I’m beginning the process of exporting the final product. What remains now is to create chapter stops, modify the subtitle track to remain in sync, and write up the description.
Now is the time for cover artwork submissions. I can include as many as people care to generate, and will pick one to serve as the icon. Ideally, there’d be a handful of DVD covers, BluRay covers, and posters.
Specs include: 1080p BR video
2 audio tracks (regular Dolby Digital, and whatever HD format I can get out of Compressor, possibly PCM)
Chapter stops
English Subtitles
And let’s just go with “The Force Awakens: Restructured” as the title.
Here’s what I have so far for a writeup. Feel free to include as much or as little as you believe will be fitting for your cover:
"Tagline: It’s another Death Star…
Brief synopsis: It’s the same Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens you fell in love with, only restructured slightly so that Starkiller Base does not fire until close to the end of the film.
During the battle over Starkiller Base, the stakes are no longer protecting the Resistance base, but preventing the destruction of the Republic Capitol. Even though they destroy the First Order’s superweapon, they fail to do so in time to save the day.
Intention: Simply to move the destruction of the Hosnian system (Republic Capitol) to the climax of the film, and all the little things needed to facilitate it seamlessly. No other changes.
Additional Notes: How does this single change help the film?
- The second act, centering around the events of Maz's castle, remains focused on the characters and their struggle to keep the First Order from finding the map to Luke. The First Order catching up to Han and Rey is sufficient motivation for Finn to decide not to leave, without the Hosnian system being destroyed.
- Starkiller Base firing upon the Hosnian system in the third act links it very closely to Kylo Ren's resolution toward the dark side by killing Han, and pairing these events magnifies each. Han taking a risk motivated by love for his son and thereby causing costly failure is a dark mirror of Vader doing the same in Return of the Jedi and helping save the galaxy.
- It alleviates the plot's very close parallel with the original Star Wars.
- Starkiller Base is depicted as functioning in an intuitive way: it drains the nearby star (or "the Sun," as Finn describes it), which covers it in darkness, and then fires on the Republic Capitol. Gone are the awkward questions about why the planet was still in daylight when it fired the first time during the second act, and whether the base is mobile.
- It avoids depicting the Hosnian system clearly visible to the naked eye, very large in the sky, from lightyears away. The official Lucasfilm canon answer is that Starkiller Base created a "space-time disruption," an obvious bandaid answer to apologize for a wanton move on the filmmakers' part. One wonders whether these are common, because no one who witnessed the destruction had the slightest trouble identifying what was happening.
- It avoids raising the question of why the Resistance did not begin evacuating their base during the third act when they know they are the target. In the original Star Wars, the Death Star was looming overhead; here, there's no obvious reason why they could not have fled.
This project was born of the emergent idea from all over the Internet after we all saw the film. Numerous people at OriginalTrilogy.com suggested this idea immediately after release, and William Gillis laid out a detailed blog post about it here: https://humaniterations.net/2016/03/26/how-to-fix-the-force-awakens/
Other sources: TIE sound effects, stills of TIEs and transport ships
Special Thanks: Everyone at OriginalTrilogy.com who contributed, including:
Jackpumpkinhead
Octorox
Smithers
Chris Solo
Ben_danger
That_OT_Ruler
RogueLeader
Kexikus
Bingowings
Darthrush
ImperialFighter
Yuri_Kenobi
Littlev87
Tomo
NeverarGreat
Cheebo
DominicCobb
TK251
SkywalkerFan01
Rpvee
MalàStrana
Scott109
William Gillis for his blog post summarizing the rationale for the idea
Release Information: NTSC DVD-5, 1080p mkv, 720p mp4
Special features: Subtitles (English)
Editing details: My goal was to restructure the film to place the Hosnian system’s destruction in the third act, and to do so as seamlessly as possible.
Cuts and Additions:
Removed General Hux from the first scene with Snoke, where he suggests using the weapon to destroy the Republic. (FX by Jackpumpkinhead to paint out Hux walking offscreen during first shot)
After Rey flees Maz’s castle after her Force vision, replaced the Hosnian system being destroyed in the sky with a Star Destroyer and approaching TIE fighters. Finn and Han now gaze up to see that the First Order has caught up with them, as they feared.
When Finn is introduced to Leia, removed mention of the Hosnian system’s destruction.
Removed Threepio’s line, “It is very doubtful that Artoo would have the rest of the map in his backup data.” (This is the sole deviation from the stated goal of restructuring the film to move Starkiller Base firing to the third act.)
After Rey resists Kylo Ren’s mind probe, added the portion of the Snoke scene from earlier where General Hux suggests using the weapon to destroy the Republic. (FX by Jackpumpkinhead to overlay Kylo Ren’s face over where his mask was for one shot)
Moved General Hux’s impassioned speech to after Kylo Ren overreacts to Rey’s escape from her cell.
After the speech, the nearby Sun beings to be drained, as Hux and the troops gaze upon the stream being sucked into the planet. (Recolored to yellow-orange, and reversed so as to appear to be going down into the ground)
During the briefing scene at the Resistance base, removed Leia identifying their base as the Starkiller’s next target, Threepio lamenting the prior loss of the Republic fleet, and well as mention that the First Order is charging the weapon “again.”
During a brief cutaway to the Resistance base as Han and Chewie infiltrate the oscillator, removed Threepio’s line, “It would take a miracle to save us now.”
Immediately after Kylo Ren kills Han, the Starkiller fires and destroys the Hosnian system, as Leia senses it through the Force.
As Finn and Rey start to head outside the oscillator, cut to the battle in space where the fighters notice that the oscillator has been damaged. Cut back to Rey and Finn at this point, before the X-wings begin their descend toward the trench.
As Kylo Ren and Rey duel, cut to the X-wings descending toward the trench, skipping over the portion of the sequence used earlier.
As the Falcon flies away from the imploding planet, removed shots in which the fighter pilots appeared more joyful than the galaxy’s fresh loss would lead one to expect."