darkhelmet

Originally posted by: jack Spencer Jr
But I'm thinking more along the lines of totally redone vs fan edits... I might as well just reshoot it... At best I could *eventually* make an animation...maybe. More than likely I probably won't get past a story synopsis, but we'll see how that goes.

Originally posted by: Trooperman
Hey, don't apologize- I too was much more impressed with this clip than with your opening (although you did some interesting stuff there).
Thanks for the kind words and the critique (too much to mention here). I definitely understand your concern over the lengthy saber battle during which Anakin is MIA. I'll see what I can do.

Also, having the Emperor's lightning appear off-screen was aesthetically unappealing but necessary since I didn't have a shot to introduce it that didn't have undesirable dialogue (Emperor with ridiculously over-animated expression: "No, NO! You will die!"; never mind the fact that Mace's dialogue didn't even support such a retort). Not sure what I can do about that if anything.

It would be great to see him launch the bolts, though. My original hope was that seing the decrepit Emperor using his Force lightning would give the impression that he looked the way he did because who he really is was coming out while he used the Dark Side. If I had a shot of him frying Mace looking like the decrepit Emperor, it might work like I had hoped.

I'd be honored if you did (but only if you do all those other wonderful tweaks as well).
Originally posted by: Trooperman
...but it seems like you also have ambition to make the prequels great. Welcome to the club, darkhelmet!

Originally posted by: Trooperman
I don't know why this didn't occur to me before, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that "Jango" is kind of ridiculous. But what should his name be?

Originally posted by: Wesyeed

I love this... it really carries through into the tortured soul theme I always thought was a big part of what made Vader who he was like frankenstein. It all fits and I think it's exactly what the old GL would have wanted...

Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
Copied from the Starkiller ranch thread, my thoughts on having Vader die in ROTS:

Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
Your re-edited fight with Mace and Sidious is excellent. By cutting out all the crap (Sidious' ridiculous faces, Sidious hopping around like a frog on crack), you actually made it seem better than it is. Bravo. Now you just need to recolor Mace's saber

Did you move the part with Anakin ahead a little? It looks like you did, and it stretched out the beginning of the fight so that it seems like the other Jedi weren't so easyily taken out by Sidious.
Yeah, I moved the arrival sequence ahead to intercut with the initial Jedi/Palpatine confrontation. When Mace draws his lightsaber back in preparation for Palpatine's attack, it's the perfect place for a cutaway to Anakin.

This is a very cool idea. I'll see what I might be able to do. It would go a long way to making Anakin's turn to the Dark Side more concrete.
Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
Did you happen to read my thoughts on having Anakin/Vader die in ROTS back at the top of this page in the Starkiller Ranch thread (http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=9&threadid=3886&STARTPAGE=11)?

Originally posted by: zombie84
You know i hated your alternate opening but i love this. You really cleaned up the Mace duel to make it more plausible and removed all of Palpatine's silly moves and facial expressions. Good job!

BUT, i will say that a lot of the emotional oomph is lacking. Thats the only thing the sequence is missing. Its just kind of flat. Hard to say why exactly--maybe because Anakin's back-and-forth is missing. I think short of having access to the original elements though this is probably as good as this sequence can be re-edited though.

Thanks for the honest compliment! I may need to acquiesce to your opinion of my opening re-cut if it really ends up leaving a hole in the movie.

Maybe the emotional oomph! could come in the form Erikstormtrooper decribes (if it actually can be re-cut this way):

Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
One suggestion: is there any way that you can edit the sceene to give Anakin even less dialog before he cuts off Mace's arm? In my own imaginary fan edit, I'd like to see Anakin come right up to Mace and cut off his arm, like he came into the room knowing that's what he would have to do. Maybe Mace can say "It's time for the rule of the Sith to end" or whatever he says, then Anakin just screams no and cuts off his arm. It makes his actions seem more deliberate. If you think about it, he had all that time in the Jedi Council room to think about what he needed to do, so he should be determined by the time he gets to Palpatine's office.

Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
I just received this e-mail from Laserman:

Originally posted by: Trooperman
You fellows also bring up a really good point about the Emperor's transformation. I had always assumed (until Ep. 3) that using the Dark Side led to physical deterioration, and as the Emperor used it more and more, he deteriorated more and more. Obviously, this cannot happen now. The question is- how do we make it seem as though the Emperor revealed himself deliberately, and he wasn't injured by his own force lightning? My solution- the dream.

Sidious slowly fades on screen, his eyes glowing.

Voice of Anakin: Who are you?
Sidious: Someone you know. Someone you know very well.

I'll tackle that when I come to it, but I think that this can be developed through Anakin's dream in Ep. III.

Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
If Padme had lived, why would she have given up Luke? I think that needs to be addressed.

Originally posted by: darthpreston
The only I don't understand is how it makes it more sad and tragic if she LIVED.....as opposed to if she DIED. And he killed her......I mean, so far in our editting ideas for episode III we decided to alter the moment of her death because of the fatal force choke from anakin.....as opposed to a "broken heart". It's interesting to change up anything, but I just don't see how it's more sad if her story disappeared after her staged death. I find the fact that she had to die to be the extra "layer" of emotion to the film...next to anakin turning to vader.

Originally posted by: Mangrove
I think that's a great start to a trimmed down version of the Episode III opening, but I don't think the movie works without seeing Anakin take out Dooku. For one thing, it's the start of his fall to the Dark Side and there are already precious few good scenes dealing with that in the movie. Also, it'd be terribly distracting and nonsensical if the only thing we hear about Dooku in Episode III is some throw-away "oh yeah he died" line from Sidious when he's talking to Grevious.

Originally posted by: Vess


Yes, apparently Ahmed Best is doing this.

Originally posted by: Darth Richard
I never thought of that but ya it does give it that Romeo and Juliet feel to there love story. Hey I jsut finished reading that in my english class too lol.

Originally posted by: SKot
Here's my shot at one of the things 'it' was, for me... and why the OT had 'it' and the prequels didn't:

In the OT, everything was tangible and rooted in the real world. It felt like you could really be there and touch everything. It had weight, it was used, slightly dirty and dinged-up. I really felt like there was a place I could go where I could stand on the decks of those starships. I could walk out in that desert and find a half-buried gaffi stick there. Even the models felt like they were really there, like they were solid and affected by gravitational pull somehow. And the cantina creatures, who were just guys with rubber masks on their heads... I related to them more because they were solid and humanoid. It all seemed like it existed, somewhere.

The prequels looked very real in most cases, but somehow just didn't have that weight or tangibility. Too many sets didn't exist behind the actors. Too many creatures were just high-tech cartoons. Somehow, that world was just hollow. And regardless of the skills of the actors, I could never be in touch with the scenery like I was with the OT.

CG should be used as a tool, not a crutch... and even then only to enhance and not to replace.

--SKot

Originally posted by: Davis

Now if only you could edit the film so that it doesn't star Natalie and Hayden......

Somebody's doing that in a fan edit, changing their voices.

Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
If you can make that close up of Padme's hands during her funeral work so that her hand moves, you'd set up that she actually faked her death. I considered this but it was too much damn work for my limited skillz.
Originally posted by: eros
That's a nifty idea, it would have to be ever so subtle and people would have to rewind to see if the're seeing things.

Originally posted by: Gorram

Does she need to be killed off at all, could she have given up the kids for their own safety even though it pained her to do so like sending your kids away from the blitz?

Originally posted by: C3PX
e could have made her give up Luke and go to live on Alderaan with Bail and his wife, then Leia could have remembered her real mother.