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I'm confused.
1. Generally accepted argument on OT is that LFL can't get their own colors right on the subsequent releases of Star Wars, they cannot be trusted as original or real.
2. The subsequent color re-timing is blue, unlike original, ergo, because it is blue, it proves that the bridge is the Executer.
Um.. I'm no rocket scientist, but this does not follow. How any print or DVD can be referenced as 'proof' makes no sense that the generally accepted opinion in OT circles is that those colors have been jacked with in every release.
Being that all film degrades over time unless stored under very specific conditions, which no publicly owned prints are likely to have been continuously stored under, trying to say we, the public, can know definitively the colors at time of release is simply a game of wanting to believe something, sort of like believing in God. We can believe strongly, but in the end there is no proof, only belief.
Absent any documented notes/story-boards/interviews etc.. which specify that the bridge/conning tower of the establishing shot is the Executor, you are concluding that this is the Executor's bridge based on the tenuous consistency of color (which we know are inconsistent at best). Even if we were to agree that the bridge looked sort of blue, no version we have seen is drastically blue outside the Pugo 16mm, which imo is likely the worst reference material as it is a 30 year old print not stored under ideal circumstances. Setting aside the Pugo, this blue is certainly not the drastic blue of the Executer (and new TIE's). You are using circumstantial evidence (color) to reach a conclusion which over-rules every instinct and established rule of film-making in terms of continuity and establishing shots. It flies in the face of all logical approaches to film making and particularly George's own approach to film making, which is quite traditional in terms of how he frames shots and establishes surroundings.
In film, scenes build on scenes, particularly when you are introducing audiences to something new, this is how Lucas operates:
A New Hope
- Open with Text crawl over star field. Even without the text to tell us what's going on, the image establishes that this story starts in space.
- Pan down to desert planet with multiple moons. We now know we are not above Earth, we are somewhere else.
- Large space ship races overhead and away, shooting at some ship offscreen which is also shooting at it. We know somebody is being chased.
- Tip of perusing ship passes over us. It's big. It's really big. It's REALLY big. It's bigger than anything we've ever seen on screen before, and much more powerful than the first ship we saw.
With this sequence and no words, we the audience know a lot about the story. We're in space, not in our galaxy, one group is being chased by another, and the ones doing the chasing are incredibly more powerful than the one's being chased.
The Star Destroyer is a visual introduction and explanation of just how powerful the Empire is. As an audience we've never seen anything this big before on screen (until we see the Death Star).
Fast-forward to ESB
We open with our now familiar Star Destroyers after the crawl, and we the audience feel pretty good about ourselves. We've returned to a familiar universe, familiar ships and familiar situation; Empire is still huge and powerful and the Rebels are hidiing/on the run.
But sequels are about more, about surprises and adding things, so the next time we see the Empire it's done to trick us..
Bridge of a Star Destroyer.. Ok, we recognize that, big deal. Then a full shot of the Star Destroyer, yeah we've seen that..
Then the shadow suddenly covers the biggest ship we've ever seen.. what the hell could do that? Oh Shit.. that Star Destroyer is HUGE (accompanied by the coolest, baddest music ever).
This is not only consistent with every rule about editing and film making we've ever seen, but it's consistent with how Lucas approaches movies. Everything always builds on what we've seen before. Lucas never goes for a bait and switch for this, it serves no purpose, neither narratively, stylistically or visually.
I dare you to find any example in film, let alone the Star Wars Saga where an Establishing shot introduces a small part of something which makes us think we know exactly what we're looking at, reinforced by a following shot of the thing WE THINK IT IS, and then cuts to the thing the first shot was supposed to be.
You won't find it. It doesn't exist, because that's now how you edit a scene. There is no reason to 'tease' the bridge of the Executor and then cut to a regular Star Destroyer. It serves no narrative purpose.
