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Welcome
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Nathaniel Reed's
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| :: A trilogy of fan-fic set after Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and inspired by George Lucas' historical draft concepts :: |
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| November 2011 |
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Lando escapes Kessel !
28th November 2011 |
| Tied in with last month's illustrations for our heroes' escape from Kessel in Episode VII : Plague of Doom, the Millennium Falcon makes its rendezvous with the stolen Star Destroyer. Aboard are General Lando Calrissian and many disparate citizens of Imperial Border space, including Wookiees who now man the helm. Until recently, they had been prisoners of Commander Kane, mining kessellian spice for the by-product of aura gas that constituted the pacifying and docilisation vapour formulated by the evil scientist Doctor Bloodory. |
| Here in this image, Lando answers Han's ship-to-ship hail, grinning at the successful and wholy audacious stunt that he and his ragtag crew had managed to pull off, namely stealing a skeleton-staffed Star Destroyer right from under the noses of the Imperials ! Lando thanks his friend for coming to rescue him, and the two confirm their next course of action : Han will fly the others back to the military headquarters of the Alliance at Aquilae Base on Mon Calamar, with the Star Destroyer following, once it's shuttled the freed Huttlings to Lord Barrola the Hutt of Ophuchi on Nal Hutta. |
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| You can see the VE artwork in the 'Kessel' art gallery as well as in the online illustrated story, and you can discuss this in the forum here ! |
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As a side project - one of many ! - I have been prepping illustrations for the Millennium Falcon's interior, as imagined by myself. There are several authorised versions of the so-called "ship of riddles", the latest being deemed the most accurate and canonical. Recently, the '3D Owner's Guide' board book cleverly illustrated horizontal slices vertically cutting through the ship, and the famous 'Haynes Car Manual' has co-published a Falcon version. I've had the opportunity to glance through this new 'Haynes' Manual', and it looks like great fun, as well as being very comprehensive with clear detailed images be they sketches, renderings, or prop/movie photographs.
..... however, I, in my infinite wisdom, feel that there may still be inconsistencies, and I'm striving to create a revised floorplan and associated interior visuals. The Blu-Ray, for example, shows a ring corridor bulkhead at the portal for the medi-cot chamber, so this surely must be a room separate to the proposed crew quarters and refresher ; ANH refers to "several life pods", and since I believe that Solo augmented the drive propulsion, I feel that even if there's an aft cargo hold (and there's no reason to not have one), there's not much space for underfloor pods too ! The 'Haynes Manual' has clear side views of the ship, and shows four 'portholes' that could be untilised. The top hatch elevator is now proposed I believe to be a pull-down chute, but I still believe that a physical lift room could be possible : if the basic Falcon design is essentially modular, then why have two docking rings, when the starboard one is sufficient, freeing up space in the port corridor for a conventional elevator. Also, not only does the John Knoll '365 Days' book show an on-set photograph of this 3m+ high room, but in the film, albeit shown with quick cutting, the implication is that Lando rises at least his height again to reach the hatch in the top hull.
Anyways, I plan to chip away at my artwork for this, and hope to publish a 'VE Falcon Floorplan' as soon as I can !
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| Back in the summer months, I found a link to UK fan, Jambe Davdar, and his 'Making Of' documentaries that he has compiled and published on YouTube. Since they are "impressive, most impressive", I have added an image link to the left hand side bar here to his YouTube User site, from where the feature-length anecdotal commentaries for the OT can be found, along with similar work for the Indiana Jones franchise too. |
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I was lucky enough to recently purchase the Star Wars Saga Blu-Ray box set (at a very good bargain price too !). I've had some opportunities to glance through the content and appreciate the quality.
Overall, I'm impressed with the product..... but not without some reservations. The image quality is crisp and superb, there is detail in the blacks for example (!) as cited above by the medi-cot chamber doorway.
I've glanced through most of the extras. The deleted and alternate scenes/takes are fascinating, it's great to finally see most of the fabled gems, especially from the OT, like the Luke-Treadwell-Biggs scenes, and the Yoda-training-Luke scenes . But there are many that are seconds long and so quirky and offbeat that they really did belong on the cutting room floor (or concepts floor !), and seem to be just filler here in this set : it's great to finally see as much Star Wars material as possible, but when this is not all that great it really does feel like they're scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel here. It made me wonder why they couldn't re-present the already published deleted scenes from the PT dvd set. so that the BD set becomes a one-stop repository for ALL the lost material. Since I believe the OT dvd set did not have any stand-alone deleted scenes (other than what may have flitted by in the superb documentary), the majority of worthy gems are found with this trilogy, rather than the prequel trilogy. I'm also aware there are images (still or video) of scenes that were not on the BD set, namely Lando's rescue of Luke from the Falcon's hull. BD-LIVE allows for further content to be downloaded, so one wonders what, if anything, LFL may distribute at a later date.
The 'turn-table' viewings are a wonderful opportunity to see props, etc in much greater detail, and one is left wanting more of course ! Similarly, the concept artwork and matte painting presentations are a great insight into this production aspect of a very visual medium. Sometimes captions are present, and I wish that some further description - written or audio or video - could have accompanied it all.
Additional bite-size 'topic' interviews are also available, and although they may have been lifted from webdocs where appropriate, these do include new information, so that's a superb bonus. Likewise, the features share the dvd set commentaries, along with a second one of contemporary archive interviews, and the latter tends to give a more technical anecdote.
The additional documentaries are fascinating. I've yet to revisit from 20+ years ago the OT documentaries, though I see the ROTJ one focuses only on the creatures, and I do recall a contemporary TV 'Making Of' that covered the OT in one full-length episode ; of course, this could have been the already broadcast OT documentaries 'stitched' together. The 'Anatomy of a Dewback' documentary associated with the Special Edition releases is also present. A new 25 minute documentary was recorded in 2010 interviewing the main creators of fan-favourite TESB - Lucas, Kershner, Kasdan, and others - and this offers a welcome and enjoyable 'revisit' of this classic film.
Additional documentaries introduce the fan costumiers of the international 501st Garrison, as they go about their 'daily' lives as Star Wars characters as well as preparing for the auditions for and participation of the 2007 Rose Parade in California, the organisers of which had graciously dedicated their annual floral float show to the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. This is a fun and revealing insight into an aspect of fan activity that is often over-looked, or, worse, dismissed. I have visited SW themed events in the UK, and to see storm troopers and Darth Vader and Han Solo and rebel pilots wandering around really does enliven and immerse the experience ; not to mention the group's appearances for charities around the world. The 'Star Wars Tech' programme takes an intriguing look at the feasibility of translating the movie technology to our world and Earth physics. It's scientific but fun, not at all dry, presented enthusiastically by scientists who clearly love the movies ; it certainly seems that plasma is their answer for almost anything !!
A collection of spoof TV shows is included too, but personally, I can leave them be. Yes, they may be funny, and the satire in itself is a homage to Lucas' creation, but as a fan, I find I not only don't want to 'sully' the SW experience, but also, in this BD disc set context, I wish that the room taken to store these shows could have been utilised for other canonical SW content, for example, adding stand-alone soundtracks (with commentary ??), or an overview of the EU material and publishing history.
All in all, I'm impressed and pleased that a Blu-Ray set has been released with superior image, audio, and storage capability.... but I do wonder if the proverbial ball has been dropped (once again ??) for this product and on this franchise. I'm sure great thought went into this release, but, as a super-critical fan - and what true fan wouldn't be, even one who is happy to defend Lucas and his rationale - such merchandise needs to be critiqued at great length by the producers to ensure that as many negative responses can be countered from the outset.
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| Nathaniel Reed, 28th November 2011 |
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