Yeah, so how finished is your fan edit ?
There’s no timetable for when it will be finished, but I think it’s safe to say that I’m more than halfway there. I’ve gotten all the major changes down for the actual edit, and it’s looking like the final runtime is going to be a short and sweet 91 minutes. All that I’m changing at this point is the tiny nitpicky stuff. (Such as whether the pause at the end of this shot is too long, or whether that line can be safely deleted with no impact on the rest of the film, etc.)
With that said, there’s still quite a lot of work to do. I’m still educating myself on Davinci Resolve, and I’m still learning about color grading since the lesson is nearly 2 hours in length. However, I did manage to pick the Blackmagic 4.6K Film to Extended Video v4 LUT a couple of days ago to give the HD file I’m using an extra quality boost. I will probably make some more improvements once I’ve made it through the lesson, but for now, the movie looks good enough.
Subtitles are good, but not perfect. I decided to change the lines a little from the theatrical version since some of those lines are bad. I’m currently using the Franklin Gothic Demi Cond font with a stroke of size 3 to make it more readable. However, as of this posting, they don’t fade in and out like they do in the theatrical version. I’m fine with it this way, but getting the subtitles to behave like they did before would be a nice little extra. I’m gonna try out TheAlaskanSandman’s advice and see if that makes the subtitles fade in and out.
Sound editing is a lesson I haven’t watched yet, and I’m still a dunce on that subject. However, I have learned how to use crossfades in the audio transitions, and when they work, it’s nice. But I do need to get around to learning how to sound edit. Most of the dialogue from the droids, and those annoying whoops and yippees from Anakin Skywalker need to be removed. And soon. There’s a tutorial on sound editing on Davinci Resolve, but like the color grading lesson, it’s a long one.
Video transitions are also incomplete. I watched a youtube video on how to make wipes and transitions look more like something out of Star Wars, but I haven’t done it yet. I might consider trying that next.
Lastly, there’s the opening crawl. That’s been the biggest pain in the ass. I’m currently using Blender to get the opening crawl rewritten, and I obtained a custom crawl creator from a fanedit.org user named DigModiFicaTion. But it’s been a headache, and special effects are not my forte. I’m trying to watch some YouTube videos on how to do it, but I still suck at this.
So yeah, the main stuff is done, but a lot of the more technical stuff is still a work in progress.
Aliens like Jar Jar and Nute Gunray, they getting subtitles ? Anakin will continue as the chosen one ?
If I wanted to make this movie worse, yes, I would give Jar Jar and Nute Gunray subtitles. I do not wish to make it worse, and therefore, Jar Jar and Nute Gunray have no subtitles. The main reason I’m changing the subtitles is because some of the lines are really bad. For example, Anakin and Sebulba’s little trading of insults before the podrace begins is, and I quote:
“You won’t walk away from this one, you slave scum!”
…And…
“Don’t count on it, slime ball.”
Even in 1999, those exchanges were cliched beyond belief. Changing them up to make them more original is a good idea.
As for Anakin being the chosen one, there is little I can do about changing it (with the exception of getting rid of the midichlorians, which I can do). Anakin being the chosen one is such a big deal through the entire prequel trilogy (Especially when you get to Revenge of the Sith) that changing all of it is impossible. One of the more humbling lessons I’ve learned while editing Episode I is that you can’t get rid of every bad thing. Even in the better fanedits (Like HAL9000 and l8wrtr) there are things that I wish had been taken out. My version is not immune to this, either. It’s just that the prequels were that problematic. So, my goal for this edit is not to write a checklist of everything that was good and bad and erasing the bad out of existence (although that is a noble pursuit). My goal is to create the most complete narrative that I can possibly make. Bringing everything together under necessity and probability, or at least, getting as close as I can to that. I believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and if my fanedit makes for a better whole than what we got theatrically, then I’ve done my job.
Your edit your rules man, When will you release the full change list?