ChainsawAsh said:
I 100% agree with you, Bingowings.
(8E 38) ;)
^ In the spirit of tossing everything out for passing consideration, I thought I'd make good on my promise.
First, there was something left hanging. I hope we all agree that the Luke-Leia lip-action we have now in ESB is... shall we say..."Adequate?";-\ I wrote "embrace" for a hug to emphasize the emotion in the moment.
I wanted Lucas and Co. to SINGLE-MINDEDLY carry forward the character relationships in ANH. At EVERY opportunity and at the expense of EVERY non-vital element. I know that sort of thing bankrupted LUCASFILM in '77- but there it is.
Actually, my thoughts were not originally intended for fan-editing. In the summer of '83, my teen-aged brain formulated: 1.7 billion box office- 65 million production cost= Inevitable trilogy remake. This filled me with a determination to identify and find corrections for every flaw in the trilogy that was not of a more technical (Fx, jump cuts, etc...) nature. Also, I tried to think of anything that might be an improvement (I wound up developing a very different treatment for ROTJ.) In 20 or 30 years, I would make certain the remake screen-writers received my notes. I lost my notes many moons ago.
Now, I'm trying to pull those thoughts that might have application to fan-editing out of my rusty memory banks.
Anyway, my last thought for a more conventional edit of ESB is also my first thought for ROTJ.
It's forever and a day before we see any real action in ROTJ. What if, after the crawl, we see a fleeing Bothan spy ship being attacked by a SD? We could see a transmission dish turn and hear some SW transmission noises before the Bothans are destroyed. There could be Endor and the DS far in the background. Vader's SD might be there, also. (Cut to Luke building the sabre?) The crawl could be altered to note the Bothan struggle.
For ESB, the crawl could state that the imperial fleet is hunting ships as well as launching probes. We could see a ship under attack by a SD. It is destroyed or jumps away. in the far background might be the SD that launches the probes. The sequence would be tied musically to the crawl and settle us down for the probe launch so it won't interfere with the second act/movement mood. It wouldn't be forever before the esb in ESB.
Also, for TPM, the consular ship might come under mistaken attack by a droid ship (From AOTC or ROTS?) and cuts from approach and destruction might be altered to show response to the attack. This could create a sense of everything being obscure and uncertain.
For AOTC, The crawl could state that the separatists are trying to intercept senators. We could see the senator's ship drop out of hyperspace with a separatist ship dropping out immediately behind it. A ship loyal to the Republic might force the enemy ship to break-off the attack on the senator. The platform "Everything seems alright." lines could be cut. This would create a sense of siege and forshadow the ROTS opening.
In this way, a star battle could become as much a part of the beginning of a SW episode as the logo and crawl.
Waddya think? Have at it (All are welcome for a better edit ;)