Revenge of the Sith: Refocused - a Clone Wars Continuity Cut (v3 WIP) PREVIEWS AVAILABLE

I’m working on something similar right now where I’m essentially making the longest possible canon cut of ROTS. The plan is to have lines from Battlefront 2 replacing the clone and grievous voices in the 2003 CW and every deleted scene incorporated as well.

I think these ideas are pretty cool and I was thinking of something similar. I would probably use a straight extended cut of RoTS instead of the New Canon Cut though, just to keep things as close to true canon as possible and appeal to people who want the longest possible cut.

I’d love to see this edit when it’s complete!

I’ve edited together ROTS, the first two episodes of the SoM and the ROTS Deleted Scenes into something of a very similar nature, though for my first revision I’m not making any changes whatsoever to any of the source material (with the sole exception of cutting a single Mace line from the War Room scene so I could use it in the earlier Deleted Scene without repetition). I also decided not to include 2003 Clone Wars, as the style is too different and it just delays the meat of ROTS. The challenge really is stretching out the actual Siege bit of Episode 9 across the first ~50 minutes of ROTS.

I’ve got an edit in the works right now using 4K HDR footage, currently at 3 hours and 37ish minutes.

1. Start with the Siege of Mandalore retro Lucasarts Logo
2. New Opening Crawl, merging the original RoTS crawl with text that summarizes Maul’s rescue in Son of Dathomir and Skywalker and Kenobi’s campaign on Yerbana, essentially keeping it as close to the context of the original Revenge of the Sith crawl as possible while simultaneously re-contextualizing when the film starts, then resuming with the normal episode’s opening. While having a narrator “and” a crawl is repetitive, I’m trying not to cut any footage out of RoTS or TCW itself in this edit, so I’m keeping it anyway. The episode continues until after Ashoka calls, followed by…
3. I’m including all 2003 microseries Coruscant bits, save the scene where Mace crushes Grievous’ chest. The edit starts immediately with Yoda noticing the attack. The rest of the first Siege of Mandalore Episode up to Ashoka’s departure is also intercut with these scenes, including a break between Anakin offering her a surprise, and the reveal of the Ashoka 501st troopers.
4. The scene where Mace contacts Anakin to tell him the Chancellor has been kidnapped is still included. My intention is that this is now the second time Mace contacts them, but the scene’s trimmed down so that it cuts straight to the call, Mace only mentions the Chancellor being kidnapped and not Coruscant being under Siege (they already know this, per TCW), the conversation about the vision on Nelvaan is gone, as is him repairing his arm, and recolors his scar back to the normal color as best I can.
5. The Siege of Mandalore’s opening battle is intercut with the opening RoTS Chancellor’s rescue. Maul encounters Ashoka and escapes the first time by the time Anakin and Kenobi reach Dooku/Palpatine.
6. Most of RoTS will be the canon 4K HDR version, save the inclusion of 4 (maybe 5) deleted scenes…

• The Extended Constitutional Amendment/Office Scene (Captured through D+ 4K screen recording)
• The 3 rebellion plotline scenes, including the 2 at Padme’s apartment, and the one in the Chancellor’s Office. All 3 scenes are placed directly where the original script specified they would be.
• I may add the Degobah scene, but that honestly depends on how the arc ends. There are too many unknowns about the last 2 episodes right now. All 4 of these latter scenes use the Hal9000 upscales as a base with further processing to match the 4K HDR footage in both the film’s main color tone and quality as much as I reasonably can, while mostly preserving their original look.

7. The scene with Kenobi contacting Ashoka is right after the start of the battle of Kasshyyk, taking place in the same spot where Kenobi originally met with padme in the script’s deleted scene, the second Padme office apartment scene now follows this.
8. Maul capturing Jessie and interrogating Jessie up to his speech to his recruits is intercut with the start and middle of the Battle of Utapau ‘after’ Kenobi’s arrival.
9. The Petition of Two-Thousand Office scene follows Kenobi dropping his blade, as specified in the script, which is then followed by the rest of the 2nd Mandalore episode, ending Day 3 and starting Day 4. Because the trailer shows us remade footage of the “plot to destroy the Jedi” dialogue, I end the battle just before this scene, as it will likely be early in the 3rd episode, forcing the rest of the episode’s events to happen after this scene. While there is a bit of a chronology issue with just how ‘long’ Grievous was being chased by Kenobi, I think this order of scenes flows the best in the sense that it divides up multiple subplots in a way that feels cinematic, rather than just having a TV episode slapped in the middle of a movie, so this is what I’m sticking with as of now.

I’m pretty happy with what I have so far. I’ve played around with the non 4K/HDR footage enough to give it at least a light HDR touchup so that it all looks as reasonably decent as possible. Other goals with the last few episode include better intercutting the coming events with the current film Order 66 (if there are new scenes), and also trying to merge the end of the film and the end of the arc as closely as possible (again, if the ending events of the show allow it to fit with the film).

However, if scenes are depicted twice in TCW and in RoTS, I will likely cut the TCW bits so that the live action versions take priority, unless there is some clever way they can be spun together without being disruptive. Again, depends on how the last 2 episodes play out.

I’m hoping to share this next week and am considering posting a thread about it, but as I’m new, I’m not entirely sure how far I should/can go to share this.

Hedgesmfg, will you be releasing it in HDR, or are you just using the 10bitHDR source material to produce a better quality 8bitSDR final render?

Perhaps we should have a thread - some kind of TCW Radical Redux - for these mashups and other edits of the series, since it seems like there will be at least three two similar edits of this arc and ROTS.

Regarding sharing, you can’t post direct links in your thread, but you can do whatever you like via PM, so that tends to be how edits are shared.

You know, I didn’t think the idea of combining live-action and animation into a single fan edit, but the idea of also including the 2003 Clone Wars, and cutting back and forth between three different mediums, really clicked for me. Seeing how each of the three mediums reference each other, even though they were made years apart from each other and by different production teams, seems like it would be really satisfying to watch.

If you have trouble altering the color of Anakin’s scar in the 2003 Clone Wars, just let me know and I might be able to help.

sade1212 said:

Hedgesmfg, will you be releasing it in HDR, or are you just using the 10bitHDR source material to produce a better quality 8bitSDR final render?

Perhaps we should have a thread - some kind of TCW Radical Redux - for these mashups and other edits of the series, since it seems like there will be at least three similar edits of this arc and ROTS.

Regarding sharing, you can’t post direct links in your thread, but you can do whatever you like via PM, so that tends to be how edits are shared.

Both. The 4K version will be HDR, while the 1080P version will be SDR based on the HDR source.

Most of the Star Wars films are structured with A Plots and B plots happening simultaneously, switching back and forth between one another, even if the events shown in such aren’t completely chronological. That was how the microseries was also structured, but now the battle of Nelvaan is removed entirely (in the EU it took place about a week before Coruscant originally), so splicing scenes together in such a way makes sense and fits the pacing Lucas’ Star Wars films tended to have.

I also consider the earlier parts of the battle of Coruscant to be vital to the canon, and am honestly surprised none of it was animated in TCW, but since it was endorsed by Filoni/George through dialogue, I can’t not use the 2003 series on some level, despite the stylistic differences.

I tried playing around a bit with scene ordering, but ultimately decided to stick with what I’ve got. I’ve been working on this nearly nonstop since last Friday morning.

For now, my early edit is up-to-speed. A 1080p proto has been rendered for testing/subtitle timing (the 4K HDR version will take my 8700k/1080 TI Combo nearly a full day to render in x265 since it’s over 210 minutes long, maybe more), and I’ve got the best versions of the deleted scenes I could find inserted in and upscaled.

I’ll see about sharing a clip at some point this weekend. I’ve got full 4kHDR test renders of the first 15 minutes and several shorter clips ready to go.

I’m also testing my Upscale on a 4KHDR version of the rest of the 2003 CW microseries, split into 3 episodes covering the Battle of Muunilinst, the Jedi Campaigns (Kit, Mace, Luminara/Yoda, First Grievous battle, Anakin’s Knighting and growth), and the Battle of Nelvaan (Shield World Footage up to Dooku dueling Grievous as a lead in for the Siege/ROTS/Release).

The episodes keep the original titlecards, are cropped to cinematic aspect ratio to match TCW/The PT (with a few scenes manually adjusted), and can be watched before the start of the 2008 series (Episodes 1 and 2) and before the Siege of Mandalore/Coruscant Battle respectively (Episode 3). I’m also adding 2008 styled quotes and title music to the start of each respective episode, though they will be longer than normal episodes.

My encode should be done by end of day, and I can share this along with my edit itself upon release for those who wish it.

So I’ve got the latest episode intercut into my timeline already.

I can provide a link to a clip online from a crucial moment via PM, but I don’t want to post the clip here publicly just yet.

1. I kept the original RoTS music intact during Anakin’s fall, and cut in shots of Maul and Ashoka during those scenes while keeping the original timing, fitting broken up shots of their reactions before, during and after Mace’s death.

2. Ashoka’s conversation with Rex starts right as Anakin leaves the council chambers, with the music from RoTS stayin there to transition with the shot of her looking outward, then Rex starts speaking. This ties her longing look into the scene where Anakin thinks of Padme without interrupting it. The shot of 3PO walking to her has been replaced with Ashoka.

3. Because the conversation about the “plot to destroy the Jedi” happens twice, I’m keeping the film version, but hard cut to Ashoka entering the room immediately after Yoda speaks in RoTS, so the transition happens in real time.

4. Rex’s Order 66 segment starts right after Bail leaves the temple. Rex chases off Ashoka, Kenobi escapes capture, then we cut back to the rest of the episode uninterrupted, ending right when Bail takes off and leaves Coruscant.

5. I did bump up the start of the battle of Utupau to earlier than my last edit so as to better show the transition from Day 3 to Day 4 (where everything bad happens). Kenobi’s arrival on Utapau is now cut between Maul’s call to arms in episode 2. The end of episode 2 leads into the deleted scene with the senators in the chancellor’s office. This isn’t the script order of that scene anymore, but it is the best place to fit it for story/timeline of events flow.

The final episode (available now if you convince Disney+ you’re in Australia…) might be difficult to integrate into ROTS. It’s essentially continuous with few clear ‘breaks’ and the tone is very different to the tone of the third act of the movie. Cutting from this episode to say, Yoda vs Palpatine, would be a lot of tonal whiplash. You might have to delay the end of this episode to be part of ROTS’ ending montage.

I’ve already got a plan for it.

Most of this episode should fit before the final RoTS duels. There are still enough breaks in the action that you can integrate some of the slower post Order 66 RoTS bits in with this while the action ramps up in the episode itself. As the action from this episode builds, it will only add to the intensity of what’s happening in RoTS itself. The pacing doesn’t have to be perfect, it can be a gradual climb to the intensity of the finale with peaks and drops in intensity. The Episode itself also makes no reference to any other RoTS events at all (though most of it is obviously before Anakin is put in the suit), so it can fit wherever the pacing/art best dictates it. This gives plenty of room for careful experimentation.

I also have a plan for the episode epilogue as well.

I’m not going to say what happens here so as not to spoil those who haven’t seen it yet, but I should be able to wrap up the main jist of my edit tomorrow morning once I return to my editing rig.

I’ve already put up a clip on youtube about how this arc fits with one of RoTS most crucial scenes.