The Force Awakens: Starlight (V1.1 Released!)

This is a comprehensive fanedit of The Force Awakens based on Hal 9000’s TFA Restructured, and is available via Private Message.

So what are the goals of this edit? As I see it, they are threefold:

First, to heighten the drama of the story. This is done through many changes, for example cutting down and re-editing the much maligned Rathtar attack, interconnecting character actions on Starkiller Base, and moving the destruction of the New Republic to the end of the film.

Second, to illuminate and strengthen the characters. Each of the major characters is refined through cuts and additions to enhance their presence and hint at their arcs throughout the trilogy. Rey is darker, Finn is less jokey, Kylo more conflicted, and even Poe gains some new depth. Even minor characters are given more presence in the film such as the pirates of Maz’s castle or Resistance officers.

Third and finally, to more fully realize the world of the film. This is done through restoring several deleted scenes, restructuring scenes to enhance the illusion of the passage of time, and adding shots which provide new perspectives of the world.

Starlight Version 1.1 - Changelist

(Restructured edits in italics, unique changes in bold):

ACT I

• Apply a subtle color grade to the entire film.
• Replace the original crawl with one which more clearly establishes the state of the galaxy.
• Animate the ladder of Poe’s X-wing to retract as he powers up the vessel.
• Remove the continuity error of Kylo’s saber glow before it is activated to kill Lor-San Tekka.
• Apply a bright ‘purgatory’ look to Jakku through color grading to differentiate it from Tatooine and emphasize that the planet is a desolate graveyard.
• Remove Unkar Plutt’s line in favor of an atmospheric introduction to Jakku without English dialogue.
• Insert an etching of an island behind the pilot doll in Rey’s house to illustrate the content of her dreams.
• Augment Kylo’s interrogation of Poe to include dialogue from Leia’s deleted scene repurposed as a statement to Poe.
• Place Kylo’s prayer directly after he encounters memories of Leia. This explains why he was reticent to interrogate Poe himself and why he isn’t in top form in any scene directly after an interrogation, as this power leaves him emotionally compromised.
• Add slight Palpatine theme to Vader’s helmet reveal.
• Remove Finn’s wanton destruction of his fellow Stormtroopers as he escapes the hangar.
• Remove Kylo’s knowledge of Finn’s number.
• Grade Finn waking up on Jakku to appear as if he has awakened at dawn.
• Move scene of Rey refusing to sell BB-8 to after Finn arrives at Niima outpost, indicating that she has taken BB-8 on her scavenging expedition all day as evidenced by her new finds.
• Insert a light activating on the Falcon as it powers up, a light which Han deactivates later. This light indicates a tracking device which explains how Han found the Falcon so quickly.
• Insert shot of the Falcon going to lightspeed directly after it escapes from Jakku, then another shot of it falling out of Hyperspace after the explosion in the Falcon hold.

ACT II

• Cut Finn’s line ‘We need to get out of this system!’, since they have presumably already left.
• Cut the exchange where BB-8 traitorously divulges the location of the Resistance Base while still including the droid’s thumbs up.
• Remove the ‘Cute boyfriend?’ repetition.
• Cut Han’s line ‘Come on out of there’, instead simply motioning the stowaways out of the compartment with his gun.
• Restore scene of Han hanging his dice in the Falcon cockpit (Thank you to SirRidley and Chase Adams, among others), as well as color correct shots directly before the scene so that it more accurately blends into the footage.
• Grade the Kanjiklub scene to imply that Rey deactivated the lights when she reset the fuses as well as releasing the Rathtars.
• Remove Finn being captured by a Rathtar.
• Further shorten and darken the Rathtar action to heighten the horror of the scene.
• Edit out Finn’s accidental activation of the Falcon’s game table and lengthen BB-8’s query to Rey before he reveals the map.
• Move the first Snoke scene to just after the map scene, and cut dialogue from Han implying their arrival at Takodana is imminent. Snoke does not blow up at Hux, and has no explicit mention of Han Solo to keep the reveal for later.
• Cut Han’s justification that they are at the castle to get a ‘clean’ ship. Since BB-8 hasn’t given up the location of the Resistance, they need Maz since she has connections to Leia.
• Cut Maz’s redundant line ‘I like that Wookiee’.
• Transition from the First Order informant to Maz with the shot of the band playing the secondary castle music.
• Shorten Maz’s trek across the table and cut the lines ‘Solo, what is she doing?’ ‘I dunno, but it’s not good.’
• Add voice of Luke to Rey’s Vision.
• Add dialogue from Palpatine to Vision as foreshadowing.
• Insert previously deleted footage of Rey alone in the Rathtar infested hallways to the Force vision to emphasize the dramatic effect of Finn abandoning the mission.
• Remove Rey saying ‘Luke’ to Maz, allowing some more room for interpretation as to whether Maz is referring to Luke or Finn.
• Insert shots of Star Destroyer to Maz’s Castle instead of Hosnian destruction, along with SirRidley’s new music.
• Add sound effect of Destroyer exiting Hyperspace to help explain why everyone suddenly notices its presence.
• Insert a new shot of the pirate ship Meson Martinet from Rey’s point of view, indicating that she intends to leave with Finn.
• Rey’s frightened look upon killing Stormtroopers is accompanied by a sinister whispering taken from The Last Jedi.
• Additional dialogue is given to trooper TR-8R (Thank you to Axlanian).
• Hold Poe’s reveal at Maz’s castle for directly after Finn says ‘That’s one hell of a pilot!’, to which Poe whoops in delight.
• Restructure the end of the Maz Castle battle so that Finn begins to run to Rey before it is obvious that he is too late.
• Integrate Leia’s deleted scene with Kor Sella directly after Finn disembarks from the Falcon.
• Remove Poe’s mention of Hosnian System destruction, replacing it with a line establishing the weapon to be in the Ilum System.
• Place the interrogation of Rey directly after Leia’s ‘tell me all you know’.
• The second Snoke scene sends Hux to prepare the weapon to destroy the Republic with no mention of a reconnaissance ship and no knowledge of the location of the Resistance, and ends with Snoke taunting Ben by calling him ‘Solo’. The next scene is Leia looking at the partial map to Luke.
• Place the bit with Chewie and the doctor right after the map scene. This occurs right after Leia says ‘…and don’t mention the Death Star’, implying that Chewie could be reminiscing about his old adventures to the doctor.
• Fix continuity error with doctor Kalonia’s arm (Thank you to MoviesRemastered).
• Show R2-D2 quietly beginning to access his backup memory at BB-8’s suggestion.
• Remove Leia’s lines which refer to Snoke by name, keeping the focus solely on the loss and potential redemption of Ben.

ACT III

• Move Hux’s speech to directly preceding the Resistance Briefing scene, complete with weapon charging footage.
• Remove the comparison of the Starkiller to the Death Star.
• Leia’s ‘…again. Our system is the next target’ is replaced with her saying ‘The Senate is the target’, to which Poe adds ‘The Hosnian System’.
• After the briefing and the Han/Leia farewell, establish Kylo recovering from the interrogation by watching the Starkiller being charged with an unused shot from Hux’s speech.
• Expand Rey’s Mind Trick Scene, with her failing to trick the guard the first and second times as Kylo begins his return to her cell.
• The Falcon landing is significantly shortened to feel more like a crash and less like Han intentionally hitting every tree in a forest.
• Re-edit the Starkiller infiltration considerably. After Rey mind-tricks the guard, Kylo senses Han, Han and Finn discuss how the Force works, there is an update on Starkiller charging which has been changed from 15 minutes to 50, Rey runs through the halls, Chewie blasts the trooper, Rey enters the hangar and trips the sensors, Phasma marches to the hangar because of this alarm with new dialogue, Chewie tackles Phasma and Phasma talks more trash to Finn, then Rey avoids the guards by hiding on the wall.
• Edit a new version of the lowering of the shields set to the villainous First Order theme where Phasma sounds the alarm, setting off a chain of events which ends with Hux launching waves of TIE’s to intercept the coming attack.
• Intercut deleted scene of Kylo on the Falcon with the prior scenes, altered to include new music and sound effects indicating his happy memories on the ship.
• Remove Poe’s lines reiterating how the sun draining works, in order to more quickly show the TIE interception.
• Remove Finn’s Line ‘Why are you doing that? I’m trying to come up with a plan.’
• Move 3PO’s line ‘It would take a miracle to save us now!’ until later, and include unused lines from Poe indicating that they are switching focus to dealing with the TIE fighters before attempting another run on the Oscillator.
• New sequence on the bridge where Kylo offers the lightsaber to Han in one final interrogation. Once Han touches the saber, Kylo can access his memories and it is this which hardens Kylo’s resolve.
• Remove Chewie running for cover before detonating the explosives, implying that he is willing to sacrifice himself to prevent the weapon from firing.
• Expand upon Starkiller Firing to include Hux ordering the operation and reaction shots from almost every major character.
• Move Leia’s reaction to Han’s death to after the Hosnian Destruction and paint out the officer walking casually behind her.
• Remove the cutaway to Hux being informed of the Starkiller’s imminent firing.
• Remove blatant indications that the planet is collapsing around Rey and Kylo, including shots showing the cliffhanger. The lines about Rey needing a teacher remain, however, augmented with the final instance of the sinister whispers. She uses this to tap into the Dark Side.
• Rey’s eyes turn yellow with dark power before she goes on the offensive against Kylo.
• Edit massive gulf that opens between the combatants to become merely a several meter crack in the ground. Remove shot of massive canyon.
• Remove Snoke’s line ‘It is time to complete his training’, replacing it with the line ‘There has been an awakening.’
• Add shot of canyon forming to Rey collapsed over Finn in order to let the moment land.
• Remove fighter pilot reaction shots from the Starkiller destruction and re-foley the scene, ending the music with the Starkiller destruction.
• Crop Chewie out of the shot with Leia after the battle.
• Show R2-D2 finishing his search of his memory before powering up.
• Add the Binary Beacon to Finn’s bedside, implying Rey placed it there for him to find.
• Remove the overly formal ‘my friend’ from Rey saying ‘Thank you, my friend’.
• Color correct Ach-to to bring it a little closer to the corresponding scene’s lighting and weather conditions in The Last Jedi.
• Add a few subtle porg sounds to the background, replacing two native bird sounds.
• Stabilize the helicopter shot at the end of the film.
• Replace the End Credits version of Rey’s Theme and Scherzo for X-Wings with John William’s Han Solo and the Princess 2018 Composition.

If anyone wishes to use the contents of this edit in their own edits feel free, I would only ask that you credit my work 😃

TV’s Frink said:

Theoretical?

It’s my first fanedit, and I still don’t know how I’m going to accomplish some things (such as audio and authoring), so yes, at this point it is still theory.

towne32 said:

As I’m not one of the people seeking big changes to TFA, I don’t have many thoughts on a lot of the videos. But man, that stabilized final shot is so much better.

Thanks 😃 It’s one of those things where you wonder what they were thinking when putting the movie together.

I will be sure to check them out.

If it didn’t have a timecode I’d probably use it. But I understand why it was cut - it really only exists to have Kylo become aware of/ruminate about Han’s presence, and it takes precious screentime to do it. DigMod just cropped the video, but it’s pretty obvious in some shots.

Neat! Though I don’t think it’s seamless enough for this edit.

I haven’t watched the video, but this might have something that you’re looking for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EVS7CF_LyQ

DominicCobb said:

For similar reasons (that I’ve touched on elsewhere before) I think the Vader scene should be moved, as it’s placement in the theatrical is kind of a non sequitur.

That’s an interesting idea. I was just imagining how it would play back to back with Rey’s Dream (they both feature a helmet from a deceased warrior), but of course it wouldn’t work there. Were you thinking it should be closer to the final confrontation in order to bring his conflict to the fore?

As much as I don’t want to do a shot-by-shot color correction of TFA, there are certain scenes that do warrant color work. For example, many of the closeups of C-3PO look terrible to me, while the wide shots look much better. I thought it was just how the different suit reflected light, and though it is partly that, it’s also that he’s been graded to be too flat and green in comparison with how he looks in the wide shots and the rest of the saga.
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/207316

I feel like, based on what you said, that the Kylo scene should go as late as possible in order to keep it fresh in the audience’s mind. I like the idea of putting it right before the interrogation scene, so that Rey can call him out on his Vader worship right after his visit to the ‘shrine’. Then, after she throws him for a loop, she escapes and further infuriates him.

Sir Ridley said:

Nice initiative! 😃 I like most of your ideas, and as you know I’d like to use some of them for my edit which is also based on Restructured. I’ll make my own thread eventually.

I have a few questions and thoughts.

"Insert shot of the Falcon going to lightspeed …"
Is there usable footage for this?

It may be possible by using the end of the shot at the end of the film where the Falcon jumps out of the Resistance system, and then there are two possible shots of it falling out of lightspeed, both requiring the removal of a planet.

"… trim Bala-Tik’s dialogue about the First Order looking for a droid …"
I feel like this is easier said than done. Bala-Tik mentions the FO looking for a droid and two fugitives, which leads to them wanting to search the ship, and then finally saying “kill them, and take the droid”. All of this is connected, so I think you’d have to remove all of this dialogue and cut from “Nowhere left to hide” to the Rathtars attacking, and move Rey opening the Rathtar cage to a slightly earlier point. Not sure this would flow well, and the increasing tension between the gangs and Han would be lost.

This is the one scene where I’m fine with a lot of cuts, since the Rathtars are one of the weakest parts of the film IMO. After ‘Nowhere left to hide’, Rey could open the cages, then cut ‘and take the droid!’. Then keep the initial Rathtar attack, but cut Finn’s improbable capture and rescue. Maybe cut Han’s blasting the door open with the Bowcaster, since it doesn’t make any sense and it closes later in the scene.

"Regrade Maz’s Castle after Rey runs away to look as if it is occurring in late afternoon"
It’s possible, and it makes the sunset shot make slightly more sense. But you’d have to regrade about 10 minutes of footage (until they leave Takodana). Might be worth it though, if it looks good.

I think a few scene-specific regrades would do wonders for the OT look of the film, especially the Falcon scenes and the droids.

“Reincorporate Kylo’s investigation of the Falcon” - Using xxtelecine 7xx’s clip I’ve done some further cropping and editing to make the timecode removal more seamless. Looks good, I could upload a clip later.

And I made a version of the island dream shot, I’ll upload that as well.

I look forward to seeing them!

RogueLeader said:

DominicCobb said:

Yeah I feel like that’s the one I’m sort of leaning towards but it’s hard to know how well it’d work without actually seeing it.

I went ahead and made a rough version where his counsel with Vader is in between Han & Leia’s talk and Rey’s interrogation. Didn’t put the entirety of those two scenes in the video, just enough to get the gist. I also went ahead and put the two Maz scenes back together where the Kylo scene originally was just to see if the transition would work without it in between them. Like I said, it’s rough, but maybe it’ll help you guys decide if this direction is worth pursuing.

https://vimeo.com/213984598

I don’t think we need the establishing shot of the Finalizer for this cut, since we can assume that Kylo’s prayer happens on Starkiller Base. The TIE mountain shot could preface both scenes, linking them more closely together.

I think a change of music would help the Maz castle scene.

Sir Ridley said:

NeverarGreat said:

It may be possible by using the end of the shot at the end of the film where the Falcon jumps out of the Resistance system, and then there are two possible shots of it falling out of lightspeed, both requiring the removal of a planet.

Okay, that should be possible. I don’t really see the need for the addition though. Would it really make sense to put the ship into lightspeed at that time? They just escaped, and Rey leaves the cockpit to meet up with Finn (I don’t think leaving the controls and just lightspeeding blindly is a good idea) and they haven’t even decided where to go yet. And then they would leave lightspeed without being at the controls, is that even possible? Or does the ship leave lightspeed because of the gas leak?

She does mention at the start of the repair scene that it’s the motivator, which I would assume is the hyperdrive motivator. She then says that if the ‘propulsion tank’ overflows it will flood them with gas. So the ship drops out of Hyperspace because of the sudden leak. Han also leaves the console while at lightspeed, so once you have a course and jump I expect there’s not much risk, at least with a good ship. It’s also established that Rey is no slouch when it comes to the hyperdrive of this particular ship.

It’s a bit of a stretch to think that they would jump without a clear destination, but it’s also a stretch to think that they celebrated before getting out of the system, and then just hung out near Jakku repairing the ship before being found by Han Solo, who was found by two gangs, and none of this appeared on the Finalizer’s radar.

I found a potential source for the Falcon going to lightspeed. Recall that I cut the Falcon’s jump with my Starkiller destruction re-foley, so I could merge that with the end of the escape from Jakku shot:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/207415
It would require some blurring and engine glow to the first shot, but it might work.