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Obi-Wan Kenobi Redux Ideas Thread — Page 3

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RogueLeader said:

Could someone that has the Kenobi series downloaded confirm the audio situation? Is the dialogue on an isolated track? Just curious how difficult rescoring might be.

Center channel is surprisingly clean! For the AOTC flashbacks, for instance, the center channel is mainly dialogue and lightsaber SFX.

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In terms of paring things down to their minimum to let the better moments shine: there’s an old axiom in screenwriting that says you should introduce characters already as far into their own story as possible (while still remaining immediately comprehensible). With that in mind, what’s the best introduction for each of the main characters that cuts the most of their initial screentime?

I’m specifically thinking about:

  • Reva and the other Inquisitors
  • Leia, Bail (as much as it pains me to cut Jimmy Smits content), everything with Alderaan generally
  • All of the different Rebel spy people

“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 was thinking something like Leia opens already in the tree with Lola observing the ships, Breha comes to get her and we have the scene where Leia and her cousin have the disagreement, she runs out and gets kidnapped. Bail’s first major scene then ends up being where he’s in Kenobi’s cave.

This is off the top of my head and I have no idea how well it would work in practice but it could potentially streamline the alderaan/leia kidnapping stuff.

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Here’s how I was roughly planning on streamlining the kidnapping plot’s introduction in my edit.

The idea is that Obi-Wan feels a disturbance in the Force related to Leia while trying (and failing) to contact Qui-Gon.

It’s very very specific to how I’m approaching the Tatooine portion, I’ll get into it in my thread, but for the most part I don’t think we need any of the Alderaan stuff in full if we can help it.

Some of it is nice, but I don’t think a lot of it is necessary from a character perspective. (which is my focus) We can learn a lot about Leia more organically through her interactions with Ben later in the series.

I don’t think this approach is polished/perfect yet or if I’ll even follow through on it, but I like this for how it mitigates a good bit of the POV jumping, keeping us centered on the titular character for most of the [series-turned-] movie. We lose a neat moment with the intercutting Vader suit-up, but it was entirely redundant anyway.

The biggest loss I think is having Obi-Wan not completely cut off from the Force. Him saving Leia on Daiyu later in this context would just be him as rusty and weak. Which is fine I guess, it’s not like that’s not along the lines of how we understood Obi-Wan before, but I liked that moment in the show as it was.

anyway, I want to try to lean less on this device going forward

I have more to explain about it but I’ll save it for my thread

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

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This is fascinating stuff, NFBisms. Honestly, Bail contacting Obi-Wan and Reva having instigated it was one of my huge problems with the show, because it directly ties Kenobi with the Organas on the Empire’s radar. If you can tweak that, make it so Leia never hears the name “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and remove Reva’s portion post-Jabiim, that would be nearly perfect.

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I wonder if there’s a way to have the final duel take place on Jabiim and establish somehow that Obi-Wan stayed behind to face Vader while the Rebels escaped.

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That is really cool NFB! I like how we just get little glimpses of Leia.

I agree that Obi doesn’t necessarily have to be cut off from the Force completely. I think the sort of the ESP he is doing might be an easier task than lifting an object or person, like he does later, so the moment still works imo in that context.

I’m sure you’ll explain in your thread, but does Obi not sense Leia is in danger until after he leaves the planet? If so, why is he leaving Tatooine? May I misunderstood it. Interested in hearing about it either way!

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Yeah, I changed Obi-Wan’s reason for leaving Tatooine into just, literally taking Owen’s words to heart. “Leave us alone, Ben.” and he does. It’s already text that Obi-Wan can’t even disagree Anakin’s “death” is his fault, so I leaned into it.

I ended up keeping a bit of the Inquisitor and runaway stuff as the driving force in the decision. Obi-Wan sees The Inquisitors kill Nari after being told off by Owen and from there, Obi-Wan decides his presence is dangerous. That he’s dangerous. So he leaves. (not enthusiastically mind you)

I feel it’s actually a pretty clean starting place for a story that ultimately culminates in Obi-Wan learning to move on from his guilt and regain a sense of purpose.

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

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Ah, nice! I like the direction you’re taking it.

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Either cut the Vader/Palpatine chat after episode 3 of the series, or directly put Jabiim before Mapuzo, which would imply that Vader let Obi Wan go as part of not loosing the “bigger picture” as Palpatine demanded.

After all, it would give Vader some character growth, like he’s learned his lesson and learnt to respect his former master, and solved his feeling on him, which eventually leads to finally being able to defeat him.

I’d use more ROTS material. I think that framing this series via the AOTC era flashback sort of diminishes Vader: puts him still in his Padawan place when clearly he was past that by ROTS.

But again, that’s Disney explaining how toxic-male-inmaturity is what makes Vader fail, etc…

Somehow, I’d look for making Vader closer to OT Vader with the existing material.

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NFBisms said:

Here’s how I was roughly planning on streamlining the kidnapping plot’s introduction in my edit.

The idea is that Obi-Wan feels a disturbance in the Force related to Leia while trying (and failing) to contact Qui-Gon.

It’s very very specific to how I’m approaching the Tatooine portion, I’ll get into it in my thread, but for the most part I don’t think we need any of the Alderaan stuff in full if we can help it.

Some of it is nice, but I don’t think a lot of it is necessary from a character perspective. (which is my focus) We can learn a lot about Leia more organically through her interactions with Ben later in the series.

I don’t think this approach is polished/perfect yet or if I’ll even follow through on it, but I like this for how it mitigates a good bit of the POV jumping, keeping us centered on the titular character for most of the [series-turned-] movie. We lose a neat moment with the intercutting Vader suit-up, but it was entirely redundant anyway.

The biggest loss I think is having Obi-Wan not completely cut off from the Force. Him saving Leia on Daiyu later in this context would just be him as rusty and weak. Which is fine I guess, it’s not like that’s not along the lines of how we understood Obi-Wan before, but I liked that moment in the show as it was.

anyway, I want to try to lean less on this device going forward

I have more to explain about it but I’ll save it for my thread

That sounds great but I never got the impression that Obi Wan was cut off from the Force.

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Goodness gracious that’s so much better, holy crap

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For those that missed my thread 'Episode 3: Child of a Jedi (An Obi-Wan movie edit) I moved an abbreviated Obi/Vader fight into the Bacta tank to solve the canon issues. Obi-Wan would not make the same mistake and leave Anakin alive for a second time, especially after declaring that his friend is truly dead.

Here are the highlights:
-AOTC flashbacks and Obi-Vader moved to the Bacta Tank
-New Reeva aand Leia intro
-Reeva dies at the hands of Vader.

Almost no scene has gone untouched in my edit. A workprint is available for anyone interested.

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NFBisms said:

I was one of those suckers who was actually really excited for Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) because Deborah Chow and Kelley DIxon’s work on Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad fuckin’ rule. Needless to say, that was a bit misguided.

So I took a crack at editing the show to be closer in tone and style to what I expected out of BB-verse alumni.

I don’t think I’m going to do the whole show, but it was just a fun little experiment. The edit isn’t supposed to be like BB/BCS fwiw, just approaching the material with some of the storytelling philosophy I learned from them.

At the very least, Deborah Chow’s sensibilities as a director were still conducive to being arranged in this way so at least some of my excitement wasn’t unfounded

I love the visual storytelling here, but theres a few nitpicks I would like to add:

  • The fade-in to the womprat shot is very un-Star-Warsy. It needs to be a hard cut to that, then you have to extend it by around 5 - 10 beats before the Womprats get in the frame so the audience starts to get invested and ease in better into the film.

  • The zoom in from Obi-Wan’s back looks fake and digital. Keep that locked in I think.

  • I think the intro goes on for too long. To sell the repetition of the work and make it go faster is to cut a bit more and speed it up so that the audience can get the idea of same work over and over again without the baggage of it being long.

  • The flashbacks thrown into the sleeping scenes right next to the work scenes are so jarring. I’m not sure what you’re trying to do or if this is intentional.

  • If you have the VFX skill, try and match the flashbacks to the ones from ROTS, and also try and mute the colors from the Prequels to match the already mute tone from the show.

I’m going for a “faster and more intense” route that Lucas wanted for ANH, but at the end of the day, its completely up to you.

this post has been edited.

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Thanks for the notes, but tbh all of the choices are very intentional. I don’t know if I know how to articulate it, but it’s an intuitive style thing. For example, I wanted the intro to feel sparse, particularly at the beginning, not fast or intense. The flashbacks are meant to be jarring and what triggers the pace increases. I think more overt color grading for flashbacks is tacky. The zoom is actually from the show itself, I can see about keeping it more fixed, but I don’t mind it and it serves to build anticipation towards revealing Obi-Wan’s face.

I’m not really trying to make it Star Warsy fwiw, the promise of these shows for me and the intention of my own edit was that it could do more than just be along the lines of a swashbuckling adventure serial. There’s only so much I can do of course, but my sensibilities are for as measured a pace as I can.

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

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Dat_SW_Guy said:

  • If you have the VFX skill, try and match the flashbacks to the ones from ROTS, and also try and mute the colors from the Prequels to match the already mute tone from the show.

Are you talking about Anakin’s “dreams” from ROTS? If so, that was actually more of a Force vision that Anakin had more than a dream. That visual style should be separated from the dreams and nightmares visual style. So either leave it as is, or even better, create their own visual style.
Obi sensing Leia’s kidnapping is on a good track visually.

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Vladius said:

NFBisms said:

Here’s how I was roughly planning on streamlining the kidnapping plot’s introduction in my edit.

The idea is that Obi-Wan feels a disturbance in the Force related to Leia while trying (and failing) to contact Qui-Gon.

It’s very very specific to how I’m approaching the Tatooine portion, I’ll get into it in my thread, but for the most part I don’t think we need any of the Alderaan stuff in full if we can help it.

Some of it is nice, but I don’t think a lot of it is necessary from a character perspective. (which is my focus) We can learn a lot about Leia more organically through her interactions with Ben later in the series.

I don’t think this approach is polished/perfect yet or if I’ll even follow through on it, but I like this for how it mitigates a good bit of the POV jumping, keeping us centered on the titular character for most of the [series-turned-] movie. We lose a neat moment with the intercutting Vader suit-up, but it was entirely redundant anyway.

The biggest loss I think is having Obi-Wan not completely cut off from the Force. Him saving Leia on Daiyu later in this context would just be him as rusty and weak. Which is fine I guess, it’s not like that’s not along the lines of how we understood Obi-Wan before, but I liked that moment in the show as it was.

anyway, I want to try to lean less on this device going forward

I have more to explain about it but I’ll save it for my thread

That sounds great but I never got the impression that Obi Wan was cut off from the Force.

Yeah, I guess it is never explicitly stated that he is cut off from the Force. If anything, he wouldn’t be calling out to Qui-Gon in Ep 1 if he was aware he had cut himself off from the Force. So even in the show as-is, his connection is probably just very weak (through lack of use, lack of faith, etc.)

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I had an unexpected bit of time drop into my lap, so I’ve started editing the show down to its bare bones to see just how much of the guts can be ripped out while still leaving the good stuff, with the idea being to make it one singular movie. I’m not making any kind of thematic judgment on it, just pure nuts and bolts narrative. I’ve currently got the first three episodes down to an hour, and I’ll tackle the remaining three tomorrow.

My intention was for this to be more of a resource for other edits than an actual fanedit in its own right, but I’m kind of digging the end product so far, so we’ll see how it goes. If I finish the whole thing tomorrow I’ll upload it, otherwise I’ll upload the first half with the second half to come later.

“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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And, done. I’ll upload it later today. The whole thing ends up sitting just under the 2hr mark before credits.

In terms of cutting content, it’s easy to trim a lot of conversations because they’re just repeating things we heard in the previous episode to remind the viewer. For example, Ep5 ends with Reva telling Vader about the tracking device at Fortress Inquisitorius, then Ep6 starts with Reva telling Vader about the tracking device on a star destroyer. When you edit it into a movie, these scenes are almost back to back, so you just pick one and cut the other. There’s a lot of instances like this.

When I got towards the end of Ep5, I was actually worried that there wasn’t going to be two hours worth of content in it, even having left a lot of breathing room in there; I wasn’t as judicious with what I cut from Ep6 as a result, so, you could definitely cut it shorter if you really wanted to. My original goal was just to make it as short as possible while still being coherent as a resource to other editors, but as I went on I couldn’t resist recutting some individual scenes and lines, so, I guess it’s Kenobi The Faraday Cut now.

“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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My workprint is uploaded! DM me if you would like a link. I already know what I’m going to do for a workprint V2 before I try and smooth it into an actual edit; I’ll try and write up a changelog of sorts and then I’ll make a thread for it on its own.

Edit: I’m mostly done with my V2, lol. So, wait until I upload it tomorrow before watching the workprint.

“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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Random idea:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ktlF2Ii6tgc

Anyone considered maybe using some fragments of the dialogue during flashbacks? There’s a one nice line that would work well with the final showdown (Anakin asks Obi-wan what would he do if Anakin failed him as well, and Obi-Wan replies that Anakin would never fail him). I think it’d work super well with the “I’m not your failure Obi-Wan” moment).

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The only issue I see with that is Matt Lanter’s Anakin sounds very different from Hayden’s Anakin (I love both, but they’re very different performances for different story purposes). James Arnold Taylor’s Obi-Wan could definitely pass as Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan on certain lines, though, so there’s a lot of TCW that could be plumbed for use in OWK edits, which I hadn’t considered.

“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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Sorry if this has already been addressed, but has anyone considered an edit without Reva? Just a story about Obi-wan rescuing Leia and Vader happening across him?

“You can’t polish a turd. But you can shape it to look like candy.”