I was thinking more along the lines of a single large explosion taking up perhaps 1/8th of the sky. For that to work it really does need an establishing shot of a ship leaving Maz’s castle, then cutting to Finn boarding the transport as the explosion happens, then he turns and sees the debris in the sky, with the star destroyer just entering the frame from the right.
One thing that I didn’t consider was that Finn asks ‘Where’s Rey?’, and in this sequence of events it might imply that Finn feared that she was on the destroyed ship.
yeah, i understand. however, there is no way i could do an establishing shot that would look good enough to fit in with the rest of the film. i think that if i did, it would come off as to “Prequelly” you know. this is really just a compromise. you still get to see the ties fire on some unsuspecting ships which gives an explanation as to why Finn says “It’s the first order, they’ve done it”.
as far as the star destroyer moving in from the right, this could be done. but with it being so far away and also very large, i think it would make it look as though the star destroyer was moving at break-neck speed in the atmosphere. idk, just my thoughts on it.