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The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released) — Page 582

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NeverarGreat said:

Burbin said:

NeverarGreat said:

I think the Biomes shot might work as-is, since the prior shot is of a very pink/red planet from space, and the forest and lava fields at the end of the shot trend a bit more yellow which transitions into the flyover.

I think even the planet has a bit more orange than the castle shot though, and even then I think it’s more important that the footage of the surface blends together, in that closeup of Kylo’s face you get a good look at the clouds above and they’re a mix of pink and yellow/orange, while on the castle shot they’re a more pale white and pink.

You may be right - the Biomes shot has now been adjusted accordingly to be slightly less pink.

Thanks for humoring my comments, the stuff you and Poppa have done with the new shots is nothing short of amazing. Same with Faraday & Sherlock’s work on the edited lines, fantastic work!

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Hal 9000 said:

Sade1212’s, Sherlockpotter’s, AND CaptainFaraday’s all sound very seamless to me. I’ve got all three lined up and trying to decide between them.

Sade1212’s are all mixed into a fully serviceable 5.1 mix. The clips CaptainFaraday sent me yesterday are not, and there are surround channels that have an echo of the original line and its placement. If sherlock can provide me with his fine-tuned take on things even just as the center channel, I’ll see whether it can be implanted into the mix.

Again, they all sound amazing and I’d be happy with any of them. I think CaptainFaraday’s has the slight edge, so hopefully an isolated version of the complete line can be presented.

I’ll send you a message to figure out exactly what I need to export to give you just the isolated clips to mix in.

“It’s like rhymetry. They poem.” - Leorge Gucas

TROS Novelisation: The Faraday Edit, TLJ: Stoic Edition, ROTS: The Faraday Nudge, ROTS Ultracut: Order 66, Kenobi: Faraday Cut, Godzilla Vs Megalon, Godzilla Vs Gigan, Godzilla: Final Wars, The Light Rises, Faraday Jr.'s Star Wars

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CaptainFaraday said:

Thank you for the kind words, Sherlock! (And sorry that it’s taken me so long to be able to get anything exported!)

I think the whole mix is a bit like a Rubik’s cube. If one part gets changed, the other parts sound different by recontextualisation, even if they haven’t been changed themselves. It’s such a tricky delivery to work with as well, and there’s no good source for any of the exact phonemes we need.

This is the perfect way of explaining the problem, honestly. It seems like it would be such an easy, subtle change, but everything has to fall into place just right. No problem about the wait, haha it was definitely worth it! Seriously, you created exactly what was needed to make the line perfect.

Stardust1138 said:

I don’t keep up with this thread as much as I should but bravo if it was your idea on the purple lightsaber. I remember Carrie saying that she’d want a purple lightsaber. So that’s a great subtle way of honouring her. 😄

Not my idea, but I agree it’s fantastic! (And flawless execution too by skenera.) I can’t even remember her lightsaber being blue anymore, honestly.

The Rise of Skywalker: Untold - A “Rey Nobody” edit of Ep. IX | Looking for voices and VFX - Please reach out if interested!

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Hal 9000 said:

Mustafar sequence, proposed as final:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UJwqxMyGw1DnzUXtjjo0Lc0wuyDdMvZD/view?usp=sharing

It’s got skenera’s LUT applied as well, so it’d be about how the final, cc’d fan edit will be.

From what I can tell on my crappy laptop screen, that all looks amazing! Colors seem to match much better between shots, audio levels sound good, and I’m not even noticing the ash anymore.

In a word, perfection!

The Rise of Skywalker: Untold - A “Rey Nobody” edit of Ep. IX | Looking for voices and VFX - Please reach out if interested!

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RogueLeader said:

People might have one preference over the other but honestly Sherlock’s also sounds super natural. I don’t think people would think anything is off with it.

Second that. I like both versions but thi is more natural. Great work

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Hal 9000 said:

Mustafar sequence, proposed as final:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UJwqxMyGw1DnzUXtjjo0Lc0wuyDdMvZD/view?usp=sharing

It’s got skenera’s LUT applied as well, so it’d be about how the final, cc’d fan edit will be.

I’ve deliberately stayed away from this discussion so that I could come into the final shot with fresh eyes. I think this is serviceable for sure, and certainly a marked improvement over the original, but coming into it fresh, I felt a little disconnect between the Vader’s castle shot and the following forest flyover. Vader’s castle shot does end by showing some forest behind, but it’s very blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. And then the forest flyover does look appropriate, but doesn’t feel very ‘lava-y’.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, with these establishing shots, we’re trying to take the viewer on this journey:
Red Planet > Vader’s Castle (oh it’s Mustafar!) > Volcanic terrain > Ruined forest > Kylo in the forest (oh Kylo’s doing something to do with Vader!)

But the transition from volcanic to forest could do with just a little more to keep that mental transition smooth.

I’d suggest, if possible, one (or both) of the following:

  • A little more time from the biomes shot lingering on the forest.
  • In the forest shot, a hint of lava - not necessarily in the middle of frame, but a nice shock of orange somewhere onscreen.

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To be fair, that’s an advantage to the previous version using three shots. You get lava, seeing the castle as TIEs approach an area behind you that you don’t see until we cut to the forest flyover shot.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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NeverarGreat said:

Alternately - and though I do like the two-shot implementation - we could just use the Biomes shot in its entirety since it has every element (Castle, Lava, Forest, TIEs), instead of splitting the elements over two or three shots. We’d just need to extend the TIE flyover slightly.

I second this.
Even though I was the initial person to discover the Youtube video of the second shot that Poppasketti modified, something about knowing exactly where it came from sorta distracts me in a way that it sticks out, I feel like the biomes shot would more naturally flow into the theatrical footage.

Just my thoughts.


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I still contend that the the forest flyover is the most important shot in the entire sequence. The lava shot and the Biomes shot are nice to have in the sense that they’re borderline fan service - truthfully, it doesn’t matter what planet they’re on, but it’s fun to remember “Hey, look! It’s Mustafar! We’ve been here before!” The forest flyover, on the other hand, is the most important one from a directorial standpoint - it’s the one that connects the ships flying towards the planet with the action that happens on the ground, subconsciously establishing where the scene is going to take place. It essentially, if you’ll excuse the pun, ties the opening shots together.

Looking at it from another perspective, if we’re going to have a jump from “lava river” to “burning forest” no matter what, I’d rather do it in a way that we have TIEs in both shots as a bit of connective tissue.

The Rise of Skywalker: Untold - A “Rey Nobody” edit of Ep. IX | Looking for voices and VFX - Please reach out if interested!

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My understanding that the point of the multiple mustafar shots was to slow down the pace and “set the stage” of the movie. Could the last frames of the biomes be slowed to better establish the forest? I’m noticing the common denominator here is the transition from castle to forest.

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Mainly that it’s more apparent, I suppose. With the Biomes shot, I think more of the focus ends up being on the lava river and on Vader’s castle. Plus, I think seeing “a” forest in the distance is less of a visual indicator than seeing the closeup of the forest overhead, and seeing how badly it’s been destroyed. It really feels homogeneous with what we see of the forest when Kylo’s on the ground. (Chase, brilliant find with the shot!)

I mean, it’s just my opinion, of course. I think it’s amazing that we have so many options from which to pick; and Nev, you’ve done an amazing job of recoloring them all!

The Rise of Skywalker: Untold - A “Rey Nobody” edit of Ep. IX | Looking for voices and VFX - Please reach out if interested!

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I do agree with Sherlock, it feels very right to go from the forest flyover into the scene proper. I think it’s implied in the transition from Castle to flyover that at least a little time has passed.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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So are we around 95% done on V2? I know the only things left are touching up on Luke’s ghost and finishing the crackly saber shots. Poppasketti and RogueLeader are working on those, correct? Sorry that it seems like I haven’t been paying attention lately, I’ve been busy working on my own fan projects.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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Hal 9000 said:

It’s absolutely going to come down to the crackly saber footage. The rest of it will be tied up by that point.

Awesome! Since a plugin for the effect was released. I imagine it shouldn’t take long to get done. Who knows, V2 could be released this November like V1 was last year.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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So, we have two excellent ‘Mustafar Minutes’ on our hands.

First, the three shot version: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/529875645

This one fits together cohesively. First shot has a lava flow next to a smokey forest. Then we see Vader’s castle with TIEs approaching camera followed by the forest flyover shot. We have forest being shown in shots 1 and 3, with it being implied in shot 2.

Then, the new two shot version we’ve been working on: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/641962575

It has the advantage of having less going on and helping the pace in that regard. Very nice shot of the castle, though some seem to have an issue with transitioning into the forest flyover.

(One of the reasons for pursuing the Biomes footage in the first place was to avoid reusing footage from Rogue One, as in the three-shot version. However… we didn’t realize until after Nev poured hours of work into it that it essentially is a shot from Rogue One. Doesn’t mean it’s invalid, just that that isn’t a reason to favor it.)

I will show these two versions, with no explanation, to a few people foreign to this fan edit if not to Star Wars fandom in general, to get their opinions untainted by the insider knowledge we all have about the work that has gone into these. (Not that that necessarily will decide how to move forward!)

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Master Lawdog said:

Hal 9000 said:

It’s absolutely going to come down to the crackly saber footage. The rest of it will be tied up by that point.

Awesome! Since a plugin for the effect was released. I imagine it shouldn’t take long to get done. Who knows, V2 could be released this November like V1 was last year.

I’d say December at best. It’d be awesome to have it coincide with the film’s second anniversary, though at this point I am unwilling to release an intermediate version until V2 is complete.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Honestly, I’m not a fan of the three-shot version. It feels less cohesive to me. The first shot looks way too dark and doesn’t match the surrounding footage. The TIES in the second shot look like 2D elements tracked on and you can see matte lines around them. Overall, the two-shot version at least transitions from lava to forest whereas the three-shot sort of jumps all over the place. There’s no sense of geography.

Not denigrating the hard work everyone put in to both versions, but that version just doesn’t work for me.

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Octorox said:

Honestly, I’m not a fan of the three-shot version. It feels less cohesive to me. The first shot looks way too dark and doesn’t match the surrounding footage. The TIES in the second shot look like 2D elements tracked on and you can see matte lines around them. Overall, the two-shot version at least transitions from lava to forest whereas the three-shot sort of jumps all over the place. There’s no sense of geography.

Not denigrating the hard work everyone put in to both versions, but that version just doesn’t work for me.

Agreed. Plus, it would be a shame not to use this Biomes footage.

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I would also say the two shot version is the more cohesive one. Not to discredit the other work, both are good.

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How’s the progress on Rey’s eyes?

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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I appreciate both choices and the work involved, of course! (y’all rock.)

My gut says the 2 shot version because although I appreciate the third “extra” shot to help transition lave to forest idea … it feels like it’s overly using establishing shots. It feels like too many little pieces. I feel like less is more would fit better, personally.

Shout out to all you hard workers! Dang it’s impressive what’s getting done.

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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2 shot version is much more consistent with the cinematography style of the rest of the film and the pacing on that shot is excellent and helps the opening quite a bit.

Stick with that version, I say.