Return of the Jedi: Dan Edit - Clips Online (Released)

n/t

I'd be interested in seeing it!

J

Okay, change of plan. Instead of sending out dvd's, to save some money I'm gonna upload an xvid avi tonight to rapidshare.

I was a bit unsure about doing this, because it's not necessarily the finished cut, but I don't think it's a big deal as long as anyone downloading it understands that it is a rough cut.

Here's a list of changes in my cut:

Reduced chat between C-3P0 and Bib Fortuna

Less laughter from Salacious Crumb

Gave Jabba new dialogue throughout

Took out the Jedi Rocks musical number

Took out beat where Boushh threatens Jabba with thermal detonator (example of contrived drama)

Took out horrible beat where Lando very slowly and deliberately reveals his face from under the mask

Took out Rancor scene (another pointless scene, designed to create contrived drama)

Took out the poor exchange between Luke and Han. They're about to be executed - why are they cracking (bad) jokes?

Took out Boba Fett from Sarlaac scene. In my cut he stays behind at the palace and chats up one of the dancers.

Took out Ben's lines about 'from a certain point of view'

Took out Lando's cheesy grin after Han describes him as the respectable one

Took out Han's 'good luck, you're gonna need it'

Took out 3P0's line 'exciting is hardly the word I would choose'

Took out entire scene between Lando and Han in the ship's hangar.

Took out Han worrying about the Falcon.

Removed Han's line about flying casual

Removed Han's line 'Hey, it's me!' (man, I hadn't realised how much of Han's dialogue is gone in this cut)

No longer does Han walk on the twig and the stormtrooper turns round. It always bothered me that Chewie growls a moment earlier. So I made his growl loud enough that the stormtrooper hears, turns, and sees Han.

Made several small cuts to the speeder bike chase

After Luke lightsabers the speeder bike and it crashes into the tree it no longer makes that annoying, comic, out-of-control sound

Whole scene between Leia and Wicket has gone

Han's line 'I hope she's all right' has gone. It's too on the nose.

Small cuts to the gang's first scene with the Ewoks, fewer Ewok shots and Han's 'proper?' also taken out

Several cuts during the scene where they're going to be cooked for dinner. As much cutesey Ewok stuff as posible edited out

The beat outside after Luke has explained their lineage to Leia, between Han and Leia now plays out in near silence: He asks her what's up, she looks sad then says hold me.

When that Ewok (Paploo, or whoever) takes the speeder bike, he zooms away and that's it

When the Rebel fleet appear and 'it's a trap' the ships fly towards the Empire's fleet... it cuts to Luke watching the battle begin.

During the Ewok battle there are many cuts - all the silly Ewok traps and machines are gone.

The awful call-back to Empire, where Han says I love you, Leia says I know, has been replaced by tense music

When Luke is hiding from Vader I made the image slightly darker to make his hiding more plausible. It's always bothered me.

Took out the humongous exploding shield generator. It seems to wipe out half the forest.

Took out Lando 'Yeehaaa' or whatever cheesy line it is, when they escape the Death Star.

Then the ending, huge changes:

I used the funeral pyre music from the SE soundtrack instead, it's longer and enables me to add a montage of key moments in Luke's adventure while he watches Vader's suit burn.

I used two tracks from the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack for the end celebration: Reuniting The Fleet and Wander my Friends

Taken out nearly all Ewok silliness from end celebration

Added Sebastian Shaw's ghost (sadly with horrible GOUT quality image)

Due to slower tempo music instead of the classic Star Wars quick transition to credits I freeze frame the last image and do a slow fade

That sounds very interesting. I'd definitely watch it.

daneditor said:

I need to make one thing clear: this cut is in 2.0. These days I watch films through headphones and so 5.1 just isn't any kind of a deal to me. I know for some people it is. So, sorry to those people. Hopefully the 'Possessed edit' will do it for you.

Actually mine isn't in 5.1 either.  You could try what I've done and make the 2.0 mix pro logic compatible to try and please both crowds.  I'm looking forward to this edit, as of yet I don't have much to compare mine too.

Interesting idea, Possessed. I'll have to research it though, right now I'd have no idea how to do that. I was considering just starting over in 5.1 and using my 2.0 as a template. I reckon I could finish it in two weeks in 5.1 now I know exactly what I want.

The only thing about 5.1 that bothers me is that I've never made an edit that way - ie. I wouldn't know which channel is which, or how to work in non-5.1 stuff (like my BSG score at the end) to make it sound good.

What I do, because I find it to be the easiest, is edit in 5.1.  The center channel contains most of the dialog.  That way you can mute it when you make a cut and then use the music without dialog (sometimes this doesn't work-- sometimes dialog "leaks" into the other channels a bit).  This leaves the center channel sounding jumbled in the 5.1 mix, that's why I opt for a mixdown.  I reccomend doing this with BeLight and Besweet.  

The upload speed with my isp is so slow that so far only 500 megs of the 1.2g file has been upped. I'll up the next 500 megs tonight UK time. Apologies for the delay, unfortunately there's nothing I can do about it.

The files are uploaded to RS now. Although I don't know how to let people know what the links are... could someone let me know what the procedure is? Thanks.

Since it is a rough cut, I'm probably not gonna submit it to fanedit.info now. I don't know if the mods would permit this - if not let me know - but if a few people want access to the RS links then PM me your email addy and I'll send the links your way.

Thanks for this review!

I've just increased the length of the subtitle for the "get you into something sexy". I have to admit that I'd never noticed it being too quick.

The thermal detonator. Well spotted, LOL. I must have heard this clip 1000 times and I hadn't noticed it. Although I really don't think there's anything that can be done about it...

Unless I put the rancor back in, as you suggest. I know there's a continuity issue with the cloak - I like to think one of the guards rips it off him to be a bully. The reasons I don't want to put the scene back is that, as you say, it's hokey, it has awful effects, but mostly I think it's poor storytelling: there is no need for that scene. It's like George thought 'it's been 20 minutes and there hasn't been an action scene, better add one'. It's contrived and pointless. Jabba wouldn't need Luke to kill his pet rancor to make him angry, he would be angry that Luke has dared walk into his place and threaten him.

So, to be honest, unless I get a lot of people begging me I'll probably keep the rancor out. It bugs me quite a lot.

I have the LD of Jedi, I'll see if 'Trust me' is there - I agree it would be a more Han line, although I'd be slightly worried about taking the final reference to his recovering blindless. Although I guess Leia saying his eyesight will return in time would be enough.

The skiff continuity: I must admit I hadn't noticed, but it would have been to take Fett out. Incidentally since last week I've taken Fett out of the movie altogether. As Spence pointed out to me, it's a bit silly having him at Jabba's palace and then never seen again.

Glad you liked the 'certain point of view'. =)

Re Chewie's growl. This has also been reworked since last week. He only growls once now, causing the stormtrooper to turn around.

About the ending, I must admit I really like the funeral pyre score from the SE soundtrack. That's why I added the montage - because I had a few extra seconds of score to fill. I also love the BSG score. However... every person who's seen the film dislikes the changes. I'm gonna put the original music and editing back for the rest of the film. I'll keep the round the galaxy montage. The only thing in the final version which will differ from the 2004 SE is that Sebastian Shaw will (of course) be there.

I hope to have the final version up on RS by Sunday.

Thanks again for your comments. =)

Just checked. Han's 'trust me' isn't on either the GOUT or LD.

I think you are mistaken.  But I'm looking forward to the final release.  I skimmed over your rough draft, and it did look promising.  This should be interesting, all this time with few ROTJ edits and now there should be two being released quite near to each other.

Thanks, Possessed. That was just me being slack - I checked the SE disc by mistake. Yeah, it's on the GOUT.

If you want the RS links send me a PM!

Thanks for the feedback!

As far as the noticeable cut at the end, I'm aware of it, and I'll probably do a v2 at some point which deals with that.

As for the Han carbonite sound delay, I'll take a look at it compared to the original.

In Shuttle Tydirium I was looking to build up the Luke/Vader conflict. In my edit the scene resembles the Luke/Vader ship to ship conversation at the end of TESB. Which is a good thing to be reminded of. As soon as I get my hands on a decent copy of the Luke lightsaber building scene it'll definitely be going in to try to add some more to this conflict - which the original film neglects.

Glad you like the new Jabba subs.

The reason I'm not sure when a v2 of my edit will be online is because of my internet probs. Last week my modem stopped working - to get online now I'm having to use a USB dongle, with blazing fast speeds of 5k/second.

I didn't explain that too well - I wasn't trying to suggest a conversation was going on between them, just that they are aware of each other, and making that the point of the scene, rather than Han's bad jokes. It's the first moment in the film where the conflict between father and son is brought in, and that should be the sole focus of the scene, IMO.

What I really wanted to do with that scene: when Piett asks Vader what he should do, is take out Vader's 'I will deal with them myself' dialogue and just have him thinking. It worked great when I tried it, added to the drama of the scene - except that the score I replaced the dialogue with is tinny and sounds nothing like it does in the film.

I checked the sound when the carbonite hits the floor, my edit and the original are both the same. I can't see anything wrong with it.

Whoops. Double post.