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The Force Awakens: Starlight (V1.1 Released!) — Page 28

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i love the way the scene is put together except for one thing that probably can’t be fixed and its the fact that when Rey runs away she runs to the right of the frame and then a split second later our eye has to dash to the other side of the frame because thats where the shot from Starkiller is going.

Like I said before it probably cant be fixed very easily but its something that gave my a small headache because of how close to the screen i am

After being beaten and battered by prequel hate, I promise not to be that to the next generation.

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NeverarGreat said:

Been working the past few days on the Starkiller Firing scene, including shuffling the sequence and timing of a few shots, changing the firing shot so that the strong sunlight is no longer visible, and finally adding a new establishing shot to better transition from Rey/Kylo to the Starkiller cue.

https://vimeo.com/342388733

Password: fanedit

Dude that was honestly incredibly well-done! Bravo, really cannot wait for edit!

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 (Edited)

Really, really great work on the Starkiller firing scene.

One thing I think I missed though: you no longer have Hux yelling, “Fire!”

I think that makes it a little more powerful, specifically when that female First Order agent turns to face the camera. If he yelled it right then, I think it would be as though she is listening to his orders.

Also, it’s just a little scarier when that happens.

Or maybe not.

One more thing: it definitely needs some audio work (which I’m sure you’re aware). Missing some explosions and X-Wing sounds.

“The Ziggy Edit” — A Conceptual Fanedit of Return of the Jedi

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Episode-VI-Return-of-the-Jedi-The-Ziggy-Edit/id/17844

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Nev, have you had anymore thoughts about the Takodana moon/space station idea recently?

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dgraham414 said:

i love the way the scene is put together except for one thing that probably can’t be fixed and its the fact that when Rey runs away she runs to the right of the frame and then a split second later our eye has to dash to the other side of the frame because thats where the shot from Starkiller is going.

Like I said before it probably cant be fixed very easily but its something that gave my a small headache because of how close to the screen i am

I wouldn’t want to horizontally flip the Starkiller firing shots since their movement is consistently and villainously right to left.

ziggyonice said:

Really, really great work on the Starkiller firing scene.

One thing I think I missed though: you no longer have Hux yelling, “Fire!”

I think that makes it a little more powerful, specifically when that female First Order agent turns to face the camera. If he yelled it right then, I think it would be as though she is listening to his orders.

Also, it’s just a little scarier when that happens.

Or maybe not.

One more thing: it definitely needs some audio work (which I’m sure you’re aware). Missing some explosions and X-Wing sounds.

The ‘Fire’ line always felt a bit weird, since it’s all but impossible to remove the echo of Hux in the large outdoor space. I’ll try to reinstate some version of it though, since the scene really cries out for Hux in some capacity.

The audio is definitely still unfinished, but I’m slowly working through the scene. A lot needs to be rebuilt from scratch.

RogueLeader said:

Nev, have you had anymore thoughts about the Takodana moon/space station idea recently?

Not really. I posted that idea in the other thread because it felt a bit too ambitious, effects wise, but if it were done I think it would be a net benefit to the edit.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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What if you took ‘fire’ from Hux saying “Open fire!” at the beginning of TLJ?

Yeah, understandable. It would take a bit of effects work!

I liked the last video you posted as well. While the sliding transition from the Starkiller cannon to the First Order technicians is cool, I’m not sure if it fits with the style with the way the rest of the film is edited.

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 (Edited)
  • Replace the original crawl with one which more eloquently establishes the universe and action.

Ideally, the crawl should explain the new Republic is wary of militarism because the clone army destroyed the old Republic, which would clarify the political situation.

  • Insert new scene at night where Rey imagines the island.

Although I like the tie-in to The Last Jedi, I question whether this is necessary.

  • Remove Finn’s wanton destruction of his fellow Stormtroopers as he escapes the hangar.
  • Alter Finn’s cavalier attitude about shooting the TIE fighters, resorting to firing only as a last resort.

Nice. This is more consistent with his character.

  • Remove Han asking for Rey’s name, since he should already know it from their time on the Falcon. Cut his lines indicating that they are at the castle to get a ‘clean’ ship. Instead, they need Maz’s connection to Leia to get them to the Resistance.

Instead, I would cut the scene when Rey one-ups Han at fixing the Millennium Falcon. That was painful to watch.
Han and the Death Gangs were tracking the Millenium Falcon, so it is only logical the First Order was tracking it as well. Hence the need for a ‘clean’ ship. Funny, I thought Han already had a connection to Leia.

  • Also, insert previously deleted footage of Rey alone in the Rathtar infested hallways to the Force vision to emphasize the dramatic effect of Finn’s sudden absence.

But Finn is not absent: He is present in the castle. All other shots are of significant events in the lightsaber’s history or in Rey’s life.

  • Insert shots of Star Destroyer to Maz’s Castle instead of Hosnian destruction, along with SirRidley’s new music.
  • Insert matte painting of the front of the pirate ship Meson Martinet in the shot where Rey says ‘I’m leaving’, indicating that she intends to leave with Finn. Alternately, create a new shot of the front of the ship from Rey’s point of view.
  • Insert shots of R2 beginning to search his backup files for the map on BB8’s suggestion.

I doubt it would take R2 that long to find the map.

  • Remove Leia’s lines which refer to Snoke by name. Cut the scene so that she ends with ‘that’s when I lost you both’, and the officer arrives saying ‘General…’ without mention of the reconnaissance. This helps make it seem like events in the movie are spaced farther apart.

Nice touch.

  • Add a dream sequence before Rey wakes up in the interrogation room, consisting of her exploring Luke’s island and maybe even seeing his face, proffering him the lightsaber.

This not only spoils the ending of The Force Awakens and the beginning of The Last Jedi but also turns Rey into an even more overpowered character with the gift of prophecy.

  • Extend Rey’s interrogation with Kylo directly accessing parts of her mind. He sees Finn playing at the game table on the Falcon (taken from that cut moment of confusion), and the closeup of Han from the map scene. As she gains power, she first bombards Kylo with images of Han, then accesses his mind and learns of his worship of Vader and his insecurity.

In the original trilogy, characters’ thoughts are never visually depicted onscreen. When Luke sees a vision of his friends in pain, no reused footage of Cloud City or the torture of Han Solo appears onscreen. That is for the best. It lets the audience use their imaginations and focus on the moment. The jump from Rey’s thoughts to Kylo’s thoughts is sudden. The Falcon’s game table is an unnecessary callback.

  • Kylo’s conversation with Snoke is bereft of Hux’s intrusion. Snoke does not learn the location of the Resistance Base in this film.

Then it would seem odd that The First Order suddenly knows the location of the Resistance Base at the beginning of The Last Jedi.

  • Split Rey’s escape attempt into two parts, with her failing to trick the guard at first.

I love this idea. Rey’s character would be so much more compelling if she were to experience failure and learn from her mistakes.

  • *Crop Chewie out of the shot with Leia after the battle.

If possible, I would prefer an edit where Leia hugs Chewbacca instead of Rey.

  • Remove the final journey to Luke’s island. This material is instead repurposed as the dream sequence preceding the interrogation. The final shot of the film is the Falcon jumping to Hyperspace.

This feels unsatisfying. The whole plot revolves around finding Luke Skywalker, and the story must answer whether this quest ends in success or failure or else it is incomplete. Imagine if in order to create a cliffhanger George Lucas ended A New Hope right before the Death Star blew up.

The cliffhanger is a misunderstood concept. Even The Empire Strikes Back - a story with a cliffhanger ending - answers whether the story ends with success or failure: It ends with Luke traumatized, Han in carbonite,
C-3PO in pieces, and the heroes barely surviving to fight another day. Even a story with a cliffhanger ending must answer whether the plot ends in success or failure.

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I really need to clean up the first post again, since about half of these ideas have either changed substantially or been removed entirely, as the latest few pages attest.

However with regards to the new ending sans Rey actually finding Luke, there are several recent previews where you can judge how this works for yourself. I’m not particularly concerned with giving Rey the power of prophecy because she already displays this power in the original version since she has dreams of the island (and in TLJ it’s established she has specifically dreamed of the Jedi Tree), and when she touches the lightsaber she sees events that haven’t occurred yet in the movie. Also, and I’ve touched on this before, but this new ending of TFA would lead into an edited TLJ where Luke never appears in his Jedi robes and she instead finds him hiding in his hovel. This changes her ‘prophecy’ into a thematically resonant bit of subversion.

Another issue for me when approaching the end of the film is that Rey, a person with only a vague connection to Luke and entirely new to the Resistance, is chosen along with Chewie to go on the most important mission in the galaxy without even a Resistance operative to accompany her. With the new sequence of her repairing R2 and specifically dreaming of Luke, there is a much stronger argument for her to complete this mission.

Finally, TFA definitely ends on a cliffhanger despite her technically finding Luke. There is no way that this movie could stand on its own without the resolution of the scene in the next installment, hence why Rian chose to reshoot the scene. Besides, I would make the argument that the quest to find Luke is basically over once the map is complete. There’s no reason to think that Luke will not be found after this point, so the mission is a success. Everything else is just fanservice.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Can I have a PM for this edit?

The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.

I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.

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I’m gonna take a wild guess and say “no” since it isn’t finished yet. 😉

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I’m getting more excited for this edit by the day. Definitely the most promising edit I’ve seen so far!

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NeverarGreat said:

Gee, thanks y’all.

I’m not getting anything done right now on account of every waking moment being taken up with either work or moving into a permanent residence (yay homeownership!), but by the end of the month this move will be done and the edit will continue!

Thanks for the update! Congrats on the house and good luck with the move.

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Congratulations on the house! I just moved myself (still renting though), so I know how badly that sucks. Hope you get settled in quickly and can take some time to relax in your new digs!

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Thanks, the past week has been nothing but work but the house is looking good with the painting almost done and the packing well underway.

There was a bit of a lull in work today though, so I tinkered around a bit (more work on the Starkiller firing) and took another stab at parallel editing the Luke dream with full dream filters:

https://vimeo.com/348521687

Password: fanedit

I think parallel editing is definitely the way to go here for the maximum benefit of the music.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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The ending is wonderfully edited though I think there should be less transitioning to leia once Rey finds luke because it would distract from the the main focus of the dream, mainly luke.

Peace is a lie
There is only passion…

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Welcome back, Nev. Good luck with the move into the house and looking forward to seeing your work again.

NeverarGreat said:
There was a bit of a lull in work today though, so I tinkered around a bit (more work on the Starkiller firing) and took another stab at parallel editing the Luke dream with full dream filters:

I think parallel editing is definitely the way to go here for the maximum benefit of the music.

First of all, I absolutely agree with you that the parallel editing is the way to go. It is far more polished makes the build up with the crescendo in the music much better than in the sequential version. Some may disagree with me here, but it looks super slick.

Secondly, a few notes…

  1. When Rey wakes up, I think we need to see a shot of the island from afar — maybe the ocean shots from The Last Jedi trailer? My thoughts here are that, in the current state, we see Rey wake up, but don’t have any indication that she ISN’T still on D’Qar. For all the audience knows, she was sleeping in a room with stone-lined walls to begin with at the Resistance base. So then it’s a little confusing if someone doesn’t notice the “dream effect.” Bottom line: can you fit an island shot in there, just as she wakes up and just before R2-D2 wakes up?

  2. I compared this most recent edit with your previous take and I noticed you swapped the position of the scenes where C-3P0 says, “R2 has some much-needed good news.” Just my opinion, but I think the original placement was better. With the new position, Leia says “Tell me” just before we see Luke for the first time and I think it distracts from his reveal. Maybe you could put that scene just after the really wide / faraway shot of Rey climbing up the mountain?

  3. I wish there was more music here to fit more shots in. Are you open to repeating the first couple verses of The Jedi Steps to fit in more? Like, I think it’s important that we see the map piece from BB-8 be hooked up to match the map that R2-D2 is showing. If you had just a few more seconds, I think it could be done. Any chance you might be willing to consider repeating the first ~10-15 seconds of the song? Or maybe you could use some of the extended version of the song from the suite?

As always, great work. Hope to see you again soon.

“The Ziggy Edit” — A Conceptual Fanedit of Return of the Jedi

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Episode-VI-Return-of-the-Jedi-The-Ziggy-Edit/id/17844

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When Han dies, after it cuts to Leia, it should cut to Luke.
You could use a couple shots for this.

  1. The deleted TLJ mourning scene
  2. the TLJ shot at night where its close up on Luke’s face as his eyes open after he has been force meditating or whatever.