Monroville

Davnes007 said:

oh_riginal said:

So does anyone wanna take up the idea I had before, about the Falcon dashboard monitor displaying Bespin, and make it better than that ragged attempt I got on youtube?? I'd love to see a better mockup, if possible!

This is the start of an idea that came to me in a vision. I know some people are against cutting away from seeing the love-birds to see a display of some sort, so I came up with a cool compromise.

                              ^
you could move the globe here, or do the "cantina-izing" and shift their eye line


The blue 'globe' is seen turning slightly, and I can make it any color.

Obviously it's pretty simple/lame right now, so any suggestions/comments are welcome/appreciated

I like it; I agree that you can move the globe more to the left to match both Han's and Leia's eye line, which would be a little left of Leia's hands.  You would probably have to add some of that "scratchy static" the OT holograms had too.

check this out:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40816

Harry did a contest for the folks at AintItCool.com where someone could win a ShowWest ROTS sculpture if they could "re-write" the end duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan in a better way.  There are some really interesting ideas here.

I guess another good example would be how the Eastern Roman Empire cut off the Western half when it became apparent that the Nordic hordes were tearing it apart.  Rather than waste any more resources trying to garner it back, the Eastern Empire (with Constantinople as the capital) "cut their losses" and just let the vandals wipe out the Western half.

If the Republic was in much the same shape and Naboo was essentially in the "western half" of the Republic, would it be that much of a stretch to copy a page out of history and have the same thing happen (or as you, shanerjedi, suggest, adding in an element such as gold, oil, the "spice", cheap plastic toys, etc for the (trade) federation to want to take)?

If Naboo was renamed Alderaan to could further reflect the "sacking of Rome (the old capital)" whilst the new capital, Coruscant (Constantinople) remained the source of power of what was left of the old Republic/Empire.

Again, this is not a thing that HAS to be done, so much as if you are going to go this route, here is how you can do it.

Okay, here we go:
(1) its just an idea.  If you don't want to do it in your edit, that's cool.  I'm just making a suggestion.

(2) this HAS happened before: it is what pretty much led to the destruction of the Roman Empire.  We had this happen right before WW2 with Chamberlain and his "peace in our day" bit with Hitler.  As far as 300 and EXCALIBUR the MOVIES, yes, they are myths of real events or myths of a forgotten past.  While Frank Miller's account of the battle of Thermopylae didn't happen, the battle still did. 

(3) The Republic is not a Nation State or a Federal State either; it is a banding of different worlds (countries) united in a republic, where every planet has representatives - you know, if the UN actually worked and everyone agreed to actually work together.

(4) Bingo, we all know that the "war on (islamic funded and backed) terror(ists)" is not a war on an "emotional state" and we do know that most Europeans just don't want to deal with it.  Islamic terrorists exist - sorry to tell you this.  Sheesh.

(5) If Mexico invaded Texas, the whole of the US would go to war?  Really?  10 to 20 illegal immigrants who've been here for 10 to 20 years and are still mexican nationals, who have been tapping in to billions of tax dollars while being exploited by corporations and politicians?  Not to mention the drug war that is happening in Mexico right now?

(6) as far as Texas invading Oklahoma (or some equivalent), that would have happened a long time ago (when state lines were first being formed) and if there was a "state-on-state" aggression, Union troops would have been sent to quell the fighting - there would be no investigation, just a straight-up army being sent. 

Now what is interesting is that the American Civil War started because the Union general who was at Fort Sumter, South Carolina would not use force against the emerging Confederate army that was gearing up for there eventual attack on the fort.  After the fort was taken, the general did nothing in response, which gave the Confederates the opinion that they had power and legitimacy to their claim(s).  As a result, we had a bloody Civil War that may have well been ended if the US goverment stopped it right at the start.

I guess a better example would be how both the Americans and Europeans won't stop a lot of the atrocities that are happening in Africa.  If Naboo is considered a "third world" planet, or of no importance to the Republic, why would they start a war with a competing super power over say, the Falkland islands or the planetary equivalent?

I know Ady isn't going to do this with ESB:R but it would be nice to see the AT-ST's scouting for targets:

 

Okay, now see the background here?  That is what I was complaining about that new shot Ady created: notice how the mountains and the snow plain look like there is some distance between them up above.  I know everyone disagrees with me but the Ady shot looks like 3 models on a set.

 Adywan said:
well for one this is a painting and its viewpoint is a high angle so you can see more of the ground that's beyond the path of the AT-AT. in my shot its a very low angle which you can't see the full scope of the ground behind the snow mound that is in front of the closest AT-AT. Plus in my new shot the background, including the snow ground is taken from a photograph so how you think that adding a real element makes the new shot look less realistic than the original which has a foreground and background painted matte is beyond me.

I'm just talking about the general background in regards to how the snow plain meets the mountains in the distance - not the high contrast or STAR WARS elements of the image itself.

Notice how the mountains have the atmospheric haze and aren't super detailed.  And as far as photographs or paintings go (matte or otherwise), all I can do is say what looks good "to me".  Again, I am not saying that super high contrast is what I like; I like how you can see depth in the snow plain and the mountains look like they are far away.  The added-in elements throw the scale off (as the snow trooper and the AT-ST are out of proportion - going by this shot and where the AT-ST feet should be, the trooper would be floating in the air a good 10 feet or so):

The ground itself looks like it is at eye level, but going by the AT-AT it is around 50 feet up.  Regardless, my point is of scale and recession of detail and vanishing points to the land element of the image (not the AT-AT, AT-ST or snow trooper).

- Another EMPIRE - HOTH idea: would it be possible to add clips of snow troopers opening up panels on the sides of the AT-ATs to shoot at rebel troops and/or the snow speeders?  I'm thinking along the lines of something like the Oliphant shots in LOTR: RETURN OF THE KING or NAUSICAA when the 4 cargo planes are attacked.  Note: this is not so much for EMPIRE:R as just an idea for any editors.


And Ady:
you don't have to argue with me; I know that what you have done is pretty much it (that's also why I'm putting this comment here in the ESB wishlist thread and not the ESB:R one).  I am not going to try to convince you to change what you've put a lot of work into, so any of my messages regarding this scene is me trying to interpret what I am thinking for others as well as add suggestions for another edit, not me trying to change your decision.

For "me":
The original shot of Luke going up underneath the AT-AT (in the 2004 OT dvd) appears as if the camera is on the ground looking up a bit.  The Hoth battle shot in EMPIRE:R looks to be about 40 to 50 feet up looking not quite straight across the plain on a level view.  If the shot in ESB:R is a "ground level" shot (or close to it - around 10 feet up or so), then the other walkers need to be a little lower than the one in front of it. 

It's like taking your hand and leveling it - the tips of the fingers are roughly at the same level as the base of the thumb.  If you tilt your hand 35 to 45 degrees, naturally the tips of the fingers are lower than the thumb base.  If we are looking up at the AT-AT from roughly ground level, the same should apply to the AT-ATs behind the one Luke attacks, in that there should be a 35 to 45 degree slope (+ or - some degrees) between the backs of the AT-ATs, so each one is not just further back (even if it is just a bit) but lower than the previous one. 

I will post some photoshop images to illustrate some time tomorrow or Monday.

It is just "for me" a bit on the flat side, since it looks like all 3 AT-ATs are close together (yes, I know the previous shot and how they are stacked together a bit) and almost at the same height.  Combined with the ground not appearing to recede and the mountains starting up (in comparison to the AT-ATs) maybe 50 to 100 feet behind them, or about 5 feet behind the models, combined with the static vertical sky... there is just not something working "for me" - it could be where the ground connects into the mountains - maybe if the mountains were farther back and there was a more evident snow plain that receded farther back, or some clouds that went back to show a more horizontal plain of clouds to add depth, I dunno.

All I can do is offer my point of view and if there are arguments, to then expand that POV to try to further explain why its there.

EDIT - I guess another nitpick would be:
if there are only  5 AT-ATs attacking the rebels, and we see Wedge destroy one and Luke destroy another, that leaves the 3 we see attacking the rebel line.  Now I would have thought that someone could ADD the other 2 AT-ATs in, and when Veers gives the order to concetrate all forward fire power on the shield generators you would see the remaining 3 AT-ATs fire simultaneously on the shield generator.

I guess a plot problem with Luke destroying the starboard AT-AT and an unknown rebel destroying the port AT-AT (to Veers, in the center) is that:

(1) it leaves only Veers and maybe 20 snow troopers to take on, what, a few hundred rebels?  Granted, with the shield generator down, untold numbers can come down "now", but still...

(2) more importantly, I always took it as Luke went after the AT-AT that stepped on his snow speeder.  When he crashed, Luke was quite a distance from the rebel trench line - even so, the one that just stepped on his speeder wouldn't be that far away, even if it could move faster than a human can run.  How would Luke be able to run the distance from his crashed speeder to the front wave of 3 AT-ATs?  Would this mean that the shot of Luke getting shot down has to be changed to show the 3 AT-AT line?

(3) this still leaves the 5th AT-AT covering the outer flank of the front 3.  Naturally, it is probably going to get destroyed, but it still has to be dealt with regardless.

Another idea for the Hoth battle:
everything for the most part seems to be rather 2- dimensional in that you see stuff coming from the left or the right.  Would it be possible to show snow speeders flying towards us and away from us as they are flying around the AT-ATs?  Maybe not so much 30 or so all over the place, but say in a scene similar to the one you posted (with Luke zipping up to the AT-AT underbelly) show snow speeders flying underneath the AT-ATs either heading towards us or going underneath and away from us to give some extra depth and scale?

Bingowings said:

I hope it's fixed now (there was an extra space in the link as I posted it).

I know Ady isn't going to do this with ESB:R but it would be nice to see the AT-ST's scouting for targets:

 

Okay, now see the background here?  That is what I was complaining about that new shot Ady created: notice how the mountains and the snow plain look like there is some distance between them up above.  I know everyone disagrees with me but the Ady shot looks like 3 models on a set.

vaderios said:

Oh not again the 300 movie. Its enjoyable but im from Greece and i know that the movie wasnt historical accurate but hell cool !

I got your point, just i couldnt resist.

 

-Angel

Well, not so much the 300 "movie" as an accurate description of history, but you get the gist.  Even in the real event, there were politicians who afraid of "pissing off" the so-called superior forces of the Persian army and did not want Greece to be destroyed.

Bingowings said:

The crawl doesn't say the Republic has ended it says the golden age has ended (the optimism and positive wave that formed it has broken).

What's at stake is the Republic itself but I suppose it can do no harm to suggest there is a small glimmer of hope it might be averted and reversed.

The code of Knighthood line is a simplification because it explains what the code is and that the Jedi are knights so I would prefer to keep it and lose the Knight at the end of Jedi.

Making an edit where the Federation are invading from outside the Republic is radical but it begs the question why don't the Republic respond en masse against these exterior invaders (unless Naboo is outside the Republic too in which case why do they respond at all)? It could make for an interesting reworking so suggestions on how that might play out would be a grand addition to the collection of ideas up for grabs on this thread.

For me it makes more sense if the Federation is the financial arm of a member state attacking the sovereignty of another member state. Adjusting every spoken reference to the Trade Federation in a realistic fashion would be difficult but someone might be able to do it.

However the text is there for anyone to play with and if you want to shift the words around in anyway to you own needs and ideas please do.

Incorporating some (but not all for the reasons I just described) of your ideas with the changes I made in response to ChainsawAsh's comments here's a new draught (the four dots no longer hang too):

A thousand generations since the defeat of the SITH LORDS and the golden age of the REPUBLIC is coming to an end.
Centuries of peace and justice have led to indolence and hesitation.

Ancient feuds and resentments fester unresolved in the senate, slavery and oppression sweep worlds beyond the Republlic's control. Bound by galactic law and the strictures of their code of knighthood the JEDI are powerless to intervene.

Taking advantage of these turbulent times the TRADE FEDERATION of Neimoidia has directed it’s fleet to the contested world of Naboo. Aided by sinister new allies....
 

Well, in that regards, we've seen that in our own history.  Hell, didn't you see 300?!  Didn't you have a large foreign invasion that the Spartan politicians did NOT want to fight?  Isn't Europe monkey wrenching the whole war on terror?  Didn't we see Europe do the same thing before World War 2?  And what about the Gondorians in LORD OF THE RINGS?

So there is plenty of precedent for an empire/republic/democracy to ignore the 8,000 pound army of gorillas approaching on the horizon.

adywan said:

Monroville said:

I wish you made it more cloudy and less open bright sky -

Monroville said:

There is nothing saying you can't redo the skyline and make it clearer.

well you totally contradicted yourself about the sky here Monroville. As i've said i'm not changing anything about the new shot. it works perfectly well for me. The brightness matches the other shots in the sequence whereas before , as i have said already, the original shot looked stormy. I guess there is only one way to settle this as you need to see it in motion and in context with the rest of the sequence. I'm wondering just how many are still comparing the colouring with the 2004 shots instead of my colour corrected version?

IN MOTION

please don't post this clip on youtube because it isn't finished. ignore the first shot because that's just the colour corrected version and i haven't begun work on this yet

 

Okay, this is getting very frustrating. 

The first comment is on the EMPIRE:R image itself, as in the cloudier sky can be implemented per my prior message with the fog bank/storm that the AT-ATs are first seen with the binocs. 

The second comment is - if you want to do the clear skies, you can make the skies in the original shot clearer and add an AT-AT on the left, otherwise making the shot unmodified (other than color correction).

Now:
after watching the clip, it does come off better in motion, but there is still something that seems a little off.  I don't know if it is the closeness of the AT-ATs, the lighting or something with how the ground doesn't seem to recede far enough for the mountains to be "mountains".   Maybe if the mountains were more grey or a faded blue due to atmospheric haze - something to distinguish them from the ground below the AT-ATs so it doesn't look like they're right behind them.

Now I also understand that this is your show.  I'm just voicing my concern being that one of the things that really put me off the Prequels was just how everything was filmed.  it seems that everything since the mid-90's has this uniform lighted look (from foreground to background), with the exception of horror movies, which go the complete opposite direction and now they all look like SEVEN.

Bingowings said:

Here's my stab at a new crawl for TPM (it needs to be spaced better because the .... is floating on it's own) :

I really like it for the most part, though here are a few ideas to consider:

"The golden age of the GALACTIC REPUBLIC is coming to an end.

It has been a thousand generations since the defeat of the evil SITH LORDS but after centuries of peace and justice ancient feuds and resentments have weakened the senate.

Bound by galactic law, the JEDI KNIGHTS struggle against the strictures of their code as slavery and oppression sweep through the worlds outside the Republic's control.

Taking advantage of these troubled times, the Neimoidian FEDERATION has directed it's fleet to the outer world of Naboo, aided by sinister new allies... "

Here are the reasons for the changes:
(line 1): to say the Republic is already ended is not exactly true; it is right on the EDGE of falling apart.  To say it is already done with is to deflate tension as opposed to giving the audience some glimmer of hope that Utopia can be saved.

(line 2): just a few words changed to simplify, but also to imply that the senate HAS tried to deal with the outbreaks of anarchy, but is getting overwhelmed.

(line 3): to have the Jedi just idly sit by as slavery and oppression occur to millions makes the Jedi to be either weak or evil through acts of omission.  To state that they are struggling with the law (both Republic and their own) as to what to do about it shows that the Jedi WANT to do their own thing, but want to obey ala Samurais.

(line 4): again, to establish the Neimoidians as a separate entity outside of the Republic makes them an all-out invader coming into the fringe of Republic territory, thus increasing the stakes, which is why I changed "contested" with "outer" world - to imply that Naboo is on the fringe of the Republic and the Republic may not care if they fall or not, just so long as the Peace is Kept.

It would also imply that Qui-Jon and Obi-Wan are possibly on their own mission from the Jedi, and that their status as ambassadors is a cover.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

Here's my early version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4cCQrlxAfw

My thoughts are it should be left ambiguous as to wether Anakin told Palps or not...we then find out in ROTS that he in fact DID.

I REALLY like this idea - of inverting the Ben/Luke relationship by having Palp or Sideous pop up as a hologram/ghost to coach Anakin on.  In fact, is there a way the Ghost Ben scenes could be inverted/reflected through the Prequels (how Ben instructs Luke to go to Dagobah to find Yoda, could a Palpatine hologram instruct Anakin to find Darth Sideous for "training" or go to said planet in EP2 or 3)?

Bingowings said:

In an ideal world we would have seen some of those glory days but that's impossible without reshooting the films from scratch.

Whatever way you cut it the Republic and the Jedi are already on their way out at the beginning of Episode One (possibly after centuries of behind the scenes manipulation by the Sith or just by the sheer weight of the conflicting interests it had to keep in balance).

Sidious exploits a very exploitable situation.

It may be that there never really was a golden age and that it's as mythical as Camelot.

A thousand generations is a long time to build up monumental nostalgia compared against even Galactic peace and democracy could be made to seem dull and disposable.

Like Joni sang, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone".

 

Scenes from say CALIGULA (the feasting scenes, not the sex stuff) or other said Roman movies (like maybe GLADIATOR?) could be inserted for the sake of showing Senators or rich people in general enjoying themselves (as well as come across as gluttoness and weak).  Or, if it's possible, say during a scene when Sideous is walking down a corridor talking to Maul or someone else, you take said scene and put it in a room they pass or in a room/window in the background, with the implication that Palpatine/Sideous sees the avarice and gluttoness behavior of what the Senators do behind closed doors and it is what is propelling him to create the Empire to begin with (along with the threat of a neighboring Empire taking them over).

That is why I say get rid of the TRADE Federation and just rename them the FEDERATION.  Make them a seperate entity that is competing with the Republic (and a large outside threat) as opposed to a mere member. 

Here is another idea: if the Calimari could be inserted in a few scenes throughout the Prequel films (say in the background of some of the Neimodian scenes, especially on the bridge of the command ship), as well as put the "rebel symbol" but in a slightly different form, you could create the implication that the Neimodians/Calimarians were the ones funding the rebellion in the OT movies, and that what we see in the OT is just a continuation of what we see in the Prequels.

dark_jedi said:

Monroville said:

BTW, DARK JEDI:

I've probably already asked this, and I have the link to M0ther's PAL TO NTSC thread, but what programs do you use to make the conversion?  Do you simply follow his steps or do you use something that is a little less complicated?

You know, wouldn't it be nice if there was a program that all you had to do was click on the option "NTSC to PAL" or "PAL to NTSC" and click START and done?

No I do not copy anyone else's methods to the "T" I use a bunch of different programs and methods depending on what I am working on and trying to achieve,I like doing PAL2NTSC conversions,pretty much movie only though,do not have the patience to do the whole DVD,and I do alot of anamorphic conversions of DVD's not in 16:9,but if you really want t 1 click solution,which really does not do all that bad(but still not good enough for my tastes though LOL) ConvertXtoDVD is a pretty nice app. and it just keeps getting better with every update,can even add menu's

 

What are the names of those programs, by the way.  <:)

Also, is there a way to save and re-use menus?  I have the BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW Anchor Bay UK release (which is non-anamorphic and looks like garbage on my 65" HDTV) and a Spanish release, which, while non-anamorphic, it is derived from the anamorphic print that MGM made but never released (remember when MIDNIGHT MOVIES were still being made?  Apparently GALAXY OF TERROR and BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW were on the list, but MGM went bankrupt before they were produced) and looks excellent.

The point being that I love the extras and the menu for the Anchor Bay release, I just want to replace the Anchor Bay video file with the one from the Spanish dvd, which looks a hell of a lot better.  What makes this worse is that on one of the documentaries, clips of BOSC were used that are 16:9 ANAMORPHIC AND LOOK EXCELLENT!  Which means Anchor Bay UK had access to the 16:9 anamorphic print, but didn't put it on the dvd!!!!

adywan said:

Monroville said:

I wish you made it more cloudy and less open bright sky - there is something that just doesn't work with those shots: I would almost rather you space out the 3 AT-ATs and maybe add one on Veer's left in the last shot above.

Remember, the focus should be on Luke, not the 3 AT-ATs grouped together, the one falling down and the brightly lit mountains in the back, etc.

 

but why make it more cloudy when the rest of the battle has more blue sky?  funny thing is that i have used the same sky as the original so the sky hasn't changed.lol. the battle is taking place on a clear day. the original shot made it suddenly jump to a dark, kinda stormy day. the mountains are brightly lit throughout. so i see no need for me to change this shot from the way it stands now.

 

Are you going to get rid of the large fog bank (or potential coming storm) that the AT-ATs are first seen in?  Weather changes, especially in artic areas.  Why is it hard to believe that a clear sky can't turn to stormy (or something even lighter than a storm) weather?   Being that we see the walkers far off in the distance coming out of a large fog bank, that can account for any changes in the weather shots during the battle. 

The problem after that then is continuity - I know that the Wedge scene has clear skies, so you would either have to show the fog bank/storm approaching in the distance or change the clear sky plates to be more cloudy.

Even then, my main argument is the focus of the image.  The sky area could be replaced much like what you did for the ion cannon shot.  The ground and hill could remain, just replace the sky with a clearer blue one, bring the far right AT-AT closer (about 2x size), add another AT-AT on the left that is mid sized between the foreground AT-AT and the new background one and thus, all 3 remaining AT-ATs are accounted for and the focus is still on Luke; I know, easier said than done - I'm not doing the work. 

But please think about the composition of the image, not just the stuff that's in it.  I never bought that whole "putting stuff in a movie simply because you can" argument, because if anything is going to be added, it still has to have something to do with a movie's storyline.  It is only when something STANDS OUT and distracts that it becomes a detriment to a film or film edit (KILLER HORIZON: excellent edit, but there is one scene where too much is garnered from EMILY ROSE that it is obviously EMILY ROSE scenes stuffed into the movie, which then takes me OUT of the movie).

Having "more AT-ATs" or "more TIEs" would make sense because the Empire would send an army to go after whoever.  I'm not making the argument to do that "with this edit" (you have made it quite clear what you are doing with EMPIRE:R), but what I am saying that to do so would not constitute a "doing it for the sake of it" thing (as opposed to 2 or 20 Death Stars in JEDI, or overloading any scene with so much stuff you can't tell what's going on), provided that you do something with the additions.

Granted, I have not seen this in motion, but it does feel like it is too much for one shot - whether the AT-ATs need to be spaced out a little more, something done with the mountains... it is just that everything is so in focus that it doesn't look real and that is what concerns me.

Bingowings said:

Monroville said :

In this case, I like the original DVD shot better. I could see adding an AT-AT in the mid ground on the left (to balance the far off AT-AT and the foreground one - one that is mid size between the 2 we see) but the matte Ady is using looks very fakish. I could see maybe doing something with the cloudscape, but the back"ground" should stay the same (just color corrected).

I can't agree with you there, the original looks like what it is (a nice painting propped behind the models and hidden behind a weird tint) Ady's shots have much more depth to them, they look less like a theatre backdrop and more like a real landscape.

Um, Bingo?  Are we looking at the same 2 pictures?  Granted, I would like the DVD shot color corrected, but you can't tell me that the background on the DVD shot looks more like a painting than the backdrop on the Ady pic.  Everything is so brightly lit that it is hard to tell just how far back the image really goes - it is the same problem with a lot of Prequel shots in that a lot of movies nowadays in general has that "everything must be lit up to show where the money was spent" look which looks fake.

When there is no real distinguishment between the foreground, midground and background, anything is going to look flat.

doubleofive said:

Monroville said:

In this case, I like the original DVD shot better.  I could see adding an AT-AT in the mid ground on the left (to balance the far off AT-AT and the foreground one - one that is mid size between the 2 we see) but the matte Ady is using looks very fakish.  I could see maybe doing something with the cloudscape, but the back"ground" should stay the same (just color corrected).

But nothing of the original DVD shot makes any sense with any of the shots around it, like I showed.  And its suddenly foggy in the shots with Luke's target walker.  Doesn't make any sense.

There is nothing saying you can't redo the skyline and make it clearer.  You could bring the distant AT-AT a little closer, and add Veer's AT-AT in the midground left.  That way the focus is still on Luke, not these packed-together AT-ATs with other things happening all at once.  You would have to space out the AT-ATs in the triple front shot to match the distances between them seen in the Luke one though.

it's just that the Ady shot is so brightly lit (from foreground to background) that it appears that they are all near the same plane of focus with a mountain backdrop - it just doesn't look convincing to me.  It is as if a OT shot was created to a Prequel shot.

doubleofive said:

For those wondering, here is what Ady has to contend with when it comes to The Last Three Walkers:

Also notice the wildly varied backgrounds.

Makes sense that more than one would be brought down by tripping them, and they probably would fall in similar ways.

I wish you made it more cloudy and less open bright sky - there is something that just doesn't work with those shots: I would almost rather you space out the 3 AT-ATs and maybe add one on Veer's left in the last shot above.

Remember, the focus should be on Luke, not the 3 AT-ATs grouped together, the one falling down and the brightly lit mountains in the back, etc.

doubleofive said:

Comparison by me, coming in a few minutes.

Here it is:

Awesome that Ady used Vaderios' matte.  It's good stuff there!

In this case, I like the original DVD shot better.  I could see adding an AT-AT in the mid ground on the left (to balance the far off AT-AT and the foreground one - one that is mid size between the 2 we see) but the matte Ady is using looks very fakish.  I could see maybe doing something with the cloudscape, but the back"ground" should stay the same (just color corrected).

BTW, DARK JEDI:

I've probably already asked this, and I have the link to M0ther's PAL TO NTSC thread, but what programs do you use to make the conversion?  Do you simply follow his steps or do you use something that is a little less complicated?

You know, wouldn't it be nice if there was a program that all you had to do was click on the option "NTSC to PAL" or "PAL to NTSC" and click START and done?

Octorox said:

No offense but I completely despise TheoOdo's idea. The point of the prequels is to show the glory day's of the old republic and how they came to an end. There needs to be a huge but gradual shift in attitude and style from TPM to ANH. To have the Jedi and the Republic  already laughable Day 1 does not show that.

The problem is that these films take place 18 years at best before ANH.  I mean we are talking The Fall of the Roman Empire here, with the Republic on it's last legs.  There is nothing to say that you cannot show some of that glory (as either the Jedi or Senate/Nobility enjoy themselves with feasts and the like), but the overall heyday has been gone for 100s of years at this point.

- again, we can blame Lucas for this: there was nothing stopping him from making a set of movies that spanned 100 years and lead to Anakin's character through say his father and grandfather - think of something along the lines of THE GODFATHER at least when it comes to showing the generational side of things and how what Marlin Brando's character did (when played by Robert DeNiro) that affected his family by the time he was old.  Alas, this is simply Anakin's story.

Also, it is the Federation that is implying they are a joke, not that they actually ARE a joke.  As in: the Federation is akin to a competing Empire/Republic and much as we fought a cold war with the Soviets, the fighting is going to go the whole range of shootouts to insults, subtle or blunt.

Bingowings said:

Nero Fett sounds like a painkiller to me, actually I quite like Django Fett (it might even be possible to add a "D'" sound to the few mentions of his name).

I quite like the bright colours of the Naboo ships it sets them apart from the world of the OT and ties in with things like Von Richthofen's red Fokker.

So you'd rather him named after a banjo or change rolling in your pocket than a roman emperor?  <:)

JasonN said:

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

Now the whole Naboo/Federation thing...I haven't watched TPM in a while but if we simply removed the Federation from the actual Senate meeting....could that work? I'm still a bit confused by the whole political side of things...

I don't think that would work, because if the TF weren't at the Senate meeting and did not (essentially) force the Chancellor to merely appointing an "assessment committee" to check Nabbo out rather than just stop the TF's invasion, Queen Amidala would have no reason for giving a vote of No Confidence and forcing the Chancellor out of office.

Actually, it would be the other way around.  If you edit out the Federation reps (no trade, just Federation), the reasoning for giving General Zod a "no confidence" vote would come down to him not wanting to start a war with a competing republic that has been expanding, whereas they have tempered their warrior ways and have been managing the Republic for eons and have become rather weak in the process.

Rememeber, Amidala is there to get help in the form of military intervention.  If the Chancellor (Zod) is afraid of the counter-response from the Federation, he would ignore Naboo/Alderaan/Whatever the Planet is called and thus Palpatine could start to convince the Senate to vote "Zod" out due to his unwillingness to help the helpless and Amidala would be more than willing to fire his ass for not wanting to help her.

I think another key factor that made the Prequels weak was the MOTIVATIONS of all the characters: what do they stand to gain or lose?  Hence, slavery over taxation and Amidala voting Chancellor Zod out because he won't help her save her planet as opposed to.. what was the reason in the movie again?

In fact, someone could create some audio lines (heard but we can't see who is saying the words) that Naboo isn't the only world the Federation is going after.  Think along the lines of either the Jihad or when Russia invaded Eastern Europe in the 1950's and '60's.

Bingowings said:

I actually like the idea of R2 being blue because he's one of blue group's astrodroids (Naboo seems to be obsessed with aesthetics).

 

I think one of my biggest problems when it came to the LOOK of the Prequels was just how brightly lit everything was.  I can understand everything isn't as "beat up" as the OT tech, but the plethora of shiny stuff gave away the CGI-ness of everything.

Same thing with all of the city shots: no faded bluish buildings (atmosphere haze or smog), no morning or dusk shots - everything was 12:00 noon broad daylight (Naboo) or nighttime (Coruscant).

And can we change Naboo to ANYTHING else?  It doesn't have to be Alderaan, but just something that doesn't sound like part of a Robin Williams joke.  On that note, did anyone find the general names for everything to be rather flat or silly?  I know names like GREEDO, Han SOLO, CHEW(ING TO)BACCA and the like are in the same league, but how is it those names sounded natural but names like Darth (In)Sideous, Maul, Count DOOKU, NABOO and JANGO(?!) Fett just sound... stupid?

If Jango is off of Django (the Franco Nero lone cowboy character), couldn't we call him NERO Fett?

adywan said:

Monroville said:

Is there any way to make the AT-STs (if they're included) cockpit windows look like the AT-ATs, like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaAju7mO6rI

I always thought that the way they were designed in JEDI made them look like they had droopy eyes (and not threatening).  Even if you had a reflective/black window as opposed to the glowing red/blue ones would still look better.

You know Ady, maybe that is something you could do with the AT-ATs on Hoth.  I know you took out the red windows, but what about reflective windows, like how some windows are on more modern buildings?  They wouldn't have to be mirrored, but more like how tinted windows look when sunlight reflects on them.

EDIT - link now works

i really don't like the designs they have done for the AT-ST's in that video. i really like the idea that the AT-AT's & AT-ST's don't have any sort of glass in them at all. It makes them more like real life tanks which just have open viewing slats so no reflective look to them i'm afraid.

But tanks are sealed to protect them from germ warfare.  How can the AT-ATs and AT-STs work in space or an atmosphere without breathable air if instead of a window they have an opening?  Sure, you could say they have shields, but the AT-ATs are armored not shielded (that I know of).

So I guess this means you like the droopy eyes as opposed to the Cyclops (ie X-MEN) single eye look?  >:)