ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit :: 1 > 5

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Joshua_Blue's avatar
ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

I have started a small fanedit of my own (inspired by some ideas at the http://swmasteredition.blogspot.com). The source is ANH:R and the main goals are simple:

  • make Vader a stronger character, slowing down some of his gestures, spoken phrases, in some case lowering the pitch of his voice, reduce if not eliminate Tarkin holding Vader's leash, alter/remove all moments when Vaders authority might be in question.
  • remove some other stuff, that bothers me, like the torture needle, etc. (I'll post more later as I get on with the edit).

 

I am not using any advanced programs like most of the faneditors here do.

For video I am using Kdenlive on Linux - it works surprisingly well for video, interface is simple and intuitive, but the audio editing sucks, so I am using  Cool Edit Pro (Windows) and Audacity. For image editing I use GIMP. That's it.

Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Edited the scene aboard the Tantive IV when Lea is brought to Vader.

AUDIO: He now speaks the phrase 'Take her away!' slightly slower and in a lower tone.

VIDEO: Inserted a couple frames to smooth and slow down his hand gesture.

 

Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Update: Removed the scene with the clunky trashcan-looking robot aboard the sandcrawler. It it very obvious (way more more than C3PO) that there is a person inside. All in all it is  bit too childish plus the whole droid sequence is too long in my opinion.

Editing: Just reversed a 13 frames from R2D2 leaning forward and added it right there so it starts leaning backward to match his actions after the cut scene. Also a few short (all together lest than a sec) cuts to accommodate the audio cut.

Audio: a straight cut at the points of best transition. Added a repetition of some robots noise to shorten the needed video cut.

 

Angel's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Where are the videos?


-Angel

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Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Hehehe, a 'This thread is worthless without pics!' reply.

I'll post some videos this week.

mrbenja0618's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Glad to see you opened a thread. I'll be looking at this closely. Good luck!

 

 

mrbenja0618's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

I will also say I'm interested in seeing a clip of Vader's slower "Take her away!"

 

 

doubleofive's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Yes, I'm interested in how well this works.

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Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Here is the Take Her Away video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChtS8vWC4q0

The upward hand gesture is now 11 frames instead of 9 frames long. AUDIO: the phrase 'Take her away' is now app. 12% (70ms) longer and Vader speaks with a lower pitch. I limited myself to only small changes, which still don't sound too fake or in your face.

The following scene where an officer says 'Holding her is dangerous!' and then the other officer informing Vader about the jettisoned escape pod is cut. After Vader says 'Take her away' we see the stormtroopers escorting Lea away with a wipe to the stardestroyer.

I feel there is nothing important lost by cutting the segment while making Vader stronger. We don't need to see him talking to so many low ranking officers.

doubleofive's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Fox blocked your YouTube! Weird how they can jump on these little videos, but Star Wars Begins and A New Hope Revisited can be on there in their entirety.

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Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Yeah, I don't get it either. Anyway, here it is, again: http://www.filedropper.com/anhr2vader1

Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

@The Aluminum Falcon

You are right, I wanted to use a wipe, but I am new to Kdenlive and video editing in general, so I didn't know how. I've set the transition to Wipe, but I still did not get the desired effect. Only now I realised that I also need to select a luma image file for the true wipe effect.

Problem is, there is a diagonal wipe just a few seconds later, so having 2 wipes only 2-3 seconds apart looks odd, so I may need to keep the crossfade. Or at least use an extremely soft wipe, sort of a blend between wipe and a crossfade.

 

Last edited on October 18, 2011 at 6:38 PM by Joshua_Blue
darth_ender's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

I had the same thought immediately when seeing it.  It looks good, but a fade is not so Star Warsy.  If you want to fix it, I think a simple cut to the star destroyer would be logical; that's how the original movie cuts to it anyhow.  Nothing complicated, and still achieves your tough Vader effect.

The ROTJ collaborative thread is a wealth of ideas, both on how to edit Return of the Jedi, as well as how to collaborate in an edit.  Emanswfan has taken leadership of the project.

 

Password for all ROTJ-related clips: ROTJ

A very rough edit of how the Battle of Endor could go
A very rough idea of how ROTJ could end

Rough edit based on the final script with some deviation:

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4

rpvee's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

I really love this idea.  I always thought Vader was ironically too un-Vader-like in his first movie because of how badass he became later (the improved voice in ESB being a huge part of that).

However, every time I try to download the clip it only gives me the first few seconds.  Could someone upload it somewhere else?

WhatsMyName's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

This sounds cool. I'd like to see Vader a bit more dark then what he currently is in the movie. It was ESB that showed how evil he could be. And early dose of that would be cool.

Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

I'll soon upload a longer clip with the new wipe. In addition to the 'Take her away!' hand and voice slow down, I additionally  toned down previous Vader's movements like in Jaitea's video clip.

I went for the diagonal wipe to match the diagonal wipe afterwards. Since the new wipe is much faster than the previous crossfade, the two wipes are no longer just 2 seconds apart, so it looks OK. The only thing is the quality of the wipe: it's ok, but not great. I need to check those luma files Kdenlive uses...

Last edited on October 19, 2011 at 7:10 AM by Joshua_Blue
Angel's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

nice effort J_B.

Still to my eyes looks that he is getting into slow motion at the end and even it was done smart still the transition from normal speed to slow speed needs work IMO.

Mr J. can give awesome ideas and clips for what you might need for your edit :)

And always with less motion blur (I still dont know how he is doing that :)


-Angel

Last edited on October 19, 2011 at 9:43 AM by Angel

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                                        -->Artwork<--

Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Here is the new longer video: http://vimeo.com/30821416

Angel's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Great improvement and nice time pacing. It works in all terms :) Very Star wars-y like we see later with the speeder sequences/cuts :)

 

Well done!


Whats next? J_B ? :D


-Angel

Last edited on October 20, 2011 at 10:14 AM by Angel

                                               (♥Io♥)                                                    

                                        -->Artwork<--

Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Generally I'll be also removing some shots of people looking 'too 70s'. I'm taking this step by step as I go, I don't have everything planned out yet, just a general idea of what I want as the end result - a stronger Vader and a movie which looks a bit less outdated, without adding CGI.

Last edited on October 21, 2011 at 1:28 PM by Joshua_Blue
doubleofive's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Joshua_Blue said:


Generally I'll be also removing some shots of people looking 'too 70s'.
I'm not even sure what that means, let alone how you could remove entire shots to accomplish this. Unless you give Hammill a haircut in every scene, its always going to be 70s. ;-)

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Joshua_Blue's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Well I said SOME shots, not all of them. Those shots that I can remove/replace without too much trouble ;)

Just trying to minimise the 70s, not eliminate it. And BTW, Luke's hair is just fine.

 

TV's Frink's avatar
RE: ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit

Are you saying Luke's hair isn't 70s?

...

What?

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