I was interested to read the recent views on the 'Falcon approaching Executor above Bespin' sequence. My own problem with it is to do with the actual flightpath of the Falcon and TIEs mid-way through it, after they initially veer sharply away from the direction of the Executor. You'd really need to watch the actual footage for a better idea of the movement and timing, but here's a rough idea of what I mean. Put the kettle on, this may take a while -
1. ....we start with the Falcon rapidly escaping into space from the direction of Bespin, being closely chased by 3 TIEs, as shown below....
....and we then immediately cut to the shot below as they go off into the distance....
2.
....and we then immediately cut to the shot below where Leia can now see that the Falcon is rapidly approaching a distant Stardestroyer up ahead in the general distance. She gives a 'heads up' to Lando and Chewie who are pre-occupied with evading the TIEs and preparing for lightspeed....
3.
....and we then immediately cut to the shot below where the Executor is revealed....and the Falcon suddenly banks sharply to the right, away from the direction of it....
At the rate the Falcon seems to be travelling throughout the sequence, it would end up uncomfortably near the Executor in moments if they continued ahead at this point....although we can't tell how fast the Executor is moving forward at this point though....
4.
(While I agree that the 2 additional SE shots of 'Vader's shuttle landing on Executor bay' and then 'Vader stepping out' totally ruined the original flow and pace (and music) of the Falcon/TIEs chase from Bespin....I do really like the new juxtaposition of the 2 other SE 'shuttle approach' shots that were inserted in-between where the Falcon initially approaches Luke hanging underneath the city. While I never had a problem with just eventually seeing Vader aboard the Executor after his 'Bring my shuttle!" line, the 2 brief shots (and music) of the 'shuttle approach' worked nicely for me (apart from the Executor's non-blue colour mismatch!), and made for some neat contrasting visuals at that point I thought. However, since it seems that those 2 shots are going to be removed from 'Empire:Revisited' as well, then the distant shot of the Executor through the Falcon's cockpit windows reverts to being our first reminder since a long while that it's still around....and becomes the prominent 'UH, OH...' shot of it once again, which still works fine for me)
....and we then immediately cut to the shot below where the TIEs are continuing to chase closely after the Falcon....
5.
So far so good....but it's at this next point where the course of the Falcon and following TIEs in the current footage begins to be problematic for me....because when we then immediately cut to the shot below, it seems to show the Falcon is still veering to the right (judging by the movement of the starfield)....implying it's turning even further away from the Executor's position we saw earlier....
6.
....after shot 6 we then immediately cut away to a few seconds of reaction shots of Chewie, Leia, and Lando....
....and after that we then immediately cut to the shot below which shows the Falcon still continuing to veer to the right (according to the movement of the starfield)....giving the impression that it continued to do so during the previous shots when we focused on Chewie, Leia, and Lando....and is now still turning away even further away from Executor's position that we saw earlier....
7.
....after shot 7 we then immediately cut away to a few more seconds of reaction shots of Chewie, Leia, and Lando....
....and after that we then to cut the shot below of the Executor travelling along at an unknown speed....
8.
....and we then immediately cut to the shot below, where Vader is back aboard....
9.
....after shot 9 we then immediately cut away to a lot of various reaction shots of Vader and his crew aboard the Executor, and the crew aboard the Falcon....
....and after that we then cut to the shot below of the Falcon heading directly towards the Executor which is across it's flightpath now again!....
10.
Because approx. 1 minute 15 seconds has elapsed since the Falcon initially veered around to the right starting at shot 4, and ends up headed directly towards the Executor again at this point, it always seems to me that the Falcon must have continuously turned around to it's right (along with the following TIEs presumably) in the intervening period....and gone completely in a 'full-circle'!
(Unfortunately, that screwy kind of Falcon/TIEs flightpath seems a little laughable, although that's always the impression that the existing footage gives me. And although it's unknown how fast the Executor is going/speeding up/slowing down in shot 4 onwards....the possible alternative that it has somehow caught up with, overtaken, then managed to zip around immediately in front of the continuously right-turning Falcon by the time we get to shot 10, also seems improbable.... Another conclusion is that there was 1 minutes 15 seconds worth of wild 'zig-zagging' TIE 'herding' going on in-between shots 4 and 10, but that isn't really obvious in the existing footage either....)
....we then immediately cut to the shot below where Vader watches the Falcon nearing the Executor....
11.
....and then after some shots of Vader communicating 'telepathically' with Luke, we eventually see the Falcon and TIEs flying very close to the side of the Executor, before overtaking it.
Although they seem to be travelling more rapidly than the Executor at the point they pass closely past the prow of it (just before the Falcon manages 'hyperspace'), I'm never sure if it's because the smaller ships are faster than the Executor, or if the Executor has ended up slowing down at this point before it tries to get a tractor-beam lock on the Falcon....
No matter, as I'm more interested in the Falcon/TIEs flightpath in-between shots 4 and 10....
Of course, judging by adywan's previous comments, he's planning some great alterations after shot 10 for his version, such as the unfinished ones seen below. This was previewed a while back (but could be changed a little), and gives an idea of where he's going with it -
So I'm going to be very interested to see if ady keeps the same kind of footage in-between shots 4 and 10, or somehow adjusts things a little here too....
Unless there are more changes to this overall sequence being planned, there are a couple of things I'd personally like to see done to the existing footage. I'd like to see shot 4 be given a slightly different view of the Falcon's 'cockpit' interior, as suggested by vaderios in this 'mock-up' he showed a while back -
....but only if the view is deemed incorrect, and that we should indeed have seen a portion of Lando, Leia, and Chewie in it from this angle. If it's indeed a continuity flub, then I really like vaderios's notion of a 'nearer' view of the 'cockpit' at this point. As far as any new positioning/direction/size of the distant Executor, I'm okay with the current one, although I would like something along the lines of what vaderios has shown.
My other amendment would be to perhaps have a quick TIE laserbolt passing close by on the left of the beginning of this 'cockpit' shot....to help sell the fact that the Falcon is being 'herded' towards the prow of the Executor....and why it has banked to the front of it....
In fact, a passing TIE laserbolt or 2 during shots 6 and 7 would perhaps help too, in conjunction with the whole sequence....
