Revenge of the Sith (The New Canon Cut) [ON HOLD INDEFINITELY] — Page 6

I’ve been reading your thread about your edits. I find it all very interesting!

I agree with your ideas and though process with this. The Clone Wars portrayed Anakin exactly how he should be. He had that right mix, which made his “downfall” that much more tragic. He was actually likable! Unlike the movies …

So I am very curious to see this. I would love to see some edits or at least glimpses of what you are doing. Very very interesting!

Holy shit guys, I think I’m pretty ready to finish and finalize! I just need to render it out, make a new cutlist accurate to what it is now, upload it, and I can finally never watch a frame of this movie again!

(jk I will fix any technical issues anyone finds. which there will be. so many)

But this final version is actually very different from what people previewed earlier this year. I’ve made a ton of changes since then that I hope make my RotS more unique than other fan edits. I wasn’t happy with releasing it as it was back in May for a lot of reasons, one of them being because I felt like it wasn’t different enough an edit from Hal’s or others to warrant putting out there. I didn’t feel like every ambition I had for the edit could be realized. And while I still feel like I wasn’t able to really, this is probably the closest I’m going to get with the source material.

Also, I’m not going to lie, a big reason this took so long was because I had to go back and redo everything because I ended up losing the original project files to hard drive failure. But going back to redo everything allowed me to rethink a lot of what I did and do things differently than I did the first time. I ended up having a lot of new ideas in the process.

So this is going to end up on the updated cutlist, but here are the biggest changes (in broad strokes) since the preview cut:

1. New crawl!!!

2. Color grading. Alright, well, I decided to go through with the color grading thing. I’m no pro colorist, but I was inspired by emanswfan’s filmized editions of the prequels (which don’t actually exist anywhere yet so I had to do my own thing) to make the film generally look more gritty and grimy, and shot on film, and just less plastic and more visually appealing. It might look worse to you tbh, and if it does, hmu and I’d gladly render out a non-color graded version. The grain and artifacts are definitely a problem up close. But this is my edit, and I like how it looks overall, so you know.
   http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/116544
   http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/116546

3. Even more audio/conversation editing. When it came to Anakin dialogue and scenes, I basically left no stone unturned. There’s new audio clips in every scene with him to either add to or replace his dialogue, as well as a restructuring of most of his conversations. I’ve got him the most sympathetic, somewhat likeable, and mature I’ve personally seen in most edits of this movie. And this is the movie where he kills children, so I’m kind of proud of that.

   Additionally, just a lot more casual talk and laughing/chuckles. Makes everyone seem more human. A lot more people interrupting each other or talking over each other instead of taking turns delivering lines. All of the talking/politics scenes just seem to go by a lot faster now. Mostly because they do.

   I tried to make the music editing a lot better too. Like, if I inserted a track like Anakin’s Theme or Anakin’s Dream, that it was integrated into the film better, and that you won’t be able hear too many remnants of the old score I replace.

4. The ending. My old drafts had more or less the original ending, just with the Hal/Russian scream instead of “NOO…!” But as I was going through this again, I felt like I didn’t even want that scene in there at all. Now the movie ends as Vader takes his first breaths, and then cut to black into credits with melancholy Star Wars music (similar to TCW season 5 finale). While this gets rid of R2/3PO getting their memories wiped and Yoda telling Obi Wan about Qui Gon, I feel like it’s more powerful to end the film like this. The whole movie is about Anakin’s turn into Vader, and to see him crying about Padme as Vader undermines his cold bloodedness a lot. And honestly, that scream of anguish/“no” is the only thing that tells us that Anakin hasn’t fully become Darth Vader yet, because we automatically associate the imagery with what the character is like the OT. The “no” subverts our expectation in a way that undermines the character arc. We had to assume that this sad!Vader becomes the Vader we know in the OT somewhere in between III and IV, but the movie’s existence is more valid if he’s just Darth Vader by the end.

Anyway, the 720p version should be finished rendering in like 14 hours, so I’ll get back to you guys some time then.

The regrade looks rather green in the highlights. I had a go at a regrain and regrade, here’s what I came up with:
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/PGNNN8TX
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/2MNNN8TU
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/PPNNN8TX

If you want the Photoshop file with which to generate the LUT, I can provide it.

That would actually be really cool! I’d be down to use it.

I was just going for anything better to me personally than the original, but your work is legitimately good. I just got so tired of this movie that changing its entire look as drastically as I possibly could made it more bearable to edit. But I realize not everyone might not feel the way someone watching it over and over again might. I really like your regrade as a alternative to mine. Because it’s actually good.

Thanks, and you’re definitely getting credit if I end up using it. It’s not like this edit is one that needed something like this, but I’m glad it’ll be one that ends up having it.

Anyway, it might be a little bit longer now, but it’s coming.

Here it is:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3vKx1Rq8-zRRmE3N2xzbS1iUEU
If you get the free trial of Premiere CC, it has the ability to create a LUT from the file (File > Export > Color Lookup Tables). I only have CS6, which is why I can’t do it myself.
JEDIT: Updated the file so that the shadows aren’t quite as strong.
JEDIT2: New version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3vKx1Rq8-zRdGNEZnBlYXN6MjA
JEDIT3: Final Version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3vKx1Rq8-zRVjlwLTRwMnIzOEU
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/2CNNN8TU


http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/ZLNNN8TX


For the regraded version, I just added 1.5% noise.

I too agree with NeverarGreat. I like your concept to make it more film, but I think it also gets too dark and the highlights are a bit off. This way you get the more film look AND renders better in my opinion.

All in all, I am VERY curios to watch yours. Trying to make Anakin (and his relationship with Obi) more like the Clone Wars would make everything better about Ani. 😉

I would be curious to watch your edit when it is all said and done, especially since Hal’s edition is really great.

I was walking this morning thinking about the ending for ROTS, well, specifically Hal’s LOE since its much better. One thought of an edit, based on yours or Hals would be the last time you see Anakin is after Obi Wan leaves him on fire. Then the rest can be the other scenes, with Yoda talking about splitting up the kids, Padme and baby lei at alderman and obi wan at tatooin. Thats how it ends.

My rational is it helps makes it SOMEWHAT possible to watch from the episode 1 in a straight line through the series. (Granted, if someone has NEVER seen the movies or knows anything about it, of course just watch the originals for the “Vader Revelation. Plus the OT is that much better …”)

Anyway, that way it leaves of Episode III like Obi Wan killed Anakin. But we are not too sure. They split up the children to hide from the empire/emporer. Lastly, when Luke does ask Obi Wan about his father, the lie still works on multiple levels. (You know, as the audience, he is lying by his reaction before answering.) The audience can either think that A.) he is not telling the truth about his father’s death by pointing at someone more evil who did it, Vader and the Empire to help recruit Luke. B.) The audience sees Vader, may expect it since from the last episode there was no Darth Vader, so again, Obi Wan is lying about something … suspecious. Could it be the father?

Again this is not a perfect solution, there is no way of editing the prequels to make the reveal believable in the orginal, it can happen since the middle of star wars came out first. But it kind of flows a bit better story wise.

The watcher can also reason that at the Death Star, Obi Wan could have figured out before hand that Anakin was Darth Vader at some point since many years passed from Episode 3 to 4. Or it wasn’t until the confrontation that confirmed Darth Vader is Anakin.

That was my thought. Of course there are some other edits that would need to be done. No mention of Anakin being Vader in Revenge of the Sith. Not at all.

Not a huge thing, but something I thought about this morning.

Here’s a rough preview of the ending, since a lot of people are asking about it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx-b_Drhy38rQWlfV3J0X19FMTQ/view?usp=sharing

I have to retime the duration of some shots, and the credits will fade in instead of hard cut, but that’s essentially what it’ll look like. The audiovisual quality is also only shit because I had to render it out quickly.

I do think Anakin should visibly become Vader by the end of the movie. Not a huge fan of leaving that up in the air, tbh. What’s the point of these movies if not to see that happen?

JEDIT: changed link

That’s really well done!

It would be interesting to see this without the childbirth at all, since it feels a bit unfitting with the grand, sweeping Leia theme. Other than that, brilliant.

There is something satisfying with ending with Vader’s helmet being sealed and the breathing, I will give you that. It is a good ending note.

I would highly suggest using the alternate scenes that depicts Padme being alive with Leia … it should be consistent with Leia’s statement in Return of the Jedi.

Granted, story wise the idea of Padme’s death would be better … her death, Vader’s birth … But the Prequels should follow along the original’s stories/canon, not the other way around.

There are actually edits that do what you suggest about leaving Anakin/Vader ambiguous or leaving Padme alive.

For me, this is just what I wanted to do for my edit. I wanted to make something that fits better within the new canon post-Disney, and Padme remained really dead in the new comics, and Leia is Bail’s adoptive daughter throughout Rebels and Rogue One. This edit is just a reinterpretation of the same in-canon events, I’m not trying to “fix” anything in canon aside from characterization and arguably the filmmaking in which it’s presented.

It’s still a decently radical edit, but I’m not changing what happened in broad strokes.

I agree, having Padme die seems like the only option given your philosophical approach.

Here’s the updated cutlist.

• New crawl.
• Replaced “Master” with “Obi-Wan.”
• Cut “The one crawling with vulture droids…”
• Cut “Oh” before “…I see it.”
• Added “General Skywalker, (we’re) ready to engage” from a clone pilot as they lock their whatever foils into position.
• Anakin gives orders now, too. Clones respond with “yes, sir!”
• Cut “Let them pass between us.” Obi-Wan seems less like he’s giving Anakin orders now, and Anakin having last word before the fighting makes him come off as more of a leader.
• Cut “I’m gonna go help him out” exchange.
• Cut “Missiles!”
• Added excited yelp from Anakin as missiles fly past.
• Cut visual of Anakin saying “They’re coming around.”
• Cut “No no no no no” from Obi-Wan to R4 before “Nothing too fancy.” Obi-Wan is less curmudgeon-y relative to Anakin.
• Cut “flying is for droids.”
• Cut “Buzz droids…”
• Cut Obi-Wan recapping mission.
• Cut “Hold your fire…” “I agree, bad idea…” exchange.
• Cut Obi Wan telling Anakin to go on without him.
• Cut “You’re going to get us both killed.”
• Added Obi Wan and Anakin laughing together as R2 dispatches the Buzz Droid.
• Cut “Well the shields are still up!” and R2’s anxious scream. Anakin shoots the shields down himself.
• Cut CGI Jump Obi-Wan, droid squealing, and trimmed scene length.
• Removed mentions of Count Dooku until his first appearance.
• Cut telling R2 to stay with the ships.
• Added “Never an elevator when you need one” -OB1. Moved “I agree” -ANK, as they walk backwards into the elevator deflecting the Destroyers’ shots.
• Added “roger, roger” deleted scene.
• Cut “Those are Jedi fighters, alright.”
• Cut “No, did you?”
• Cut Super Battle Droids bickering with one another at all. Deepened their voices for when they do talk. Which is like twice in the whole film.
• Cut “Always on the move.”
• Added “Good view from up there” from Anakin as he jumps down back into the elevator.
• Cut “No miswire jokes…”, “Did I say anything?” Anakin just immediately defends R2.
• Cut Super Battle Droids’ squealing and yelling for help as R2 flamethrows them.
• Added new exchange OB1 and ANK they step off elevator; “You worry too much, you know that?” “I’m not a protocol droid.”
• Added Anakin saying “Chancellor” alongside Obi-Wan.
• Cut “This time we will do it together” exchange.
• Cut “Get help.”
• Moved “I was about to say that” after Obi-Wan quips “Sith lords are our specialty.” Obi-Wan stole his joke.
• Cut Count Dooku jump off balcony.
• Cut “You won’t get away this time.”
• Cut “My powers have doubled…” exchange.
• Cut Anakin’s yelps and whine-screams of effort in the duel.
• Cut “I sense great fear in you.”
• Re-edit Dooku’s words to say “You have hate. You have anger. Use them.”
• Re-edit so Anakin just beheads Dooku without Palpatine’s encouragement.
• Cut “Yes, but he was an unarmed prisoner.”
• Cut “Remember what you told me about your mother…?”
• Cut “His fate will be the same as ours.”
• Added “Come on, buddy.” after Anakin tells R2 to bring an elevator down.
• Cut every time we cut back to Grevious on the bridge in the ship-tipping sequence.
• Cut “Easy” and “Oops” from Anakin in the shaft.
• Muted “Let’s see if we can find something in the hangar bay.” Barely swinging out of the shaft was such a ridiculous sequence, lamp-shading it with silent disbelief that they had just done that is a funny comedic beat.
• Cut “Patience?” from Obi Wan in the ray shields.
• Cut the SBD kicking R2 down onscreen.
• Cut battle droid presence on the bridge.
• Re-edit Grevious to say “General Skywalker…”
• Trimmed duels with Magna-guards.
• Moved “Time to abandon ship” to before Grevious breaks the window.
• Trimmed Grevious’ escape.
• Cut a lot of technobabble on the way down.
• Replaced firefighter’s line with “General Skywalker, come in.”
• Added Anakin chuckle after “Another happy landing.”
• Replaced Anakin’s “Are you coming master?” with a less formal “So we doing this or what?”
• Cut retelling of what happened straight into “Anakin, today you were the hero.”
• Re-edit so that Obi Wan cuts off Anakin before he can finish saying “Tenth time.”
• Added Anakin giggle.
• Cut Jar Jar.
• Added “General Skywalker” from Senator Organa.
• Replaced ominous score with more peaceful “Anakin’s Dream” in Anakin/Padme reunion.
• Re-edit reunion so that Anakin isn’t creepy and the relationship feels more healthy and loving, not a secret conspiracy.
• Moved Anakin and Obi Wan meeting at the war room here.
• Added a casual “Hey” and removed “I have no excuse” to/from Anakin’s dialogue.
• Cut “Is that bad?”
• Cut “…isn’t it?”
• Added “With all due respect, sir, the council is no mood for more constitutional amendments” from Anakin in between scenes.
• Cut “Me?” and “I’m overwhelmed.”
• Replaced blatant Palpatine manipulation with “You fought many battles the jedi council thought were lost. And you saved my life.”
• Added Plot to Destroy the Jedi Deleted Scene here.
• Cut “I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi” and “…Arrested?”
• Re-edit council meeting so that Obi Wan looks sympathetic to Anakin, shaking his head as a way to talk him down from further lashing out, not to scold, and looking away out of guilt for what the council is doing to him.
• Cut “This is outrageous! It’s unfair!” from Anakin in council meeting.
• Cut “young” from “young Skywalker.”
• Cut “…master” from “Forgive me, master.”
• Trimmed rest of meeting.
• Added A Stirring in the Senate Deleted Scene and trimmed it to be much faster.
• Restructured Obi Wan’s conversation with Anakin about why the council denied his master rank. Anakin doesn’t whine about it, and Obi Wan doesn’t lowkey insult Anakin for his friendship with Palpatine paying off in a way “he wanted.” Obi-Wan is straightforward, honest, and sympathetic.
• Cut “I don’t think the boy can handle it” from Windu.
• Added Anakin/Padme giggles and a concerned “What’s the matter?” from Anakin in the establishing shot of their apartment political discourse scene.
• Restructured scene so that Anakin and Padme both seem to think they’re on the same side until it’s clear that they aren’t, at which point Anakin stops the conversation without accusing her of being a Seperatist or vindictively saying he doesn’t believe in what she’s saying.
• Moved Grevious landing on Utapau here, trimming scene to remove mentions of Mustafar.
• Moved Anakin’s dream here.
• Added Anakin screaming “no, no, no” in the dream.
• Cut Anakin/Padme’s conversation about it. Transitions directly into Opera scene.
• Added KOTOR Pazaak music in the background of the city.
• Added “General Skywalker” from Mas Amedda as Anakin walks onto the balcony.
• Cut “We can finally catch that monster…”
• Cut “I would worry about the wisdom of the council if they didn’t…”
• Cut “They asked you to spy on me” exchange.
• Cut midichlorians and creating life.
• Trimmed council meeting in which they select Obi-Wan for Utapau.
• Added Anakin saying “I” as an endorsement of his friend.
• Added Seeds of Rebellion Deleted Scene
• Added Anakin’s Theme to Anakin and Obi-Wan’s goodbye.
• Cut Anakin calling Obi Wan, “master”, as well as all references to Obi-Wan having trained him and watching him grow up.
• Added Confronting the Chancellor Deleted Scene and trimmed to go by faster, as well as to remove Palpatine’s blatant manipulation attempt.
• Moved Anakin/Padme’s baby/death conversation here.
• Trimmed Obi-Wan’s Utapau adventure to tone down Boga, Grevious, and the lightsaber duel. No staredowns, and less exposition.
• Cut “Yes, master” after Windu tells Anakin to inform Palpatine about the Utapau campaign.
• Cut scene at “I sense a plot to destroy the jedi” line.
• Restructured Anakin informing Palps so that Anakin takes the reigns in the conversation. Before Palps can finish saying something manipulative, Anakin cuts him off to tell him he already feels badly about the council. He doesn’t need extra convincing. Anakin has had more agency like this throughout the cut. Palps’ manipulation comes off as a little more unnecessary b/c Anakin already agrees and gets the point most of the time. This way, when he does turn, it’s not because Palps has convinced him, but because Anakin is just using Palps. A much more sith relationship.
• Trimmed Palps’ revelation to make Anakin more aggressive and quicker to catch on. Also downplays Padme’s relevance to Palpatine. Anakin doesn’t “You’re the sith lord!”
• Cut the “masters” to Windu from Anakin when Anakin goes to see him.
• Cut “young” from “young Skywalker” and “There is much fear that clouds your judgement.”
• Moved “I must go, master” as a phrase that is cut off before Windu tells him to stay back.
• Added a few notes of Ahsoka’s theme here.
• Cut “Yes, master.”
• Cut Palpatine V.O in the silent brooding scene.
• Trimmed Palps vs Jedi duel to look less stupid.
• Re-edit Anakin’s turn to the dark side, so that Windu is just about to kill Palpatine before Anakin cuts his hand off. No devil vs angel moment, and Palpatine transforms into his Emperor self with the flashing of the lights.
• Cut “What have I done?” and anything to do with Padme.
• Cut Palps orgasming and “A powerful sith, you will become.”
• Cut “Thank you, my master.”
• Cut “…even your friend Obi Wan Kenobi…”
• Cut “I understand…”
• Cut “We will catch them off balance.”
• Cut “…to save Padme’s life.”
• Cut “What about the other Jedi…” exchange.
• Added an Anakin is distraught reaction shot before it transitions to the march on the temple.
• Cut implied youngling murder.
• Trimmed Order 66 scene overall.
• Added “General!” from 3PO to Anakin when he returns to Padme’s apartment.
• Cut “I came to check on you and the baby.”
• Cut “I will not betray the Republic.”
• Cut “We can only hope…many jedi have been killed.”
• Cut “Have faith my love, everything will be set right. The chancellor has given me…”
• Trimmed Yoda/Bail/Kenobi interaction on Tantive Whatever.
• Re-edit Mas Amedda message to be pre-recorded.
• Cut R2 popping out of fighter.
• Cut “Not even the younglings survived.”
• Cut shot of Anakin crying as he massacres the Seperatists.
• Replaced shot of Palpatine raising his arms to applause with just a long shot of the Hall.
• Cut extraneous explanations about clones being not so smart.
• Re-edited scene where Obi-Wan learns about Vader so that he has a much more emotional reaction.
• Cut “young” from “young Skywalker.”
• Re-edited Padme/Obi-Wan scene. Since Yoda doesn’t set up a mission for him and Obi-Wan to take out the Sith, it’s implied that both think they’re just going to hide now. Obi Wan goes to see Anakin/Padme on his own accord. He isn’t looking to kill Anakin.
• Cut Obi-Wan hiding in the bathroom
• Trimmed scene Anakin informing Palps that he’s finished off the Speratists, so Anakin sounds less subservient.
• Cut dialogue between Anakin and Padme in their Mustafar conversation. Less focus on Obi Wan, and none whatsoever on saving Padme. I cut out mentions of him bringing peace to the Republic as well, bc idk. His allegiance is to the Empire, and he says it later. Also it works with the idea that he isn’t proud enough of what he’s done to tell Padme about it and Padme’s horrified reaction comes from how he doesn’t deny the “terrible things”, and how his aspirations for both of them is just more galaxy- subjecting power and control. And that she can tell something is off quicker says more about their relationship.
• Cut Hayden’s “LIAR!” Anakin isn’t supposed to be this unhinged by this point in the cut, so I had to remove this. As well as “You will not take her from me!” These are actually some of Hayden’s better acting moments imo, but it really doesn’t fit with what I’m going for in terms of Darth Vader. Too whiny, if you will.
• “Don’t lecture me, Obi Wan!” removed. It’s kind of a reference to a mentor/mentee relationship, so I’ve gotten rid of it. Also “freedom”, “then you’re my enemy”, and “you will tryy…” removed. The first just isn’t true, and the other two are too villain-taunty.
• “Anakin, please. Come back to the light!” “I won’t abandon you to the dark side!” lines of dialogue.
• The duel on Mustafar and Yoda vs. Sidious has its most cheesy moments cuts.
• Cut post-duel Sidious scenes in Senate Hall.
• Cut “It’s over Anakin!”, “I have the high ground!” and “You underestimate my power!”
• Cut Anakin’s scream as he jumps on up.
• Cut “She seems to have lost the will to live.”
• Cut Vader scream and Padme’s dying words.

PM for a link to a 720p version, I guess. There are already like 3 audio things I want to go back and fix, but fuck it. 1080p is rendering.

I am curious to see the 1080 render myself! If we find the 3 audio things do we win a prize?! 😉

Oh man, I hear that about the audio additions. It’s one the things I immediately regretted going a bit overboard on as soon as it finished rendering. I was constantly worried about the volume levels and a lot of the lines are just unnecessary especially when they aren’t blended with the source material too well. I will definitely tone that down when I get to the next version. The added dialogue where they’re coming on and off the elevator should probably go.

I feel I need to keep most in though, b/c I think without the audio additions Anakin came off more meek/mild mannered than I would have liked. It’s a balancing act I have yet to crack - or I did somewhere along the line before going overboard. Dave Filoni and Matt Lanter have always described Anakin as this cross between Luke and Han, and that’s generally what I’m going for.

Anyway if anyone else has gotten around to watching it, I’d really appreciate feedback. Technical or storywise.