Scene 38 Reimaged again ANH style for ANH-X cut

Made this one a separate thread since it’s been a project within a project and has taken way longer than I imagined. Getting close to finishing up my recut of this amazing fan take at the kenobi/ Vader fight in a new hope. This is to be included in my ANH-X (extended cut) which a V1.5 is due soon.
I wanted to include this so bad when I first saw it, but the original edit’s intent is a “reimagine” version and as some have said it struggles to fix seemlessly in a new hope. I am in that camp, mostly due to the major blue tint and added CG walls and FX that made the light sabres behave differently (sparks and explosions everywhere). This is Fix it in post’s choice at artistic style and it made it what it was at the time, but I felt it needed major work to fit properly.

I know some will still go for the original 1977 untouched footage as choice, which I understand, but for me I felt this extra action really made a different and what I felt it should be. I considered it a challenge to take on and hope others enjoy it and feel it matches up better.

Some of the more noticeable changes are as follows (my edit bottom sample):

1. Less blue and more of the vintage ANH Color grade:
   
   

2. Added some slight film grain on shots that were too clean.

3. Edits to blend original shots with the newer scene 38 to line up the action better.

4. Fixed light sabre color or position in the cut for original shots to match the SC38 ones in some scenes

5. Removal of mass amounts of all the extra video game looking CG wall greebies, Just so many in the first part of the fight and I tried to remove as many as I could. Some of these are greebies not even in ANH.

Wall CG greebies completely removed include:

White marking #1

White (graffiti) marking #2. Not sure what this was, definitely not in ANH on any walls.

Long traffic light looking greebies.These are in ANH but are more Horizontal and white like not traffic light colored …are usually one per room at most. To my eyes in scene 38, these were very distracting in some shots since they are sometimes in pairs or groups of 3 and pop up everywhere in the first half of the fight.

6. Removal all of SC38’s Ben close up hand shot when walking before his saber ignites

7. Replaced Ben establishing shot before fight with original. Also corrects having so many extra greebies and massive blue tint
   

8. Removal of behind and at Vaders knees shots. The ground shots seemed too far off to fit ANH style.

9. ANH Vader replaced for when Vader first approaches

10. Added back original ben right before they engage in fight

11. Removal of Vader tossing exploding CG barrels with the weird nuclear yellow burst, seemed like a video game scene going on.

12. Removed some of the fighting where Vader is on fire since removed the barrel scene and fire looked too CG to me

13. Reduced some lense flare spread on sabers, but couldn’t remove all completely. The’re only on for a second in some shots anyway

14. Corrected hundreds of shots with vader chest plate. so he is not wearing ROS chest plate. This was probably the biggest and time consuming edit. His chest plate should have a white #1 rocker witch vs red and the other 3 should be more grey. Green button is also correctly placed as top right so that is flip flopped to be correact as in a ANH.

15. Removed one of vader’s punch in the red hallway as one seemed enough and fit the pacing better
16. Ben’s wall hit does not result in a tie fighter looking explosion

17. Removed a camera shake wge ben hits the wall as if it was on a tripod and vibration caused a shift. While a technique in new style filming, I felt it did not fit 1977 style.
18. Removed a yellow fire burst on the door that comes down when vader smashes the panel for the red hallway. It’s fine that there are sparks but the yellow burst moving with the door as it comes down seemed out of place

18. Kept in the traditional medium shot of them with camera looking out at the Falcon, Fixed sabers here so Vader’s is not crazy long for some reason and matched the blades for the rest of the scenes – also added some subtle sparks (very subtle ), when they hit, to be consistent with the other shots that are scene 38 FX.

19. When vader takes his first in a series of swipes at the end when Luke is watching, he makes contact with Kenobi’s cloak it sears it with orange sparks at the location but then additional yellow pixy dust type spark fly off his cloak as like fireworks. Just a little too much CG sparks for a contact with clothes. Removed this to tame it down a bit. This is in a couple spots
    

20. Made Ben’s cloak close up dirtied up a bit at the end so it is not super bright white and clean. In a later, I may make it even more dirty and worn.

21. Reduced some crazy bright lens flare burst when light sabres are just together sizzling for towards the second half of the scene and end.

22. Fixed some shots where ben’s face and hands were almost black and white or faded color the last couple minutes of fighting

23. Before Ben falls the last time, Vader swipes at his cloak and embers fly like fireworks, removed these as they were so many and made for a lot of color particles in the air that was not needed for this style

24. Removal of some ROTS music at toward the end

25. Addition of different music that fits the final blow better and is less of a prequal style but still epic

26. Ben’s eyes are now open when he gets the final strike to match the shot before.

27.Fixed Vader’s saber when he is force pushed back (side shot) that is half size in that particular shot.

28. Tamed down the super nova explosion on final blow/slice to Kenobi’s shoulder. Lens flare was just crazy bright.

29. Added in the more ANH style cloak that falls and background while still keeping the scene 38 style background. This matches up with the stepping of the cloak later better

30. Removal of ROTS voice over echoes and speaking of Ewan Mcgreger towards the end of the fight and when vader walks away after the door closes

31. Both 2D and stereo 3D versions of the scene

Right now I am going through the final sound mix to fit 5.1 better and correcting one last shot that has some extensive frame by frame work.

Wow this very much sounds like it will be my go to ANH edit. All of these changes are the exact kind of thing I wanted to see from SC38. I understand what they were going for but I really wanted it to fit better in the og film

My main issue with the impressive fan made sequence is the very obvious reuse of dialogue snippets from the other films. Hopefully that could be reduced or removed.

Looking forward to seeing what you put together

update

I’ve have decided to remove the Rogue like vader intro with smoke and igniting saber. Don’t get wrong, it’s a very cool shot but we’ve seen it already and in ANH, the halls are not that smokey and there was a lot of greebies on the wall. I had spent alot of time removing the lighted cielding and greebles and fixing his chest plate, but when I kept watch it, if felt like it wasn’t fitting in.

Also updated Vader establishing shot with the behind ben shot so it is the correct hallway (see below 2nd example). Vader was really blurry in that scene 38 orginal. Needed this to be consistant for shots before and after. When I watched play back, it was king of jarring to have that heavy CG shot with the panels glowing really strong. I think works better this way to set up the scene

Bingowings said:

My main issue with the impressive fan made sequence is the very obvious reuse of dialogue snippets from the other films. Hopefully that could be reduced or removed.

If referring to Ewan and Hayden voices, yes that was actually one of my first fixes. I was kind of thrown off when I heard them.

There are some other Vader lines that were added to the orginal scene38 (i think for the floor shots). I am using just the original lines (less is better) I think.

What replacement music did you use?

Also, I really want to express thanks and gratitude that someone is cleaning this up to fit into the movie rather than a video game.

This sounds perfect, can’t believe someone is actually doing this.

kg1977 said:

Bingowings said:

My main issue with the impressive fan made sequence is the very obvious reuse of dialogue snippets from the other films. Hopefully that could be reduced or removed.

If referring to Ewan and Hayden voices, yes that was actually one of my first fixes. I was kind of thrown off when I heard them.

There are some other Vader lines that were added to the orginal scene38 (i think for the floor shots). I am using just the original lines (less is better) I think.

I’m talking about Vader lines and vocalisations from other original trilogy movies.

Skybatman said:

whats is the runtime of the duel now ?

4:06…working on the last shot right now…hopefully can carve out some time tonight

G&G-Fan said:

kg1977 said:

update

I’ve have decided to remove the Rogue like vader intro with smoke and igniting saber. Don’t get wrong, it’s a very cool shot but we’ve seen it already and in ANH, the halls are not that smokey and there was a lot of greebies on the wall. I had spent alot of time removing the lighted cielding and greebles and fixing his chest plate, but when I kept watch it, if felt like it wasn’t fitting in.

Also updated Vader establishing shot with the behind ben shot so it is the correct hallway (see below 2nd example). Vader was really blurry in that scene 38 orginal. Needed this to be consistant for shots before and after. When I watched play back, it was king of jarring to have that heavy CG shot with the panels glowing really strong. I think works better this way to set up the scene

I love this shot. Great work!

thx for the feedback…someone else mentioned to try and reduce wall glow…will take a few runs through and see if other spots

G&G-Fan said:

A lot of these changes sound great. I think one of the biggest things is how much the lights on the wall glow in SC 38 vs the original movie, so if the luminance can match rather than being so exaggerated it could really work.

For OG footage, are you using the 2011 or 2019 versions? I think using the 2019 versions will help them blend together better.

Trying to just reduce blue where over powering so walls can be more grey. Adywan’s 1080P edit of ANH is what i’m using as my base for ANH-X, because it did a good job with the blue reduction so goal…his was probably 2019? I would imagine since I think the 2011 was more blue correct? Anyway I think it’ll be better with color fixes

Excited to see it and one day, hoping to trim a version into Adywan’s ANH.

kg1977 said:

G&G-Fan said:

A lot of these changes sound great. I think one of the biggest things is how much the lights on the wall glow in SC 38 vs the original movie, so if the luminance can match rather than being so exaggerated it could really work.

For OG footage, are you using the 2011 or 2019 versions? I think using the 2019 versions will help them blend together better.

Trying to just reduce blue where over powering so walls can be more grey. Adywan’s 1080P edit of ANH is what i’m using as my base for ANH-X, because it did a good job with the blue reduction so goal…his was probably 2019? I would imagine since I think the 2011 was more blue correct? Anyway I think it’ll be better with color fixes

Are you incorporating any other of Adywans CG/special effects? I’ve always wanted a version of ANH that adds more of the fan effects, both Adywan and SC38. A version that will blend into the greater series better.

Yes my ANH-X has 98% of them. THey are upscaled and then incorporated through compositing in the 1080P Adywan base (some had to be redone). I have only 1 effects that struggled even with upscale, that I may redo before the V1.5 release. Here is the separate thread for ANH-X
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-ANH-X-the-eXtended-version-WIP/id/89934#1455394

This is now complete in both 2D and 3D. As mentioned, this is on deck for inclusion in my ANH-X edition
If anyone wants the segment on its own, shoot me a PM.

Link to ANH-X thread
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-ANH-X-the-eXtended-version-WIP/id/89934

That looks absolutely amazing! Can’t wait to see it! Adding scene 38 has been a must for any fan edit for me, but this takes it to another level!