You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I do agree to a certain extent with the Gungan city trip scene. Although the trip to Gungan city was always an awful one, and highlighted a lot of the things that everyone hated about Jar Jar. I did add a shot or two of Jar Jar back into the movie for v3 to fix the pacing issue somewhat, although it’s still likely to be an issue.
I appreciate that you enjoyed Anakin’s relationship with his mother. My own mom died of colon cancer while I was editing Episode II. Her health was already failing while I worked on Episode I, and I think a lot of the emotional turmoil going on with the family influenced my editing decisions for Anakin’s relationship with his mother throughout the prequels.
I’m also glad that you enjoyed the ending, even if it wasn’t 100% what I intended. I’ve restructured the ending to v3 to fix some of the pacing issues, add in more of l8wrtr’s influence, and give the ending a more complete feel. I’m curious to see how v1 and v2’s ending compares with v3. I’ll be happy to send you the link once I’ve released it.
I’m curious how you will handle the Gunga City scene in v3. I am think it is best to remove the scene completely, as Hal9000 did for example.
I would like to express my condolences to you. I know how you feel. Either way, I find the scenes between Anakin and Shmi in episode 1 and 2 beautiful and important to Anakin’s character, and they offer emotional depth.
What exactly do you dislike about your end? I saw the edit of l8wrtr a long time ago. I am very curious what you have planned.
I think it would be great if we could hear Qui Gons voice in before Anakin destroys the droid control ship. Qui Gon’s “Feel. Don’t think. Use your instinct”, would fit very well. Just like Luke hears Ben’s voice before the destroys the Deathstar.
I’m happy to receive the link to v3.🙂
The original ending to my edit isn’t in and of itself bad. However, there were things I didn’t know about editing back when I worked on Episode I. One thing I didn’t know was how to restructure and rearrange entire scenes. That was something I didn’t learn until Episode II forced me to. The arrangement of Episode I’s ending for v1 and v2 was pretty much exactly as it was theatrically. However, the arrangement and cutting between the four story lines was excessively messy in the theatrical version as well. So, for v3, I wanted to get those scenes rearranged into something that was simpler and easier to follow.
I decided to tackle the four endings using a three-act-structure approach, which is pretentious language talk for basic writing 101. I would start with the first act and set up the four plotlines (which ended up just as it was theatrically), then get into the second act where the conflict parts of all four storylines go on (and also where the changes officially begin), take all four storylines to their lowest point (A.K.A. the gungans lose, Anakin gets hit, Obi-Wan loses his lightsaber, etc.) and finally reach the resolution of all four plotlines by giving them a third act. My hope is that restructuring the endings this way will make the ending a lot simpler and easier to follow than it already is.
As for the Gunga city scene, don’t expect a major overhaul. It is just two extra shots after all. However, it may pad out the scene a little more.
I like the suggestion about Anakin hearing Qui-Gon’s voice, but there’s a problem with how fast the scene goes by. There aren’t any shots long enough to contain Qui-Gon’s line until after Anakin has sealed the control ship’s fate and gone flying his way out. Most of the shots in the theatrical version before Anakin shoots his way out are very short. I think most of them are only one or two seconds on average. It would be a really cool idea if it could be done, but I’m not sure how at the moment.