Dialoging

I changed the channel and saw TPM on Spike. I haven't seen this in many years. The X-men ship was descending to Coruscant, and a no-name pilot said, "Coruscant. The whole planet is one big city. Look over there--Chancellor Valorum's shuttle. And Senator Palpatine is waiting for us."

Way cool dialogue. I think the next edition of SW should do some ADR to add dialogue like that.

"Tatooine. The planet is a big desert. Look over there--a Krayt dragon skeleton. The desolation does not bode well for us."

"Bespin. The whole planet is covered in clouds. Look over there--it's Cloud City. And Lando Calrissian is waiting for us."

"The Sanctuary Moon of Endor. The whole planet is a big forest. Look over there--the shield projector. And stormtroopers are guarding it."

I really like this "tell the audience what they're seeing and let them know what's about to happen" style of storytelling. Descriptive soundtracks have previously been relegated to films for the blind, but I really think we can work them directly into the dialogue. Perhaps Lucas's small, experimental films will do further work with this technique.

No-name pilot?  Ric Olie's going to have words for you soon.  ^_~

But, yeah, aside from the almighty establishing shot, that kind of dialogue is part of what makes the prequels so... "special."  But I will say in the defense of that particular moment is that at least he was talking to a child, somewhat justifying such a blatant piece of exposition.  George saw the easy way out and just RAN with it!

...

You're dead to me...

Gaffer Tape said:

...

You're dead to me...

but "The Eagles are Coming" makes sense

Put Captain Solo in the Cargo Hold said:

Ric Olie's dialogue never really bothered me. It's just as obvious as "The Eagles are coming!" or "It's... it's a dinosaur!".

An exclamation is very natural. Especially if the purpose of the exclamation is to inform troops in contact that close air support is approaching. Purely expository dialogue is somewhat less natural. It is true that the ugly, no-name, never-seen-again pilot was talking to a child, but it wasn't natural. A real person might say something like, "Listen, kid. That shuttle belongs to Chancellor Valorum. He's pretty important. In fact, he runs the whole Republic. So don't say anything dumb or--you know, don't say anything at all. Okay?"

See? Natural. The adult is worried that the kid is going to embarrass him, he communicates to the audience who Valorum is, and he doesn't comment on anything really obvious like the urban build-up on Coruscant. We get a peek at what's going on inside balding pilot's head, and it sets the audience up to think that the precocious child is going to do something above his station. Describing what everyone could plainly see was didn't serve the audience or reflect very well on the oily pilot.

Also, if Anakin didn't say anything at all from that point forward, the trilogy would be much better.

HIS NAME IS RIC!

Ric:

Oh yeah?  How many Handsome Internet Polls have you won?

Me: 1.  Just the Handsome Naboobian Thrown one.

PCSitCH:

And for the record, Panaka is far more cute than Ric.

Panaka:
Oh, Panaka like you already!  Panaka like you almost as much as he love delicious panakacakes.