THE CHOSEN ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (V2 in development) (Released)

PM ME FOR LINKS 😉

TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/273476159

After finishing “Chronological Revenge of the Sith” I found out that it obviously didn’t fix everything.
Then I re-watched Rogue One (which I really liked) and I realized that maybe the PT trilogy could be treated like a spinoff, a single movie to be watched AFTER the Original Trilogy and with a different style from those same movies.

This is the purpose of the edit.
I don’t think it can be considered a real PT mashup, because the vast majority of the edit is based on Revenge of the Sith, but there are some added scenes from Episodes I and II that show the main plot points (Anakin being special, the Council being skeptic about him, Anakin getting angry because of his mother, Anakin meeting Owen and Beru so that they don’t come out from nowhere at the end of the movie, etc).

OVERALL CHANGES.

1. Complete Color Correction. Similarly to Chronological ROTS, I desaturated all colors but reds. I think it all gives a more Original Trilogy feel. Lightsabers are more in line with OT, Venator SDs are grey and red, not yellowish, the Senate is pretty dark, Grievous has a whole new tonality, etc.
   Yoda and Kashyyyk are left untouched.

2. Removed too childish scenes (like the separatist droid kicking R2).

3. Obi Wan and Anakin are friends, NOT explicitly Master/Apprentice. Anakin does not call Obi Wan “master”, not even once. I changed audio in different scenes. It is CLEAR that Obi Wan is like an older brother and a mentor to him, but there is no clear formal relationship between them. Show, don’t tell.

4. Added music tracks.

COMPLETE CHANGELIST.

1. Opening Lucasfilm logo and “A Long time ago…” taken from Rogue One.

2. Text intro to explain that the Jedi serve the Republic, that the Republic and the Separatists are fighting the Clone Wars and that Darth Sidious secretly controls the Separatists. Plus, I added the fact that Jedi Knights are sent throughout the galaxy to find and recruit new Jedi.

3. The movie begins on Tatooine. Scenes from Episode I. Darth Maul arrives and sends probe droids. We don’t know who he is… maybe he is a Jedi? Then we cut to Qui Gon talking to Anakin and analysing his blood with young Obi Wan. No unbearable Ani’s chatting about him visiting all the planets in the galaxy.

4. No midichlorians. Just before Obi Wan mentions them he is interrupted by Qui Gon. Still, we have to understand that Anakin is special, so it can be somehow showed by something in his blood. Plus, even in episode VIII Luke says that Skywalker blood is strong with the Force.

5. Then we have Qui Gon telling Anakin that he is being freed (no “I’m going with you on your starship!”, no “Yuppie!”), Anakin hugging his mother. Then we go to the first short duel between Qui Gon and Maul. Plot twist: Maul is a Sith! So the scene sets the tone and the threat.

6. I chose to keep Padme on the starship and Qui Gon speaking about the queen, so that we assume that the two Jedi were facing multiple missions (recruiting Anakin AND doing something with the queen). After Qui Gon introduces Anakin and Obi Wan we cut to the title: “The Chosen One”.

7. Episode III starts. Battle of Coruscant (with a text showing where and when we are). As I said, Anakin calls Obi Wan by his name. Plus, some new short music tracks.

8. Shortened buzz droid scene. No R4 losing his head, and Anakin gets rid of them just by shooting at them. Plus, no “Sorry master…”.

9. No separatist droids taking R2, because in the edit R2 does not fly.

10. Removed “My powers have doubled…”, “Twice the pride, double the fall…”. Now… we see that there are many enemies: first Maul, then Dooku, then Grievous, but I think it stil fits pretty well. They look like many different separatist leaders, stop. And then, when they are all killed, we find out the REAL enemy.

11. When Anakin is thinking about killing Dooku, we see some scenes from Episode II, when he kills the sand people on Tatooine. We still don’t know what happened or what he did, we just see that in the past he has been very angry and inclined to the dark side. Eventually, he kills Dooku (with an epic music track), and then Palpy says that it wasn’t the first time. “Remember… about your mother and the sand people?”. Of course we wonder what actually happened. Anakin’s mother is dead!? And Anakin fell to the dark side in the past!?

12. Some cuts here and there (separatist droid not kicking R2). Two new music tracks, when the ship breaks itself and when they land on Coruscant.

13. When they return to Coruscant, shortened dialogue between Anakin and Kenobi. No “Are you coming, master?”, “All because of your training”, etc.

14. The first part of the balcony scene between Anakin and Padme is gone. Too ridiculous. After the panoramic Coruscant view, we cut to Anakin’s dream.

15. The dream shows Shmi’s death (so we start linking the dots… that Anakin killed the sand people because of his mother’s death) and also Qui Gon being killed by Darth Maul. We don’t know when it happened, but of course it serves as an explanation on why Qui Gon is no more around and why Obi Wan and Anakin are so close. Then we cut to the actual “dream implant” of Padme dying.
    I added audio from one of the most famous scenes in the Clone Wars series, that is, Anakin’s vision of the future. I think it fits pretty well. We hear Palpatine, Obi Wan, Padme, Anakin, etc.

16. No Anakin looking at the little jewel he gave to Padme.

17. After the balcony scene I added the full Tatooine scene from Episode II (with some cuts): Anakin knowing Owen, Beru and Cliegg, knowing about his mother and seeing her death. I wanted this to be an important flashback scene, so we dont have the traditional transitions, but we get a dissolve effect both at the beginning and ending. Voices have the echo effect, and there is a constant light effect to show you that this scene is different. If you look at Anakin you understand that it is in the past (different hair). Cliegg explains the situation, then we cut to Anakin speaking to his mother, her death and Anakin falling to the Dark Side.

18. Then we cut to the Yoda-Anakin temple scene. I think their dialogue, put after the flashback, clearly shows that Anakin is afraid that what happened to his mother could happen to Padme… One thing about Color Correction. There is no CC during Yoda’s scenes, because I wanted to keep him with his own green color. Plus, Kashyyyk is left untouched.

19. No Palpating talking about midichlorians in the theatre. He simply says that Plagueis could keep people from dying.

20. Edited dialogue between Anakin and Obi Wan, again to show them as friends and not master/apprentice.

21. The second dream scene is similar to Chronological Revenge of the Sith. We hear Palpatine’s voice, but I added the Alderaan’s explosion in Ep. IV and Palpatine speaking from the hologram scene in Ep. V.

22. Shortened scenes with Obi Wan’s mount on Utapau. It is really annoying to me.

23. New music during Obi Wan - Grievous duel. It is the music from Rebels, from Kenobi and Maul’s last duel.

24. Shortened chase sequence between Obi Wan and Grievous. No “Spaghetti Western” eyes’ shot. I’m italian, Sergio Leone’s movies are like a religion. That kind of shot does not fit at all with Star Wars, especially with a forgettable character like Grievous.

25. During the scene when Anakin and Padme “look” at each other from a long distance we hear voices from Anakin (“Why did she have to die? Why couldn’t I save here? I will even learn to stop people from dying. They are like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals”…), Windu, Palpatine. Plus, some very short scenes showing Anakin and Padme on Naboo in Episode II.
    Fun fact: I also added a short Yoda audio, taken from… Robot Chicken, lol. During “Yarael” scene, Yoda says that Anakin should not be trained as a Jedi. It sounds really good, it seems Yoda, so I added it.

26. No Palpatine talking to Anakin about the Jedi plot (after Windu’s death). It sounds like an excuse for Anakin. NO! Anakin has fallen to the dark side. Stop. No more explanation, we already know why he did it. I kept Anakin slaughtering children. One problem with my previous edit is that Anakin does not do anything terrific to show that he’s fallen to the Dark Side. We HAVE to see that he is a bad guy now…

27. Darkened Senate scene. It’s all black and white, only Palpatine’s robes (and the faces) emerge. Plus, removed “The boy you trained…” by Yoda.

28. Darkened the very important and emotional Obi Wan and Padme’s scene. It looks like it’s cloudy, or set just before sunrise or just after sunset.

29. Removed Anakin’s creepy “Because of Obi Wan?” and “YOUWILLNOTTAKHERFROMMMMME!”. We don’t see Anakin removing his cloak-robe, but I noticed that it disappeared from the ground even in the original, so…

30. Both duels are almost left untouched (only Color Correction). Say what you want, but I like them. I removed the “Not if anything to say about it I have!”, replaced by force sound effect.

31. No “This is the end for you my master”, and no high ground.

32. After Palpatins saves Anakin on Mustafar, we cut to the Tantive IV landing on ALDERAAN, where Padme gives birth to Luke and Leia. So no useless asteroid. Alderaan becomes important for Episode IV.

33. Padme does not die. This is obviously meant to fix continuity with Episode VI’s Leia scene. Leia will stay with Padme for some time (maybe some months before Padme dies for depression) on Alderaan, then she will be fully raised by Organa.
    The medical droid does not say that she is going to die, and after Leia is born, we cut to Darth Vader rising. So when we hear Kenobi/Yoda/Bail talking, se suppose that’s because Padme is too weak and depressed to raise two children.

34. With a whole new music track, Palpatine says “Anakin… can you hear me?”. After some seconds, Vader says: “Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him”, and Palpatine steps back a little bit. Then Vader unleashes his power and Palpatine laughs.

35. With no funeral scene, we cut to the imperial Venator scene, with the “Hope” track from Rogue One.

36. After that, Tantive IV with Yoda, Bail and Kenobi. Bail says that he will keep Leia (so it is plausible that she will remember Padme, because she was BORN on Alderaan) and Luke is brought to Tatooine.

I’m quite satisfied with the results. Again, I’m not a professional editor, I only made some tributes and trailers with Sony Vegas, and that’s all. But I think it is at least watchable and with some little nice changes that give a spinoff feel.

I’d suggest not bothering to keep it “chronological,” if it’s going to be a spinoff. Even moreso than numerical prequels, I would imagine it would be understood that the audience is already familiar with what came before.

And, just because I’d like to see it as part of a finished 3-in-1 edit, I’d advocate for Octorox’s opening framework: fade in with Lucasfilm logo, though perhaps no 20th Century Fox fanfare given your motif, and on the frame at which the opening STAR WARS logo would be, cut to the establishing shot of the ending TPM duel which originally followed Padme and company ascending via window. This duel would serve as a way to intercut bits and pieces of Anakin’s story so far. Works without a crawl.

He never finished his 3-in-1 edit, but I really like his opening.

You are totally right.
If it becomes a spinoff it can be watched after the OT, so there is no need to keep it chronological.

I will surely try this, thank you 😉

INTRO CLIP TEST.

I would like to start the edit like this.
It looks like Rogue One beginning. And I believe in these short parts, acting wasn’t that bad.

I think it also works to show all main plot points:

1. Anakin was found by Qui Gon to be trained as a Jedi.
2. Anakin is special, even though we don’t hear any midichlorian things.
3. The real threat is the Sith presence.

Don’t mind the volume or audio problems, nor the different size of the title starry background. It will be fixed.

https://vimeo.com/270137365
Password: chosenone

After that I think it wuld be nice to start with Revenge, and then put some flashbacks to Clones, maybe during Anakin’s dreams.

LordZerome1080 said:

My voice acting skills are at your command.

Lol, thank you 😄

Vladius said:

Looks really good!

It’s very cliche to do this in a 3-in-1 edit, but I hope the Qui Gon/Obi Wan vs Darth Maul duel is kept somehow, even if just in flashback.

That’s what I’d like to do.
During the first dream, I’d like to add Maul killing Qui Gon just before Anakin wakes up.

FLASHBACK TEST

It’s just a test. I’d like a feedback and suggestions on how to improve it.
Other flashbacks from Episode I and II will be put during Anakin’s dream scenes and during the scene where he cries while Windu is going to Palpatine.

Don’t mind the volume.
https://vimeo.com/270860733
Password: chosenone

That was more impactful

that was well done !

SHORT CLIP COMPARISON.

In this clip you can see:

1. R2 does no longer fly, just to fix continuity.
2. Full color correction and comparison. I like it to be darker than the original.

Again, it is a short clip, but it gives an idea about how the edit will look like (similar to Chronological ROTS, actually). More grey, more black colors, and Obi Wan looks a little bit older (look at his hair).

Password: chosenone
https://vimeo.com/271153380

PS: During the first Anakin dream scene I think I will add Shmi and Qui Gonn’s deaths, to show that he thinks he was too weak to save them and now he wants to become stronger to save Padme.
And I think I will remove Anakin calling Obi Wan “master”. It is implied they have that kind of relationship, but I think Anakin calling him Obi Wan feels more like a friendly relationship.

ANAKIN’S DREAM SCENE.

I’d really like to get a feedback on this.

As you can see, like in the previous edit, I cut out the first part of the balcony scene.
No Anakin and Padme telling how much they love each other and how blind they are.

We cut to the dream.
And I want the two dreams to have a purpose.

1. Show Shmi’s death. We see her during the edit’s prologue, so we have to know what happened to her. Plus, it reminds us that Anakin already failed to save a person he loved. He does not want to be weak again.
2. Show Qui Gonn’s death. Considering that we don’t see Obi Wan, this could have happened even a year before ROTS. So we can still believe that Qui Gonn has been Anakin’s master, at least for a time.
3. Now here’s how I made it. The music is taken from the famous Clone Wars episode where Anakin sees the future, he sees that he will become Vader. I think the audio works quite fine. It gives that chaotic feel… Then I placed some cloudy effect, I zoomed and rotated the scenes a bit and placed a light effect to make it all more “dreamy”. But I kept Padme the same, different from other parts of the dream, because I want to imply that this is a fake, this is not a memory, it is something that Palpatine puts into Anakin’s mind.

Password: chosenone
https://vimeo.com/271352841

NEW MUSIC CLIP.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’m Italian and I follow politics on daily basis, so maybe you know what’s happening here. Plus, I have three university exams, so…

But here I am.
Simple clip, with a new short music.
I want to show the ambiguous nature of Anakin. During the duel with Dooku we see that he is being seduced by the dark side and that he is afraid because of what happened to his mother.
But at the same time I want him to be an epic hero, and that he could be the best Jedi ever if he remains on the Light side.
I think the music fits pretty well.

Plus, you can see full color correction, and during the Obi Wan-Anakin chat I cut the “Are you coming, master?”, because, as you know, I want to make less obvious that the two are Master/Apprentice and more obvious that they are friends. We don’t know when Qui Gonn died, it could have happened two days earlier for what we know, so I think it fits better for them to be just friend. We subliminally know that Obi Wan is a fatherly figure to Anakin…

Password: chosenone
https://vimeo.com/272545984

I would really, REALLY like to have a feedback on this.

NEW OPENING.

Considering that spinoffs are not treated like normal saga movies, and that SOLO had some text, even though not the classic crawl, I thought I could add some introduction text to explain what’s happening with the Republic, the Jedi, the Sith, the Clone Wars. It also explains why Qui Gonn and Obi Wan are on Tatooine.

Don’t mind the error (“and ancient emey emerges”), but if you have any corrections on how to make it sound better in English, feel free to tell me.

Password: chosenone
https://vimeo.com/273178677

It’s good, but have you thought about adding some sort of music to the text?

I would like to.
Do you have any suggestions about a music that could fit?

The best thing I could think of is the emperors theme. But I will see if there is something better

I found one, but of course I’ll try different tracks.
Btw, I changed the text a little bit, saying that the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious took control of the Separatist Alliance.

(ANOTHER) NEW OPENING.

This time with music and different text.

Password: chosenone
https://vimeo.com/273305428

Now that’s much better