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Producing an Endor fleet battle video for YouTube, incorporating deleted footage, questions for Adywan...

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Hey everyone, first post here. I grew up in the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s, so SW was only 3 films and a handful of games for me. Over the years I’ve gotten into filmmaking and it only made me fall more in love with the OT and what they were able to accomplish. I’ve done endless research into how they made the films, including purchasing Bill Kimberlin’s memoir “Into the Star Wars Empire” where he talks about how, to this day, ROTJ contains the most layered shots ever made in film history. I always tell people that I consider these films “Art, made by master craftsmen.”

Anyway, a couple of months ago I was made aware of some of the deleted/unused footage of female and alien pilots for the Endor fleet battle. Upon seeing it, it was like watching SW for the first time. What a treat. It just lit a fire under me… I’m currently getting back into being a YouTube content creator, and it just seemed like it was meant to be that I saw this footage just as I’m getting back into making videos. I’ve decided that I want to put out a version of the fleet battle with a good chunk of that unused footage incorporated back in. I don’t want to do anything crazy, as I lean towards the purist side… believe me, I’m extremely concerned about maintaining the pacing because I feel like it is pretty much flawless. I just want to take footage that got left on the cutting room floor and see if it is possible that it could have made it to the final product.

Having said that, upon starting work here, I just remembered Adywan’s SW Revisited projects and thought… holy cow, I better pop in and see how things are going, ask for input, and generally inquire about what I can do here. I was wondering generally what Adywan’s gameplan is for the battle… I’ve read about actual live action B-wing cockpit sets being made??? I can’t compete with that, but I would love to know if there’s any other obscure footage out there I could try and throw in “my cut” before I really dive into the project.

Obviously if my video winds up working out really well (I’m going to be colorizing the female pilot footage even), I would be more than happy to send any project files over to him for use in his, clearly, much better financed and sophisticated version. I’m excited for both versions, I’m already having a lot of fun over on my end.

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Welcome to the forum!

I always love to hear about people working on Return of the Jedi! What’s great about these forums is that it is a place where you can bounce ideas around and get constructive feedback. I’d be curious to hear what things you already had in mind, like where/how you were going to incorporate some of these unused shots.

A user on the forum called timdiggerm put together a wonderful resource called Reconstructing the end of ROTJ with Storyboards that could be a source of inspiration for some ideas, especially if you want to lean in a more purist direction.

I think what Ady is doing is going to be amazing, but I will say his say that what he has planned for the Battle of Endor will probably stand on its own. In the past I believe has has said that he is not planning on using most of the deleted scenes because the quality does not match the look he is going for. With that said, I do think there is a lot of potential for other projects to use the deleted scenes to really add to the battle in a different way. You mention leaning toward the purism side, and I think incorporating footage shot for the movie is a cool way to do that.

Also, I’m sure other people, including myself, would love it if you shared whatever you made with whole forum! There are some members that have been working on deleted scene restorations, but I don’t think anyone has tackled any of the Lost Rebels footage, but I may be wrong.

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Hey, thanks! Yeah I think you totally understand what vibe I’m going with for this project; I want it to seem like nothing was added in. Then again, I must be honest and admit that I am looking at a couple of clips from other projects, films and games for potential additions… but if they don’t look right, there’s no chance I include them. Which brings up another question, I had some pictures I wanted to include in my original post and here, does the forum have the option for that?

Thanks for the solid heads up on that storyboard resource!!! I’m sure that will come in extremely handy! Funny enough, I stumbled across an animated storyboard video that they actually used to prep shots on ROTJ and one of them was so good that I’m considering including it in my project. This is one of those instances where it would help being able to insert an imagine in my post, to show what I’m talking about.

Anyway, as far as restoration of the Lost Rebels footage (thanks for reminding me what that was called), I haven’t seen anyone attempt it. I’m not a resto pro or anything, but I’ll be giving it a go. I guess what I’m hoping for with my project is that it turns out as a concept for what can be done if someone with more resources, experience and equipment decides to go with that same approach. I really don’t mind just putting it together as such.

As for where I’m at right now, I’m currently going through soundtracks trying to find the EXACT ones used for the film… because if I am going to be inserting footage, I will have to have the backing audio/music track mesh perfectly. Trouble is, there seems to be some difference between the music track in the film, and the “official soundtrack” that has been uploaded online in various locations. It sounds identical, but… I don’t know how to explain this… it seems as if it’s a different orchestra performing it. As in, let’s say the Boston Philharmonic perform a Mozart song, then the Philadelphia Philharmonic performs the same song… there will be some minor audible differences because people aren’t robots and it’s not hitting play on a CD. Long story short, it seems as if the performance they used in the film is slightly softer, less treble-y than the one that was sold/offered as the official soundtrack. I’m hoping I can line it up just right and the sound FX and dialogue helps blend it out.

As for where I am going to insert the inclusions, I’m going to position those clips over various parts of the entire battle and make cuts, trying them in different spots to see if there’s a good fit.

Thanks for welcoming me, this already seems like it’s going to be my new favorite joint to hang out at.

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So I’m going to add an image to this post, and what you can do is go down to where it says “QUOTE” and click that. You will see what I had to type to insert the image into it. For the image, you will have to use a url that ends in .jpg (other formats might work but that’s the only one I’ve ever used). I usually will post the image on imgur, and then use the url link for posts here.

So you type an !, then whatever the name of the image is in brackets [] (the name can be anything), and then the url is in parentheses ().

B-Wings Divebombing

You can always “QOUTE” other people’s comments/posts if you want to see how they formatted their post, but don’t click “POST”, otherwise you’ll be actually quoting their comment in a new post (which you can do if you want to reference a statement someone made in a post in order to reply to it.)

Definitely share that animated storyboard video!

And restoration work is always welcome, but if removing dust and scratches from the footage becomes too much of a challenge, you could always version of ROTJ that has more dirt and grain to have the new footage more closely blend it. And that could give the film a “lost cut” sort of quality.

I’m gonna PM you about the music issue!

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I was actually on Imgur trying to figure out which link to copy and paste, but none of them worked. Thanks for the heads up, there was probably no other way I would’ve figured that out.

B-Wings Divebombing

Looks like that worked! Here’s the link to the storyboard:

https://youtu.be/NdtUoAE2EcQ

And here’s another:

https://youtu.be/ZMzX4bLDT8k

Thanks again for all the help!

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I’d like to add something of potential value here… I stumbled across a game called Rebel Assault 2. While the game is dated, the cutscenes are pretty incredible. It looks to me that, being Lucasarts, they were given direct access to actual movie props, sets and costumes.

B-Wings Divebombing

I was planning on trying to see if one or two of the cockpit sequences could be cleaned up / improved and inserted into the Endor battle. Then I thought of something else… Adywan is making his own sets and costumes right? Perhaps he can get ahold of some of the people who worked on this project and possibly gain access to some of these things for his project. Here’s a link to the cutscenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbONky7i9xA&t=12s