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Community Focus Thread 1: The Phantom Menace — Page 8

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There’s been a lot of chatter here over the last few days about AI voices provided here.

They’re not perfect, but the best ones are those for robots. The B1 Battle Droid voice is very good, and they have no mouths (so no lipsync), so they could be amended to both trim goofiness and add context.

For example, “Our forces are thousands! You two Jedi won’t be able to stop our invasion!” might be used in a few places to sell the invasion angle.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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Check out Obi-Wan’s clone wars voice, this one is spot on and might be useful for some Prequel edits as well, due to JAT’s Obi sounding a lot like Ewan’s.

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

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Just a quick question: does anyone happen to have The Ancient Lore by Andreas? I’d really like to see some of the radical changes he made, but I don’t think he’s been active anywhere in some time.

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Hard to believe we’re roughly halfway through this month already. I started going through the movie scene by scene and comparing the decisions made by different fanedits and how they affect the release of information, and the overall impression given to the viewer, but only completed that for… the crawl, so far. Perhaps these threads can outlive the actual months.

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sirlegion13 said:

Just a quick question: does anyone happen to have The Ancient Lore by Andreas? I’d really like to see some of the radical changes he made, but I don’t think he’s been active anywhere in some time.

I have it, I’ll send you a PM.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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I’m kinda curious if we could produce one tangible edit that other people could use for TPM before the end of the month. Like, maybe something that editor’s in the past could’ve really used in the past, but didn’t have the tech to actually accomplish it. Can’t really think of something at the moment though.

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I think focusing on that invasion stuff would be the best short-term gift to the community.

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 (Edited)

I’ll certainly try to get the Jar Jar voice tool completed soon. That won’t be a true component ready to drag and drop into an edit, but it’ll be something that gives people the easiest Jar Jar voice playground.

As for actual edits, things that come to mind:

  • Invasion scenes (VFX)
  • Intro that works with the invasion angle rather than the negotiation angle (whether or not we have new VFX scenes) - could add AI battle droid voices
  • Cutting down the Gungan battle scenes to see if they can precede the other endings (and be minimal)
  • Restructured ending(s) (though a lot of editors have recut the ending and I haven’t reviewed those- might be one for Sade’s thoughts if he’s in comparison mode?)

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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Peter Pan said:

Check out Obi-Wan’s clone wars voice, this one is spot on and might be useful for some Prequel edits as well, due to JAT’s Obi sounding a lot like Ewan’s.

I typed a test sentence in, and it added some stuff to the end that I didn’t put in. I’m god damn losing it.

“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:

Peter Pan said:

Check out Obi-Wan’s clone wars voice, this one is spot on and might be useful for some Prequel edits as well, due to JAT’s Obi sounding a lot like Ewan’s.

I typed a test sentence in, and it added some stuff to the end that I didn’t put in. I’m god damn losing it.

Sounds like Obi is losing his sh*t as well 😄

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

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CaptainFaraday said:

Peter Pan said:

Check out Obi-Wan’s clone wars voice, this one is spot on and might be useful for some Prequel edits as well, due to JAT’s Obi sounding a lot like Ewan’s.

I typed a test sentence in, and it added some stuff to the end that I didn’t put in. I’m god damn losing it.

I just did another test and the same thing happened. It always happens. I think it’s a glitch in the software.

“No one is born ugly, we just live in a judgmental society.”- Kim Namjoon

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The Grevious and Battle droid voices are good though!

“No one is born ugly, we just live in a judgmental society.”- Kim Namjoon

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EddieDean said:

Oh yeah good shout, I think that’s exactly the kind of thing we need. I really hope we see AlaskaSandman back soon.

Me too. He sent me on the right track when I first started work on fan editing, and I owe him for the progress I’ve made since. Needless to say, I miss him.

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

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 (Edited)

I keep thinking about Watto and the chance cube, and how to keep it in a “Qui-Gon frees Shmi” edit. As I figure it, there’s only two moments of dialogue that need to be altered.

When Watto says “red, the boy - blue, his mother,” change it to “red, them both - blue, neither.”

This follows on from “no pod is worth two slaves” and his lecherous “we’ll let fate decide,” and strengthens the following “your friend had better be careful or I’ll end up owning him too,” since (from Watto’s perspective) Qui-Gon now gambled on a whim with very disadvantageous odds.

I wonder if there’s anything in AOTC that might be usable?

“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:

I keep thinking about Watto and the chance cube, and how to keep it in a “Qui-Gon frees Shmi” edit. As I figure it, there’s only two moments of dialogue that need to be altered.

When Watto says “red, the boy - blue, his mother,” change it to “red, them both - blue, neither.”

This follows on from “no pod is worth two slaves” and his lecherous “we’ll let fate decide,” and strengthens the following “your friend had better be careful or I’ll end up owning him too,” since (from Watto’s perspective) Qui-Gon now gambled on a whim with very disadvantageous odds.

I wonder if there’s anything in AOTC that might be usable?

Maybe like something like this could work:
W:„No pod is worth two slaves. Not by a long shot.“
Q: „It‘s the fastest ever built“
(Watto thinks)
W: „We‘ll let fate decide. Red, No, blue, yes.“

He says Yes when Qui-Gon shows him the ship („Yes, Yes, Nubien…). I don’t know from the top of my head whether Watto ever says No, but maybe it could be taken from „Not by a long shot“.

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

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Peter Pan said:

CaptainFaraday said:

I keep thinking about Watto and the chance cube, and how to keep it in a “Qui-Gon frees Shmi” edit. As I figure it, there’s only two moments of dialogue that need to be altered.

When Watto says “red, the boy - blue, his mother,” change it to “red, them both - blue, neither.”

This follows on from “no pod is worth two slaves” and his lecherous “we’ll let fate decide,” and strengthens the following “your friend had better be careful or I’ll end up owning him too,” since (from Watto’s perspective) Qui-Gon now gambled on a whim with very disadvantageous odds.

I wonder if there’s anything in AOTC that might be usable?

Maybe like something like this could work:
W:„No pod is worth two slaves. Not by a long shot.“
Q: „It‘s the fastest ever built“
(Watto thinks)
W: „We‘ll let fate decide. Red, No, blue, yes.“

He says Yes when Qui-Gon shows him the ship („Yes, Yes, Nubien…). I don’t know from the top of my head whether Watto ever says No, but maybe it could be taken from „Not by a long shot“.

The only issue I forsee is that Watto reacts angrily to the results of the dice roll, so he has to think that he’s going to pull one over on Qui-Gon. If it’s just “yes” or “no,” Watto has nothing to gain by using the dice. (If it’s “both” or “neither,” he obviously stands to gain a lot if the result is “neither.”)

“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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 (Edited)

I’ve been exploring Watto’s lines and I’m really not sure. What we have is limited and trying to get the tone right by constructing lines would be a challenge. You really need to maintain him being kind of sneaky (with the implication that his dice are loaded to give him the result he wants). So it’s more than just finding the words.

Yet I really want to make this work…

Edit: but wait. We may not just be limited to the movies! I just found this collection of Watto lines from the pod race video game that may help. Haven’t explored it all yet but I heard him say “no” in the first few seconds…

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Ooh, good find! I’ll have a listen when I get the chance. For “both” and “neither,” the only phonemes we need are “oa” (“b” and “th” are already in the original line), and “nee” or “nye” (the word can be pronunced either way, and “ther” is already in the original line).

“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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He says “thee” quite often in place of “you” so you may just need a nice, clean “n” that flows with it

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evansj1983 said:

He says “thee” quite often in place of “you” so you may just need a nice, clean “n” that flows with it

That’s true. I’ve personally found (from sentence mixing YouTube Poops) that the “n” and “m” sounds are the hardest to naturally add, so we’d have to play around with it if we can’t find a “nee” sound on its own.

“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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I’ve updated the OP to aggregate the stuff created and requested so far.

Mrebo said:

I’ve taken the battle droid dialogue (trimmed down) about searching for hidden underwater villages and put it in the mouth of the droid captain in the tank right before we see Qui Gon running. It fills in why they have landed so far from the cities and makes finding Jar Jar feel less random.

Could you share this, Mrebo?

RogueLeader said:

If I were to want to cut any scenes, I think I would cut a lot of the scenes between Nute Gunray and Darth Sidious. There’s a few reasons for doing this. 1) I feel like the pacing just halts every time we cut back to what the bad guys are doing. 3) It feels like a lot of information is repeated in other scenes. 2) I actually think it would serve the narrative more if we kept the Sith’s involvement in the plot as mysterious as we can. I actually wonder how much it would actually hurt the movie if we cut all of Sidious’ scenes. Would it be better if the actual phantom menace was a figure only alluded to in the first film?

I think the only thing to be wary of with this idea is that Maul needs to be in TPM and he needs to be introduced by someone, he can’t come out of nowhere. So we at least need some mysterious figure to put him into the film and then be the shadow behind the threat, which can then become a hanging plot thread.

Other thoughts for the community:

  • A few people have mentioned Maul fan-films which are apparently very decent. Can anyone share them, or the relevant clips? I’d be interested to hear how people think they could be included.
  • Let’s mock more stuff up! Even if it’s placeholder stuff, it’d be good to visualise more ideas. I’m going to try to finish the Jar Jar voice tool tonight, then I’ll either play round with his lines or try some ideas for the Gungan battle scenes.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus