I tried an edit of the breifing scene and simply moved Luke's arrival to before the meeting, right after Han greets Lando. Yeah he's not in the background in later shots, but things aren't always perfect.
I like the idea of starting on Tatooine and just deleting the opening Death Star scene; we get a breifing as to the situation when they arrive at the Rebel ship, and we could just have the Emperor arrival scene begin the visual Death Star scenes (which would be good, with the fleet of TIEs to show off as well, giving the first appearance of the DS some added oomph)
I would still stick with the 3PO beginning though; you could just have the title sequence pan down to the surface shot (no planet shot, though you could edit the 2 moons from the beginning of ANH to synch with the dusk sky of the Jabba palace scene) and start off with 3PO and R2 going to Jabba. That way we still get into the action but there is some build up. As it is with the edit you have, even accounting for rough editing, it's just too quick into the story - who's this slug guy? What's going on with the dancing? Why should I care that this alien chick got dropped into a pit?
To ditch the intro Vader scene wouldn't really affect the story too much, since the Emperor arrives later with Vader awaiting him and we get the rebel briefing, buuut even if you want to start on Tatooine, you still need a lead into Jabba as well as a good reveal.
I am still with editing the Lando reveal as well as the re-editing of the "Han is recaptured" scene. Here is an idea on how to edit that one:
- when Leia unfreezes him and its time for Jabba's curtain call, edit out the laughing and insert the cocking guns or powering up gun sounds (visual FX could be employed to fill in the background "curtain" area with something that doesn't change).
- Han and Leia turn to look up and around.
- Edit a scene of creatures or Boba hovering above/ pointing guns at the camera and then they close in;
- as they close in edit in Jabba's laughing (laughing acts as segway to next scene) and
- cut to scene of Han trying to make deal with Jabba.
That way you keep the nice STAR WARS edit flow but still are able to suggest that they were carried to Jabba as opposed to him hiding behind a curtain.
Not sure about where to place the YODA scene; I can still see it AFTER Tatooine, as Luke pretty much told Lando at the end of EMPIRE that he would meet him there to rescue Han (implying that that was the first priority) - remember that JEDI is maybe around 6 months more or less after EMPIRE; they would not have waited a year or more to rescue Han.
I can see placing it within the Tatooine sequence to imply he has been training all this time (to prepare for Han's rescue), but it also ruins his own reveal at Jabba's palace (remember the first time we see him he is a mysterious black cloaked figure - we don't know it is Luke until he speaks to the tentacled advisor guy. Regardless, I agree that something can be done with the Ben scene, if not edit it out completely and end the Dagobah scene with Yoda's passing. That could be done by:
- when Luke heads to his X-wing, it is maybe a few seconds after he touches the wing and says something that Ben responds. If you edit it right before Luke speaks and edit in the A NEW HOPE segway music (between Ben saying "you must do what you think is right, of course" and the TIEs shooting towards the DS 1) to cut to a similar scene, that would work without looking too wonky editing wise.
“You people must realize that the public owns you for life, and when you’re dead, you’ll all be in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners.”
– Homer Simpson
im thinkin' that if the deleted lightsaber construction scene had been filmed ATLEAST as a deleted scene like the Biggs n' luke cut scenes than they could be cleaned up and used for the opening (right before the emporer arrives scene so they can talk about luke like in the radio drama)
i made a very rough rebuild of the saber construction scene using footage from yoda's hut and audio from the radio drama that can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9t3gLxJYsY
John Williams score to Return of the Jedi Remastered/Remixed:
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/JOHN-WILLIAMS-Star-Wars-Episode-VI-Return-of-the-Jedi-Remastered-Edition/topic/14606/page/1/
Audio drama requires expositional dialogue to explain physical actions (because we can't see it).
Visual drama doesn't, it shows you the physical actions.
Merging these two together gives you the worst of both worlds, visual drama which isn't visual and is bogged down with expositional dialogue.
Besides the saber building itself spoils the surprise of the Trojan horse in Artoo.
All you would need to see would be Luke doing something near Artoo and perhaps his hatch shutting (like Leia putting the plans in him in ANH).
Which is why I moved the idea into Ben's hut because Ben would have the tools and books and merged it with Ben's ghost finishing the story about Anakin (bookending him starting the story in ANH).
It also looks (and I know this is rough) like Mark has hiccups and I can't see a way around that without not showing his face.