JasonN's PT FanEdits (Attack of the Federation, Twilight of the Republic, & The Black Knight Rises) (Released) ** Revised V3 Cuts In The Works — Page 5

I'm very interested in these edits, they have a lot of good ideas.  However, I don't like the idea of Dooku having a purple lightsaber.  Not because I think it needs to be red, I just hate purple lightsabers!  If it was up to me, I'd have rotoscoped Windu's to blue and Dooku's to green.  I understand that you wanted to have a different lightsaber color for the duels, but the Obi-Wan/Vader duel works fine with the same lightsaber color.

It's not a deal-breaker, it's just that the purple lightsaber was one of the little things about the PT that irked me so much.

I do like, however, that you only have Yoda use his lightsaber once (the Order 66 scene), and the way he uses it in that scene is perfect - short, efficient, and not flashy at all.  Perfect.  Well done on that.

Here's a few new updates for my list of cuts/edits of EP2:
- flipped the starfield and opening scene of the film so now that the camera pans down into the scene, just like every other SW film opening
(seriously, Lucas, why the hell didn't you do this? Is film consistancy/continuity truly not an issue to you?)

- removed Anakin's "You've grown more beautiful... for a Senator, I mean" line to Padme when he meets her again after 10 years.
(now Padme comments on how much Anakin has grown, Anakin that she has as well, and she smiles)

- the scene of Anakin talking to Palpatine in his office now ends after Palpatine says "invincible", then transitions to Padme's apartment.
(so now there's no longer any additional lines of Palp say that Anakin's "so gifted" and that "he'll be the greatest of all Jedi"... and Palpatine, being a politician and non-Jedi, knows this how exactly?)

- R2D2 NO LONGER PRESENT IN THE DROID-FACTORY SEQUENCE & DOES NOT SAVE PADME
(Padme's container now drops before the molten fire comes out)

If people had a problem with Dooku's lightsaber being purple, then they're really going to hate this change:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kpPhJvFeIs

Basically, these are my reasons for changing Yoda's lightsaber color (and I talked about this in the Radical Prequel thread as well):

Thinking about the idea of Dooku and Mace having a similar position on the Jedi Council (Grand Master, perhaps?), I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I should also rotoscope Yoda's lightsaber to be purple as well in my EP3 edit (when he dispatches the two clonetroopers who are trying to kill him on Kahshiek). I know some people hate purple lightsabers, but if Yoda, Mace, and Dooku all shared a similar high position on the Council, then maybe their lightsabers should have the same color.

The biggest question that I always had with AotC and RotS was why Mace should be the only one to have a purple lightsaber in the PT (except ultimately there was no significant purpose to it... maybe Lucas did it for s**ts and giggles, I don't know), so why not put his lightsaber's color to an effective use?

I'm not saying that there needs to be a strict or rigid "Ranking System" for the Jedi, not at all. But since Yoda and Mace do seem to be at the very top of the Jedi Order, why not present a visual indication of that higher mastery? (and purple/violet is often regarded to be one of the highest "color ranks" in symbolism, according to some of the esoteric/mystery religions that I've researched and studied)

I hate how everyone changes the pan in AOTC. That it was reversed was one of the truly poetic aspects to that movie. The idea is that the universe in AOTC is somewhat "flipped" from it's state in the conventional Star Wars movies. We don't know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. It's a curious oddity and it establishes that something isn't quite right. Flipping the shot is dumbing down the movie IMO and ruining a really poetic moment.

Octorox said:

I hate how everyone changes the pan in AOTC. That it was reversed was one of the truly poetic aspects to that movie. The idea is that the universe in AOTC is somewhat "flipped" from it's state in the conventional Star Wars movies. We don't know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. It's a curious oddity and it establishes that something isn't quite right. Flipping the shot is dumbing down the movie IMO and ruining a really poetic moment.

To each his own, I guess.  -_-

Octorox said:

I hate how everyone changes the pan in AOTC. That it was reversed was one of the truly poetic aspects to that movie. The idea is that the universe in AOTC is somewhat "flipped" from it's state in the conventional Star Wars movies. We don't know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. It's a curious oddity and it establishes that something isn't quite right. Flipping the shot is dumbing down the movie IMO and ruining a really poetic moment.

I think it was a cheap gimmick to try to set it apart from the other films.  Which kinda worked, I guess, since it's the worst of all of them (not counting the Clone Wars movie).  And I don't think you can dumb AOTC down much more than it already is.

ChainsawAsh said:

Octorox said:

I hate how everyone changes the pan in AOTC. That it was reversed was one of the truly poetic aspects to that movie. The idea is that the universe in AOTC is somewhat "flipped" from it's state in the conventional Star Wars movies. We don't know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. It's a curious oddity and it establishes that something isn't quite right. Flipping the shot is dumbing down the movie IMO and ruining a really poetic moment.

I think it was a cheap gimmick to try to set it apart from the other films.  Which kinda worked, I guess, since it's the worst of all of them (not counting the Clone Wars movie).  And I don't think you can dumb AOTC down much more than it already is.

You're probably right. I wouldn't credit Lucas with that sort of craftiness in an otherwise dull as dishwater film...But at least it has unintentional significance....

A 900mb AVI version of Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic (aka Episode II) is now available on linktalk.

how did you recolor dooku's lightsaber

I painted/tinted the lightsaber directly on the video frame by frame using a Wacom tablet in Bauhaus Mirage, which is kind of like After Effects, but it has a lot more of the 2D capabilities of Photoshop or Corel Painter (so its like a PS for compositing and animation) - its no longer available for sale, but its successor software is called TVPaint. Hypothetically, though, the process could also be done in PS (except instead of painting on the video file, you'd have to paint on the frames as Tiff or Targa images).

After-the-fact idea (since it sounds like your Episode II is already in the can), but would it be a good idea to make all the Jedi Masters' lightsabers green? In thinking about the purple lightsaber debate, the purpleness does come out of left field in the grand scheme of things. There was no precedent set and, if I am remembering my Star Wars correctly, ONLY Mace Windu has a purple lightsaber, so there's no payoff as to why only HE has the purple saber. Also, there are many blue and green lightsabers out in the galaxy, but ONE purple saber?

This line of thinking of rotoscoping to green would also be paid off in the grand scheme of things by continuing all the way to ROTJ, when Luke busts out his green lightsaber.

Sorry to bring up a potentially finished debate, but I'm interested in getting into the creative process and manipulating others so I can see only what I want and no one else's vision, period. (Just kidding, by the way [mostly]).

For the record, I am officially done with any and all discussions regarding the colors of Jedi lightsabers (it gets to be too much of a headache for me to deal with) - I am very happy with the rotoscoping work that I've done for my edits and in the choices that I've made in giving Yoda, Mace, and Dooku the same color lightsaber.

If you want to see all the Jedis lightsabers be green, you're going to have to rotoscope them yourself.
(because I'm sure  as heck not going to do it)

It's great to read how you have built upon the ideas you liked from seeing other edits, adding your own imagination and skill to the mix and I'm really looking forward to seeing these.

I'm also intrigued to see how other people will run with your ideas too, it's like watching evolution happening right before before your eyes only with... Star Wars (sorry but I appear to be suffering from acute Nerdmonia).

These are sounding really interesting.  Without violating the rules, any hints for possible alternative distribution of these, apart from that Rapidshare seach thingy?  I'm a little hesitant after the post about the amount of crap that signing up meant installing, but would love to get my hands on them.

Linktalk has the Rapidshare links, but you need to register with their site and in order to see the links you either need to have a cerain number of posts (20?) or post in the thread that contains said links.  You don't need to install anything.

But wow, I wish there was a better way than Rapidshare.... I don't have the money for a premium account which means it will literally take me 5 days to download the 10 files I need... Good thing it's not one of those 40 something links!

I don't suppose anyone would be kind enough to upload these to Demonoid? :-)

ChainsawAsh said:

I don't suppose anyone would be kind enough to upload these to Demonoid? :-)

Which you can't even sign up for anymore? Guess it's cool if you're already in. =/

mrbenja0618 said:

ChainsawAsh said:

I don't suppose anyone would be kind enough to upload these to Demonoid? :-)

 

Which you can't even sign up for anymore? Guess it's cool if you're already in. =/

why do they do that? its so annoying.