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My ROTJ fixes & changes project thread

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 (Edited)

I’ve been playing with ROTJ and I’d like to share my fixes & changes. I hope they are useful as inspiration for others. As always, edits are very personal, so people are free to like or dislike.
Just sharing this because it might help others with their projects, and of course I might get some nice ideas for my own 😉
 

So here’s the CAVE SCENE with some editing and color correction:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=101ahjqIwIge_VZGFzIg_1j9JS3mpBAlH

Main changes:

  • blurred and changed the color of the cave background behind Luke,
  • new the cave exterior mattes (based on material from the web)
     

Here’s a small enhancement to the Droids WALKING TO JABBA’S PALACE:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UratW2yTqsfntJrYQVnLWoAHff7ssAfe

Main changes:

  • Extended the sky and added two moons
  • Some digital zoom out and panning.
     

SUNSET at Jabba’s palace:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1v20BEOzV7JQNe525E4YbnviwyajWlL7A

  • I’m using a background and Banthas I found on the web, with some stock dust footage.
     

DESERT BARGE:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t-aN1VX6FNJ7jJj8cegrMkQhRCX3N9rQ

  • added slight camera movement to imply motion. Improves green-screen a lot (Han and Luke)
  • fixed flipped Leia and Jabba shot
     

Here’s a rough GROUND BATTLE sequence:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-l1lu02ANcqcoiptLZs9F2BOPL8vBX1n

This needs better sound editing, but it’s good enough to get the idea of how it could work.
Of course, you would be cutting away from this to the space battle and throne room.
Extra footage comes from the Ewoks movies and the Bucketheads fan film. Explosion shots are from TFA.
Also using the “bunker redux” reedit by section33.

 

Just ideas that might be useful for others. I’ll share more over time.

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Wow, they’re so cool! How did you make the new sunset?

Italian faneditor.

EDITS LIST:
Episode IV - THE HEIR OF SKYWALKER. Episode VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI RENEWED. DYAD IN THE FORCE (3-into-1 sequels).
PM me for links if interested.

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 (Edited)

The base for the sunset scene is this image:
https://www.deviantart.com/menyhei/art/Hutt-Castle-on-Tatooine-514111819
I then composited the other elements.

There are many excellent images that can replace or improve the original mattes.
Battlefront II concept artwork for example:
https://timmcleod.artstation.com/projects/exxmP
I used this to complement the cave exterior matte.

I’m yet to find good replacements for Dagobah… and it really needs something better there.

I’ll share more stuff latter 😉

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 (Edited)

4throck said:

So here’s the cave scene with some editing and color correction:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=101ahjqIwIge_VZGFzIg_1j9JS3mpBAlH

Main changes:

  • blurred and changed the color of the cave background behind Luke,
  • new the cave exterior mattes (based on material from the web)

you should remove the visible waiting r2 in the cave before he comes out.

Sunset at Jabba’s palace:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1v20BEOzV7JQNe525E4YbnviwyajWlL7A

  • I’m using a background and Banthas I found on the web, with some stock dust footage.

looks fantastic.the banthas are moving?

Desert Barge:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t-aN1VX6FNJ7jJj8cegrMkQhRCX3N9rQ

  • added slight camera movement to imply motion. Improves green-screen a lot (Han and Luke)
  • fixed flipped Leia and Jabba shot

Just ideas that might be useful for others. I’ll share more over time.

you should do a visuell list with pics from all your changes.
would like to see the complete movie when finished.
thanks

edit: you should join here with your delted scenes
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-saga-Extra-Extended-Edition-1080p/id/52131

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Thanks for the comments.
Yes, the Banthas are moving. Search YouTube for Star Wars greenscreen and you will find those elements.
I’m OK with reusing stuff from the net because this is a personal project. I’m just sharing ideas.

Here’s a small enhancement to the Droids walking up to Jabba’s palace. Extended the sky and added two moons, some digital zoom out and panning. It’s more alien and dynamic this way:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UratW2yTqsfntJrYQVnLWoAHff7ssAfe

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These are great! I’m working on incorporating these into a ROTJ edit right now 😃 post more!

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I’m working on a reordered bunker sequence. For me that’s a low point of the movie, and looking hard at the footage we get, it seems like the original idea was a bit different.

So as I have it, the rebels give themselves up to attract all the imperial troops, setting up an ambush.
There’s footage to support this and even dialog (Han telling 3CPO to “stay here”, the Ewoks talking to 3CPO). Fan film footage of hidden rebels can be used here.

As a result of the ambush the Empire goes after the Ewoks, and you get the door opening sequence.
Then they infiltrate the bunker (extended sequence) setting up the charges. Once they set the charges up, it blows.

Overall it makes sense and our characters look smart (even the Ewoks).
Above all, you get the notion that the battle moved somewhere else, and not that the Ewoks defeated the Empire.

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Here’s a rough ground battle sequence, with the changes I described above.
This needs better sound editing, but it’s good enough to get the idea of how it could work.
Of course, you would be cutting away from this to the space battle and throne room.

Extra footage comes from the Ewoks movies and the Bucketheads fan film. Explosion shots are from TFA.
Also using the “bunker redux” reedit by section33.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-l1lu02ANcqcoiptLZs9F2BOPL8vBX1n

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@ziggyonice
Agreed.

@4throck
Nicely done! I like this edit quite a bit. The ewoks are more formitable. Almost all of the goofiness is gone from the battle (the “I love you” exchange is still there, but what can you do, am I right?). 😉

One thing I did a long time ago was change 3PO’s “We surrender” to some bit of Ewok-ese which made it seem like he was in on the plan.

Another thing I tried, which I couldn’t get to work to my satisfaction was to have Chewy (in the AT-ST) kill the troopers who were about to kill Han and Leia.

SSWR’s YouTube channel

Attack of the Clones: Alternate Timeline Edit Thread:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/SSWRs-Attack-of-the-Clones-Alternate-Timeline-Edit/id/66888

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Great that you like it 😃

I must work on the 3CPO story scene.
If you look closely at Luke in the end you can see that he is using the force to get the Ewoks to help.
This ties in with their sacrifice on the battle and with Luke’s temptation towards the dark side.

The key here is that he only goes to Vader after this happened. Don’t think he would stay just to listen to the robot!

So I’ll try some rescoring on that scene. Perhaps I need a close up of the hand waving, let’s see how it goes.

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It’s possible to color correct it a bit better. But for Jedi a lower resolution helps to hide the rushed effect shots and bad mattes. I’m working at 720p and it improves things a bit.
I have 4K83 and on that you notice that they are walking over paintings… and you can’t suspend disbelief.

Just a quick update on the story scene: I added a music cue to Luke and it sort of works, but you do need a hand shot to make it clear he’s using the Jedi Mind Trick…

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 (Edited)

Trying to reconstruct the space battle sequences. Following the reconstructed dialog available on the web, but going mostly for visual continuity.

This is “Chapter Two: Protecting the large cruisers”
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GTgy37xmDEGUPDw_ZNWoMQD534al5STU

It’s still lacking the extra Falcon crew, but you can see that it will integrate nicely.
For example, the repair scene should be right before “pressure steady”.
Also no sound editing yet, other than restoring the female pilot’s voice.

I have the rest of the battle restructured (including “Chapter Five: Taking out the jamming Star Destroyer” ) and it can work using Rogue One Y-wing footage, but more on that latter.

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This is becoming very interesting, neat ideas to add some extra scenes to improve those scenes. I am curious to see if such scenes can be polished enough to fit in seamlessly!

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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 (Edited)

For the space battle the deleted elements have decent quality. So yes, they will fit if outputed at 720p.

The theatrical space battle is mostly out of order. But about 80% of the original elements are there.
Only the FX shots of the Communications Destroyer attack by the B-Wings are mostly missing.

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Hey man, I LOVED some of the stuff you did on your bunker redux version! Do you think you’ll be re-rotoscoping the blaster bolts from the fan film segments? They’re the only thing that doesn’t look like belongs in RotJ. I was very surprised to see that the cinematography actually matches the original film pretty well.

And do you plan on doing a version with the original structure of the third act? That is, get inside the bunker -> get caught -> battle -> win the battle -> blow up the shield generator

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Thanks for the feedback. Sorry, I won’t go back to the original sequence, because I don’t think it works at all.
Latter on yes, I might polish this a bit and color grade the fan segments.
For me blasters look fine, just like the deleted scenes there’s always some visual discontinuity, but I understand what you mean…

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4throck said:

Here’s a new version of the second space battle sequence.

Integrated the guy repairing the Falcon (“pressure steady”) and added the gunner firing. Also some reordering of a couple of sequences and initial color correction.

Still rough and needs more work, but it’s getting there.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EE0ZhDQzzpMYBMe17Xarx4IOQBFsUZzt

most impressive…
that could work.more deleted scenes please.