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Post #1294849

Author
act on instinct
Parent topic
Knights of the Old Republic - Duel of the Fates (aka the 1.37 3 in 1) (WIP)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1294849/action/topic#1294849
Date created
1-Sep-2019, 1:30 AM

DISCLAIMER: This edit is in the very early stages, I’ll be updating this thread with further details as it develops. Images are meant to represent a proof of concept.

DotF

“For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire…”

Hello all! After a good amount of time here not to mention years spent as a lurker within the greater fanedit community I felt encouraged and inspired enough to present my own take on the prequels.

Mission Statement

  • My intention is to create a 3-in-1 non-linear standalone prequel story, one that could be seen cold in place of a marathon. Where we witness the fall of Anakin and the republic, the journey of Obi-Wan, and the end of a bygone era through the life and death of Queen Amidala, hopefully within a 2hr 15minute runtime.

  • If the title seems jarring, that’s on purpose. With all the existing edits and fanedits in the making, most of the best corrective story changes have already been addressed. I will be building off of a few of those suggestions, but I’ve wanted to try something that would be a shift in presentation, as a way of looking back on the PT with fresh eyes. Personally I don’t think you can bend the prequels into the pace and style of the OT, they’re just too different. Though many have warmed to the prequels, myself included, the two trilogies still feel distinctly separate. So rather than fight this I plan to lean in on those differences and highlight the best of them. To take things even further I’m dropping the name Star Wars altogether, because it’s really a prologue to the ‘star wars’ anyway, so that’s where you get Knights of the Old Republic, two distinct eras.

  • I’ve also chosen as a major style decision in the same spirit to present this era visually in 1.37 aspect ratio, also known as academy ratio (examples below). This is for multiple reasons, the first is practical, by cropping roughly 25% at minimum for almost every given frame not only do I have more personal control over where to direct focus, I have more cutting room to space out timing, create new coverage, and so on. Second, I feel the PT better suits an older cinematic style, at its best the dramatic highs are Shakespearean, the intimacy of the tighter shots can really be compelling against the melodrama, there are also a fair amount of full body wide shots that support this composition nicely.

I’ll also be doing my own color adjustments but that will be one of the final steps.

Wow, feels like a mouthful and still I’ve barely said anything! Here is where I’ll gradually update with a cut list of all the changes I make: TBD

Challenges

  • Cohesion is key, the goal is a clean edit that could be enjoyed and understood by someone who had no prior engagement with the prequels (unlikely, but it’s the principle of the thing!).

  • Making the style not clash with the material, making a bad pan&scan.

1.37

Any thoughts, feedback, contributions or questions are appreciated, thank you for taking the time.