NeverarGreat

I actually found Obi-wan to be much less interesting than he was in the film. In the drama, he sounds like he is a bit tired, whereas in the film he had an energy that is really hard to put into words.

Also I really didn't like the extended training scene on the Falcon. The use of hypnotic suggestion by both Vader and Obi-wan drag down the mystical element of the story for me, and the idea that the Jedi don't use money on principle makes little sense, and comes across as very Star Trek: TNG (though that came later, I know).

Overall, though, it was a fun journey, especially the bits about Leia and the Rebellion.

By the way, where is the search function on this forum? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Anaokar said:

LOL.  It's addicting, isn't it?  There are so many things that can happen in the SW galaxy, the mind just reels.

 

While I like your ideas for the showdown between Luke and Vader, I have to admit that this was one of the first things I fleshed out when I began writing.  However, the image of the "Hero of Yavin" in shackles broadcast gives me an idea.  Also like the idea of a rebellion in splinter cells.

 

I assume you're back to writing fan fiction then?

Oh, I am fully addicted to rewriting the prequels, but throughout these several years I have operated under the consideration that the original movies are gospel. It almost feels like cheating to rewrite the originals, as hindsight is 20/20, and people have had thirty years to figure out what works and what doesn't work about the originals.

It's been an interesting challenge, creating backstory to a good, yet flawed trilogy. If I were to discard the originals, I might as well write my own original movies in their own universe. Not to say that your project isn't interesting or worth pursuing. It's just part of the fun for me to try and reconcile why Anakin never goes back to Tatooine, despite apparently being from there, or how Han just happens to run into his old friend Lando while he is stranded without hyperdrive, given the vast scale of the galaxy. If you're just rewriting it, it's the easiest thing in the world to fix.

What I'm trying to say is that for me, limitation breeds creativity.

Anaokar said:

I can see you've given some thought to the stories as well.  I like the seeds of corruption in the rebellion idea. 

What have you done? You've gotten me started on rewriting the originals! Is nothing sacred?!

Anyway, here's a more fleshed out permutation of the story:

Luke leaves Dagobah and travels to Cloud City. There he battles Vader, who questions how Obi-wan could have trained Luke so well. Vader then tells him that he is his father. Luke escapes, and then the Imperials impound Luke's abandoned X-wing. From its trajectory, and its condition compared to its trajectory and condition leaving Hoth, they conclude that it must have come from Dagobah, and so Vader travels to Dagobah alone. Meanwhile, Luke and company are rescuing Han from Jabba the Hutt, who is on an Imperial controlled world in the mid-rim, and this is accomplished by activating a pocket of rebel forces on the planet. These pockets of rebel resistance are being organized throughout the galaxy in preparation for open rebellion, and Luke forces the beginning of this open rebellion. Luke then senses an urgent need to return to Yoda. Vader has landed on Dagobah and Yoda, sensing the dark lord's presence, has retreated to the cave of the Dark Side in an attempt to mask his presence in the Force. Vader nevertheless finds Yoda, and Luke arrives just as Vader kills the Jedi Master. Luke enters the cave, and for the second time he sees the figure of Vader approaching him through the mist. He battles the dark lord again, but realizes that he cannot kill a man who may be his own father. He throws his lightsaber to the ground and invites death, believing that his true father would not kill him. He is correct, as Vader deactivates his own saber. Knowing that Vader is his father, Luke knows that he must do whatever he can to save him. Luke allows Vader to lead him to his shuttle, and together they depart to meet the Emperor on Coruscant.

            From Coruscant, the image of Luke in shackles is broadcast throughout the galaxy. The hero of the rebellion, the one who destroyed the Death Star, has been captured. The Rebel leader Mon Mothma decides that the time for open rebellion has finally come for all of the planets of the galaxy, and she initiates the final assault on Coruscant.

From there, the story could continue in a similar vein as Return of the Jedi, but of course it would be cooler to make up something entirely different.

You know how Vader being Luke's father changed everything in the story of Star Wars? I feel like some gigantic revelation of that sort is required for any prequel rewrite or OT re-imagining to be interesting. Anyone can pick apart what shouldn't be in the movies, whether it be Ewoks or Jar Jar or even "But I was going into Toshe station to pick up some power converters!" But at the end of the day, changing these things doesn't change the heart of the story.

What I'm trying to get at here is that it looks like you're trying to go big with your changes. I think you're on the right track. My feeling is that you really need to go big with the heart of the story, make big changes that are risky, but have great potential payoff. I-am-your-father level changes to the heart of the plot, because the worst thing that this project can be is just the same story with some superficial changes and a new visual aesthetic.

What if Luke actually dies in his confrontation with Vader in Cloud City? Would Leia be forced to step into his shoes, and would she be up to it?

What if the rebellion contains the seeds of corruption that destroyed the Republic? For that matter, what is the rebellion even fighting for, precisely? What is its Declaration of Independence, its values and the type of government that it wishes to create or restore?

What if Luke learns that an intergalactic force is preparing to invade the galaxy? Would Luke risk destabilizing the current power system in the galaxy when it is about to be destroyed by an outside power?

Just some ideas about potential radical directions.

Awesome work!

It really makes you appreciate the people who built all of this from scratch for the original movies. Nowadays you could just add whatever you wanted in the computer, but back then you had to buy model kits, and it was very time consuming.

I'd love to see this completed!

(PS, I would love to film this for a Han Solo fan film. I don't have one planned, but just looking at it makes me want to make one)

Count me interested. I'm working on and off on a re-imagining of the prequels, but this sounds like a complete re-imagining of the entirety of Star Wars, is that correct?

What is canon? Is it for example the canon of the original movie, where Darth Vader literally killed Luke's father, or is it Empire canon, where Vader is Luke's father, and Luke's sibling is being raised in secret on the other side of the galaxy, or is it something entirely different?

How developed is the storyline, and are you open to changes in the story?

It sounds like you are passionate about this project. However, if the story loosely follows the original trilogy, wouldn't it be considered a remake of the originals, and a CG/animated one at that? I'm just saying that it may be difficult to gain support for something on an original trilogy fansite that aims to "remake" the original trilogy.

Though I do applaud the decision to dispense with the prequels.

It needs to be holy water, not holey water.

"Meteor hits country with largest land mass!"

*slow clap*

Hey meteor! Call me when you manage to hit the Vatican.

In all seriousness this is rather humbling and serious.

He lives!

Classes are the important bit. This sub-forum can wait.

(As in it hasn't been updated in a month)

Happy studying!

msycamore said:

zombie84 said:

Irvin Kershner turned down directing Empire Strikes Back. Lucas had to twist his arm to get him to do it; they had to have a second meeting where Lucas basically begged him to make the film. It turned out...pretty good, to put it lightly. To make things worse, the film he did right before Empire, Eyes of Laura Mars, sucked. Even Kershner apologized for it. And the rest of his films up until then were fairly obscure. I've seen "Hoodlum Priest," but have you? If the internet was around in 1978 we'd all be crucifying him.

A lot of people are looking for things to nail Abrams on but honestly none of us has any idea how well he will work out. I give him the benefit of the doubt until I see the movie, as he is not a bad director by any means.

I think it's quite amusing that after all these years, people are still waiting for that new "The Empire Strikes Back" but it's never going to happen, without lens flares or not ( "The Phantom Menace" had quite a good portion of artificial lens flares IIRC, so JJ will fit nicely)

To draw parallels with how things went down when the legendary sequel was made in the past to how things are proceeding now is quite pointless. The differences are quite big, not in the MO and not what you Zombie tried to say, the times and in what climate this new film is made in, is a very different scenario from Empire 30 years ago.

Is this a movie, that really needs to be made? Is this a story, that really needs to be told? Why are these new movies made? Is there someone with the passion behind this? Dollars of course!! Of course it's dollars, back when Empire was made it was all about money as well and more importantly the building of a new movie facility and planned franchise, it just happened to be a genuine interest on all fronts to make a great follow-up to one of the biggest surprise hits in movie history behind it. The last gasps of the golden 70's US independent era behind this kind of a blockbuster, it will never happen again. 

I know that I sound bitter, but it's because I am bitter, Star Wars have been reduced to a fuzzy old little DVNR'ed LD transfer, that's all we have left today of this little legendary film. THANK YOU LUCASFILM!!! :)

Never say never. After all, there are more projects now than ever before to bring the original Star Wars back to life, and I think that many of the people that will work on the new movies were probably inspired by the originals. It's not their fault that Lucas drove the prequels into the ground.

At the end of the day, movies will be made and remade, and the great ones will be remembered. With so many people now contributing to the brand of Star Wars, a lot of dross will be added, true, but it's up to you to accept it or not. There was a quote from the end of Myst 3 Exile that I think is quite pertinent.

http://youtu.be/JAkfbqVszXk?t=1m34s

"I know now that we can't erase the past. Nor can we rewrite it, hoping to lessen our pain. The best we can hope for is to continue to learn. Take from the past only that which is good, and move on. Perhaps in the process, we will build a brighter future."

Greetings all! I didn't see a thread dedicated to Episode 7 posters in this section, so share them here!

Here's one that I created using a new image from our very own sun.

Edit: Reworked because I wanted to.

Find both versions here: http://s649.beta.photobucket.com/user/NeverarGreat/media/Star%20Wars%207%20Poster/SurfaceoftheSunAsStarWars73CroppedandShrunk_edited-1_zpsb037216e.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

Bingowings said:

The Endor campaign is even more bonkers.

The Emperor claims that there is an entire legion (about 5000) of his best troops there but we only see the sort of troop numbers we would expect to see guarding an instillation of such importance.

The Empire sends in AT-STs when speeders, wheeled vehicles and ground troops would be better suited for forest combat.

No carpet bombing (which would make even better sense than sending in troops).

No gun emplacements or aircraft cover for the shield dish.

The Rebels are just as bad.

They have a large ship and never consider landing it on the platform or near the dish and blowing it up.

When the battle kicks off no fighter or bomber craft enter the atmosphere to shoot the dish off it's tower.

With a ship that size why aren't they carrying more guns or even some suicide droids strapped with explosives?

To be fair, the Empire may have had advanced anti-aircraft gun emplacements guarding the dish that we are never shown, which could be why the rebels ruled out an aerial bombardment.

Overall though, I agree wholeheartedly. I've said it before, but this is the main reason why I think it could be so cool to make the entire 2nd Death Star a diversion, incomplete except in terms of its weapons systems, and with only the most paltry and expendable troops guarding the shield generator (which should have been built on the Death Star itself if it were to actually be effective). The Emperor on the Death Star 2 is a clone, and Vader is sent to the Death Star because the real Emperor suspects he is plotting against him (which he is). The Imperial fleet retreats after the destruction of the Death Star, so the Empire only loses a couple of Star Destroyers and a Command Ship (perhaps because the real Emperor expected Vader and/or his failed Admiral Piett to be on it, and had the bridge shields sabotaged), and the result is that all of the deeply planted pockets of rebel resistance on many worlds reveal themselves to begin a full scale revolt with the death of the Emperor.

Then the Emperor reveals himself to be very much alive, and crushes the rebellion with an altogether more powerful and impenetrable battle fortress, and the Rebellion is all but destroyed throughout the galaxy.

SpilkaBilka said:

I've always wondered what this conversation between Vader and Veers meant:

Vader: The Rebels are alerted to our presence.  Admiral Ozzel came out of lightspeed too close to the system.

Veers: H-he felt surprise was wiser...

Vader: He's as clumsy as he is stupid.

 

Are we supposed to take Veers's statement at face value, that Ozzel's plan was to surprise the Rebels?  Or was he just trying to quickly mumble any made-up excuse he could think of to try to save his colleague from Vader's wrath?  Because I don't understand how arriving close to the system would be a surprise.

You'd think the best "surprise" would be to come out of lightspeed with the Star Destroyer's out of the Rebels' sensor range, then launch smaller landing craft (carrying troops, AT-ATs).  Presumably these smaller craft could get much closer to the base than the Star Destroyers could before triggering the Rebels' sensors.  That seems like it would be more of a surprise than what Ozzel did.

And what do you think Veers was about to say?  Ozzel felt surprise was wiser than... what, exactly?

I always assumed that he said "He felt surprised, was wiser..."

He is apparently saying that Ozzel felt surprised, and was saying that was a more appropriate description of his superior's reaction.

Exactly. After all, once Arthur had brought all of his knights to the round table, he then had to give them the grail quest to keep them occupied.

It would also be cool to see more spiritual connectivity in the sequels. The Ewoks mistook 3PO for a god, and that was played for comedy. But the entire idea of mechanical beings being part of the Force is something that the movies really haven't touched on. Could a droid be a Jedi? What constitutes a person? Maybe not answer these questions, but it would be nice to get the audience to think.

It would have made sense if there were no lightsaber fights or Jedi onscreen in Episodes 1-3. After all, Luke doesn't seem to know what a lightsaber is, or what the Jedi do exactly. We get to learn with Luke in the OT.

I expect that the audience knows what Jedi are by the sequels, and fully expects them to be there, lightsabers flashing. However, I think it would be a mistake to focus on the lightsaber battles as big events like they were in the OT. By this point, wielding a lightsaber would be like flying a spaceship; lots of people can do it, so we need to raise the stakes.

Have the new Jedi be united in a quest for something, something worthwhile at that. At the same time, have the story grow beyond the Jedi, so that the hero must undergo a paradigm shift to understand how to save the day.

Wow that is weird.

That "original" frame simply doesn't exist in the DVD version that I have. Notice how Jabba's eyes are slightly more open on the original, and the appearance of a "hole" on his chin that is absent on the original. At no point in the shot does this hole disappear on the DVD, so I assume that this effect was redone for the DVD along with the the rest of the digital additions in this sequence, or the end of this shot was perhaps cut off.

If the character was redone, global color correction wouldn't really work, as the colors of the separate elements may be different. 

Sorry if this has been said before, I just noticed it.

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but Altoids - Citrus Sours.

I have about a dozen of these cans in my room holding twenty-sided dice and thumbtacks and things.

Nah, they'll just have cheaper looking CG backgrounds.

Let's explain the backstory of a character whose greatest asset is his mysterious nature! And while we're at it, we can tell the story of Han Solo that even George Lucas realized was a bad idea!

The odds that those will be good are exhaust port level.

Every new movie that comes out focusing on established characters is a movie that shrinks the Star Wars galaxy.

This is a good idea. Let's have no negativity about how the media will spin this, it's a valid and worthy goal.

I would be willing to contribute to this, but you'd need plenty of help. The cost seems to be in the 16,000 dollar range now:

http://www.gaebler.com/Variety-magazine-advertising-costs++39329

I know this idea has been thought of before, so I'll just ask how quickly it was shot down.

What if the Emperor on the Second Death Star was a clone?

This disregards the prequels, as Anakin/Vader would have known the difference, but if Vader of the OT had only ever seen the Emperor in holograms, how would he know if he was talking to the real Emperor on the Death Star? Also, the Emperor changes dramatically in appearance in both the original trilogy and the special edition, so it could very well be a rapidly aging decoy placed on the Death Star to test Luke and the rebels, as well as Vader's loyalty, without ever exposing himself or even risking a completed battle station. The Emperor's "Best Troops" seem inferior to even generic stormtroopers, perhaps implying that the clone Emperor wasn't aware of the real condition of his troops. The Imperial fleet flees after the battle, even after it still seemed to outnumber the rebel fleet. Was it an unexpected retreat, or a calculated move to make the rebels think that they won and lower their guard?

It's just that if the EU is going to be thrown out, why not go crazy? Everyone agrees that cloning the Emperor is a bad idea, but that's because the real McCoy was already killed off, leading to cheap imitations. But if Luke was overpowered and Vader killed by a cheap imitation of the Emperor, how powerful would the real deal be?

Bump.

This is a good question. Where can you find these trailers?

I wonder what could be causing that shift if it isn't Fraps. What software did you use to play the DVD? I used KMPlayer to play the DVD from the hard drive, that may be the problem. This lightening may also cause the white levels to be crushed in bright scenes, such as the burning homestead scene. I guess I should experiment some more with some better software.

You_Too said:

Why does all the before-pics have a black level of 15? Makes them look very grey. Either something is wrong with the source you're using or something is wrong with the way the screenshots have been captured.

Thanks for pointing that out. I don't really have any tools for doing this sort of thing properly, so the only thing I had on hand was Fraps. That is what lightened the black levels, and from what I can see it lightened everything pretty much evenly. So the comparison isn't entirely accurate, as the brightness of the source should be about 15 points lower.