Ronster said:

1. Would we be able to see the upper gun of the x-wing on the side view cockpit as It enters the atmosphere through the blue haze?

2. Would the crashed x-wing miniature have smoke rising from the engines?

Ronster, I thought you might be onto something there, so thought I'd check it out...but on having a quick look at a couple of differing side-on blueprints, it looks from them that the uppermost part of the top closed guns would either be in line with the back corner of Luke's downwards-angled, side cockpit window (which is hidden by his head), or just ever so slightly below it.

So assuming the camera POV is pointed somewhat directly side-on to the window and Luke's head (which is how I see it personally), then no, I reckon it *wouldn't* be visible.

And I guess the smoke seen rising from the new X-Wing miniature is needed no matter what, so that it matches up with the smoke seen in the full-size version shot immediately afterwards.

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My own thoughts regarding the extended 'Nobby' shot, are that I agree with those who think it works well...given that it happens to be a kinda 'establishing' shot of what Luke has gotten himself into, and the fact that it gives a moment of additional time to soak the whole vista in, and study it's contents.

I'm loving the additional atmosphere of weirdness and potential danger that 'Nobby' has given to the location, and the new 'flying critters' came out great too. Their new flightpath draws you further into the back of the shot I reckon, and the whole background looks very natural now, especially with the subtle 'light-ray' shining through the trees. It's an *actual* swamp on 'Dagobah' now!...or at the very least, it looks like they built an absolutely enormous set which stretches way into the distance now. Marvellous stuff.