NeverarGreat

I stumbled across this image here and ignoring the weird assertion that this is responding to (Of course women grew up on Star Wars), I was curious: would this costume have required a viewer with non-insider knowledge to fabricate it out of memory? It would certainly be possible to sit in the theater (perhaps a drive-in) with a sketchbook and take notes, but I imagine that there would have been promotional materials of the pilots such as lobby cards, magazine photos, and newspaper articles.

This is the only poster I could find of the pilot costume, and even then I’m not sure if it was from '77.

So purely academically, is there evidence of Rebel pilot images appearing in print in 1977?

JEDIT: I found a set of oversize character portraits that were available at the time from here, one of which is of Luke in uniform, and another which contains the full uniform from the side.

Notably, however, the high-quality image of Luke is reversed so anyone working directly from that image would have to have other reference for that and the helmet.

Finally, Marvel Star Wars comic #5 has many views of the Rebel pilots, and the comic released on August 10, 1977. Obviously they are not detailed enough to work as reference for the costume in the original photo.

So my question remains: Would there have been a high-quality reference of Luke in uniform to base a costume off of, or is it more likely that she did drawings (or snapped a polaroid of the screen?)

Very promising! I’d forgotten that he raises his gun in the palace. I imagine that there would need to be some power windows to make it seem like he’s emerging from the shadows. It may be better to keep the shot of Boba unflipped though, since flipping it here breaks the 180 degree rule.

Also, maybe there could be a Temuera Morrison line that could be used during the transition between shots, like a mocking ‘Not so fast, bounty hunter!’ Maybe something from the new show?

JEDIT: Canonically, there’s a stairway in the direction he appears so I made a mockup of it. In any case, there should probably be a curtain that is pulled back offscreen since the curtain can be seen in previous shots.

Sorry about the copious notes, I’m really just working the problem out-loud.

RogueLeader said:

*Alter their capture so Boba Fett catches them instead of the whole palace hiding behind curtains

As I mentioned before, it’s a neat idea but I simply can’t visualize how that would work with the available footage. Would be interested in seeing a mockup though 😃

The thing with Restructured was that the idea was already fairly latent in the film, just sort of waiting to be expressed. Many people had thought of the idea around the same time so it was just a matter of making a fairly obvious improvement to the story.

With ROTJ, there are certainly some dramatic changes one could make but I haven’t yet seen one for this film that would significantly improve it, or at least it would have some substantial downsides. As well, I think there’s a bit more sanctity with the OT vs the ST where we would just throw things at the wall to see what stuck. No matter what is cut, there will be people who object on the basis of it being a favorite childhood moment or something.

I feel the pacing issue of the opening as well, and wish there was more connective tissue between Vader’s arrival and the Tatooine plot. Unfortunately, it has always felt a bit like cleanup from the previous movie. Spence’s edit puts Luke’s Dagobah scene after the Vader introduction, which makes sense, but that still doesn’t help the introduction of Jabba’s palace. The Vader deleted scene has always felt more like a quickly abandoned concept than a finished scene, unfortunately, and the dialogue is rather goofy.

It would be interesting to see a mockup of the transition from Vader’s arrival to the dance scene in the palace, since that would at least go from the interior of one villain’s lair to another.

Since this is the beginning of the thread, I guess it makes sense to start at the beginning. RL and I were recently discussing how to improve the first act, and these were my thoughts on it: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1475964 This is similar to Spence’s cut but keeps the Dagobah scene in place.

In short, establish in the crawl that Luke is training in isolation to become a Jedi and Leia has gone ahead with a plan to rescue Han. After the arrival of Vader, cut to the musical number at Jabba’s palace and then Bounty for a Wookiee and Leia’s failed plan to rescue Han. Luke then sends the droids in using part of a deleted scene and the movie goes from there.

For that sequence to work, 3PO would need to be painted out of several shots in Jabba’s palace and/or cut around during the bounty scene, but apart from some cleanup of the deleted scene it is pretty straightforward.

Thoughts?

That works pretty well! It’s a shame there isn’t some final shot of Padme reacting to Nute, but there isn’t much to work with.

Bobson Dugnutt said:

NeverarGreat said:

Alec Guinness did say at the time that the Battle of Yavin ran about five minutes too long.

I can’t believe he saw SW Revisited and had that to say about it. What a critic.

Definitely. What a smart Alec.

Alec Guinness did say at the time that the Battle of Yavin ran about five minutes too long.

There’s also the continuity with the final battle to consider, where Palpatine’s far stronger lightning merely acts to disable many ships. What if Rey’s lightning shorted out the engines and she recoiled in shock, then the ship regained power and continued its flight? Because as the scene plays now, it acts to establish that Force Lightning can blow up entire ships so Palpatine pulling this punch in the final battle feels even more hollow.

Looking back at the scene, this might play better than before since it would explain why Finn yells ‘No!’ as if he bet on a podracer that didn’t win.

I agree that it’s an effective scene in isolation, but as you say it’s more effective for what it promises than for what it delivers. I guess it comes down to whether a shocking moment should remain for its own sake or whether it should serve a more organic whole.

Btw, I didn’t mean to imply that the lightning is intentional on Rey’s part. I would imagine in either case that it comes unbidden to the surface, so I see no conflict with your intent. Rey still has latent darkness that she struggles against and yet is drawn to, it would just be more seductive due to not (apparently) killing her friend.

What if we had our cake and ate it too?

Show some lightning but not the full blast, allowing the ship to escape. A few thin tendrils escaping her fingers would highlight that the power is coming from a dark place while not being so destructive that it would frighten her out of using it.

^Indeed, sounds like fun. I would only worry that someone might feel slighted if excluded from such a club, intentionally or not.

I think it would be a good idea for someone to start a thread for such a project, allowing time for anyone who wishes to partake ample opportunity to chime in. Of course, anyone could contribute even if they didn’t have direct say in what changes to make, just like I could suggest changes for your projects but it was ultimately your call. In that spirit, I hereby nominate Eddie to assemble the League of Extraordinary Faneditors!

Thanks Omni!

Also, Hal:

If I understand right, we would agree on someone who is solely tasked with gathering a council, and that council when gathered would appoint one of their own to be a leader.

I imagine that it would be an entire saga edit using an expanded form of the process of Restructured or Ascendant, where people would submit ideas but one person (or in this case some evil council) decided what ultimately made the cut.

The more the merrier, Matias, is my opinion.

SpenceEdit said:

raises hand tentatively

I wouldn’t mind being a part of the council. Of course, any council would include you, Eddie, since you clearly have superior organizational skills. Now we would need an odd number to prevent tie votes, so at least one more member would be required beyond Hal and RogueLeader…

SpenceEdit said:

NeverarGreat said:

I remember when my girfriend and I went to see TLJ for the first time. We both came out of the theater with an overall good impression.

Then we went and saw it again, and the flaws started to appear.

In other words, the movie passed the Refrigerator Test (unlike TFA or TROS), but didn’t bear repeat viewings as well as, say, the OT.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nowhere near terrible, it’s just that it is very messy in many ways.

I think “messy” is really the core problem with all the post-Disney Star Wars stuff. Everything just feels very all over the place.

For sure. I think the issue with TLJ over the others, however, is that the messiness gets in the way of the message, whereas with the JJ entries the messiness works to conceal the void where a message should reside.

I remember when my girfriend and I went to see TLJ for the first time. We both came out of the theater with an overall good impression.

Then we went and saw it again, and the flaws started to appear.

In other words, the movie passed the Refrigerator Test (unlike TFA or TROS), but didn’t bear repeat viewings as well as, say, the OT.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nowhere near terrible, it’s just that it is very messy in many ways.

RogueLeader said:

NeverarGreat said:

Anakin Starkiller said:

Tbh these things don’t really need to be explained, but this could be pointed to for those who needed that kind of question answered.

You’re right that they don’t need to be explained, and the people asking for explanations for that will also want explanations for how the Holdo maneuver only works in that one particular circumstance and who Snoke is where Maz got Luke’s lightsaber and a billion other useless bits of visual dictionary filler.

If Han Solo demands an answer to questions like this, then so do I.

I still think about your Ben Solo using Anakin’s lightsaber idea. ❤️

I get so exhausted thinking about ideas for the PT and ST. I just want to move on, but my brain can’t help but churn out ideas for them. Maybe it’s because I’ve loved Star Wars for so long it’s like the sunk cost fallacy. I’d like to help complete a solid Rey Nobody edit (which I think Spence has done with his edit), then do a fun Return of the Jedi edit, then move on from Star Wars. But honestly the idea of doing an entire Saga edit will always haunt me…

So true.

I had made peace with the PT for a long time, until the idea for ROTS invaded my brain…the one where Anakin goes to Mustafar while the clones (and Palpatine?) go to the Jedi Temple, implying that Obi-wan lies to Padme to get her to confront Anakin. That one change would solve half my issues with that trilogy while having reverberations all the way through the ST.

Yet I would never be able to limit the edit to that change, and the task of a full edit of another Star Wars movie is just far too daunting. Perhaps some brave soul will take up the mantle and do these movies justice…I can only hope.

Anakin Starkiller said:

Tbh these things don’t really need to be explained, but this could be pointed to for those who needed that kind of question answered.

You’re right that they don’t need to be explained, and the people asking for explanations for that will also want explanations for how the Holdo maneuver only works in that one particular circumstance and who Snoke is where Maz got Luke’s lightsaber and a billion other useless bits of visual dictionary filler.

If Han Solo demands an answer to questions like this, then so do I.

I like that idea, and not just because I used Rey’s “CHEWIE!” in my Starlight edit already.

Another benefit to this idea is that it completes the maybe intentional mirroring of her parents abandoning her on Jakku, since I imagine that Chewie is now as much a surrogate parent to her as Leia.

SpenceEdit said:

I’ve had a major breakthrough with the force bond duel. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.

This took hours, and is probably some of the best faneditor work I’ve ever done. Please take a look at the below clip and let me know what you think!

https://vimeo.com/694564040

Do we know what dialogue was intended for the Wampa attack?