Info & Ideas: ESB and ROTJ Wishlist — Page 117

I thought those two guys were using the Blockade Runner's own guns and they were in the cockpit of the ship

I too noticed a problem with the shot when I was playing with it.

Either the viewport is very close to them and small, which makes the gun very small indeed and strangely inside the window, or the officers are on a platform far away from a very big open space (like a docking bay) and the gun is much bigger.

It's really difficult to make out as there is no detail to establish which is correct (it's very dark which doesn't really fit into the design ethic of the Tantive but that doesn't rule it out).

I thought the port was situated in the bottom of the Star Destroyer hanger frame or the smaller forward hanger as they seem to get a downward view of the escape pod but the Tantive isn't visible but that does pose the question of where the planet is.

If that is the case being a space ship it doesn't make my mock-up impossible (indeed in the battle of Endor we see an 'upside down' Star Destroyer) but it would buck the general trend of having Star Destroyers pointing bridge side up (relative to the camera).

It might be nice if an AT-AT/U-Boat style targeting periscope came down from the ceiling to add to that WWII in space feel.

We could then have battle scenes intercut with the view inside the gunner bay and with the targetting display seen through the viewer.

I was thinking something along those lines when the idea of putting it into ROTJ came into my head, it's very dark (persumably to hide the lack of a set) even in that mock up I had to fiddle with a lot of wonky matte elements and remove some nasty red shadows.

I would be interested on how you would make a small gun interior both for this thread and the After Ady ANH one.

As I said it's all over the place in terms of vagueness as to where that place is and where all the elements sit.

Ok, so here is my wishlist for ROTJ (to Adywan!):

Overall: Look at the whole movie with a piece of paper and a pencil. Write down everything that is goofy or corny and try to delete that. (for example the ewok that takes that speederbike).

Music: Listen to the original soundtrack from 1983, for example Forest Battle, it sounds very exciting at the end of that song, but I don't remember where exactly it were in the movie. It would be nice with some real excitement in the woods.

Lapti Nek: here is my solution: use the old footage but take Lapti Nek from the original soundtrack instead (not the movie)! I know she sound a bit english in the verses, but just stick to the end and I think it could work perfectly. The singer is screaming WWOOAHH!! a couple of times in the end "Laaapti nek arambambaboromar  WWOOAAAHH!!!" and in one of the screams just add the poor dancer when she also screams when she fall into the Rancors pit. (and the music stops). By the way, also keep the new footage of her down there. 

Yoda's death: make the blanket fall down a bit later, when he is all gone. For a good inspiration look at the movie "Dark crystal" from 1982 in the beginning of the film when the hero talks to the old leader, and he dies very harmonic when he disappear. Yoda's death seems a bit rushed now.

Sarlacc: make the monster more scary when they are going to be excecuted on Tatooine, look at Space 1999 episode "Dragons domain" for inspiration. But in Space 1999 it was the sound of the monster who made it scary and it could be difficult in ROTJ because the "Return of the jedi"-track almost sounds like Indiana Jones! It could be hard to do something scary in that sound environment. Anyway, please remove the "little shop of Horrors"-look and don't have that burp when Boba Fett dies. All cheap laughs should be deleted.

Officers walk: in the first scenes when that imperial officer have talked to Darth Vader he goes away, but just as they cut to Tatooine, he stops walking (freeze picture). I think he should continue to walk

C3PO lines: remove them that are just there to sell the toys "Oh no, the Rancor!" or embarrasing lines like "Artoo, come baaaaaaaack!" (when he follow R2D2 on Endor).

Ewok attack: When the ewoks attacks the stormtroopers, please add some teeth and some angry eyes plus darker voices.....not Aiiioohhh!!!! (light voice)..........please

Nien Numb: I think his african line is kind of cool, keep it. But please remove his laughs.

Lando: Remove his laughs also (together with Nien Numb!). In the climax of the movie we have Lando screaming "YAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" when they fly out of Death Star 2. I think it would be better if they just looked at each other and looked happy. For inspiration see the Directors Cut of "Star Trek the motion picture" from 1979 (not the old version, it has to be directors cut by Robert Wise). When they fly out the solar system for the first time, commander Decker and Ilia just look at each other and smile. These scenes were taken from another part of the movie originally but suits better here.

The scene when Han Solo is going to take care of all the officers on Endor solo: Make it quicker so that the ewoks help him right away and som Han doesn't seem so surprised/cute with his arms raising.

Scene order:  Maybe it is not necessary to keep the current order of all the scenes when the three battles begins. If it's better to have more forest scenes together, then lets have it. It is hard to foolow three scenes all the time: Endor, spacebattle, luke/vader on and on and on (it was even worse in The Phantom menace with 4 different fights at the end!). At the time when Vader have thrown his sabre at Luke and walks down that stairs, the scene cuts to the space battle AGAIN and you start to get fed up/disconnected to the movie (when will it end?).

The real challenge is for the audience to feel engaged until the end, not just half the movie. There are already too many movies who are better in the beginning than in the end. Adywan, feel more free to cut in this movie (than episode IV and V), to change the sound of the characters, this is maybe the biggest opportunity in movie history to make an ok movie to a great movie!

hans olof, I agree with almost every point you added (though the pedant in me has to point out that Forest Battle is not a song).

I'm in two minds about Lando's exclaimation of joy because I still want him to DIE!!!!.

Han makes almost the same sound in ANH and all he did in that battle was turn up at the last minute and fire one shot (and for that he gets the same medal that Luke gets???).

Lando on the other hand has helped plan the battle, made major decisions leading to the survival of the fleet and was well in the thick of it before plunging into the heart of the battlestation and out the other side (in this version) so I think he earned his moment of cheer more than Han did.

Over on the After Ady thread I mentioned my frustration at not being able to see any exterior structure looks like the place these guys are firing from.

It looks more like the sort of thing you'd find on a capital ship anyway (as in ROTS).

Bingowings said:

hans olof, I agree with almost every point you added (though the pedant in me has to point out that Forest Battle is not a song).

I'm in two minds about Lando's exclaimation of joy because I still want him to DIE!!!!.

Han makes almost the same sound in ANH and all he did in that battle was turn up at the last minute and fire one shot (and for that he gets the same medal that Luke gets???).

Lando on the other hand has helped plan the battle, made major decisions leading to the survival of the fleet and was well in the thick of it before plunging into the heart of the battlestation and out the other side (in this version) so I think he earned his moment of cheer more than Han did.

Maybe you're right, I was too hard on Lando.  :-)   One interesting question, if Adywan remove all silly things (like the scene when the ewok is going with the speeder bike) isn't the movie going to be a bit shorter? Should it be filled with something else, or is it better to have it more concentrated (less is more)?

Lets not change too much, just undo the special edition bits we didn't like and fix the effects.

Not sure about cutting existing scenes or adding cgi lip movements etc.

I disagree with you there Prog5000, everyone wants to see the original, original ROTJ available to buy in the best format available but for a special edition (something the 97 and 2004 versions claimed to be) something should be done to try and lift the final part of the story to something approaching the standard set by ANH and ESB, which at the moment it doesn't (even if the effects were fixed).

That doesn't mean the basic story has to change that much but the execution of that story needs a real clean up.