I’ve been away for a little bit, but I’ve been keeping up with your posts and everything keeps looking good. I think a discussion can still be had regarding the Finn dream inclusion, but I think it fits it wonderfully and I like the idea of Rey not answering with ‘Luke’, and letting it be open to interpretation (Luke? Finn? Ben?). I’m wondering how you’ll make a POV shot of Finn’s ship though.
That’s the real trick. I’ve been unable to find any decent shots of that pirate vessel from any other angle, so I would have to imagine what the front would look like, hand-paint it and place it within a photo of a forest clearing. Not impossible, just time consuming.
Honestly, I would say you should stick with this idea for the sole purpose of differentiating it from Restructured. Technically it still is the Restructured model, but with a twist. I will say that the one thing this addresses is the complaint of the extended Hosnian destruction kind of detracting from Han’s death scene. I’ve always seen it as a one-two gut punch sorta thing, but pushing the Hosnian destruction back allows for Han’s death to not have to share the spotlight, if that makes sense. I’m sure someone could describe this better than I could at the moment.
That’s definitely a big reason for this edit.
With that said, since the ‘Starkiller’ motif starts playing when Han touches Ben’s cheek and as he falls, will you replace the music with something else, or let it play out in relative silence before Chewbacca’s roar breaks it? What about when you cut to Leia’s reaction a little later? Will there be different music? New ambience?
It actually works fairly well to leave a few notes of the Starkiller theme and cut straight from the wide aerial shot to Chewie’s roar. It’s an immediate reaction in keeping with that character.
I also like how Poe doesn’t necessarily blow up Starkiller now, but the damage he did triggers it once it fires. It doesn’t make destroying it feel so easy. Also having the Starkiller motif play over the Oscillator blowing up and the planet crumbling makes Starkiller feel that much more powerful, that its cannon is literally ripping the planet apart. And I think this works better than the drawn out Resistance reactions from Restructured in some other ways as well.
I do have a few nitpicks though. One thing I wonder about is how having Hosnian blow up right after Rey’s victory over Kylo, which is sort of the climax of the film (like Luke blowing up the Death Star in ANH), will affect the ‘emotional flow’ of the film. So now the audience is like, “Yaaaaay- oh, wait.” Does that make sense? Maybe we’ll still get that when they escape and Starkiller blows up?
Actually, I think it would be interesting to cast Rey as more of a Darksider in this moment of brutality, whether that requires a music change or something else. But if the audience feels like Rey is going down a dark path here instead of righteously smiting her enemy, the shift to the Starkiller firing would make a lot more tonal sense.
I think there was a similar point of concern with Restructured, which was why having Starkiller target the Resistance Base afterward and then Poe stopping it was retained, right?
I think that was retained solely because of concerns that Poe would be acting out of vengeance, since the System had already been destroyed.
Now, if a goal was to escape with the final piece of the map though wink wink nudge nudge, it might maintain some semblance of victory. (Not trying to push that idea on you. The third act map idea might just be what I eventually add to the tapestry of TFA fan edits)
I really like that idea, and it might be something I include if the idea of Rey’s map vision falls apart.
Some smaller nitpicks, I know you had to trim Kylo and Rey’s duel a little because shit starts crumbling around them, but the cut stood out to me and I wonder if there is a way to retain any more of it. Secondly, the wide shot of Rey laying on Finn feels like it lasts too long. I wonder if you could keep the shot of Rey turning off the saber and running into the woods, as well as having the music end sooner, could help not make that shot feel as dragged out. That’s just my own personal feeling though.
Good points. I cut the closeup of Rey and her deactivating the saber/running into the woods because it felt weird with the music, which seems to require wide shots. The final wideshot of the dark woods is slowed down to something like 30 percent, which I agree is too slow, but I really wanted to linger on the shot and communicate that this is where Rey is willing to die.
There a few issues here and there but I think this could work with just a little more polishing. Great work on this idea, man.
Thanks! This was all sorted out in literally one day, so there’s a lot more polishing to do. 😃