Jedi vs Sith prequel movie idea

until 2012, I think we're safe. The famous Hadron Collider never showed up.

Remind me to actually read the script once it's done

 

<excited little chair dance>

 

The script thread in the Resource section appears to be locked so I'm posting here. I'm not entirely happy with it so if someone wants to make changes that's fine. I may even make a few myself. I'll explain some of my decisions at the bottom.


EXT. HYPERSPACE

The Exsanguinator speeds through the Hyperspace tunnel at high velocity.
INT. EXSANGUINATOR - BRIDGE

Desnarcam stands at a holostation. Before him is a small hologram of an Imperial Officer.
CAPTAIN DESNARCAM

I?m on an important mission and
Bossk is vital to its success.

IMPERIAL OFFICER (HOLO)
(filtered)
Important mission? You?re supposed
to be providing security in the
Bestine System.

CAPTAIN DESNARCAM
I?m tracking a stolen medical transport.
Bossk is one of the best trackers in the galaxy and I--

IMPERIAL OFFICER (HOLO)
(filtered, interrupts)
Which is why Lord Vader requested him
specifically. These rebels are far more
important than your stolen ship.

Desnarcam clenches his fists.

IMPERIAL OFFICER (CONT?D)
I?m informing you out of courtesy Desnarcam.
Bossk is already on his way to the Executor.
Whatever you?re up to, you?ll have to do it alone.

The hologram disappears. Desnarcam slams his fists against the holo-board. Below him, OFFICER ANTILLES sits at the lower control station on the left side, manning the control desk and monitoring the ship?s travel through Hyperspace.

OFFICER ANTILLES
Sir, we?re approaching the system.

Desnarcam glances down at the station.

CAPTAIN DESNARCAM
Take us out of Hyperspace

EXT. SPACE - NABOO SYSTEM - MOMENTS LATER

The Exsanguinator appears suddenly, jumping into the system.

INT. EXSANGUINATOR - BRIDGE - MOMENTS LATER

Desnarcam hurries down the steps and moves to stand by Antilles.

OFFICER ANTILLES
Sir, how are we supposed to find them
without the bounty hunter?

CAPTAIN DESNARCAM
We know we?re they?re going. Contact
the Theed Administrator. I want to know
where Meklis is hiding.

OFFICER ANTILLES
Yes sir. Right away sir.

CAPTAIN DESNARCAM
And tell the hanger bay to
prepare my shuttle.

Desnarcam turns away as Antilles goes back to working at his station.

EXT. HYPERSPACE

The Quantum Thrust blasts through Hyperspace.

INT. QUANTUM THRUST - COCKPIT

Tinian and Doz sit up front at the controls. Chenlambec stands by the doorway while BOT sits off to the side.

CHENLAMBEC
(in shyriiwook)
They?re probably waiting for you.

TINIAN
Yeah. You can?t just walk in there. Desnarcam is sure to have Imperial Troops waiting for you.

Bot stares out at the Hyperspace tunnel for a moment.

BOT
Doz, does this ship have a long range transmitter?

Doz looks at Bot curiously.

INT. MEKLIS HOUSE - MORNING
A beeping sound rings rings out across the house. Melora approaches the communication station and sits down. She presses a button on the console and the screen flickers to life. Melora sits back, her eyes wideo as
BOT appears on the screen.

MELORA
Bot?

Melora covers her mouth. She glances around behind her and leans closer to the screen.

MELORA (CONT?D)
(quietly)
Is that you?

BOT
(screen, filtered)
It is I Mistress Melora. I am returning with medical
supplies for the master.

Melora shakes her head.

MELORA
No. Stay away. There are Imperial troops stationed
outside the house. They?re waiting for you. I don?t
know what you did but you can?t come here.

BOT
(screen, filtered)
How is the master?

MELORA
Didn?t you hear what I said?

A figure approaches from behind Melora. She turns around to see Fiza standing over, staring at the screen.

FIZA
Can it be?

MELORA
Mother, please keep your voice down.
We don?t want to alert the troops.

BOT
(screen, filtered)
Mistress, it is good to see you.
I have acquired medical supplies to cure the master.
I am en route.

Fiza reaches over Melora to the console.

FIZA
Bot, please excuse us a moment.

Fiza presses a button and the screen flickers off.

MELORA
Mother, what are you doing?

Melora glares at her mother.

FIZA
We need to inform the Captain.

MELORA
We can?t. He?ll turn Bot into scrap metal.

FIZA
Since when did you care what happened to Bot?

Melora shakes her head.

 

I find it thoroughly satisfying.
It'll take a re-read of the full script before I'll be ready to comment on some of the things that flashed through my head while reading this.

 

I really like it!

even Bot's death. It may not seem much as you see it on "paper" but it's what you see on the screen that matters. I think when Bot gets shot, everything slows down for a moment, we see reactions on everyone's faces, we then do a slow zoom into Bot's face from a fairly close perspective all the way into a shot of Bots two glowing eyes, that fade. Bot collapses and falls to the ground. Then the director of that scene's imagination continues....


so yeah, dont worry about the writing all too much I liked it. Go ahead and add some scenes if you wish, we can always do a script edit if something doesnt work. This is where all the bugs need worked out before we proceed.

 

By the way, I was originally going to have Larson show up and save the day somehow but I'm planning a spin off instead where his ship breaks down in Hyperspace and he is plunged into a black hole, emerging on the other side without the ship in New Jersey, circa 1993 where he becomes a garbage man in order to salvage parts to secretly build a new ship only to discover that the CIA is watching him. Hilarity ensues.

 

I like it. The performances on-screen will determine whether I love it or not. Bot's death plays out well - she would still be a "thing," not a person, and she can be rebuilt, apparently. So there's no real need to get all dramatic over this temporary demise. However, if the actors put the right spin on their performances in that scene, it will be beautiful.

 

totally agree. It wouldn't be tooo dramatic... not like when Marvin gets shot in the back of the head on "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", but something like that.

(oh man awful way to describe it. I was watching it the other day and thought "hey, that's how bot would die")

 

In the end, Bot was machine. A droid with programmed loyalty. That loyalty caused her to risk everything to find a way to save her master. In the end, she died doing what she was programmed to do. To the audience, BOT is more than just a droid so the audience has the emotional reaction rather than the characters, who have their own problems to deal with. It's a case of the audience knowing BOT as a living person, while the other characters simply know her as a droid. Yes there is an affection there for that droid, but not to the extent that they care more about her death than saving their own lives.

When Fiza gives them up, it's because she's trying to save her husband. She cares for Bot, but again, in the end it's just a droid in her eyes. Ultimately the only one who really gives a damn is Pon, the person BOT was trying to save and that last scene was kind of a way to not only give a glimmer of hope that Bot isn't really dead, but also to show that to some people at least, she was more than just a machine. Though the fact they are headed for Bespin just as the Empire is heading there may give the ending a false sense of hope which, again, was the idea. After all, in the time of the Empire, nobody is truly safe.

If this ever gets shot and we ever do a sequel (unlikely), I would have the family on Bespin, essentially trying to escape as the Empire begins to take control, while Melora runs off to join the rebels.

 

That would be a sequel only slightly better than most well known film-sequel flops.

The main story, on the other hand, has quite grown on me.
The ending perhaps most of all.

I like the way the droid has accumulated a small band of concerned individuals, risking life and limb to complete the mission.
On the re-write, I think we should focus more on how Bot has developed that loyalty.

 

we ever figure out where exactly this was going to be shot at?

 

I believe we were going to have a small group of "units" filming the different aspects of the story, the different places to which B0T travels, and then edit the different units' footage together into one film, with a CGI B0T tying it all together.

The voices in my head are telling me that the Rebel Legion and 501st, as well as local drama clubs, could play a large role in filling out the cast.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to work on B0T's theme.

 

that's gonna be fun matching all the footage from the different cameras.

 

What have we got to worry about there? (cameras)
Is there that much potential for screwing ourselves,
or can some reasonably capable operators produce similar results?

 

I find your lack of faith disturbing.



All I'm worried about is white balance. WHITE BALANCE!!!

 

white balance is just 1 issue of many things that could potentially make and editor go "postal"

Different frame rates....white balance...shutters..camera brands...ever camera has its unique looks like Sony's bluish grain.
Forget the different quality, different shooting styles & such.

i'm not trying to be a stumbling block, just trying to tell u of realistic problems that ur going to have to deal with whither u like it or not.

 

Okay, since its been brought up, lets talk about the look and feel of the film. Obviously, this is going to be a Star Wars film, so I think it should reflect a certain directorial style inherent to the Saga. Personally, I would prefer to have it look more like the Original Trilogy - a little bit dirtier, more lived-in, and with a bit of film grain. That feel, and that style, would fit our tale fairly well, I do believe.

Perhaps what would could do is find a lowest common denominator amongst the cameras and adjust for that. That is to say, render all the video so that it matches (or at least closely resembles) the lowest quality footage we have. I do realize that this is a very large task, but it would be a necessary one. Unless, of course, all of our Units are using the same brand and model of camera, with remarkably similar lighting rigs.

 

I've also heard GL harp on the use of "long lenses," in his DVD commentaries. Does anyone else consider this important? In my original (and still in post...) fanfilm project we pulled our camera back as far as we could go and zoomed it in as far as possible to hopefully simulate that aspect of the Star Wars visual style. It requires a lot of real-estate, however, and thus complicates things on-set.

Also, I second the "film look" idea. Again on my other project, I've even been fooling with After Effects to produce passable High-Def 24p from my Standard-Def DV-tape source footage. Obviously you can't create detail that's not there in the SD footage, but one of the reasons video doesn't look like film is the relative lack of shutter-blur. I'll spare you all the technical hoops I jump through to get there. I might be able to get a set of comparison stills up someplace.


Final delivery format is another question, but I think HD 720p is the best we can expect from most hosting sites. The difference between full-HD1080 and sub-HD720 could give one more opportunity to massage the images into a more visually-uniform product. Does everyone else think we should be shooting with full HD cameras (1920x1080p)? Those are pretty widely available these days...Or is that an unreasonable technical burden to put on the shooting units?

 

on ur cam issues...u get what ya pay for.. U buy a SD cam ur not goin to get clean HD footage, i don't care what filters and effects u try, the information is just not there.

as far as im concerned the best camera to film on would be RED.
rent one.

 

[image=http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o42/drewjmore/Output-720p.jpg]

The lower left is the raw footage frame.

I am in no way suggesting that we should shoot SD and plan to upconvert,
I'm just saying.

 

Like I was saying, a common denominator to the footage. If, for instance, we agreed on HD 720p (as an example), then if someone's camera couldn't produce that quality of footage, we wouldn't be able to use their camera on the project. We could use a higher level, and then make it match up to the lower quality, I suppose - but its easier to go down than up in terms of footage quality.

 

If we pitch the completed(or draft) script to Dorkman, Lou Klein(Contract of evil/that new one with kid Obi-Wan I keep forgetting the name of), Travis Boles(Three, Six, RvD2) or some of the other people in here that have actually succeeded in making a fanfilm or film of sorts, we might have a shot. Dorkman's got a RED ONE as well, so in that case, we'd know it would have high quality footage, if nothing else.

I say we try to pitch this idea to people that have experience, and resources, rather than try and pull it off "alone". I'd love to be behind/in front of a camera, but, keep in mind, I'm Norwegian, and don't have enough green to travel, let alone stay for a shoot any longer than maybe Threads Of Destiny 2, in Sweden.

Knowing Scott, Boles and Klein's syles and experience, we could go far with this thing.

 

You've got a point, V.
(Oh, and consider yourself reminded to read the script now... )
Directors and crews with proven skills would be great to have.
The ball surely seems to be rolling on this again, and so perhaps this time around we may start seeing more of the veterans stepping-up. I'll be more enthusiastic about that once it happens.

As I've stated candidly elsewhere, when this thing does get over the hump and into production it would be foolish NOT to participate...simply to be part of the team that "finally" does this thing which was long thought to be too ambitious.

@ DVCpro, we are in agreement.

 

Um, no. Dorkman isn't going to do it. He said a while back that he couldn't work on anything unless he was paid because frankly, he's way too busy.

It's all well and good having belief in the story and the script but this forum is littered with threads from people with ideas or scripts, wanting others to make the film. The general response to that kind of thread isn't too kind and rightly so. A few months ago there were people who were interested in making the film. These are the people who we need to be talking to about this, not trying to pitch guys who have their own things going on.

If someone is interested in shooting it, then let them come into the thread and say so. I welcome it.

 

Um, no. Dorkman isn't going to do it. He said a while back that he couldn't work on anything unless he was paid because frankly, he's way too busy.

It's all well and good having belief in the story and the script but this forum is littered with threads from people with ideas or scripts, wanting others to make the film. The general response to that kind of thread isn't too kind and rightly so. A few months ago there were people who were interested in making the film. These are the people who we need to be talking to about this, not trying to pitch guys who have their own things going on.

If someone is interested in shooting it, then let them come into the thread and say so. I welcome it.