Is this the point where I should tell you I cut ESB down to 90 minutes?
How?! That movie has like perfect pacing! Every scene is the perfect length and every scene is important.
Haha!!! I don’t think I can explain “how” without writing you a novel. But the basic gist is that I cut all six films as if they were 6 chapters of 1 BIG film. The genre of George’s STAR WARS films is technically a Spiritual Epic in the mode of a Medieval Romance, so I recut all 6 films to follow the general rules of those two genres using JRR Tolkien’s editing method (because LotR and STAR WARS are the exact same genre and format (1 SAGA split into 6 books/episodes).
When you use the method Tolkien used to edit LotR, you end up with six roughly 90 minute episodes (except for RotS which clocks in at roughly 75 minutes). Ironically, the “pacing” of these dramatic cuts isn’t actually much quicker than the Vanilla Versions, because I streamlined all the themes to focus on the ones that span the whole SAGA. Empire Strikes Back actually has more diversions from the main themes than any of the other 5 films (because according to George, Kershner didn’t understand the Force, and frankly I agree with him).
A basic example would be reworking Yoda’s character. The ol’ frog is WAY different in the Prequels than he is in the OT. Some aspects of his character are better in the Prequels some aspects are better in the OT. What I did was create a composite Yoda, taking the best of both versions so that he’d stay a consistent character across all 6 films. Most folks that re-edit the Prequels aim to align them with the OT as if it’s the Bible. I just fundamentally don’t think that works. Is the Vanilla OT better than the Vanilla Prequels? OH MY GOODNESS YES!!! But my argument is the best version of the “SAGA” is made by creating a “Third Version” of every single character that works best for the SAGA as a whole. Once you create all those new composite characters, then it quickly becomes obvious what scenes need to stay, and which scenes need to go. Does that make any sense? You’ll be able to see how I cut these composite characters in the third episode the YouTube show which should go up later today (if I can finally appease the copyright gods lol).