Star Wars Episode II: March of the Separatists (Released)(v2 a WIP) — Page 3

First two audio channels are finished. Four more to go.

Sound editing is now halfway done. Dialogue is finished, and I’m working on the subwoofer and surround channels next. Once those channels are done, I think the edit will be complete.

Ran into a technical hiccup. My editing software updated to Davinci Resolve 17, but my computer couldn’t handle its full capabilities and refused to take the software past the title screen. I’m going to make the unwise choice of reinstalling resolve 16.2.8, since I know that version works fine. However, this whole update business is causing a small delay. I will get back to the sound editing as soon as I’ve gotten this taken care of.

Got resolve 16 reinstalled. Returning to the sound editing again. Currently working on the subwoofer and left surround channels.

Just finished the subwoofer and left surround channels. Now I only have one channel left to take care of, and then sound editing will be complete. I will then get to the headache inducing process of testing and exporting it online.

I’m thinking I might do a trailer for this edit just like I did for episode I while working on the export. We’re getting close to completion now.

Sound editing is now officially complete (which means that the edit is also complete). I’m now going through the process of exporting the file. It might take a few days depending on whether resolve crashes on me during the export stage. Plus, I may need to give the edit a test to make sure there are no pesky conversion errors, but I think it’s safe to say that the edit is gonna be released soon.

Just tested it out. Everything looks fantastic, and I gotta say, the color grading turned out a lot better than I expected on my 1080p HDTV. However, I found a few clips that I missed in the climactic Geonosis battle. I’ve gone back and graded those clips, but I have to export a new file. Be patient. It’s almost done.

While I’m waiting for the export, I decided to take the file I have now and work on creating a trailer. I will post that up soon.

Nice one, Eyepainter - am looking forward to seeing what you came up with 👍
 

Trailer is now online.

https://youtu.be/4QuAjuR_ttc

I’m sure the link is harmless, but if it’s in violation of the rules and guidelines, let me know and I’ll take it down.

As for the edit itself, I’ve successfully exported it, and I plan to test the file for any transfer errors that may have occurred. After that, the edit will be released.

No worries on having a link to a trailer on here. Plus, I enjoyed it - fair play and kudos to you for focusing on Padme and Anakin’s relationship in it considering that is seen by many as weak point of the theatrical AOTC film - yet nicely done.

Good luck with the edit.
 

theprion said:

Nice trailer, Eyepainter!

Please do shoot me a link when its done and ready!

Will do. Just finished testing the file, and it looks good. I’m uploading the file online now, so be on the lookout for a PM from me sometime tomorrow.

File uploaded. Sending PM’s now.

Now that I’ve finished Episode II, I’m going to take a short break. I went through a lot of work and stress as a result of this edit, and I need to recharge my batteries before I tackle Episode III.

On top of this, I’m dealing with a lot of family matters since my mom’s passing. I won’t go through the details, but I feel the need to address them sooner rather than later.

I’ll be back, though. I’ll post a new topic for Episode III when I’m ready.

I have a major update. My computer had an “accident” and I lost my project folders for my fanedits. I still have my final edit of Episode II on a flash drive (Thank God), but all of the work I’ve done on Resolve is gone.

I have decided to use this as an opportunity (instead of a setback, which this obviously is) to use my blu-ray rips on my Mac, and re-edit Episodes I and II. This will more than likely get me approval from fanedit.org in the future. Plus, I’m hoping to finally (fingers crossed) get to that commentary track as I keep promising, but somehow keep failing to deliver on. I’ve bought a better quality microphone this time around, so I’m hoping that this one will actually work.

I’m saving this re-edit for last, since II is the biggest nightmare to work on. Plus, I have to restart my edit of Episode III, which has never been released. Rest assured that I will get to work on Episode II once I’ve completed III and re-edited I.

Well, it’s been a while.

Anyway, while I’ve been working on the commentary track for Episode I, I’ve just edited my way through Episode II in my free time. So far, I’ve reduced everything down to 92 minutes. I’m trying to see if I can cut it all down to 88 minutes like in v1, but finding things to take out of the edit is getting difficult. There are no major changes to speak of this time around (Like in v3 of my Episode I edit). Most of what’s changed from v1 are a bunch of pacing and timing issues. I’ve added a shot here, a line there, a cutaway where there was no cutaway before, etc. I’m not sure how the edit managed to get 4 minutes longer other than perhaps the blu-ray source is edited differently from the Schorman13 preservations, thus changing the timing on certain things.

I’ll discuss what’s new for v2 when I’ve started to finalize the changes. Until then, I’ll keep cutting away and see if anything else can be reduced.

Just cut things down to around 90 minutes now. I’m starting to run out of ideas for what to cut next. It’s looking like v2 will be slightly longer than v1. I’ll discuss some of the changes and extensions I’ve made to v2 sometime soon.

Here’s the first thing I’m planning on changing for v2. The opening assassination attempt.

The opening in v1, I feel, was a little too oddly timed and paced. So, for v2, I extended and added a shot to this scene to fix the pacing issues I had with it.

When I worked on v1, I cut this shot at the moment Panaka says, “We made it!” Now that I’m older and wiser, I’ve extended the shot and removed Panaka’s line through sound editing instead. He takes a glance at Padme…

…Then, after the shot of the decoy walking down the steps, I’ve inserted this shot where Panaka turns his head towards the ship.

And yes, Panaka’s ever-so-intelligent line, “I guess I was wrong. There was no danger at all.” is still deleted. For obvious reasons.

The last change I’ve made to this scene occurs here. I was reluctant to make this one back in v1 for fear of people noticing Panaka’s lips moving, but I wanted to make this scene mostly dialogue-free. For that reason, I went through the sound editing and removed Panaka’s line, “My lady, you’re still in danger here!” The shot is still the same, but Panaka’s lines have been removed. I do not have the technology to make Panaka’s lips stay still. So alas, you will see Panaka’s lips move if you pay close attention, but I’ll accept the flaw. With that line removed, the only bit of dialogue said in the opening is now Padme’s “Corde!” Otherwise, the scene is close to that of a silent film, giving a heavier feel to this moment.

Continuing on with the changes I’ve made (small though they may be), we head to the next scene. A.K.A. Palpatine’s office.

When I worked on v1, I cut out the last two shots of this scene. They are of Mace Windu telling Padme that he’ll contact Obi-Wan Kenobi at once. In the last shot, Padme thanks Mace Windu as Palpatine looks at Padme. When I first removed it, I was applying the “enter late, cut out early” rule used by the Phantom Editor a little too much. At the time, I thought these last two shots were pointless and didn’t advance anything. So I didn’t think about things like pacing or giving the scene some time to breathe. The scene would end with Palpatine saying, “The thought of losing you… is unbearable.” And then the scene would end abruptly.

And I mean abruptly, because any way I sliced it, the transition to the next scene was awkward. The more I’ve looked at these two shots, the more natural the scene feels with those two shots reinstated back in the film rather than on the cutting room floor. They’re not my favorite shots from the movie, but they weren’t as pointless as I originally thought.

Moving to the next scene, I’ve decided to add two more shots to Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme’s reunion scene. Now from the start, this scene was bad. Really bad. For me, this was the scene that spelled out what the rest of the movie was gonna be like. I cut out a lot of stuff from that scene, and with good reason. However, I might’ve cut out a little too much.

In my version, Padme tells Anakin and Obi-Wan she wants to know who’s trying to kill her. Obi-Wan responds with “We’re here to protect you, Senator. Not to start an investigation.” Then, I skipped ahead to Padme saying, “Perhaps with merely your presence, the mystery surrounding this threat will be revealed.”

End scene.

Once again, as in the previous scene, I feel I applied the “enter late, cut out early” rule a little too much. I’ve decided to add in two more shots to this scene. The first shot is a reaction shot of Panaka:

In the theatrical version, there was a shot of Panaka reacting negatively to Anakin and Obi-Wan’s little spat. I deleted that little spat, and consequently removed this shot as well. For v2, however, I added this shot in after Obi-Wan says that they’re here to protect Padme. The implication being that Panaka really wants the jedi to find the assassin, and is disappointed that they’re not. It isn’t an extremely important detail, but it gives Padme some time before she says her line.

The next shot I’ve reinserted is this one:

Just to be clear, this shot is still much shorter than it was originally. All I’ve added back in is Padme’s line, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will retire.” Everyone gets up, and then we cut to the next scene. I think these changes coincide with Walter Murch’s advice from “In the Blink of an Eye” in that they’re being re-inserted to enhance the emotion of the scenes. Episode II was the hardest movie to edit, and for that reason, I had way more going on in my mind than pacing, so it took a back seat for v1. Fortunately, for v2, I’m able to go back and fix some of these tinier issues that can affect the overall experience.

The next change I’ve made is at the end of the assassination attempt on Padme’s life:

Once again, I feel like I applied “enter late, cut out early” too much. I took out the line, “Are you alright, my lady?” from v1. When I first cut this moment out, my logic was best described as “Come on, this is pointless. We don’t really need that, right?”

But looking back, ending the scene with Anakin running out of the room seemed oddly paced. Not to mention that reinstating this moment where Padme’s handmaiden asks if she’s alright gives the scene a better transition to the ensuing action sequence that’s about to occur.

My next alteration is arguably the biggest one. This change alone is responsible for why v2 is 2 minutes longer than v1. What I’ve done is simple. I’ve added back more shots of Zamm in her cockpit:

Let me explain.

With v1, I wanted to add in a mystery element to the bounty hunter chase sequence. I accomplished this by taking out a lot of shots where we see Zamm’s face. I took inspiration from the sniper scene in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket where the first time we recognize her existence is when she fires a bullet at Obi-Wan. Then gradually, as Obi-Wan and Anakin pursue her, they see her face. Well, at least Anakin does.

I wanted to make sure that mystery element still existed for v2, but I feel like the approach I took in v1 was rather clunky. I was trying to reveal Zamm’s face as late as possible, but I think that might’ve been a mistake. We see Zamm’s face for the first time in the middle of the scene where Anakin is trying to grip onto the speeder. And looking back, her first official shot wasn’t that good either.

So, I decided to show her face earlier in the scene rather than later. Now, for v2, Zamm’s face is revealed the moment Anakin jumps out of his speeder and latches onto her speeder instead. This meant bringing back a lot of Zamm’s reaction shots and an extra shot of Anakin trying not to fall off the speeder from Zamm’s POV. While there is a part of me that wishes Zamm’s face could be revealed later, I think revealing it at this point instead feels more natural and intuitive by comparison.

The next thing I’ve changed is a small one, but nevertheless, a technical improvement.

One little bit that I was quite nitpicky about was Mace Windu’s mentioning Anakin’s name twice. It’s a small annoyance, but one I wanted to fix. In v1, I cut out Mace Windu’s “Anakin” in the middle of Yoda’s shot. At the time, I didn’t know how sound editing worked, so all I did was cut it out visually. Right in the middle of Yoda’s shot. So for v2, I decided to cut out Mace Windu’s line via sound editing instead, thus leaving this shot unbroken for v2.

The next change is something different. For once, I’m going to discuss something I’ve deleted.

Yes, this is the ever so wonderful moment where Obi-Wan orders Anakin not to leave Naboo without consulting him or the council. I wasn’t sure if I could cut this line out because of fear that cutting it might affect the plot later on. Admittedly, this was never a good moment, especially since it only gives us more of the antagonism between Obi-Wan and Anakin. So, I’m happy that I was able to cut this bit out for v2 (not to mention this useless subplot, but that’s for a later post). The more antagonistic moments of Obi-Wan and Anakin that I can remove, the better.

Atom-88 said:

Some really cool changes Eyepainter 👍

Thanks, Atom! My apologies for not responding sooner, although that’s mainly because my family is moving. My mind has been preoccupied with that for the time being. Rest assured, though, that I’m still at work on the edit (just not as much until I’ve come up with a plan for the move). I’ve also been entertaining some exciting fanediting ideas for the future. I don’t want to announce those ideas yet, but I’m strongly considering them.

The first stage of my move begins. I will be starting work on the move tomorrow, where I will be moving to a friend’s place. I’ll try to get my computer back up and running as soon as I possibly can (I hope to get it all ready sometime next week). Then I can worry about what to do next for the move (and keep working on my fan edits when I have the time). So yes, I will be absent on this site for a bit, but I hope to return as soon as I possibly can!