I finally got around to watching this edit (version 105 I think). You’ve made excellent additions to the film. It’s great to see an edit not only trimming things away, but adding elements in a thoughtful way. Amazing work!
Some notes from my viewing:
- The drawing of the island in Rey’s hut is a beautiful and seamless addition.
- Your restructuring of scenes to space out events over a longer period of time works well, given the constraints of the available material. It always bothered me that the majority of TFA seems to take place over just a day or so.
- I enjoy the new placement of Kylo’s meditation scene, but am unsure about making this a prayer to Snoke. I prefer to keep separate his submission to Snoke and worship of Vader. Though, his worship of Vader was an element that should have been paid off in Episode IX, but wasn’t. So it doesn’t really go anywhere, except for brief dialogue from Snoke at the beginning of TLJ.
Yeah, like you said his Vader worship doesn’t really go anywhere. With him praying to Snoke, it does a few things. First, it introduces the idea of a Supreme Leader without mentioning his goofy name, potentially getting an audience on board through incremental info. Second, it reinforces the implication in TFA that Snoke can manipulate people’s minds across vast distances such as turning Ben to the Dark Side. This is an explicit plot point in TLJ so I think it helps both films in that regard. Finally, Ben knows that Vader turned back to the light in the end, so it doesn’t even make sense to pray to Vader since he doesn’t even exist as a Dark Side spirit at this point.
- I miss Rey’s dream sequence on Jakku from a few versions back, what are your thoughts on removing this?
I went back and forth for a while on this one, ultimately concluding that the scene works better as an introduction to Rey as a normal girl. Giving her a vision this early short-circuits some of the power of her later Force development such as the saber visions. I have also become less-enamored of visions and things which disrupt the flow of ‘normal’ events in the film. It was still a hard decision because I do still like the vision and it will probably make it into the other version of the edit.
- The shots of the Falcon entering and exiting hyperspace after leaving Jakku are excellent.
- I wonder if Leia’s deleted scene with Kor Sella could be placed after the Resistance learn of Starkiller base, as this would clarify the sense of urgency in the deleted scene.
That’s a good idea, but the main problem is one of integration. There would need to be some buffer between Finn telling Leia about the weapon and her going to Kor Sella. Maybe the brief Chewbacca and Kalonia cutaway scene would work there, but it might be too brief. It can’t really happen after the scene between Leia and Han since at that point they’ve already sent a reconnaissance mission to Starkiller and it would be weird to alert the Republic about info they don’t have, and putting the scene after that point feels too late.
The other issue is the music. The music in this scene works really well since it was originally part of the D’Kar landing and all that I did was cut some of Finn wandering around to make room for the deleted scene.
- Rey’s extended mind trick scene is great.
- Great use of voiceover from the stormtroopers, where Rey climbs down to hide in Starkiller base. This really helps give context to the scene.
- I’m keen to see how the restored scene with Kylo in the Falcon worked with the child voice over, would you mind reposting this? I feel this could connect well with Snoke’s line in TLJ, ‘you’re just a child in a mask’.
https://vimeo.com/459628132 Password: fanedit
It’s at about the 6 minute mark.
- If you can add in the dice scene, that would be amazing! Unfortunately I can’t think of any shots that would help in that regard. It sounds like a difficult shot to add, but it would be a fantastic addition.
- The binary beacon is a great addition.
The edit is in a great place. It looks like you’re on the finishing touches at the moment, but then you always seem to find ways to improve the film that I never would have expected! I look forward to watching it again when you get to the final version.
Thanks for the review, glad to hear that so much is working!