adywan said:
the rebel transport and two x-wings escape from the planet, head directly towards a stardestroyer that just sits there and practically waits to get blasted so the rebels can escape. Now , adding a few lasers coming from the stardestroyer and having one of the xwings destroyed makes perfect sense and boosts the peril that the rebels are in. it isn't "focus distracting" as you say because there was no single focus in that scene.
Well, I guess it all boils down to one's interpretation on 'why' the Star Destroyer was just standing there in the first place. When the commander is informed that the rebel ships are trying to escape, he didn't say "Arm the turbo lasers and prepare to destroy them!", he said "Good, our first catch of the day". And since the Star Destroyer wasn't shooting at them, it's a pretty logical conclusion that they were planning on capturing the ships with their tractor beams. Kind of like how the Star Destroyer at the end of the movie wasn't firing on the Falcon when it was getting it's Tractor Beam ready.
And I think billing that effects sequence as having "no single focus in that scene" is disingenuous. I cannot contemplate the folks over at ILM saying "We're making an effect shot with no focus point". I don't know any FX team that has ever made a visual effects shot that didn't have a focus point. The new Battlestar Galactica, with all it's camera shakes and random zooms even have a focus point to follow. And during the Rebel Escape, there is a single focus point in the sequence. The three shots that involve the Ion Blasts. You follow them from being shot out of the canon to hitting the star destroyer consecutively. Adding in laser shots, the X-Wing blowing up and more sound effects to be used with the new effects definitely distracts the viewer from the Ion Blasts which are the focus point. It's the same reason you gave about the Falcon display. If it isn't distracting you then you aren't looking at it proves it doesn't need to be there in the first place. Well, it's hard to keep focus on the Ion Blasts when an X-Wing explodes out of nowhere in the middle of a laser barrage.
I can understand how you don't find it distracting, but you're the editor. You know the sequence like the back of your hand. I on the other hand am the viewer who doesn't know the sequence like you do and I see it differently. I see a sequence that loses it's focus point by burying it in extra sound and visual effects that weren't there to begin with. Because originally, the focus was on the Ion Blasts.
And for adding more "peril" into the sequence, I don't think it needs it. The real peril should start where it did all along. During the ground battle where things go down hill from shot one of the AT-ATs. It's a structure thing. :)
