STAR WARS: EP I "THE VALOR CUT" **JUSTIN VALORMAN**COMPLETED**YOUTUBE LINK UP

EDIT: YouTube link to the final draft of my edit. Other versions will become available soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAIbhOSKOD0&feature=youtu.be

The first of my prequel edits. An attempt to give The Phantom Menace an Adywan-level makeover. However, I have no intentions of changing the story in such a radical way that it contradicts the new Star Wars cannon, i.e. things like The Clone Wars . However, just because I don't want it to contradict doesn't mean my edit has to mention things in the rest of the cannon i.e. the Midi-Chlorians.

TL;DR MY GOAL WITH THESE EDITS IS TO RADICALLY IMPROVE THE CONTINUITY, PACING, AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PREQUELS WHILE STILL MAKING THEM ENJOYABLE FOR PURISTS AND YOUNG STAR WARS FANS ALIKE.

With that in mind, I will be altering the visual style of the prequels (specifically AOTC and ROTS) to closely resemble Adywan's vision of the Original Trilogy, as I find his take on Star Wars to be the most aesthetically pleasing.

Here are the changes I've planned so far for this edit. Many of them are borrowed ideas from other edits I've seen, and many are original ideas that I don't think have been implemented anywhere else. However, in my mind, the changes I've listed so far are still not enough. I want to alter this film as much as possible while still retaining it's unique personality. 

Any suggestions are not only appreciated but encouraged. Please suggest ideas. Please.

Overall Changes: 

-Complete color correction

-New Opening Crawl

-No Midi-Chlorians/Less Jar-Jar/Less politics. Y'know, the obvious stuff.

-Editing conversations so that dialogue/pacing is less awkward and slow. "Faster and more intense" if you will. ;)

-Add various Original Trilogy-esque visual effects and sounds. Remove as much of the "bad" CGI shots as possible. **THIS IS THE PART WHERE I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE SUGGESTIONS.**

Detailed Changes:

- Episode name will be reverted to the film's original title "The Beginning"

- New Opening Crawl.

"For over a thousand generations the Galactic Republic has brought order to the galaxy, aided by the JEDI KNIGHTS, mystical guardians of peace and justice. 

But political unrest now threatens this prosperity. The greedy TRADE FEDERATION has surrounded the small planet of Naboo with a blockade of deadly battleships in an attempt to take control of the defenseless star system.

As the Republic Senate endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has dispatched two of the Jedi Order's finest; Qui-Gon Jinn, and his apprentice, OBI-WAN KENOBI. But as the Jedi race to resolve this crisis, a phantom menace looms in the darkness..."

- Remove Nute's line "As you know, dis blockade is perfectly legaaalll..." The implication should be that the Trade Federation IS committing an illegal act by blockading the planet, which is why the Jedi are coming to negotiate.

- Remove Daulty Dofine's line "Send the droid." Now, he and Nute just look at Silver Protocol Droid after the whole discussion about distracting the Jedi. It adds a nice comedic punch to the next shot, which is the protocol droid walking to serve drinks to the Jedi.

- Remove Nute's line "My lord. Is dat leeeeegal?"

- Remove Sidious' line "I will MAKE IT legal."

- Remove Sidious' line "The Chancellor should never have brought them into this!" 

- After Nute says "Dat will hold dem." IMMEDIATELY cut to Qui-Gon stabbing his blade through the door, instead of cutting to Obi-Wan killing that one droid. 

-  Removed Obi-Wan's "They've shield generators!" 

- Combine scenes so that right after Haako says "Dey're no match for droid deekaaaasss" the Queen calls Nute. The scene where the Jedi find the droid armies in the hangar will NOT be in this edit. 

- Removed Nute's "I was not aware...of such failure!"

- After Nute says "You must be mistaken." cut whole Queen/Gunray convo except for Amidala's "Beware Viceroy. The Federation has gone too far this time." 

- Cut Nute's "We would neva do anythang witout da approval of da Senate."

- Cut Amidala's "We will see."

- Remove Panaka's "The Senate would revoke their trade franchise, and they'd be finished." 

- Remove Jar-Jar's "Oh, moi-moi! I love you!"

- Remove Jar-Jar's "Exsqueeze me!"

- After Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon give their speech about "terrible things" to Jar-Jar, immediately cut to the lake scene after Jar-Jar says "Ah." Again, this adds some humor to the film through simple editing. 

- Cut Jar-Jar's swan dive into the water so that he doesn't jump twenty feet into the air.

- Cut the Gungan guard shocking Jar-Jar with his electric spear. 

- Cut Qui-Gon's line about warning the Naboo.

- Edit the pacing of Obi-Wan and Boss Nass' little exchange so that it sounds slightly more argumentative. 

- Cut Jar-Jar's line about the planet core. Now he just says "Any help here would be hot."

- Cut Qui-Gon's lines about needing a navigator through the planet's core. 

- Cut Boss Nass' jowl-shaking.

- Cut Jar-Jar's exit where he talks about "Better dead here den in da core."

- Edit sequence so that immediately after the Bongo leaves Otoh Gunga, we cut to the Federation invading Theed. THE UNDERWATER MONSTER CHASE WILL NOT BE IN MY EDIT OF THE FILM, AND NEITHER WILL THE ADJACENT SCENE WHERE SIDIOUS CONSULTS THE NEMOIDIANS ABOUT THE INVASION.

- Cut the shots of the Jedi spying on the droids from the balcony. Now they just jump down and save the Queen with no introduction. Preserves the surprise of their attack/makes the Jedi seem more mysterious and bad-ass.

- Remove the scene where Qui-Gon talks to Sio Bibble and asks Panaka if they have transports. We transition from Jar-Jar's line "Yousa guys bombad." to the scene where Qui-Gon argues with Amidala about leaving Naboo.

- Remove Sio Bibble's line "Our only hope is for the Senate to side with us. Senator Palpatine will need your help!"

- After Qui-Gon says "If you are to leave, your Highness, it must be now." Cut to the Jedi/Queen's posse walking into hangar. Again, meere actions do a better job of conveying what lines could. We don't need to hear the Queen's decision to leave, it's far more effective to just see it happen. 

- Edit scene so that the Droid Commander's "Where are you taking them." gets interrupted by Qui-Gon slicing the metal bastard in half. Again, adds some comedy to the scene and showcases Qui-Gon's personality pretty well. He's a rouge-ish Jedi. A nice guy? Sure. But he doesn't wait around for stuff to get done. 

- Cut Ric Olie's "Shield generator's been hit!"

- Cut Ric Olie's "He bypassed the main power drive!"

- Cut Ric Olie's "The hyperdrive is leaking!"

- After Sidious' line "He will find your lost ship." iris wipe to the Queen's ship arriving at Tattooine. THE SCENES WHERE JAR-JAR PADME MEET/QUI-GON TALKS TO THE QUEEN ABOUT GOING TO TATOOINE WILL NOT BE IN MY EDIT.

- Jar-Jar doesn't step in a pile of poo. Or poodoo. Whatever. It ain't happening. 

- Changed Watto's subtitles so that his chastising of Anakin now reads "Where the hell were you?!"

- Anakin's response is now subtitled as "I was cleaning the fans like you said..."

- Watto's response is now subtitled as "Shut up! Watch the store, I've got some selling to do."

- KEEP Qui-Gon's line "Don't touch anything." but REMOVE Jar-Jar sticking his tongue out at Qui-Gon. 

- Remove Anakin repeating "An angel!" after Padme says "What?"

- Remove Padme's "You're a funny little boy." KEEP her line "How do you know so much?"

- Remove Anakin's "Three, I think."

- KEEP Jar-Jar waking up the Pit Droid, but remove the last part of the scene where Anakin tells him to "Hit the nose!"

- Remove Qui-Gon and Jar-Jar's conversation about being "Robbed and crunched!"

- Anakin's subtitled warning to Sebulba now reads "Careful, Sebulba. This one's a big time outlander. I'd hate to see you get diced before we race again."

- Sebulba's subtitled response now reads "Next time we race, boy, it will be the end of you! If you weren't a slave, I'd kill you right now!"

- Anakin's response now reads "Yeah, it'd be a pity if you had to pay for me." 

- Remove Anakin's "Oops" before he puts 3-PO's eye in. 

- Cut Anakin's line "I'm building a POD racer!"

- After Shmi says "The Republic doesn't exist out here." cut to Padme's face solemnly contemplating that line. No "We must survive on our own" and no Jar-Jar interrupting by slurping the food.

- Remove Jar-Jar's Looney Toon's jowl-shake after Qui-Gon tells him "Don't do that again." 

- Remove Anakin's line "I had a dream I was a Jedi. I came back and freed all the slaves." 

- Remove Anakin's "I think you have."

- Remove Qui-Gon's "I can see there's no fooling you, Anakin." 

- Remove Anakin's "I built a racer! It's the fastest ever!"

- Remove Watto and Anakin's little back-and-forth about how Anakin "Saved the pod...mostly." Anakin should be quiet and as reserved as possible in Watto's presence. Since, y'know, Watto is his abusive slave owner.

- Change Watto's subtitled line to "Your friend is a damned fool."

- Cut from Qui-Gon saying to Shmi "I don't know." to Anakin's racer starting up. No Jar-Jar antics and no Ani's friends antics. 

- Cut Qui-Gon's line about checking for infections. CUT ALL TALK OF MIDI-CHLORIANS.

- Cut tiny shot of Jar-Jar looking between Watto and Qui-Gon during the dice toss. Also cut Jar-Jar's "Oh no!" reaction when he sees Sebulba.

- Cut Jar-Jar's sh!t eating grin after Qui-Gon wins the dice toss.

- End podrace hangar scene after Threepio says "They will never get me on one of those dreadful starships!" No conversation with Padme about how Anakin has never won a race.

- Cut out as many podracer intros as possible while still maintaining musical flow/good pacing.

- COMPLETELY remove Jabba the Hutt from the film.

- Cut out Jar-Jar getting farted on by the eopie. 

- Sebulba's subtitled pre-race statement to Anakin now reads "You're going to die today. You slave scum."

- Anakin's subtitled response now reads "Don't count on it, slimeball."

- Remove Ben Quadraneros/That one racer's pod getting blown up by a pit droid/ANY comedic hi-jinks during the race that have nothing to do with the race.

- Remove Ben Quadranero's podracer from wide shots of the stadium. 

- Color correct added podracer footage that wasn't in the original release. Even though Lucas added it to subsequent releases, the colors don't match the rest of the racing footage.

- When Anakin does that epic flying-through-the-air-Buzz-Lightyear trick to get in front of Sebulba, remove the announcer's reaction to this except for "It's Skywalker! Amazing!" 

- Cut out Sebulba's seat skidding to a halt in the sand and him yelling "Poodoo!" We don't show Sebulba live. The implication is that Sebulba died, and Anakin knowingly killed him. Makes Anakin seem like more of a bad-ass who's well beyond his kiddie years, and also serves as a more satisfying comeuppance to that smug podracing Dug. 

- Wipe from cheering crowds to Qui-Gon negotiating Anakin's release with Watto. THE SCENE WHERE SHMI/PADME/JAR-JAR CONGRATULATE ANAKIN AFTER THE RACE WILL NOT BE IN MY EDIT. 

- Remove Anakin's "Yipee!"

- Remove Anakin's sarcastic line to Threepio "You've been a GREAT pal!" Now, his casual goodbye to Threepio doesn't feel dickish and mean, but rather feels like a person in the Star Wars universe being characteristically dismissive of a droid, much like how the characters treat Threepio in the original trilogy. We still get the humor of a distressed Threepio wanting to be completed, and we also get the added bonus of not hating Anakin's guts.

- I am KEEPING Anakin's line about coming back to free his mother BECAUSE IN MY ATTACK OF THE CLONES EDIT SHE WILL ALREADY BE FREE FROM WATTO IN THE FILM. The implication will be that Anakin freed her off-screen in the ten years between Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. THE IDEA OF ANAKIN NOT FREEING HIS MOM IS INSANE, AND WILL NOT BE IN MY EDITS.

- Cut Anakin's lines "I carved it out of a japor snippet. It'll bring you good fortune." 

- Remove Jar-Jar's lines about the Queen and how she's "Pretty hot." Wtf, Jar-Jar. Stop being creepy.

- Remove all mention of Midi-Chlorians from the Jedi Council scene.

- Remove entire Midi-Chlorian discussion from floating landing platform scene. Qui-Gon's speech to Anakin ends with "Stay close to me and you'll be safe." 

- Remove Jar-Jar's line "Hello der, ee big Boss Nass yo honor."

- Re-edit Padme's war briefing so that the exchange is less stilted and awkward. 

-  Anakin joins the space battle on purpose with the rest of the Naboo pilots. 

- After droids unload from tanks to attack Gungans, only keep large-scale war sections of the scene. Remove Jar-Jar hi-jinks, i.e. him tripping and killing droidekas/him getting thrown by his own slingshot.

- Edit together the first half of Duel of the Fates. We don't interrupt the duel to see Anakin destroy the droidekas and take off by accident because, as stated above, he's already in space. 

- Cut Gungan battle scene so that after Jar-Jar is picked up by the Gungan riding the Kaadu/the rider and Jar-Jar are blown into the sky by a tank, the next shot is Jar-Jar and Captain Tarpals landing on the ground. This implies that Tarpals was the Kaadu rider, and also serves to shorten the Gungan battle sequence/help the film's pacing.

Effects I Will Be Adding

-White flashes during blaster shoot-outs, just like the kind seen in the original trilogy. If you don't know what I'm talking about, re-watch the Detention Center shoot-out from A New Hope. 

-Add some battle droid yelling sound effects from the video game REPUBLIC COMMANDO so they react occasionally when killed

-Occasional sound effects that are missing in the original cut (no lightsaber retraction sound effect when it was needed, etc.)

CONCLUSION

Any help I receive with this edit, be it effects work, suggestions, or otherwise will earn their name in the credits of the film (within reason. Your suggestion has to actually be IMPLEMENTED to be in the credits. :p)

Just as with Adywan's Revisited series, there will be several official versions released:

Blu-Ray 720p BD-25

DL DVD PAL

DL DVD NTSC

The flashes should not be pink

fishmanlee said:

The flashes should not be pink

 What color then, may I ask? Just red? I suppose I should discover the exact shade.

I believe in SW Revisited they are white.

fishmanlee said:

I believe in SW Revisited they are white.

 Are you sure? I'm not talking about the muzzle flashes, I'm talking about the way the whole screen just lights up. You may be right though, I don't have a copy of Revisited handy on me right now, believe it or not. 

Platitude said:

Just throwing it out there, but having Anakin return home and free his mother sometime during his teen years would be a pretty big change to canon.

But you've got some interesting ideas!  Some screenshot comparisons would be cool to see some of the visual changes your doing.

 No, I agree, it would be a big change to cannon. BUT it's never mentioned that something like that DIDN'T happen in the Clone Wars or any of the movies. Basically, I'm sticking with what's on-screen as far as continuity goes. I'm willing to bend and warp it, I'm just not willing to do crazy stuff.

Crazy stuff being something like "Maul goes by Vader, and there's no 'Darth' title or Sith." 

Oh, and I'll be posting screenshot comparisons/clips/clip comparisons later tonight. Don't you worry. :)

justinvalorman said:

fishmanlee said:

I believe in SW Revisited they are white.

 Are you sure? I'm not talking about the muzzle flashes, I'm talking about the way the whole screen just lights up. You may be right though, I don't have a copy of Revisited handy on me right now, believe it or not. 

 I know and yes.

fishmanlee said:

justinvalorman said:

fishmanlee said:

I believe in SW Revisited they are white.

 Are you sure? I'm not talking about the muzzle flashes, I'm talking about the way the whole screen just lights up. You may be right though, I don't have a copy of Revisited handy on me right now, believe it or not. 

 I know and yes.

 Ah, all right. Again, I'm not home yet, but I'm sure if I check I'll find that you are correct. Thank you.

brash_stryker said:

Are you accomplished in visual effects already to be able to realise these changes? Or are you planning to learn as you go along?

 I'm able to add the smoke in the Trade Federation ship/Darken Sidious' face/Get rid of Ben Quad's pod. Y'know, stupid little stuff like that. Although tbh I have a cursory knowledge of After Effects. I'm planning to learn as I go along BUT I am an incredibly quick learner. I'm at a film school with a $30,000 a year scholarship (which is the one thing I get to brag about in life) so I BETTER be damn good at adaptability. :p

Oh, and I know KIND OF how to make a new opening crawl as well. The version of the edit I have completed right now has one I did in After Effects, but the tutorial I folowed didn't really give me the results I wanted. The STAR WARS title moves weirdly, and the words seem a bit...off centered? Idk, I'll post a clip later today

https://vimeo.com/127883422

New clip! Rough cut of the opening five minutes of my edit! Lots of new stuff/some new effects here! My goal was to get the Jedi off the droid control ship as quickly as possible and get the plot moving along much quicker.

Password is starwars

Sound and new VFX are not final, obviously. 

TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS, MY HOMIEZ

Any updates to be had? I'm interested chiefly in your hoped-for rescore of the introduction of the clone army.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAIbhOSKOD0&feature=youtu.be

Private YouTube link to the Final Draft of my edit. Enjoy, and please provide feedback.

I'd like to see it, if there's another place to upload it.