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TFA: A Gentle Restructure (Released) — Page 84

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Is anyone aware of a suitable bit of music which combines the Emperor’s theme and the Imperial March? I wonder if replacing the musical cue which accompanies Vader’s helmet would be helpful to connect to TROS.

I don’t feel it should replace the Imperial March, but evoking both themes would be appropriate. Does anyone know of such a piece, or could perhaps blend them like that?

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I watched this before TROS and it easily became my go to version. Makes so much more sense dramatically and actually lets the movie stand on its own vs ANH, with a far darker ending. I wouldn’t suggest changes except I know you are revisiting the sequel trilogy after TROS.

The only edit that was noticable to me was targeting the resistance base after it fires, especially since it is blown up a few minutes later. I haven’t read all the comments on this thread and I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but I’m curious how the movie would play without retargeting the base and the resistance just blows it up. It also might foreshadow Po’s desire to blow stuff up without considering losses. I also like the idea of the base being a one shot weapon. You likely already know which works better.

The only other consideration would be tweaking the (already much improved) crawl a bit more:

The sinister FIRST ORDER plots its return to power, hidden in the ashes of the fallen Empire.

Failing to convince the NEW REPUBLIC to investigate this emerging threat, General Leia Organa mobilizes a covert RESISTANCE while the First Order completes a devastating new weapon.

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 (Edited)

Thanks for the feedback, and I’m glad you enjoyed it.

We’d hashed that question out several times. I think it is good to get the film back on track to where it was by that point so destroying SKB doesn’t feel unneeded. It also offers a more intuitive understanding of why a star still explodes out of it (and even though it makes no scientific sense, it even helps account for it being much smaller).

That scene was not part of the subpar V1, so I had a few painful viewings of it being that way and feeling off.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I watched TROS again today and I am confident Rey Palpatine cannot be taken out convincingly. Any thought of some foreshadowing of her origin during hee Takodana force vision?

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Dr. Krogshöj said:

I watched TROS again today and I am confident Rey Palpatine cannot be taken out convincingly. Any thought of some foreshadowing of her origin during hee Takodana force vision?

I’m quite certain it can.

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I’m sure it could be, but I’m probably not going to go with it. (I will certainly play with the idea.)

I think I’ll try to add this to the Takodana vision: “Find me… It is unavoidable. It is your destiny.”

Or I might leave off the “Find me,” because he probably doesn’t know she’s been awakened or whatever yet. Seems like Snoke would have to learn this first, I’m not sure. But, that doesn’t mean the vision isn’t just a mishmash of past, present, and future.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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^^^

I would do the “It is unavoidable … it is your destiny” The “Find me” may not be necessary. Also … if it is doable, having it split up during the vision may help it be more subtle and not so easy to connect. We are hinting at things, but not being so blatant.

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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Just finished watching it, really great work Hal and a shoutout to anybody that has been involved.
The restructure really improves the finale. But one thing bothered me and I don’t know if this has been pointed out already. How does the Resistance know about SKB and its weapon power? The “Inform the Republic” scene and Finn being introduced to Leia scene imply that they do, although it has been build in secret and hasn’t been used yet.(Poe even refers to it as the base and the weapon-system)

Somehow the Resistance has to find out about SKB, maybe show that Hux Nazi-speech has been broadcasted across the galaxy?

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

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Hal 9000 said:

That’s a fair question, but it applies equally to the original TFA. I bet that Resistance shoe covers it.

Well in the original cut, the SKB destroyes the Republc and the laser beam is visible across the galaxy. That the FO has a new superweapon is obvious. But these clues are missing from restructured.
Possible replacements that came to my mind where:
A) Hux speech broadcasted on the Holo-Net
B) Finn informing the Resistance (requires a slight restructure of the D‘Qar scenes; Finn Talking to Leia would need to be trimmen and placed directly after their arrival on D‘Qar)
C) Place Reys interogation shortly after the Takodana fight and connect the Reylos mindbattle to Leia receiving a vision, which shows the destruction of the Republic, etc. (this could also tie in nicely with the force connection between Ben and Leia.

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

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Okay, I see what you’re saying. I really think it’s fine to establish in the crawl that Leia knows something is up with the First Order and later Poe references “the base,” which prompts Leia to get information about it.

The answer to how she learned about it to begin with would just be in Rogue One territory.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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 (Edited)

DominicCobb said:

Dr. Krogshöj said:

I watched TROS again today and I am confident Rey Palpatine cannot be taken out convincingly. Any thought of some foreshadowing of her origin during hee Takodana force vision?

I’m quite certain it can.

Okay, I gave it another look. Let’s put it this way. I’m sure some guys here could make it happen, but it might create such big gaps in several scenes that I personally consider too drastic. I don’t like drastic omissions in fan edits generally, I’m a fan of subtle, elegant changes that create big impact with small but well thought-out changes. So it’s more of a preference really.

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(Discussing piracy is against the rules)

If you’re clever about it, the gaps shouldn’t be too drastic. We’ll see when the film comes out but I’m pretty confident my plan should work (and the changes would feel rather minimal).

But regardless, we’re sort of off topic.

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 (Edited)

I’ll put this here as well.

My attempt at incorporating the Emperor’s theme with the cue where Vader’s helmet is shown.

Here’s the combined music, using the front stereo track from the movie:
https://mega.nz/#!eZsC2CYI!wCHRa2maVNw1sY1CqGuhEtldDPPh2fl_twj-VYSxsqA

And here’s just the added music so you can mix it in yourself:
https://mega.nz/#!rV8iBAYb!MSwl8jKbt5gbkH7ofHVrodFC3h9Nmpl3Fe94MAhXWj0

I read an odd thing regarding this in the TROS visual dictionary.

“Kylo sought to commune with the helmet to contact the spirit who once inhabited it. Though Kylo had long been plagued by voices - invasive words from beyond that gnawed at his doubts - he heard nothing from the charred helm, despite his frequent and intense meditations.”

This seems to contradict the quote “Show me again, the power of the darkness”, implying that Kylo has been shown something by the helmet or otherwise.

Minor TROS spoilers

TROS tells us that Kylo has heard Vader’s voice inside his head, and I assumed this was through the helmet, but perhaps that is not the case. In TROS Kylo touches the helmet and sees flashing visions, so maybe thats how Kylo has been “shown” things, and the voices are a separate thing. Adding the Emperor’s theme to the helmet would contradict this.

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I like it; subtle. And that’s an interesting idea from the visual dictionary, but I think this musical implication makes more internal sense, and TROS already flatly contradicts some things from the TLJ visual dictionary.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Everyone knows that TROS is the actual sequel to TFA. Lol.

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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Here’s everything I’m thinking about for V4. Please let me know if any of these register as undesirable, as I’m sensitive to this edit being a true ‘disc replacement’ for many, and I don’t want to intrude on that. So I’m hoping to stick mostly to near-consensus changes. Some of these audio-only changes can just get an alternate track, like adding Palpatine to the vision.

Ideas:

  • Add subtle Emperor’s theme to the shot of Vader’s helmet, likely Ridley’s clip

  • Make that one X-wing firing on a TIE on Takodana sound like the trailer’s version

  • Add “(Find me.) It is unavoidable. It is your destiny” to the Force vision.

  • Maybe add Palpatine telling Rey “kill him” when she beats Kylo, which is an internal voice she hears in the novelization (though likely not intended to be Palpatine per se).

  • Attempt to reinstate Han’s no-look shot with an added “huh” afterward.

  • Experiment with replacing a few of the native bird sounds on Ach-To with porg sounds

  • OT.com logo at the end

—-
From NeverAr’s Starlight edit workprint:

  • May as well make it look like Finn wakes up at or just before dawn after crashing on Jakku.

  • Removed Han’s somewhat kindly “come on outta there,” leaving directional nod only.

  • Could remove Han tossing the guy to the rathtar but leave the punch.

  • Remove the holochess table coming on.

  • Have Snoke stand up while saying “so,” removing a continuity error from TFA:R

  • Add Rey separated from Finn on Han’s freighter to her Force vision. Nice ‘whole buffalo’ approach.

  • Use shot of sunlight being absorbed by the thing and Kylo watching right before “remove these restraints.” I think this can be done without reordering scenes. If so, then great; if not, oh, well.

  • I will play with the idea of Poe ordering a retreat which explains why they are in space later in the battle, but I think it would require reordering scenes and jettisoning other things, so this one is unlikely.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Oof, losing the holochess would really hurt me. I’ve always been a huge stop motion fan and it’s such a delight to see it used again in a major motion picture.

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I tried a different approach to the holochess. I skip the turning on, and just cut from Han and Rey in the cockpit to Finn with the activated table. Then he shuts it off when Han comes in. That way you can imagine he tried it out on purpose. You keep the fan-service but the table is not conveniently activated by accident. I also cut the sad look on Rey’s face after Han’s “huh”.

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Hal I like the list. As for the holochess, I am curious with Sir Ridley. I personally didn’t mind the holochess, but I understand people may find it fan-servicy … but Ridley’s approach could be a good “meet in the middle” approach.

I just watched Neverar’s edit and his approach on star killer base and when it fires is a nice approach. Both approaches between the two have merit. For yours, the “climax” of Kylo killing Han with the base firing really packs a punch since in that moment, a beloved character is slain AND the “good” guys for the most part failed. Then we have Snoke say “Ok, let’s target the resistance now” which is the motivator for the X-wings to stay in fight. It works much better than what the original movie had, but still not the strongest explanation, especially since the weapon had to “charge up” again. (This is not a knock against it since your edit’s restructure is INFINITELY better than the original.

For Neverars, Poe finally get into the oscillator to take it out and causes good damage … but the plan failed since it still fires … but because of the damage the base essentially destroys itself. This approach may not have the huge impact as your approach, but there is a bit more of a logical sense in the timing of events and flow of the story. What’s neat about this, is the “plan” was assumed by damaging/destorying the oscillator that’s all they had to do! … but it wasn’t!

So all in all, your approach has the bigger emotional impact and Neverar’s has the more “logical” flow. I like them both.

This is my long response about the “retreat” idea with Poe and the others in space. It’s almost like you gotta go Neverar’s route to add some explanation. I need to watch it again and compare the two!

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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Yes, as much as I appreciate NeverAr’s Version of the climax, I agree that there is merit in the one used for this project so I don’t plan on changing it or anything.

I can leave the holochess alone.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I’d vote for the holochess to go. The moment serves no real purpose other than nostalgia, and we get better use of it in The Rise of Skywalker anyway.

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All of your suggestions look really good! I’m eager to see actual clips of how it’s implemented. I agree about leaving the holochess alone.