-Klokwerk, it looks great. I’m still kind of flabbergasted that I have one of the best (if not the best) covers created for a fan edit, even better than the MagnoliaFan covers, and I haven’t even released it yet. I’m flattered!
-How is the edit coming? Very well, I am pleased to say. At this point, however, I am working solely on the sound mix (mainly removing Anakin and Lama-Su’s dialogue, but also sprucing up a bit when needed and adding a couple of other subtle sound effects). After that is done, I’ll synch it to the film and actually begin to work on the video cutting and contrast/color correction work, cropping, subtitles, and re-sequencing. As I have already planned each aspect of this in detail, it’s simply a matter of executing it at this point.
Future plans after Ep. II- I will do edits of both Ep. I and Ep. III. In my opinion, the best titles are “Balance of the Force” and “Revenge of the Sith.” My work with III will involve a major reworking of the action sequences at the beginning (cutting the juvenile silliness) and will involve dubbing Anakin once again as well as General Grievous. Also cut will be some of Palpatine’s antics (in the duel with Windu), Anakin’s “What have I done?”, the hair-combing scene, etc. Also changed (as has been with several other edits) will be Palpatine’s line about the midichlorians being able to create life.
Episode I, on the other hand, is an interesting story. I like Balance of the Force very much. Many of the things Kevin did with it are brilliant (particularly the podrace and the subtitled alien dialogue). Therefore, my edit of Episode I will be largely based on his- with a few key differences. First, I will not use his disc as a template, as the quality is not very good and I do not own a copy (only the XVID). I will therefore recreate his edit first, ripping directly from the official DVD, re-dubbing music that was present in his edit that I liked, and so on. Then, I will use the sound mix from an official German language DVD of Episode I and will mix these German lines in for the Gungans and the Nemoidians. Therefore there is no backwards dialogue and the language is not as instantly recognizable as French or Spanish, especially if muffled or distorted a bit. The subtitles will also be redone using a combination of the originals, Hal 9000’s, and ADigitalMan’s sets (and a couple ideas of my own). The ending sequence music will be replaced with part of the first movement of the Karelia suite by Sibelius- I have already completed the track and mixed it with the end credits music, and it is seamless. Even better transition than the original, in fact, because it actually builds up to the correct key in my version. There will other minor changes throughout.
I’d also like to get hold of the ADigitalMan edits at some point for some more ideas on these.