Star Wars Definitive: The Phantom Menace

Reasons For This Edit: My personal goal for this edit, is to create an enjoyable version of the Phantom Menace, one that matches the Original Trilogy more in tone and appearance. This means not only cutting out or restructuring scenes, but adding new music, and changing/adding new effects. 

This edit will also borrow a lot of ideas primarily from Magnoliafan's and JasonN's edits of TPM, two personal favorites of mine.

What's Being Changed: The Obvious Stuff

-No midi-chlorians. 

-No Immaculate Ani-ception.

-No "yippies" and "woohoos" from Anikan. 

-No poop/fart jokes. 

-Bringing Captain Obvious' "observations" to a tolerable level.

-Other various cuts throughout.

-Color Correction

What's Being Changed: The Less Obvious Stuff

-I'm taking a cue from faneditor Magnoliafan, and giving the Gungans and Nemoidians an alien language to speak, which will then be subtitled. (Battle Droids will speak it also, unless addressing humans.)

-Hiding Darth Sidious' Face/Altering His Voice

-Adding Various Bits of OT Music Throughout (Specifically the Pod Race.)

What's Being Changed: The Stuff That I'm Going To Need Help With That I'm Not Sure If I'm Going To Be Able To Do

-In the OT every film started with a Star Destroyer flying over a planet. In the PT every film starts over Coruscant....except TPM. So the plan is to start the film with the Jedi's ship flying away from Coruscant, and then jumping into Hyperspace. THEN cut to the original opening, which would now be the ship coming out of Hypserspace, and flying towards the Nabbo Blockade. 

-Change various computer screens/moniters and all the Holograms, so they don't look so advanced, and match the OT.

-Give Darth Maul more lines. 

-Somehow add a few deleted scenes from the original TPM DVD release, to the film. This is going to be difficult for the simple fact that I'm using a 720p rip of the Phantom Menace Blu-Ray, so I'm unsure if I can make the quality match. 

So yeah. I would definetly appreciate any ideas you might have regarding this edit, and any help regarding that last section of changes.

UPDATES:

http://vimeo.com/31574690

Podrace V.1

MrInsaneA said:

-Bringing Captain Obvious' "observations" to a tolerable level.

:-/

Ric Olie said:

MrInsaneA said:

-Bringing Captain Obvious' "observations" to a tolerable level.

:-/

Awkward.

lol

So are you doing 2.0 or 5.1? And where are you getting extra Maul lines from?

TV's Frink said:

lol

So are you doing 2.0 or 5.1? And where are you getting extra Maul lines from?

5.1 surround sound. I think. I have no clue, I'm so new at this, and I'm basically self teaching myself as far as all the software/editing methods go.

 As for the Mr. Maul issue....I need someone who can do a reasonable Peter Serfenowicz impression to read the lines I want Maul to "say."  I'm still looking btw, so any help on that issue would be much appreciated. As to how the lines will feature in the film....well that'll be my little secret. ;)

MrInsaneA said:

TV's Frink said:

lol

So are you doing 2.0 or 5.1? And where are you getting extra Maul lines from?

5.1 surround sound. I think. I have no clue, I'm so new at this, and I'm basically self teaching myself as far as all the software/editing methods go.

I think you will find the going tough if you want to do dialogue replacement with 5.1.  Just as an example, the Nemoidian dialogue on the TF ship is spread around all five channels to make it sound more echo-y.  Which means you'd theoretically have to rebuild the entire soundtrack in order to do it properly.

Not wanting to discourage you, but just be aware what you are up against.  I'd try it with some of the more difficult scenes first and see how workable it is.

TV's Frink said:

MrInsaneA said:

TV's Frink said:

lol

So are you doing 2.0 or 5.1? And where are you getting extra Maul lines from?

5.1 surround sound. I think. I have no clue, I'm so new at this, and I'm basically self teaching myself as far as all the software/editing methods go.

I think you will find the going tough if you want to do dialogue replacement with 5.1.  Just as an example, the Nemoidian dialogue on the TF ship is spread around all five channels to make it sound more echo-y.  Which means you'd theoretically have to rebuild the entire soundtrack in order to do it properly.

Not wanting to discourage you, but just be aware what you are up against.  I'd try it with some of the more difficult scenes first and see how workable it is.

Oh trust me I know. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to do dialogue replacement in general actually. That's the biggest hindrance I've had with this edit so far. Do you know of any tutorials on how to do so?  I'm using MPEG Video Wizard btw.

MrInsaneA said:

I'm still trying to figure out how to do dialogue replacement in general actually. That's the biggest hindrance I've had with this edit so far. Do you know of any tutorials on how to do so?  I'm using MPEG Video Wizard btw.

Here's a general tutorial for Womble:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/ADigitalMans-Guide-to-MPEG2-AC3-Editing/topic/3444/

Not sure what you are looking for in a tutorial regarding dialogue replacement, however.  If you are talking about a way to remove dialogue from an individual channel without touching the sound effects or music, I don't believe one exists.

TV's Frink said:

MrInsaneA said:

I'm still trying to figure out how to do dialogue replacement in general actually. That's the biggest hindrance I've had with this edit so far. Do you know of any tutorials on how to do so?  I'm using MPEG Video Wizard btw.

Here's a general tutorial for Womble:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/ADigitalMans-Guide-to-MPEG2-AC3-Editing/topic/3444/

Not sure what you are looking for in a tutorial regarding dialogue replacement, however.  If you are talking about a way to remove dialogue from an individual channel without touching the sound effects or music, I don't believe one exists.

So what? If I wanted to add dialogue to a scene that already had dialogue, would I have to recreate the entire soundtrack? I'm confused. 

Not sure if I'm explaining this correctly...and I use Vegas so apologies if I use the wrong terminology (the basic concept should be the same).

Let's say you're working on a scene with Nute and Rune on the bridge of the TF ship.  You want to put your new dialogue in, but you also need to take the existing dialogue out.  In some scenes, this will be pretty easy because the dialogue is confined to the center channel.  But in this case, the dialogue is also present (albeit at a lower volume) in the front and rear channels.  If you don't remove it from those channels as well, the listener will still hear that dialogue along with your new dialogue and it will be distracting.

Since you are working with 5.1, you will have six tracks in your timeline (C, FR, FL, RR, RL, and LFE).  I'm not aware of a good way to remove dialogue other than chopping out the part of the track that contains the dialogue.  So you can just cut out the parts of the C track with dialogue and replace them with your dialogue.  But what about the other tracks (FR, FL, RR, RL)?  Each of those tracks has dialogue plus sound effects and music.  If you cut that part of the track, you lose everything, rather than just the dialogue.

So yes, you would have to redo the entire soundtrack, unless you discover a way to only remove part of a track (dialogue) at any given time while retaining the rest of the track at that same time (effects and music).  I'm not aware of a way to do this.

TV's Frink said:

Not sure if I'm explaining this correctly...and I use Vegas so apologies if I use the wrong terminology (the basic concept should be the same).

Let's say you're working on a scene with Nute and Rune on the bridge of the TF ship.  You want to put your new dialogue in, but you also need to take the existing dialogue out.  In some scenes, this will be pretty easy because the dialogue is confined to the center channel.  But in this case, the dialogue is also present (albeit at a lower volume) in the front and rear channels.  If you don't remove it from those channels as well, the listener will still hear that dialogue along with your new dialogue and it will be distracting.

Since you are working with 5.1, you will have six tracks in your timeline (C, FR, FL, RR, RL, and LFE).  I'm not aware of a good way to remove dialogue other than chopping out the part of the track that contains the dialogue.  So you can just cut out the parts of the C track with dialogue and replace them with your dialogue.  But what about the other tracks (FR, FL, RR, RL)?  Each of those tracks has dialogue plus sound effects and music.  If you cut that part of the track, you lose everything, rather than just the dialogue.

So yes, you would have to redo the entire soundtrack, unless you discover a way to only remove part of a track (dialogue) at any given time while retaining the rest of the track at that same time (effects and music).  I'm not aware of a way to do this.

 

Hmmmm. Does Womble have that 6-track system, where I can see all the separate tracks? I've been using it for a while now, and I wasn't aware of that function.

Oh.

It might not, now that you mention it.  I played around with Womble for a while before I switched to Vegas and I seem to remember there being a limit of like four tracks or something.  Don't know if there are different versions of Womble that might support more - you could ask about that in the tech forum.

Having said that, I really recommend giving Vegas Movie Studio a try.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Vegas-Movie-Studio-Platinum/dp/B003L51CZ8

It can do most of the things Vegas Pro can do at a fraction of the cost ($62 versus $500), including full 5.1 editing.  And there's a free 30 day trial you can use before you buy.

Hmmm....I think I will Mr. Frink, I think I will.

FYI, there is a newer version (v11)

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Creative-Software-Studio-Platinum/dp/B0051M6IPI/ref=dp_ob_title_sw

and a cheaper v11 without the suite

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Creative-Software-Studio-Platinum/dp/B0051M6I9O/ref=pd_cp_sw_3

and also a cheaper version 10 without the suite

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Vegas-Movie-Studio-Platinum/dp/B003L4ZQKQ/ref=dp_cp_ob_sw_title_2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6bF_VjQvZY

Just a quick little color correction to the final lightsaber battle. No cuts or anything, just a test to see if it looks any better.

Angel said:

Fox Blocked it :/

-Angel

You're kidding me. *sigh* Anywhere I can post this where it won't get blocked immediately? 

greenpenguino said:

vimeo?

Vimeo? Oh. Vimeo.

I catch on pretty quick. 

Herro boyos!!!

Meesa almost done wit a rough draft version of The Phantom Menace Definitive. It's berry rough, and bombad, and consists only of cuts, and added music/dialogue. All of the audio is temporary, and just to give yoosa a taste a whatss to come. The quality also isn't berry muy muy so keepsa dat in mind, okee-day?

MrInsaneA said:

Herro boyos!!!

Meesa almost done wit a rough draft version of The Phantom Menace Definitive. It's berry rough, and bombad, and consists only of cuts, and added music/dialogue. All of the audio is temporary, and just to give yoosa a taste a whatss to come. The quality also isn't berry muy muy so keepsa dat in mind, okee-day?

Oh man..... Thanks for the update... But......Just.......no to the rest. ;)

And by "rest" i am referring to the Jar-Jar speak.

Anyone remember the jar-jargonizer?

TV's Frink said:

Anyone remember the jar-jargonizer?

Lol, that is legitimately the greatest pun I've ever heard.

It was a site where you could put in a web address and it would spit it back at you with all the text turned into jar jar speak.  It's still up:

http://www.hit-n-run.com/jarjar.html

Unfortunately it hasn't worked for a long-o time-o.