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Okay, this is gonna be a beast of a first post, but here it is. Firstly, let me give some background on myself. I’ve self-taught myself video editing over the last fourteen years through QuickTime Pro, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Express, and now, Final Cut Pro. I used to write short stories in the 90s, and have been writing scripts for the last ten and a half years. This has culminated in writing, producing, directing, editing, and sometimes acting in and shooting my own original independent films since 2005 as RavensFilm Productions. Of course, I’ve been a Star Wars fan all my life, and there’s a multitude of stories I could offer there. I even helped a friend shoot a Star Wars fan film seven years ago (it was never truly completed). At the time of the release of the prequels, I was very excited, and did see them each multiple times. Yet, in the years since, I can see there was a lot of room for improvement.
Now, I have been working on simultaneous fan edits of all three prequels films. I began work on Episode II first back in November, but lost interest until the Confused Matthew & Red Letter Media video reviews got me motivated, again. So, since I started with Episode II, the most progress has been made there. I wasn’t going to do an Episode I edit because I felt the film was beyond any further help I could offer it. I saw the Phantom Edit, and saw a starting point for me. So, here we be.
After watching the original original trilogy again, I want to focus more on serious storytelling. So, some scenes which seem amusing in a stand alone sense are being removed for a more dramatic film. Though, pacing, tone, and plot progression must all be properly balanced in light of this.
I’ve been editing in simple 2.0 stereo. While I do have the ability to demux and convert the 5.1 audio channels, it would be a very, very long process, and then, I’d have to re-edit the audio from scratch. Hate to have that as a negative mark against my edits, but I just can’t afford the extra time. Plus, with how Final Cut Pro is setup, I’m not even sure the 5.1 mix would come out properly. So, here’s a brief breakdown of what has been or is being done.
EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE
First off, I wanted to change the title, but couldn’t think of anything original or appropriate to the story. I see that the OT titles were more self-explanatory and straight forward, so, I would like to aim more towards that. Anyway…
• Adding color correction to enhance saturation, and adjusting white, black, and brightness levels. The film comes across as a little dim on the DVD, and with the next two films being shot in HD (offering much better color and clarity), I want to match those stronger levels as much as possible.
• Replaced the opening 20th Century Fox, LucasFilm Ltd, and “A long time ago” screens with those from “Episode II” for better clarity and consistency (the Fox logo has a different sky in it than the rest of the prequels or OT SE).
• New opening crawl that reads more like a proper introduction to Star Wars, and adds a little bit of shadiness to the Trade Federation’s actions. I attempted to fit some info on the defeat of the Sith centuries ago, but I couldn’t make it flow with so few words. And while I would like the freedom to alter plot points and so forth, I’m just not keen on the process of garbling languages and scripting up subtitles for the Nemoidains throughout the entire trilogy. Re-scripting and adding in subtitles is exhausting, but in my films, they are burned into the frame.
• Re-worked the opening sequence to be entirely fast-paced and exciting [YouTube Video].
• Following many editing ideas from The Phantom Edit to trim up lengthy or redundant scenes. Too many to list here, but Ric Olie has been silenced quite a bit. Less Jar Jar goofiness. Some entire scenes are removed.
• Jar Jar is no longer banned from Gungan City. He’s merely hesitant to take outsiders there since he says they’re not welcoming of outsiders. Boss Nass’ facial ticks and such are gone.
• Entire planet core sequence removed. Waterfall deleted scene restored.
• The entire scene of R2-D2 being thanked by the Queen, and the subsequent Padmé / Jar Jar scene are 100% gone.
• Excising as much of C-3PO as possible. At most, he’ll be a silent background character that attracts no attention to himself, and is never introduced. Thus, Anakin is not his creator.
• No midichlorian talk. Qui-Gon just takes a blood sample for his stated reason.
• I hate the podrace in terms of I don’t know what I’m gonna do with it. Massive editing job there. It’s just too long, and the two-headed announcer is all kinds of wrong. Gonna be the bane of my editing existence. Never has such a fast paced scene slowed down the plot so much.
• Greedo deleted scene & Probe Droid destruction scene to be reinstated.
• And that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. I’ll see what more I’m gonna do as I reacquaint myself with the film, but the Gungan end of the climax will be lessened. I attempted to remove them entirely, but Lucas was right in that it’s impossible. Without asking the Gungans’ for their assistance we would never have Padmé step forward to reveal herself as the true Queen.
• Technical issue: can’t seem to get a clean DVD rip of the film. Just keeps going to VOB with a bunch of digital artifacts and glitches. Ugh!
EPISODE II - SHADOWS OF THE REPUBLIC
While Episode I will be plagued with a thousand minor edits (which is so horribly annoying), this is the most radical re-edit in the group. Entire scenes suffled around, merged together, and deleted scenes restored everywhere. It’s nearly complete.
• Slightly altered opening crawl with new title. Instead of solar systems wanting to leave the Republic, several star systems are now threatening to withdraw. I feel that makes the Separatists sound upset and heated about something. The new title, I feel, reflects more of the mystery elements of the film, and the uncertain times the galaxy is falling into. I never cared for the title “Attack of the Clones” since they only attack at the end of the film, and that attack is hardly the heart of the story.
• Shot pans down for consistency with saga. Trimmed up the Naboo cruiser’s approach to Coruscant. Removed all of Typho’s lines pre-explosion, and rearranged some shots to accommodate that. Trimmed up Cordé’s lines.
• Senator Amidala addressing Senate deleted scene reinstated.
• New color correction on the following three scenes. These scenes now have more saturation and an amber late-in-the-day glow. They REALLY pop now.</span> Palpatine’s office scene is the same as Attack of the Phantom. Obi-Wan & Anakin in the elevator is only about Anakin’s nervousness. Amidala apartment scene now begins late, cutting Jar Jar’s dialogue. When Anakin interjects, it is now uninterrupted. This makes him appear more assertive than defiant (or jackass-like). Scene ends right after Typho’s last line (no Anakin-Jar Jar moment).
• Zam speeder chase considerably cutdown with one OT music cue. Anakin is not seen running out and chasing Obi-Wan with the speeder. He heroically appears with the speeder as Obi-Wan falls from the destroyed droid. Tightened up the foot chase. Less dialogue from Obi-Wan & Anakin altogether throughout the sequence and outside the club. Zam is no longer a shape-shifter since it serves no purpose. Ahmed Best’s & Tony Daniels’ reaction shots trimmed up to be more immediate (they felt too delayed before). Anakin also doesn’t yell when interrogating Zam.
• Trimmed up Jedi Council scene. The Jedi get their assignments and go.
• Added a snippet of The Emperor’s theme from ROTJ to the Anakin-Palpatine scene. Gives it a little more of an ominious feel when talking about how invincible and powerful Anakin will become. It’s quite subtle.
• Overall, nearly all of Anakin’s whining, complaining, and angst is removed. He doesn’t complain about Obi-Wan to Padmé. No mass murder confession, no fireplace scene, no macho bullshit, and so on. He comes off as more confident and mature.
• Jedi Analysis Droid scene restored in order to show more of Obi-Wan’s investigative process, but mainly, to slow down the pacing. I felt the need to “pump the brakes” while watching the film at this point. Dex diner scene is here, but starts later in. Younglings scene is gone. The scene never worked for me, and makes Obi-Wan appear stupid. Also, if he’s not saying something insightful or pertinent to the plot, I think Yoda just needs to shut up! There’s just too much awkward dialogue from him. I also don’t have any Yoda lightsaber duels.
• Anakin-Padmé transport ship conversation ends early, and on an upbeat note. Much of the cyan hue has been taken out. This segues right into their arrival on Naboo with the extended version. There is actually a dissolve cut right in the middle of the shot as they walk over the bridge. In the theatrical version of the scene, there is a small transport shuttle in the background at the start, but is not there in the extended cut. This shot also goes on longer in the extended cut. So, I matched the color correction as close as possible, and timed it to have the shot start with the theatrical version and end with the extended cut. Also, despite both being the same take of the scene (the theatrical was ADR’d), there are fewer extras in the background at the end of the shot in the extended version. Peculiar editing experience.
• Obi-Wan & Mace hangar scene mostly reinstated with the correlating Obi-Wan, Mace, & Yoda scene gone. I feel Sam Jackson has a more natural performance here, and that the scene flows better. It feels more casual. Enhanced color correction here, too.
• Queen Jamillia is gone. We go right to the deleted scenes of Padmé’s family (sans bedroom unpacking scene). I feel, at this point in the film, we know the political situation, and don’t need to be bogged down by it. This part of the film is about Anakin & Padmé forging their romance.
• Nearly all of the Anakin-Padmé romance scenes have been shuffled around, trimmed up, and salvaged entirely. The meadow picnic exists, but no dictatorship talk. Anakin is now teasing her about liking two or three politicians, but “not being sure about one of them.” The fruit scene is directly followed by the full-on kiss scene (does not cutaway) with matching color correction. Again, no fireplace angst scene.
• Boba Fett isn’t a clone, anymore. Like Zam being a shape-shifter, it serves no purpose in the plot, for his character, or anything else. It’s a frivolous idea that adds nothing to anything. Also, if you think about it, it’s rather disturbing if you’re raising a clone of yourself.
• No talk about the Jedi’s Force abilities diminishing. Considering they never doubt themselves again, it’s pointless. It also works better in that they don’t doubt themselves, and thus, gives further question to Dooku’s claims of Sidious controlling the Senate. If the Jedi cannot sense the Sith in the Senate, and are told the Dark Lord is masking his presence, this would take the Jedi off-guard, and they have to question its validity - is it a ruse by Dooku to create discord in the Republic or what?
• Boba’s badly delivered dialogue is cut down in the asteroid chase.
• The introductions at the Lars homestead are cut. Going to, at least, minimize C-3PO here somehow.
• Removed from Geonosis: Obi-Wan looking down upon the droid factory. The shot always seemed out of place as if they spliced in something different than what he was meant to be looking at.
• No cutting to Yoda after the Sandpeople slaughter. My issue is that if Yoda keeps sensing all this bad mojo going down with Anakin - WHY doesn’t he ever do anything about it? It simply makes him look incompetent and stupid. It’s like finding out your kid is smoking crack, and you just let them keep on doing it.
• Like I said, no mass murder confession to Padmé. Anakin brings his dead mother back, and it wipes to the funeral where only Anakin speaks. Also, Padmé no longer says, “What are you doing here?” to R2. That line delivery was completely off the mark.
• The scenes in Palpatine’s office following Obi-Wan’s holonet transmission have been combined into one. The transmission ends, and they start debating about the crisis. Mace tells Anakin to protect Sen. Amidala, and that’s it. Jar Jar is no longer manipulated here, and the entire “one vote accomplishes anything” idea is gone, too. It is now implied that the Senate debates the issue off-camera, and democratically vote emergency powers to Palpatine. This, by far, was the most intelligence insulting scene in all the prequels to me. It’s gone, now. [YouTube Video]
• Anakin no longer argues with Padmé about going to Geonosis. Factory sequence reworked, first, with some added OT music for a more rousing, adventurous tone, and secondly, the entire intent is changed. Anakin is now attempting to rescue Padmé. I borrowed this idea from a fan edit video on YouTube, but added more footage into it and used some different music cues. Anakin’s lightsaber is not destroyed. We can simply infer it was confiscated when captured.
• Deleted scene of Dooku & Amidala reinstated. I feel this adds a little more to Dooku’s character, and helps to further push the Separatists’ stance that the Republic is corrupt and broken. These are their reasons for breaking away from the Republic. As Dooku says, “The Republic cannot be fixed. It’s time to start over.”
• Pre-arena conversation trimmed down considerably. Padmé declares her love for Anakin, and that’s it.
• Arena battle just has some Nemoidian reaction shots cut, and the furry beast doesn’t attack his wrangler. Mace’s “Party’s over” line is gone. It was cool on a Sam Jackson level, especially if this were any other movie, but it’s out of character for Mace Windu (not that he has much of a character to him). Jango’s gunslinger twirl is gone ebcause of the bad motion of Dooku (even in reverse motion it looks odd). The big changes hit in the full-on battle scene. I liked the idea in Attack of the Phantom, but I have retained more of the original footage while reworking more of it to fit this idea. Plus, I easily fixed some continuity errors the Phantom Editor made. No Dooku on the speeder bike. Close-up of the Death Star mini-hologram is gone (it was simply gratuitous).
• Did what I could to fix the Anakin-Dooku lightsaber battle, but this is the worst editing I’ve seen in a major motion picture. Nothing matches from shot-to-shot, especially in the close-ups. Ben Burtt oughtta be ashamed of himself. No Yoda at all. Dooku takes down Anakin, the trooper transport ship arrives, and Dooku escapes.
• Cut out the line “Joined the Dark Side, Dooku has” because it just sounded horrible. He is still a Sith in my version, but I don’t know what happened to Frank Oz’s voice over the course of 20 years. Yoda doesn’t sound like Yoda anymore.
EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH
First off, I have very fond memories of seeing this film in the theatres, and thus, have some sentiment for the film overall. I saw the film TWICE on opening night at two separate theatres (hell of a story there), and even saw it in digital projection the following week. So, my desire is to just trim out the less desireable elements, and enhance what I loved about it. So, there are many things others have changed which will remain untouched here. Basically, I am making the film the way I’d like to see it and enjoy it.
• New opening crawl. I always felt like the first paragraph was a waste as it says nothing substantive. The rest remains unchanged.
• All I’ve cut in the first 20 minutes are the Battle Droids in the elevator, Dooku jumping down from the walk way (I’ve added the SFX of footsteps to give the impression he just walked down the stairs), and Palpatine’s “Yeah” during the 'saber duel. I’ve added a short “Duel of the Fates” cue at the start of the duel. I feel it helps build up the dramatic tension. I’ve also drained out much of the cyan coloring as possible without killing the blue glow of Anakin’s saber or R2’s blue panels.
• No “I’m so in love with you” scene. Right now, it cuts from Sidious & Grievous to Anakin’s nightmare. I’d love to cutdown several more of the Anakin-Padmé scenes, but I cannot find a way to cut out of those scenes early.
• Removed Anakin’s scene with Yoda because, again, bad mojo is happening with Anakin, and Yoda is not concerned about it. He takes no real action to resolve these issues with him, and Anakin doesn’t take the advice, anyway.
• All “Seeds of Rebellion” scenes reinstated.
• Trimmed up the Obi-Wan vs. Grievous chase scene. Kenobi now grabs the staff, and gets yanked over to Grievous’ vehicle right away.
• Sidious lightsaber battle trimmed down and tightend up to remove awkwardness and stupid expressions on his face. Anakin’s landing trimmed up. “He is the traitor,” “I’m too weak,” and much more dialogue cut because it was horribly delivered. I’m also trying to downplay the “saving Padmé as the reason for turning bad” idea. It’s leaning more towards Anakin believing that everyone else is corrupt, and won’t stand by while everything falls apart. Or in the least, Anakin downplays it around Sidious. Tightened up some dialogue after Anakin’s Dark Side turn. I still need to put in more work on this film to balance out my ideas.
• Cutout the Youngling dialogue in the Council Chamber. Vader just walks in, they come out, and he ignites his lightsaber. This follows in the line of “do not hesitate, show no mercy.” If he is to turn to the Dark Side, he must be ruthless in his slaughter.
• No Yoda-Sidious fight. Like most every fan edit, the Battle of the Heroes duel is one uninterrupted sequence. Removed all dialogue during the duel, and tightened up the final moment of the battle. I’ve also reinstated the theatrical version’s wipe from Obi-Wan on the Naboo skiff to Vader climbing up on the rocks.
• We now see Padmé give birth to only one child without naming him or her. This could change entirely depending on what I decide to do with the Bail/Obi-Wan/Yoda scene, and the subsequent montage sequence. Hard to let go of well acted scenes in these films. Drained out much of the cyan coloring in both the child birth and birth of Vader scenes. The medical droid now only says, “We need to operate quickly. We are losing her.”
Color correction examples. Original image is on top, my versions are below it.
-NJM
