Emanswfan's Prequel Trilogy (Ep II Opening Clips Now Available) — Page 2

Seconded! I'd like a real down-and-dirty kind of summary to get a sense of how the narrative will work now. 

MrInsaneA said:

emanswfan said:

aalenfae said:

I am very very interested in this edit now.
Super radical, man.

I wanna see how this will work! 

Thanks.  The purpose in starting the film with Geonosis accomplishes many things better: Anakin and Obi as good friends, Anakin and Padme's growing, yet dangerous relationship, Dooku as the bad guy, and a more interesting way to start off the movie.  Obi will still go to Kamino as "Yoda has taken the remaining few from the volunteer army to save Obi, Anakin and Padme".  There is still the assasination plot, but it is explained in the crawl Padme has been danger for a while now.  The film will reroute itself to the scenes after the arena to finish off the movie, when it is discovered that Dooku/ Fett was behind it all.  The new structure really helps the film, letting me give new context for scenes that would otherwise be cut for certain issues.  Right now the goal film length is a little under 2 hours.

Dude, can you like, make a timeline of the entire film so I can see exactly what you're talking about? Because what you're describing sounds freaking awesome. 

I'm planning to get a rough workprint completed by Christmas.  I can't work on the edit more for a while since I have 3 other editing-related projects (not related to fanedits).  If you have any questions about any specifics right now I can probably answer those.

MTHaslett said:

I'm really intrigued by how this new o utline may work. I want to take a stab at how it might go-- a stab which I know must be incorrect.

Can you correct the following, emanswfan?

OUTLINE:

Start on Kamino, with the arrival of Obi Wan-- discovers clones and Fett. [Or do we start with Obi Wan and Anakin sp litting up as Anakin leaves with Padme?]

Anakin, taking Padme to Naboo, goes into hiding-- then has dreams of his mother.

Obi Wan fights Fett, follows Fett to Geonosis and gets caught (?)

Padme and Anakin go to Tatooine and bury his mother, only to receive the message that Obi Wan has been captured.

Together, Padme and Anakin fly to Geonosis and also get caught. They meet Obi Wan in the arena and get rescued by Yoda and a Volunteer Army...

Then Dooku escapes after cutting off Anakin's arm.

A clone army assembles itself to go off and hunt down Dooku.

Anakin and Padme get married.

 

And most of the opening twenty minutes or so is either cut or sprinkled in at the end?

It is a strong idea to start far into the action like this. I think I must have things wrong here though. This is a cool notion, as I understand it so far...

[edited because I got confused about whether you start on Kamino or Geonosis]

I should probably edit the first post, the movie starts on Geonosis.

The film starts directly with Anakin and Padme going to save Obi-Wan (preview to come soon).  I've edited this scene to feel like an opening (myseterious, no talking).  I delete the entire Droid Factory sequence (because of the stupidity and that it would make the new opening not feel like an opening) and replace it with the two deleted scenes, Padme swaying Dooku and Anakin and Padme on trial.  I delete there love but leave a lighthearted friendship they've had developing between TPM and ATOC, which grows naturally into their love.  The arena scene ends with yoda and the rest of the jedi saving them.  The "clones" are shown, however in this version the clone armor is just Republic armor the clones will just put on since they work for the Republic.  What then follows is a hugely revised version of what used to be the opening.  Padme has been in danger for a while and the new attempt is the final reason to convince them to go to Naboo.  The clone army has been being made by the order of the Jedi council for years, waiting for it to be approved.  Obi-Wan goes to check on the clones and discovers the assasin was Jango Fett and the basis for the clones.  The dark side had clouded the jedi from knowing this.  The narrative for the most part plays out the same, but when Obi finds out they need more help to defeat the new order of battle droids, they finally succeed in getting the clones and set up for attack with the others.  The movie ends the same for the most part.

I'm probably forgetting some details, so what I just said might sound weird.  But that's pretty much it.  Lots of colour correction and rescoring will be done to support the new narrative.  And believe me, the story arcs much better than the original version.

Son of a Bantha, that's genius. Utter freakin' genius. 

MTHaslett said:

Interesting! One more question:

Does the battle on Geonosis come chronologically before this revised opening, or is there a flashback-structure happening? I can't quite tell from your description.

Does the face-off with Dukoo happen at the end of the movie still?

I'm sorry if I'm just not getting it. I really like the idea of starting so far in-- all the way to Geonosis? Wow.

Sorry for the confusion, I was rushing through to type.

The structure is like any other Star Wars film.  The battle of Geonosis and the face-off with Dooku still happens at the end of the film.  Trust me, it works.

WAIT!

Waitwaitwait

Battle of Geonosis, Jango is there AND Jango dies.

But he'll still be alive in your edit after Geonosis. How will he kick the proverbial bucket?  

MrInsaneA said:

WAIT!

Waitwaitwait

 

Battle of Geonosis, Jango is there AND Jango dies.

 

But he'll still be alive in your edit after Geonosis. How will he kick the proverbial bucket?  

Jango dies in a modified version of the Obi/Jango fight on Kamino or during the space fight over Geonosis.  Still deciding.

EDIT: Just remmembered that I might rename Jango, Boba.  Jango Fett wouldn't exist.  However that would ruin continuity with Clone Wars.  I'd only do this if Jango's new death doesn't work.  Also, I could rotoscope Mace and Jango out of the arena into the battlefield.

Presumably through a mixture of technology and the Force.

The other confederates don't know the Republic has a giant Clone army with a star fleet led by Jedi including a number of Jedi masters on the way so they possibly aren't masking their transmissions (that and Dooku has probably turned down the security so the Clones know where to land, he has a war to start).

There are loads and loads of problems with AOTC but I never saw Yoda turning up as one of them.

The lack of investigation into the origin of the clones was a much bigger problem for me, especially when they forgot about it in the next one (that and the really drippy romance and Yoda putting his weapon before the Force...please).

Bingowings said:

Yoda putting his weapon before the Force...please.

Oh, I did figure out how to flip those two events around.  So, I could keep both, but I'm going to cut the sith lightning (from episode III also) to keep continuity with the OT.  The lightning reveal shouldn't be until Episode VI.

How will you handle that in RotS???
Very interested! 

aalenfae said:

How will you handle that in RotS???
Very interested! 

Drastic rearragement and several new vfx.

The editing of these movies will be delayed for several months since I will start work on matvhing the 35mm look of the OT into the PT.

For now, progress can be followed on, here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Prequels-35mm-Filmized-Editions-by-Emanswfan/topic/15033/

So I just got a new 3tb HDD and can finally start real work on the preservation.  However, I'm going to post several videos showing how certain parts of each edit will go.  If there's any scenes you're interested in seeing (any of the films), please reply below.  I am already going to show the new opening of Episode II and the Windu/Sidious duel.

The opening of Ep2 really interests me. I'd be interested in seeing the sort of plot points too, so how we get to the battle etc.

SSWR did a cool mockup once, where windu is in the crowd in the arena, and jumps into save anakin and obi-wan, as oppose to chatting to dooku first. Did you ever see that? It was quite reminiscent of the barge scene in ROTJ.

ben_danger said:

The opening of Ep2 really interests me. I'd be interested in seeing the sort of plot points too, so how we get to the battle etc.

SSWR did a cool mockup once, where windu is in the crowd in the arena, and jumps into save anakin and obi-wan, as oppose to chatting to dooku first. Did you ever see that? It was quite reminiscent of the barge scene in ROTJ.

No, I haven't ever seen that. Sounds interesting. It wouldn't be a stretch for me, because I'm getting really good with the rotobrush now, which I've already started to plan new ideas. You mention ROTJ, and that's an interesting comparison. I've actually been thinking of mirroring the original films in a lot more ways than just "cutting out the bad stuff". I am mirroring the editing and structure of the original films. Doing this is not so hard in TPM, which is the only prequel that feels STar Warsy, regardless of the horrible stuff left in it. Episode II and III just feel plain stupid, and need a lot more work.

Random thing about these edits is that I will redo all the laser blasts and lightsabers, and some other fx, since a lot of the colour correction and "filmizing" requires a heavy amount of processing, that can ruin the lokk of certain objects.

peter_pan said:

Hi emanswfan I have read through the many posts on these forums for the last few years, but this is my first time posting.

Really excited about your project, try as we all do to forget the PT they are still there and many of us here seem to have a huge desire to see watchable versions.

Out of the 3 films which one has been the most challenging to edit in your opinion?

I can't really figure that out entirely at the moment.  TPM requires some attention to detail and the pacing.  Once you cut out the crap, you have a really good film, but still not OT quality, it takes an extra amount of thinking to figure out what is still holding it back.  At the same time though, it was shot on 35mm and has a lot of practical fx, so visually there's not much to do.  ATOC requires a new drastically changed plot so it requires more planning and the ability to push what you remembered into a new film.  There's also some vfx work that TPM doesn't need.  ROTS is hard still though.  The acting is top notch, I'd say nearly all the acting from the theatrical and deleted scenes is OT quality.  The issue with the third film though are things such as Anakin's fall and a whole slue of revelations ruined by this film.  VFX work is needed even more since it is extremely heavy on CGI.  But just like TPM, you can get it really good, but there's an extra push needed to get it to OT quality.

In a way, they're all equally hard, but if I had to say one, it would be ATOC.  The new plot and colour correction is extensive work and is probably why I'm doing it first.  In regards to canon changes, I won't be doing anything that should ruin The Clone Wars, as I really like the show.

New clip time, Mace/Sidious duel:

http://vimeo.com/58947927

I did this video two months ago so it's kind of rough around the edges.  Also there are some odd compression artifacts in this one, that I'm not sure what are.

And if you're looking for any new VFX, I'm not done yet as there are several ways to remove lightning from the scene.

This is brilliant.  Are you planning to remove the lightning completely, and if so how will you account for Mace falling out the window?  Also how are you planning to explain Palpatine's facial changes?