Dazman

Very familiar work you are doing on this edit with all the lightsaber errors and whatnot, but also good new catches.

Phase3 said:

Here are some shots where I have removed Threepio:

For this shot, I removed both Threepio and Jar Jar; this was done by using portions of photography done by an ILM artist – no AI image generation!

I see you don’t need my fix for this shot anymore. 😭😉 I must admit that your version of the wall looks amazing! Although, R2 would still fall backwards with his legs in that position, don’t you think?

I have animated the shield and ship, to create the illusion of the ship passing through the shield:

Oh man, this looks good! 😛 It’s surprising how little we see these hangars in PT, next time is at the beginning of ROTS with that visible force field, so it fits within the continuity.

Runroader said:

I wanted to share my thoughts after viewing this one, which mostly align with what other reviewers have said. This edit is worth seeing for the extra footage it adds, but it has some noticeable flaws that really detract from the experience.

Thank you for the detailed feedback. I am indeed planning to do a 2.0 version of the edit, hopefully this year and your detailed notes help with that. One of the most obvious upgrades would be the soundtrack. I have to build it again from scratch but I have more skills now to probably fix the parts you pointed out. Some issues like the Qui-Gon’s echoic voice you mentioned can now be made better with the help of AI.

The other is the colour grading. I’ve come to the conclusion that a different colour correction is in order for different locations (space, planets). I agree that some sharpening effects are rough, but the shots can probably also be enhanced with some other way, maybe AI. As you mentioned, the deleted scenes are going to always probably look inferior to the rest of the picture quality, although I have better versions of them now, thanks to Phase3.

Some story and dialogue cuts not working (second bet and Anakin’s goodbye to Shmi) I disagree though, I think they work ok considering I had no alternative footage to use. Many things feeling choppy is probably because we have seen this movie so many times and it’s hard to reset the thinking for what this edit is trying to convey, e.g. Shmi and Anakin are not slaves but just have to both work in the harsh Totooine environment. And the Jedi just don’t have resources to relocate and accommodate the parents of the Jedi-to-be to the nice core worlds, and that’s why Shmi is just staying on Tatooine.

I’ll see which of these points can be improved on when I have the time to revisit the edit. Lately the job (if I could just get paid fan editing 😄) and other real life stuff have been using up my energy but hopefully I will have more time to spend on fan edits again.

Sirius said:

I only watched this movie at the cinema, so I don’t really remember many details. But I remember two things that bothered me, which was the fact that Rocket and Quill started the movie sulking at each other for no reason, and the conversation scene between Gamora and her sister being too long. Did you change something about it?

The bickering between Quill and Rocket is toned down a bit but the conflict is still there because it’s quite integral for the Rocket’s arc in the movie. Also I don’t remember shortening the sister scenes since it didn’t bother me.

Happy New Year!

Well, seems for your version 2 you are really combing the desert of errors this movie has, spaceballs style. 😄

One section I wanted to alter was the blood spray when Darth Maul gets cut in half. I’ve seen some edits where the editor cut footage around the blood spray, which to me is a low-quality way of revising this shot.

Nice work! I always interpreted the spray as the hot blade’s cauterizing effect turning blood into a momentary dust of blood. And since the blade is cutting through the whole torso instead of a hand, it hadn’t been seen earlier in other movies… Sometimes there seems to be a small puff of smoke when the limbs are cut but pretty inconsistent. So it’s everyone’s preference to remove or add those in their edits.

I’m digging your colour grade tests! Helps with Tatooine especially that seems to have reddish dust in the air at all times in the original footage. Now the sky looks clean and pure again.

Hope you enjoy the edit! Definitely try editing some film that didn’t quite work for you. But be careful, it might be almost addictive and start consuming a lot of your free time. 😄

Nice, we have some skin details on closeup shots! Thanks for your trouble again Phase3!

Very nice of you to do this, now we have the DaVinci Resolve covered for the SW editing! 👍 I would like a PM with a link, please!

I think your “mad scientist” extensive testing on upscaling the deleted scenes has really paid off! That detail on Obi-wan’s face on the landing platform for example is pretty unreal. I made some comparisons and believe that you have achieved a new gold standard on upscaling these. The shots that no upscale can unfortunately make look good are the establishing shots that are very low detail/ poorly rendered in the original footage (senate dome, Naboo shots). But some detail adding/guessing AI could help improve those.

I would be interested in getting these if you could drop me a link?

Considering how many scenes you cut or shortened I’m surprised you managed to make this 1 h 52 mins long. Of course the movie in it’s “raw” form is the longest of the 6 part saga and inserting deleted scenes back in helps. Excellent work on those by the way, I believe you achieved a new level of detail on them! Personally I would axe much more of the beginning assassination and following chase and keep the asteroid chase but personal preferences and all that…The end ground battle flows well without the Dooku’s war room and some superfluous talking bits.

If I may give a few suggestions for the updated version that I believe you are working on: In the new VFX shot of Obi tracking Jango, you might consider giving Geonosis- planet a zoom out/zoom in- effect instead of it moving up on the screen or adding easing to the motion. When Anakin has a breakdown at homestead and says “Why couldn’t I save her. I know I could have!”, I suggest that you cut the shot just a little bit earlier. Now you can see Anakin starting to move to the left, but it the next shot he sits down, which is a bit jarring cut. Also the voice of Jarjar is little muffled / echo-y in the Padme’s apartment scene. Some AI voice cleaner tool might be helpful with that, at least Adobe has a free one called “Enhanced speech”.

All in all, nice job!

Why is this thread not getting more attention, people tired of AOTC? 😄 Anyway, very interesting list of changes, some of them the very same ideas I have about the movie, and others totally different. Anakin rescuing Padme and droids removed in the factory scene is the only way to go with that scene if left in the movie imo. Then the scene shows Anakin actually protecting Padme (his job) and that act feeds to Padme’s feelings about him.

I’m interested to hear about your DS upscaling process. Did you use Topaz Labs and did you use some new settings to get better results than bryantmh’s deleted scenes? Or some other AI that can reach the Topaz’s quality? Could you maybe post some comparison screenshots?

In any case, I’m interested to check this out so please hit me with a PM!

Very cool to hear about the thought process behind your editing, very educational for the amateur editor like myself. Looking forward to future scene breakdowns!

Sounds cool! Did this combine or recreate multiple efforts to give them a facelift? =D I could take a look.

Sirius said:

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one thing. There is a Youtuber who further improved the Luke Deepfake made by Shamook, at the end of the second season of The Mandalorian. This Youtuber enhanced the movement of the lips, adding a little more emotion to Luke’s “robotic” expression. Personally, I think it came out really well, and it could look cool in your movie, Acbagel. Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/wk_5QP2NSKM?si=0tUYALSKZ5S6t2z2

While that was pretty good, new tools have popped up since then like LivePortrait AI that could be used to match Luke’s lips to the dialog even more or combined with some voice AI make him speak totally new lines. It can further animate the shots that Shamook made.

Did he ever share the raw files for the Luke- shots here btw? Can’t remember.

This sounds like exactly the kind of subbtle, respectful edit of the movie it needs if you want to see it modernized. I would like to have a link please!

I made an in-between episode with only the Mando parts that leads to season 3. You can read about it here:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Mandalorian-Improved-Chapters/id/103346

Although how the season 3 turned out, the footage should probably be part of the heavily edited season 3, similar what mikebailey15 has done.

I would be interested in the The Phantom Menace link as well, please!

Some PMs have been sent!

Here is the shot from HDTV- source. Even in the jpg- format the shot has more detail, for example on Padme’s hair on her forehead and on Anakin’s sideburns:

Here it’s the same with details on Anakin. HDTV source’s grain leaves more detail to the picture. Also the teal tint was introduced on the Blu ray version and was not present in the movie originally and should not be found in BTS and promotional footage:

Schorman has done us all a big favour by meticulously preserving the HDTV version (DVD- version in HD). You can read about it here: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/schormans-HDTV-Star-Wars-Saga-Preservation-Released/id/16702/page/1. I would strongly suggest that for the AOTC you should use the HDTV restoration of that film instead of the Blu ray.

A very commendable project! Your upscale definitely looks more natural with the edges of the distant objects, even if the detail is not increased that much except what the added grain “brings out”. I would be interested to get the links to these please when ready!

About AOTC, are you planning to use HDTV restoration instead of Blu ray since it has noticeably more detail than the Blu ray?

Fullmetaled said:

Alaskan sandman’s project made me wish there was a group a fans that could update cgi in both the prequels and the original trilogy because not all the cgi scenes in the original trilogy were bad.

Fullmetaled, Since you really seem to want updates to CGI, I would suggest to get proactive and organized about it:

-Start a thread, maybe per movie where you list the top 5 (for a start) shots you would want to be updated with CGI. Ask people to mention any fan editors with required skills. Update the thread to know if the work starts on some shot and if/when you get some of the shots done.

-PM the people you think have the skills to pull off CGI- work (more complex than VFX fixing with other methods) and tell your plans to form a CGI- shot pack for everyone to use in their edits.

-Make a cloud storage account(s) (MEGA, Icedrive, something else) and share access to the account/specific files for them to upload their work.

Make it as easy as possible to participate. You would already be asking quite an investment from anyone to produce an all new CGI- shot. EddieDean already has couple of Community Focus Threads for the movies so maybe ask him if he’s willing to help you with this.

PMs sent to Rors and yaoberh.

Cerditodevillapinguino said:

The mkv contains spanish subs?? Thanks in advance 😎

Lo siento, no tiene subtitulo espanol. The movie has only english subs for the alien dialogue. The subs would have taken a long time to edit manually. Since the edit was completed, I have learned there might be some way to do it in the workflow but I haven’t looked into it yet.

Pm sent to MoonDog1999

I must say I’ve been enjoying The Mandalorian just fine in a serialized form through the first 2 season but Acbagel you are right about the disorganized structure of the season 3! You have some very spot on analysis and great ideas above so I would also like the link for your Book 5 to check out what you managed to cook out of the latest season.

In addition to usual fixes, Episode II needs some background replacements for the shots aged most poorly. That would mean building them in some 3d program and since I have not had the time to study such programs yet, it is impossible to give any release date for that project.

I think the bryantmh’s upscaled deleted scenes are considered the best ones “released”. Have you tried PM:ing him and asking for a link?

-Dazman

Thank you for the reviews!

Roo Eee said:

Removing the remarks to slavery was an interesting choice and the reasons for doing so are legit, but I thought it removed some of the weight in Anakin’s mother’s decision to let him go, so I guess I don’t exactly know how I feel about it.

I understand that it takes some weight off the separation but it’s still about mother letting her small child go, although not perfect. And for me losing the badly written slave plot is better than the plot hole between EP1 and Ep2 of Jedi not doing diddly squat to relocate her from slavery. 😄

DeonStar123 said:

I actually really enjoyed this new edit as I have seen it 74 times since acquiring it last year and I have
several close friends who have seen it too.

That’s some hardcore watching DeonStar. 😅 It’s great if you have had fun with it with some friends!