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Star Wars Episode I: The Rise of Naboo (v3.5 released) — Page 6

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Sounds like there’s a unanimous decision on the grading. However, I do agree with Eddie and Faraday that the contrast is too high. I’ll see if I can lower the contrast down a notch or two.

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

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Just worked on the contrast, and also realized I forgot to adjust the secondary levels too, so I’ve corrected that issue with the HDR cinema grade as well. I’m not sure how much of a drastic improvement this is, so feel free to let me know of any problems. Here’s a sample of the HDR cinema grade again. In the two examples, it’s the one on the top:

Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 6 1 T

Here’s the corrected version. In the two examples, it’s the bottom:

Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 6 2 T

Click the expand button below to see the rest of the examples. Do you like what you see, or does it still need some work?

Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 13 1 T
Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 13 2 T
Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 15 1 T
Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 15 2 T
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Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 16 2 T
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Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 22 2 T
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Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 25 2 T
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Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 37 2 T
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Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 58 2 T
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Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 143 1 T
Episode I Cinema Grade Corrections_1 143 2 T

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

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Hi Eyepainter,I think the top for all except the Tatooine, The Bottom images of Tatooine looks better.
Hope that helps 😃

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I should mention that I am viewing the images on a 1080p display and not a HDR Monitor/TV

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I’m using the official 2011 blu-ray release for this re-edit (although the still of the jedi council is from schorman13’s preservation, which is also 1080p). Trust me Atom-88. You are seeing the full range of the color grading on your display.

Anyhow, I decided to reset the secondary controls and only reduce the contrast while increasing the midtone details instead. Hopefully, this is it. Only the Tattooine shots are most affected, while the differences between the other shots are miniscule. Here’s the HDR cinema grade, again at the top:

Episode I Contrast Only_1 6 1 T

…And here’s the HDR cinema grade readjusted. And yes, it’s on the bottom:

Episode I Contrast Only_1 6 2 T

Click the expand tab for the rest. Does all look well?

Episode I Contrast Only_1 13 2 T
Episode I Contrast Only_1 13 1
Episode I Contrast Only 1_1 15 2 T
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Episode I Contrast Only 2_1 143 1 T
Episode I Contrast Only 2_1 143 2 T

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

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Awesome! I’m now starting work on sound editing. For some reason, though, the audio is being a pain in the neck. I don’t know if it’s because the file size is the largest of the three movies (I have no clue why that is), or if it has to do with the audio being e-AC-3, but for whatever reason, Resolve hates playing the audio. It isn’t problematic enough to be a severe problem, but it can be annoying when Resolve stutters on an audio channel or two (especially on the center channel. That’s the worst).

I might export a bad, lossy file once I’m done with the sound editing to find out if I messed up on the audio somewhere; go back and try to correct the mistakes again. Then, rinse and repeat. For this reason, I think the sound editing might take longer than usual, but that’s a guesstimate. I won’t know until I’ve heard everything myself.

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

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Working on the captions.

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

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Captions are finished. Still working on the sound editing.

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

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While I’m still working on the difficulties and hardships of sound editing with ec-3, I think this is a good time to say that I’ve taken out two more scenes. The first scene I’ve removed is this one:

Deleted Scenes_1 156 1

The scene where Obi-Wan apologizes to Qui-Gon is one that gets removed from a lot of fan edits. l8wrtr removed it. HAL9000 removed it. Even the Phantom Editor removed it. I guess you could say I was soft on this scene compared to other fan editors.

My reasoning for keeping this scene at the time was because this is one of the few scenes where we see some character development between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. For all of its faults, we never really got to see any relationship between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, and they’re the two characters we follow for most of the film. I figured it would be helpful to throw in something for these two jedi, however haphazard it may be.

But as I watch the edit repeatedly (thanks to the great computer crash I had a few months ago), I’ve noticed that this scene sticks out like a sore thumb the more I watch it. The main problem I’m noticing is that it distracts from what we’re all focused on at the moment. A.K.A. Amidala’s asking Jar Jar for help. Focusing on Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s friendship in the middle of this does nothing but distract us from the main plot. On top of that, resolving Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s little spat over Anakin seems unnecessary when it’s far more effectively resolved at the climactic Darth Maul confrontation. As much as I want to keep it in, I feel it needs to go.

The other scene I’ve removed is this one:

Deleted Scenes_1 223 1

This is the scene most noted for Palpatine’s line: “This is an unexpected move for her. It’s too aggressive.” I think the reason I kept this in was for Darth Maul. I confess that I was trying to keep in as much of Maul as possible for v1 and v2, since he’s arguably one of the strongest parts of Episode I. I also thought it might be a good idea to know what the baddies are going to do next due to Amidala’s return to Naboo.

The problem with that line of logic, however, is that we get another scene where Palpatine talks with Gunray about what they’re going to do a couple scenes later, and that one ended with “Wipe them out. All of them.” That scene gave us enough information, and it made Gunray and Palpatine look much stronger. This scene, on the other hand, makes them look weaker. I get that it’s typical for a movie with a three-act structure to show the cracks in the villain’s plan just before the third act kicks in, but this scene (in fact, a lot of scenes) made the villains look incredibly stupid. Palpatine is the one who suffers most from this one. Him looking so dumbfounded over Amidala’s choice to go home ruins the sinister atmosphere his character is supposed to extrude. He might as well be saying, “I can’t believe she did that! Gee, I wonder what she’s thinking! Hey Maul, could you let these people make the first move? Because I’m absolutely stumped over this.” It just kinda ruins his superiority as a villain. I know it’s a Darth Maul scene, but I think the movie will be just fine without this one.

Anyway, that’s it for now on the editing changes. I’m working on the sound editing in the film’s climax, so I will be checking the edit to see if any mistakes showed up due to Resolve’s dislike of ec-3 soon.

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

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I love the level of thought that’s going into this. It’s fantastic that you have L8WRTR’s and HAL’s excellent versions to mull over and help inform your own changes. This definitely feels like the first of the ‘third generation’ of prequel fanedits.

This might be too much of a tangent for your thread, eyepainter, and it’s certainly not a request for you to make this change, but I wonder if you’ve got any insight into the idea of removing the Naboo ground battle between the Gungans and droids altogether.

It’s something I’ve been considering for a while, and like I say not a request of you, but since you’ve been interrogating the movie so completely lately I’d be interested to know if you think it’s workable (in any edit, not necessarily yours).

For me, the ground battle always takes me out of it, firstly because we have no emotional investment in any of the characters there, but secondly because it’s so CG. The landscape itself looks fake and unnatural to me. I wonder if the sky battle and Maul fight, with the threat that the droids are in Theed, could be sufficient to close out the movie.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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 (Edited)

EddieDean said:

I love the level of thought that’s going into this. It’s fantastic that you have L8WRTR’s and HAL’s excellent versions to mull over and help inform your own changes. This definitely feels like the first of the ‘third generation’ of prequel fanedits.

This might be too much of a tangent for your thread, eyepainter, and it’s certainly not a request for you to make this change, but I wonder if you’ve got any insight into the idea of removing the Naboo ground battle between the Gungans and droids altogether.

It’s something I’ve been considering for a while, and like I say not a request of you, but since you’ve been interrogating the movie so completely lately I’d be interested to know if you think it’s workable (in any edit, not necessarily yours).

For me, the ground battle always takes me out of it, firstly because we have no emotional investment in any of the characters there, but secondly because it’s so CG. The landscape itself looks fake and unnatural to me. I wonder if the sky battle and Maul fight, with the threat that the droids are in Theed, could be sufficient to close out the movie.

To quote the X-Files, I want to believe. I don’t want to say that it’s impossible or that it can’t be done. Yoda would disapprove of that mindset. But getting rid of that battle and re-editing things down to the situation you’ve described above would require some Adywan levels of editing. We’re talking about throwing in CGI, removing major lines of exposition, and re-structuring the ending altogether. You might even need to get some soundalikes who are willing to record their own voices for the edit.

One of the biggest downsides of being a fan editor is that you’re limited only to whatever footage is on the DVD, blu-ray, 4k UHD (If you have the tech), and whatever deleted scenes are available for the public. The actual movie, however, might have run about 4 to 4 1/2 hours when it was first assembled in the editing room (Lucas and company have said that Lap 2 of the pod race was originally 25 minutes in length, and the opening action sequence in Episode III was roughly an hour long. They had to reduce a lot of footage from both of those scenes). Now, I do not have 4 to 4 1/2 hours worth of Episode I, so I can only work with what’s around. But based on what I can get, I see four major obstacles.

The first obstacle that springs to mind is how to explain Amidala’s plan. In the theatrical version, Amidala’s decision to send the gungans out to fight the droids is a response to Panaka’s concern that they can’t win the battle against the droids due to how massive the army is. Taking out Amidala’s line “The battle is a diversion. The gungans must draw the droid army away from the cities.”, would be a major challenge. You could try and find someone who sounds exactly like Natalie Portman to dub some lines, but that’s a lot of trouble. Plus, I’m as introverted as a person can be, so that option is out of the question on my end.

The second obstacle would be to remove a lot of major stuff. By taking out the gungan/droid confrontation altogether, everything involving the gungans becomes useless, so having Amidala unite with Boss Nass would have to go, as well as Amidala asking Jar Jar for help. Those two scenes alone are heavily embedded in the plot, so taking them out becomes a major issue, since they could break the story’s structure.

The third obstacle is geared more towards my edit and l8wrtr’s. The train of thought used in l8wrtr’s re-edited ending is that the destruction of the droid control ship gives the gungans free passage to Naboo due to all the droids being shut down. This is how Amidala is saved from Nute Gunray (The part where the decoy distracts Gunray and Padme forces a negotiation on Gunray doesn’t exist in either of our versions due to logic). Taking out the battle creates a serious plot hole.

The last obstacle that comes to mind is CGI. Even if you manage to find a way through the first three obstacles, you’re still gonna have to make the droid army larger at the Theed palace. I’m thinking something similar to Adywan’s ANH: Revisited when he added more CGI TIE fighters to the death star climax, adding more tension to the ending of the film. Except in this case, it’s a bunch of droids. I’m no expert in CGI (although I am learning how to make a donut thanks to Blender Guru), and given what I know about it, it’s likely gonna be a pain in the neck to make those droids. This alone is why I say you’re gonna need some Adywan level editing to pull it off.

So, those are my two cents on the issue. It’d be nice if someone found a way to get rid of the battle, but you may have to be a serious talent to accomplish it.

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

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On a happier note, I found a loophole where I can overwrite the Episode I file, and change the stuttery ec-3 audio that’s been giving me a headache, to AAC 5.1 without any major issues. I still have to see if the audio channels have been changed around, and I may have to go back and fix the audio transitions I’ve made, but I’ll manage. If nothing else, Resolve takes AAC very well. I can work on the sound editing and audio transitions for real now.

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

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I really appreciate that analysis, eyepainter. I assumed you’d be in the right mindset to consider it fully. I haven’t watched the movie in a good while, but I thought it was likely that Theed would need some CG additions as you say, which I think we’re still just a tech evolution away from right now. I might still just do a very simple pass edit of the movie to cut that out though, along with anything else that mandates, just to see what’s still broken that would need fixing in order to make that work.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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EddieDean said:

I really appreciate that analysis, eyepainter. I assumed you’d be in the right mindset to consider it fully. I haven’t watched the movie in a good while, but I thought it was likely that Theed would need some CG additions as you say, which I think we’re still just a tech evolution away from right now. I might still just do a very simple pass edit of the movie to cut that out though, along with anything else that mandates, just to see what’s still broken that would need fixing in order to make that work.

You’re welcome to give it a shot. It’s one of the reasons this site exists after all. Plus, there’s nothing in the world like doing it yourself.

Anyway, I just took care of the first 10 minutes of sound editing. Got 82 more minutes to go.

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

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Had a busy workday today. Still working on the sound editing. I’ve made it to the 20-minute mark right now.

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

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Just finished sound editing on the pod race. Which means I’m about halfway done with sound editing altogether. I’ve got a lot of work at my day job over the next three days, so it might take a little bit of time for me to get back, but I’m making progress.

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

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Just added another thing to v3. This shot:

Added Shot_1 139 1

The Coruscant entrance was the second hardest part to edit for Episode I (The pod race took first place). It was a combination of good and bad ideas happening at the same time and sometimes altogether. The sudden shift to Anakin’s POV in this scene also made quite a crux, since it can’t be fixed at all. Naturally, because of the difficulties I had with the opening to Coruscant, a mistake was made. I cut out the shot where Amidala walks over to Palpatine and Valorum for the first time. I don’t know what I was thinking when I removed it, but because this is mainly Amidala’s scene, it needs to be in the film.

The only reason I think I cut it was because Palpatine started talking in this shot, and at the time, I didn’t know any better about sound editing. So for that reason alone, I removed it. Being older and wiser on Resolve now, I cut out Palpatine’s audio through the power of sound editing. The only crime that may be committed here is that you might see Palpatine’s lips moving, but since the focus of the shot is on her, I think it’ll end up being invisible (unless you’re really that perfectionistic).

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

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I’m somewhere in the middle of the Coruscant sequence now. Surprisingly, I haven’t had to do too much to the sound editing on Coruscant, although that’s probably because Coruscant is the planet that was the least heavily edited by comparison to Naboo and Tattooine. I’m sure the new ending will give me enough of a challenge soon enough.

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

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CaptainFaraday said:

I’m really excited for this edit.

Thanks, Cap! I hope it lives up to your expectations.

Anyway, I just completed sound editing for the Coruscant scenes, and while doing so, I decided to take out the line, “he’s too old.” from the jedi council’s rejection of Anakin.

Admittedly, that line never was a great one to begin with, but I kept it in for v1 and v2. I figured since it was going to be mentioned in Episode II thanks to a deleted scene I added, that removing the line would be bad for the trilogy as a whole.

But the thing is that, in context of Episode I, it’s nonsense. It’s obvious that everyone on the council is sensing bad vibes from Anakin. That alone is enough of an excuse for them to reject him. Saying “we’re not gonna train him because he’s too old for this crap.” makes the scene more complicated than it has to be.

Of course, the thing that will obviously come up is how this might affect Episode II. After all, Obi-Wan does mention to Mace that he and Yoda were right about the boy being too old in my edit. My take on it is that, because it’s such a small detail, and because it just barely has any relevance to the trilogy as a whole, the audience can leave things open to interpretation over when the argument over Anakin’s age happened. There was probably a debate over his age just before the council decided to let Obi-Wan train him, perhaps as a last hurrah to stop him from being trained.

Whatever the case may be, it’s a bad line. I don’t think anyone is going to miss it that much.

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

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EddieDean said:

I really admire the amount of meticulous thought that’s going into this.

Thanks, Eddie. I hope it’s fantastic.

Anyway, just started work on sound editing for the climax. Here’s hoping it isn’t too much of a nightmare.

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