I’ve sent you that PM now Tomo.
Gah, I’ve now realised there’s a THIRD possible variation which I might have to consider for myself! -
I’m kinda torn between TWO versions at the moment - one that keeps the FULL, existing ‘Hux’s speech/Starkiller weapon firing’ sequence (which ends with Finn saying “Where’s Rey?” to Han) as it is, where it appears approx. half-way through the movie…OR one that moves the ‘Starkiller weapon firing’ scene to immediately AFTER Han’s death (which means losing certain neat ‘Hux’ speech/Stormtroopers/Kylo on bridge’ shots).
However, I now see that I could ALSO keep ALL of the various ‘Hux’ speech/Starkiller firing’ shots that I like where they currently are, after all (while getting rid of the stylised ‘fireworks in sky’ shots)…but STILL retain the ‘Finn boarding the yellow ‘pirate’ ship’ shot I like too.
It would go like this -
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Rey runs from Maz’s palace into woods…
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…we then go to the FULL 'Hux’s speech/Stormtroopers sequence as normal, as we continue onwards with the weapon firing right up until we see Kylo on the stardestroyer bridge, then cut after the pan across his mask in close-up (as he watches the laser pass by his Stardestroyer)…
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…(omitting the shots of ‘Finn starting to look up from the ‘pirate’ ship’ & ‘Finn staring at the sky fireworks’)…we then go directly to the laser beginning to split into 4 beams and starting to hit the ‘Hosnian’ system planets, and continue onwards with it’s panicking people, then cut after the 4 laserbeams hit the planets simultaneously as they blow up in close-up…
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…(omitting the shots of ‘Han, Chewie, and Maz’s denizens looking upwards’ & ‘laserbeam fireworks in sky’ & 'Finn running towards Han, and eventually asking "Where’s Rey?)…we then go directly to Rey still running through the woods, before coming to rest, and continue onwards with her speaking to BB-8 who’s followed her, as she then sees the ships flying overhead, and she begins to run back…
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…AT THIS POINT, we then go directly to the particular variation I suggested at the bottom of my 2nd post above, where 'Finn boards the yellow ‘pirate’ ship and turns to look upwards (with ‘shrieking’ in the background)…and we then go directly to the ‘Apocalypse Now’ shot of the TIEs against the sun…and we then ‘jump-ahead-in-time’ a little, and go directly to the ‘Maz leading Han, Finn, and Chewie to the lightsabre’ scene (ending after Maz’s close-up only says "Those beasts!)…and then go directly to Rey & BB-8 as they finish off running back towards the ‘palace’ to see it’s ongoing destruction…
(this way, I can still have the FULL ‘Hux’/Stormtroopers/Kylo on his Stardestroyer bridge’ sequence in it’s usual place in the movie, WITHOUT the implausable ‘sky fireworks’ shots altogether…whereas I’d have to chop some of that sequence out altogether if I opt for a ‘Starkiller weapon firing AFTER Han’s death’-type edit)
Hmmm, decisions, decisions.
I’ve not had a chance to scrutinise all the ways I want to tweak the FIRST half of the movie yet, but I reckon I’ve settled on the way I want to show ‘R2’s awakening’ during the second half - I’m still going to keep his initial appearances with BB-8 & C3PO over TWO seperate scenes for myself I’ve decided, and will go into how I’m doing it over the next few days.