The Phantom Menace - Spence Edit — Page 4

So I want to put an update here for everyone following along.

- The goal is to make the film feel like more of a standalone adventure movie, similar to the original Star Wars and the first Pirates of the Caribbean.

- No Jar Jar

- A bigger focus on Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as the protagonists

- Darth Maul replaces Sidious as the main villain. This will be done via darkening the Sidious holograms and adding a new voice over for Maul.

- The story now revolves around a new energy source discovered on Naboo, and the Federation's desire to control it.

- The inexplicable lightsaber battle room is now the energy source mine.

- C-3PO will be removed entirely from the film.

- The obvious stuff (no midichlorians, no accidental heroics, no fart gags, no Captain Olie-Obvious)

Everyone caught up? Good. Because this thing has gotten pretty crazy over the past few days since I originally posted. Please post crazy ideas. I want to make this movie really sing. There are already good edits of TPM, so I don't feel like I need to play it safe. Let's try some new shit. It could be a great new Star Wars movie, or it could be an interesting failure. Either way, it'll be fun.

SpenceEdit said:

So I want to put an update here for everyone following along.

- The goal is to make the film feel like more of a standalone adventure movie, similar to the original Star Wars and the first Pirates of the Caribbean.

- No Jar Jar

- A bigger focus on Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as the protagonists

- Darth Maul replaces Sidious as the main villain. This will be done via darkening the Sidious holograms and adding a new voice over for Maul.

- The story now revolves around a new energy source discovered on Naboo, and the Federation's desire to control it.

- The inexplicable lightsaber battle room is now the energy source mine.

- C-3PO will be removed entirely from the film.

- The obvious stuff (no midichlorians, no accidental heroics, no fart gags, no Captain Olie-Obvious)

Everyone caught up? Good. Because this thing has gotten pretty crazy over the past few days since I originally posted. Please post crazy ideas. I want to make this movie really sing. There are already good edits of TPM, so I don't feel like I need to play it safe. Let's try some new shit. It could be a great new Star Wars movie, or it could be an interesting failure. Either way, it'll be fun.

That's a pretty good list of changes. And all of them are possible.

I'm excited. My script for my independant movie is done, so I got nothing to do for my 3 days off but play around with The Phantom Menace.

I'm all tingly.

I know that feeling. It is very nice. =)

I'm going to remove any references to Padme being elected, and any references to how old Anakin is. We might as well just not bring it up at all, I guess.

Duel of the Fates is going to occur where they are harnessing the energy source, which makes the columns and the exhaust doors make sense.

And in this situation, I will be keeping Yoda and Mace's exchange, but without the close up of Palpatine at the end.

Maul's voice will be pretty similar to his original voice, I can do a fairly close version of that. I like the calm and collected voice. It makes him even more sinister, I've always thought.

So we have a clear, active and really badass villain, a clear plot structure, a kid, a cute robot, awesome fight scenes, great music, and Natalie Portman.

Sounds like a good movie to me.

I'm gonna stick with Maul. Great evil name.

Couldn't get any editing done yesterday, but all of my sources are converted and ready to go in Vegas. I'll start working on it tonight, and I'll post a test clip of the opening tomorrow or the next day. The Neimoidians are going to be subtitled, as I let someone borrow my microphone.

Ok, this is starting to drive me crazy, and I know it's a little off topic, but my blu-ray rip has .dts audio and I can't get it into a Vegas friendly format. Anyone know how to easily convert it to a 5.1 wav or something else vegas handles? The video looks great.

I like the idea of the energy source, but if you are to go down that path, it would be great if you could let the viewer know what the energy source is used for and what the consequences are for the Naboo if they lose the energy source.

SpenceEdit said:

I'm going to remove any references to Padme being elected, and any references to how old Anakin is. We might as well just not bring it up at all, I guess.

Do they ever actually mention how old he is anyway? Sounds like great changes all across the board.

I'm a little technically stifled right now. Still can't get my soundtrack in a manageable format. I might just have to take the mix from the DVD version and use that. Hopefully it all syncs up right.

What exactly are you trying to do? if it is editing a DTS-HD MA file it is pretty easy, I have done this a few times now, the latest being my adding the choral parts back into the Conan The Barbarian audio and editing back in the original Theatrical parts back into Return of The Living Dead.

I forgot to mention, I also use Vegas.

I have an MKV of the Blu-Ray, which I'm trying to get into Vegas. I've got the video in MP4, but the audio is stuck as a .DTS that I can't get into a Vegas format.

Something I wanted to do was see Maul survive and remain a threat in the later films, to the point where people can think that Maul is Vader, and perhaps retain some of the ESB revelation.  The easiest way is to suggest that Grevious is Maul (though personally I think his look should be changed to something more halfway between Maul and Vader, otherwise he goes from acrobatic sith, to acrobatic robot, to lumbering cyborg, and that makes even less sense), but something I considered was using sound clips from Anakin in the Clone Wars for Maul's voice, as at least this sounds close to Anakin from the films without being the same.  That said I do like Maul's voice in the film, just there isn't enough of it without voice acting. 

I wouldn't mind Qui-Gon giving Anakin some direction. Any suggestions for a quote from Mr. Neeson, be at TPM or otherwise?