Bobson Dugnutt

I’ve always been annoyed by the wide spread of behind-the-scenes content of the Prequels (specifically ROTS) and that the Complete Saga Blu-Ray has a lot of stuff buried within the “Collection” that most people would skip over. The DVD has some great stuff too, that was broken up into featurettes and webisodes, some of which were only on starwars.com. I’ve amassed all the Making-Of content that I could from a variety of sources to make a feature length documentary based around Revenge of the Sith, broken up into five chapters.

Chapter I - The Cyborg and the Jedi (38min)
The first chapter discusses the opening battle over Coruscant and talks about the ships featured, General Grevious, Dooku, digital filmmaking, lightsabers and Obi-Wan, and his progression from Episode II and then into Episode IV

Chapter II - Capital of the Republic (27min)
This one is a bit more broad and kind of a catchall for a lot of stuff, but is mostly stuff on the city planet itself. Things included are Coruscant locations, Padme, Palpatine, Mace Windu and their fight, C-3PO, and finally costume and creature design.

Chapter III - The Expanding Galactic War (35min)
Planets, planets and more planets. The Clone Wars cover a lot of planets, and so does this section. Utapau, the Utapauns and the Boga chase dominate the first section. But Order 66 is described as well and the featured planets with Kashyyk and the Wookies taking up the backend.

Chapter IV - Last Turn to the Dark Side (35min)
Anakin and his turn to Darth Vader is explored in great detail here in what I think is the longest section. Anakin as a character is discussed as well as Hayden Christianson as an actor. His development as a character across the trilogy and his darkness within, character design and costuming from his Jedi robes to his horrible burns and the Vader suit itself.

Chapter V - The Fires Within (21min)
The last chapter covers Mustafar and the surprising miniatures that make up the planet. This is covered amazingly in “Within A Minute” so there’s just a few tidbits here as well as some of the new Imperials being talked about. The rest shows some of the premiere, the joy from within the fanbase and the cast/crew and the conclusion of the journey of Episode I-VI.

The current cut is 2:38, which is longer than the film itself. But considering this was cut down from 5 hours of footage, it ain’t bad. I’ll continue to make cuts here and there to fasten things up.

Rough cuts are as follows (these have been updated since with more footage and cleaner cuts)

Battle Over Coruscant, Grevious and Obi-Wan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZUE7gX8mEc
Utapau, the Utapauns and the Boga chase - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygoDTkDC4FU
Order 66, Kashyyk and Wookies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y00gZfXYJ8

SOURCES

WEBISODES

• One World, Two Movies
• Two Worlds, One Movie
• We Still Do A Little Bit
• Creating General Grevious
• This Weapon is Your Life
• Video Village
• Epic Designs for an Expanding Universe
• C3PO: His Moment to Shine
• Becoming Obi-Wan
• The Wookies Are Back
• B107: The Life of a HD Tape
• Pickups and Reshoots
• Bringing Creatures to Life
• Becoming Sideous
• Going to the Dark Side
• Behind the Curtain
• The Journey: Part 1 and 2

FEATURETTES
Episode III DVD (2005)

• Anakin: The Chosen One
• Its All For Real - The Stunts of Episode III

The Star Wars Trilogy Boxset Bonus Disc (2004)

• The Return of Darth Vader: Episode III Preview

Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-Ray (2011)

• Coruscant, Utapau, Order 66/Kashyyk and Mustafar Overviews
• The Collection: Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Tion Medon, Burnt Anakin and Imperial Officer Costumes
• Utapau Sinkhole, Mustafar Mountain, Kashyyk Tree, Felucia Landscape, Boga, Arc 170 and Jedi
  Starfighters, The Invisible Hand, Grevious Models Minatures and Maquette
• Interviews: Samuel L Jackson, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Blue Screen Acting Discussion

OTHER

• Star Wars Episode III: ILM Siggraph 2005 Reel

If anyone has any other sources for addition into the project, feel free to suggest them.

I did see both of those, but I do prefer the Hal9000 position of them. Having the “Plot” scene right before the council scene makes sense to me so that we can see where they’re coming from before putting Anakin on the council, so that we know they’re hesitant and suspicious of him and Palpy.
As for the “Confront” scene, I also prefer having the vision of Obi-Wan just before Anakin asks Padme about him, as he has him on his mind in that moment. Also having the apartment scene right after feels off in the continuity, different Padme outfit and a strange teleport.

The edit is just about done now, I’ll be uploading shortly with a few bonus features, listed below.

• Unfinished and Unused Workprint Scenes (6:48)
• Deleted and Alternate Trailer Shots (0:13)
• Behind the Scenes, Raw Footage and B-Roll of Deleted Scenes (3:24)
• George Lucas and Rick McCallum Introduce the Deleted Scenes (5:55)
• George Lucas and Rick McCallum Talk Deleted and Alternate Scenes: Feature Commentary Clips (7:04)
• PixelMagic Trailer - Breathing (1:24)

Here’s some artwork I mocked up, obviously not perfect and still a bit boring, but it’s a start. I tried to match it similarly to the first two edits, with some success. I swapped Rey’s head from some other photo, so that all 3 would have the characters facing forwards, but it aint’t 100% so I made a variant just in case

spoRv said:

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

• Anakin makes an important promise to Padme behind the scene

Does anyone know what this refers to or where it’s from?

I’d put in a good $10 to get this things scanned!

Is it still possible to make a contribution? I’d pledge $10 if I could!

And here’s the final shot with score and SFX, hopefully the last bit of deleted/extended footage. Unless anyone has anything else hidden away

Here’s a version with the correct frame rate (it was at 29.97 incorrectly), without the wipe and some mild colour work/sharpening. I’ll work on the audio after this

The original shot had a wipe, coming in from both sides and meeting in the middle, but I can try just working with a hard cut instead

https://vimeo.com/425167330

I’ve found this deleted clip of Palpy’s shuttle on the approach to Coruscant from the 2nd trailer, but tried to slot it back into the film. It added a wipe as there is in the theatrical cut, but this is a lot faster, not sure if its too fast though, so I made one without the wipe. I think i prefer the wipe, but could it be better? (shorter, longer or delete the shot entirely?) There’s also no audio yet as I haven’t worked that out yet.

Here’s the wipe
https://vimeo.com/424944755

And the no-wipe
https://vimeo.com/425081093

A test render has been done and uploaded, although it’s not the final cut as left 9 minutes of dead air at the end by accident. The correct runtime is about 2:29:15.

I’ll send it out to about 3 or 4 people for feedback so that I can fix anything that needs fixing, but it is uploaded now. I won’t be sending out mass links just yet, so ideally don’t bombard me me PMs.

I’ve gone ahead and fixed the monitor showing the Jedi in the hallway, where now it shows an alert that their ships are in the hanger. Hopefully this looks alright as I’ve never created an effect shot like this.

I’m also looking into shifting around the Seeds of the Rebellion scenes, in a similar way to Octorox’s “Happy Sanding” EpIII edit, but have not done anything definitive yet.

How does this compare to your PaNup SDTV copy of the Theatrical Cut? I tried comparing them in VLC but I didn’t see anything too different.

Regardless of the differences to it though, seems like this is the definitive version of the Laserdisc. Did you rip this from a sealed copy? Your post implies so.

benduwan said:

looks really great.
but the escape is cut.the scene at the fueltank is missing.
i know the quality is…,but EXTENDED 😃

There’s a few shots and lines missing between them walking down the fuel tanks, and Anakin saying “No structue”. I’d love to use it in a workprint cut of the film however.

Here’s that missing stuff from the script for those interested

They run, EXPLOSIONS rattle the ship, and pipes continue to burst around them, spilling more fuel into the hallway. At the far end, SIX SUPER BATTLE DROIDS drop into the fuel. The SOUNDS OF SHIELD DOORS CLOSING AND LOCKING ECHO throughout the hallway. They pass several large power generators, which are topped with SPARKING excess power dischargers.
ANAKIN: They’re sealing this section off.
OBI-WAN: Six droids coming our way!
The last of the DOORS CAN BE HEARD CLOSING in the distance.
ANAKIN: Keep moving. There must be vents . . . This way.
They move along a wall. ANAKIN climbs up the side to a small vent. The fuel gets closer to the SPARKING dischargers.
OBI-WAN: We’ll never get through that. It’s too small!
They move toward a second vent. OBI-WAN is swimming in the fuel as it reaches to within a couple yards of the ceiling. ANAKIN feels along the ceiling and finds another smaller vent. He closes his eyes and tries to sense an opening, then he moves on. OBI-WAN is forced into hand-to-hand combat with one of the SUPER BATTLE DROIDS. It pulls the Jedi under the fuel. Just before he is about to drown, OBI-WAN disables the SUPER BATTLE DROID by pushing him into an exhaust pipe.
The fuel is up to the Jedi’s chins. ANAKIN finds a very, very small metal grate, then pounds on it until the tiny grate breaks loose.
ANAKIN: I found our escape vent.
OBI-WAN: Anakin, this is no time for jokes. We’re in serious trouble here.
ANAKIN: Only in your mind. My Master. Look, no structure. . . .
ANAKIN grabs the side of the tiny hole and gives it a big yank, ripping a large panel loose revealing a “man-sized” work shaft. They scramble through it as the DROIDS swim closer.

And also, here’s a (final?) cut of the Star Tours clip with some new SFX and score added to try and seemlessly cut 3 clips together

I had a go at putting the extended clip into the scene with some new bits at the start and end which make it work a lot better, but are dogshit quality. I’d love to see where these clips came from so I could use them in better condition.

Edit: Already found a better source, the link has been updated. Still not 100% perfect but it’s working I think

benduwan said:

do you use for your edit “making of” and “behind the scenes” parts too?

Is there any specific shots or clips that would be workable?

Jar Jar Bricks said:

If I may, I would recommend your alternate Shaak-Ti clip with the extra space battle shot before the scene. This way, nothing needs to be cut, and it follows the original script better.

I don’t know if the clip works, the camera work isn’t quite like anything in the film, and is a bit short. I’d like it if it was a bit longer but currently its not going to work, sorry.

Here’s the probably the final cut of the Shaak Ti scene, I’m happy with it unless anyone else has some suggestions on what else to do with it

Switched up the Shaak Ti scene once more by moving the Grevious intro back again and splitting the hanger scene in half, implying that R2 takes time to find Palps, as well as trimming the Grevious walk to the window to move things along a bit faster.

Jar Jar Bricks said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH3YzXKf2VI
Better resolution but still only 720P. It’s also cut short. Should be suitable for implying a passage of time, however.

I’ll see what I can do with it, thank you!

In the meantime, here’s the other Shaak Ti death, I’ve reworked some of the audio but the sheer amount of blasters, lightsabers, and sounds that need to be added is astronomical so it shall remain unused. I mean I could just redo the shot from the theatrical cut so that the audio flows seemlessly, but that is a gigantic task I feel.

Jar Jar Bricks said:

The “You Jedi are all the same” line is better because the other line implies that they are using their light saber, even though they’re just standing there.

I’ll have a go at smoothing it over then, with a few changes to the scene structure once more, trying to fix the teleportation of Grevious. I think I’m okay with it as that is how it’s scripted, but I haven’t found a satisfactory way to fix it as of yet.

Cameron Samurai said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

I’ve been considering using some Grevious lines from the game to replace the redunant lightsaber collection line and tried out a few here.

https://vimeo.com/407869290

Thoughts?

I can audibly tell when the sound bites occur (presume that’ll eventually be smoothed over), but yeah, that was timed well

Do you prefer either line (the pathetic one or the lightsaber one)

I’ve been considering using some Grevious lines from the game to replace the redunant lightsaber collection line and tried out a few here.

https://vimeo.com/407869290

Thoughts?

The Jedi Imposer scene that will be used in a workprint cut of the film. Now it has some exciting score and flows into the surrounding scenes, still unfinished however.

Here’s the alt cut, not 100% clean, but it has some new score compared to the other one and is trimmed differently.

sade1212 said:

I like the scene but you’d have to cut some of the banter between Grievous and Anakin/Kenobi when they get captured.

“You’re shorter than I expected!”
“What? Did you already forget what I looked like from fifteen minutes ago when I executed Shaak Ti?”

It also obviously precludes you from implementing the scene where Anakin kills Shaak Ti. That scene does have the problem of suggesting Shaak Ti doesn’t sense any of Order 66 going on around her, though, and requires some not insignificant AE work to clean it up.

I think the height joke works as a snappy comeback to Grevious’ age joke. I don’t think I’d cut it.

And as much as I’d like to use some portion of the 2nd Shaak Ti death (namely the 2nd part of him walking through the Jedi Temple carnage) it’s way too unfinished to work at all.

Here’s my own version of the 1st Shaak Ti death, I didn’t trim as much, just the reference to them landing as it fixes the continuity.

I was thinking about putting the Shaak Ti scene like this instead but I have no idea if it’d work

CURRENT
Jedi in hanger -> Shaak Ti Death -> Grevious on bridge (trimmed) -> Elevator

NEW
Jedi in the hanger -> Grevious on bridge (uncut) -> Shaak Ti death -> Elevator

It would remove the need to cut the references to the Jedi landing, and is also how the shooting script is structured too. Unsure if the two scene would work back to back cause of the shots, but I’ll test that too

Jar Jar Bricks said:

This looks fantastic! Revenge of the Sith has always been my favorite movie in the saga, and it looks like this is the definitive extended edition. I would greatly appreciate a link to this project!

The project isn’t done yet as I’m still tinkering with stuff.

Speaking of which, I had a look at TM2YC’s Reborn edit, and he included a great truncated version of the Shaak Ti death scene that excludes any of the fuel tank stuff with unfinished VFX. Is this something that should be added?