Hello OT community,

I haven’t posted much here on the Original Trilogy board, but I wanted to share information about an edit I am working on over at fanedit.org, Star Wars: The Force Awakens Specters of the Past (Prolonged Reveal). As the title suggests, the main changes of this edit are to prolong the reveal of Kylo Ren’s parentage, similar to but different than TK251’s edit that I recently became aware of. Along with the delayed reveal I also wanted to reinstate some OT sfx to the Falcon chase scene inspired by Joshua Harris’ amazing edit of the same idea, augment scenes with composited fx (holograms), add music to increase emotion in certain scenes (Hux speech, Catwalk scene, the duel), and remove minor dialogue and shots that just didn’t feel like Star Wars to me.

While some editors have opted to remove all references to Ren’s father, I have chosen to use such lines to misdirect the first-time viewer in hopes that the viewer will begin to think that Ren is infact Luke’s son. I remember sitting in the theater wondering why Abrams and LucasFilm felt the need to reveal so much, so quickly. This is the film I would have prefered. To sell the misdirect various omissions of dialogue were made between Han and Leia and conversations between Ren and Snoke were abreviated.

Another major change in this edit is the removal of the island ending. The final scenes of this edit are Rey and Chewie entering into hyperspace to find Luke. Knowing that Rian Johnson will begin the movie with these clips, I’m not worried about a gap in trilogy narrative, nor am I worried about not seeing Luke at all in the movie. I elaborate on the reasoning for this edit further below in the edit list.

The edit clocks in at 2:08:04 (including custom title cards and intros) cutting approximately 10 minutes from the film in total.

I’d love to read your feedback on the edit list below and any pointers you may have for a novice like myself 😃
I will have a preview file ready for viewing in the coming day(s). If you are interested please send me a pm.
Thanks!

Source: Official BluRay ripped to lossless AVI and wav files
Edited using Sony Vegas Platinum HD 10.0
Release TBD July/August
Anticipated release formats 20-25gb BR; 15gb 1080p MP4, 8gb 720p MP4

View the Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuEMFMoy76s

Added Custom Loading Screen and Menus (Blu Ray)
Added New Fanedit.org title card based on current logo
Added custom ROTJ style disclaimer
Added A DigModiFicaTion Title card
Added Custom Walt Disney 20th Century Fox title card with 20th Century Fox fanfare
Replaced opening crawl music with opening crawl music from Episode IV
Replaced crawl with custom “Heir to the Force” crawl
Removed Poe’s “so who talks first…” lines
Clipped Poe’s line as he is forcefully picked up, now it sounds like he was going to start saying something but the jolt of being hoisted up stops him.
Replaced Video when Kylo Ren says “put him on board”; Video is a slightly cropped/zoomed shot where Kylo Ren is standing still vs the movement in the theatrical cut
Removed Kylo Ren’s “comfortable?” line and Poe’s response during Poe’s interrogation scene
Transition to next scene before Unkar Plott pulls down the window on his other customers
Cut Poe and Finn’s conversation after Finn says “Because it’s the right thing to do”
Removed Finn firing on and killing Stormtroopers and the traffic control room
Cut Finn and Poe’s celebration after blowing up a turret and Scene of tie flying away from Star Destroyer.
Cut “Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you Finn.”
Cut Kylo Ren saying “FN-2187” (even for a Sith lord, that is unbelievable)
Moved “Sir, ventral cannons hot” further up in the audio mix of the scene and cut the Star Trek-esque turret scene down. Now they just fire
Cut the tie fighter blowing up after sinking in the sand
Cut Finn’s “this is what we look like, some of us” lines
Cut Rey’s “No” when responding to Finn’s “You ever fly this thing?” line
Cut Finn and Rey’s “I can do this” lines when they first get into the Falcon
Removed the Falcon taking a nose dive into the sand upon take off
Cut Rey’s line “I’m going low”
Replaced new Millennium Falcon turret sfx with OT turret sfx in chase scene
Replaced audio of Finn cursing after the impact with a grunt (yes I know the originals had cursing, but this is just a personal preference)
Cut scenes of scavengers when the first tie fighter is shot down
Cut the JJ Abrams zoom when the Falcon flies into the downed Star Destroyer’s engines
Cut Finn and Rey’s excessive teenage celebration after they make it to space
Reworked scene in order to remove Kylo Ren’s tantrum when the officer reports on not getting the droid
Cut Finn’s line “you got a boyfriend?”
Cut scene of Finn childishly pushing down on Rey’s head
Added Red Gradient glow to mimic the overhead light and connect the edited scene visually
Cut down the Rathtar scene; Han and Chewie run down a corridor, they turn, Chewie is hit, hand blasts the raiders, Rey and Finn pop up from the hatch, Han shoots the door and yells “come on!”
Cut mention of Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon from Snoke’s dialogue
Added hologram effect to Snoke
Cut scene of Ren standing up after talking to Vader’s mask in order to use it later in film.
Added Darth Vader breathing sfx when his mask is revealed after Ren talks to it.
Cut down Chewie grabbing Finn and Finn saying “but that’s ok”
Added lightsaber sfx and enhanced (echo & reverb) Vader lines “You are not a Jedi yet” and “You don’t know the power of the dark side” along with the Emperor’s laugh to Rey’s force vision
Added SWTFUII Terror on the Salvation cue to Hux’s speech
Changed Hue of Apocolypse now Tie Scene (color matched with sky to make it blue)
Cut Han’s no look shot and use of Chewbacca’s crossbow and subsequent “I like this” line
Rearranged the Arrival of the Resistance scenes to remove visuals of Poe. Rebuilt audio surround tracks to fit the changes.
Added Rathtars cue and “Attack on the Car” cue from War of the Worlds to the scene where Han, Chewie, Finn, and Maz emerge from the castle ruins. The War of the Worlds track plays during Finn’s lightsaber use.
Cut the continuous pan of Poe’s X-Wing flying, now cuts to Rey right after Finn blasts the second Stormtrooper.
Cut Han’s lines about seeing their son; he now says "I saw him, he was here”
Cut Poe’s references to his jacket when talking to Finn
Cut scenes with the nurse and Chewbacca
Added R2-D2 visually to the checking the map sequence; also added Artoo beeps and sad sounds; he is now seen, heard, active and present
Cut scene where Artoo is uncovered by 3P0 and all dialogue about Artoo being asleep.
Edited Han to say “I know everytime you think about Luke you’re reminded of him”
Cut Leia’s lines about their son’s training, Snoke, and Han being able to help because he’s Ben’s father.
Cut Kylo Ren’s “you’re my guest” line, now he just coldly stares at Rey
Rearranged and repurposed shots of helmeted Kylo Ren and composited/combined others in order to have Ren Masked. Shortened scene as well.
Edited audio to simulate Ren’s helmeted voice.
Added subtle audio of Vader breathing when Rey reveals that Kylo Ren is afraid and the connection is severed
Repurposed and replaced shots (cropped and speed) during Snoke conversation as to have Kylo Ren hooded and masked.
Added Hologram effect to Snoke
Digitally painted hooded and masked Kylo Ren into the far shots when Hux is walking away….ugh….
Removed Han’s “so it’s big” line
Removed Han’s “there’s always a way to do that” line after asking how to blow it up. Removed Leia’s “Han’s right” line
Removed Leia’s lines about bringing their son home; inserted shot of Han’s face when she would have been talking
Horizontally flipped the scene where the stormtroopers are looking for Rey and everyone is obviously left handed
Cut scene where Han asks Finn what his job was and their verbal altercation; it’s a gag to set up a later gag and slows down the movement of the narrative
Cut Finn’s “you remember me” lines and scene with Phasma; took Han’s advice and brought it down Wink
Cut Rey crawling into the space that soon will squash her; now she just begins to descend down the wall
Cut Finn threatening to blow Phasma’s bucket off
Reinstated the Kylo visits the Falcon deleted scene (cropped out timestamps) and added the “The Bombing Run” cue from the FYC version of the soundtrack.
Cut Finn’s lines about not being ready and his head nod “what’s that” lines
Horizontally flipped scene where x-wing crashes into the snow and Han, Fin, Rey, and Chewie run into the frame and stop. (The next scene contradicts the placement of the characters)
Added a combination of the cue Finn’s Trek and Finn and Poe Reunited from the FYC Star Wars TFA soundtrack along with the Han and Leia cue to the Catwalk scene
Added The Force Unleashed (Infiltrating the Junk Temple) during Finn and Kylo Ren’s duel
Removed the ground ripping apart separating Rey and Kylo Ren; superimposed same shot of Rey and Kylo Ren when Rey shuts down her light saber looking across ravine at Kylo Ren. Now the two cropped images meet removing the gaping hole.
Cut first order officer going AWOL, the scene cuts to Hux and Snoke before the officer speaks
Added hologram effect to Snoke
Cropped video to exclude Chewbacca from the background when Leia walks towards Rey; we can imply that Chewbacca hugged her or whatever
Leia’s hug with Rey stays; it’s easy to explain, Leia knows how much Han meant to her, “Han told me about the girl” (Rey) and she (Rey) needed that one person who understood to be there for her
Added composite of Artoo’s eye being active when he is supposed to be waking up.
Cut 3P0’s line “R2-D2 you’ve come back!” when approaching R2; he now says “Come along you two” (taken from the 2016 Oscars speech)
Edited 3P0’s lines to say “Artoo may contain some much needed good news” instead of “Artoo D2 may…”
Cut 3P0’s line “how I’ve missed you”
Cut scenes of Rey arriving on planet to find Luke; I used the force theme from the end of the movie to make the famous iris ending and fanfare occur right as the Millennium Falcon enters hyperspace; also added various sound effects for the Millennium Falcon, crowd, and Chewbacca during takeoff.
(The reason for this particular decision was to mirror the OT in how they end. The OT trilogy ended two ways, a victorious celebration (IV and VI) or an adventurous plan set in motion (V). Showing Luke at the end of the movie is like showing scenes of Han frozen in carbonite in the trunk of Slave I. The scene with Luke doesn’t really advance the story and it removes the sense of episodic closure the OT accomplished with each episode. We know that there will be a Star Wars VIII, we know that Luke will be in it, we didn’t see Luke the entire movie, why not just wait? He was in the movie to sell the movie. I’m already sold on the movie, so out he goes so that we can focus on Rey, Ren, and Fin.)
Revised “edited by” credits to add Fanedited by DigModiFicaTion
Added “A DigModiFicaTion” after “A Bad Robot Production”
Added 20th Century Walt Disney Logo, Fanedit.org logo, DigModiFicaTion logo, and special thanks section to credits

Original Run Time 2:18:06
Edit Run Time 2:08:56
Time Cut 0:11:55
Time Added 0:02:01 (includes title cards during opening and credits)

Special Thanks (in alphabetical order):

Anakin5kwalker
Canon Editor
DarthRush
Force Ghost Recon
Imperial Fighter
ironman23
Kexikus
LastImpressions
Moe_Syzlak
Original Trilogy Fan
revel911
risc19*
RougeLeader
Smithers
ssj
That OT Ruler
thecuddlyninja
ThrowgnCpr
TM2YC
Zarius

*for supplying the hyperspace menu effect

Walt Disney and LucasFilms ltd
the fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com communities

and my family, who put up with me through this whole process