Work in progress
This post last updated february 2019
I’ve been working on a TFA edit since 2016, mostly for fun. The goal is just to make what to me is the best version of an already great movie.
I’ve had my eyes on this nice community for a while, mostly thanks to adywan’s fantastic efforts, and I joined to help out with Hal 9000’s Restructured v2 (which is also the foundation of this edit). I’m taking inspiration and borrowing things from other people as well, like NeverarGreat and DigMod who have a lot of interesting ideas.
I work on this edit now and then in my spare time, so I can’t say when it will be done. But I made this thread to share this project with this community, because it’s nicer to work together!
As I mentioned; this edit uses the “Restructured” edit as a base, because I’m a big fan of that idea, and on top of that I’m including a bunch of small changes. Below is my change list, as it looks now. Points in italics are changes straight from Hal’s “Restructured v2.1”, points in bold are more or less completed. Points in parentheses are things I’m unsure of.
(• Replace Main Theme with Episode I version or adywans VII theme)
• New opening crawl, written by Hal 9000
• Reedit the part with Stormtroopers inside a transport to make the sequence less jumpy
(• Add unused shots of Stormtroopers from Teaser 1)
(• Fix Kylo’s helmet which has an inconsistent mouth guard)
• Reduce the diss battle between Kylo and Lor San Tekka
• Reduce Poe being cocky with Kylo
• Add VFX to practical effect desert bird to make the feathers look more convincing
• Add Rey having a daydream/vision about the island (idea by NeverarGreat)
• Remove Kylo’s line "Comfortable?"
• Reduce Finn shooting a lot of people as he escapes in the TIE fighter
• Remove Kylo saying Finn’s number
(• Cut Finn’s “this is what we look like, some of us”)
• Remove Rey’s “No” when Finn asks if she’s flown the Falcon (DigMod)
• Restore IMAX sequence
(• Add TIE attack soundtrack cue from TLJ)
• Add the Falcon jumping to hyperspace after leaving Jakku, then being ripped from hyperspace soon after, remove a now-out-of-place line from Finn about “get[ting] out of this system.” (FX by NeverarGreat)
(• Tone down childish celebrating)
• Remove part of Finn’s line “… cute boyfriend?”
• Remove Finn climbing on Rey making her angry (idea by DigMod)
(• Reduce Bala-Tik part (idea by NeverarGreat and DigMod))
• Reduce Rathtars
• Remove General Hux from first scene with Snoke (VFX by Jackpumpkinhead)
(• Make Snoke more hologrammy)
• Remove Snoke mentioning Han Solo being Kylo’s father
• Slight fix of shot of Rey by the lake (straightened horizon, removed lens distortion)
• Color correct shot of Maz, Solo, Rey and Finn walking past the spy to match following shot
• Subtle zoom in on the spy watching as they pass
(• Remove droid saying “Alert the resistance” or edit subtitle slightly)
• Remove Kylo calling Darth Vader "grandfather"
• Replace “These are your first steps” with Alec Guinness’ voice (audio by DJ Mitz)
• Replace seeing the Hosnian system being destroyed in the sky with a Star Destroyer (VFX by NeverarGreat)
• Change Finn’s line “It’s the first order, they’ve done it” to "they’ve found us"
• New sound mix and music for this sequence to match the change in visuals and story
(• New color grade of Takodana outdoor scenes after Rey runs away to more of a warm evening/sunset light (to have the nice looking TIE sunset shot make a little more sense))
(• Add unused shots of X-Wings approaching from Teaser 1 and 2)
• Remove Han shooting over his shoulder without looking
(• Reduce Han playing around with Chewie’s Bowcaster)
(• Remove Han’s line “I saw our son" and/or “he was here”)
• Add deleted scene with Leia discussing the Republic
• Remove mention of the Hosnian system’s destruction when Finn is introduced to Leia
(• Add Poe telling Leia that Finn knows about a weapon system/base (edit by NeverearGreat))
• R2D2 starts searching for map files on his hard drive after hearing C3PO mentioning the map (edit by NeverarGreat)
(• Changes to the talk about Kylo between Han and Leia)
• Flip back flipped shot of Kylo putting his helmet in the ash tray
• After Rey resists Kylo Ren’s mind probe, add the portion of the Snoke scene from earlier where General Hux suggests using the weapon to destroy the Republic (VFX by Jackpumpkinhead and krlozdac to overlay Kylo Ren’s head over his mask)
• Move General Hux’s speech to after Kylo Ren overreacts to Rey’s escape
• After the speech, the nearby Sun begins to be drained
(• Shrink death star hologram further during briefing to make Starkiller base bigger)
• During the Resistance briefing scene, remove Leia identifying their base as the Starkiller’s next target, Threepio lamenting the prior loss of the Republic fleet, and the mention of the First Order charging the weapon “again”
• Remove C3PO’s line “It would take a miracle to save us now”
• Flip back flipped shot of Stormtroopers looking for Rey
• Remove sharpening artifacts from a shot of Rey inside Starkiller Base
• Remove smoke from Starkiller Base when X-Wings approach (based on VFX by NeverarGreat)
• Add deleted scene of Kylo searching the Falcon
• Remove Finn not understanding Han’s signal to look at Rey behind him
(• Cut the “I’m in charge now!” part when Han and Finn encounter Phasma)
(• Cut Finn’s “trash compactor” reference)
• After Kylo kills Han, the Starkiller fires at the Hosnian system, and Leia senses it through the Force
• As Finn and Rey start to head outside the oscillator, cut to Snoke and Hux planning to destroy the Resistance
• First Order technician redubbed to state the weapon will be fully “re”-charged in 30 seconds (Voice from AbramPT)
• Change Kylo’s facial scar to match TLJ appearance
• As the Falcon flies away from the imploding planet, remove shots in which the fighter pilots appear too joyful and remove Poe’s line “Our work here is done”
• Remove Chewie walking past Leia (because of the Chewie hug controversy)
• Remove Chewie from crowd behind Leia
• Extend the shot of R2 waking up, to allow him to finish searching his backup data (FX by NeverarGreat)
(• Trim “map puzzle” scene, make it faster)
• End the film with Rey leaving in the Falcon, save Luke for TLJ (like DigMod)
What do you think? Anything else I should do? Anything I shouldn’t do? Please share your thoughts, and I’ll keep you updated as I make progress.