Here’s a very ROUGH example of that idea that I threw together very quickly, to see how you guys think that version works if it played out that way.
That issue’s a bit of a pain. I find that running the audio track through audacity once or twice, sometimes via other filetypes, often does the trick.
Can’t do that, because I’d like a ‘planetary celebration’ with Shaw, and don’t want another version or two to track and worry about when it’s a change I have no interest in. Again, all the resources are there to make that tweak for whomever would like to.
I wonder if it’s worth someone creating (and pinning?) a little video tutorial on how to make small personal tweaks to scenes. Because you’re quite right, these kinds of things are super easy, but most people probably don’t think that. And it would take the pressure off editors to create multiple versions, letting them release alternate versions of single scenes, AND upskilling the consumer community while we were at it.
I did this myself a while back, integrating shamook’s Luke into my last episode of Mando season one.
That idea is neat, but I think it would feel out of place considering the setup. The ‘bait’ aspect of the Death Star and the Rebel’s attack plan both hinge on the Death Star being hidden and isolated from the rest of the galaxy and the Imperial fleet. If the Death Star were to be constructed around Coruscant (or moved there at some point in its construction), there would be no way to keep that a secret and so the Death Star would fail to be enticing as a target to the Rebels since they would expect a trap.
Yeah, and this must be why they chose to change its location to far from the core worlds.
I don’t really see how it would conflict with the prequels.
It’d only conflict with the prequels insofar as it would be nice to see the moon in orbit of Coruscant more in that case.
Yeah, also all good points. I guess these’re all less important if you’re positioning the prequels as just the ‘flashback’ showing Anakin’s fall, but for a proper focus on the wider saga, TPM is pretty key.
Totally unrelated, I’ve just been thinking a little more about the opening of TPM, in the scenario where we don’t have the Jedi board the Neimoidian ship. I know some think we need those scenes, so I was wondering if there was an approach where you could have the best of both worlds, and that led me to thinking about intercutting between the early Neimoidian scenes and the scenes of the Jedi on the planet. Perhaps something like this:
(There’s also perhaps a place earlier on for Padmé’s insulting phonecall with the Neimoidians.)
Now, the Neimoidians have sent a whole military force to hunt down the Jedi, emphasising their threat to the invasion, and the first time we see the Jedi in action, we see how they handle the droids mainly through evasion, but also some good Jedi skill. We still get all of the important context of the Neimoidians and Sidious’ relationship, and the Jedi’s relationship and context, but we get more quickly to action whilst preserving each side’s threat/reaction to each other. We also get the invasion in earlier, which helps move the plot along and helps make ‘save the Queen’ our core macguffin instead of starting with negotiation.
Qui-Gon. The juxtaposition of the way he is (compassionate, caring, unafraid to take risks) vs. the way the Jedi council is (scared, traditionalist, forbidding connection) is important to see. It sets up that the way the Jedi Order functions doesn’t work and should change. Obi-Wan being pulled between the Order and the way Qui-Gon operated is what leads to his middle-ground approach to training Anakin, which leaves him vulnerable to Palpatine.
The Republic. We need to see it the way we see it in TPM. It’s huge, thriving, bright, happy. We need to see it that way to realize how corrupted it becomes, and see the tragedy of its downfall into becoming the Empire.
I personally agree with both, though it would have been nice if both of those core messages were a bit more explicit in the script. Good points though.
I do think TPM deserves its place in the saga, I’m just curious what others think here.
I’m not particularly a fan of this idea myself, but I thought I’d put it here for discussion:
Famously the machete order removes TPM from the viewing, arguing that the movie doesn’t carry any context that isn’t otherwise given by AOTC. I’m not suggesting anything about viewing order here, but I wonder if it’s worth thinking about the impact of TPM. What information is conveyed in TPM that isn’t covered by other movies?
I spotted in Faraday’s TROS novelisation thread something worth considering here:
In the original draft of ROTJ, the forest moon of Endor was orbiting Coruscant as a kind of nature sanctuary, hence the ‘sanctuary moon’. I wonder if there’s a value add by revisiting that idea, which you could potentially achieve via the crawl, some C-3PO dialogue, and VFX to add the planet in the background.
Pros would be that it’d bring the climax nearer to the heart of the galaxy, increase the jeopardy, contrast Coruscant’s industrialisation with Endor’s nature, and add some nice options for visuals and alternate options regarding the location of the Emperor’s throne room and the way the SSD/DS2 are destroyed.
Cons would be that it might bring the fleet strengths into question (you’d expect a lot more defence above Coruscant, and a more likely pincer trap), and it might conflict with other movies which feature Coruscant or the DS2 wreckage.
Since it’s in dim light, I wonder if there’s a way to have it light offscreen, casting ambiguously blue/green light?
I’ve been loving it too, and I hope someone uploads all the voice lines from Clone Wars actors in case I can make use of any in my edit.
It’s amazing that they used the puppet show for a similar reason to our version.
I think it was discussed earlier that Yoda’s restored line “Obi-Wan would have told you earlier, had I let him” could help sell the angle that Luke’s been training with Yoda between movies without getting answers about his parents.
You’re quite right! Sorry, my comment wasn’t intended to sound so negative!
Some valid points here, but to address just one:
The emperor’s guards do serve a purpose. They exist to be dismissed by the Emperor, to show the audience just how little he views Luke as a threat, and his absolute confidence.
Just thinking about the source chat, I’m very ignorant of different versions, but isn’t Harmy’s Despecialised considered one of the best sources? Or 4K83 when it releases?
I wasn’t expecting to be as impressed with this grade as I am. Everything looks a lot more real, a lot more natural, a lot more OT.
Thinking about it, I don’t know if we need to have Boba be quite so explicit with Jabba or quite so clear about his intentions.
Our intention here is to tie the Jabba sequence in better with the rest of the film- or rather, from the audience’s perspective, make them feel that it matters to the overall plot and is therefore interesting.
Chronologically, I think the only thing that really needs is the Vader-Boba connection up front, because that tells the audience “Boba is Vader’s agent, pay more attention to Boba, and be aware that what happens here is important to Vader.” Less may well be more in order to up the audience investment.
I don’t think we need to lean into the Sarlacc angle, nor the fact that Jabba attempts to kill Luke via the Rancor. This is Jabba’s domain, and both Boba and Vader know that. In the moment where Jabba decides to drop Luke into the pit, the control is out of Boba’s hands. When Luke survives, he’s back on “capture if possible” duty.
That’s not to say that there might also be a Sarlacc angle here - just that I feel that the primary element for the audience is the bridge from “Vader wants Luke” to Tattooine, and that can probably be handled in isolation so we don’t build too much of a web of thoughts here.
Man that’s good. Sarlacc as a Jedi incapacitator works great. You can kind of have your cake and eat it with that one. Is there a shot of Boba and Jabba that could be used to have Boba talk? Where he’s leaning in, perhaps? Because you could have Jabba try to kill Luke via the Rancor (because he’s an obvious threat), but then once he’s recovered have Boba tell him “I could really do with this guy incapacitated”, which would precede the Sarlacc plan.
Looks great, but one thing stood out to me: Where you’ve added the sun in the space shot, that conflicts with the light/shadow on the second death star. The sun, as the brightest point of light, should be what determines the shadow, so you need to position the two objects with the shadow line perpendicular to the line between them.
Exactly. All of this is optional, plug-and-play collateral.
Nailed it. Absolutely that.
Thanks, Eddie! Maybe this “Boba Overhaul” could be one of the major contributions that comes out of this focus month!
“Bobahaul”.
Nailed it. Absolutely that.
I imagine it being like this:
In ESB, he’s doing all the stuff at Vader’s behest, whilst also wanting to get the bounty for Han to take him to Jabba- which Vader honours. But then in ROTJ, Vader’s still honouring the Han deal but that gives him bait for a Luke trap, so he rehires Boba and has him hang out there. So yeah, it’s gotta be a capture job. And Boba’s a bounty hunter, so I don’t think it removes from his character if he’s doing this for Vader.
I think it’s a great idea, and the mockups really bring it to life. It fixes (or at least improves) a bunch of issues- the weirdness of Jabba’s whole posse hiding out of shot and Leia not noticing, Boba’s unnecessary presence, and his casual death.
Doing a bit more with Boba helps make the Jabba sequence bridge a bit better with the rest of the movie (and TESB which precedes it), since Boba in TESB was Vader’s agent and this movie has Vader seeking Luke be a major factor.
Perhaps that’s something worth emphasising, either in the crawl or via some other method? The idea that Boba’s there on Vader’s behalf, anticipating Luke because Han’s a known friend?
That’s a good point, yeah. It is technically four. And one of those plots is very quick with just the main beats (bombing the shield generator) and another has no main characters (the ewok battle, until our main characters return from the shield generator).
If anyone’s able to cleanly merge those two scenes of Padmé getting captured, to 1080p/23.95fps, I’d really appreciate it. From there I think I’d be able to put together a really good ending, and I’d try to incorporate RogueLeader’s ideas for Anakin’s space combat scenes.