Hey Chainsaw, believe it or not, it appears we are still on the same page. There are alot of similarities between your post and my outline. I'm trying to get all my ideas down, but its been tricky. As i've said before, I think Ep2 is going to be the most difficult script of the NPT. It has the most slight of hand going on. You can't lie to the audience, but you still gotta keep the secrets too (and in my story's case some mysteries too). Some scenes I can see crystal clear in my mind, but some of the spaces between scenes are still pretty wide open. Just to give you an idea of where I'm going, here is the first two paragraphs of my EP2 outline:
EPISODE 2: The Phantom Menace (I know we can’t use it, but I was using it to focus my ideas)
The crawl should contain information that even though the Mandalorian Invasion was defeated, peace and security have given way to fear and paranoia. The Mandalorians have changed their tactics. They are using hit and run attacks on the shipping lanes in an effort to disrupt trade and travel throughout the republic. They are using new technology that makes their ships difficult read on scanners and impossible to track. The Mandalorians are also infiltrating the republic with clones. The Jedi are trying to increase their ranks to help reveal these hidden threats, but how can so few stop an enemy who could be anywhere or anyone…
Ok no definite setting for this opening (any time I say “no definite” that means please throw some ideas my way), but I wanted to try one of those Indy/Bond openings where stuff is going on but we don’t show the main character’s face until the dramatic reveal. The idea is that this is a clone capture sequence. We see Obiwan (face shown subtly) and another Jedi (face not shown). Chase ensues. It ends with the faceless Jedi killing the clone. This makes Obiwan quite unhappy, and the audience freaks, until it is revealed that this isn’t Anakin, but a new student Obiwan has taken on (as the crawl stated) to fill the Jedi ranks. He is NOT happy with his new student.