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The ‘Custom Special Edition’ That Almost Wasn’t, But Then Was (Released) — Page 13

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Here’s a question I’d like to throw at you, Hal. Let’s just say that Anakin makes an appearance as a Force spirit in The Rise of Skywalker, with Hayden Christensen reprising the role. Even though it may or may not happen, if it were to happen, would you keep the Special Edition change made to the end of Return of the Jedi, or would you restore Sebastian Shaw like everyone else? I still prefer the older Anakin, but I’m curious what you would do with your edit of Return of the Jedi if it does happen in Episode IX.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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nl0428 said:

Here’s a question I’d like to throw at you, Hal. Let’s just say that Anakin makes an appearance as a Force spirit in The Rise of Skywalker, with Hayden Christensen reprising the role. Even though it may or may not happen, if it were to happen, would you keep the Special Edition change made to the end of Return of the Jedi, or would you restore Sebastian Shaw like everyone else? I still prefer the older Anakin, but I’m curious what you would do with your edit of Return of the Jedi if it does happen in Episode IX.

In that case, I think that we’d just have to accept that this is how Anakin is portrayed now and move on.

Sorry, I mean we would need to remove him from Episode 9. Obviously.

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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It’s hard to imagine a need to include Hayden in ROTJ, barring IX explicitly stating, “Every Force ghost has exactly one appearance and this is Anakin’s.”
I’d like to see a Force ghost appear two ways in IX, such as Luke appearing old and young either close together or to two different people.

Maybe he appears to Rey, who asks, “Are you an angel?”

“I’m a person and my name is Anakin.”

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I find myself genuinely surprised at how well changing Vader’s line to Luke in ROTJ to, “Your mother once thought as you do” works. This is due largely to the audio work Sir Ridley and others have brought to bear. I’m not 100% sure, but I imagine it would be worth making at least an alternate audio track for a ROTJ project.

Here’s how the best version so far, from Sir Ridley, sounds when fully baked in. I included a few lines from Vader before and afterward. What do you all think about potentially going this route? Content-wise, it seems to be a meaningful alteration, given that this is a fan project which does not threaten the availability of the OOT. Padme beckons Anakin in ROTS, now Luke echoes this.

https://vimeo.com/362829979

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Hey Hal, there’s an edit that fixes the error in RotJ of Luke “Force-kicking” a guy.

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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Hal 9000 said:

I find myself genuinely surprised at how well changing Vader’s line to Luke in ROTJ to, “Your mother once thought as you do” works. This is due largely to the audio work Sir Ridley and others have brought to bear. I’m not 100% sure, but I imagine it would be worth making at least an alternate audio track for a ROTJ project.

Here’s how the best version so far, from Sir Ridley, sounds when fully baked in. I included a few lines from Vader before and afterward. What do you all think about potentially going this route? Content-wise, it seems to be a meaningful alteration, given that this is a fan project which does not threaten the availability of the OOT. Padme beckons Anakin in ROTS, now Luke echoes this.

https://vimeo.com/362829979

I love the idea, and the timing of the line is perfect now, but the Vader-y processing/EQ still needs work to be seamless, I think.

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ChainsawAsh said:

Hal 9000 said:

I find myself genuinely surprised at how well changing Vader’s line to Luke in ROTJ to, “Your mother once thought as you do” works. This is due largely to the audio work Sir Ridley and others have brought to bear. I’m not 100% sure, but I imagine it would be worth making at least an alternate audio track for a ROTJ project.

Here’s how the best version so far, from Sir Ridley, sounds when fully baked in. I included a few lines from Vader before and afterward. What do you all think about potentially going this route? Content-wise, it seems to be a meaningful alteration, given that this is a fan project which does not threaten the availability of the OOT. Padme beckons Anakin in ROTS, now Luke echoes this.

https://vimeo.com/362829979

I love the idea, and the timing of the line is perfect now, but the Vader-y processing/EQ still needs work to be seamless, I think.

Agreed, I really like the idea if the audio can be made to blend better.

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Hal 9000 said:

It may help to get more of the audio source Ridley was working from, since the rest of the audio on my end is the 1997 SE mix.

If someone found more instances of the needed words I’d be willing to have a go at it again. And I can match it to the audio mix you’re using if you send me the relevant part.

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Molly posted in Adywan’s thread that he may be able to lay some more mothers on us.
And I’ll send you the audio for that scene from my timeline, Ridley. You’re a treasure.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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When I made my own custom Special Edition of the trilogy, I used the 1997 Special Edition mix as the main audio source. However, for any times where I used the 2011 Blu-ray mix, I added a treble boost to the audio and matched up the volume, and it now sounds pretty close. Especially in voices.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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ChainsawAsh pointed out to me an issue with ESB’s Custom SE recently. I neglected to crop out the black bars of the 1080p frame when applying the color correction, leading to several places in the film during which the empty borders of the frame become brighter or bluish.
I’ve already fixed the problem and am encoding new video streams for the 1080p and DVD versions. (The two 720p versions are immune because the frame was cropped.) I’ll get these out there once I’m finished with LOE in a few days and then move onto getting ANH’s Custom SE out there for those wanting to include it in a pre-IX viewing.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Looking forward to ANH!!! Ever since KK650 has stepped away and finding out about your semi specialized versions they’ve been my go to. Plus I agree with your changes more. Can’t wait!!!

All my life as I looked away to the future, to the horizon. Never in my mind did I know where I was, what I was doing.

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Downloading ESB now and glad to hear that ANH is on its way!

Do you think ROTJ will be done in the next little bit or should I stick to the workprint you’ve made available? Also, you had mentioned releasing an updated workprint for TLJ:L - is that still the plan?

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ROTJ is a good way off at least. The workprint is all I can provide. The assembly is complete but almost all footage are from placeholder sources.

And I will publish an updated TLJ workprint soon, but I’m hoping to get one more thing for it first.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I read that your edit of The Empire Strikes Back combined a (supposedly) color-corrected rendition of the 2011 Blu-ray, kk650’s Semi-Specialized Edition, and Adywan’s Revisited Edition. Will A New Hope and Return of the Jedi be done using the same video sources? Also, after you’re finished with Return of the Jedi, will you go back and possibly add anything that Adywan uses in his Revisited Edition of Return of the Jedi, whenever that will be finished?

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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ANH is live!

I’ll update the OP with full details for ANH and ESB.
I probably won’t revisit ROTJ after Adywan finishes his Revisited project, since there’s nothing I feel cries out for me to use, cool things though I am sure he’ll do. I do hope to use his upcoming color corrected BluRay transfer as my primary source.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Is it odd that I may be the only person who likes the new dialogue added to Vader and Palpatine’s conversation in the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back? Although, Adywan did a better job with the Emperor’s appearance.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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I understand why George made that change, but from my understanding, people felt the additional dialogue just made things more confusing. The opening crawl and Vader’s actions at the beginning of the film, demonstrate that he already has a personal obsession with finding Luke, which implies he already knows who he really is. Having Vader find out during the movie seems to contradict that. Is he now just obsessed with find Luke because he destroyed the Death Star and he wants revenge?

You could argue Vader is feigning surprise, but already knows and pretends because he is planning to use Luke to help him usurp the Emperor, but it arguably just makes things more complicated.

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RogueLeader said:

I understand why George made that change, but from my understanding, people felt the additional dialogue just made things more confusing. The opening crawl and Vader’s actions at the beginning of the film, demonstrate that he already has a personal obsession with finding Luke, which implies he already knows who he really is. Having Vader find out during the movie seems to contradict that. Is he now just obsessed with find Luke because he destroyed the Death Star and he wants revenge?

You could argue Vader is feigning surprise, but already knows and pretends because he is planning to use Luke to help him usurp the Emperor, but it arguably just makes things more complicated.

I have a novel that focuses around Anakin/Vader’s life. It’s called The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader. In between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, he discovers who the rebel who destroyed the Death Star is, but is confused about his last name, believing that there may be others out there who share the name Skywalker that could be related to Anakin and Shmi. This helps make the Special Edition dialogue make sense for Palpatine to clarify to Vader that Luke really is Anakin’s son. I personally like the new dialogue because it adds new layers to the characters and story, as well connecting with the Prequels where it doesn’t come across as “in your face” and ties well with the overall storyline.

He could be obsessed with finding Luke, not only because he destroyed the Death Star, but mainly because of his curiosity in his last name, as well as feeling the Force being strong within him.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.