Hi, can I get a link?
PM sent.
I’ve just finished the Gregor part of my Tales of the Lost Clones anthology, coming in at 15:30 of actual content.
I strongly disliked the whole Droids in the Void arc, so wasn’t going to include it in any form until a community member (I forget whom, sorry) recommended plucking out this part of it, which then got rolled into my idea of a lost clones anthology (which itself came about because there’re three half-episodes focusing on clones, which needed a home).
This part is now obviously refocused into being Gregor’s story, not Colonel Gascon’s, so I’ve trimmed everything that doesn’t serve the story of Gregor. I’ve made Colonel Gascon far less abrasive and arrogant (he’s now, possibly, a legitimately competent Colonel who’s simply crashed and exhausted), I’ve made his pit droid more straightforward and helpful and less antagonistic, I’ve minimised the other droids, and I’ve trimmed the usual bants and goofiness, especially during the closing combat scene. It was fun to trim that action scene while keeping the action flow - let me know if you can spot any of the seams!
I think this part is now good enough that it’ll work when sandwitched between two better episodes, and probably a first-time viewer would be OK with it, but for people who hated the original arc I think this’ll just give unwelcome flashbacks.
Either way, it’s alright like this, and it helps with the secondary message of the TOTLC anthology which is “focus on Rex, he’s the main clone in The Clone Wars TV show”. Plus, there’s that extra Gregor payoff once we hit season two of Rebels.
In case it’s not clear to anyone, I don’t intend to include any of the rest of the Droids in the Void anthology in any capacity.
And that’s me done with the body (not the finalisation yet) of the third and final part of my Tales of the Lost Clones anthology, the Cut Lawquane stuff from the Deserter, running at 13:50 without credits etc.
I made no changes to this whatsoever, other than chopping it out of its original episode and putting it together with smooth transitions. It now makes no reference to Obi-Wan or Grievous at all. In fact, all three episodes in this anthology are deliberately like that - no context, no establishing shots. We start within the stories already, because they are slices of a bigger picture, and larger context is not only irrelevant, it’s actively against our intent.
This does now mean that I have two episodes back to back which both have a holochess scene, which might be a bit on the nose for people, but they’re both good scenes so worth riding out any such REMEMBER THAT TIME IN THAT MOVIE WITH THAT THING discomfort I reckon.
The full Tales of the Lost Clones episode will run to just about 45 minutes all told. Three episodes for the price of two.
I’m going to render this now as a workprint just because it’s technically complex, and I want to get a sense from you guys for how it feels before I finalise it. Feedback encouraged as ever, but particularly so in the case of this one.
Very pleased to have got this far this weekend. This means I can get some priority real life stuff done tomorrow and have plenty of time to finalise and release Geonosis and Tales of the Lost Clones ASAP - hopefully all tomorrow, but not long after if not.
I think the Geonosis titles are good. After I suggested that, I did kind of think about how your episode titles follow a pattern of straight forward-ness that I think is better to maintain. Sort of like how all the Mandalorian episode typically follow the pattern of “The Child”, “The Gunslinger”, “The Rescue”, etc.
Yeah, I’m generally going for simple.
Since the original version of TCW was such an anthology show, and of such inconsistent quality, you never knew what a given episode was going to be about (from a HUGE range), nor whether or not the elements in those episodes were going to be incredible or awful. So as much as I can, I want my show to be a show you can trust. Because when you expect to be frustrated, you’ll be anxious and hesitant and it’ll shape your perception of what you’re consuming.
That’s why getting all of the presentation elements right was important to me - because I want this show to be bold and confident and aware of its strengths, because that will help shape the users’ mindset and make their enjoyment higher because they’ll be wired to expect enjoyment. And an element of that is using the titles and the opening text to really direct the audience to where the quality is, or to enhance the point of a given episode: “THIS is the element to be focusing on today”, and highlighting the key theme or most valuable element from that episode. Even though it’s a small thing, it’s still something that could be useful, and I’ll take those few percent.
For example: Senate Spy is not a strong episode. It certainly doesn’t deliver on the “spy” angle. A valid objection to it is that it’s got prequel B-tier villains and it’s basically the story of Padmé being pimped out by the Jedi council to a smug, rich creep, to which Anakin acts petty and controlling. Not good. But if we call it ‘…Geonosis’ in a Geonosis trilogy, then people will (1) expect that it’s act one/setup and not expect huge things, (2) anticipate the return of a familiar element which is clearly about to be explored further, (3) get curious about the Geonosis angle, pay more attention to Poggle when he appears, get more value out of the secret meeting, care more about the poisoning, treat Clovis as a bit more important than a one-off foil, etc etc.
It’s subtle, but it’s not got a zero value. And doing little things like this can make the show feel more consistent in tone, consistent in quality, and ultimately a little more trustworthy.
In fact I might have just convinced myself to rename the couple of ones I left as they were.
Review version only because there’re two unfinished transitions (out of the first two episodes), and because it’s a complex edit and I’d like to see how this one works for you guys. Feedback on this one would be very helpful, please.
Details over the last few posts, link in the tracker spreadsheet, PM for access.
A renamed (and lightly edited) Senate Spy. Fully complete.
Details over the last few posts, link in the tracker spreadsheet, PM for access.
Lost clones was very well put together!
There’s not much wrong with the transitions now, just maybe a slower fade to black, and longer time (by a second or two) between episodes.
Also, I was wondering if these intro texts…
As CHRISTOPHSIS enjoys its freedom from the Separatists, the Republic bastion there has been ambushed at the cost of many lives.
Lost on the Separatist mining planet ABAFAR, the tiny Republic Colonel Gascon and his droid infiltration squad need a way home.
On the remote planet SALEUCAMI, Clone Commander Rex of the 501st and a small clone squadron have had a crash landing of their own.
…perhaps they should be a sub heading under each individual chapter title instead of at the beginning? I felt I had almost forgotten the details for the latter two. This would free up more space for a poetic quote or similar about individuality in their place in the intro. Just a thought.
That’s worth thinking about. The reason I left those transitions unfinished is because I find it’s a different mental discipline to fix the music - it comes less naturally to me - so I have to change mental gears for it. In this case, I’m cutting at the point where the music would otherwise drop into the bombasic Bah-BAHH of the original credits, which I want to avoid. So I need to find alternate music to fade out to instead, which takes a fair amount of time.
Regarding the intro texts, the first one is the only one that actually matters - we need to know the Republic guys got ambushed and we’ve ‘returned’ to Christophsis. But the other two give all of their context within the episode. So I don’t mind so much people forgetting them - and they are certainly very heavy - but I don’t want the audience feeling overwhelmed or disoriented. I might have to do something different here, so if others’ could give more feedback on this too that’d be helpful.
If I do change the timing of the intertitles, I’ll need to find alternative music for them too, which’ll take a little while.
Hm! I can’t have The Return of Maul, then two episodes later, Return to Geonosis. Help!
Looking at some synonyms - for the Maul episode at least - Restoration or Retribution might work…? Can’t really think of anything that would
work for Geonosis though…
Maybe Assault on Geonosis?
That works well. It doesn’t hit the return idea but I honestly don’t think it needs to.
Spitballing here, but these are kind of similar to “Return of Maul”:
I am no Jedi
I think I’d like to stick with Return of Maul as the priority, because I really want the show to be bold about the fact that “MAUL IS COMING BACK, deal with it”, because it’s useful to rip the plaster (‘band-aid’) off early and let people come to terms with it earlier.
So I’m more inclined to rename the Geonosis episode, and I think for the sake of uniformity for that now-trilogy I’ll stick with the ‘X of/on Geonosis’ format. I suppose it’s clear that we are returning to it, so Assault works fairly well because it implies some urgency after Padmé’s discovery. That would also help preemptively let people know that Padmé’s episode is not likely to be action heavy, so would help manage expectations there.
I nearly just rendered an episode with incomplete titles by mistake.
It would have read:
"The Clone Wars spread instability and chaos across the galaxy.
Mando Mando Mando.
Mando Mando Mando.
Mando Mando Mando.
Mando Mando Mando.
Mando Mando."
I’ve no doubt that’s exactly what Dave Filoni’s template document for scripts for episodes of the Mandalorian looks like, but it’s not going to suffice for you guys.
Comprising Landing at Point Rain and Weapons Factory.
Details on the last page, link in the spreadsheet, PM for access.
The final episode of this three-part arc and the season is rendering now, should be up in three hours max.
I nearly just rendered an episode with incomplete titles by mistake.
It would have read:
"The Clone Wars spread instability and chaos across the galaxy.
Mando Mando Mando.
Mando Mando Mando.Mando Mando Mando.
Mando Mando Mando.
Mando Mando."I’ve no doubt that’s exactly what Dave Filoni’s template document for scripts for episodes of the Mandalorian looks like, but it’s not going to suffice for you guys.
Works like Pokemon speech. It’s only a repetition of the name but it makes sense if you speak it.
Comprising Legacy of Terror and Brain Invaders.
Details on the last page, link in the spreadsheet, PM for access.
And with that I can say-
(Well, except for those couple of transitions in my clones anthology, and I think one episode with a very minor bugfix pending, but shhh, I’ll fix them soon.)
Woop woop woop! Trumpets, etc.
Now I’m going to force myself to take a little break because it’s been all-out for a couple of months. Only a little one though!
Congrats on the milestone! It’s been awesome to see you chugging away at this. It would be cool for you to do some kind of commentary or mini-podcast or something. Or even just a video of you discussing the process and what you have gotten out of it. I’ve always been impressed by the way you think things through. Always enjoy reading your posts and seeing how the gears turn in that head of yours.
Thanks! It’s always lovely to hear stuff like that, especially from editors whose movies are my definitive archival versions, since long before I ever thought I’d pick up editing myself. I did just today think that I might record myself producing an edit whilst thinking out loud, and then edit that recording to fast forward through any slow bits, for those that might be interested. But I don’t know, I’m not a particularly competent technical editor, there are people out there who people would be far more interesting to watch than me.
I enjoy sharing my thoughts - it helps me think things through and I like to imagine that there are others like you who enjoy to see my working. Part of what got me into this community beyond the edits themselves was this constant sense of wonder at the incredible problem solving that other editors often demonstrate, and I still enjoy seeing that in threads even where I’m not invested in the output. Fanediting is a cool discipline and a fascinating challenge.
That said, my huge volume of posted thoughts don’t generate as much discussion as I’d expected, which I think comes down to one of two things: Either people read it and are like ‘yeap, sound enough, carry on’, which is fine by me as it means I’ve generated good trust, or I’m just overwhelming people by massively overdoing it and they’re sitting there wishing I’d just shut up and output content. Which is also mostly fine, though I’d rather not be putting people off with a too-high volume of unnecessary analysis and losing out on having people chime in on the necessary analysis.
But hey, if it were just up to me, I’d constantly have people chattering away disseminating and rethinking and challenging, for the best possible output. Y’hear me, people? ALL feedback is ALWAYS welcome!
Either way, the project’s an absolute joy, I’m loving churning it out. As I say I’m going to force a break to read a book and finish a videogame at least before returning, but Season Three can’t take too long either. It’s a bunch of easy polish passes for the most part, plus quite heavily trimming Umbara, turning Rako Hardeen into probably two longish episodes (because it’s all good), and then possibly one more complex edit in the Onderon finale.
EddieDean said:
That said, my huge volume of posted thoughts don’t generate as much discussion as I’d expected, which I think comes down to one of two things: Either people read it and are like ‘yeap, sound enough, carry on’, which is fine by me as it means I’ve generated good trust, or I’m just overwhelming people by massively overdoing it and they’re sitting there wishing I’d just shut up and output content. Which is also mostly fine, though I’d rather not be putting people off with a too-high volume of unnecessary analysis and losing out on having people chime in on the necessary analysis.
I think it’s a little it of both for the majority of people, plus the fact most of us watched the CW (early seasons) well past 3 years time and remembering the bits and pieces to actually give vast input is not possible to challenge you enough, because you’ve watched it again and put such amazing thoughts into it. That’s the most fascinating thing for me, your dedication and work ethic (as said before). Your project and you set the pace for yourself. If that’s means we can’t keep up with everything, thats life^^ I’ll try my best to give constructive nitpicky critiscm, because thats what it is as you - in my opinion - have already hit it where the narrative should go, most of the time.
And maybe the interest in CW is not as big as for fixing the sequels. Just „some“ enthusiast - like us - who enjoy it very much to see something new and unique for a rewatch.
That said, my huge volume of posted thoughts don’t generate as much discussion as I’d expected, which I think comes down to one of two things: Either people read it and are like ‘yeap, sound enough, carry on’, which is fine by me as it means I’ve generated good trust, or I’m just overwhelming people by massively overdoing it and they’re sitting there wishing I’d just shut up and output content. Which is also mostly fine, though I’d rather not be putting people off with a too-high volume of unnecessary analysis and losing out on having people chime in on the necessary analysis.
A lot of the time I don’t have much to add as I’ve not watched the series in full since the run up to the final series. Other times you’re in my brain anyway so there’s no need to add anything (as I see it anyway). I do read it all though so I’ve no problem with a full transcript of your brain if it helps put this together.
I swear, I will eventually watch all these fresh edits!
Looking forward to it buddy!
Definitely worth taking a break. The amount of work you’ve done is phenomenal, but the best way to keep the enthusiasm is to take a time-out! I havent started watching the episodes yet, but I do love the intro.
Current Project:- Bad Batch EP3: Shadows of Tantiss