Help Wanted: Removing Jar Jar from a scene in TPM

Hey everyone,

First post, and first edit (ep 1). I am undertaking the arduous task of COMPLETELY REMOVING JAR JAR by cutting scenes, and rotoscoping him out of others. This has created a couple story problems. One of them is a bit tricky and I need help as to how I should approach it.

Basically, the problem is that Jar Jar was the reason why Qui Jon and Padme came to Anakin’s place. Jar Jar tried to eat some food of a vendor cart and the food landed in Sebulba’s soup bowl; splashing him in the face. Anakin comes to Jar Jar’s rescue and thats how he meets up with Qui Jon and Padme again.

So the question is how can I remove that stupid scene and still have Qui Jon and Padme come over to Anakin’s house to escape the dust storm?

You if there are any shots of Anakin standing still from the front or behind you could make out that he is just following them out of the shop.

In the background (like a helpful version of Garindan in ANH).

And just have him pop up at the market stall and offer to give them shelter from the storm.

It's been a while since I saw the full DVD version of TPM so I'm not quite sure what useful footage there is.

Actually it's not that difficult (he says, never intending to attempt this). When the group leave Watto's shop, and Watto says to Anakin that he can finish his work and go or something, change the subtitles to make it sound like he's finished work already - something like "put your tools away and you can go" so it sounds more immediate, then just cut to the deleted scene of him with the group at the stall.

Ah! I was thinking something similar: editing the subtitles so anakin gets to leave early.

I just thought of something... what about replacing the Jar Jar scene with the deleted scene where  Anakin fighting with Greedo? Qui Jon intervenes so thats how they meet again.

It's been done before on a couple of edits.

Bingowings said:

It's been done before on a couple of edits.

Which ones? I'll take a look.

There have been a few (Frink's your guy for tracking most of them) but this was the first one that sprang to mind (really nice edits too) :

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/SW-ATTACK-OF-THE-FEDERATION-TWILIGHT-OF-THE-REPUBLIC-THE-BLACK-KNIGHT-RISES-V2-Color-Corrected-EP1-Now-Available/topic/10114/ 

Yeah you need to add the Greedo fight; 'Attack of the Federation' also includes it

Dan beat me to it... Use the Greedo fight. You may have to cut out when Qui-Gon calls him Anakin... Not sure he should know his name yet.

ace said:

Bingowings said:

It's been done before on a couple of edits.

Which ones? I'll take a look.

Follow the link in my sig to my prequel cutlist project...

Akwat Kbrana said:

Also, if you're going to include the deleted scene, I would suggest cutting the scene a few seconds short to eliminate the cheesy fanservice at the end.

I always liked the change that JasonN made to Wald's dialogue:

WALD: You're such a fool, Greedo.  Never let the other person hit you first.

Yeah that was a great little idea that JasonN had, one of the best things about his edit

Didn't Antimatter remove Jar-Jar completely in his Prologue edit?

He did..... Some rotoscoping, some by zooming in... But he left in when they are in Watto's shot. Said that it could just be assumed he's another customer.

Speaking on this edit though.... I urge you to watch it just to see one of the most fubared endings I've ever laid my eyes on.

Felt a bit like this...

Meant to say "Watto's shop."

In the edit I am producing (Ep 1), I was going to eliminate any references to there being two Sith, and adding mystery to who the Sith Lord is. 

This mean removing the Darth Maul introduction, darkening any faces underneath the cowls, and altering the voices so it doesn't sound like Palp.

Why? I think it adds more mystery to what the Sith is. The audience (if watching it for the first time), will think that Darth Maul has been the Sith Lord behind everything and then gets killed. But right at the end, Yoda and Mace say that there is always a Lord and Apprentice.. which one was killed? 

This reveal will have a lot more impact than before, and make people wonder who the Sith Lord really is. Then, after the conversation, there will be the pan to Palp's face. Then it should click into place to the audience that Palp had created this Naboo invasion in order to become Chancellor.

ace said:

In the edit I am producing (Ep 1), I was going to eliminate any references to there being two Sith, and adding mystery to who the Sith Lord is. 

This mean removing the Darth Maul introduction, darkening any faces underneath the cowls, and altering the voices so it doesn't sound like Palp.

Definitely check out JasonN's edit.  I can't recall off the top of my head if he removed the Maul intro, but he definitely darkened Sid's face and altered his voice.

Awesome. I'll check that out too. 

One more problem I had with the removal of all Jar Jar and Gungan references is the removal of the scene where Padme reveals that she is the Queen, much to Anakin's surprise. 

The reveal doesn't have a huge impact on the story but it might be relevant in some way. 

Is there a way to reveal Padme as the Queen without involving the Gungans? 

I haven't thought this through, but could you just make The Queen and The Padme separate characters?

TV's Frink said:

I haven't thought this through, but could you just make The Queen and The Padme separate characters?

Problem with this idea is that, even with all her make up we can see that sometime the Queen is Portman and sometime not

Sometime actors are playing two roles in movies (Nicholson in Mars Attack! for example) but switching between keira knightley and Portman for no reason would look a bit odd.

I don't know, her performance as the Queen is so stilted and different from her Padme performance, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to have Portman in two roles as completely different people.

Is there a way to keep the idea that keira is a decoy but that the Portman queen is not Padme?