Spence's PT Edits Round 3 (V1 Released)

Hi Everyone!

Throughout my 15+ years of doing Fanedits as a hobby, I’ve tried my hand at the Prequel Trilogy twice before. Once way back in the day, these versions were good for their time but are extremely outdated and I wasn’t satisfied with them. These edits are mostly lost to time, and that’s probably where they should stay. Others have done similar things so much better.

HAL9000’s edits are my favorite versions of these movies, so I did some revisions to those. I don’t really advertise those as they’re so similar to HAL’s, just with some touches from me to pacing. Still, I wasn’t 100% happy.

The biggest problem I have with these movies isn’t necessarily the content. There’s some stuff I’m not crazy about, such as midichlorians and some of Anakin’s whiney, creepy behavior, sure. However, the biggest problem to me is in the minute to minute pacing. They just feel… weird? Off? Something’s not quite right in every single scene. The most egregious example is AOTC, where seemingly nobody talks like a human being, characters stand around clearly waiting for their cue, and much of the action mostly falls flat.

Even worse, the love story doesn’t work, partly because I think they focused on it way too much. The dialogue between Anakin and Padme is shockingly strange, but the chemistry between the two actors is definitely there. Just letting them spend time together would have sold it enough.

So I’m taking another crack at the Prequels, but I’m starting with AOTC, the biggest problem with the trilogy. Once I get that working, I can build up to it with TPM, and off of it with ROTS. The idea here is to go into every scene and remove that disjointed, stagey, unnatural feeling that permeates the film. Action will be pumped up and pacey, conversations will have that zing that they’re lacking, and the movie will move along at a steady pace.

There’s a lot of PT edits out there, and I’m not the most technically accomplished editor to tackle them. However, I think my particular knack for action and pace (I’m aware of my strengths as well as my faults) will make these stand out.

Here are some early samples of what I’m trying to do, starting with the attack on the landing platform and going through the next few scenes.

The opening is structured as Landing Platform - Senate Deleted Scene - Anakin/Kenobi duel from the Kenobi series. The landing platform sequence has less dialogue and is a little punchier. The explosion is more sudden and violent, and the dialogue that remains moves along faster. The scene from Kenobi is a great set up for these two characters, building their camaraderie while also planting some seeds of resentment for Anakin:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhGhZ5Ea-eodxqI6rtgWTPGv9YGEEvUz/view?usp=share_link

Here is a dialogue scene, the first meeting between Anakin and Padme. Anakin’s awkward compliment is now something that makes Padme laugh instead of being weirded out, a creepy moment that’s now a cute and embarrassing one. The rest of the dialogue in the scene is trimmed and moved around to bounce back and forth between the characters more naturally:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y-ZaSoRhptZ5YAhpeOeoSszCdeIEA9xN/view?usp=share_link

Here is the Coruscant chase. This isn’t too dissimilar to what other editors have done with it, but I think it moves along at a good pace and escalates more economically. I flipped the shots of the assassin droid leaving the window and Kenobi noticing it, so the flow of him seeing it then jumping after it feels more natural. A lot of business is cut here, and the Kenobi/Anakin banter is kept to a minimum. It’s still a fun scene, just scaled down:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SrAQqO6pkVGUT7ZWylp__fojZuuhfSyG/view?usp=share_link

This one is going to take a lot of smoothing out to get working as I’d like, but I’m determined to get these movies to feel… well, more like actual movies.

Excited to see you take this on! The new opening flows pretty well overall. I’ll never understand why Corde says that she “failed” Padme when her job was literally to be a decoy but that’s definitely a nitpick. The JarJar CGI in the deleted scene also looks rough but I’m not sure much can be done about that.

It’s interesting that you seem to be preserving the antagonism between Anakin and Obi-Wan moreso than most edits. I’d like to see how you pull it off.

Octorox said:

It’s interesting that you seem to be preserving the antagonism between Anakin and Obi-Wan moreso than most edits. I’d like to see how you pull it off.

I think that’s a really important element to his downfall. It doesn’t work entirely the way it’s presented in the films, but I definitely think it’s worth keeping.

SpenceEdit said:

Octorox said:

It’s interesting that you seem to be preserving the antagonism between Anakin and Obi-Wan moreso than most edits. I’d like to see how you pull it off.

I think that’s a really important element to his downfall. It doesn’t work entirely the way it’s presented in the films, but I definitely think it’s worth keeping.

Yes, I agree. What source are you using? I definitely recommend Schorman’s HDTV preservation for Episode II, as it has superior colors and detail. I think it also blends better with the AI upscaled versions of the deleted scenes.

This sounds really interesting. The clips are really good. I look forward to seeing the final cuts.

SpenceEdit said:

Octorox said:

It’s interesting that you seem to be preserving the antagonism between Anakin and Obi-Wan moreso than most edits. I’d like to see how you pull it off.

I think that’s a really important element to his downfall. It doesn’t work entirely the way it’s presented in the films, but I definitely think it’s worth keeping.

I’m using kk650’s regrades with a little extra film grain.

SpenceEdit said:

SpenceEdit said:

Octorox said:

It’s interesting that you seem to be preserving the antagonism between Anakin and Obi-Wan moreso than most edits. I’d like to see how you pull it off.

I think that’s a really important element to his downfall. It doesn’t work entirely the way it’s presented in the films, but I definitely think it’s worth keeping.

I’m using kk650’s regrades with a little extra film grain.

Those are pretty good too, and might help with getting a consistent look across all three films.

Octorox said:

Those are pretty good too, and might help with getting a consistent look across all three films.

Yeah, I know they’re not the highest quality versions out there, but they are the most “filmic” to me.

Here’s a bit of the love story. Instead of transitioning from their kiss by the water back to Kenobi, I decided to transition to the following morning. It flows a bit better (I know that transition has been super tricky for editors) but it also goes from a kiss to the following morning which kind of implies that Anakin and Padme had… aggressive negotiations.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NoCCZoq6uipc49smsA8kBghnHxbgPzNB/view?usp=share_link

Spartacus01 said:

SpenceEdit said:

Wouldn’t it be better if there was just no kiss at all? In my edit, I’ve just trimmed out the fireplace scene and removed the kiss. This way, we go from “We have feelings for each other” to “Yes we have, but we can’t be together”, and we finally end with “Our love is too strong to be kept under control, so let’s be together anyway”. I think it’s a more fluid approach to the love story, without the first kiss at all.

I intend to remove the “will they/won’t they” element from the movie, so them getting together earlier on isn’t a big deal.

Another thing I’m working on for this edit of the trilogy: Removing 3PO from TPM and AOTC. Here’s some early examples of how that’s going.

In the first clip, I masked 3PO out of the wide shot, but it was impossible (or at least, beyond my abilities) to remove him from meeting the Lars. Since he doesn’t have the same coloring as 3PO in the other films, I just changed it to a different droid with a new voice.

For the funeral scene, it was a little trickier as he is standing right next to Padme. Masking him out of the wide shot was easy enough, but I had to do multiple masks and zoom in to create a new shot when R2 approaches.

It’ll be easy enough to remove 3PO from the rest of the film just by cutting the droid hijinks on Geonosis and working around him at the wedding scene at the very end.

All of this will get further smoothed out, but it’s a good start.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1te5aRlEh7rSzp2N0VgOGU9shqTCG5mjF/view?usp=share_link

Interesting! I know you said it’s not finished, but I just want to point out you can still hear the original 3PO voice muttering something in the overhead shot.

Octorox said:

Interesting! I know you said it’s not finished, but I just want to point out you can still hear the original 3PO voice muttering something in the overhead shot.

Yep! I tidy up the audio last when I’m working on an edit, that will be fixed.

I like the duel - I wonder if cutting from Anakin’s sweeping disarming movement into the tail end of him pulling back to strike might make that end sequence flow a hair better (if you can line up the lightsaber movement with the wide shot’s lightsaber movements)

Here’s the Dooku Duel. Lots of changes here, ranging from cutting sections of the fight, to using pans and zooms to get more activity out of it, moving some shots from parts of the fight to other sequences, etc. I wanted Dooku to feel scarier, and the fight to feel more dangerous. I also removed the cutaways to Yoda and Padme so we stay in the fight the whole time.

Yoda no longer appears as part of this sequence. I always felt like it was one action scene too many, and I love the idea of Yoda not using a lightsaber until he kills the two clone troopers during Order 66.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16MgaIbZE0dl0IBooHpNvWNvvI2w5eM_2/view?usp=share_link

EddieDean said:

That sounds great - where’s the link?

I took it down for a minute to replace it with a fixed one. I found an easily remedied editing error in the one I posted.

It definitely feels more visceral! There are a couple cuts that seem to break the 180 degree rule in a way that I found a bit jarring, but that may be inherent to the source. Interesting choice to remove Yoda completely.

Octorox said:

It definitely feels more visceral! There are a couple cuts that seem to break the 180 degree rule in a way that I found a bit jarring, but that may be inherent to the source. Interesting choice to remove Yoda completely.

That’s a bit inherent to the source, they just break it up with some awkward cutaways that I removed. That’s why there’s like a dozen shots of Obi-Wan and Anakin writhing in pain on the ground in the original version. I’m fairly certain this scene was sort of cobbled together in the edit anyway. It feels disjointed.

It’s the lesser of two evils, to me. I’d rather have it be a little jarring but keep the momentum going vs. have the cutaway shots slow everything down and make it choppy.