The Rise of Skywalker: Untold (WIP) — Page 3

Snooker! Thank you, I may very well take you up on that! Your work on Ascendant was amazing!

Honestly, where I’d love to take the story is: I’d have the last shot of Rey be of her hugging her new family. She is then completely removed from the epilogue, and instead Ben arrives on Tatooine. He’s returned to where it all started, in order to create a new beginning for himself. Last shot of the film is him, silhouetted against the binary sunset, as John Williams’s score swells around him.

That said, I’m also trying to be realistic. The amount of VFX work, in my mind, would be enormous. Even if we strip it down to the bear essentials and make some concessions, you’d still need a shot of Kylo flying away from Exegol, and from Rey, after the battle. (If I were directing the movie from scratch, I’d probably also include shots of Ben in the cockpit and jumping to hyperspace, but you could probably work around those.)

What do you do after that? Assuming Rey still goes to Tatooine (because trying to remove her from all of the shots wouldn’t be feasible), I’d probably structure it like this: Rey stands up, senses something, looks over. Rather than seeing Ghost Luke and Leia, she sees Flesh Ben walking up. (Something like the shot on Pasaana, but you’d have to paint out the smoking wreckage of the ship behind him.) At that point, I see three options:

• Ben joins her on the Falcon. You see Rey walking away, BB-8 in tow, and then Ben following her. They fly away together. You’d need to comp Ben into the shot somehow.
• Rey stands and waits for Ben. They stand silhouetted together. I’m not a fan of this - I support Hal’s decision in Ascendant to not leave Rey stuck on another desert planet for her final shot in the series.
• Rey ditches Ben. She walks away, the Falcon flies off as Ben is silhouetted. This feels like the worst one to me. It’s just a rehash of their same relationship - he chases her, she escapes, Ben is left alone and forsaken.

So, talking it all out, you’d minimally need four new VFX shots to make #KyloLives work in this version of the film:

• A shot of his ship flying away after the battle on Exegol.
• A shot of him approaching on Tatooine.
• A shot of him seeing Rey from afar.
• A shot of him following her to the Falcon.

Truth be told, that’s less than I thought it would be; but it’s still more than I’m capable of doing. It’s an idea that I’d love to see realized, but one that I’ll put near the bottom of my wishlist. If someone else is willing to help build the shots, I would be happy to include them!

Great to see you, Raditz, glad to have you on board!

Seize the Frame did an incredible job with the Force of Darkness film - in fact, some of my early concepts for this cut involved incorporating their project into this one. Ultimately though, I decided against it. There are several tiny details in FoD that are just a bit off from TROS - the way they frame their shots, the style of the fight choreography, and especially the music. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all excellent as its own thing; but I worried that the two styles of filmmaking wouldn’t quite mesh together. Not to mention, to replace the music with John Williams score, it would also require me to redo all of the foley and sound FX.

For me, J.J. has a very distinctive way of putting together his movies; and I want this project to feel like a cohesive, professional film. I was working on the Dagger Vision sequence, for example, and there are things I included in there that, normally, I wouldn’t have chosen to edit that way; but I did it anyway, because it felt more like J.J.'s style.

That said, I do have other new bits that I’m working on, to flesh out Kylo as a character more. So hopefully he’ll still have a satisfying arc at the end of the day!

sade1212 said:

I’m excited to see how you’ve managed to achieve that.

You and me both, dude. 😉

It’s definitely hard to say how the Palpatine restructure will play out without having the completed edit. Something about doing it this way just feels right to me though, so I hope it works in practice! In my mind, removing him as the looming threat allows it to feel more like a Rey movie instead of a Palpatine movie. It also helps to drive a greater wedge between Rey and her friends if she’s the only one burdened with the knowledge of Palpatine’s return. Plus, it’s not a reveal that should be tossed in unceremoniously. You’ve got to earn it, build to it.

I just hope all of that will come through effectively!

Glad to see you, sade; thanks for reaching out!

Hi all, happy Star Wars Day!

There was some discussion earlier about preserving Hux dying in this edit. (The original plan was to scrap his death entirely, along with half of the Finn/Poe/Chewie escape.) I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and here’s where I’m at:

Hux is shot twice in the film, poor bloke; unfortunately, I don’t think either “shot” (ahem) will work in this edit. The first time, when Finn shoots him, the framing and pacing (and setting) of the shot is all off. It’s designed to be a comedy shot, and I don’t see a way of repurposing it to have the proper dramatic weight.

The second shot also wouldn’t work. Hux is bandaged - which doesn’t make sense if Finn and Poe and Chewie are never re-captured, and Hux never has to break them out. And there’s no way to cut around that costuming, because it’s all one continuous take.

So instead, we’re going to have to get creative.

I’ve been experimenting with the idea of Pryde shooting Hux as part of a coup. This is my progress so far. Obviously, it still needs a fair amount of cleanup before I’m ready to officially include it, especially with the composite masking and the lip sync; but before I waste time trying to do that, I wanted to get people’s opinions: How do we feel about this scene? Does it make sense? Does it add anything worthwhile to the overall story? Will audiences be confused about Pryde’s motivations?

(For context here, I’m planning on moving the Leia scene up in the film - so it would go Hangar Scene -> Leia Scene -> Hux/Pryde Scene.)

https://streamable.com/zeqwdm

I guess…my thinking is, I don’t really understand the point of removing Hux and then just replacing him with a functionally identical character. There’s no storytelling value in doing it in the theatrical version; and I think there’s even less value in going out of the way to do that again here. And purely in terms of plot, Hux’s death serves absolutely no purpose in the film either.

So, given that, I think I’m leaning towards leaving this scene on the cutting room floor. Overall, I want this edit to feel like a more cohesive follow up to the previous two films; and I think that pointlessly throwing away Hux halfway through goes against that objective. For now, I think I’ll proceed as originally planned, and keep him alive.

Hello! This summer ended up being unexpectedly busy for me, which took me away from editing for a while. But, I am happy to say that things are progressing! My main focus has been on enhancing the new dialogue for this edit with additional bits of AI-generated content, splicing it all together in order to get the most natural, emotive performances possible. So far, I have around 75 lines of “reconstructed” dialogue, i.e. dialogue for named characters, whose voices are already established.

To that end, I’m excited to finally present a significant scene that I’ve been working on: Leia’s death. If you’re interested in reading more about my thought process behind these changes, you can do so below.

Explanation:

Leia’s death never worked for me in the film. We’ve seen characters - including Leia herself - use the Force to sense even hear each other across great distances plenty of times before, so I refuse to believe that that’s what killed her. So the only explanation I can see is that Leia, like her mother before her, lost the will to live. It’s stupid at best, and disrespectful at worst.

My goal here was to give Leia an actual reason for dying; and what would be more fitting than sacrificing herself to save her son? Rey channels Leia’s life force into Ben - which also explains how Rey is able to heal a mortal wound without dying, while the same action costs Ben his life at the end.

In addition to the plot logistics, I believe this version is much stronger from a character perspective. Leia gets to have a final conversation with her son, reaffirming him of her love. This then helps to justify Ben’s redemption in the next scene. (Leia: “Ben…” [dies]. Ben: “Oh okay, I guess I’m good now.”)

This also helps to push Rey’s new character arc along very nicely. In my version, she’s not going to fall due to the abstract concept of genetic moral inheritance; she’s fighting against her own innate anger and darkness. At this point in the story, she has lost control of her emotions entirely. In her anger, she stabs Ben when his back is turned, destroying Leia’s efforts to save her son. Leia now has to sacrifice herself to save Ben, to fix Rey’s mistake. Leia’s death is now Rey’s fault, because Rey lost control. It’s no wonder, then, that Rey would flee to Ahch-To, afraid and ashamed of what she’s done.

This scene involved a whole slew of original Leia dialogue, and the score and soundscape have been completely replaced. Feedback is always welcome, especially in regards to the “Force Voice” reverb effect.

https://streamable.com/o63f91

Additionally, just to put it out there, I still need help wrapping up two VFX shots, involving paint outs and tracking. If you have some experience with After Effects and are wiling to help, please reach out!

Thanks for watching! More (hopefully) soon!

Just clicked on this thread out of curiosity, and WOAH that new Leia death scene hits so much harder than I was expecting. Daisy Ridley’s performance surprisingly works really well with this change. Amazing work blending the edits in.

The main thing I can think of is somehow communicating the cost that Force healing requires, either earlier on or in that moment, because the stakes aren’t entirely clear until after Leia dies.

Welcome, ildiem! Thanks for checking out the project!

I see what you’re saying. There is Rey’s earlier line with the Snake, “transferred a bit of life”; but I can see where we’d need to establish the jump from “a bit of life” to “the whole life.”

Maybe something like “Rey, please, we can still save him. Let me save him. Bring him home.” Is that still too vague? I don’t want to bog down the scene with too much mechanical exposition, you know?

I agree, one wouldn’t want too much exposition in such an emotional scene. That line addition sounds pretty good to me though.

Yeah, that’s where I’m planning on leaving Hux at this point. I wanted to explore the idea of still killing him off; but as you pointed out, it all just felt forced. I actually do have some additional Hux dialogue ready to go, and then I’m going to try reusing some old shots during the finale. Like you said though, no perfect solution. They really did a number on him in the theatrical film.

I do think I want to keep Rey in the scene during the healing process - like I mentioned above, I think it’s a rather pivotal moment for her character. I definitely am curious about the “Ben lives” angle though - it’s something I’m interested in, but I don’t think I have the skillset to get it to where it needs to be in order to work. I’ll be sure to take a look at those other edits you mentioned!

Thanks for the feedback!

Wow! The only thing that didn’t quite work for me was Leia’s final “Ben” along with the dramatic shot of her dying. Also, god, the little Reylo part in me sure does want someone with greater skills and commitment than myself to commit to a “Ben lives”, but hey, best of luck to you regardless of where this ends up! Definitely one of the edits to keep an eye on

May I ask, what about it didn’t work for you? Was it a timing thing; or did the shot overall just feel a tad melodramatic? I wanted Leia to have one final thing to say to her son, and it felt like a meaningful twist to have that line (originally meant for Rey) to be used for Ben instead.

Okay, test with the new line addition: https://streamable.com/akbkz1

(I also fiddled with the timing a bit on the last “Ben…” I think it flows a little more naturally now.)

I suppose when I wrote that, my thought was, the context already makes it clear she’s saying it to Ben, original line usage notwithstanding, and people in this film constantly say each other’s name (and nothing else), and you have her address him by name here quite clearly before that, and so it just seemed redundant! I’ll even say this - in your version, without the final ‘Ben’, it almost makes it seem that maybe she is saying that final line to both of them in a way (because she finishes saying it on a shot of Rey’s face, mostly).

I should add, I wasn’t sure whether you were keeping the line as she says it to Rey earlier, I assumed you were deleting it. Anyway, the ben is not a deal breaker 😄

And yes, the shot always felt too dramatic to me. This is more directed at TROS itself, on the one hand they tried to be very sensitive about Leia’s death, and yet that shot with its movement and movie-esque arm going limp plays sort of like drumroll… ta-daa! if you know what I mean. Anyway, lots of love!

The dice died toward the end of TLJ though.

KumoNin said:

And yes, the shot always felt too dramatic to me. This is more directed at TROS itself, on the one hand they tried to be very sensitive about Leia’s death, and yet that shot with its movement and movie-esque arm going limp plays sort of like drumroll… ta-daa! if you know what I mean. Anyway, lots of love!

I know exactly what you mean lol. What a perfect way to describe that.

I will say that the uncertainty there, initially not being sure if Leia was talking to Rey or to Ben, was deliberate on my part. I feel like resolving that uncertainty - revealing that Leia’s last words to be for him specifically - would mean a lot to Ben, showing him that he was always Leia’s first priority. If she’s saying it to both of them… I don’t know, it almost feels like they’re fighting for her love or something. I worry it would have made Kylo more resentful of Rey.

That said, I definitely see the value in making it more ambiguous too, from a meta perspective. I’ll ponder over it.

And yes, as Hal points out, the dice that Luke gave Leia were fake. As far as we know, the real dice were last seen on the Falcon…

Funnily enough, my original intention was to cut out that insert shot of the medal - even though I worked on it for Ascendant! Unfortunately, you can still see her holding it during the silhouette shots, and removing it from there is definitely beyond my ability. So she’s going to be holding it regardless; and at that point, I think the insert actually flows pretty well in my reworked sequence.

Don’t worry though, Chewie definitely won’t get the darn thing in the end. 😉

As for the “Ben” line, here’s a version of the scene without it. Thoughts? I’m worried it sounds a tad unfinished - as if it’s missing a period at the end of the sentence.

https://streamable.com/av9qsa