Star Wars: A New Hope (Enhanced Edition) CANCELLED

I’ve cancelled this project. Sorry to those who would have liked to see this. I noticed someone else on Fanedit.org is doing something similar, so maybe check that out. For me, the look of a New Hope is just so damn old that adding fancy new effects into it is never going to match up to a balanced, aesthetic whole. I don’t need to dig up that old fossil and try to shine it up anymore. I’m just going to leave it be.

Star Wars: A New Hope (Enhanced Edition) - a work in progress

in 4K, fortified with some of SC38 Reimagined

Clips:

here’s an updated pass on August 15 integrating SC38 Reimagined: https://streamable.com/8o762x

Read Leader Death comparison: https://streamable.com/cejxam

Summary:

This edit uses D+77 v2.3 by oohteedee in 4k as a base to start off very close to the original theatrical release of A New Hope. It adds enhancements to update many parts, mostly that didn’t quite stand the test of time…

Runtime, scene times, and scene order are the same as the original theatrical release (except for SC38; runtime may vary by several seconds after editing in SC38).

No Jabba, no R2D2 behind CG rocks, no weird changes to the Krayt dragon call, no crappy dewback motion VFX, no large CG creatures that unnecesarily block our view of the main characters, no itty bitty CG cartoon creatures running around the desert, no floating droids on Tattoine, and no ring shockwave from the Death Star.

And of course with Greedo… ONLY HAN SHOOTS!

Change list (Work in Progress):

1. Added and conformed the SE 5.1 channel audio to oohteedee’s release (he used the older sounding 5.1 channel audio). Did not automatically use all the SE audio changes. For example, kept the addition of the stormtrooper saying, “close the blast doors” and the change of Beru saying, “tell YOUR uncle” but did not keep the extra C3PO dialogue added during the Sandcrawler ride.
2. Note: although a lot of SE footage is used in this edit, I avoided using extra footage which exceeded the length of the original footage. For example, the extra time they added to show off the new SE Sandcrawler.
3. Added SE opening crawl.
4. Updated the very outdated “two old men fighting” by using limited portions of video from SC38 Reimagined in 4k; completely re-foleyed this hybrid take on Scene 38 using ANH compatible sounds (did not use any of the SC38 Reimagined audio or music).
5. Added SE Sandcrawler.
6. Added SE Mos Eisley long distance shot.
7. Added SE speeder arrival at the cantina (has long-necked quadriped creature led by rope).
8. Removed werewolf in Mos Eisley (replaced with SE creatures).
9. Added SE Falcon leaving Mos Eisley.
10. Replaced the shot of the Falcon in space leaving Tatooine with an amazing new shot done by an excellent VFX artist. Also replaced the Falcon in hyperspace, heading to Alderaan.
11. Recut and recomposited the SE destruction of Alderaan. Now the Death Star fires from close range, and it is in the shot with Alderraan.
12. Added SE Death star corridor (longer). Note: this was already incorporated into ohteedee’s mostly theatrical release.
13. Added SE trash compactor monster (blinks).
14. Added scene from SE when Han runs into a hangar full of stormtroopers.
15. Aurabesh text from SE used instead of English on screens.
16. Remove Obi-wan calling his nemesis “Darth” during their duel. Instead he calls him Vader.
17. Vader steps back as Obi-wan threatens, “if you strike me down…”
18. During their duel Ben says to Vader, “Vader. You cannot control the Dark Side of The Force.” Vader responds, “Your destiny lies with this lightsaber.”
19. Added multiple Falcon and other ship shots from SE for the battle of Yavin.
20. Added SE Temple establishing shot.
21. Added multiple SE shots of X-wings taking off and their arrival at the battle of Yavin.
22. For the battle of Yavin replaced many of the shots with better versions by many talented VFX artists (borrowed from some fan films, test concepts, and student work). Examples of some of the new footage: new establishing shot of the Rebel fleet heading toward Yavin, new shots of the approach to the Death Star, some better close ups of the Death Star terrain, new shots of dogfights between TIE-Fighter and X-Wings, Porkins is now actively evading laser fire before he dies, Red Leader’s death no longer laughable, new footage of the Rebel’s final descent into the Death Star trench, and new shot of X-Wings escaping the imminent Death Star explosion, heading toward a visible Yavin.
23. Color corrected the Rebel ship thrusters from pink to red.
24. During the Battle of Yavin R2D2 is blue instead of black.
25. Cut a line during the Battle of Yavin, “Stay low.”
26. Recomposited the shot of the Death Star explosion.
27. Added SE establishing shot of final award ceremony.

New VFX by:
Howard Day
Naponic _
Petrovelly
Eternal Light Pictures
Christopher Clements
Lezly
ZEAl kivi
Arya Moghaddam
Jonathan Munoz
Darren Dennis
Cinemacity
Suguru Harasawa
krausfadr

I would love to see this! Many edits that incorporate sc38 leave the cringe dialogue so this would be interesting

Only dialogue from the original film is used. I was selective in which SC38 scenes I used as well. In the narrow corridor with red walls, that’s where Vader says, “You should not have come back.”

Sounds like a great idea. This is probably what it would look like if I made a personal edit of A New Hope.

Thanks I’m almost done re-foleying the SC38 parts. That’s the tough part. I’ll post a clip sometime soonish.

Rough clip of the Obi-wan duel with Vader incorporating parts of SC38 Reimagined:
https://streamable.com/6n9a5p

Yeah, that’s rough. I think the editing should be polished a lot more, there are some weird jump cuts in that footage. The audio editing is on the right track, but it still sounds a bit unpolished. I’m looking forward to seeing the final results though. I think a bit more polishing could get it to fit much better.

StarkillerAG, which jump cuts bothered you the most?

EDIT: the reason I ask is because there are some edits I made moving to close ups of Obi-wan that technically are jump cuts but there are also some jump cuts in the SC 38 Reimagined footage itself, so I’d like to get an idea of the specific parts you didn’t like.

Well, in a nutshell, I didn’t like:

• The jump cuts from Ben and Vader walking to them just standing there. This happens multiple times before they start dueling.
• Some awkward editing when Ben says he will become more powerful than Vader could possibly imagine. It switches between original and SC38 way too much.

It’s only those areas that bother me, although they bother me a lot. Most of the issues I have are with the sound not matching up to the footage, which I guess is inevitable for an amateur sound mix.

Thanks StarkillerAG will address and fix those jumpy cuts. And the foley is rough and will be tweaked. But if you would please elaborate on the worst offending sound to video mismatches that bother you the most, that would be very helpful.

I don’t have any specific examples of that, just that some of the faster-paced strikes aren’t matched very well. I guess that makes sense, since ANH only had sound effects for the slow-paced original fight, but some improvements there would be welcome.

Ok thanks. That will definitely be tweaked more!

Edit: part of the roughness is also not all of the quick lightsaber swings are foleyed yet.

I agree on the camera movement part you mentioned, CMMAP. Will adjust. I’m keeping the original audio timing intact up to the point of the actual fighting. So I will have to use some of the footage from SC38 Reimagined during the opening. It can’t just suddenly jump into SC38 when the fighting begins because that would be too jarring. This will have to include some of Vader.

Yes the visuals will be enhanced from the special edition. The list is on the thread description.

ANH Enchanced Edition Scene 38 part 1:
here’s an updated pass on integrating SC38 Reimagined: https://streamable.com/8o762x

changes:
removed/changed scenes from the beginning with weird motion
cleaned most of the extraneous sound effects happening with no corresponding action
substantially improved the foley including more faced paced fighting… still a rough draft but it’s getting there
hopefully improved video transitions between SC38 and Original ANH
Obi-wan has the upper hand when he says “you can’t win”… Vader backs off
removed some of the lightsaber bashing with crazy camera motion
removed Ob-wan getting pushed around in the narrow corridor
moved Obi-wan force grabbing his saber to part 1 (before cutting to Han and Chewbacca)

krausfadr said:

ANH Enchanced Edition Scene 38 part 1:
here’s an updated pass on integrating SC38 Reimagined: https://streamable.com/8o762x

Nice work! It’s looking much better already. The volume on the dialogue could be increased to stand out from the sound effects, but that’s pretty much my only major complaint.

Thanks StarkillerAG I’ll keep working on this. CMMAP, I could try and cut the tail end of Obi-wan’s impact into the wall, but it doesn’t really bother me. I’m more inclined just to cut the force throw altogether but that would mean I have to cut Vader slamming closed the blast door which is cool.

Edit: CMMAP, I trimmed the tail end of the impact and found it to be an improvement. While at it I also brutally cut more earlier portions where the SC38 derpfake was on so crooked poor old Ben looked like a weird bobblehead.

Alderaan destruction enhanced:

Rough clip: https://youtu.be/wzvgr1GzljI

krausfadr said:

Alderaan destruction enhanced:

Rough clip: https://youtu.be/wzvgr1GzljI

Seems intriguing. I like the idea of Alderaan “shattering” rather than simply exploding, it matches the scene where the Falcon arrives more. The two jump cuts used in the new explosion are a bit rough, though. Maybe you could somehow smooth it out digitally?

Thanks StarkillerAG yeah I do have plans for both those cuts.

On second thought I think I’m going to give up on modifying Alderaan and just use the SE footage.