The Last Jedi: Stoic Edition (WIP) — Page 5

I was thinking about your planned edit of turning DJ into the codebreaker, and I realized something: if you’re keeping the character who was originally supposed to be the codebreaker in the movie, wouldn’t you need to get rid of his red plom bloom? At the very least, you’d need to recolor it. I’m just worried someone would watch the movie and think “Wait, that random background character also has a plom bloom? Are there two codebreakers or something?”

Also, I feel like you’d need to remove Maz’s line about the codebreaker “rolling on a high-stakes table”. It feels like it creates a bit of a contradiction, with Maz saying that the codebreaker is a rich classy guy and him turning out to be a bum in prison.

StarkillerAG said:

I was thinking about your planned edit of turning DJ into the codebreaker, and I realized something: if you’re keeping the character who was originally supposed to be the codebreaker in the movie, wouldn’t you need to get rid of his red plom bloom? At the very least, you’d need to recolor it. I’m just worried someone would watch the movie and think “Wait, that random background character also has a plom bloom? Are there two codebreakers or something?”

Good catch, but thankfully, it’s really not visible in the movie outside of the insert shot of it on his lapel. In the wide shot it’s too small and quick to see, and in the midshot, it’s conveniently framed out.

Also, I feel like you’d need to remove Maz’s line about the codebreaker “rolling on a high-stakes table”. It feels like it creates a bit of a contradiction, with Maz saying that the codebreaker is a rich classy guy and him turning out to be a bum in prison.

Maz never actually says he’s classy or rich in that scene; just that he’s an expert codebreaker, a good gambler, good with a blaster, and good at sex, all of which tracks with DJ. Remember, in TFA, Maz hangs out with a seedy crowd. To me, the more jarring concept is that in the theatrical version, this type of codebreaking is so expert and difficult that Maz only knows of one other person in the galaxy who can do it, and then a third person just happens to stumble into their path in a giant coincidence.

So, what I have left to do:

• Re-record Abednego line about Holdo. I’m considering subtitling it instead with the alien speech audio; I’m struggling to fit any variation on the information that I’m trying to convey into the mouth movements.
• A few bits of tweaking on Rose’s new line. I’m fine with it for a V1 release as it currently is, but I’d swap it out for a V2 release if something better comes up.
• VFX insert of DJ with the plomme bloom. I’m actually considering recording footage of some similar fabric with a plomme bloom pinned to it for this, but that would require making the prop myself. Which would be great fun, but, I probably will not have the time.

I want to get a V1 of this edit out soon, so I can tick it off as nominally finished. I’m proud of my work on it (and of the work of everyone who’s helped and made suggestions or observations!) and, watching it back today, the movie is finally the film I always wanted it to be.

Something else left to do actually - the lightsaber hum sound after Luke has already deactivated his saber in Sparky’s Third Flashback VFX shot.

This is a change that I really want to be in there, because I think it makes a massive difference - but if I can’t remove the hum, it won’t work. The lightsaber hum sound is on the same channel as Luke’s dialogue, and after my best attempts, I have to concede that I lack the technical tools to do any more.

Oh, something else. My optical flow function has stopped working and I can’t figure it out.

I’m trying to use it to smooth over a jump cut; the two frames are almost identical, but I can still just see it when I’m looking for it. My plan was to use the optical flow tool to slow down the (rendered and exported and reimported) shot, creating a new tweening frame with its optical flow magic, which I would then put between the jump cut frames to smooth the seam.

While I can publish the edit without it, if someone with Premiere CC wants to do a minute’s worth of rendering for me, I certainly wouldn’t say no.

Saber sound in the third flashback has been removed! I borrowed a friend’s computer with some better audio software and it worked. I’m so excited about this; it means I can use SparkySywer’s version of the scene, which is a huge improvement.

Here it is.

CMMAP said:

CaptainFaraday said:

Here it is.

Amazing. Great work, truly.

Thank you! SparkySywer did all of the visual work; I just removed the lightsaber hum while Luke is speaking.

Updates:

• Blended the audio on Rose’s line better, and recut the visuals that accompany it.
• Removed the lightsaber hum in the third flashback.
• After brief consultation with poppasketti, I’ve visually cut out the plomme bloom so that I can track it onto a new background plate that I’ll have to film.
• ThisIsCreation is recording a new Abednego line for me!
• I’m having some fiddly technical issues with the opening crawl which have to be solved, to do with frame skipping.

Update: Added ThisIsCreation’s new audio, meaning the new Abednego dialogue change is now 100% complete.

That means the only things left to do are fix the frame skipping in the opening crawl, and film and composit the DJ jacket insert shot.

I found something else I need to do. I’m adding the Master Codebreaker musical motif to the scene where Maz tells them where to find him; the score isn’t long enough to fit the dialogue beats it has to cover, so, I need to extend it. It’s a juggling act of making the music sound natural while also hitting certain frames at the beginning and end, which sadly don’t care about whether the score mickey-mouses or not. Just one of the more overt differences between fanediting and editing rushes.

I’ve decided not to do a V1 and V2, but since it’s so close to completion, just wait and release it once it’s done with all the changes I planned. The workprint is always available until then, although I have improved a lot of small things in it since then.

I feel silly for taking so long to think of this, but it’s completely plausible to potentially give the “shuttle” line to Finn. I’ll have to search around and see if he ever says anything that might be usable.

I’m fine with the current Rose line as an edit for myself, but, if I want to make this as publicly professional as possible - and I do - then I want to keep trying to find other options. I think I’ve been subconsciously in a rush to get this out because it’s so close to being finished, but I’d rather slow down and make sure it’s up to proper quality standards.

RogueLeader said:

I think that’s a good idea Faraday! The last time I watched it I did feel like it didn’t totally hold up, so potentially reworking it might turn out well!

I’m not sure which version you’d have heard last - the version in the workprint is really rough, and I’ve updated it with a simpler and shorter line since then. Either way, it can definitely be better.

Extending the Codebreaker musical motif completed.

Updates:

• Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
• My friend who is working on a potential VFX solution to the “DJ with plomme bloom” thing has let me know that he finishes his university exams soon, so he’ll be able to actually give it a proper go for me.
• I haven’t dropped any of my edits, I just have even less time these days. I lurk when I can, but current Busy Life Shit even makes that problematic. But, I think about this place often, and I’m keen to be more active again when life lets me, probably next year.

It’s always good to hear from you! I hope things ease up for you in the future!

I’ve had a little bit of time unexpectedly drop into my lap, so I’ve played around with the “BB-8 warns Finn and Rose about the shuttle being impounded” moment. I’ve given the line to Finn, and I think it’s 90% working now! I’ve got great clean audio of him saying “ship” in the right intonation, and I have a “the” which flows fluidly into it, but the atmos on the “the” is slightly jarring in the transition. So, I’m going to have a hunt for any other "the"s that could work, and other than that it’s just smoothing the actual cuts over that moment. It’s really coming together!

After this, literally all that is left is getting the opening crawl rendered, and that damn VFX shot of the red plomme bloom on DJ’s jacket. I have a few ideas about that but they all require outside help.

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!

I no longer have the opportunity to do any editing at work, which is why things have dried up so much on my end. My current plan is to get the last few things finished for Stoic Edition, and that’s probably going to be it. I’m finding myself burned out on the sheer volume of Star Wars content coming out, and that I increasingly just want to watch the main saga movies and ignore the rest of it.

The dead speak! 😉

It’s great to see you back, Faraday! To be honest, I had completely forgotten about this edit, but rereading the cutlist made me remember how promising it was. I can’t wait until you finally find the time to finish it.

Somehow, Faraday returned.

It’s sad to see this journey come to an end after so long, but only time will tell if it was worth it.

I’m sure I’ll keep making fanedits at some point in the future; I used to be a film editor, it’s in my blood forever. It’s just a time management issue.

There’s really only two or three things left to do on this edit, and I think for the single VFX shot I need, I might actually front up some money and hire someone to do it properly. I think this edit is probably my magnum opus and I want to be able to point to it and say “this is finished and I’m satisfied with it.”