Idea: my first steps into a larger world

Hi everyone.

I just began my first attempt at video editing (which is basically trimming/cutting scenes). Hope to create my own Star Wars fan edit once I get the hang of things. Just thought I’d share my first experiment using the first few minutes of TPM:

http://vimeo.com/53489224

I used VideoPad Video Editor. It’s quite user-friendly for beginners like myself.

fishmanlee said:

Some interesting cuts, I would work on crossfading the audio (having the audio smoothly fade from the first clip into the next).

Thanks for the comment and advice. I'm not quite familiar with audio editing yet. Still learning the basics of video editing.

This next vid is my take on the introduction to Anakin scene. Did a few cuts and rearrangments. The idea is for Padme to introduce the audience to Anakin rather than him saying "I'm a person and my name is Anakin".

http://vimeo.com/53645811

You've got some great cut ideas!
Of course, I totally understand you're just starting out - so I'll forgive technical details.

But the ideas themselves are great! I like cutting out the "The ambassadors of the supreme chancellor wish to board immediately" shots, as well as your lovely cut of the atrocious intro to Anakin. It works much more... naturally now. It feels more like Star Wars. Good job!

Keep practicing Fairuz.

It might be an idea to work out a manifesto for your Star Wars edits.

Figure out the bits that work for you in the whole series and why and apply it across the board and see how it comes out.

aalenfae said:

You've got some great cut ideas!
Of course, I totally understand you're just starting out - so I'll forgive technical details.

But the ideas themselves are great! I like cutting out the "The ambassadors of the supreme chancellor wish to board immediately" shots, as well as your lovely cut of the atrocious intro to Anakin. It works much more... naturally now. It feels more like Star Wars. Good job!

Thanks for the encouragement. I really appreciate it.

Been busy lately with the start of a new semester here. Managed to squeeze in some time to work on another editing experiment for TPM.

This one is the scene from Qui-Gon's first encounter with Maul and the Anakin-Obi Wan intro. Personally, I always felt that Anakin and Obi-Wan meeting for the first time should have been more significant (maybe adding relevant OT music). Instead we get a "You're a Jedi too? Pleased to meet you."

I also moved Maul's Force flip towards the end the duel so that the next scene where he stands up (after supposedly being pushed from the ship's ramp) looks he is standing up after landing from his somersault.

Again, excuse the less that perfect cut.

http://vimeo.com/56070177

The bit at the end is obviously quite rough, but otherwise I liked it. The cuts during the fight worked nicely.

Bingowings said:

Keep practicing Fairuz.

It might be an idea to work out a manifesto for your Star Wars edits.

Figure out the bits that work for you in the whole series and why and apply it across the board and see how it comes out.

Thanks for the advice Bingowings.

I'm still working out the details for the whole PT edits.

For TPM these are a few of the ideas I currently have in mind:

• Make it clearer that the Trade Federation blockade and invasion is a Separatist plot to break away from the Republic (for continuity purposes).
• Try to insert certain footage from AOTC/ROTS so that we see glimpses of Dooku and maybe even the clones in TPM (also for continuity).
• Remove all mentions of midichlorians, virgin birth and chosen one.
• Remove the victory parade at the end.
• Dub alien characters (Gungans, Neimoidians, Watto etc) & use subtitles for plot advancement (Separatist plot), more sensible comic relief, and strengthen character roles.
• Strengthen Anakin's character (no pouting, yippies, oops, etc). And he doesn't 'accidentally' destroy the Federation ship.
• Restore certain deleted scenes.
• Shorten the pod-race scene.
• Rearrange the final battle scenes.
• Improve Maul's death scene. (He doesn't just stand there waiting for Obi Wan to slice him in half).

Obviously many of these ideas have already been done in other edits. I just hope to present these ideas from a different perspective.

Greetings,

This is the revised intro to my planned TPM edit. Starting the whole project from scratch. Had problems with the computer and lost all my files.

http://vimeo.com/60838917

Anyway, I imported the scene in Palpatine's office from AOTC where he says the line "My negotiations will not fail." I thought it would be a good addition to the opening scene in TPM since Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are on their way to negotiate with the Trade Federation.

Of course, this results in some changes to the film: 1) the Separatists are mentioned in TPM, and 2) Palpatine is already the Supreme Chancellor in TPM.

I'm also working out the possibility of including Dooku's meeting with the Separatist leaders on Geonosis into TPM. This is to have Dooku introduced earlier in the PT rather appearing in the later part of AOTC & getting killed early on in ROTS.

timdiggerm said:

Although I really like the idea, the way it works right now is a little problematic. One establishing shot of the Jedi's ship, and we abruptly cut to a room of characters we've never seen, who talk for a bit, and then right back to that spaceship. If you can move the Palpatine's office scene to a little later, perhaps introducing those characters better, that would help a lot. I do like the idea, though, other than losing Valorum.

Thanks for the feedback. You have a good point there. I did consider inserting the scene later on but couldn't find a suitable spot. I could re-insert the rest of the meeting room scene where Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan mention about the negotiations. That would at least show the link between the two scenes.

Currently working on editing the Obi-Wan vs Maul duel. As with other fan-edits, I'm trying to make Maul's death a bit more believable.

This project sounds interesting.  I'm quiet, but I'm watching :)

darth_ender said:

I'm quiet

I call shenanigans.

Well, I've been much quieter than I used to be.  But I meant in regards to this thread.  *mutters* jerk... ;)

fairuz hidayat said:

I just began my first attempt at video editing (which is basically trimming/cutting scenes). Hope to create my own Star Wars fan edit once I get the hang of things. 

nimd4 said:

 

fairuz hidayat said:

I just began my first attempt at video editing (which is basically trimming/cutting scenes). Hope to create my own Star Wars fan edit once I get the hang of things. 

Hi, this is my first post here & while I most certainly encourage as many people as possible to get into video production / editing, I strongly believe that Star Wars have reached their maximum - as far as fan-edits are concerned..;)

There had been some really awesome ones, including SW EP 1: Shadow of the Sith by L8wrtr (and others) && there really isn't any more room; anywhere, there. =)

PS.
I've (almost, once :)) graduated Film Production @ Intercollege, Nicosia.

 

Hi. Thank you for your comments :-)

While I respect your opinion, I have to disagree with you. For me there can never be too many Star Wars fan-edits. The Star Wars films are like a "sandbox" for video editing. There are so many different ways that one can edit the films depending on his/her perspective.

And it's these awesome fan-edits done by the likes of l8wrtr, Q2, ADigitalMan and many others that have inspired fans like myself to experiment on editing the Star Wars films from our own viewpoint.

I don't respect his opinion. ;-)

Hi all,

Taking a break from my TPM edit for a while to start edits on AOTC and ROTS.

Thought I'd share a couple of draft edits from ROTS.

1. ROTS Opening scene:

http://vimeo.com/65033260

2. Death of Dooku:

http://vimeo.com/65028429

chyron8472 said:

Some of the cuts are a bit rough, but I like it.

I liked the way you worked the Palpy dialogue at the end of the Death of Dooku clip.

I also like Obi-Wan being the first voice/face we encounter in ROTS.

Thanks for the comments chyron,

I'll work on the rough cuts during my second run of editing.

For the ROTS Opening Scene, it was an attempt to address the issue of the "nothing there suddenly there's a huge battle" haha. Also wanted to get rid of the buzz droids scene as well as trimming out unnecessary dialogue.

Did the same for the Dooku scene ("Sith are our speciality...My powers have doubled....etc).

Palpy's dialogue in tempting Anakin to kill Dooku was trimmed and done off screen to hopefully give a better impression of Palpy's manipulation and temptation of Anakin.

Bester said:

I visited a brewery the other day. I found it interesting, as I had never visited a brewery before.

 

It was my first step into a lager world.

 

 

.........*tumbleweed*...........

Har har. Nice one.

How about this: You first show an establishing shot of coruscant, then, the leaders of the republic state that the republic (which we all know from the OT) is in danger, and negotiations must take place. A very nice hard cut (like the one you already had) can then show the ship en route to have exactly those negotiations.

Basically what you already had without the shot before the talks.

An idea I might've used personally in a now-imaginary 3 movies in 1 cut, adding on top of that a removal of all gungans and sidious in the phantom menace, all battle droid dialogue, the droid factory scenes, most of young Anakin's dialogue, the useless exposition in tpm, Anakin's space escapades, a greatly cut RoT final battle, and an ending that stops at the darth vader reveal, with him center screen.