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The Force Awakens: Starlight (V1.1 Released!) — Page 47

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Man, it’s always a pleasant surprise to see a Starlight update from you!

Using voices instead of flashes for the interrogation is fantastic! It got me really excited my first listen-through.

At first, I wasn’t so sure about Kylo’s prayer being moved here. It seemed weird that he was “praying” to Snoke while looking at Vader’s helmet. But honestly, I think that weirdness came more from how I understood the scene. If I was watching this film for the first time this way, I probably would understand what was going on, and assume that the helmet was something that connected Snoke and Kylo in a way. Maybe Snoke gifted the helmet to Kylo or something. Perhaps if you could have Kylo say, “and I will finish what Vader started” or “I will finish what he started”, and then we see Vader’s helmet, we would still get the idea that Snoke is using Vader’s legacy to manipulate Kylo. This would allow Rey’s line “You’re afraid that you’ll never be as strong as Darth Vader” still make sense, and it also ties into Snoke’s dialogue regarding Vader in TLJ.

I also feel like the audience would be confused why Kylo is feeling the pull to the light all of the sudden. Yes, we do hear Leia’s voice during the interrogation, and I follow the logic of that potentially bringing up some memories in Kylo. I wonder if you could add Poe saying “General Leia” or “Leia” to the voices, to make it clear to the audience that’s whose voice we’re hearing. Perhaps even Kylo could even say, “Leia” or “the General” to acknowledge her. Maybe where he says, “Where is it?” the second to last time, he could mention her, or even say something like, “She gave the order” (Which you could mostly take from TROS) to show he is thinking about her momentarily during the interrogation.

I guess theoretically, we still wouldn’t know either way that Kylo was Leia’s son at this point, so why he is feeling the pull should be a bit of a mystery. Although it hasn’t been spelled out yet, the audience probably knows there is some kind of connection between the audience and the Skywalkers. And then when we realize he is her son, Kylo mentioning her in the interrogation and then talking about the pull to the light in the next scene makes total sense.

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I tried mightily to have him say ‘I will finish what he started’, but no rendition of ‘he’ I could find worked at all. But perhaps it’s not terrible to leave it as is.

Placing the scene here as a prayer to Snoke definitely gives it a different energy, which to me is more of a ‘fanatical minion’ than anything else. I think it works for Kylo’s role at the beginning of the movie, and allows for different interpretations later. For example, right now ‘I will finish what you started’ could actually be directed at either Snoke or Vader. The Vader meaning has been well discussed, but if he’s talking about Snoke, it could be evidence that even now he’s intending to overthrow him and rule the Empire he built.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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I think it would be worth playing around with a few other versions of “he” or “Vader”, because I think it will give the helmet a little more context and fit in better with Snoke and Kylo’s conversations regarding him living up to Vader’s legacy. Have you tried pulling from the Lego game and TROS as well?

I don’t think the ‘you’ in, “Show me, Supreme Leader, and I will finish what you started” would be interpreted as referring to Vader. It seems clearly referring to the Supreme Leader in this sentence. I guess ‘you’ could be be used in a plural noun in this context, as in “you, Vader and Palpatine” or whatever, but I don’t think most people will interpret it that way. I could even see some people being confused and thinking he is referring to Vader as Supreme Leader.

Also, I think Kylo saying he will finish what Snoke started brings up questions about him that are never really answered. What did Snoke start? Destroying Luke’s Jedi? Technically Kylo Ren did that.

I know I’m probably overthinking it but I think changing it, if you can, would just help clarify the scene more.

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Those voices really work! Great job!

“That’s not how the Force works!”

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Count me in with the people saying the voices during the interrogation is a GREAT idea. Nicely done!

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BrotherOfSasquatch said:

Count me in with the people saying the voices during the interrogation is a GREAT idea. Nicely done!

+1. I dig it.
And can only only to what RougeLeader is saying. Might be worth to play around with Vader. Now, from my perspective (as any other would see otherwise), i found it a little confusing, because he´s reffering to snoke and the we see vaders helmet. I didn´t made the connection, that the helmet could be somekind of a gift from snoke. Therefore can´t really tell why the helmet is shown.

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During the Force Bond duel:
“It was Palpatine who had your parents taken. He was looking for you, but they wouldn’t say where you were. So, he gave the order.”

During the hangar scene:
“Because he saw what you would become.”

Also, “My mother was the daughter of Vader…”

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I am super interested in in this cut. Are there going to be Palaptine links?

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https://mega.nz/file/rdMD0KLA#jdDvpvnGc2nIesQbszpXc9MWue8V1qN09hunDjAwWQU

The Kylo Prayer scene with ‘I will finish what he started’.

I think it would be a more difficult line even for Adam Driver, much less my audio-cobbling skills, but maybe it sounds good enough.

If someone wants to send me the ‘Vader’ line from TROS, I can see if that works.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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NeverarGreat said:

https://mega.nz/file/rdMD0KLA#jdDvpvnGc2nIesQbszpXc9MWue8V1qN09hunDjAwWQU

The Kylo Prayer scene with ‘I will finish what he started’.

I think it would be a more difficult line even for Adam Driver, much less my audio-cobbling skills, but maybe it sounds good enough.

If someone wants to send me the ‘Vader’ line from TROS, I can see if that works.

i like it very much! Nearly impossible to hear this is added, especially if someone doesn’t know.
Also i think „he“ works better than „vader“, because ben is reverent towards vader.

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CMMAP said:

NeverarGreat said:

https://mega.nz/file/rdMD0KLA#jdDvpvnGc2nIesQbszpXc9MWue8V1qN09hunDjAwWQU

The Kylo Prayer scene with ‘I will finish what he started’.

I think it would be a more difficult line even for Adam Driver, much less my audio-cobbling skills, but maybe it sounds good enough.

If someone wants to send me the ‘Vader’ line from TROS, I can see if that works.

i like it very much! Nearly impossible to hear this is added, especially if someone doesn’t know.
Also i think „he“ works better than „vader“, because ben is reverent towards vader.

Do you mean that his reverence would make him not want to say “Vader”? I’m not sure what you mean.

But yeah, I think the “he” in that test sounds pretty good! I could send you “Vader” later if you want to play around with it.

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…Moving backwards in this case.

When planning a scene of Rey’s house at night, I considered placing a drawing of the island on the wall to hint at her reference to the island in her dreams later. Now that this scene isn’t happening and I’m returning the daydream/vision scene from before, I thought it might be neat to have that drawing as well. So here it is:

https://mega.nz/file/mZdDHCIA#QsSH_MKuQF35XZlHaVdkoggimio46rzPunza0ErEWGs

Island etching

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Nev, you beautiful bastard. That little island drawing is brilliant! I mean, it is totally seamless, and something that easily could’ve been in the theatrical film. With this little detail, you wouldn’t even necessarily have to have a daydream sequence, tbh. Is that something you drew yourself and stuck into the shot?

Returning to the daydream itself, I’m not sure if still fits the moment completely. I mean, I do think it works as is, but I don’t know if the desert background, music choices, or the addition of porg calls are the best options for this moment. I feel like Ridley’s take on it, which was based on yours, feels a bit closer to something I could’ve pictured in the theatrical version of the film. I do like the softer build-up, having the background dunes match the one’s she was looking at earlier, using music from the film itself, and the dissolve effect that almost gives it a nice mirage-look.

Granted, the use of the trailer music gives us this nice dramatic build-up and drop-off that sort of snaps Rey out of the daydream (which, if you keep it generally as-is, I think it would work even better if you could cut back to Rey just a handful a frames sooner). But, I do think the more subtle approach that Ridley went with fits well with the rest of Rey’s introduction sequence, which generally showed a lot of tasteful restraint, especially for a JJ Abrams film.

Another, unrelated, question I had for you. I was reading back through your change list, and it made it seem like there would be two Kylo prayer sequences. Is that correct? I’m curious how you’ll approach that without it seeming like you’re reusing a lot of material.

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NeverarGreat said:

…Moving backwards in this case.

When planning a scene of Rey’s house at night, I considered placing a drawing of the island on the wall to hint at her reference to the island in her dreams later. Now that this scene isn’t happening and I’m returning the daydream/vision scene from before, I thought it might be neat to have that drawing as well. So here it is:

https://mega.nz/file/mZdDHCIA#QsSH_MKuQF35XZlHaVdkoggimio46rzPunza0ErEWGs

Island etching

This is just amazing, the music, the visuels, everything. Kudos.

Peace is a lie
There is only passion…

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Yeah, that’s pretty dope.

“That’s not how the Force works!”

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Yep, I whipped up that drawing last night. I figured something scratched in metal would look scratchy like her other marks on the wall.

I was thinking of more ways to make the island vision fit, like placing some Star Destroyer wreckage in the background that sort of looked like the shape of the island and morphed into it, the sunlight being a reflection off of the wreck, that sort of thing.

But here’s the question, as RL suggested: if I just removed the vision in this scene and left the drawing, is any more foreshadowing of the island necessary?

If the vision were to be removed, that would leave only the drawing and Kylo’s mention of the island before her dramatic vision of it at the end of the film. In that case the drawing would be pulling a lot of weight so I would probably extend that shot a bit to make sure that nobody blinked and missed it.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)