Return of the Jedi: Dan Edit - Clips Online (Released) — Page 2

Looking forward to checking it out!

I thought I'd upload a couple of clips to Youtube, for anyone interested.

Both of these are still being worked on, but they're close to being done. The first is the scene in Jabba's palace where Chewie is captured and then led away.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfLZWcO3nk4

The second is the last two minutes of the film.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCvvbiUWr68

Any comments and opinions appreciated.

Do you mean the music transition where the score changes to the end credits music, or the change of music when Anakin's ghost appears?

Okay, cool. Had you thought the other transition was poor I'd have been worried.

About Naboo, I know there are people here who like to pretend the prequels didn't happen (and I sympathise with that) but for me Jedi is the last chapter of 6 films, so it's apt to include Naboo. Besides if you take out Naboo the same argument could be applied to take out Coruscant and that leaves only two planets, and a pretty crappy montage scene.

But I wouldn't want to remove the montage - since I took out so much of the ewok party the film would be ending too quickly without it.

could it end on the montage? perhaps at coruscant? as the heroes arn't the only core characters anymore, the yearbook shot doesn't seem as necessary.

It's an interesting idea, but I feel that Anakin's ghost appearing before Luke and Leia needs to be in the final scene. The montage round the planets would feel like an anti-climax after that.

In an earlier version I had the last shot being that long shot of the three ghosts that precedes the yearbook shot, but I thought it should end with the heroes of the trilogy. It just feels like the right way to end Jedi, for sentimental reasons more than anything else.

Sorry, double post.

It's your thread, you can post as many times as you want ;-)

Erikstormtrooper said:

The Chewie clip is excellent.

The final clip is improved by the new music. But some might find it too recognizable. And the musical transition right before the credits feels a little off.

I still don't feel like we need to see Naboo though.

I greatly enjoyed the rescored ending.  It's a much more reverent end to the saga.

The final transition to the credits is a bit off in pitch, not sure what can be done about it though.

Thanks for the kind words! I'm happy to see people enjoying the edit.

About the last transition, it's something that's not perfect but it took ages to get the final scene audio to that standard and I'm satisfied that it's acceptable. I may do a version two next year if a high quality copy of the Luke lightsaber construction scene appears, and then maybe I'll improve the last transition and take out 3P0's "It's Captain Solo and he's still frozen in carbonite" line while I'm at it.

The PAL dvd has been uploaded to Rapidshare,so I'll get it onto fanedit info soon - although it's bare bones, so if anyone does want to download it be warned there ain't much on there except a 4gig mpeg of the edit, chapters, and I added the original ending with BSG music that once ended the film. The NTSC xvid was going to be uploaded now but it's on my other laptop and I bust the screen last week, so that's on hold until I find the 100 quid to fix it.

I've got a VGA port but for whatever reason I can't get it to work on my external monitor. I spent a couple of hours pressing Fn/F4 repeatedly which is supposed to switch it to the monitor on HP laptops, but nothing happened.

About the NTSC DVD: I probably won't do one, just because I'm not sure how to. I may figure it out at some point but right now I'm too busy with non-editing things.

Inspired by the ideas people have been circulating around here - particularly Possessed's ROTJ thread - I've started an experimental version of ROTJ, which includes the following two significant changes:

- Luke on Dagobah at the start.

- Luke and Leia are no longer related.

So I've put together a rough cut edit of the first few minutes:

http://rapidshare.com/files/443111780/jedi3015-tes20.rar

Bear in mind a few things: I can't professionally replicate the opening crawl (if someone who can would be willing, I'd be massively grateful); the crawl itself also needs to be re-written at some point; the editing is not especially slick yet, but hopefully you'll get the gist.

Personally I really like this a lot: it means a lot of the early droid stuff can be ditched as well as the long (and dull) Obi-Wan scene, and the jumping around the galaxy makes the Jabba's palace sections feel more mysterious.

Any feedback would be appreciated. :)

Excellent.  I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I'm also glad to see you using the Luke on Degobah to the beginning, because when I get back to editing mine I don't think I'll want to do that.  Truth be told I've been a little uncomfortable with doing it the whole time, but I would love to see a different edit that uses it.

Those ideas sound good Dan. You can probably find someone to help you in making a new crawl. Have you ever thought of a new opening crawl that has the title Revenge of the Jedi? Also, I thought of something. Could you take out all the Ewoks (seriously..I saw this done in a few edits) and replace them with Wookies? You could explain in a new crawl that the Death Star is located near the Wookie planet, then use Wookie footage from the Holiday Special and Revenge of the Sith. If these ideas are crazy and have been discussed before, I apologize.

I assume the crawl to be a place holder not the finished text.

I could give it a bit of thought if you want suggestions along those lines.

Beginning the film with Jabba after making such a big thing about Luke in the crawl doesn't quite work either.

Really with the crawl as it stands you want to start with Luke.

If you want to start the film with Han as the focus of the first scene the crawl should be weighted that way (which may be problematic as Han is rescued less than half way through the film. In the round the main threats are the Emperor and the Death Star).

If you really want a scene like that I would start with the shot of Han frozen and turn around to see the court.

The audience needs to connect the new environment and new characters with someone they know.

So I would show them Han and then the full horror of where he is.

The album version of Lapti Nek (I know it's popular) isn't quite getting the mood if you want to use a version I'd use what you can from the soundtrack of the GOUT discs.

I keep forgetting how bizarre Frank's vocalisation of Yoda is in ROTJ, it's another thing I'm shocked that Lucas hasn't fixed when he has been so busy screwing up what already works.

Starting at Jabba's palace is a bad idea I think.  Hearing Lapti Nek first is a big shock.  It feels so out of place without seeing it's being produced by a band in Jabba's palace.  As said before, the focus of the film is Luke's confrontation with Vader and the Rebellion facing the threat of a new Death Star.  Han's rescue from Jabba's palace is more of a side story to demonstrate Luke's skills as a Jedi are complete.  It's better to keep the intro as is, then move to Dagobah.

In my honest opinion, the whole Lapti Nek/Jedi Rocks sequence should be taken out entirely. It always has annoyed me. Also, I think that you should start with the Darth Vader on the Death Star sequence (as in the movie), then move to the Yoda dying sequence, and then the Jabba Palace sequence. However, what would really be awesome is if you could find a way to insert the deleted scene from ROTJ that was on youtube and other sites a few months ago. That scene should never have been left on the cutting room floor.

Thanks for all the feedback and ideas!

I'm going away for the next few days - when I get back on Sunday I'll go through the specific points made about the clip, and then create a Mark 2.