Revenge of the Sith (The New Canon Cut) [ON HOLD INDEFINITELY] — Page 14

RogueLeader said:

The version looks nice! Just spitballing, but I’ve been thinking about how Anakin and Obi’s convo could be altered to remove the Empire.

You would have to cut to Obi-Wan checking Padme a little earlier since Anakin starts saying, “I have brought peace, yada yada” in the wide. You might can reverse the insert shot of Obi so he continues down to touch her face, then in the Anakin CU we just see him raising up.
If you could somehow splice the shot of Anakin staring toward camera in the foreground and Obi in the background, as Obi raises up into view you could have Anakin say, “Don’t make me kill you.”
(If you managed to do this, I think it could be useful to keep, “I see through the lies of the Jedi, I do not fear the dark side as you do.” In order to fill the quiet space as Obi checks Padme. It could still work with just some silence though.)
Then you cut to the shot looking over Anakin’s shoulder and have Obi say, “Anakin, face up to what you’ve done!”
Then it cuts to just Obi, and we hear Anakin say, “If you’re not with me…”, which Obi replies with, “I will do what I must.”

If you could manage this, it could be useful to have Anakin still be focused on Padme somewhat, so you could keep, “You will not take her from me!” line.

Alright, I gave something like this a shot:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/132nt_eQbmMr-0IxAhPFnxOiBa9yDkD9H/view?usp=drivesdk

I think this is the closest thing to what I’m going for, but the added lines stand out now much more than they did. They worked better in proximity to the removed lines, but next to silence or other bites it’s easier to tell.

I definitely agree with most of that. Although having “Don’t you turn against me” as calmer was a deliberate choice on my part. I like the idea that Darth Vader suppresses his conflict and emotion and channels it into power and focus. I mean, Palpatine even says that’s what Anakin does in the film itself, and this keeps Anakin in line with how cognizant he is in this cut. He’s able to be a monster in the theatrical because he’s become unhinged and confused, not fully aware he’s been tricked into believing the wrong things - but since that’s not the case here, I wanted to convey that he “lives” with his actions by numbing himself to his pain, converting it all into more “dark side energy” I guess.

I tried a few more combinations/tweaks of the scene, here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fOAkWnTBHBnO42CDxT0rjBF3thUOZ6qa/view

^yeah, I think that’s what I’ll go with

here’s how it is rn:
https://vimeo.com/390390964
password: fanedit

I’m just going to adjust the levels a bit on the “Don’t ask me to do that” and “I’m so sorry” (or just remove it, I’ll see how people receive it), and add that dramatic cue Chips suggested for Obi’s appearance. This should more or less be the last thing I figure out before I have a workprint ready.

Here’s another preview of earlier on in the edit:
[removed to be tweaked]

“General Skywalker!”

I rescored Anakin and Padme meeting for the first time in the film, with the score from when they were really meeting for the first time in TPM. It’s a good callback, and TPM has my favorite prequel soundtrack anyway (don’t @me). It also lends itself to their conversation, it evokes those same feelings of innocence and possibility that having a child can give. Anakin is happy, it’s a happy moment!

Anakin turns to the dark side for Padme, their relationship has to be painted as this good thing, not the possessive and jealous affair it is in the theatrical.

After is where I put the droid attack on the wookiees. It sets up Yoda going there later, and I needed a buffer in between the reunion and the next scene… Anakin and Padme on the balcony discussing where on Naboo they want to bring the baby. (gardens, beautiful bc love, etc.)

Jumping straight into the politics like in previous cuts/Hal’s almost undid some of the endearment I built to Anakin’s character at the start, so I wanted to ease us into Coruscant life by letting Anakin be with Padme a little more. He’s in love, he laughs - he doesn’t go straight into supporting a would-be dictator, and there’s more to him than just his strife. He’s about to become a father!

“Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough…”

In the establishing shots of the scene, instead of Anakin just staring at Padme, I’ve spliced together the end of a conversation between the two about giving their child his lightsaber. This further ties the film into the original trilogy, specifically those lines Old Ben has to Luke when he gives him the saber. By depicting Anakin as an excited soon-to-be dad, that sets up father and son’s later connection a lot better. In the theatrical, the child seems almost like an afterthought, if not a massive inconvenience. Here, it shows Anakin does what he does not just for Padme, but his family.

Thx, I really only post the iffiest stuff I’m currently working on, since I need to see what exactly is really stretching it. Finding a way to end that part of the conversation is definitely what I was having a lot of trouble with. Where does it start to get weird?

I could always leave it hanging until Padme changes the subject. Rearrange the lines a little more optimally.

As far as Hayden’s voice, it’s not a different accent he’s just inflecting more than the monotone we’re used to, which I think is better tbh.

how’s this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a_1zCE-ar5HLc_3X0hoJrEbfsJOP1txU/view?usp=sharing

I think cutting to kashyk this soon without context makes it feel a little out of place , I prefer the original transition especially with the music.

Meh, I prefer having a not yet contextualized inciting incident, as opposed to this plot point casually dropped in a scene that felt like it ended already. I really don’t like how “What about the droid attack on the wookiees?” just comes out of nowhere in the council scene, and that’s what takes Yoda out of Coruscant.

It didn’t feel like anything we needed to be paying attention to. The focus felt like it should be on Anakin sitting in on the council meeting after rejection, they’re doing business as usual - defeat of Grevious ends the war, “the outlying systems you must sweep,” etc. It’s just off to me that this important point is just dropped for the first time there.

At least even if we don’t know what this Kashyyk scene is about yet, it clearly starts a new plot, and makes it feel like the later council meeting is actually following up on something. They’re discussing events we the audience saw. It honestly flows better to me this way, having the set up and payoff happen from beginning to end with everything else. Rather than in the middle of the film.

I use the original transition later to break up the mototony of the political stuff, and its placement implies that Palpatine is who gives Anakin his nightmares.

I see where you are coming from, what do you think of starting that scene with the establishing shot of kashyyk and the wookies roaring behind cover and running towards the shore, D-day style, to clearly emphasis that its an an invasion.

@idir: In the theatrical “It’s a system we cannot afford to lose” already implies that there is a Republic presence on Kashyyk before Yoda ever goes there, so this feeling more like a resuming of hostilities rather than initial invasion works okay enough.

I can definitely extend the scene because there is more of the battle I can use from Order 66, but I specifically want to use the Wookiee D-Day shot later because it helps with an audio transition there. Besides I like how it serendipitous-ly has some storytelling going on. It kind of portrays a wookiee morale boost after Yoda has arrived.

@snooker
As far as the jarring cut, would a wipe and/or planet shot help or anything? The original music transition is in itself already jarring - I literally didn’t do anything but fade it into the Invasion music - so it didn’t bother me too much that it felt very sudden.

deleted

Alright, I now have a cut with my most recent ideas available, PM for link. I’d want the final version to be along these lines but obviously I’ll need feedback. So it would be greatly appreciated!

A couple notes/thoughts about my own edit:

• I started from scratch this year. Plenty of my old decisions from old versions are present pretty much exactly as they were, but quite a bit is different. And because I’m no longer editing with Labyrinth of Evil (I’m still pulling from it, just doing it myself), some of the minor decisions made there are not here. You’ll still hear battle droids and clones. The original crawl is intact.

• Returning to fan editing was inspired in part by showing my little cousin the prequels over the holidays. There are things I retained simply because he liked/remembered them. He’s 10.

• I wanted to do a color grade like in previous versions but I figure I should wait until I have something locked down. Also everything I was coming up with was browner than I would have liked.

• I don’t think I fixed the storytelling as much as I changed the story, if that makes sense. What this has over the theatrical isn’t that it’s less “cringe” or is paced more mercifully/flows better. It’s become a somewhat radical edit - the characters are not really the same as the ones in the theatrical. They feel more like real, emotional people with character arcs. I’m particularly happy with how Padme comes across now.

• As far as fitting in with The Clone Wars - I don’t know what the new season will bring. But this works far better with what we have of the series so far than the theatrical. I will say, Christensen’s Anakin might actually come off as a nicer guy than Lanter’s here. This is because if I let Christensen be as badly tempered as Lanter, his relationship with Obi-Wan and the council became much less like the one in TCW. (Not to mention Hayden doesn’t pull it off with the same flavor of intensity.) If I committed to fully pacifying Christensen, it made him bland and more easily pushed around. It was a balancing act, and you have to account for how other characters treat him, not just the man himself. NCC!Anakin in that way feels slightly more influenced by OT!Anakin than TCW!Anakin. But it still fits.

• I’m thinking about renaming this, since I don’t know if I care about “New Canon” anymore after Rise of Skywalker. It’s still TCW-based obviously - with the consistency of character this sought to achieve - but TCW being a part of Disney’s canon doesn’t seem to mean much anymore. Maybe something more ROTJ-inspired, since it more directly ties into that,

• i forgot qui gonn

• i wish the kashyyk thing was better implemented

I’d also like a link.