Excellent edit on the ROTJ briefing Possessed! That's pretty close to exactly how I'd like to see it in any edit too.
I don't like that we ever got a good resolution between Han and Lando. It was a big deal when Lando had to betray his friend, but the best we got was the cheesy "Well look at you, a general huh?" *sit-com laughter*... Therefore best to eliminate that and all the other goofiness (as you did), and let it be inferred that they already had their chat about the matter. Also glad to see the "Good luck! You're gonna need it." was removed. Not only was it interuptive, to me Han comes off as sounding like a complete dick right there.
Never minded the segment when Leia asks "I wonder who they found to pull that off?" then Nadine calls out Solo and asks about his strike team... that part still makes me chuckle at times, but I can certainly live without it since now there's a better flow to the entire scene without all of that. The tone and the seriousness of this briefing is definitely improved if only Mothma, Ackbar, and Nadine speak, as you have it.
Of course there should be a bit more fine-tuning here n there, with the hologram, music, etc, but another significant change I'd wish for is (if at all possible): Less views on the "A-team" and more on other groups of soldiers/pilots who are listening and we would (ideally) see again later.
What I loved about the ANH briefing/battle was, even if we had our main characters, the focus wasn't completely on them. We had some other interesting characters to relate to as well, which in effect also made the scale of the battle much larger.
Also, for some, I can understand if Mothma's delivery of "Many Bothans died to bring us this information" being cringe-worthy as it is, so I wouldn't mind if that part were removed, or as Ronster sugessted, scratch "Bothans". Most viewers have no clue what a Bothan is or looks like, so there's no sympathy towards them and it kind of comes off as awkwardly one-sided. But if just "Many died..." that actually makes it more relatable. Good idea Ronster.
Lastly, if possible, it would be great to have more of a formal closure, like someone saying "May the force be with you." - maybe a bit more than just that, but at the very least that much. Then of course finishing off with the droids as it is.
Again, excellent mock-up, keep it up! :)
Those are all good ideas, I'm not sure how to go about achieving them. Anyone want to volunteer adding holograms to the shots it would be needed in? In return I would give... i dunno... a workprint of the edit before anyone else gets it or something.
A way to end that scene is the biggest challenge I see. As you said, the scene kind of ends abruptly without any sort of formal closing... but unfortunately I have no idea how to fix that.
What do you think about this - For the conclusion, maybe right after the view on Lando when Ackbar announces that he'll lead the attack, we get one last glimpse of Han, Leia, and Chewie (preferably not reused footage) sitting there quietly (ideally Han would first be looking over at Lando then back up front). This moment of pause may be just enough before the next shot which is probably a view on Mothma, Madine, and Ackbar (again, preferably unused footage) with Ackbar saying the concluding words - since his mouth is not a "real person's mouth", he'd be the easier one to dub over. Ackbar actually does say later in the movie "May the force be with us", but if it's in your abilities, you might need to tweek it a bit so it sounds like he actually says it in the briefing room, not the command room. After that shot, show the droids, and I think you'll have it. I guess you'll also need to work with the background music to accommodate these changes.
I know I make it sound easy in writing, if only it were almost as easy to actually do it :)
That's right! I totally forgot about him saying "May the Force be with us" later on.
I want to apologize to everybody that's been waiting on this edit for so long. Due to issues in my personal life I've found it difficult to work on it. I'll work on it for a few minutes then exclaim to myself "well who the hell cares anyway" then shut it down for weeks.
The storm clouds are starting to clear, very slightly, so hopefully progress can be made.
I sincerely believe this edit has a lot of potential. It will have only minor changes, but the way that they are being executed and some of the dialogue improvements haven't been done yet and I'm excited about it.
Also. I guess this doesn't *Exactly* have to do with my ROTJ edit, but I plan on doing the whole saga and releasing 1080P AVCHD's of all the films. (bd25's as well if people think the 8 gb avchd's don't look good enough...)
I'm only posting about it here because it's not yet to the point where starting it's own thread would be worthwhile.
The prequel trilogy edit's will be somewhat conservative possibly spilling over into the moderate category. Mostly dialogue trims, cleaning up the pace. For Phantom Menace the jar jar being an outcast/banished from gungan city subplot will be removed. He will tag along with the jedi because of qui gon saving his life as he said. The gungans and naboo being on bad terms will be removed. Amidala will ask Jar Jar for his help as usual, but he will be assumed to have gathered the gungan army off-camera. (since he is not believed to be an outcast this could seem more believable).
A new hope will mostly just be a hybrid of the blu ray and harmy's despecialized edition (assuming I can get his permission of course).
ESB will be mostly that too, with some other small ideas and fixes. (adjusting contrast of scenes which involve a lightsaber to restore the white cores. Also another tweak I plan on doing is in the shot of luke hanging underneath the imperial walker he bombs have the lighting darkened significantly, boosting the contrast when he opens his lightsaber for the split second so that it has a white core but everything else still seems dark)
And ROTJ is being worked on now.
For the record, I don't have a huge problem with the softening of vader's character in ROTJ. To me, it makes sense that meeting his son would soften him up a bit.
While I'm still in the process of cobbling together my "master source" video file to work from on this edit, does anybody have any requests or suggestions about SE vs OUT changes?
What I'm thinking so far:
There will be no dance numbers so jedi rocks VS lapti nek is moot
I'm thinking the sarlaac pit with the beack from the SE should stay. For 2 reasons. 1. Lowering the video quality for the doesn't seem worth it, and 2. It seems odd to have all the people fall in a giant vagina in the sand.
Han's "Trust me" line restored
Vader's NOOOO removed, obviously.
The Special Edition Ending celebration will be used. Absolutely no yub-nub, and I'm not even going to consider reconsidering!!!
Everything else probably special edition.
Soundmix will be DPLII 2.0 stereo, in a lossless pcm track sourced from the DTS sound mixes. as long as you have a pro logic compatible stereo you should be able to get surround without a problem.
Possessed said:
...
The Special Edition Ending celebration will be used. Absolutely no yub-nub, and I'm not even going to consider reconsidering!!!
...
I see what you did there.
Is it the audio that you like from the SE or the video?
Mostly the audio. The video is nice too, but the audio is so much more tasteful I think. It's an epic saga, and I don't think a camp song is a very fitting end to it. A nice soothing instrumental fits better IMWO.
Do you guys think it would be too awkward/abrupt to cut from when Luke tells Jabba "It's the last mistake you'll ever make" scene straight to them standing out on the barge waiting for it to start with a wipe of some sort? It removes alot, but you lose absolutely nothing important, and get rid of alot of annoying things.
I remember a few years ago when I released a completed "draft" of this cut it got good feedback but I don't remember that change being talked about much. It seems some people thought it was too abrupt, but could that be just because you're not used to it? I really like the idea. Cuts out that unnecessary muppetry with no influence on the story, and it keeps us focused on what's important.
I know this is progressing very slowly, I can't help it, but I still intend for it to happen.
Anybody?
Also, another idea, I was thinking for in a certain section of the space battle against the death star to have music from the Shadows of the Empire soundtrack playing... the song that plays in the video game when your attacking the skyhook with Dash's ship. I think it would really fit great and feel much more epic than what is there currently.
EDIT: This song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_deMfDs9jY
Starting at 5:35 to around 630 ish. The rest of the soundtrack is Meh, but this part really feels like Star Wars, and I think it would fit when the ships are flying through the death star core.
I guess when fe.org opens back up I'll make a topic for it there.
Possessed said:
Do you guys think it would be too awkward/abrupt to cut from when Luke tells Jabba "It's the last mistake you'll ever make" scene straight to them standing out on the barge waiting for it to start with a wipe of some sort? It removes alot, but you lose absolutely nothing important, and get rid of alot of annoying things.
I think some kind of establishing shot of the pit, the barge and the skiffs is necessary.
I was planning on using the ones already there, just in a different fashion. Like using the shots of the barge moving through the sand just without the dance music that plays, then cutting to it.
Possessed said:
I was planning on using the ones already there, just in a different fashion. Like using the shots of the barge moving through the sand just without the dance music that plays, then cutting to it.
Is there some way to cut in another scene? "Meanwhile, back at the Death Star..." If so, that would take away the need to show them traveling.
Hmm, that's a pretty good idea. Could put the scene with the emperor at the death star there, but the problem that introduces is what do we use to split up Luke leaving tatooine and arriving on degobah?
Perhaps I could use the emperor scene there, then take one of the later scenes (there are 2 or 3) of Vader and Emps talking in the throne room and put it where the emperor scene used to be, then just join together the scenes that that scene used to break up? Perhaps cutting them down so that it doesn't feel like an overly long scene.
Well I was going to update my thread over at FE.org, but it's been so long since I've posted there and I had so few posts to begin with I apparently it's been so long since it was updated that it's been moved to the Inactive section, and I am a very low ranking member over there and I can't post in it. Does anybody more comfortable and regular over there know how I can change it to active and start posting in it again?
No one can post in it once it's moved to inactive. Give me a link to the thread and I'll reactivate it.
http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?4629-Return-of-the-Jedi-Possessed-Cut
Thank you kindly.
Done.
Can we please stop being nice and instead just point out a spelling error or something? Puh-leeeze!?
There are a ton of places we can all do this in off topic, is it really necessary to have it spill over into a thread about my edit as well?
Also, thanks Frink.
'Twas a joke.
Well SCREW YOU. THERE ARE NO JOKES IN THIS THREAD. ONLY PAIN.
On second thought I guess there's room for jokes too, you may proceed.