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The Force Awakens: Starlight (V1.1 Released!) — Page 67

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I am dying to see your final product! Could I get a link please?
Best regards!

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Would also love a link if and when you get the chance. I really liked the preview clips and am excited to see how this stacks up with Restructured.

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Would love a link as well when you get the chance!

I am no Jedi

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All PM’s (hopefully) sent!

Several people have asked specifically for the high bitrate version, however, and while I still have the small one, I no longer have the ability to host the large file. Since the only other option right now is the 'spleen (which many people can’t access), perhaps someone who already has the full file may find a way to make it available.

Anyway, thank you all for the kind words and reviews! I’m actually trying to take a hiatus from the site right now for my mental well-being, just popped back in to see Ascendant off and tend to the links. I’m planning on being away for a while more, so if anyone wishes to get this project I hope that they may find assistance from the good people here.

Happy Life Day and may the Force be with you!

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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If someone want the high bitrate version pm me. I can give access to it via a resilio key if it‘s ok with nev?

happy holidays everyone and thanks again for your incredible work nev. Take your more than well earned brake from editing.

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Starlight is a a spectacular edit, one that should become the natural successor to Restructured. Watching this was an early Christmas present for me and I appreciate the all the hard work NeverarGreat put into this. I loved all the enhancements made here and improvements to the storyline— there were so many. Notably the finale was just spectacular. The death of Han, Chewie’s reaction, the smooth transition into Starkiller base firing, Rey’s darkness in the final battle. Wow this is a real achievement!

I just love this edit. It’s a diamond that needs a final polish. Below are technical issues I noted (wearing headphones to hear everything well) that hopefully can be addressed in the next version to really make this the polished masterpiece it deserves to be:

18:50 music added to Ren’s call to the light is not stereo, sounds very thin, perhaps monaural (is it only added to center channel?)

22:45 click noise before they fire upon the fleeing TIE (clicks are usually from beginning/end of new sound clip that’s not faded in/out)

26:42 click sound

39:35 Rey’s line to Finn is garbled

1:02:43 audio transition to Rey going down steps not smooth. Right into middle of reverb sound.

1:10:36 Great new VO of stormtrooper. First few lines are just too darn loud.

1:14:20 audio transition to Kylo not smooth—happens right in middle of music cue

1:24:49 weird swoosh noise as Han talks. Also the whole convo between Han and Leia in this scene sounds very thin. If this is because of music replacement it has really affected the voices too much in this instance. Try phase inversion trick to remove music instead of noise reduction??

1:25:56 audio transition here sounds monaural before transition and stereo afterward.

1:25:53 sound of previous scene lasts much too long into the next scene with shot of starkiller base

1:30:49 click then sudden, non-smooth change in music/ambience

1:31:34 noticeable sudden changes in background ambience in this scene with Jedi Mind trick. Also having Rey say the command 4 times was excessive (if it was the same in the original then that was excessive too).

1:32:58 click sound

1:33:00 fragment “s” of cut dialogue audible

1:38:05 Rey saying “to escape” cuts out strangely

1:34:25 audio transition not smooth

1:34:56 some audio on a track suddenly drops out here

1:35:46 music while Ren is on the falcon sounds like its in a tin can/ monaural

1:36:49 audio (music) again sounds weird/monaural

1:47:01 monaural/ off sounding music again

1:56:31 very small click

I did not list every time added music sounded monaural instead of stereo. It happened a lot and each time did not sound very good.

I hope the above is taken as how much I really love this edit and want it to be the best it can be.

Thanks very much NeverarGreat and Merry Christmas!!!

heil Palpatine!

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First off: thank you Nev for the PM and especially all your hard work. Also thank you, CMMAP, for your offer to share.
I just had my fair problems with torrents in the past, so: does someone have the high bitrate version on drive or mega? The way I perceive it, this seems to be the definitive version of this movie and I would love to have it in the best available quality 😃

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This sounds very interesting, I would love a link when you get the chance!

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As NeverarGreat is taking off for a while, maybe someone would be so nice
to send me the link for the “Starlight” edit, much appreciated!

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Thank you for sharing the link, and for all the hard work you put into this. I think it is a fantastic edit on the whole, surpassing Restructured for best TFA edit out there. A few thoughts on the edit, for what they’re worth:

THINGS I LOVED:

  • The overall look of the film, and the re-grading of Jakku.
  • The shifts in the Snoke/Kylo/Hux scenes, especially delaying the reveal. The theatrical always felt to me like it broke the fourth wall, whereas learning it from Han and Leia feels more natural and emotionally grounded. Really good.
  • Moving “there’s been an awakening” to the end.
  • The sequence of shots after Starkiller Base fires is perfect.
  • Integrating the Kylo on the Falcon deleted scene into the attack on Starkiller Base.

THINGS I’D CONSIDER CHANGING/ADDING:

  • I like adding the voices to the first interrogation scene but then felt like I was expecting them for the Rey/Kylo scene as well. It feels like this is a spot where those might fit well. You could incorporate some lines from this movie (“they’ll come back, one day,” “he means nothing to me”), but this would also be a spot where a bunch of lines from the rest of the trilogy could come in as a sort of foreshadowing since this is the moment where the “dyad” comes together for the first time.
  • On the other hand, the voices when Han and Kylo confront each other felt superfluous given how well acted the scene is to start with.
  • I agree with what I think someone said above that Rey’s Sith eyes don’t quite “pop” and it might not be exactly clear what they are supposed to be to someone not expecting them. But the reveal is shocking and really hits the way I assume you intended.
  • Could Palpatine’s voice be louder in Rey’s vision?

THINGS THAT DIDN’T REALLY WORK FOR ME:

  • TR-8R’s new dialogue: felt like a little too much to me.
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That Starlight edit sounds really interesting. Sounds like the edit I have always been waiting for. Can someone send the link to me please?

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maizerblazer said:

Thank you for sharing the link, and for all the hard work you put into this. I think it is a fantastic edit on the whole, surpassing Restructured for best TFA edit out there. A few thoughts on the edit, for what they’re worth:

THINGS I LOVED:

  • The overall look of the film, and the re-grading of Jakku.
  • The shifts in the Snoke/Kylo/Hux scenes, especially delaying the reveal. The theatrical always felt to me like it broke the fourth wall, whereas learning it from Han and Leia feels more natural and emotionally grounded. Really good.
  • Moving “there’s been an awakening” to the end.
  • The sequence of shots after Starkiller Base fires is perfect.
  • Integrating the Kylo on the Falcon deleted scene into the attack on Starkiller Base.

THINGS I’D CONSIDER CHANGING/ADDING:

  • I like adding the voices to the first interrogation scene but then felt like I was expecting them for the Rey/Kylo scene as well. It feels like this is a spot where those might fit well. You could incorporate some lines from this movie (“they’ll come back, one day,” “he means nothing to me”), but this would also be a spot where a bunch of lines from the rest of the trilogy could come in as a sort of foreshadowing since this is the moment where the “dyad” comes together for the first time.
  • On the other hand, the voices when Han and Kylo confront each other felt superfluous given how well acted the scene is to start with.
  • I agree with what I think someone said above that Rey’s Sith eyes don’t quite “pop” and it might not be exactly clear what they are supposed to be to someone not expecting them. But the reveal is shocking and really hits the way I assume you intended.
  • Could Palpatine’s voice be louder in Rey’s vision?

THINGS THAT DIDN’T REALLY WORK FOR ME:

  • TR-8R’s new dialogue: felt like a little too much to me.

I second all of this!

“I don’t believe it.”

“That is why you Yoda.”
Master Fail

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I would love to check this out. Can I get a link, please? Thanks!

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Here is another link request.

For seventeen years the renegade Pfhor scoutship jumped between the closely packed stars of the galactic core. And all over the ship, dancing through the wreckage of the Pfhor computer core, Durandal was laughing…

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Nev, this is an exceptional edit. It truly is close to being the definitive TFA edit; but, there are a couple of things stopping it from being that… yet. Some of them are technical issues, and some of them are story issues. I’ll go through the things that I noticed in chronological order. And I’m sorry in advance for how long this is going to be. But I wanted to be thorough!

Before I start complaining though, I want to reiterate how bonkers amazing so much of this is. In particular, I loved hearing the Force “Echoes” that Kylo was hearing, I loved how Maz’s was streamlined and made more logical by them not having Leia’s location already. Delaying the reveals of Kylo’s identity and Poe’s survival worked brilliantly on a number of levels. And the new sequence with the shields lowering was absolutely beautifully done. Amazing work!

Now, onto the critiques:

  • Story issue: I think Hal’s opening crawl actually works a lot better unfortunately, for two main reasons: A) The second paragraph of Starlight’s is a run-on sentence, which makes it difficult to read (especially in the brief time before it “crawls” away), and B) The third paragraph, outlining that the Republic created the Resistance - that doesn’t mesh with the later scene of Leia complaining that the Republic isn’t taking the threat of the First Order seriously. I’m pretty sure Hal’s crawl clarifies that the Republic wasn’t doing anything, which is why Leia herself had to form the Resistance.

  • Technical issue: Speaking of the crawl, there’s also a weird audio issue where the first trumpet blast is in mono or something, before the next note transitions the music out to surround. There’s also some weird flickering going on with the black levels during the crawl, that I didn’t notice anywhere else in the edit.

  • Technical issue: The Jakku regrade. I love it conceptually, but it’s inconsistent. Namely, during dusk and dawn. The sand looks too orange during these scenes for me, and it doesn’t feel like it matches the pale, bleached color that it has the rest of the time. Compare Rey bringing her wares to Simon Pegg (which, based on the sun, is happening at sunset) to Rey finding BB-8 (also at sunset). The latter scene is much more colorful. I feel like, for consistency, the sand should be more desaturated, kinda dark greyish.

  • Technical issue: Bass crackling, mainly during the interrogation scenes (both of them). Maybe it’s just my headphones; but I haven’t noticed it in any other version of TFA that I’ve watched, so I’m not sure why it would happen here.

  • Story issue: I would remove the first part of the Echoes during Poe’s interrogation - i.e. the ones heard before Poe is slammed back. For two reasons: A) The final line wasn’t even heard by Poe, and B) Because it negatively affects Rey’s interrogation. Bear with me here - Kylo is able to immediately access Poe’s memories. But, he’s not supposed to be able to break into Rey’s mind. So if he immediately hears Poe’s thoughts, then we already know from the first second of Rey’s interrogation (when he doesn’t hear anything) that he won’t be able to break her. Thus, Rey’s interrogation is immediately devoid of any sort of tension. If it takes a moment to break into Poe’s mind, then we still maintain that tension when trying to break into Rey’s mind.

  • Story issue: I don’t think Kylo’s prayer should be so early. If we’re looking at the structure from outside of the story, it makes sense; because we know he’s thinking of his mom. But internally, it detracts from the pacing of the story, and of the character. The prayer is this incredible moment of vulnerability, which recontextualizes our main antagonist. Put that too early, and we don’t have much of an opinion of Kylo yet, so there’s barely any character defined yet to recontextualize. Additionally, you give Kylo a huge moment of internal conflict early on, and then have him act like “Generic Bad Guy” for the next hour of the runtime. It doesn’t feel like a intricate, nuanced character, it feels like uneven characterization. Instead, I would put the Prayer maybe after Snoke tells him “You’ve never faced such a test” (to compliment Snoke’s uncertainty about Kylo’s strength and commitment); or else it would go nicely after Han & Co. arrive at Maz’s, but before the First Order comes (as if Kylo is praying before the battle. Maybe he even suspects his father will be there, and he needs to steel himself.) Or, maybe after Hux berates him for letting his personal feelings affect the mission.

  • Technical issue: Finn waking up at sunrise doesn’t work for me, I’m afraid, for a few reasons: A) There’s a weird, noticeable glow mask around his head when he first wakes up. B) Again, the color of the sand doesn’t match the daylight color, and C) The lighting jumps instantaneously between shots, rather than gradually brightening throughout the sequence. If you want to keep Finn waking up when it’s dark, keep everything the same until after the TIE explodes; then, increase the brightness during each of the shots of Finn trudging, lost, through the desert. Each of these shots is designed to indicate passage of time already, and seeing the daylight brighten between each shot will only help establish the feeling that Finn has been wandering for a long time.

  • Technical issue: Some of the new music cues aren’t mixed properly. I noticed it at 1:11:55 (Resistance arrival at Planet Maz), 1:53:56 (during the Rey and Kylo duel), and 2:05:30 (the new music added to the end credits). It sounds like it’s going from the surround mix to a mono mix or something like that.

  • Story suggestion: Maybe Rey could hear a snippet of Kylo’s Prayer during the interrogation scene, before she speaks to Kylo directly. It’s not necessary, but it would be a fun way of subverting the interrogation if the audience is expecting to hear Rey’s thoughts, and then we suddenly hear Kylo’s.

  • Story issue: I absolutely adore crosscutting Rey’s escape with Phasma’s patrol. It adds so much tension to think that Phasma is coordinating the whole effort. But! All of this amazing work you did to establish that tension is undone with one iffy cut. When Chewie tackles Phasma, it’s a slapstick moment, and it completely drops all of the tension out of the sequence. Not to mention, we spend so long before cutting back to Rey that we forget she’s in peril. So instead, I would tweak it just slightly to this: Rey triggers the sensor > Phasma says “I won’t tolerate sloppiness.” > The trooper says it’s a false alarm > Cut back to Phasma walking, she says “Acknowled–OOF” as Chewie tackles her > Finn “Follow me” scene > Kylo on Falcon. That way, the slapstick serves as a palate cleanser after the tense moment with Rey.

  • Technical issue: When Kylo is with Han on the bridge and hears Leia’s voice, just one of the Leia clips (“We can still save him”) is stuck on the left channel. Since it’s the only one, it feels like an error.

  • Story issue: After Starkiller fires and Rey and Finn escape, I would drop the music entirely as they run through the forest, only bringing it back in when they hear the lightsaber ignite. You did such a wonderful job of crafting this breathtaking, heart-stopping sequence when the weapon fires; this music here then create a feeling of excitement and anticipation. The music detracts from the feeling of hopelessness, whereas silence - with just the wind whispering across a desolate, empty forest - I think, would enhance it.

  • Technical suggestion: We see Poe enter the oscillator, then the TIE behind him peels off, and then…something explodes behind him. If you cut to the interior shot of the oscillator just a few frames earlier, before the TIE turns, would it feel like the TIE crashes trying to chase him? As it is, I didn’t really know what caused the explosion.

  • Technical issue: Agreed with some of the others here, Rey’s Sith-y eyes don’t really pop. When she opens them, it doesn’t feel super impactful. They need to be much brighter yellow, even glowing a bit.

I’m not trying to be a nagging Nellie here, because most of this edit is indeed incredible. I think if you just address these relatively few critiques, Starlight will become my go-to version of TFA. Seriously, well done, Nev. I’ll keep an eye out for a V2!

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 think those are all good observations worth thinking about, though I disagree with one: I think having Kylo’s prayer early really works. It makes him appear weak and conflicted right off the bat, which I think is a great introduction to the character. This guy looks like a knockoff Vader, in a real-world context he stands in the shadow of Vader, and having his characterisation be that he’s trying to imitate Vader because it’s important to his identity to carry Vader’s legacy is really interesting. It focuses his storyline on the ‘easiness’ and ‘seductiveness’ of the Dark Side, and then all of the characters in his life challenge that - Rey, Snoke, Luke, Leia/Han - until he turns to the light. I think it works for the arc that’s emerged since the release of TROS.

That said, I love the inclusion of some of his prayer in the whispers Rey hears during the interrogation.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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sherlockpotter said:

  • Story issue: I think Hal’s opening crawl actually works a lot better unfortunately, for two main reasons: A) The second paragraph of Starlight’s is a run-on sentence, which makes it difficult to read (especially in the brief time before it “crawls” away), and B) The third paragraph, outlining that the Republic created the Resistance - that doesn’t mesh with the later scene of Leia complaining that the Republic isn’t taking the threat of the First Order seriously. I’m pretty sure Hal’s crawl clarifies that the Republic wasn’t doing anything, which is why Leia herself had to form the Resistance.

I agree with a lot of what Sherlock and others have said on here, and especially this. One of the common criticisms of the sequel trilogy is that there is no reason for the Resistance to even be called the Resistance. I liked how Hal’s edit corrects this issue. Since the New Republic wasn’t doing anything about the First Order because they didn’t want another war, there are people like Leia that are “resisting” against the Republic’s consensus. The name takes on another meaning once the First Order becomes the main power in the galaxy in TLJ, but up until then it’s important to make this distinction.

Also, when Hux says that the New Republic secretly supports the Resistance, it can be rationalized that he’s referring to the senators and people that are going against the Republic’s decision.

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EddieDean said:

I think those are all good observations worth thinking about, though I disagree with one: I think having Kylo’s prayer early really works. It makes him appear weak and conflicted right off the bat, which I think is a great introduction to the character. This guy looks like a knockoff Vader, in a real-world context he stands in the shadow of Vader, and having his characterisation be that he’s trying to imitate Vader because it’s important to his identity to carry Vader’s legacy is really interesting. It focuses his storyline on the ‘easiness’ and ‘seductiveness’ of the Dark Side, and then all of the characters in his life challenge that - Rey, Snoke, Luke, Leia/Han - until he turns to the light. I think it works for the arc that’s emerged since the release of TROS.

Yeah, different strokes for different folks! The thing for me is, I suppose, I don’t want the main antagonist in a story to “appear weak and conflicted right off the bat.” I want my big bad to feel terrifying… before later stripping them down and breaking them apart (on a metatextual level, not literally beating them up in-story). It would be like putting Thanos’s scene with Gamora as his first scene in Infinity War - that scene works so well because, based on what we’ve learned so far, we don’t expect our villain to act like that. It’s subversive. Or to use an example closer to home, it’s why Vader isn’t revealed as Leia’s dad when he she encounters him on Tantive IV, because it makes Vader less mysterious and thus less imposing. It’s weird, because as much as we all know these films inside and out, we also have to consider what would be the most impactful to an outsider. That’s what I meant when it said it really only works when you already know that Kylo is Leia’s son, and he would therefore be affected by hearing her voice. Because then you’re not looking for mystery; you’re looking for character.

One of the clever things about not having Snoke reveal Kylo’s identity so early is that, knowing who Kylo is adds to his conflict; so by removing that, you increase the tension surrounding the character. But then putting the Prayer so early has the effect of minimizing him anyway. No matter where the scene is included in the film, it’s going to make him appear weak and conflicted; but for me, I think it’s important that a villain be established first before then humanizing them. Especially this film, which is actively trying to set up Kylo as a Vader-wannabe (before being self-aware and turning that into a character flaw).

It’s all subjective though!

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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Very much agree with all of Sherlock’s criticisms, however I don’t agree about the Sith eyes. I feel like the moment does have an impact and if they were too glowy they would start to look hokey to me, like the sharp teeth in Rise of Skywalker. I’m a little on the fence about Sith eyes as a concept as is, they work with Revenge of the Sith’s operatic maximalism but they almost seem too silly and obvious for a more grounded movie like this one.

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This looks incredible!

Could I also get a link please?

Thanks in advance!

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I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about this edit, and the changelog looks really promising! If anyone who has the link could send it my way, that’d be greatly appreciated!

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It was a great watch. Maybe some voice-overs were superfluous (the baton stormtrooper; Han and Kylo on the bridge), but otherwise flawless for me.

Watching this movie again after so many years made me reassured that JJ Abrams is a cinematic genius, one of the great visual storytellers of our time. If he worked together with someome who had a vision of a story they actually wanted to tell, it could have been a great sequel trilogy.

Whenever he relents from the pace and allows himself a bit of time for world-building, it’s captivating. Rey’s daily routine on Jakku is still the best sequence of the ST for me. And it’s greatly helped by this edit. Removing Unkar Plott’s dialogue allows the film to tell Rey’s backstory without a single line of dialogue. Brilliant.

The dialogue, the humor, the sense of adventure work great in this film and the little trims here and there help that tremendously.

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Please may I have a link? Thanks!