The Force Awakens: Starlight (V1.1 Released!) — Page 48

RogueLeader said:

Nev, you beautiful bastard.

Put this on my tombstone. 😃

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.

I actually decided to move the entire scene up to after the Poe interrogation due in part to the problem of reusing material. The place it was in my workprint works…fine without it, though I might try and finesse the music transition a bit more. The original place for the scene in the theatrical cut is bridged by a cutaway to the band, ANH style.

That’s my thought as well, so if nobody has any objections, that will be coming right back out.

Since I’m working in the Maz’s Castle section, here’s a hopefully final version of the insert shot of the Meson Martinet, now with cleaned up matte, gate weave, and the inclusion of a pirate:

https://mega.nz/file/eF1gwJwS#_zsKdW_b-lu9xfFTaNWQTEnsyOXAATpmWMDc8bpTAcU

I actually found voices for the specific pirates in question in the Lego TFA game sounds (Ithano and Quiggold). They might be a bit too loud here, not sure how noticeable they should be.

…

I’ve also figured out how to suggest that the Falcon had a tracking device which was activated when Rey and Finn first boarded: The device Han later touches on the wall near the turbolaser turret is visible as Finn enters the turret. I simply added a glow and sound effect to indicate that it becomes active as Finn passes through the doorway. Perhaps he tripped a sensor, or it was something Rey did on her way to the cockpit. Regardless, the only other change needed to make it work was reversing the sound effect when Han pokes the device and masking out the light as if he turns it off.

NeverarGreat said:

Since I’m working in the Maz’s Castle section, here’s a hopefully final version of the insert shot of the Meson Martinet, now with cleaned up matte, gate weave, and the inclusion of a pirate:

https://mega.nz/file/eF1gwJwS#_zsKdW_b-lu9xfFTaNWQTEnsyOXAATpmWMDc8bpTAcU

Woah, that is absolutely fantastic NeverarGreat! I love the addition of the pirate waiting around. This little cutaway is a genius solution to help Rey’s motivations for running away be just that little bit clearer. 😉 Also very nice to see such a unique ship and character brought into the spotlight after being somewhat swept under the rug in the film.

Very excited about the Falcon tracking beacon as well! 😄

Also, I’m a little late to this thread, so I’m still catching up, but I happened upon this clip from a while ago:

Here’s a rough version of the new sequence I’m considering for the Hosnian Destruction. It’s closer to Restructured, but unlike that scene there’s actually too many shots to fit into the music duration.

https://vimeo.com/459828124

I love the way you were able to re-order certain moments a little differently to Restructured, as my biggest issue with that edit was Chewie’s long delay before shooting Kylo.
However I did notice in this clip that you still retained the shot of Leia’s reaction to Han’s death in the theatrical as her reaction to the base firing. The problem I see with doing this is that in the context this edit, the entire Resistance base is aware that the Republic is being destroyed, yet in the shot of Leia, people are just chilling around and one guy just strolls past. Obviously it would make sense in the original film, as only Leia knows of Han’s death, but as it stands in that clip, it just sticks out to me as a mistake.

Sorry for my rambling, I hope you get my point! 😉

Hmm, flipping the shot actually works well, and the light direction is now consistent. Great suggestion!

Chase Adams said:

Here’s a rough version of the new sequence I’m considering for the Hosnian Destruction. It’s closer to Restructured, but unlike that scene there’s actually too many shots to fit into the music duration.

https://vimeo.com/459828124

I love the way you were able to re-order certain moments a little differently to Restructured, as my biggest issue with that edit was Chewie’s long delay before shooting Kylo.
However I did notice in this clip that you still retained the shot of Leia’s reaction to Han’s death in the theatrical as her reaction to the base firing. The problem I see with doing this is that in the context this edit, the entire Resistance base is aware that the Republic is being destroyed, yet in the shot of Leia, people are just chilling around and one guy just strolls past. Obviously it would make sense in the original film, as only Leia knows of Han’s death, but as it stands in that clip, it just sticks out to me as a mistake.

Sorry for my rambling, I hope you get my point! 😉

I’ve done quite a few versions of this scene since that test, and I’m pretty sure that the long shot of Kylo is gone after Han falls off the bridge, which should make Chewie’s reaction more immediate.

Yeah, Leia’s reaction is always a bit odd due to the nonchalance of the officers, but if I want to have her react to both events the placement can’t really change. The only solutions are to either crop the shot to remove a couple of people or manually paint them out, and either way would be odd.

The Hosnian Destruction is really the last major sticking point of this edit, so I’ll probably be spending a good deal of time on it soon.

Here’s the flipped shot in action, with more work on the composite to fix foliage issues and give a slight 3D effect to the shot:

https://mega.nz/file/2V1kxaRD#HjN2ffiVlobYz4JkCQjtm2ru56GO5f6mnX9-IbKAlo0

Jedit: Updated 3-30-21 with a few more tweaks to the composite image.

Taking another stab at an old change, this time trying to better integrate ‘Any word from the Republic’ into the Reconnaissance Report scene. I pulled two shots from the deleted scene of the officer printing a datacard and placed it over some lines as a quick cutaway, then brought the scene back to the table as Leia receives the card.

https://mega.nz/file/XJlk0L7A#XaLg1M65Ll-ISy4rhJAQggH4-PazfPdEJ11oHmS8jQw

I’m not sure it entirely works, at least not any more than cutting to BB-8 worked before, so I’ll probably discard the idea but wanted to at least put it out there first.

As far as getting a V1 of this project out there, I feel like it’s getting pretty close. There’s some stuff in Act 3 that is still outstanding, but Acts 1 and 2 are now basically finished.

However, there is still something that would be nice to figure out, which is an issue which has never been solved since Hal’s Restructure, and that is of answering how the Resistance knows about a First Order superweapon. The sudden attack in the theatrical version answers this question but now there’s no indication the Resistance knows about the weapon until Poe and Leia are talking with Finn about it as if they knew all along.

I tried to fix this by giving Poe the visions of the Starkiller in act 1, but now that this is gone I wonder if there’s any other way to convey this information. Maybe there can be some Leia dialogue in Poe’s interrogation suggesting that there’s a mysterious First Order weapon and they need Luke to save them, or something along those lines. Or maybe we could find some dialogue from Max Von Sydow from another movie where he says words that we can fit into a weapon context.

Thoughts?

I’ll see what I can add back into the Poe interrogation scene in terms of audio.

In terms of progress on Act 3, the major thing is of course the Hosnian Destruction. I decided to use the entire music track this time in order to fit all of the important characters reacting to the destruction, including Rey, Finn, and Kylo:

https://vimeo.com/533003587

Password: fanedit

There are of course audio issues to sort out. The actual destruction scene had to be practically silent due to moving the music around, though I kind of like it.

It may be possible to remove the Resistance officers from around Leia in that final shot, but would that be worth the effort?

Oh, I had another idea for the Reconnaissance briefing, which I think Hal would be interested in as well:

https://vimeo.com/533027544

Password: fanedit

I managed to put a reference in there to the Senate and link it to the Hosnian system, which solves the issue in Restructured of never actually knowing what planet was destroyed. It also arguably does a better job of conveying this information than the theatrical version, since we are given the info before the planet is blown up and not twenty minutes after.

I did have to sacrifice Snap’s line about contacting the Republic, but I think it’s a fair price since that line wasn’t working too well anyway.

There’s also the oddity that Leia says ‘the Senate is their next target’, but it can easily be interpreted that she’s referring to the escalating series of First Order attacks throughout the film.

Seeing as to how that shot of Leia breaks my immersion every time I see it relocated in a fan-edit, my vote would be that it’s worth the effort. However, after watching the clip again, I would suggest that the only person who actually needs to be removed is the one guy that strolls past, everyone else should be fine to leave as is.

NeverarGreat said:

Oh, I had another idea for the Reconnaissance briefing, which I think Hal would be interested in as well:

https://vimeo.com/533027544

Password: fanedit

I managed to put a reference in there to the Senate and link it to the Hosnian system, which solves the issue in Restructured of never actually knowing what planet was destroyed. It also arguably does a better job of conveying this information than the theatrical version, since we are given the info before the planet is blown up and not twenty minutes after.

I did have to sacrifice Snap’s line about contacting the Republic, but I think it’s a fair price since that line wasn’t working too well anyway.

There’s also the oddity that Leia says ‘the Senate is their next target’, but it can easily be interpreted that she’s referring to the escalating series of First Order attacks throughout the film.

This is really, really good. A huge value add.

NeverarGreat said:

I’ll see what I can add back into the Poe interrogation scene in terms of audio.

In terms of progress on Act 3, the major thing is of course the Hosnian Destruction. I decided to use the entire music track this time in order to fit all of the important characters reacting to the destruction, including Rey, Finn, and Kylo:

https://vimeo.com/533003587

Password: fanedit

There are of course audio issues to sort out. The actual destruction scene had to be practically silent due to moving the music around, though I kind of like it.

It may be possible to remove the Resistance officers from around Leia in that final shot, but would that be worth the effort?

I haven’t followed the context for this change but I didn’t see any problem with the Leia shot. To me it fit perfectly, I don’t know why the resistance officers were problematic.

Watching this reminded me of a personal annoyance that just gets me every time, and since I first saw it I now can’t unsee it. In the room where Kylo kills Han, the balcony/entrance that Rey and Finn stand at has a railing, and on that railing are lights. The lights have a red light on the left and right of the fixture. But really annoyingly, the lights just look clipped on to the railing, and one is offset. I don’t know why, but that’s always taken me out of the scene, even though it’s not even really that egregious, possibly not even an error.

Chase Adams said:

Seeing as to how that shot of Leia breaks my immersion every time I see it relocated in a fan-edit, my vote would be that it’s worth the effort. However, after watching the clip again, I would suggest that the only person who actually needs to be removed is the one guy that strolls past, everyone else should be fine to leave as is.

I’ll see what I can do 😉 I agree with most here that there’s not much issue with the background extras, just that one casually strolling through.

EddieDean said:

Watching this reminded me of a personal annoyance that just gets me every time, and since I first saw it I now can’t unsee it. In the room where Kylo kills Han, the balcony/entrance that Rey and Finn stand at has a railing, and on that railing are lights. The lights have a red light on the left and right of the fixture. But really annoyingly, the lights just look clipped on to the railing, and one is offset. I don’t know why, but that’s always taken me out of the scene, even though it’s not even really that egregious, possibly not even an error.

I have noticed those lights, but never considered that it’s an issue that one is off-center. I figure that there would probably be a lot of that on a base as large and hastily constructed as Starkiller.

Well it is one of the newest additions, and really is more of a proof of concept to see if it works at all. If people think it shows promise I can try a more finished version.

I’ll try a version with the beam going all the way out of frame instead of going through the clouds, since that doesn’t really make sense anyway.

And yeah, I’m reverting the Starkiller Destruction closer to Restructured. Believe me, I didn’t come to the decision lightly after all the work that went into the prior version, but after taking that long break and revisiting the project I had to admit that it just wasn’t as effective as Restructured. The issue was primarily because in Restructured and the theatrical version, Leia and the Resistance leave the film after the Oscillator scenes and only return after the final destruction. This focuses the film on the new characters of Rey, Finn, and Poe. With my workprint plot there is far less focus on the new characters, to their detriment I believe.

If there’s interest in the old version, I could render out that section alone since it was fairly well-realized.

I’m still debating how I want the final minutes of the Starkiller Destruction to play out. I would like to keep the darker version of Rey tapping into the Force, but it might make sense to include the cliff in that scene. It also might flow better to revert the scene of Snoke back to its Theatrical location.

Anyway, that’s where I am right now.