logo Sign In

Radical Attack of the Clones Edit - by 13las (* unfinished project *)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hey everyone.  I’ve been lurking on this forum for many months now and I’ve been thoroughly impressed with every project I’ve followed.  Even those that have been abandoned have seen some of their ideas utilized in other projects.  I think that is very cool.  I’d like to give credit to all other members of the forum for their ideas and the inspiration to begin a fanedit of my own.  I apologize in advance for the length of this first post.

Now, on to my edit:

I’ve begun a workprint of an Attack of the Clones Edit using the dvd as a source and a somewhat low-end video editing software called Pinnacle Studio.  My intention is to eventually purchase a blu-ray drive and some better software, but in the meantime I’m working with what I have to figure out what I want to do.

Major things I’m going to do:

-The focus of this edit will be on Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Anakin’s presence in the movie will be somewhat reduced at the beginning but towards the end I will attempt to make him more important. Most of the movie deals with him protecting Padme.  I like to think of him as what Han Solo was in Empire: still a key character who falls in love, but not the one whose story we are most invested in.

-Padme will not have been Queen of Naboo.  Eventually I plan to edit The Phantom Menace where I will continue this change. She was the Queen’s handmaiden who proved her worth in the battle of Naboo and was asked to serve as senator.  (We won’t see the new Queen in this AotC edit so we can assume that the TPM Queen is still in power).

-Anakin will be haunted by visions of a shadowy figure.  Still not sure how and where (or if) this will work, but I’d really like to infuse some of the mysticism of the OT into this movie.  He’ll have nightmares about a dark figure with a red lightsaber. I might have to do a little bit of filming for this but it will be very minimal - mostly brief, unsettling shots with the sounds of mechanical breathing played over them.  I’d like to use some of the shots of Anakin from the part of the Dooku duel where the lights are off to suggest as though he is fighting this mysterious figure (like the cave scene in ESB).

-The Jedi have full knowledge of the creation of the clone army.  This the purpose of this is to reduce the stupidity of them using a mysterious army (I guess they didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth?), as well as to make them less of the Good Guys of the movie.  I will also try to make the Separatists seem less of the Bad Guys so that Anakin’s confusion and distrust of the Jedi order in Episode 3 make more sense.

-Dooku will not be a Sith lord.  This will involve giving him a new colored lightsaber, which is something I am not able to do with my currently lacking software.  In this edit, Dooku is not working with Palpatine.  He is actually what he says he is to Obi-Wan.  I like the idea of him actually being on the right side once it is revealed that Palpatine is truly the Sith mastermind.

-Completely new order of scenes! The edit starts with Obi-Wan going to Kamino to legitimately check on the progress of the clone army.  He is surprised and concerned to learn that a rogue bounty hunter is being used as the template for this army.  He makes his report to the Jedi Council and returns back to Coruscant to protect Senator Padme after her attack on the landing platform.  After they catch Zam, Jango shoots her and Obi-Wan recognizes him! He returns to Kamino to apprehend the bounty hunter as Anakin and Padme go to Naboo to hide.  Obi-Wan fights Jango on Kamino and follows him to Geonosis.  Meanwhile Anakin and Padme quickly and (hopefully) painlessly fall in love on Naboo.  They get married.  They see Obi-Wan’s hologram on Naboo and decide to go rescue him on Geonosis.  the film plays out as usual from here (minus Yoda vs. Dooku).  After the battle, Anakin sees a frightening vision of his mother in pain and has to go to Tattooine to help her.  Padme goes as his wife.  In a trimmed visit, Anakin finds his mother and brings her back to bury her.  He does not tell Padme about killing Sand People and seems to have embraced his dark side at the end of the film.  We iris out on Anakin at his mother’s funeral.

-My larger goal for the PT is to make it clear that Anakin is morally questionable by the end of Ep 2.  I intend to follow the model of Walter White’s descent from Breaking Bad in this.  He embraces the evil inside him as a means to an end, but lives somewhat of a double life joking around with Obi-Wan and being all romantic with Padme, but vengefully murdering Sand People and beheading Count Dooku with little regret for his actions.  It is not until Obi-Wan and Yoda see the recording of him killing younglings that this all comes out.

-And of course all of the usual annoyances will be cut from the film!

Thanks for reading this beast of a post if you made it all the way through.  I’ll be posting a VERY rough and VERY short video either soon or tomorrow.  In the meantime I would love to hear what you guys think of my ideas. I know there are some that I might end up compromising for lack of ability but hey it’s fun to dream, right? 😃

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnq2soRMB-8vqvL-6NHIOg

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Oh! Vimeo is quicker than I thought.  Here is a very short and rough video just to prove that work is actually being done on this edit.  This gives you a glimpse of how the dynamics of many scenes will be changed with the new structure I am attempting.  The audio edits aren't the best, and I'm still looking for some more dialogue (maybe).  Also sorry for posting twice :)

https://vimeo.com/85796018

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnq2soRMB-8vqvL-6NHIOg

Author
Time

Your idea is pretty strong I think. By using the re-arrangement it helps you preserve most of the runtime.

I would like you to maybe reconsider removing Padme's queenship. In fact, I thin she should remain the Queen in AOTC. Let me explain myself.

In Ep. 4 we meet PRINCESS Leia. This has been a problem in these movies. Why is a Princess? Because of this I offer this possible work-around. Let Padme maintain her Queen status in all the movies. But also (and this might be harder) we need to find a way to make Bail Organa a King of something... Some sort of royalty instead of a Senator. That would explain how Leia becomes a Princess. Again, I'm not sure how we make Bail a king, but I would love for someone to figure it out.

Regardless, your idea is a great improvement on the original. Good luck on working with the most problematic Star Wars film.

Author
Time

Thanks for the reply.  I do agree with you about Padme and honestly that is the one area that I'd be most willing to consider other options about.  My reasoning is that I like the story arch that Padme would gain by starting out as a handmaiden and working her way up to a powerful senator.  It makes her more interesting to me.  But I totally see what you're saying about Leia in ANH...I always thought that this explanation was a little sketchy in the original version anyway.  I'll see what I can do about Bail if I ever get around to working with ROTS.

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnq2soRMB-8vqvL-6NHIOg

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Any thoughts about possibly starting the story with Palpatine announcing the grand army and Kenobi on Kamino inspecting the already commissioned troops?

For me the real problem I have with AOTC is the mystery element that goes nowhere.

That way Mr Fett (never unmasked and probably Boba) can be linked to Dooku alone and not also to the clones which is sort of daft when you think about it.

Author
Time

The mystery is difficult to completely work around, but in the work I've done so far I think it is more logical.  Obi Wan and the Jedi are not trying to figure out who created the army in the first place, instead they are surprised to find that a bounty hunter has been used as the template without their knowledge.  It is more of a suspicion that perhaps something fishy might be going on on kamino.  And their suspicions are confirmed when jango is behind the attack on Padme.  It still sounds a little convoluted but given the source material I think it's the best decision (It satisfies me, at least).  An added bonus is the rivalry that develops between obi wan and jango after obi wan recognizes him on coruscant and follows him back to kamino.  

I hope to have a very rough workprint finished either this weekend or in a month (I'll be going out of town for a while starting next week).  I'd love to have someone watch the full thing and give me feedback.  

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnq2soRMB-8vqvL-6NHIOg

Author
Time

13las said:

-My larger goal for the PT is to make it clear that Anakin is morally questionable by the end of Ep 2.  I intend to follow the model of Walter White's descent from Breaking Bad in this.  He embraces the evil inside him as a means to an end, but lives somewhat of a double life joking around with Obi-Wan and being all romantic with Padme, but vengefully murdering Sand People and beheading Count Dooku with little regret for his actions.  It is not until Obi-Wan and Yoda see the recording of him killing younglings that this all comes out. 

 I had this very thought when I was binging Breaking Bad some months ago. It was the perfect example of a good man who becomes an evil man, so I thought how the PT could have been better if Anakin's trajectory into Vader was more like Walt's into Heisenberg. Similar to you, I decided that Anakin should have been on that moral line by the end of Ep II, and in Ep III he should have been taking part of the murder of the Jedi more or less throughout, which would only come apparent to Obi-Wan and Yoda towards the end.

I'm interested to see how this comes out and to hear how you plan to deal with Ep III.

Author
Time

Yes anakin's fall to evil truly was a missed opportunity in the theatrical versions. I'm going to try to do what I can to make it compelling as well as unique from what other fan editors have done.

On another note, does anyone have any suggestions for alternate music to use in this edit? I'm a big fan of Across the Stars for the love scenes but I'm not super crazy about the music during the speeder chase and the execution arena.  I'm thinking about putting in some more OT music but I'm also open to using stuff from video games or anything else.

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnq2soRMB-8vqvL-6NHIOg

Author
Time

Count me interested.  I'm a fan of radical PT cuts, and I believe that someone can ultimately rearrange the pieces to craft a more satisfactory story.  This sounds promising. :)

Oh, and I've been a fan of the misguided, non-Sith Dooku since I first heard the idea, and I hope you successfully pull it off.

Author
Time

I watched Black Sunday and its got some great John Williams suspense tracks. Would probably fit right in.

Author
Time

13las said:

On another note, does anyone have any suggestions for alternate music to use in this edit?

 I Think I'm a Clone Now.

Author
Time

13las said:

TV's Frink said

 I Think I'm a Clone Now.

 I'll leave the ridiculousness to the experts:

TV's Frink and George Lucas ;-)

 Hey! Don't talk about Frink like that!

(See what I did there?)

Author
Time

Some of your ideas are strikingly similar to some from my edit (however not all of them executed). If youtube hadn't blocked all my videos on copyright grounds I'd post them up here to see if they got the creative juices flowing.......May have to dig out my FCP timeline and upload some parts to Vimeo I think...

Author
Time

Brash_Striker, it would be great to see some of your videos!  I might have subconsciously borrowed some of them (I've read through a lot of Prequel Edits changelists), but I'll be sure to credit you if I use anything that was yours first.

As DominicCobb suggested, I took a look at John Williams' Black Sunday score and found a piece that I think will be perfect for the Speeder chase on Coruscant.  I just added it to my timeline in Pinnacle Studios and it sort of naturally synced up to the action in a lot of cool ways.  I love when that happens! I'll post a clip today or tomorrow 

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnq2soRMB-8vqvL-6NHIOg

Author
Time

13las said:

As DominicCobb suggested, I took a look at John Williams' Black Sunday score and found a piece that I think will be perfect for the Speeder chase on Coruscant.  I just added it to my timeline in Pinnacle Studios and it sort of naturally synced up to the action in a lot of cool ways.  I love when that happens! I'll post a clip today or tomorrow 

 Awesome, can't wait to see how it looks.

Author
Time

I'd like to see a clip with the Black Sunday track.

Author
Time

Wow, great job syncing up the new score to the scene!  It works much better with less generic music.

Author
Time

I recognize that from somewhere… And I haven't seen Black Sunday.

That's from Star Trek The Motion Picture's trailer.

I'm hopeless...

I’m just here because I’m driving tonight.

Author
Time

Ok I guess it's time for an update on this.  As I have said before, I don't have access to any sophisticated video editing software. I'm also going to be starting college in a few months which means money and time will be at an all time low :) 

What I'm trying to say is that the final product of this edit won't begin to take shape for at least a year or two.  I have finished a work print but it's more of a feature length mockup of how a rearranged order might play out.  I haven't bothered to make the cuts very smooth or work with the best quality footage available.  Eventually, I'd like to complete this edit using Emanswfan's Filmized prequels as a base.  from what he's said on that thread, that project will take a while, so maybe by the time they are done, I'll be ready to get started for real.

However, I am still very interested in keeping this topic alive to discuss ideas related to radically reshaping this second prequel (and the others).  

In my work print, I have put the geonosis battle at around the 1 hour point.  Then after yoda says "begun the clone war has", and we see the clones marching and boarding the starships, I would like to have some clips of other battles taking place.  I truly believe that the Clone Wars tv series has some shots of battle that look as good as the cgi in attack of the clones.  this additional footage wouldn't have to be much, I'm imagining just wiping from planet to planet in order to get a glimpse of the scope of this grand war (sort of like the order 66 sequence).  I'm still debating if this would be enough to cut to in between the main narrative (anakin and padme on tatooine) that takes place after geonosis in my edit -- or is tatooine would be more effective to play out uninterripted. 

I suppose this stuff should probably be in the Radical Prequel thread, but I do plan to undertake this edit eventually, so for now id love to hear any ideas that people have in this one.  

Have a nice day :)

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnq2soRMB-8vqvL-6NHIOg

Author
Time

I would suggest you work on this edit, as you can always just swap the source files after the fact, and your edit will be kept, just with my version instead of the bluray.  Good editing programs give you some sort of "replace footage" option.

Author
Time

Oh yes I will keep editing this and the other two prequels for sure.  I was just saying that I don't have the software to edit in 5.1 Sound and do minor compositing stuff yet so a final and releasable product is still a ways away.  But editing is too much fun to stop! I'm sure most people on this forum would understand how the hours can just slip away when you're editing :)

By the way, just wanted to let you know how awesome your project is.  Very inspiring work!

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnq2soRMB-8vqvL-6NHIOg