Nicholas J. Michalak said:
I removed Clieg's lines mainly because he's essentially a character I'm indifferent to. He has all of two or three scenes in all of the saga, and is never mentioned again. While I get that, yeah, it's a more touching eulogy for Shmi, we forget anything about this guy by the next scene. He really has little to no emotional impact on the story.
The mass murder confession is gone because it's insulting to Padmé's character. She is a person dedicated to peaceful, diplomatic, non-violent solutions. At every turn throughout the prequels, she strongly seeks diplomatic solutions to everything up until there is absolutely no other option available. So, I cannot accept that she would choose to marry a guy who confesses to murdering men, women, and children out of blind rage and vengeance. Plus, in ROTS, she is shocked at the thought that Anakin would kill younglings despite knowing that he has already killed men, women, and children in cold blood, previously. These events make her appear to be moronic, in the least. I also think, as another fan editor did (don't recall which), that it's perhaps more telling that Anakin would trust this secret with Palpatine more than his own wife (as he mentions it in ROTS after Dooku's death).
The wipe from Anakin bringing his deceased mother home to the funeral was in contention with me. It does appear odd, but I don't know how well a straight cut would work. Might just have to cut out earlier. I'll work in those ideas for removing 3PO's lines. After hearing Adywan's old radio interview, I think distancing Anakin from C-3PO's origins is a truly intelligent idea. The big problem is I have no idea how to remove CPO from the final shots of the film. I do intend to start my own thread, shortly. Just keep revising my excessively long post covering all three films (which I am editing simultaneously along with a few other films). Likely, the thread will debut this weekend, if not later tonight.
-NJM
Fair enough about Cliegg's lines. I'd keep them, but this is your edit after all :)
I get your point about Anakin's confession, and I agree completely. What I was saying with my post was that I think it's necessary the scene is kept, just remove him confessing the actual murder. I think we need this scene because Anakin just did something terrible and this scene goes a little deeper into it. It shows Anakin showing remorse for what he did, which is important because without it, it would be even harder to relate to him. Also, this scene brings Anakin and Padme a little closer to each other.
How I would fix this scene is when Padme asks him what is wrong, Anakin could answer with "nothing", taken from one of their ROTS conversations, but underscored with some foreboding music. It might give the scene some subtext.
Concerning the transition between Anakin's arrival at the farm and the funeral: maybe it might work nicely if you pan up to the sky after the arrival, hold it right there for a few seconds, and then pan down again to the funeral. The shots seem pretty much the same, so it might work smoothly.