Artan42

I’ve just been having a flick through the various TCW film cuts whilst waiting for several to download (curse my download speed) and I’ve noticed that you included several deleted scenes in the pilot film, the Maul film, and the Yoda arc.

Is there any reason you didn’t include the fully rendered deleted scenes from ‘Duchess of Mandalore’ (Anakin Speaks with Mas Amedda, Padmé Challenges Mas Amedda, & Republic Fleet Ordered to Stand Down), ‘Evil Plans’ (C-3PO Reunited with Shiny R2-D2), ‘Hunt for Ziro’ (Ziro Loses the Bracelet & Quinlan Finding Snooty’s Bracelet), and ‘Escape from Kadavo’ (The Queen and Dooku).

To my knowledge these are the only deleted scenes that are fully rendered and voiced in a similar way to the ones you have included.

Despite Ahsoka’s major role in TCW, there’s not really many points in RotS where she would necessarily be mentioned naturally. Most of the film happens in a very short period of time and Ahsoka has already left the order for several months by the time the film happens and Obi-Wan and Anakin have probably got over the stage of talking about her all the time.
There’s really only two places I could think she’d fit in the film and the first was added in NFBisms’ New Canon Cut (the report on the Outer Rim Sieges) and the second when Padmé, and the Obi-Wan are trying to reason with Vader on Mustafar, mentioning a Jedi who left the Order and formed attachments and also managed to not kill a room full of children, would possibly have been a good move then.

Oh this is good news. I’ll get to downloading some today.

DZ-330 said:

Here is the clip from Poppasketti’s drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NYT-nY7EtXb-FL32fRLnJe7gCNUTe7sD/view?usp=drivesdk

Well the obvious answer is to use the footage of the Constitution Class considering warp drive travels at even more of the speed of plot than hyperdrive does.

sade1212 said:

Ahsoka going apeshit on Gunray in the interrogation feels like a very Anakin thing for her to do, but you don’t get the impression she’s spent very much time with him yet, so you can’t really read it as his influence.
While your idea to have Anakin immediately palm Ahsoka off is an amusing one, I think there’s just too many little references in this episode to Ahsoka being Anakin’s Padawan for it to work perfectly. If anything, perhaps this episode would be better placed a bit later so we can interpret it as Anakin’s unorthodox style rubbing off on her a little.

I think it’s clear in the pilot film (and in the Refocused cut as well) that Ahsoka’s aggression and cockiness is her own rather than taught by Anakin. The (presumably cut episodes) droid spy early episodes show he’s mostly annoyed by her recklessness so it’s not too surprising he’d want her to spend some more time with more boring Jedi.

It looks like Yoda’s plan all along, she’ll teach Anakin patience due to her boundless enthusiasm and he’ll teach her to focus that aggression properly because Anakin is a creative thinker in ways most of the other Jedi aren’t.

sade1212 said:

I particularly enjoy HAL’s suggestion in the commentary that Korr Sella (Leia’s envoy) is “that girl from Doctor Who”, despite her not being played by Freema Agyeman or any other actress who ever appeared in Doctor Who.

Yeah, I somehow still haven’t finished watching this two hour commentary track despite starting days ago…

Edit:
“Final scenes in Star Wars don’t have dialogue.”
(':

She is from Legends of Tomorrow, which is basically Doctor Who if DW was made by The CW rather than the BBC.

No, I said knowledgable of Star Wars will be already held not knowledge of the OT. I also said they’d have it not that they’d need it. It’s obvious Lucas didn’t think they’d need it or else ANH would have been Episode I.

Or alternatively audiences can be expected to work things out from context rather than exposition and work out what looks cool themselves rather than basing it on other films. Maybe they could also draw on the fact that nobody watching any of the Star Wars films, in whatever order, will be going in blind as there’s nobody on the planet that doesn’t already have some basic knowledge of it due to their influence of pop culture and will sensibly start with the first numbered episode as intended and happily follow along.

StarkillerAG said:

But the entire marketing campaign of the prequels was marketed at people who had already seen the OT. If he really wanted people to watch chronologically, he wouldn’t have made Episode 4 first.

And if they weren’t supposed to be watched chronologically then they wouldn’t have episode numbers at all.

Anakin Starkiller said:

The PT was never meant to be seen before the OT.

They’re literally Episodes 1 to 3. Lucas isn’t innumerate, the franchise is to be watched in chronological order.

EddieDean said:

You’re right about Ahsoka’s language being a little weird - I did take out some of her weirder language because she says a few things that are awkward or too bold in this episode - I did try to clean them up but couldn’t for whatever reason. but I’ll check again though.

I think it’s a matter of finding the balance. Part of the greatness of her character is how much she grows up from the pilot film to Rebels and removing too much of the childishness she exhibits makes that transition a bit jerky and less fluid, especially when it’s pointed out that’s she’s on the young side for a padawan anyway (in the pilot film).
I do find the ‘hairless’ line just plain silly, not because it’s immature, but because it’s just hypercritical and I only mentioned the second line because I can’t remember if it creates a continuity issue or not.

Edit: I’ve just seen your edited post. I think it’ll work out fine that way. I’m sure the Jedi are taught about Nightsisters to the point where a bald, Force wielding, woman, with tattoos can be assumed to be a witch to a Jedi anyway even if they’re not.

EddieDean said:

SECOND EPISODE RELEASED - s01e03 CLOAK OF DARKNESS

Please check the tracker for the link, or PM me for access to the tracker.

So, while I was waiting on an improved source for my s01e01, I got to work on s01e03. This was going to be Cloak of Darkness with a handful of scenes from Lair of Grievous, but I ultimately couldn’t get the Lair content to feel like it belonged. So it’s essentially just Cloak of Darkness with a little polish - I took out a boring scene, cut or modified four or five minor lines of dialogue just to tighten characterisation, and made the ending closed rather than open ended.

One thing I did decide to do was to make the traitor/infomant from Christophsis now explicitly Argyus. Why not! I think it’s tidy.

(See my earlier post for the reasons I couldn’t include Lair. I do still have the rough cut of the Lair content if anyone’s interested, but I’m sure you’ll come to the same conclusion I did!)

There are a couple of minor bits of polish still required in the credits, but again, I’m waiting on a source. As soon as I have that, I’ll re-release all of the existing episodes in closer to ‘final’ version as I finalise my standards.

Since this was really just polishing an existing episode, I kept the name CLOAK OF DARKNESS, to represent that this really isn’t anything new. Though I did think of making a pun on ‘Unduli’, such as ‘Unduly Alarmed’ or ‘Unduly Betrayed’.

(This is maybe a good time to remind people that I estimate that about 50% of episodes - about 30 out of 60 - will only require a polish pass rather than anything radical, so please don’t always expect something new. What they will be at the least, will be the best or most important episodes of the show, in an order that makes the show flow better, and brought up to a slightly higher standard than TCW at release.)

I’m still interested in any feedback on the opening titles, and the closing ones. I’ve made some changes to the end titles to give the best art a little longer to shine.

Two observations that don’t relate to your cut at all but rather the original episode. Ashoka insulting Ventress as ‘hairless’ is just silly, she also calls her a ‘Bog Witch’ and I had no idea anybody knew she was a Nightsister that early, secondly Argyus is voiced by James Masters.

The only observation I have about your cut (other than it looks and sound good with no errors I can pick out) is that the episode credits is the one from ‘Death Watch’ rather than this episode.

Can I have a link to this please. I was very happy with your RotS cut.

EddieDean said:

Artan42 said:

EddieDean said:

Why does Obi go to visit the mines?

I’m sure the episode explains this- he’s suspicious that they may be active and Death Watch, and goes to check them out.

Why does the the mines level of operation indicate Death Watch activity?

They’re clearly being used to produce new Mandalorian armour- the same armour that the commando who attacked the Republic cruiser was wearing. He trusts that Satine would be telling him if the peaceful Mandalorians were producing their own armour again.

It’s that last bit though, that they’re now being used as factories that I don’t recall being highlighted in the episode. It’s an effective shot when he sees that they are producing the armour, but his argument for leaving Satine in the first place was to see if the mines were active or not. There’s nothing previously to suggest that the Concordians mining is suspicious activity. Mines aren’t foundries or factories (at least not automatically) so it’s a leap to go from ‘there’s mines on this planet’ to 'I bet they’re making supercommando armour there).

As I write this I know exactly what would have cleared it up… The word ‘Beskar’. Beskar mines would indicate armour production. It’s a shame the word is never mentioned in TCW.

I’ll look at episode 1 this evening.

Oh man, that’s a lovely idea. And even the theoretical first time viewer would recognise that a significant word had been said, even if they didn’t know what it meant.

I’ll add that to the “watch out for this” list. I’m sure Obi-Wan says some combination of “best”/“scar” or “be”/“sc”/“are”/“our”.

I’d still argue that jetpacks and Mando helmets are a sign that someone’s involved in re-arming Mandalorians who isn’t a part of the now-peaceful government. But this would definitely help get it over the line.

The good thing about McGregor and Taylor putting on an English accent to play Obi-Wan is that they both over-enunciate individual syllables in certain words (especially Taylor) which would make it easier to construct new words out of their existing ones.

EddieDean said:

McFibb said:

EddieDean said:

Knight of Kalee, just spotted your edit.

I agree on tightening up the text shadow a little.

I’m going to struggle with the outro credits in this and every episode, since it always builds up then drops into the bombast of the original.

Unless @McFibb has an idea to draw out the opening of the music track I’m using any further? More of a build then drop into the operatic singing? It’d need to be about 20/30 sec before the current start, with the peak just before where the start is.

But even then, it’s not something I’d be able to use in every episode, I don’t think.

Yup — that’s what I meant by helping out. Love the music too, but happy to take a swing at getting the timing/tone right for the entirety of the outro. Can you clarify a bit more about what you’re looking for?

I’ll try:

So we’re talking about extending the start of ‘The Clones Theme Order 66 Sad Version’.

Currently, it begins with a little hum, then some choral singing, then the brass comes in.

Compare that to existing episodes (like my S01E02), where the final dialogue to close out the episode normally plays over some music which builds slowly for about 30 seconds, giving the sense it’s wrapping up the story, then drops into the BA-BAHHH of the Clone Wars logo / closing credits.

As it stands now, because I’m cutting the BA-BAHHH, we end up with a track slowly building, but then fading out so that I can drop into the choral music of ‘Clones Sad’.

I feel like the best way to achieve the same effect with this track would be to allow the brass drop to replace the original credits’ BA-BAHHH, in which case the choral part becomes our build up.

I’ve quickly mocked this up (VERY ROUGH, excuse quality) to give you an idea of what I’m thinking makes sense.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JwpM7ATxqbDAlMh_6ggOWkFntD0Y_3SE/view?usp=sharing

The top yellow track in this video is the episode’s video, the bottom yellow track is the music channel, and the bottom blue track is the voice/sfx.

You can see that, to replace the existing track entirely, I’ve had to pull the beginning of Clones Sad back 30 seconds into the episode proper.

I’ve extended the choir to do this, which I think is neat, but it’s probably way too dominant. I don’t know if you could achieve something more subtle. Or something which achieves the same emotional effect, but with different sounds - but which still launches nicely into the brass drop. And I’d prefer not to lose the choir altogether since I think it’s a nice part of the anticipation.

There’s also a risk that other episodes start their build as early as maybe 40 seconds in, in which case I’d need maybe 40 seconds of neutral/choral build before we get to the brass drop.

I think that particular example works well. Maybe slowly ramping up the volume would lead into the credits without worrying about how long it is extended for. Some episodes you might be able to merge the choir at a low volume unobtrusively slowly fading out the rest of the music into the credits.

EddieDean said:

Why does Obi go to visit the mines?

I’m sure the episode explains this- he’s suspicious that they may be active and Death Watch, and goes to check them out.

Why does the the mines level of operation indicate Death Watch activity?

They’re clearly being used to produce new Mandalorian armour- the same armour that the commando who attacked the Republic cruiser was wearing. He trusts that Satine would be telling him if the peaceful Mandalorians were producing their own armour again.

It’s that last bit though, that they’re now being used as factories that I don’t recall being highlighted in the episode. It’s an effective shot when he sees that they are producing the armour, but his argument for leaving Satine in the first place was to see if the mines were active or not. There’s nothing previously to suggest that the Concordians mining is suspicious activity. Mines aren’t foundries or factories (at least not automatically) so it’s a leap to go from ‘there’s mines on this planet’ to 'I bet they’re making supercommando armour there).

As I write this I know exactly what would have cleared it up… The word ‘Beskar’. Beskar mines would indicate armour production. It’s a shame the word is never mentioned in TCW.

I’ll look at episode 1 this evening.

Dr. Krogshöj said:

Artan42 said:

The opening of the episode is quite abrupt. I’ve not had time to follow this thread recently so I don’t know if it’s come up before, but a traditional establishing shot of the planet might be better. I know the text has introduced Obi but he still basically appears out of nowhere. the following scenes up until the throne room go by very quickly so even a few seconds of Obi on approach to the planet would fit.

The answer to your question lies above.

Indeed it does. I did also state I’d not been reading the thread for a few days. It does however make sense. An extension to the scene would require the unedited soundtrack.

I’m only in as far as the title but I have to say the intro is quite professional. The music is timed well, the text pacing is good, and the logo placements is official looking.
The opening of the episode is quite abrupt. I’ve not had time to follow this thread recently so I don’t know if it’s come up before, but a traditional establishing shot of the planet might be better. I know the text has introduced Obi but he still basically appears out of nowhere. the following scenes up until the throne room go by very quickly so even a few seconds of Obi on approach to the planet would fit.

I don’t know how much you’ve altered the footage from the original colours but it looks to me like the blacks are deeper which really works in this episode due to the intensive light effects in the city.

Why does Obi go to visit the mines? Why does the the mines level of operation indicate Death Watch activity? I don’t know if that was explained in the original or not but it’s odd. I was also confused by Obi’s lightsabre but I figured Vizlar picked it up from the factory on his way upstairs (I’m guessing he followed Satine).

I forgot the presence of Onn Free Tar (or however it’s spelt) but I’m glad it’s in this episode as a fat Twi’lek is highly relevant to the new series of The Mandalorian.

The end credits are well laid out. I don’t know if the inclusion of the character concept (the body rigs and so on) is as good an idea as the presence of the digital sketches as they get cut off quite a bit and the music is significantly louder than the other music in the episode.
The special thanks section has the left side and right side in different blues and there’s a rogue full stop floating at the bottom.

Can I have a link to the tracker please.

Anakin Starkiller said:

Nah, they’re the best ones. It’s the original that looks washed out.

They both do. The new ones brighten the sky and remove the blanket tint but it still doesn’t do anything for the sand and buildings except make it greyish.

I’m liking most of them, although the first few Mos Esily ones may be a little too corrected. They look very washed out now.

EddieDean said:

ELEMENT TEST AVAILABLE

I’ve had a very productive day - I’d call this me now being thoroughly over the hump, and almost ready to get cracking.

https://vimeo.com/494261348

(Note: Actual video is only 3:30, there’s a dead 2 min at the end)

This is a test of all of the ‘elements’ that compose an episode of TCW: Refocused.

The actual ‘meat’ of the episode is only about 20 secs long, just as an example of lossless video and audio from the original source, and surrounding that is all of the opening titles, text, and closing credits.

I’m interested in feedback on two things:

1. How does it feel? Obviously the actual episode itself doesn’t amount to much, but does the surrounding content tell you “this series is worthy of your time”, and position the episode within the wider tragedy of the clone wars? Are the production values high enough that it feels like it could have aired on TV? Does the opening draw you in and build anticipation? Does the closing let you mull over and digest the episode, and let you reflect on the creative process?
2. How does it work technically? Any visual glitches? Any colours off? Any stuttering? Any bad transitions or fades? Is everything timed well, did you have enough time to take everything in without it dragging?

Feel free to absolutely savage this - it’s best it’s torn apart now rather than later!

Once I get this into a state where it’s worth taking forward, I’ll convert as much of this into universal assets and templates to make future episodes as repeatable as possible, then get to producing the first episodes!

I’m not massively keen on how verbose the text is, and being left aligned is odd. I think with that amount of words you want a scroll, if not, a few lines like the spin off films had.
Everything else looked good, I liked the new opening flashing heads thing, the TCW logo could do with being in motion a bit possibly, and the ending concept art works really well with the credits.

WtarSars said:

On the topic of Beskar, when the mando squad are taking the gizanti cruzer why is it that mando is the only one who can run toward the troopers and deflect their fire and the others are “pinned down”.

I don’t think Death Watch or the Night Owls have Beskar armour. Unless they upgraded after TCW where they kept getting cut up by lightsabres.

I also think the Mando arc in Rebels said it was a Beskar alloy.

hedgesmfg said:

My intent is to eventually release a 4th batch that covers all the remaining 2 part episodes from s1-6, upscale the few single episodes without editing them, and ‘maybe’ do some cuts for the Season 7 arcs as well (they are already released in 4K HDR on D+, but film edits might still be nice).

This is great news. If the single episodes will be available then I can edit them into your film cuts myself.

I don’t agree with the official chronological order (like the banking clan arc, it should be placed after ‘A Friend in Need’ where it was produced as far as I’m concerned, or 'Shadow Warrior coming before ‘Water War’) and your 4K edits are basically going to be my only copies now (I mean, I have the DVDs but it’s a pain to watch them in order) so having a nice base to edit from will be perfect.

SandMTV said:

Does Ewan, Hayden, Eckstein, Kanan Jarrus, Olivia D’Abo, Samuel L. Jackson, Yoda, Qui-Gon, Jennifer Hale, and Adi Gallia make their vocal appearances just like TROS?

What a strange mix of actors and characters.