Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released) — Page 21

Holy f***ing s***. That is incredible neverar, oh my god.

That looks really really good!

NeverarGreat said:

Here’s a test of the scene at night:
https://vimeo.com/250045636
Password: sand

I had to selectively brighten our heroes and key out the water, which was only moderately successful.

That’s great, I’ve taken a different approach entirely (more of a twilight look) so we’ll see what people think.

Hal 9000 said:

• Reinstate Jabba the Hutt at the podrace. Despite what I may have said, my real intention was to preserve the reveal of his appearance in ROTJ, going against the project’s goals. I don’t mind the Jabba cameo, so I think it deserves to be put back in for this final version.
  …
• Reinstate Sebulba skidding to a stop rather than implying his death.
  …
• Ask lovely forum members for help getting the day-for-night scene looking better.

Although I really loved your cut of the podrace—especially with the added ‘Shadows’ music—there were a few things I would have kept. Glad to hear you’re reinstating Jabba and Sebulba. I’d like to suggest that the jawa’s “tee-dee” and Sebulba’s “poodoo” be put back in also. I know some consider them part of the many rather silly and immature things in this movie, but I don’t think they breach the precedent set by the charm and humor of the OT. (The timing and delivery of the “poodoo” line is so perfect, that I find it one of the few successful jokes in the film.)

As for Anakin and Padme’s first kiss… Have you considered just cutting it entirely? I once did my own personal 3-in-1 PT cut that omitted this scene, and I think the subplot of their romance works just fine without it, and makes the “I love you” and kiss in the arena more meaningful.

On the other hand, NeverarGreat’s sample of this footage looks amazing, and I wouldn’t want to see such good work go to waste. It’s your edit, of course, and I’m sure whatever you decide will work well with the final product.

I think the kiss scene is mandatory to make the romance work. I would even like that Hal keeps Padmé’s lines at the beginning of the scene, I believe it would then flow slightly better when the scene becomes wordless (I even see some kind of pattern here: each time Anakin’s actions have strong consequences (kissing Padmé in AOTC, turning to the dark side in the Padmé’s ruminations scene of ROTS, killing the Emperor in ROTJ), he should always be wordless.

For what it’s worth, here are my “last minute” very small suggestions for Episode II (the current v4.2 is around 95-98% perfect to my taste, so it merely is “full nitpicking” mode I confesss 😃):

• Readd the last part of Jar Jar introducing the jedi at Padmé’s HQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm593Vhs3bI#t=0m54s
  (it doesn’t change anything actually - Jar Jar was still a main character in your Episode I edit, so it would give him a few more screen presence that aren’t annoying -, but I believe it would make the sound transition work better). In the same scene, I’m unsure about Padmé’s “Ani, you’ll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine”, it’s such a weird thing to say (but the scene might feel rushed with that line removed, so it probably has to stay);

• you’ve already mentioned you were going to remove the Obi-wan/Anakin last residual childish antagonism from the theatrical cut (“and you will know your place”) so it’s perfect !

• for somes reasons, I kinda miss the arrogant “Easy. Jedi business, Go back to your drinks”., which in a way showed the gap between the Jedi Order and the rest of the population to explain why they don’t care when they get exterminated a few years later (something we only get to see in TCW-Season 5 with the Ahsoka arc on Coruscant). And I think it’s good that Anakin shows off a little at this point of the movie (he’s confident and no longer the awkward child seen in Episode I). But again it’s a small thing and I understand why some would hate that line;

• the line “You’re exactly the way I remember" has been removed the “you in my dreams” part but I don’t think it works; very minor detail but the sentence ends abruptly, it’s a little bit jarring and the only moment in your edit that feels like something has been cut (I’ve tried to find a sample of an Anakin sentence that ends with “you” but none is to be found that could work in this context to replace the “you” supposed to be followed by “in my dreams”: very tricky this line !);

• I like the way Octoroxx used the Queen’s throne room in his edit; I understand why you removed it entirely but I feel that some exposition regarding the Federations and the Republic is interesting here (however your edit works fine without it, but in the Saga context the info it contains is interesting);

• during the diner scene, I believe Anakin’s line “If Master Obi-Wan caught me doing this, he’d be very grumpy” should be removed like all the previous Anakin mentions of his master you’ve removed (not sure if possible though in order to keep the rest of the scene), just because it’s a very ridiculous line 😄 ;

• after Anakin’s dream, I would suggest to remove the last line: “I’m sorry. I don’t have a choice”. It’s a repetitive line and Padmé already agreed to come with him;

• I’m not even gonna try to convince you about readding a trimmed version of the factory scene: I know you totally hate it ! (but removing it creates a curious transition… too bad there isn’t a cut scene of Anakin handing his saber to Jango => pretty sure such a scene exists somewhere in Lucasfilm vaults…);

• Octoroxx had 2 interesting ideas in his edit: he trimmed Anakin’s whining about having to follow Mace Windu’s orders, and he slightly trimmed chat between Dooku and Obi-Wan;

• I understand the title ‘Tyrannus’ has no pay-off in your edit (and none in ROTS as well, theatrical cut or your edit), but in TCW it does, would be cool to hear Sidious calling Dooku that way (but again: very minor detail 😃).

Oh and one last thing, very minor thing (that I truly hate as a matter of fact) I’ve never seen altered in any Episode II edit: the very bad edit transition to Padmé laying in the sand (here the video - it’s a youtube sample that has cut out the Padmé scene, but there is still the shot I’m talking about at 1:04: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFWEBm0TC00#t=1m04). This Anakin shot should be placed just before he jumps to save Obi-Wan, not here (Marcia Lucas was really missed on the PT, especially Episode II which has the worst editing work of the Saga). I really don’t know if it could be corrected though.

As promised, that was my last long “small suggestions” post for the coming and final v4.3 of your PT edits 😄 (don’t worry, it truly is the last 😉).

(and thanks a lot for the crawls with the theatrical titles !)

Hal 9000 said:

EddieDean said:

Hal, your 4.2s are my archival versions, and I love everything you’ve suggested for 4.3.

The only thing I’m just not sure about is the Emperor, Vader and Tarkin looking out on a prototype Death Star, especially one with the dish on the equator.

Firstly, a prototype Death Star has exactly the same issue as the real one - that it’s just part of the slideshow where pieces are put into place to line up with the OT.

Secondly, there’s nothing in the films that suggests a prototype was ever created, so I think it adds something new to the world without adding anything new to the plot, or any meaningfulness to our characters.

Thirdly, I think the reveal of the Death Star is really beautifully done in Rogue One (and well set up in Rebels, for those that watch that), and that seeing it early takes away from that.

For these reasons I think either of your initial ideas work (leave it, or replace with Coruscant) - personally favouring Coruscant.

EDIT:
One question though - while you are revisiting your edits, could you please consider releasing identical versions but retaining the original titles of the films in the crawls? I respect your right to put your mark on them, and to recognise them as significantly changed movies - plus I’m not a huge fan of the original titles - but personally I’d like to pretend that yours are the master versions as originally released. (I hope you take that as the compliment it’s intended as.)

As much as I like the idea, I don’t think Coruscant works. The Death Star is for the best, unfortunately.
This, and the crawl thing, could be easily remedied if you are not opposed to doing a slight bit of editing on your own.

Here’s the Coruscant footage:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2lsYRKXLjL9VDBENFBydVJBck0

And here are exports of the prior versions of my crawls with original titles:
https://mega.nz/#!k5RgySRK!TC1avnNyi4-S_4qFuxIoqaY_f83Hm7bBcWmGLP9R4Fc
https://mega.nz/#!tk5XAJ4S!K3rRiBe-RuluoUQmYapJ_yWH3iJcplpNQ2mX7SvXglc
https://mega.nz/#!M5AxkJJI!Hf7fMMi1T5kooHf-tNsCu1S3wOd_LSNI8uwzw4URC0Q

Actually, if you didn’t want the Death Star… an Imperial Star Destroyer under construction would be good…

Since you’re talking about the Death Star ending shot, I’ve read somewhere the idea of putting Erso and Krennic in the shot. It might require Adywan/Sir Ridley skills though; don’t know if someone already made a mock up of this idea (might be quite impossible to do but I’ve seen around here many tweaks I thought out of reach of a faneditor).

edit: thinking about it, if Lucasfilm releases R1 deleted scenes, this Vader shot could be an appropriate replacement (not sure it would work, but that way you keep the DS reveal to R1 or ANH - and I’m not talking about Hal’s edit, but at some point some would try to better link Episode 3 to R1 I guess):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdj1zb9sMY#t=1m55

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBNc7Pz35OA#t=0m20

MalàStrana said:

(and thanks a lot for the crawls with the theatrical titles !)

Wait, what?

Collipso said:

MalàStrana said:

(and thanks a lot for the crawls with the theatrical titles !)

Wait, what?

Hal 9000 said:

And here are exports of the prior versions of my crawls with original titles:
https://mega.nz/#!k5RgySRK!TC1avnNyi4-S_4qFuxIoqaY_f83Hm7bBcWmGLP9R4Fc
https://mega.nz/#!tk5XAJ4S!K3rRiBe-RuluoUQmYapJ_yWH3iJcplpNQ2mX7SvXglc
https://mega.nz/#!M5AxkJJI!Hf7fMMi1T5kooHf-tNsCu1S3wOd_LSNI8uwzw4URC0Q

Holy moly am I blind and stupid!

uncleben said:

No problem, everything you do is already pretty huge 🙌
(still, if by any chance you or MalàStrana have separate files for the subtitles… that’d be amazing! 😄)

Sorry I totally forgot your message ! I’ll send them to you tonight. But the issue you mentionned is always found with 720p files, because subtitles files adjust their size to the size of the format: that’s why on 1080p files they have a normal size and on 720p the size gets smaller. At least of a laptop/pc screen; I don’t recall having seen that when the file is played through a cody system for example. I don’t know how to implement a contant size into the srt file, but it probably just is a front code to add at the beginning of the file (such as the color and else).

edit: here are the files:
I: https://mega.nz/#!h88kAKwD!cPVqd3tvLEBGE45Xa6XxzH293_mV6KrYS9mO78Zwg5s
II: https://mega.nz/#!VoVlmIxJ!fFwY_b2y7qLxJj02kFRz4Ip9OAJcJBiO_9mVwJRU1d4
III: https://mega.nz/#!p1tEBbKD!dv-_aN3JSluCZXhX0ybssQOf19_UBHdEp1Uv51aFbRM

Hal 9000 said:
And, Mala, I don’t have time at the moment to respond to each, but many of your suggestions for Ep2 will be either attempted or implemented.

Thanks !

Not the droid factory, though. :p

Ahah, like I wrote 😄

I’m not even gonna try to convince you about readding a trimmed version of the factory scene

Here’s a pass that needs more work:
https://vimeo.com/250214190

I like the way it looks, which is less blueish than the v4.2. About the ending shot, I feel the transition from the kiss to Kamino might be slightly abrupt; could a slow motion effect (like the one used on Kylo Ren for TFA:R when he kills Han) be used to give an extra hundred microseconds to smoother the transition (to the last shot or even to the entire kissing part) ?

Hal 9000 said:

I think that’s not that bad, not far from what I ended up doing before. I also desaturated the colors somewhat because at night that information isn’t really observable. During at least one shot the gradient around them makes them appear to be angels.

Which might be fitting? lol

Yeah, it’s got some work to do.

I can certainly try desaturating it some, it is verging a bit into Mad Max territory.

This is probably not the right place for this comment, but one thing I’d love to see someone attempt in an edit of Attack of The Clones is cleaning up and reinserting this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX5Na9gcDz0. It’s SO rough though, I’m not sure even an effects whiz could do it convincingly.