped him on me last month. (pause). I’ll give you 500 credits if you take him.
Anakin: Is my mother here?
Cliegg arrives and gives his little talk. “We have a lot to talk about.” He turns. We hear the sound of footsteps as they walk away.
It begins to sink in for C3PO. CLOSE-UP (CFSS)
C3PO: Sir, sir! There must be some mistake!
CUT to Beru serving drinks in next scene.
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I am now working on the arena scene, having pretty much completed the basic strokes of the Coruscant sequences. Working on the arena scene meant that I had to start figuring out how to rotoscope Windu's lightsaber. Not a fun job...
My technique was to pull apart the shots frame by frame, rotoscope each frame in Photoshop, and then plug the frames back into the video editor. As you can see through these video clips, my first attempt did not go well, no matter what I did with the video. Although the colors/lighting are different in each shot, the rotoscoped frames are the same.
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Why the failure? 1. I didn't standardize the "spread", 2. The saber is probably too saturated, and 3. The saber fluctuates too quickly. It doesn't slowly pulse as it should, and it looks very active and amateurish. Now I'm asking myself some more questions before I try again- am I going for a prequel style blade or an OT style blade for Windu? The PT computer generated style would be very easy to do, but I don't like it as much. Of course, I might not want the inconsistency between Windu's saber and the other sabers. My other question is this- what color do I want the saber? Do I want the blue from the CG saber blades of the PT? Do I want the blue from Obi-Wan's saber in SW? Or do I want the blue of Luke's saber in TESB? I've pretty much settled on the last option, but these are all things I should have given thought to beforehand. How does the lighting figure in? You'll notice that Windu's hand has a purple glow in this shot- I tried to correct it but there isn't a whole lot that can be done about it. Do you have preferences on all of this?
Since I'm doing the arena right now, does anyone have any specific concerns, suggestions, shots they hated, etc.? Right now I'm going on my ideas and MTH broad ideas on who should escape first (and the training of the beast). Please discuss any further changes you might have before I lock down.
I very recently acquired some updated versions of my current software from my friend, and the whole editing process has become that much more efficient now. Not only that, but those of you who were disappointed that there would be no new 5.1 surround sound mix may be pleasantly surprised at the end....
It just became a lot more feasible for me. Maybe I'll pull a Ben Burtt and make a compressed Dolby stereo, 5.1 mix, and PCM uncompressed stereo mix- all completely different! (EDIT: That was a joke
)Anyway, things are going well now. I want to thank again all of you who are working on Episode I. It's really a delight to watch all of you transform THAT movie into a great film worth watching. And I'm sure others who are following this project are pleased that it will come out before 2007 or 2008!
-TM
P.S. I was recently watching the "Musical Journey" disc included with the Sith soundtrack, and I thought that the following was very funny (I had never realized it before). During the asteroid field track, at the moment the music explodes into the famous theme, the creators of the disc have used the Coruscant chase footage! Sure, the synch obviously isn't the same, but how remarkable is it that I made that music choice for that scene without any knowledge of what they had done? It must be an appropriate match!