Yeah, I think this could work!
It is a lot to play with though, isn’t it? Watching it I realized all the different ways you could rearrange the scenes. I’ll just mention a few things.
The cut to the interrogation seemed weird at first, but I think with music it won’t feel as weird, so that’s just a rough cut thing probably. I’m guessing you put it there instead of after Han and Leia’s conversation so the transition would make feel like enough time has passed for Snap to recon Starkiller and come back, right? Or maybe one reason.
That’s one reason, but what was mostly bothering me was how it feels like Leia was so unconcerned with Finn’s information that she forgot all about it when viewing the incomplete map in the next scene. It’s just two scenes that don’t work all that well together now that between them the Resistance has had their first concrete intel about this devastating weapon.
I kinda liked how in your old versions how you reversed the shot of the Stormtrooper so he would just turn back around after he called Rey “scavenger scum”. Do you feel that didn’t work really well?
That’s one scene that is still under construction for the official version - I’ve always intended to go back and redo the mockups with the official Blu-ray in 5.1 audio, which is what is happening now.
One interesting thing that happens by this restructure is that you fix a continuity error with Kylo Ren. When he is marching back to Rey’s interrogation room, he doesn’t have his hood. And then when he enters the room, he has it draped over him. But now, it makes it seem like he put it on when he went outside, and then just left it on when he came back in. Not a big deal but kinda neat.
I hadn’t consciously edited the scene that way, but now that you notice it, of course it was intentional 😉
I kinda think having Kylo put his helmet back on during the Snoke conversation doesn’t work, but maybe if you could somehow have those “putting helmet back on” sounds happen over shots where we don’t see Kylo at all, it could. So either crop the shot that it’s on, or do it over close ups of Hux and/or Snoke.
The Snoke scenes are what I feel to be the most up in the air right now. He’s one of the weakest parts of the movie in my opinion and I’m just not sure how to make it better so it’s a matter of throwing ideas at the wall until one sticks.
I’m also not sure if I’m 100% into the way the two scenes are put together in this version, but I do think it could work. I understand why it is this way, though. In your edit, we don’t have an earlier scene with Snoke, right? Because basically the first half of the movie Kylo and Hux are just after BB-8, they don’t go back to Starkiller. I mean that makes more sense to me, so I’m good with trying to make that work.
Actually, the idea is to have a scene with just Hux and Snoke where Hux first floats the idea of destroying the Republic, but it might be too small a scene to work. It might be better to have Kylo there as well with the only dialogue with Snoke being about the awakening.
One thing that seems kinda weird is splitting the “Kylo Searches the Falcon” deleted scene. I wonder if you could push back to after Rey escapes. And also, possibly pushing back the “Han Solo” turn Kylo does to a little later, like maybe after they get back with Rey, or make it the scene after Han deciding to use the explosives to blow a whole in the Oscillator. If that wouldn’t work, maybe just cut the shot of Kylo in the Falcon cockpit turning around dramatically, and just start with the shot of him walking away from the Falcon. As it is now, it feels like Kylo has just been standing there the whole time. By cutting that shot, we could imagine he could’ve been exploring the Falcon some more off-camera.
The new preview addresses this, and you’re absolutely right. Kylo no longer just waits around the Falcon for the attack, though the scene is still bifurcated.
Hmm, that is pretty interesting!
Is it necessary to slow down that one shot of Kylo turning?
The only reason for the slowdown is because the turn is so quick it feels abrupt, like most of the deleted material. But it would probably be acceptable at normal speed.
Also, I would definitely suggest toning down the music and klaxons a little. It’s kind of hard to hear what Phasma is saying.
I’m working late at night so I can’t get a good read of the music levels - it will be fixed!