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Star Wars Episode II: March of the Separatists (Released)(v2 a WIP) — Page 2

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On a different note, I want to give a very special thank you to bryantmh for the AI upscaled deleted scenes. I said I was having issues because some of the deleted scenes I got from HAL9000 weren’t upscaled (you can see them in the demo, by the way). Bryantmh’s are upscaled, and I will be replacing the HAL scenes with the bryantmh scenes for this edit. If you want to see what kind of quality to expect, here’s a link to bryantmh’s post, which features a few screenshots:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Info-AI-Upscaling-of-Deleted-Scenes-and-other-content/id/75020

Of the screenshots, the only one that will be in my edit of Episode II is the extended Anakin and Padme conversation scene. I will be using 4 other deleted scenes as well, but there are no screenshots for those. You can rest assured though, that I have looked over them myself and they look marvelous.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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I have decided to release the changes that I have made to Episode II soon. (Hopefully, this weekend.) I’ve been trying not to reveal the changes because I feel like releasing them is final, but I’ve had no responses with the demo as of this post. At this point, trying to keep them a secret is pointless.

I’ll try to suffer through the theatrical cut of Episode II and write down all the changes I have made to the film in the future. It might take me a bit because my family is getting into the holiday season, but I’ll try to get my memory refreshed as soon as possible.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Full list of changes are now on the main post.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Thanks!

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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The cut list is very promising. I might have missed something though: what is the fate of Shmi and Jango Fett?

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theprion said:

The cut list is very promising. I might have missed something though: what is the fate of Shmi and Jango Fett?

Aah yes. One of the downsides of change lists are that they’re good at showing what’s been taken out and not what’s been kept in. Talking about what’s still around is the hard part.

In regards to Shmi’s fate, she still dies. However, all we see is Anakin bringing the body home followed by the funeral scene. We don’t get to see the scene where Anakin finds her before she dies and his eventual killing of the tuskens, or his Darth Vader-esque rant at Padme. (Which is a shame, because that moment when Anakin meets his mom after so long was a rare good moment from the film. However, the whole thing with Anakin becoming a cold-blooded killer made him a villain way too early in the prequels, so it didn’t make sense to keep it. Besides, there’s enough hinting at Anakin’s turn to the dark side without that scene anyway.)

As for Jango Fett, I’ve decided to let his fate be unknown. Mace Windu’s decapitating of Jango right in front of his kid seemed messed up. (Not to mention uncharacteristic of the jedi.) Besides that, Jango’s purpose in the plot had been served once Obi-Wan followed him to Geonosis. Anything about what happens to him (or Boba) afterwards isn’t that important. He’s still in the Geonosis climax, but less so.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Some interesting workarounds.

But since Jango isn’t on Geonosis in your cut, why not completely cut him from the film? He was always an useless fanservice of a character anyways.

Consider this: the kaminoans might have their gene pools or something like that. Why would they (or Count Dooku, for that matter) need a random mercenary to be either an outside asset or a loose end on this monumental operation? So Obi follows the dart trail to Kamino, discovers the clone army, and when he is about to meet the unknown “supervisor” who ordered the clones, a ship (still Slave I, but who cares) departs hastily upon learning of the jedi’s inquiry, but not before Obi whips him a tracking device. This should improve the veil of secrecy involving Count Dooku and the assassination plan when Obi-Wan finally uncovers him in Geonosis, rather than just skip leads from one bounty hunter to another. What do you think?

As for Shmi, I’m curious to see how you make it work. Paired with the downplaying of Jango, these are some promising changes I have no knowledge of prior attempts.

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 (Edited)

theprion said:

Some interesting workarounds.

But since Jango isn’t on Geonosis in your cut, why not completely cut him from the film? He was always an useless fanservice of a character anyways.

Consider this: the kaminoans might have their gene pools or something like that. Why would they (or Count Dooku, for that matter) need a random mercenary to be either an outside asset or a loose end on this monumental operation? So Obi follows the dart trail to Kamino, discovers the clone army, and when he is about to meet the unknown “supervisor” who ordered the clones, a ship (still Slave I, but who cares) departs hastily upon learning of the jedi’s inquiry, but not before Obi whips him a tracking device. This should improve the veil of secrecy involving Count Dooku and the assassination plan when Obi-Wan finally uncovers him in Geonosis, rather than just skip leads from one bounty hunter to another. What do you think?

As for Shmi, I’m curious to see how you make it work. Paired with the downplaying of Jango, these are some promising changes I have no knowledge of prior attempts.

I’m not sure where I said that Jango wasn’t on Geonosis. All I said is that his purpose had been served once Obi-Wan followed him to Geonosis, which means that he still goes there.

I sympathize with the notion of getting rid of Jango in his entirety, though. It’s just that I couldn’t find a way to explain how Obi-Wan arrives on Geonosis without him following Jango there. Still, I’ll see if it’s possible to get rid of the Jango scenes from the arena. My only concern is that Mace Windu’s entrance might be needed. Having just a bunch of random jedi appear out of nowhere seems a little vague and hard to follow. But I’ll see if it works.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Eyepainter said:
I’m not sure where I said that Jango wasn’t on Geonosis.

Sorry, I meant to write “doesn’t die on Geonosis” and got lost in the train of thought.

My only concern is that Mace Windu’s entrance might be needed. Having just a bunch of random jedi appear out of nowhere seems a little vague and hard to follow.

You’re right, I had completely forgotten of Mace’s entrance. First thing that comes to mind would be removing Jango from the shot to be replaced by one of the neimoidians, but I don’t know how feasible (or worthwhile) that is to the scope of the edit.

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theprion said:

Eyepainter said:
I’m not sure where I said that Jango wasn’t on Geonosis.

Sorry, I meant to write “doesn’t die on Geonosis” and got lost in the train of thought.

My only concern is that Mace Windu’s entrance might be needed. Having just a bunch of random jedi appear out of nowhere seems a little vague and hard to follow.

You’re right, I had completely forgotten of Mace’s entrance. First thing that comes to mind would be removing Jango from the shot to be replaced by one of the neimoidians, but I don’t know how feasible (or worthwhile) that is to the scope of the edit.

I’m having the same train of thought. I’m not a CGI expert, so I really wouldn’t know how to replace Jango if I tried.

I have been entertaining the idea of getting rid of Obi-Wan’s visitation with Jango. This would mean that Jango attacks Obi-Wan on Kamino, most likely because he’s trying to assassinate him. It would also mean that Jango is allied with the separatists (which works for my edit). But it comes with a big drawback. My edit has Zamm muttering “Bounty hunter… From Kamino… Called…” before she (or it) dies. I did this to get Obi-Wan to Kamino sooner rather than later, since I believe that less is more, but I would have to change it to the theatrical version again if I made that call. This would mean I would have to bring up the archives scene where Obi-Wan can’t find his planet (a scene I never liked since it goes nowhere), and I would have to bring back Dexter Jettster (ugh). So I’m kind of in a bind with this. I’ll give it some more thought while I’m celebrating Christmas.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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So I tried theprion’s suggestions on Jango Fett, and it ended up being a disaster. I started by removing Obi-Wan’s first meeting, but it derailed the structure of the edit. There were now too many Anakin/Padme scenes and not enough Obi-Wan scenes to cut or transition to.

Then, I came up with another idea to work around this problem. I rearranged everything so that we would start with Obi-Wan’s investigation first, then Anakin and Padme’s plotline would start about halfway through instead. It didn’t work either, because some scenes didn’t transition well into each other. For example, there were several scenes where Obi-Wan is either entering or exiting doors on Kamino. So one scene would begin with Obi-Wan exiting a door, but in the very next scene, he’s exiting another door. So for continuity reasons, that wasn’t going to work.

After those two attempts, I gave up. Sorry, Prion, but I tried. Jango is to Epsiode II what Jar Jar is to Episode I. They’re both characters I want to get rid of, but can’t because they’re already so heavily ingrained into the film that it’s extremely hard, if not impossible, to remove them.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Eyepainter said:
Jango is to Epsiode II what Jar Jar is to Episode I.

Ha, so tragic and so true!

Sorry, Prion, but I tried (and it ended up being a disaster).

I’m glad that you tried, though. It’s nice that you were open to the suggestions to try new approaches. Also good reference to know how far you can push the film until it breaks.

Looking forward to what you make of it!

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theprion said:

Eyepainter said:
Jango is to Epsiode II what Jar Jar is to Episode I.

Ha, so tragic and so true!

Sorry, Prion, but I tried (and it ended up being a disaster).

I’m glad that you tried, though. It’s nice that you were open to the suggestions to try new approaches. Also good reference to know how far you can push the film until it breaks.

Looking forward to what you make of it!

Thanks!

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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I’ve begun work on the color grading. I’ve started with the opening ship landing assassination attempt on Coruscant. So far, I’ve managed to change the color scheme from white to blue. I won’t know what the rest of the color grading is gonna look like until I’ve done it all, but I’m guesstimating that a lot of the white color scenes (specifically Coruscant and Kamino) are gonna end up with a similar blue tint.

I personally don’t have a problem with this, as I always felt like the white color scheme was boring to look at. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to inform everyone in advance.

I’m doing a similar thing to v2 of my episode I edit in that I’m giving it a green tint in order to liven it up.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Eyepainter, I’d like a link to your fan edit of Episode 2.

Also, sending you my condolences for your family situation.

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Darth_Zounds said:

Eyepainter, I’d like a link to your fan edit of Episode 2.

Also, sending you my condolences for your family situation.

Thanks for the kind words regarding my mother, Darth.

As of right now, I only have a demo of episode II, which is low quality. It isn’t the final version, and a lot of things are incomplete (such as video transitions, sound editing, and color grading). I’ve even rearranged a few scenes since releasing it. However, it does give you an idea of which direction the edit is going for. I’ll PM you a link to the demo, and when episode II is completed, I’ll be happy to send you the link to the official release.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Finished v2 of episode I last night, and I can now turn my full attention to episode II now. I just made a few more minor cuts. (and I mean minor. The addition of a name here, a transition there, etc.) I’ll return to the color grading soon.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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I’m about 20-25% of the way through the color grading for Episode II. After getting a lot of negative feedback over the green tint I applied to Episode I v2, I’ve decided to remove the blue tint I was applying over Episode II and go for a more desaturated look instead. I intend to apply this new color grade to Episode I in the future as well.

The more technical explanation: I’m starting with increasing the yellows, cyans, and magentas, and reducing the reds, blues, and greens in the hue vs. sat curves. I’m then reducing the black areas to 0 in the lum vs. sat curves. I follow this up by adjusting the custom RGB curves, but only to reduce clipping rather than to adjust it to however I want. I’m then finishing it off by reducing the dynamic range of the blue color channel. That is, lowering the brightest blues and raising the darkest blues.

The less technical explanation: I’m going for an even more film-like appearance by saturating yellow, cyan and magenta hues while removing luminance from the black areas. Then, I’m topping it off by lowering the contrast of the blue channel while increasing the contrast of the red and green channel, giving the film a more yellowish glow. On occasion, I’m making a few adjustments here and there to ensure that the whites and blacks stay within the constraints of HD.

Click on the expand tab for samples of the color grading I’ve done for Episode II so far.

Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 12 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 15 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 18 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 21 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 28 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 29 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 39 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 41 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 49 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 56 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 57 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 63 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples_1 67 1

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Thanks! I was kind of worried about whether I took it too far with the color desaturation. The HD preservations I’m using were a lot more colorful before, so I wanted to be sure.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Color grading is more than halfway done now. Here’s some more samples of my progress so far. I’ve also thrown in a couple samples of the deleted scenes in this grouping to give an idea of what the quality will look like.

Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 71 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 75 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 77 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 82 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 82 2
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 86 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 88 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 97 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 102 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 109 1
Episode II Color Grading Examples Part 2_1 118 1

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Color grading is finished. Beginning work on sound editing soon.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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I had enough free time today, so I decided to work on the opening crawl while I was at it. I just started on the rendering and it will most likely be finished tomorrow.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Opening crawl is done. Unless something else pops up, I think sound editing is going to be the final stage before I release it. My job has kept me really busy lately, so I don’t know how long it will take me to complete, but given that episode I’s sound editing took a week to finish, my guesstimate is that episode II’s sound will take two.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.