logo Sign In

I need help for my AOTC fan edit

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hi guys. I need help.

I would like to create a fan edit of Attack of the Clones. However, there are problems that prevent me from creating this fan edit directly. First, I’m completely blind from my right eye, and although I see with my left eye, I only have a tenth of a view, so I see very little and therefore I find it very difficult to stand for too long in front of a computer screen. Secondly, my computer absolutely sucks and I don’t have enough money to buy another one, which is why every time I try to open a video editing program my computer freezes and I can’t go on. Because of these problems, I can’t directly create the AOTC fan edit I would like to create, so I would like to know if someone is willing to help me.

The changes I want to make to the film are really very simple. Basically, it’s about taking Hal 9000’s fan edit until the Naboo lake kissing scene, then editing the lake kissing scene, and then leaving the rest of the film as it is in the original version, but cutting the scene where Anakin confesses to Padmé that he killed the Tusken. For those who are used to creating fan edits and who don’t have my problems, such an edit should be quite simple and shouldn’t take much time. So I’d like to know if any of you are willing to help me with this.

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time

So you’re talking use my edit of AOTC up to the kiss, which you want to be as in the theatrical, and then the theatrical AOTC for the remainder of the movie except to still remove Anakin’s confession?

I could throw that together for you in whatever file format and approximate size you’d prefer, though I won’t hold onto it after passing it along to you. I must say it’s a weird request, like the first half of the movie is fan edited and the second half more or less isn’t. But, I could do it. Just let me know what specs to shoot for.

My stance on revising fan edits.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

So you’re talking use my edit of AOTC up to the kiss, which you want to be as in the theatrical, and then the theatrical AOTC for the remainder of the movie except to still remove Anakin’s confession?

Exactly.
I would like their kiss to be set during sunset (as in your edit) and I would like both of them not to say anything (as in your edit), but I would like to keep the moment when Padmé interrupts the kiss. In addition, I would like to keep their discussion in front of the fireplace, but making the dialogue smoother. Something like this:

Anakin: From the moment I met you, all those years ago, not a day has gone by when I haven’t thought of you. [Anakin looks at her for a few seconds, in silence]
Padmé: I can’t… We can’t… It’s not possible.
Anakin: Anything is possible, Padmé. Listen to me…
Padmé: No, you listen! We live in a real world; come back to it. You’re studying to become a Jedi, I’m… I’m a senator. If you follow your thoughts through to conclusion, they will take us to a place we cannot go, regardless of the way we feel about each other.
Anakin: You’re asking me to be rational. That is something that I know I cannot do. Believe me, I wish that I could just wish away my feelings, but I can’t.
Padmé: I will not give into this.
Anakin: Well, you know, it… it wouldn’t have to be that way. We could keep it a secret.
Padmé: We’d be living a lie, one that we couldn’t keep, even if we wanted to. I couldn’t do that. Could you, Anakin? Could you live like that?
Anakin: No. You’re right. It would destroy us all.

In addition to Anakin’s confession, I would also like to cut the duel between Dooku and Yoda. I have nothing against the CGI used in that duel, but I think it would be more epic if the first time we see Yoda using his lightsaber is in Revenge of the Sith against Sidious. So this duel needs to be cut. Oh, and I’d also like the original scene with Mace, Yoda and Obi-Wan in the Temple to retake the place you assigned to the Mace and Obi-Wan scene on the platform.

I could throw that together for you in whatever file format and approximate size you’d prefer, though I won’t hold onto it after passing it along to you.

I want the file to be in MP4 format and have the highest definition you can give it. As for the size, I don’t know, so I’ll let you decide. The important thing is that the quality of the file is not lost due to the size. If to maintain the video and audio quality the file has to be heavy, then so be it, but if you can make sure that the file maintains its highest quality even without making it too heavy, then for me it’s okay all the same. I’ll let you decide.

I must say it’s a weird request, like the first half of the movie is fan edited and the second half more or less isn’t.

I know it’s a weird request, but this is the way I think Attack of the Clones should have been originally edited. That’s what I want to see. By the way, it’s not even necessary to change the title of the film, you can leave it as “The Approaching Storm”, since I love this title for the film. And you can also leave the opening crawl as it is in your original edit.

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time

Fair enough!

The sunset grading for that scene was meant to replace the fireplace scene. If you like that placement for the kiss scene, though, I could try to have it fade into that scene, though it would break it up. I’d recommend letting me place it earlier, either where it was to begin with or swapped with the meadow sequence.

And I can export it as ProRes, if that works. Or mp4.

My stance on revising fan edits.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

The sunset grading for that scene was meant to replace the fireplace scene. If you like that placement for the kiss scene, though, I could try to have it fade into that scene, though it would break it up. I’d recommend letting me place it earlier, either where it was to begin with or swapped with the meadow sequence.

The scene of the kiss is set during sunset, but the scene in front of the fireplace is set when the sun has already set. So there is no inconsistency. Padmé interrupts their kiss because she thinks she’s wrong and thinks it’s not right to be carried away by her emotions, after which in the scene in front of the fireplace she consistently explains her reasons, and she explains why she thinks that engaging in a relationship with Anakin is not possible. But then in the Geonosis arena she lets herself go, openly recognizes her feelings and kisses him, again. So the sequence of events is fine as it is in your fan edit, you just have to add the scene in front of the fireplace, making the dialogue smoother, and add the interruption of the kiss. After the interruption of the kiss we jump and see Obi-Wan on Kamino, after which we return to Naboo with the scene in front of the fireplace. Then we return on Kamino, etc.

And I can export it as ProRes, if that works. Or mp4.

Its fine for me! ❤️

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time

I’m not sure I’m following the order of scenes you have in mind. If the fireplace scene is to be retained, it would be best to leave the original transition into and out of it.

TAS basically replaces the original kiss by the lake scene with the Padme’s family deleted scene, then uses the kiss later to replace the fireplace scene.

What order of scenes do you want to have? Let me know and I can try to make that happen, but it can be rather tricky to get a decent audio transition and sometimes that limits what I feel good about.

My stance on revising fan edits.

Author
Time

Honestly this sounds pretty darn good. I’d already replaced the ending of TAS with the original so I could still have the Yoda duel but I don’t believe I have any issues with what Malgus is describing either. I’d appreciate a PM when you’re done with this as well, Hal.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hal 9000 said:

I’m not sure I’m following the order of scenes you have in mind. If the fireplace scene is to be retained, it would be best to leave the original transition into and out of it.

TAS basically replaces the original kiss by the lake scene with the Padme’s family deleted scene, then uses the kiss later to replace the fireplace scene.

What order of scenes do you want to have? Let me know and I can try to make that happen, but it can be rather tricky to get a decent audio transition and sometimes that limits what I feel good about.

Oh, maybe now I understand what you mean. Basically, your problem is that if you add the scene in front of the fireplace, then there is one scene you don’t know where to put, and therefore the order of the scenes and the jumps between Kamino and Naboo get messy. Did I get it right?

Well, if that’s the problem, then you could turn the scene where Anakin levitates the pear and the kiss scene into a single scene. That is, when the scene where Anakin levitates the pear ends, you insert a transition and go straight to their kiss on the lake, without jumping on Kamino first. In this way, despite being two different scenes, it turns out like if they’re one scene and therefore you can add the scene in front of the fireplace without any problems. Then, after the kiss, you jump on Kamino, and then you return on Naboo with the fireplace scene.

So, the order of the scenes would turn like this:

Arrival on Naboo;
Padmé’s family scene;
Scene on the grass;
Pear levitation scene/Kiss scene;
Fireplace scene.

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I mean, I could attempt whatever order of scenes you like, but I can’t promise they’ll sound great.

Here’s the scenes in this part of the movie, so please arrange these in order:

  • Obi-Wan arrives on Kamino, speaks to prime minister
  • Lakeside kiss
  • Padme visits her family (deleted scene)
  • Obi-Wan tours the facility and sees the clone troopers
  • Meadow picnic
  • Obi-Wan questions Jango Fett
  • Sunset dinner, leads right into fireplace scene
  • Obi-Wan reports to the Council in the rain

In TAS, they go like this:

  • Obi-Wan arrives on Kamino, speaks to prime minister
  • Padme visits her family (deleted scene)
  • Obi-Wan tours the facility and sees the clone troopers
  • Meadow picnic
  • Obi-Wan questions Jango Fett
  • Sunset dinner, [replaced fireplace with lakeside kiss]
  • Obi-Wan reports to the Council in the rain

As you can see, the only changes in TAS are to replace the lakeside kiss with Padme’s family, and then replace fireside scene with lakeside kiss. Shifting things around further than this would likely result in ugly scene transitions. Usually better to stick with the theatrical if it can be helped.

My stance on revising fan edits.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

You know what? Now that I think about it, maybe it’s better to cut the first kiss altogether, because the first kiss on the lake creates a lot of problems. Maybe it’s better if their first kiss is in the Geonosis arena. So, the order of the scenes would be this:

  • Obi-Wan arrives on Kamino, speaks to prime minister
  • Padmé visits her family
  • Obi-Wan tours the facility and sees the clone troopers
  • Meadow picnic
  • Obi-Wan questions Jango Fett
  • Sunset dinner, leads right into fireplace scene (with my modified version of the dialogue)
  • Obi-Wan reports to the Council in the rain

Maybe it’s better to cut off the first kiss altogether. The fact that their first kiss is on Geonosis makes everything more epic and realistic, so just cut the first kiss, and that’s it. It works better.

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time

That would also make for zero awkward scene transitions.

I can’t promise a specific timeframe, but I’ll add it to my fan editing to-do list for once my current work on TROS is finished. I’ll plan to output as ProRes video and audio, which you can process or encode however you’d like to. Again, once I hand it off to you I won’t plan to keep it around forever on my end.

Also, to anyone reading, please don’t consider this open season on requesting a ton of slightly modified versions of my fan edits. That’s what the ProRes output I make available is for, so that anyone could take my work and tweak it however they’d like or stripmine it. Malgus presented a simple idea and disability preventing him from achieving it, expressed with sufficient detail that I believe he would if he could.

All said, I hope this scratches the itch for you!

My stance on revising fan edits.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I hope that you can accomplish this work very soon, and thank you very much for being available. A very few people would have been kind enough to help me, so thank you very much. When you send me the finished work, I will immediately save it on my Google Drive. However, keep it on your computer for at least a day, this way if there are any problems with saving the file then we will have at least one day to try to fix them before you permanently delete it and leave it totally to me.

Also, to anyone reading, please don’t consider this open season on requesting a ton of slightly modified versions of my fan edits. That’s what the ProRes output I make available is for, so that anyone could take my work and tweak it however they’d like or stripmine it. Malgus presented a simple idea and disability preventing him from achieving it, expressed with sufficient detail that I believe he would if he could.

Well, I wouldn’t call it a slightly modified version of your edit, because after the scene in front of the fireplace the rest of the film remains as in the original cut (except for Anakin’s confession and the Yoda/Dooku duel). But still… If I didn’t have problems with my eyes and if my computer was a good computer, then I probably would never have asked for help, in fact, I probably would have created this fan edit by myself a long time ago…

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Oh, I completely forgot to mention one more thing. I would like you to re-add the scene with Yoda and the younglings. Can you do that? This and the re-add of the Mace/Obi/Yoda Temple scene are the only changes I would like you to do to the part of this edit that incorporates your edit. But if you can’t do that, it is fine anyway. This is an optional change.

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time

Fortunately, something like this can be done in FCPX so I was able to do it while having some downtime, since I don’t have to boot into my other OS like I do for most of my fan editing stuff. (God help me the day FCP7 is beyond my reach forever.)

So I’m exporting a candidate, if everything looks right. I followed your directions, with a few tweaks I had to make when facing the reality of what’s there:

  • The fireside scene keeps a few more lines than what you suggested, though still removes mention of the kiss, because otherwise there’d be an unavoidable ugly audio transition with the music.
  • I reordered scenes as they are in TAS surrounding Schmi’s funeral for the same reasons I did when working on that project: you can’t go from arriving with her body straight to the funeral. So, those few scenes are put in the order they are for TAS. This also involves losing Yoda and Mace reacting to Anakin’s rage, and the first line of Cliegg’s eulogy.

Everything else is as described: Losing the lakeside scene and using the truncated fireside scene, reordering scenes in order to remove Anakin confessing to Padme, and nixing the Dooku v Yoda duel.

My stance on revising fan edits.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I can’t wait to see it! ❤️
I would have liked to keep Shmi’s funeral and Yoda and Mace’s reaction to Anakin’s pain as in the original cut, but if it was impossible to keep them without creating bad video and audio transitions, then it doesn’t matter, I can do without them, although I think it’s a shame. Again, I thank you so much for doing this!

The fireside scene keeps a few more lines than what you suggested, though still removes mention of the kiss, because otherwise there’d be an unavoidable ugly audio transition with the music.

You did well to remove all the references to the Naboo kiss from that scene, because if you had kept them then it wouldn’t have made any sense. I mean, if the kiss on Geonosis is their first kiss, then any reference to the kiss on Naboo MUST be automatically deleted. So you did very well to remove those references from that scene.

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time

The funeral is still there! I just meant that scenes were restructured in order to remove Anakin’s murder confession.

Also there won’t be burnt-in subtitles because TAS didn’t have all of them, but I’ll include a .srt subtitle file for the alien dialogue.

My stance on revising fan edits.

Author
Time

Also there won’t be burnt-in subtitles because TAS didn’t have all of them, but I’ll include a .srt subtitle file for the alien dialogue.

Good. Then I’ll wait you to send it to me. ❤️

«This is where the fun begins!»
(Anakin Skywalker)

Author
Time

Hal 9000 said:

Sending you both a PM for the link to finished product.

could I get one too if you get the chance Hal?

“You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view” — Obi-Wan Kenobi

Author
Time

HAL, you’re pretty darn awesome!

Author
Time

Hal 9000 said:

Sending you both a PM for the link to finished product.

Could I get a link to this edit as well? Thank you!