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ANH:R - Stronger Vader edit: *** Released ***

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 (Edited)

I have started a small fanedit of my own (inspired by some ideas at the http://swmasteredition.blogspot.com). The source is ANH:R and the main goals are simple:

  • make Vader a stronger character, slowing down some of his gestures, spoken phrases, in some case lowering the pitch of his voice, reduce if not eliminate Tarkin holding Vader's leash, alter/remove all moments when Vaders authority might be in question.
  • remove some other stuff, that bothers me, like the torture needle, etc. (I'll post more later as I get on with the edit).

 

I am not using any advanced programs like most of the faneditors here do.

For video I am using Kdenlive on Linux - it works surprisingly well for video, interface is simple and intuitive, but the audio editing sucks, so I am using  Cool Edit Pro (Windows) and Audacity. For image editing I use GIMP. That's it.

 

*** Cut/change list:

-Edited the scene aboard the Tantive IV when Stormtroopers are attacking. Faster action, fewer closeups of unimportant officers, while the stormtroopers come of as more overwhelming.

- After Vader chokes and throws the rebel officer on the ground, he turns his head a bit slower in closeup, and does not turn in the open shot. AUDIO: Vader voice lowered slightly to better match the rest of the saga.

- Edited the scene aboard the Tantive IV when Lea is brought to Vader.
Vader arms to the hips is slowed down! Vader's head movements slowed down a bit. The upward hand gesture is now a bit slower. AUDIO: Vader voice slightly lower and slower to better match the rest of the saga. The following scene where an officer says 'Holding her is dangerous!' and then the other officer informing Vader about the jettisoned escape pod is entirely cut. After Vader says 'Take her away' we see the stormtroopers escorting Lea away with a wipe to the star destroyer. I feel there is nothing important lost by cutting the segment while making Vader stronger. We don't need to see him talking to so many low ranking officers. It is true that a couple of scenes later we see the stormtroopers investigating down on the planet, with no  mention of the escape pod  to the Vader, but the pod was mentioned in the scene before and searching down on the planet would be a logical thing.

- Removed the scene with the clunky trashcan-looking robot aboard the sandcrawler.
It it very obvious (way more more than C3PO) that there is a person inside. All in all it is  bit too childish plus the whole droid sequence is too long in my opinion.
Editing: Just reversed 13 frames from R2D2 leaning forward and added it right there so it starts leaning backward to match his actions after the cut scene. Also a few short (all together lest than a sec) cuts to accommodate the audio cut. Audio: a straight cut at the points of best transition. Added a repetition of some robots noise to shorten the needed video cut.

- Bantha with the raider slowed down a bit to give the Bantha more mass, less elephant (not a very noticable change, but still...)

- Death Star conference room scene 1.
Vader's movements during his speech about the power of the force are a bit slower. Later on, Vader says: 'I find your lack of ....', chokes the officer and then lets him go, without Tarkin saying anything. Vader made his point and show of power. Tarking remains quiet!

- Torture droid removed! The most outdated prop ever, of all the other props, this one really bothers me the most. Vader says "And now your highness, we will discuss...",  stares at Lea, force rumble, scream,cut.

- Vader-Tarkin scene, Vader says: "Her resistance is considerable", "...to the mind probe..." has been cut to keep in line with the previous edit.

- Tarkin-Leia dialog: 'Vader's leash' line cut. Lea makes no reference to Vader.

- Death Star firing sequence #1 shortened, less prolonged lever pulling/button pushing,...

- Cut Tarkin saying "Terminate her, immediately!" Now Vader says "I told you she would never consciously betray the rebellion.", Tarking walks up to Vader and just uneasily stares at him, then cut to Falcon in hyperspace.

- When Falcon lands on DS, the scanning guy no longer arbitrarily checks the non-equipment (fire extinguisher?)
I've re-cut the scene aboard DS after Falcon lands and the crew is sent to scan the ship.  Also the the whole scene is now a bit faster. I have always disliked the scene. We now immediately cut from the Han and the guys to the scanning crew climbing aboard the Falcon. Also a couple of smaller audio and video cuts to speed things up.

- Cut the scene little chirping robot when Luke and Han are walking with handcuffed Chewie on the DS. Also cut the scene with the same robot running around the DS when Falcon is captured. It's a personal choice, I find the robot annoying and some movie elements were too childish for me.

- Stabilized the second door close of the control room, the wobbly door always bothered me. Unfortunately I could not fix the first wobbly door close, to much motion with also moving Luke.

- Cut the entire Tarkin-Vader scene regarding the tracking of the Falcon, and the  "It had better work" line. Does not belong in this edit and Lea already concludes that the ease of their escape was due to being let to by the Empire. Also, not much later we see a scene with Tarkin getting the news about orbiting a moon with the rebel base...

- A couple of shoots cut during the takeoff sequence from the Yavin base. It flows faster, with less exposition of guys refilling the X-wings via just a normal screwed on hose. The less we se that the better.

- A couple of cuts throughout the battle of Yavin to speed things up, the whole attack sequence probably still too long. Most of the scenes with the two older guys with headphones/microphones with greenish lighting, looking like getting ready to do some sporty commentary, were cut. Same goes for the similar shot with more similar looking guys in the control room.

- Small edits to the shortened end credits...

 

*** PM me for the D/L link. ***

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Edited the scene aboard the Tantive IV when Lea is brought to Vader.

AUDIO: He now speaks the phrase 'Take her away!' slightly slower and in a lower tone.

VIDEO: Inserted a couple frames to smooth and slow down his hand gesture.

 

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Update: Removed the scene with the clunky trashcan-looking robot aboard the sandcrawler. It it very obvious (way more more than C3PO) that there is a person inside. All in all it is  bit too childish plus the whole droid sequence is too long in my opinion.

Editing: Just reversed a 13 frames from R2D2 leaning forward and added it right there so it starts leaning backward to match his actions after the cut scene. Also a few short (all together lest than a sec) cuts to accommodate the audio cut.

Audio: a straight cut at the points of best transition. Added a repetition of some robots noise to shorten the needed video cut.

 

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Hehehe, a 'This thread is worthless without pics!' reply.

I'll post some videos this week.

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Glad to see you opened a thread. I'll be looking at this closely. Good luck!

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I will also say I'm interested in seeing a clip of Vader's slower "Take her away!"

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Here is the Take Her Away video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChtS8vWC4q0

The upward hand gesture is now 11 frames instead of 9 frames long. AUDIO: the phrase 'Take her away' is now app. 12% (70ms) longer and Vader speaks with a lower pitch. I limited myself to only small changes, which still don't sound too fake or in your face.

The following scene where an officer says 'Holding her is dangerous!' and then the other officer informing Vader about the jettisoned escape pod is cut. After Vader says 'Take her away' we see the stormtroopers escorting Lea away with a wipe to the stardestroyer.

I feel there is nothing important lost by cutting the segment while making Vader stronger. We don't need to see him talking to so many low ranking officers.

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Fox blocked your YouTube! Weird how they can jump on these little videos, but Star Wars Begins and A New Hope Revisited can be on there in their entirety.

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Joshua_Blue, that clip was pretty good. Having Vader be more distant does work. The only qualm I have though is: would it be possible to have a more Star-Wars-y transition like a wipe instead of the current crossfade? In any case, I think this will definitely be an interesting edit and I'm glad you started your own thread for it. After watching SW so many times, it's always unique to see a narrative change.

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@The Aluminum Falcon

You are right, I wanted to use a wipe, but I am new to Kdenlive and video editing in general, so I didn't know how. I've set the transition to Wipe, but I still did not get the desired effect. Only now I realised that I also need to select a luma image file for the true wipe effect.

Problem is, there is a diagonal wipe just a few seconds later, so having 2 wipes only 2-3 seconds apart looks odd, so I may need to keep the crossfade. Or at least use an extremely soft wipe, sort of a blend between wipe and a crossfade.

 

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I had the same thought immediately when seeing it.  It looks good, but a fade is not so Star Warsy.  If you want to fix it, I think a simple cut to the star destroyer would be logical; that's how the original movie cuts to it anyhow.  Nothing complicated, and still achieves your tough Vader effect.

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I really love this idea.  I always thought Vader was ironically too un-Vader-like in his first movie because of how badass he became later (the improved voice in ESB being a huge part of that).

However, every time I try to download the clip it only gives me the first few seconds.  Could someone upload it somewhere else?

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This sounds cool. I'd like to see Vader a bit more dark then what he currently is in the movie. It was ESB that showed how evil he could be. And early dose of that would be cool.

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I'll soon upload a longer clip with the new wipe. In addition to the 'Take her away!' hand and voice slow down, I additionally  toned down previous Vader's movements like in Jaitea's video clip.

I went for the diagonal wipe to match the diagonal wipe afterwards. Since the new wipe is much faster than the previous crossfade, the two wipes are no longer just 2 seconds apart, so it looks OK. The only thing is the quality of the wipe: it's ok, but not great. I need to check those luma files Kdenlive uses...

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nice effort J_B.

Still to my eyes looks that he is getting into slow motion at the end and even it was done smart still the transition from normal speed to slow speed needs work IMO.

Mr J. can give awesome ideas and clips for what you might need for your edit :)

And always with less motion blur (I still dont know how he is doing that :)


-Angel

–>Artwork<–**

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Fantastic! The wipe works well and looks natural in my opinion. Vader also comes across more menacing with the alternate shots of hum.

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Great improvement and nice time pacing. It works in all terms :) Very Star wars-y like we see later with the speeder sequences/cuts :)

 

Well done!


Whats next? J_B ? :D


-Angel

–>Artwork<–**

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 (Edited)

Generally I'll be also removing some shots of people looking 'too 70s'. I'm taking this step by step as I go, I don't have everything planned out yet, just a general idea of what I want as the end result - a stronger Vader and a movie which looks a bit less outdated, without adding CGI.

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Joshua_Blue said:


Generally I'll be also removing some shots of people looking 'too 70s'.
I'm not even sure what that means, let alone how you could remove entire shots to accomplish this. Unless you give Hammill a haircut in every scene, its always going to be 70s. ;-)

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Well I said SOME shots, not all of them. Those shots that I can remove/replace without too much trouble ;)

Just trying to minimise the 70s, not eliminate it. And BTW, Luke's hair is just fine.

 

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Are you saying Luke's hair isn't 70s?

...

What?