Star Hawk Down

Here we have the second most viewed video of Red Raptor Productions (if I had it my way, this would be the number 1 video, but more on that in a later post). This is one I'm proud of and I'm happy to see the positive reception.
This idea came from the fact that I absolutely loved "Black Hawk Down" and I though the trailer was amazing. It was one of those trailers that had a great combination of information, visual cues, and awesome music (thanks to Moby's "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad"). I hadn't yet watched "The Clone Wars" series yet, but I knew of its existence. I can't remember how it hit me, I just remember that the idea of the mixing the two came and I loved the idea.
It took awhile because I had to wait for the DVDs to come out, and wait for Uncle John to buy them. Once he did, I started to work towards an idea I had thought of a year before.
Watching the series for the first time, I knew these two would go together better than I had before. When I saw the second episode, the one where the ship gets hit by a droid missile, I almost felt like I was cheating. The episode was such a Black Hawk-styled episode, it was perfect.
Picking the characters to the voices wasn't so hard, I knew Josh Hartnett was going to be Anakin, just because of the age. Picking Obi-Wan as Eric Bana was easy as well, because Bana had to be played by someone with experience and military respect. Once I knew that Dooku was the George Harris, Yoda had to become Sam Sheperd.
The editing was mixed bag of enjoyment and frustration. On one hand, the missile strike and the montage that follows was more fun than should be allowed, and coming up with the ending was a joy. But, the lip syncing was rather annoying. Some was easier than others; the scene where Anakin tells Obi-Wan they "can watch a country destroy itself on CNN" was easy as pie. I should also add the syncing dialogue to storm troopers is the greatest thing in the world!
But the scene where Anikin is asking a storm trooper if he's ever shot at anyone? It was not as fun.
The problem was that the only way to sync Anikan up right was to reverse the footage. But there are storm troopers in the background. If you look at this scene, you can notice them walking backwards. That was frustrating. Yoda's first lines were a nightmare as well, because he doesn't move at all. I had to repeat many clips to get that one done.
I also cut some trailer audio, the scene being where Ewan McGregor is asking Orlando Bloom his age. I could not for the life of me find footage to go with this scene, so I cut the track and moved along. I think it works well.
If I could redo this video, the only real thing I would change is the inclusion of Mace Windu. Not because I don't like him, but because he wasn't in the rest of the video. He shows up for two seconds and that's it! Not very good constancy on my part.
I would have also liked to use more footage from the second volume, but for some reason I couldn't get my program to recognize the clips. This wasn't so bad, because the first volume works well. I'm not sure I could have found a place for General Grievous anyway.
But the small complaints I have with this video are completely overshadowed by the positives, the build up, the action, the ending. I am glad this has as many views as it does and I owe to the original trailer for being so well done.