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Star Wars Episode I: Age of the Jedi (WIP Phantom Menace Edit) — Page 2

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alqgpID8mX8 Tested out the reversing idea, works really well actually (luckily, since I have the 5.1 surround audio, it’s a bit less jarring than I expected). Also did a minor change with the color grade, removing the overly blue tint on the Federation’s ship.

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That would be nice, it gives the alien more “alien” language.

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NotTheDri0ds said:

Hm, I’d have to find someone/something to va them. Though I’m not sure how well I could get it to work, I’m not quite knowledgeable on audio editing.

Sorry, I interpreted this as in response to reverse audio.

heil Palpatine!

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That’s fine! Thanks for the suggestion to reverse the audio, think it’ll work much better than the previous approach

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Update: After a bit of a break, I have continued work on the edit. Currently still replacing the French audio with the new “Alien Language”. About halfway done with that. In the meantime, I’ve done a quick edit for a “what if?” of the Negotiations part, which I have cut in the actual edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK4TcTqIFMs

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Skybatman said:

Count Dooku is gonna be in your edit ?

Most likely no, I don’t really have a place for him, and the sentence mixing/rotoscoping needed would most likely be a bit too much for my current skill level.

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So I’ve been considering whether or not I should obscure Sidious’ face when talking with the Federation. Since it’d make sense for him to hide his identity from them incase one babbles. I’ve had a few thoughts on how I should go about it:

  1. Pixelate his face

Pixelated

  1. Blur his face

Blurred

(Original for comparison)

Original

I’d like to hear what everyone else thinks would be best

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Another clip of a reworked intro. Wanted to intercut a bit between the Federation and the protagonists. Sound mix isn’t final (had to completely redo since the Federation scenes had completely different music) https://youtu.be/5PVM3-232I4

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As of now, an hour and 25 minutes. Though I haven’t quite looked it completely over for pacing, continuity errors, all that stuff, that’s how it is as of now.

On a somewhat related topic, I think I’m about comfortable with sending the edit over to a few people for feedback, if anyone’s interested, shoot me a PM, I’ll try rendering it out here in a bit.

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A little something on my mind. Rewatching the edit so far, we hardly get a taste of the might of the Federation until the final act. I’m wanting to add a scene earlier of the film showing the droid army ravaging the streets of Theed, but there’s one issue: There’s not really much usable footage of their occupation (most have Padme or her entourage in it, which wouldn’t make sense as they’re with the Jedi).

Is there perhaps some footage from some sort of commercial, series, or whatever of Battle Droids roaming the streets of a city that could pass for Theed, blasting people? The closest thing I can think of is The Mandalorian, but those are Super Battle Droids.

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NotTheDri0ds said:

A little something on my mind. Rewatching the edit so far, we hardly get a taste of the might of the Federation until the final act. I’m wanting to add a scene earlier of the film showing the droid army ravaging the streets of Theed, but there’s one issue: There’s not really much usable footage of their occupation (most have Padme or her entourage in it, which wouldn’t make sense as they’re with the Jedi).

Is there perhaps some footage from some sort of commercial, series, or whatever of Battle Droids roaming the streets of a city that could pass for Theed, blasting people? The closest thing I can think of is The Mandalorian, but those are Super Battle Droids.

The inferiority of the federation has always been a tough one for us faneditors, including myself. I ended up keeping the scene where Nute Gunray threatens the governor in my fanedit. It’s not because it was a good scene, but because it was one of the few scenes that showed the sinister side of Gunray. My logic being that anything that shows this side of Gunray is necessary to understand why the federation is a threat to the Naboo.

One of the biggest and most unavoidable downsides of Episode I is the fact that there is no footage of the actual conflict on Naboo. I ended up having to find ways to work around that problem, and I still have no idea if I succeeded on that front. Just the reality that I tried.

Bottom line, don’t beat yourself up too much over it. It’s always been a tough issue for every fan edit.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Eyepainter said:

The inferiority of the federation has always been a tough one for us faneditors, including myself. I ended up keeping the scene where Nute Gunray threatens the governor in my fanedit. It’s not because it was a good scene, but because it was one of the few scenes that showed the sinister side of Gunray. My logic being that anything that shows this side of Gunray is necessary to understand why the federation is a threat to the Naboo.

One of the biggest and most unavoidable downsides of Episode I is the fact that there is no footage of the actual conflict on Naboo. I ended up having to find ways to work around that problem, and I still have no idea if I succeeded on that front. Just the reality that I tried.

Bottom line, don’t beat yourself up too much over it. It’s always been a tough issue for every fan edit.

Eh, I guess. It’s been pretty much the biggest thorn in TPM really, we never really have any reason to fear the Trade Federation, we never really have any reason to fear the Battle Droids. I think I might have some ideas for how I could potentially manipulate footage from the cut first act, though not certain how well it’d work.

Something I have briefly considered is using my limited Blender knowledge to do the scenes myself, but environments aren’t quite my forte, and I don’t quite have the tools to replicate Battle Droids’ movement (They appear to be primarily motion captured in TPM)

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I don’t know if this guy could turn you into an expert on environments, but if you haven’t heard of Blender Guru on YouTube, you might want to check him out. He’s made a series of instructional videos on how to use Blender by making… A donut. Here’s the link to his first lesson:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TPrnSACiTJ4

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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 (Edited)

Update, still working on the project. Received some great feedback from a few others on the thread, and have begun re editing scenes to improve flow, missing plot points, things of that nature.

One of the first things I’ve began to adjust however is the color grading because the initial cut was a bit… rough in that area.

First, let’s look at the original grade from The Phantom Menace:

quiog

There are, in my opinion, a few very distracting flaws with the currently available color grading that really irk me.

For one, ever since the DVD release there has been an ugly pink tint over the entire film. When you notice it, it just makes the entire thing look ugly in my eyes.

Another thing is, there’s a large lack of contrast through the whole thing, the picture feels a fair bit flat and dull in that area.

So, I tried to correct it in my initial grade, but, as a wise man once said, I went a bit too far in places.

quiold

For one, upon rewatching it, it seems I had overcorrected and made the entire film pretty grey/green, which doesn’t really fit Star Wars.

And another, more important one, I upped the contrast wayyyy too high. As pointed out by someone in this thread, in scenes with especially bright areas, too much got lost in the high lights And the blacks.

I’m currently trying to reach a happy medium of these extremes, I lowered the contrast and re saturated the footage to a point where I think it’s the best of all worlds, though of course criticism is always welcomed.

quinew

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That screenshot looks better, although that poor long-necked jedi in the background still looks like he’s trying his best to exist in the film without getting his head blurred out of existence. (Not that I cared about him in the first place, but I’d rather be able to see all the details clearly, even bad ones. It’s a personal bias on my part.) Still, I like that I can see Coruscant in the background this time around, so it does count as an improvement.

I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.

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Honestly, not sure there is a way to make Yarell Poof more visible, the pre existing bloom and low quality of the DVD I use as a source kinda doom him to an eternity of being impossible to make out if I even think about touching the highlights, lol.