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Idea: If I had produced the battle of Yavin...

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I know it’s not really polite to suggest changes to any of the original movies

but I always thought the battle of Yavin sould have been different. With the thousands of tie fighters the Death Star would have, there is no way a force of only 30 ships wou even get anywhere near it. It was mentioned earlier in the movie that ‘the rebel aliance is too well equiped’, so why are they only sending 30 ships??

I would have liked to see the rebels send out a few hundred fighters (at least) to engage the tie fighters. The “30” rebel ships could be a secondary force that flew around the back side of the Yavin gas giant and came at the DS from behind. then vader and his sidekicks could have been dispached to dake care of the “30”. Them you could have cut between the MASSIVE space battle and the stealth run on the DS.

The bastard son of Clint Eastwood and Yoda.

scratchbuiltstarwars.com
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Well, the TIE fighters, even if they are a lot, are very weak and can be exploded really fastly. This is not the case of the X-wing which have shields and very good weapons.
I like to believe that the "the rebel aliance is too well equiped" line concern the quality of their equipment, not their quantity. IMO.
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still the ties sure didn't seem to have a lot of trouble taking out the rebel ships... and the sheer nubmber they should have had...
The bastard son of Clint Eastwood and Yoda.

scratchbuiltstarwars.com
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It's right. But at this point of the attack, the Rebels are forced to be in a position of weakness, they must approach the trenchs.
And, well, in that sort of movies, the credibility often leaves place to well known dramatical effects: even surounded, the heroes win. Many "good guys" die, but the real heroes are alive at the end... quite simple... (who said too simple?)

But finally, it's an interesting point. Maybe it would have been better to see more Rebel ships. Many of them have been added for the SE, but having hundred ships instead of few could have changed too much that part of the movie, I guess.
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You guys are young-ish, ain'tcha?

The Battle of Yavin is like 30 ships on maybe 100 because of two main reasons, I'd submit:

1. It was based in large part on historical, real dogfight footage; and
2. Filming and compositing that many things was already a montrously-difficult chore for which ILM practically had to invent equipment to manage.

I happen to think that most of the other battles in the prequel trilogy should have been more like the Battle of Yavin: fewer ships, more real drama. These huge-ass zillion-person space battles are meaningless eye candy. I mean, buzz droids? What crap. Part of what makes the Yavin battle gripping is the fact that it's closer to reality (i.e. real footage of real aerial battles) than the video game-like stuff from the PT. Especially Ep III: you don't see Anakin and Obi-Wan (nor any clones) actually do any real fighting against real adversaries. They fly around, do some fancy-ass rolls, make some droll comments, send several clones to their deaths, and then mosey on up to a heavily-defended starship that happens to have a critical component for the shields mounted on the outside of the ship, and presumably not covered by shields itself. If you want to talk about inconsistencies in plot, etc., why not toss that around for a bit?

Also, it's hard to comprehend now -- more than 30 years later -- just how absolutely brilliant the engineers at ILM in 1975/76 were, to be able to "film" a battle of spaceships and make it look really convincing. In my opinion, now that you can just plop in a thousand other elements with a few mouse clicks and composite the whole thing without half trying doesn't mean you should plop in a thousand other elements.
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didnt jedi take care of having 'more ships'?
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"In my opinion, now that you can just plop in a thousand other elements with a few mouse clicks and composite the whole thing without half trying"

Now *you're* the one who sounds kinda youngish. Have you ever tried doing it before?
If so, what software are you using, I'd personally love something that could make a dogfight that easy

Ok, CGI looks like crap, it's overblown poop - but it sure as shit isn't easy.
VADER: Let me look on you with my own eyes...

LUKE: Dad, where are your eyebrows?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_S6UgkQk0
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Originally posted by: battlewars
didnt jedi take care of having 'more ships'?


I woudl still make a difference between the to, in that there would be no rebel capital ships.
The bastard son of Clint Eastwood and Yoda.

scratchbuiltstarwars.com
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Originally posted by: battlewars
didnt jedi take care of having 'more ships'?


Sure: about 6 years and two hugely-successful (financially, I'm talking) movies later. New optical printers, etc., all paid for by profits from SW and ESB.
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Originally posted by: Zebonka
Now *you're* the one who sounds kinda youngish. Have you ever tried doing it before?
If so, what software are you using, I'd personally love something that could make a dogfight that easy


Guilty as charged: I've never tried to composite a space battle.

However, I have done a bunch of stuff that was impossible in 1975/76, and so I'm extrapolating a little. What you see in any blockbuster movie is the bleeding edge of movie software development, so of course it's still going to be somewhat difficult. But if people are making their own fan films that feature a lengthy Star Wars chase scene (a la Revelations), then it can't be as difficult now as it was when it was done for ESB. I tended toward hyperbole, but my point is simple: suggesting scenes should have been shot in 1975/76 in such a way as can only now be done digitally is a little unfair to the amazing achievements ILM realized way back when.