13las

I've started editing the Original Trilogy into about 6-8 episodes of a late 1970s TV series. My goal here isn't to make an awesome TV series -- because the films are awesome enough on their own. Believe it or not, my plan for this edit is to be able to include the best parts of the Holiday Special as an episode in this series and have it match the rest (in terms of apparent budget, cheesiness and AV quality). I'll be using the Despecialized versions as a basis and try to work in as many deleted/alternate scenes as possible. There will also be numerous story changes that I have already planned, but would like to keep secret for now :)

Ideas similar to this have been tossed around on this forum plenty of times, but to my knowledge no one has actually attempted it.

I'm still very new to editing, so work on this might be slow, but once I have the majority of work done on these episodes, the plan is to release them once per week on Vimeo.

Check out the title sequence I've created so far:

http://vimeo.com/126467504

(Password: OT)

*I haven't yet started to degrade the film footage to Holiday Special quality, maybe someone with Vegas experience could provide some tips on the subject?

Just read through all 24 pages of this thread after rewatching ROTJ and thought it would be worth resurrecting to make a major point in the film's favor. 

In ROTJ we get to see all of the major characters (Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and the droids) in the same location embarking on an adventure together! This really hadn't happened since SW! (not counting the Holiday Special or dialogue towards the beginning of ESB referencing three years of awesome adventures we'll never get to see :( 

Am I wrong or was the Hoth medical center the only time all three of our main human characters shared a scene together in ESB? I think that's my sole complaint about that film, that they had to split the stories between training on Dagobah and hiding in the asteroid field. And then when they're stories are about to intersect near the end of the film, that darn Darth Vader has to have Han frozen and shipped away. 

I think the beginning of the Endor section on the film (and I suppose the end of the Jabba sequence) elevate the whole film, just for being an honest-to-goodness adventure involving all of our main characters. 

So, while I wouldn't say ROTJ is my favorite of the three, it gets bonus points in my book for doing the one thing that I missed in ESB. 

*On a side note, I wish they hadn't deleted the sandstorm scene or the shots of those guys running around the Falcon during the battle of Endor. They would have given our favorite bucket of bolts a little more of a presence in the film.

Vladius said:

Cool idea, to be sure.
The only issue I have is where does Maul go if he beats Qui-Gon?

 Thanks! I'm not sure what you mean though. In this edit, he'd just be a hired killer who'd do his job and leave. Not an apprentice of Vader or Sith Lord or anything like that. We could assume that he was eventually killed by the time of the OT.

I had a very exciting idea for a 3-in-1 Prequel Edit last night. I was thinking about how Sophocles' three Theban plays and how they are only tangentially related to each other. So how about a 3-in-1 Prequel Edit that actually contains three separate but related stories in a 3ish hour runtime? The edit would be broken into three parts, each about one hour in length and each with a different main character. 

Pulp Fiction's non-linear structure is also an influence in this outline, as the second story takes place chronologically last:

Story One: Obi-Wan is the focus. We follow him as he tries to protect Senator Padme from harm and then tracks down the evil Count Dooku.

Story Two: Young Luke Skywalker (portrayed by Jake Lloyd) is the focus. We see him growing up on Tatooine. He races pods through the desert for fun, works of Watto and get's into a fight with young Greedo. A mysterious man named Qui-Gon Jinn enters Watto's shop one day. Watto suspects he is a Jedi and has young Luke follow him. Watto reports this Jedi to Darth Vader, who is busy hunting Jedi elsewhere and sends his henchman Maul. Maul and Qui-Gon fight and Qui-Gon is defeated. Years pass and Luke remains on Tatooine. An adult Luke looks to the stars longingly and talks with his friend Biggs who is going to join the rebellion. 

Story Three: Darth Vader is the focus. Fully grown Anakin lives on Tatooine with Cliegg, Owen and his mother. When he and his girlfriend return from a trip to Mos Espa to watch the Boonta Eve classic, he discovers that his mother is missing. After finding her dead, he kills a camp of Tusken Raiders and confesses to his brother Owen. Anakin leaves to fight in the Clone War and is driven to the dark side by Palpatine's dark influence until he becomes Darth Vader.

I might try to do this one myself eventually but I probably won't get around to it for a while. If someone (more competent) wants to give it a shot in the meantime, I wouldn't mind. 

Haha! Wow, I just spent a good ten minutes looking for pictures to make a comparison before I understood what you meant. Okay, so did they look digitally altered to anyone else? Please tell me I'm not crazy.

Did anyone else think that Chewbacca's eyes looked a little bit too realistic? That's probably about the most nitpicky thing a guy could say, but isn't that what the internet is all about? Other than that (and the crash zoom), what a great trailer!

Thanks for the suggestions, Ryan. I have seen a few bits of Father Ted -- my parents were into British TV for a period when I was growing up, but I think it's worth a revisit. I'll definitely check out the other shows soon. Limmy's Show sounds right up my alley, I love shows that aren't afraid to get bizarre. I'm a fan of Portlandia, a sketch show set in Oregon that does a pretty great job of satirizing west coast Americans as far as I'm concerned but it does sometimes feel as though it lacks a certain bite that I've seen more often in British TV.

Post Praetorian, I find your description of Canadian humor interesting because that seems to be the stereotypical view of Canada here in the U.S. But I totally dig that kind of humor too. That was me in high school, not worried about making big changes in the world, more focused on cracking jokes with a few close friends. I see the appeal of that kind of mindset. 

Ah yes, forgive me for completing forgetting Canadian humor from the OP, but that's another interesting angle for this discussion. I've seen a few episodes of Trailer Park Boys, but that is about the extent of my knowledge. Maybe you could elaborate a bit on differences you have seen between the three countries?

And I'm with you in terms of 70's and 80's as far as British television goes. I enjoy Fawlty Towers and Blackadder a lot more than anything more recent that I have seen from across the pond. Maybe I'm just watching the wrong shows?

I’m a very rare poster here, but I’ve noticed through years of lurking that many of the site’s members are from either the United States or the United Kingdom. I thought this would be a great place to start a discussion about the differences between the senses of humor of the two cultures.

I’ve always enjoyed the dryness and sarcasm that characterizes a lot of British comedy because I’m generally less inclined to be overly sentimental than some of my American peers. But there are still some things in British comedy that don’t translate for me: references to British history/ current events, and the lack of unconditional optimism that is common in the American public. For this reason, I tend to prefer American cable comedies the most (Louie, Curb Your Enthusiasm) because I find them relatable and not artificially sappy.

As an American college student studying TV and Film Production with an emphasis on screenwriting who is planning to study a semester in England, I’m very interested in hearing from people on both sides of the pond on the subject of television and film specifically. In addition to the content of comedies it is worth noting the differences in format as well. Do you prefer the British format of six episodes generally written by one or two people or the American format of up to twenty-six episodes written by a staff of writers.

Here are a couple of links to articles written by Ricky Gervais and Simon Pegg about the subject:

http://time.com/3720218/difference-between-american-british-humour/

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/feb/10/comedy.television

So go ahead and comment on the relationship between American Humor and British Humour / argue for your preferred flavor / share your favorite (favourite) shows from either side of the pond / whatever...

"A Shot in the Dark" is one of my favorite films. And I was born in the 90s!

"Son of Kong", released less than a year after the 1933 original, is definitely worth a watch. I didnt even know it existed until recently, but it is enjoyable for its lighter, comedic tone and the interesting way the story is driven by the aftermath of the first film. 

I just sat in on a business lunch at Lucasfilm in san francisco with a marketing agent.  The topic of rights to Star Wars films came up and she confirmed that Fox owns episodes I-V until 2020 and episode IV forever.  She seemed to believe that as of now, disney receives no income from the current home releases.  When Fox's rights expire in 2020 she mentioned that disney will probably rerelease the movies under their own banner but made it pretty clear that there are no advantages to doing it earlier.  Even when they are released again, it seems unlikely that disney would put in the effort to make the original versions available in high quality.  From a business stand point there is simply no reason to do this.  They are more focused on moving forward with the new movies and Rebels it seems.  This is all speculation from a semi-reliable source so I am taking this info with a grain of salt.  Of course there are other people in the company that have much more information than she does but the possibility of a release seem even more unlikely to me now :(

I did see John Knoll and Dave Filloni in the cafeteria while I was at Lucasfilm So that was Kind of exciting!

I know this has been discussed on this forum before, but I could not find the thread anywhere.

I own all three "Making Of" iBooks and would very much like to have access to the videos and audio on computer for editing. 

I downloaded a software called Syncios that allowed me to access the media from my iPad and even appeared to let me rip them to my computer in m4v files.  I then attempted to convert these m4v files to another form of video file, but was unsuccessful with more than one conversion software. 

My skills in this subject are not nearly as strong as most of the rest of the people on this site, so I would greatly appreciate anyone who would be willing to help me out with this.

Alternatively, if someone already has the media files and would like to point me in the direction of finding them, I would appreciate that too. 

Thanks, in advance :)

Oh yes I will keep editing this and the other two prequels for sure.  I was just saying that I don't have the software to edit in 5.1 Sound and do minor compositing stuff yet so a final and releasable product is still a ways away.  But editing is too much fun to stop! I'm sure most people on this forum would understand how the hours can just slip away when you're editing :)

By the way, just wanted to let you know how awesome your project is.  Very inspiring work!

Ok I guess it's time for an update on this.  As I have said before, I don't have access to any sophisticated video editing software. I'm also going to be starting college in a few months which means money and time will be at an all time low :) 

What I'm trying to say is that the final product of this edit won't begin to take shape for at least a year or two.  I have finished a work print but it's more of a feature length mockup of how a rearranged order might play out.  I haven't bothered to make the cuts very smooth or work with the best quality footage available.  Eventually, I'd like to complete this edit using Emanswfan's Filmized prequels as a base.  from what he's said on that thread, that project will take a while, so maybe by the time they are done, I'll be ready to get started for real.

However, I am still very interested in keeping this topic alive to discuss ideas related to radically reshaping this second prequel (and the others).  

In my work print, I have put the geonosis battle at around the 1 hour point.  Then after yoda says "begun the clone war has", and we see the clones marching and boarding the starships, I would like to have some clips of other battles taking place.  I truly believe that the Clone Wars tv series has some shots of battle that look as good as the cgi in attack of the clones.  this additional footage wouldn't have to be much, I'm imagining just wiping from planet to planet in order to get a glimpse of the scope of this grand war (sort of like the order 66 sequence).  I'm still debating if this would be enough to cut to in between the main narrative (anakin and padme on tatooine) that takes place after geonosis in my edit -- or is tatooine would be more effective to play out uninterripted. 

I suppose this stuff should probably be in the Radical Prequel thread, but I do plan to undertake this edit eventually, so for now id love to hear any ideas that people have in this one.  

Have a nice day :)

Here is the beginning of the speeder chase with the score from Black Sunday. Please keep in mind that at this point, all editing I am doing is strictly proof-of-concept.  I will be completing this edit using the blu-ray and working with 5.1 sound once I have access to the hardware and software necessary for that. 

https://vimeo.com/86171304

Brash_Striker, it would be great to see some of your videos!  I might have subconsciously borrowed some of them (I've read through a lot of Prequel Edits changelists), but I'll be sure to credit you if I use anything that was yours first.

As DominicCobb suggested, I took a look at John Williams' Black Sunday score and found a piece that I think will be perfect for the Speeder chase on Coruscant.  I just added it to my timeline in Pinnacle Studios and it sort of naturally synced up to the action in a lot of cool ways.  I love when that happens! I'll post a clip today or tomorrow 

TV's Frink said

 I Think I'm a Clone Now.

 I'll leave the ridiculousness to the experts:

TV's Frink and George Lucas ;-)

Yes anakin's fall to evil truly was a missed opportunity in the theatrical versions. I'm going to try to do what I can to make it compelling as well as unique from what other fan editors have done.

On another note, does anyone have any suggestions for alternate music to use in this edit? I'm a big fan of Across the Stars for the love scenes but I'm not super crazy about the music during the speeder chase and the execution arena.  I'm thinking about putting in some more OT music but I'm also open to using stuff from video games or anything else.

The mystery is difficult to completely work around, but in the work I've done so far I think it is more logical.  Obi Wan and the Jedi are not trying to figure out who created the army in the first place, instead they are surprised to find that a bounty hunter has been used as the template without their knowledge.  It is more of a suspicion that perhaps something fishy might be going on on kamino.  And their suspicions are confirmed when jango is behind the attack on Padme.  It still sounds a little convoluted but given the source material I think it's the best decision (It satisfies me, at least).  An added bonus is the rivalry that develops between obi wan and jango after obi wan recognizes him on coruscant and follows him back to kamino.  

I hope to have a very rough workprint finished either this weekend or in a month (I'll be going out of town for a while starting next week).  I'd love to have someone watch the full thing and give me feedback.  

Thanks for the reply.  I do agree with you about Padme and honestly that is the one area that I'd be most willing to consider other options about.  My reasoning is that I like the story arch that Padme would gain by starting out as a handmaiden and working her way up to a powerful senator.  It makes her more interesting to me.  But I totally see what you're saying about Leia in ANH...I always thought that this explanation was a little sketchy in the original version anyway.  I'll see what I can do about Bail if I ever get around to working with ROTS.

Oh! Vimeo is quicker than I thought.  Here is a very short and rough video just to prove that work is actually being done on this edit.  This gives you a glimpse of how the dynamics of many scenes will be changed with the new structure I am attempting.  The audio edits aren't the best, and I'm still looking for some more dialogue (maybe).  Also sorry for posting twice :)

https://vimeo.com/85796018

Hey everyone.  I’ve been lurking on this forum for many months now and I’ve been thoroughly impressed with every project I’ve followed.  Even those that have been abandoned have seen some of their ideas utilized in other projects.  I think that is very cool.  I’d like to give credit to all other members of the forum for their ideas and the inspiration to begin a fanedit of my own.  I apologize in advance for the length of this first post.

Now, on to my edit:

I’ve begun a workprint of an Attack of the Clones Edit using the dvd as a source and a somewhat low-end video editing software called Pinnacle Studio.  My intention is to eventually purchase a blu-ray drive and some better software, but in the meantime I’m working with what I have to figure out what I want to do.

Major things I’m going to do:

-The focus of this edit will be on Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Anakin’s presence in the movie will be somewhat reduced at the beginning but towards the end I will attempt to make him more important. Most of the movie deals with him protecting Padme.  I like to think of him as what Han Solo was in Empire: still a key character who falls in love, but not the one whose story we are most invested in.

-Padme will not have been Queen of Naboo.  Eventually I plan to edit The Phantom Menace where I will continue this change. She was the Queen’s handmaiden who proved her worth in the battle of Naboo and was asked to serve as senator.  (We won’t see the new Queen in this AotC edit so we can assume that the TPM Queen is still in power).

-Anakin will be haunted by visions of a shadowy figure.  Still not sure how and where (or if) this will work, but I’d really like to infuse some of the mysticism of the OT into this movie.  He’ll have nightmares about a dark figure with a red lightsaber. I might have to do a little bit of filming for this but it will be very minimal - mostly brief, unsettling shots with the sounds of mechanical breathing played over them.  I’d like to use some of the shots of Anakin from the part of the Dooku duel where the lights are off to suggest as though he is fighting this mysterious figure (like the cave scene in ESB).

-The Jedi have full knowledge of the creation of the clone army.  This the purpose of this is to reduce the stupidity of them using a mysterious army (I guess they didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth?), as well as to make them less of the Good Guys of the movie.  I will also try to make the Separatists seem less of the Bad Guys so that Anakin’s confusion and distrust of the Jedi order in Episode 3 make more sense.

-Dooku will not be a Sith lord.  This will involve giving him a new colored lightsaber, which is something I am not able to do with my currently lacking software.  In this edit, Dooku is not working with Palpatine.  He is actually what he says he is to Obi-Wan.  I like the idea of him actually being on the right side once it is revealed that Palpatine is truly the Sith mastermind.

-Completely new order of scenes! The edit starts with Obi-Wan going to Kamino to legitimately check on the progress of the clone army.  He is surprised and concerned to learn that a rogue bounty hunter is being used as the template for this army.  He makes his report to the Jedi Council and returns back to Coruscant to protect Senator Padme after her attack on the landing platform.  After they catch Zam, Jango shoots her and Obi-Wan recognizes him! He returns to Kamino to apprehend the bounty hunter as Anakin and Padme go to Naboo to hide.  Obi-Wan fights Jango on Kamino and follows him to Geonosis.  Meanwhile Anakin and Padme quickly and (hopefully) painlessly fall in love on Naboo.  They get married.  They see Obi-Wan’s hologram on Naboo and decide to go rescue him on Geonosis.  the film plays out as usual from here (minus Yoda vs. Dooku).  After the battle, Anakin sees a frightening vision of his mother in pain and has to go to Tattooine to help her.  Padme goes as his wife.  In a trimmed visit, Anakin finds his mother and brings her back to bury her.  He does not tell Padme about killing Sand People and seems to have embraced his dark side at the end of the film.  We iris out on Anakin at his mother’s funeral.

-My larger goal for the PT is to make it clear that Anakin is morally questionable by the end of Ep 2.  I intend to follow the model of Walter White’s descent from Breaking Bad in this.  He embraces the evil inside him as a means to an end, but lives somewhat of a double life joking around with Obi-Wan and being all romantic with Padme, but vengefully murdering Sand People and beheading Count Dooku with little regret for his actions.  It is not until Obi-Wan and Yoda see the recording of him killing younglings that this all comes out.

-And of course all of the usual annoyances will be cut from the film!

Thanks for reading this beast of a post if you made it all the way through.  I’ll be posting a VERY rough and VERY short video either soon or tomorrow.  In the meantime I would love to hear what you guys think of my ideas. I know there are some that I might end up compromising for lack of ability but hey it’s fun to dream, right? 😃