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The Force Awakens: Starlight (V1.1 Released!) — Page 84

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This whole edit reminds me of how the original Star Wars was saved in the editing room. As I’m sure many of you are aware, originally the Death Star was just gonna be at some random point in space. Post production made it so that they were targeting Yavin.

I see this restructuring the same way. Suddenly, the heroes suffer a huge loss in their climactic battle and two of our lead heroes give into their fear and anger at the enemy in order to “win”. But at what cost? TLJ gives Poe a whole arc about thinking more tactically, and Rey all of TROS to grapple with her inner darkness.

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Jar Jar Bricks said:

This whole edit reminds me of how the original Star Wars was saved in the editing room. As I’m sure many of you are aware, originally the Death Star was just gonna be at some random point in space. Post production made it so that they were targeting Yavin.

I see this restructuring the same way.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve gotten Marcia Lucas vibes from TLJ Rekindled and TROS Ascendant too. My favorite type of fanedit is when the editor goes at it from the perspective of a Hollywood studio: treating the original movie as a “rough cut” that the “test audience” (AKA the Internet) is unsatisfied with, and expending whatever resources are necessary to fix the movie’s issues while still feeling seamless and professional.

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

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Who’s Marcia Lucas?

“The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.”
-Sheev Palpatine, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

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George’s ex-wife. As I understand it, she led the editing process for the first film.

Anyway, I didn’t realize my post was gonna bring everything we just discussed to another page. Nev (and anyone else interested), we have Poe line options on the previous page. Lol.

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Those Poe lines sound great, JJB! I’d almost asked you to do them when asking for the ‘Ilum System’ line, but I shouldn’t have worried. All these will definitely be in consideration for V2.

And yes, Restructured as an idea does feel a lot like how I imagine things might have gone in '76 and '77, keeping every option on the table and continuously moving to make the film better, even up to the very end. Because sometimes that’s really what saves a film.

Anyway, here’s a poster for the edit that I’ve been working on for a while:

Starlight Poster

This and a textless version have been added to the 5 GB folder.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Is that your art, Nev? Because if it is, I really dig it! Reminds me of the educational adventure books I used to read as a kid.

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

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 (Edited)

Jar Jar Bricks said:

George’s ex-wife. As I understand it, she led the editing process for the first film.

George did, and the Death Star was always targeting Yavin. There just wasn’t the countdown element to it. “Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!”

Nev, that art is beautiful!

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OK so I created an account just to ask this question. Where on earth do I download this thing? I cant find a link or anything anywhere. HELP!

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I just watched the film with my brother and his friend. They had the following feedback:

  • Overall, a massive improvement over the original
  • Would be interested in some sort of line which indicates the Republic is endlessly debating sending in support, thus why they never intervene.
  • The Sith whispers may be a bit too subtle. I had to point it out to them.
  • My brother would like to see some audio lines indicating what Rey is hearing in Kylo’s head about fearing not being as strong as Darth Vader. This would be similar to what Kylo hears in Poe’s head.
  • Visually, Jakku may need to be more consistent. Although the morning and evening would adjust light levels, they think it makes it look like they’re on a completely different world at times.
  • Humor has been trimmed very well, but my brother thinks you could have gone even further in a couple places. He didn’t elaborate lol.
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Jar Jar Bricks said:

I just watched the film with my brother and his friend. They had the following feedback:

  • Overall, a massive improvement over the original

Nice!

  • Would be interested in some sort of line which indicates the Republic is endlessly debating sending in support, thus why they never intervene.

This is already planned for V2 in a deleted scene.

  • The Sith whispers may be a bit too subtle. I had to point it out to them.

That actually makes me think that they’ve done their job, since sometimes the best effect is one that becomes invisible. Of course if it’s a volume issue, that’s another thing.

  • My brother would like to see some audio lines indicating what Rey is hearing in Kylo’s head about fearing not being as strong as Darth Vader. This would be similar to what Kylo hears in Poe’s head.

Interesting idea, and with the AI voices it may be possible. I could just reuse lines from the prayer scene, but that seems a bit basic. More thought will be needed.

  • Visually, Jakku may need to be more consistent. Although the morning and evening would adjust light levels, they think it makes it look like they’re on a completely different world at times.

Is it just the evening scene that has this problem?

  • Humor has been trimmed very well, but my brother thinks you could have gone even further in a couple places. He didn’t elaborate lol.

I’m pretty happy with how much humor has been cut, actually. But of course everyone’s mileage will vary 😃

Thank you for the feedback here, and I’m glad y’all enjoyed it!

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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The scene where Rey is riding across the desert on her bike with the Star Destroyer in the background wasn’t white enough, he says.

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I should also mention that Rey’s Sith eyes took them completely off guard (in a good way!). They both agreed that it added a lot to her character for her to tap into the dark side in that moment.

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NeverarGreat said:
Interesting idea, and with the AI voices it may be possible. I could just reuse lines from the prayer scene, but that seems a bit basic. More thought will be needed.

Perhaps you can make this as basic as it gets yet very effective, if you would insert a subtle breath of vader.
For the audience it could be like „Hm, he‘s thinking about vader but why?“ (even though we have our suspicion kylo is chasing his grandfather).

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Slight criticism, of the scene around 1:29:30 of Kylo Ren looking out the window of the sun getting drained into starkiller base.

I think the lighting on Kylo should be less red and more orange like the sun. Otherwise it looks like the red beam the weapon fires, which is whats happening in the theatrical I believe at this scene.

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

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So I finally sat down to watch it and…
buddy, you NAILED IT. Made the movie so much more enjoyable. Kudos to you, really! This is 100% my definitive version of TFA to have on my collection from now on.
Out of all things, I was vastly impressed on how much better the climax / final act got to be with the rearranging. Rey’s sith eyes was the cherry on the cake.

Hope you don’t mind some nitpicks, those are my notes of things I thought could be improved whilst watching it:

  1. The “from the shadows of an imperial fortress” at the opening crawl doesn’t make any sense. What fortress? There’s never been anything in that regard afaik. Also, this kinda of implies that they all came suddenly from a single place at a specific time, and there’s no way the first order hasn’t been around for at least a good while and scattered all around. I mean, they turned Ilum into a giant space weapon, right? So I feel like something on the likes of “from the shadows of imperial remnants” would be more simple and effective, and less in-universe confusing.

  2. Literally the only rough edit I noticed in the entire flick was the first time Rey interacted with Unkar Plutt. Could really tell something was amiss there.

  3. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the original, so maybe that’s on me, but I didn’t really notice much difference on Jakku’s new color grade, still looked the same to me.

  4. With this new AI voiceover around, would it be possible to change “the republic” to “the new republic” whenever it’s said during the movie? Or at least here and there, a couple times? I think they only say NEW REPUBLIC once, and that’s kinda of the name of the new regime, so it always bothered me.

  5. Any way to improve / modify the infamous “a good question. for another time” line? Still feels like a middle finger hurled at the spectator’s face that went absolutely nowhere at the end.

  6. The one big change I would suggest. The reveal of Kylo being Han/Leia’s son when these two first gather didn’t really do it for me. Hard to explain, maybe the soundtrack, the pacing, the cinematography, but to me that was blatantly not the intended moment of the reveal. If you take their conversation - “I saw him. Leia, I saw our son. He was here” - and remove the middle (leaving “I saw him. Leia, he was here”) to keep the suspense for a little longer and then reveal it to the audience when Snoke teases Kylo be calling him Solo, I feel like that would be way more impactful. Again, just a suggestion. Maybe it wouldn’t work at all, idk lmao.

  7. How does Finn know that Rey was taken specifically to Starkiller base and that they must go there to rescue her?

  8. Possible to reduce the massive THUMP sound effect from when Kylo first puts his mask down? That exaggerated sound effect made it look like he wears a helmet that weights about 2000 pounds.

  9. Kylo’s “forgive me” while visiting the falcon is SO unnecessary and it really ruined the moment to me. It was a very strong scene that needed absolutely nothing said. It actually reminded me of Vader’s infamous “no…! noooo…!!” from RotJ bluray.

  10. TOO much time between Chewie blowing up the oscilator and the x-wings noticing the new hole they could now enter to attack. Maybe split that scene up and put the first half before Rey and Finn face off against Kylo?

  11. I loved the MCUish dumb humor trimmed down. Only joke I would have tried to remove was the “that one, no! no!, no!” between Rey and Finn at the falcon. But I know that humor is extremely subjective.

Anyways, I hope you don’t take these “criticisms” the wrong way. Just trying to get us fans the most absolutely perfect version of TFA possible. But you already made a marvelous job, have no doubt!

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 (Edited)

I believe the crawl is referring to Starkiller Base. But I agree that maybe it could be a bit more clear.

If that is their main “fortress” and base of operations, that would also explain why Finn assumes they are taking Rey there.

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Watched this yesterday, was outstanding!

the changes to the lines were well done!

thanks for the effort you have put into this! i look forward to seeing more updates ❤️

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This is a tad overdue, and I still haven’t watched the edit in full as of typing this, but I want to thank Nev for thanking me and Master Lawdog in the credits of V1.1! I’m glad we could contribute to this project in some way, although I don’t exactly know how. 😄

“The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.”
-Sheev Palpatine, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

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I was wondering if I could have a download link please, I enjoyed V1.0 and am interested in seeing the follow up.