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The Force Awakens: Starlight (V1.1 Released!) — Page 60

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Wow! That’s a lot better than I expected to see in like 24 hours. I could see how maybe a little more work after a decent break and a fresh set of eyes could probably help, but I could see how putting some scratches or glare on that spot could help sell it. Either way, I think it is almost good to go.

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I agree with RogueLeader, a little light reflection or glare or whatever would definitely hide the imperfections of the face.

That new clip is still absolutely fantastic though, certainly as close to perfect as it ever could be given the limitations.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what you come up with to replace the background!


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NeverarGreat said:

  • The Jakku regrade is pushed about as far as I can take it without the washed out grade negatively affecting the explosions and skin tones and such, and so I’m pretty happy with it.

I see your point with the opening scene on Jakku being at night and having blaster fire, explosions, etc.

However, I put together a quick test using simple color masks to whiten the sand in a couple of the other scenes that do not take place at night. Not that this is necessarily the way you would want to go with this, but I was just curious to see if it might work.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YZhi7XyMgNcvXUdIe4hF2ltg3uOxobGa/view?usp=sharing

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That looks great! I would probably cut before the face morph if it can’t be fixed though.

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NeverarGreat said:

Oh masking every scene of Jakku would work, but is it worth the trouble for a subtle improvement? To me, not really.

Actually, I’m not sure you know what I mean. With the color mask tool I use, I basically can select certain colors for an entire scene and then easily change them. The test I ran (which I admit is very rough) only took me about two minutes.

Anyway, on to other things — the Han with the dice shot is really looking good. As I’ve said before, I can’t wait to see your finished edit!

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Oh, I thought you were physically masking out skin tones and fire and such.

Selective color is something that I use quite heavily in the Jakku grade, but even with fine control and selecting only certain hues at certain saturation/luminance levels it’s still really difficult to find settings that knock out the hues of the sand while leaving all of the skin tones and explosions, or at least enough to not look weird. In the end, I found that taking out all the color in the sand shadows would always play havoc with the skin tones, which is why I settled for settings that targeted mostly highlights and high midtones.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Yeah, I could see how that would be challenging.

Anyway, I hope I didn’t come off as negatively critical. I think your work is great.

Best of luck going forward!

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 (Edited)

Not at all, I’m happy to get feedback on the work 😃

I’ve put the Dice scene into the edit, though there remains work to do on that front. Overall however the edit is shaping up and the color grade in in place. I’m pretty pleased with it, but there remain some things still to do, a few miscellaneous notes for small tweaks. The changes are small enough that I’m hoping to get it done pretty quickly and have a final render here after…(checks notes)…four and a half years.

But seriously, I’m running out of things to tinker with, so if anybody finds another deleted scene that must be included, kindly don’t let me know 😉

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Could somebody show me a clip of this Jakku regrade the front page is talking about?

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How convenient! I was wondering if we would get scenes that would be useful to any editing endeavors. Sort of serendipitous that this just dropped right in the middle of you working on that scene.

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NeverarGreat said:

JEDIT: Also updated the dice background for continuity with the rest of the scene.

Looking really good Nev! 😮

Just curious, any particular reason for changing the cropping of the shot? Seems a little more zoomed…

Also I wonder if the Falcon’s hull should be shadowed/tinted the slightest bit more, I feel like with this new background being somewhat darker the ship blends with the environment a tiny bit less. I dunno, just the first thing that came to mind.


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Lookin’ good!! It’s really starting to blend well now

One thing, in the wide shot the big lights in the back of the cockpit are more white compared to the blueish color in the surrounding shots. Perhaps those could be brought more in line? Looks like that shot could use some blue in the highlights overall. 😃

“Always in motion is the future” 🌌

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Greetings, exalted one. I have been looking at this project for a while, but have only now decided to post about it. The Force Awakens is my favorite movie in The Sequel Trilogy. I feel like it has the best story, best action, and best acting. It’s for sure better than the TLJ and TROS. As of lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about sequel edits and what I would do with the sequels, if ever edited them. I have to say those color corrected shots look really good and almost look like shots from the OT. I have also seen some of your ideas for this project, like adding back in the deleted scene with Han in the Cockpit with the Dice. I would definitely like a link to this project. Being that it’s in a workprint stage actually makes me really happy for the future of this project. As one great man would say, “We will watch your career with great interest.”

“No one is born ugly, we just live in a judgmental society.”- Kim Namjoon

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NeverarGreat said:

Thank you! The project is nearing completion so there are just minor things to do now, but regardless, PM sent!

That’s good news Nev, looking forward to seeing the final version

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Chase Adams said:

NeverarGreat said:

JEDIT: Also updated the dice background for continuity with the rest of the scene.

Looking really good Nev! 😮

Just curious, any particular reason for changing the cropping of the shot? Seems a little more zoomed…

Also I wonder if the Falcon’s hull should be shadowed/tinted the slightest bit more, I feel like with this new background being somewhat darker the ship blends with the environment a tiny bit less. I dunno, just the first thing that came to mind.

Perhaps so. I’ll take another look at it.

DMC said:

One thing, in the wide shot the big lights in the back of the cockpit are more white compared to the blueish color in the surrounding shots. Perhaps those could be brought more in line? Looks like that shot could use some blue in the highlights overall. 😃

That’s something I’ve noticed, and actually tried to pull the lights to blue but it just wasn’t working at the time. I’ll give it another go. 😃

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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21C Peasant said:

I did a little mock-up to see how the colors might be brought more in line.

Just an idea.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m2jHIR9q99MmBVpyLCqNupym-pf7Jv1B/view?usp=sharing

Looks good! I’ll try for that.

Chase Adams said:

Apologies if I missed anything in the thread about this, but was there ever any interest expressed in adding the ‘Finn and the villager’ back into the film?

Yeah, I was thinking about it for a while but I found it was very tricky to include. If it’s included as-is, the score would need to be lengthened and it also messes with the flow of the scene. And if it’s included as-is, then it isn’t really adding anything that his later refusal to fire doesn’t cover.

The only reason to add the scene in my eyes would be to serve as a replacement for the moment when Finn reacts to his dying comrade so that the implication isn’t made that he has a special concern for their welfare. However, that’s where he gets the streak of blood on his helmet so the moment would have to be altered and not removed, presumably to add a dying villager in place of the trooper. That would be my ideal solution, but it is probably outside of my abilities to accomplish and again serves to make the Finn and villager scene redundant.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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 (Edited)

Hi, I watched your edit. I felt better watching your version than the original, but unfortunately there’s still things that annoyed me. Not the changes you made, but things that are already there in the original movie. I understand if this is the definitive version for you and the only changes that you’ll still make are the ones in the changelist, after all everybody have their own vision of what need to change and what not, but if you are still open to changes, this is the things that I think that could be implemented from your edit:

First, I think the big letdown some people felt about “Rey is nobody” is because TFA left some tips that made the public thought that she is someone, and as “someone” I mean someone who was already a force user who’s known to Luke, Leia, Han, etc, something that was denied by the latter films. For me, some of these tips are still present in your edit. These are the scenes that I felted that:

-Maz Kanata lines: Maz Kanata line “Who’s the girl”, with the skeptical eyes, and the huge time between that line till she encounters Rey with the saber, implying that Han had a long conversation with Maz, made people speculate after the release of the film that Han knew something about Rey. Maz line “Whoever you are waiting in Jakku, they’ll never come back” reaffirms that in some form, even suggesting that Han could be Rey’s father and, for some reason, abandoned her. But we now know that Han doesn’t knew Rey from before and that he knew almost anything about her, so these lines end up frustrating the viewer, inducing him to a comeback that will never happen, and therefore end up being harmful to Rey’s development in the following films. So, for me, these two lines could be completely cut.

-Rey tricking the stormtrooper: For me this scene really doesn’t work because she speaks as if she knew this jedi mind trick, but she never seen a force user doing this trick before and she’s too new to the force to even think about doing something like that. I thought about a way this scene could work, but would require some edit and a Kylo Ren voice impersonator. If Kylo tried to make the same kind of jedi trick to Rey to gather the information about the map (before he takes off his mask), Rey would have known about this jedi mind trick before using it in the stormtrooper, and her line wouldn’t end being some kind of a deus ex machina.

-Rey and Finn vs Kylo: For me, Kylo losing the final fight in the first movie is a big letdown, because the stakes become lower in the upcoming movies (why Rey need to train with Luke if she is totally capable to defeat Kylo on her own, without training?), besides Rey winning against a trained lightsaber fighter it’s a bit strange, since she never trained sword fight. So, I think that these scenes could be trimmed a little bit, in Kylo’s favor. Make Kylo easily outrun Finn and Rey, and make the only hit he takes be Rey cutting his face. This will show that, even injured by the shot fired by Chewbacca, he is still really strong and a menace to to the galaxy, giving Rey a stronger motivation to train with Luke.

Besides that, I think Maz’s line “I good question for another time”, after Han asked her where she got the Luke saber, doesn’t make sense now since this question never was answered. I thought about two solutions for this: cut the line from Han and Maz completely, or find a Maz voice impersonator to just answer “stolen goods” in response to Han’s question, or something like that. The second option would fit the movie better for me, but will be harder to implement.

And about the modifications you implemented, I thought about tweaking a bit one scene in particular:

-New sequence on the bridge where Kylo offers the lightsaber to Han in one final test. Once Han touches the saber, Kylo can access his memories and hears both Leia’s faith in him and Han’s pessimism, and it is this which hardens Kylo’s resolve: If the screen focus on Ben’s face when he hears about Han pessimism, I think that the scene would be more clear on the intent you planned.

And that’s what I remember watching your edit. Even with these appointments, I think it’s a solid edit, some scenes you edited really shine and are better developed than the theatrical version. Thanks for the experience!