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The Last Jedi : a Fan Edit Ideas thread — Page 25

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Handman said:

darthrush said:

Handman said:

You can cut pretty much all but one scene from Canto Bight, where DJ’s character is first introduced.

Or you just have them leave for Canto Bight, and we see them next on the way back already with the codebreaker when Poe calls. No need to see anything of Canto Bight.

That is what I planned to have in my edit, but I realized something about the pacing was off.

Did you attempt moving around the scenes more? Check the scene order for my edit. I restructured it in light of the story changes I would be making so as to polish the pacing.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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EvenSteven said:

OutboundFlight said:
How about cutting Finn and Rose (almost) entirely from the movie? Move Finn waking up shortly after Holdo assumes command. Finn’s “where’s Rey?” cuts to Rey arriving on the Supremacy. Canto Bight and the Hyperspace tracker, all gone. Besides just cutting a poor subplot, it also simplifies the story considerably by letting us focus in on the arcs of Rey, Kylo, and Poe.

I know it sounds great to cut out that entire B-plot, but there’s a few problems with it. Like Handman mentioned, DJ needs to betray the Resistance to the First Order. Second, there’s Leia’s tracker that Finn picks up so Rey can fly to Snoke’s Star Destroyer. Third, Finn and Rose have to fly back to Crait in the used First Order ship. So, having them just appear in the final battle without the Canto Bight plot would be jarring from a viewer’s perspective.

I haven’t seen TLJ in over a month now but from what I remember:

  1. The first order could of seen through the resistance’s plan on its own, which would help bring up Hux, or someone could it make seem like Snoke/Kylo sensed it.
  2. Leia has the tracker in the beginning, cutting Finn picking up the tracker would imply it was still with her.
  3. Cut out Finn and Rose arriving on Canto Bight, they could of been on the pods too. It’s not perfect but it could work.

Maybe cut Finn’s kamikazee rub entirely with everyone turning back when Poe says so, but that may turn him into a background character.

My reasoning for cutting the entire subplot is that movie is so crowded. It has four subplots (Rey, Kylo, Finn, Poe) each with their own sets of characters. Compare that to the OT with 3 the max. Once of the subplots needs to be axed, and the Hyperspace Tracker is the least interesting or important of them. It’s only around to give Finn something to do, so why not let him take a backseat and stay asleep for the first half?

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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Zachary VIII said:

Daxtreme said:

EvenSteven said:

darthrush said:
[Handman] You can cut pretty much all but one scene from Canto Bight, where DJ’s character is first introduced.

Or you just have them leave for Canto Bight, and we see them next on the way back already with the codebreaker when Poe calls. No need to see anything of Canto Bight.

Is that what you guys are planning to do? Cut Canto Bight but keep the codebreaker? Are you going to have the scene where DJ is telling Finn about arms dealers or will you cut right to Snoke’s Star Destroyer?

I was thinking about keeping the initial visit to Canto Bight where they look around a bit, they see the real codebreaker, and then get arrested. No preaching about animal cruelty and bad rich people. I’m debating whether or not to cut the scene after DJ picks the lock and then they go right to the escape ship.

That’s a good proposition. Keeps Canto Bight, but to a strict minimum.

Suggestion: when they escape prison, cut straight to DJ’s ship. No chase, no shenenigans.

That’s the best idea, would there be any way to create a different reason they got in prison in the first place other than a parking violation? It feels comical in how such a frivolous action had such a large effect on the sequences Canto Bight

An editor could possibly do the old trick that was done on some of the PT edits: Scramble the alien’s lines and add subtitles. But… what could the new lines be?

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phineasbg said:

Zachary VIII said:

Daxtreme said:

EvenSteven said:

darthrush said:
[Handman] You can cut pretty much all but one scene from Canto Bight, where DJ’s character is first introduced.

Or you just have them leave for Canto Bight, and we see them next on the way back already with the codebreaker when Poe calls. No need to see anything of Canto Bight.

Is that what you guys are planning to do? Cut Canto Bight but keep the codebreaker? Are you going to have the scene where DJ is telling Finn about arms dealers or will you cut right to Snoke’s Star Destroyer?

I was thinking about keeping the initial visit to Canto Bight where they look around a bit, they see the real codebreaker, and then get arrested. No preaching about animal cruelty and bad rich people. I’m debating whether or not to cut the scene after DJ picks the lock and then they go right to the escape ship.

That’s a good proposition. Keeps Canto Bight, but to a strict minimum.

Suggestion: when they escape prison, cut straight to DJ’s ship. No chase, no shenenigans.

That’s the best idea, would there be any way to create a different reason they got in prison in the first place other than a parking violation? It feels comical in how such a frivolous action had such a large effect on the sequences Canto Bight

An editor could possibly do the old trick that was done on some of the PT edits: Scramble the alien’s lines and add subtitles. But… what could the new lines be?

Breaking the dress code. 😛 Ironic. They come looking for a code breaker but end up breaking a code themselves.

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 (Edited)

A question for editors in this thread: How many edits of The Last Jedi do you think there will be in the first year after it’s out on video?

My guess, there will be 2 or 3 “Canto Bight-less” cuts within the first week, 3 or 4 polished edits in the first month, and then about a dozen total in the first year. I know The Force Awakens has 4 edits in two years but I’m curious how much The Last Jedi will influence the fanedit community.

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I think The Last Jedi is much more prone to editing than The Force Awakens was. There’s a lot that sticks out as wrong and nobody seems to be in complete agreement.

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I’m going to go out on a limb and say that TLJ might end up with more fan edits than TPM. Like you said, a lot of people have problems with it, but there’s a lot less overlap when it comes to what those problems are and how to fix them than there is with the prequels or even TFA.

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ChainsawAsh said:
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that TLJ might end up with more fan edits than TPM.

That’s a ridiculous estimate considering TPM has 30 listings on fanedit’s IFDB right now. But time will tell.

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OutboundFlight said:

EvenSteven said:

OutboundFlight said:
How about cutting Finn and Rose (almost) entirely from the movie? Move Finn waking up shortly after Holdo assumes command. Finn’s “where’s Rey?” cuts to Rey arriving on the Supremacy. Canto Bight and the Hyperspace tracker, all gone. Besides just cutting a poor subplot, it also simplifies the story considerably by letting us focus in on the arcs of Rey, Kylo, and Poe.

I know it sounds great to cut out that entire B-plot, but there’s a few problems with it. Like Handman mentioned, DJ needs to betray the Resistance to the First Order. Second, there’s Leia’s tracker that Finn picks up so Rey can fly to Snoke’s Star Destroyer. Third, Finn and Rose have to fly back to Crait in the used First Order ship. So, having them just appear in the final battle without the Canto Bight plot would be jarring from a viewer’s perspective.

I haven’t seen TLJ in over a month now but from what I remember:

  1. The first order could of seen through the resistance’s plan on its own, which would help bring up Hux, or someone could it make seem like Snoke/Kylo sensed it.
  2. Leia has the tracker in the beginning, cutting Finn picking up the tracker would imply it was still with her.
  3. Cut out Finn and Rose arriving on Canto Bight, they could of been on the pods too. It’s not perfect but it could work.

Maybe cut Finn’s kamikazee rub entirely with everyone turning back when Poe says so, but that may turn him into a background character.

My reasoning for cutting the entire subplot is that movie is so crowded. It has four subplots (Rey, Kylo, Finn, Poe) each with their own sets of characters. Compare that to the OT with 3 the max. Once of the subplots needs to be axed, and the Hyperspace Tracker is the least interesting or important of them. It’s only around to give Finn something to do, so why not let him take a backseat and stay asleep for the first half?

I really like your ideas. Someone do this.

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EvenSteven said:

ChainsawAsh said:
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that TLJ might end up with more fan edits than TPM.

That’s a ridiculous estimate considering TPM has 30 listings on fanedit’s IFDB right now. But time will tell.

Hey, that’s why I said I was going out on a limb! 😉

I do think it’ll definitely top Hobbit fan edits, at least the 3-in-1s.

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If you cut Finn taking the tracker (good idea btw, one less thing to worry about, it has no real consequence), how would you go about re-editing his meeting with Rose?

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Handman said:

If you cut Finn taking the tracker (good idea btw, one less thing to worry about, it has no real consequence), how would you go about re-editing his meeting with Rose?

This is one thing I’ve been thinking about, but for different reasons. I really want to get rid of Finn wanting to desert the Resistance and just hop in an escape pod, but it’s where he meets Rose, so it’s integral to the plot.

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Handman said:

If you cut Finn taking the tracker (good idea btw, one less thing to worry about, it has no real consequence), how would you go about re-editing his meeting with Rose?

Hhmm, I forgot about this bit. I can see two options:

  1. Finn is really trying to desert out of fear. It contradicts his arc from the first movie, but then again he only stood up to Kylo for Rey (not the resistance). If Finn thought he could actually find and help Rey by escaping the Raddus this might work.

  2. Finn isn’t lying to Rose about cleaning the ships. Insert a clip from TFA with Finn saying “sanitation” to imply he has to clean the escape pods, due to the desperate situation everyone has to help out with the dirty work. This would be much harder to edit though, I don’t remember this scene to well but I believe he acts suspicious in some shots. The scene would end short with Rose not tagging him.

Neither work very well… I would probably chose #1 because it’s easy to edit and is only a minor plot point.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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On the subject of there being many differing edit ideas that don’t converge –

Well, that’s the thing with character-driven movies (TLJ) instead of plot-driven ones (TFA)

It’s much harder to pinpoint exactly what’s “important” to the story because… the story is driven by the characters going through an evolution. Not much has changed after TLJ really, which is why so many people disliked it. It felt like a TV Series episode instead of a saga movie (they did hire a TV director to do it)

So what to cut, what stays? Gotta be careful with that because every character’s going through an arc in TLJ, and cutting parts can mess up their arcs. And without meaningful character arcs, this movie is mostly empty because the plot is sooooo thin, it’s barely existant in fact! But at the same time, we have to cut stuff because it’s bloated, so really it becomes a game of who to prioritize?

I think most people here can agree on which characters need to be prioritized and which can have their arcs, let’s say, “minimized”.

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TLJ felt like a character driven story for everyone except our main protagonist. She wasn’t even part of the climax of the movie. The only thing that changed in her was that she had to face and accept the reality of who her parents are. Granted, that’s one hell of a tough challenge and a hard obstacle that she had to overcome, but… it was only there for literally one scene. Then she was basically over it. Finn, Poe, Kylo, Luke, all had an arc. Rey basically didn’t.

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 (Edited)

Sadly I have to partially agree here.

The movie completely forgets about its main protagonist in the climax. But in a way, it was to make room for Luke and Kylo to finish their arcs, who are both strongly related to Rey in terms of character development.

Watch the “Lessons from a Screenplay” video on hollywood structure – basically, The Last Jedi is a 4-Act movie in a world where 98% of blockbusters are 3-Act or 5-Act movies (3-act and 5-act is essentially the same thing). That’s why it feels weird. Rey’s arc happens in the 1st 3 acts of the movie, while the 4 act is there to conclude the other characters’ arcs.

Rey is a bit like a spectator in this story, but she still has an arc, and they have interesting places to go forward with her story in IX, which is what matters.

In fact, if Rey’s so unimportant… why does everyone agree on here that her scenes with Kylo are the heart of the movie and need to stay in? She’s vital to the story.

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EPISODES 7 & 8 Restructured
The Last Jedi has memorable moments and quality visuals but really lacks in character development when in regards to The Force Awakens. The Force Awakens has more clear character arcs. For this reason I want to reorganize, edit, and add in FX. I am however not too experienced with editing. I’ve been using VSDC Free Editor and have been liking it. I need to know how to incorporate surround sound, Rotoscoping FX, generally I just need more experience. The highlights of this edit I suppose is that Rey does not use force powers until she meets Luke, Han dies during Episode VIII instead of VII, and that Starkiller Base is also saved for Episode VIII. Its like the last act of my episode 7 is the last act of The Last Jedi, re-edited, and then the 1st act of my episode 8 is the last act of The Force Awakens.

Episode VII

• The film plays out normally until Finn and Rey escape from Jakku in the Millennium Falcon. Finn and Rey then introduce each other. Finn asks BB-8 to take them to the Resistance base. Kylo Ren is upset that the droid escaped with the help of Finn and Rey. The film will play out differently from here.
  
• Finn and Rey arrive on Yavin IV and are immediately met with Han Solo and Chewbacca. No Ranthar chase, cut them hiding under the floor and just cut to han asking about who stole the Falcon. Han talks about Luke and the force.
  
• Finn and BB-8 exit the Falcon and find Poe Dameron alive (Cut Finn asking Poe for Help). Finn and Poe enter the base and speak with Princess Leia. (Only include thank yous, finn and leia do not need help.)
  
• BB-8 meets C3PO and 3PO explains how R2D2 has been in sleep mode since Lukes disappearance. 
  
• Cut to Rey going down into the basement and finding Anakin’s blue lightsaber. 
  
• R2D2 then wakes up to help show the way to Luke. 
  
• Rey leaves and goes to find Luke. (Not really sure if she should take the Falcon though. This is where Rotoscoping might be nice to incorporate a different ship for her on Acto because Han Solo is still alive.)

• With Rey gone the First Order arrive using the footage from the Maz Kanata castle raid scene. Han, Chewie, and Finn fight them off on the ground as Poe Dameron takes to the skys. 
  
• Using the evacuation of Yavin Base from The Last Jedi, the Resistance leave Yavin IV. Poe destroys the dreadnaught. The ship takes off into hyperspace. (Cut out General Hux)

• Rey arrives on Acto with a different ship and meets Luke Skywalker.

• The Resistance run to the abandoned Crait Base and wait for the First Order to follow them there. Luke appears and helps the resistance escape with his force projection. (Han and Chewie are rotoscoped into the scene with Luke and Leia. I had scene a post where a user mentioned doing this along with Han flying the Falcon off Crait.) Rey is not here.

Episode VIII

I am honestly not entirely sure on the order of the scenes for episode VIII yet. Need to watch The Last Jedi more first. The general idea is that Han Solo dies in Episode VIII, then Leia dies after the Tie Fighters blow up the Ship, and Luke dies after Rey does not turn to the dark side and join Ben.

• Kylo Ren is told by Snoke to kill his parents. 
  
• General Hux Starkiller Base Nazi speech.  

• Possibly actually have Maz Kanata’s Castle and using the shots of the Falcon on the outskirts of the castle make it seem like the whole Resistance is there. Even if we take out Maz Kanata herself we could at least probably show the bar scene and then show the Resistance on the outskirts, kinda like they are just camping out not really trying to stay in one place to long.
  
• The Resistance talks about how they can take down Starkiller Base. (Trim scene to make Admiral Ackbar, Han, and Leia the only ones who really know how to take down Starkiller Base) 

• Leia tells Han to bring their son home.
  
• Rey following Luke. Luke drinks some Blue Milk.

• Han, Chewie, and Finn land on Starkiller Base.
  

• Rey goes to Starkiller Base to try to turn Ben to the lightside against Lukes advice. She meets up with Han, Chewie, and Finn. Han Solo is killed by his son. (Have to assume she still has the Rotoscoped ship and not the Falcon.) 
  
• Starkiller Base destroys the Hosnian System/Corosaunt.
  
• Finn gets sliced in the back by Kylo. Rey returns him to the resistance. She hugs Leia and leaves in the Falcon with Chewie and R2D2. as she goes back to Luke.

• Rey comes back to Luke in the Falcon along with Chewie and he asks what happened to Han. This is why Luke not that nice to Rey throughout the movie because of the death of his friend.

• Leia dies by Kylo Ren’s Tie fighters. The Luke and Yoda scene should follow shortly after and Luke almost burns the texts out of rage because he felt Leia’s death.

• Rey leaves Luke again to go to Snokes ship after the dark side mirror cave. Finn wakes up and asks Poe where Rey is and that is how he ends up on Snokes ship. A chance to fight Phasma after she disables the shields in the same movie.

• Luke dies after we see that Rey does not make the decision to join the dark side with Kylo, because like Yoda his mission was completed in training The Last Jedi. End Credits, no broom boy. All the original trilogy actors now all die together in this movie.

This is just a general concept idea I have been thinking about. Like I said I really have to watch The Last Jedi more.

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This isn’t really a fan-edit idea as it’s impossible (honestly I should post this in the rewrite thread, but figured it’d be interesting to the regular posters here).

I was thinking about TLJ recently and thought of a couple really simple changes that would’ve had a trickle down effect to improving the whole film.

  1. Rose doesn’t exist. We just spent an entire film getting introduced to three really interesting main characters. Bette to build on that foundation than bog down this film trying to make us care about a brand new person that isn’t very interesting to begin with.

  2. Poe goes with Finn to Canto Bight. These guys have a really fun dynamic that could’ve been interesting to see in action if they were on their little quest together. As it is it just reminds me of TPM when obi wan is on the ship the whole time, occasionally checking in with phone calls but otherwise doing nothing.

  3. Poe and the codebreaker have a history. This could’ve eliminated that annoying video game style briefing Maz Kanata gives via space skype. All you need is Finn talking about how complex the first orders security is and that they’d need a code breaker and Poe says something like “I know a guy.” Then the next we see them they’d be on Canto Bight looking for the codebreaker.

  4. DJ is the guy they’re looking for from the beginning. No need to make things overly convoluted. Just have them looking for DJ from the beginning, but maybe make him (her? i’ll get to that in a second) a bit reluctant to help due to some demons with Poe in the past.

  5. Poe is the one who attempts the suicide run at the end. This moment made zero sense for Finn. However, since Poe’s character arc is pretty much all about him learning to not put others at risk for his own ambition of destroying the enemy (achem, the opening battle?), having him end the movie in a moment of self sacrifice only to be saved and told that it’s not about destroying what you hate, but saving what you love, actually feels like a natural place for his character to end up.

  6. Phasma is tracking Poe and Finn. This is really simple. When Finn and Poe leave for Canto Bight, the first orders sensors see them and Phasma and a small legion of Stormtroopers follow them. This just adds a bit of tension to an otherwise bland b-story. Having the first order hot on their tail while they are already pressed for time presents a number of potentially interesting action set pieces, particularly on canto bight. It also gives Phasma something to actually do.

  7. DJ is a female with a romantic history with Poe. If they really wanted a forced heterosexual romantic subplot like they attempted with Rose and Finn, might as well make it relevant and add some drama/tension to the bland story. If DJ is a female with a romantic history with Poe, that could’ve added an interesting Indiana Jones & Marion ROTLA dynamic. You could also sub her in for Rose in the rest of the movie. Having a natural rekindled romance throughout the movie gives the “That’s how we’re gonna win this; not by killing the things we hate, but by saving the things we love” line that was just awkward in the original some actual meaning and earned emotion.

Like I said, I know it’s not really appropriate for a fan-edit thread, since this is something that should’ve happened at the writing stage, but I just thought you guys might be interested in reading my thoughts and ideas.

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Collipso said:

Darth Lucas said:

This moment made zero sense for Finn.

Why?

Because his character arc isn’t about self sacrifice or the lack thereof. Everything about him running away from fighting was resolved in TFA.

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Darth Lucas said:

Collipso said:

Darth Lucas said:

This moment made zero sense for Finn.

Why?

Because his character arc isn’t about self sacrifice or the lack thereof. Everything about him running away from fighting was resolved in TFA.

No, in TFA he’d never sacrifice himself for a cause. For Rey maybe, which is the reason why he went to Starkiller Base and the reason why he was going to defect, but not for a cause. Not for something bigger than himself. It was still selfish of him, because he was running away from a fight bigger than him for personal reasons. His arc in TLJ was that, while at the beginning of the movie he wasnt willing to do almost anything for the rebels, by the end he was willing to give his life if it meant that the rebellion could live longer.

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Collipso said:

Darth Lucas said:

Collipso said:

Darth Lucas said:

This moment made zero sense for Finn.

Why?

Because his character arc isn’t about self sacrifice or the lack thereof. Everything about him running away from fighting was resolved in TFA.

No, in TFA he’d never sacrifice himself for a cause. For Rey maybe, which is the reason why he went to Starkiller Base and the reason why he was going to defect, but not for a cause. Not for something bigger than himself. It was still selfish of him, because he was running away from a fight bigger than him for personal reasons. His arc in TLJ was that, while at the beginning of the movie he wasnt willing to do almost anything for the rebels, by the end he was willing to give his life if it meant that the rebellion could live longer.

Yeah, despite the clunky stuff in Canto Bight, I actually feel that Finn’s arc was very natural and fleshed out. It’s actually making me reconsider how much of Canto Bight I really want to cut.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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I was thinking about color-correcting Yoda’s force ghost. Comparing a screenshot of him in TLJ to the end of ROTJ shows that the new movie went with a dark blue filter and no transparency. This makes him look a bit chubbier than he should.

I’ve never used After Effects before so I don’t know if I will have to go frame by frame or if there’s template settings that could be applied for each camera shot. I’m also considering leaving the moments with Yoda and the burning tree alone because the silhouette of the fire against Yoda looks cool. Maybe I’ll do the whole scene for the sake of consistency.

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 (Edited)

EvenSteven said:

I was thinking about color-correcting Yoda’s force ghost. Comparing a screenshot of him in TLJ to the end of ROTJ shows that the new movie went with a dark blue filter and no transparency. This makes him look a bit chubbier than he should.

I’ve never used After Effects before so I don’t know if I will have to go frame by frame or if there’s template settings that could be applied for each camera shot. I’m also considering leaving the moments with Yoda and the burning tree alone because the silhouette of the fire against Yoda looks cool. Maybe I’ll do the whole scene for the sake of consistency.

If you don’t feel like learning After Effects someone else (like me perhaps) will do that scene eventually. But you could try anyway, I think I have an idea of how to do it so I can give some tips if you’d like.

My thoughts about that scene is that I would like the classic blue transparent look for the force ghost, but perhaps keep a little more solid look for certain parts when Yoda affects the physical world (lightning, hitting Luke with his cane).

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 (Edited)

I interpreted the force ghost scene with Yoda as him being stronger in the force than Obi-Wan and being able to physically appear as a ghost greater than Obi-Wan could; which is why he could react with the world more too. He still looked “off” to me though and I think a color correction would help with the scene.

The Skywalker Saga:
I · II · III · IV · V · VI · VII · VIII · IX
This is the way.