DominicCobb

Hmm?

JawsTDS said:

DominicCobb said:

Based on those screenshots the prequels look absolutely normal to me. Maybe TPM’s a little waxy but that’s nothing new. Hate me all you want but the OT looks like dirt.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t a nice change from the 2011 masters. But you’re right, they could be better.

Oh, that’s a given.

sade1212 said:

AI voice has come a long way. It’s very difficult/time-consuming to train still, but sites like 15.ai prove what is possible with a lot of time and effort. Even that site’s best voices - the ponies - still sound robotic, but if you intend to generate masked Kylo dialogue that wouldn’t be a problem. I believe it will be feasible within a few years, as I imagine more consumer friendly tools for this sort of thing are being developed as we speak.

That’s interesting to consider, and a fascinating process. I’m hoping it won’t have to come to that - I have the lines I need the trick is making them sound like they belong together (and they’re pretty close already). My issue is the fine tuning.

Based on those screenshots the prequels look absolutely normal to me. Maybe TPM’s a little waxy but that’s nothing new. Hate me all you want but the OT looks like dirt.

Broom Kid said:

DominicCobb said:

I think there’s probably a middle ground between that and what the film gave us, where you’re still dropping into the battle with some build up (but not making it a whole sequence).

I don’t know, the primary problem with the Mustafar sequence isn’t so much how frenetic it is, it’s the geography. There’s no shot that shows where you are and where he’s going. Whether that shot comes after he’s bodyslammed someone, or before he starts his rampage - the biggest problem with the sequence is that missing shot showing you where he is and what direction he’s trying to go. Abrams & Co. just cut into the bone trying to save this sequence and I think they fundamentally broke it in the process.

That’s why I’d say an establishing shot of some sort might help.

Hal 9000 said:

Not saying I am, but why do you ask?

Doing a bit of “frankenbiting” with Kylo, putting different words together to make a sentence. My skills only take me so far in terms of making it sound legit.

Tantive3+1 said:

timdiggerm said:

1. Kylo isn’t a Sith. Or at least he doesn’t know he is? Unclear.

He’s with the dark side of the force. That declares him a Sith

Nope.

It should be a rule that if you join with the dark side of the force it is your destiny to be killed.

Why?

There’s a sort of kindred spirit aspect to them as well, inherent to their dynamic.

Anyone here really good at audio editing? Like really really good?

Is anyone working on replacing Endor in the planets montage with Coruscant? I know that was an idea passed around.

Broom Kid said:

I think the reason I was advocating just tilting down straight to the TIE jumping into frame from the nebula and cutting EVERYTHING Mustafar earlier in the thread, was because of the key problem any Mustafar edit will have, that you just crystallized for me in your post: Your urge is 100 percent correct that there needs to be some lead into the Mustafar scene. But the problem is there’s simply no footage that puts us on that planet as Kylo arrives.

I read a post at the JWFan boards awhile back (they’ve been piecing together score sheets and doing their own sleuthing as to what the film looked like at various points based on what music Williams wrote and scored) that suggested there WAS a cut of the opening reel at one point that just got rid of EVERYTHING Mustafar, and one of the cues actually lines up PERFECTLY with there being a tilt down to Kylo’s ship jumping into frame. At some point they decided against that cut for some reason, and decided instead to speedrun the Mustafar business as much as possible before sending him to Exogol. And unfortunately, that meant “Cut the landing, cut the establishing shot, cut the oracle, cut the castle, etc.”

Yeah I saw that too. It’s interesting to consider. I guess my dark secret here is I don’t think the opening as is is so awful that it’s in desperate need of fixing in the way other aspects of the movie are. I can actually see the arguments for why JJ and co. might have left it in.

For example, it does add to the build up to Palpatine’s reveal. His return is a big what the f moment, ideally you pique the interest in the crawl and the next couple of minutes you wonder “what’s he looking for exactly?” before you get the whammy. Actually it’s kind of surprising once they added Palpatine to the crawl that they didn’t do the Exegol beginning. But there were other reasons, I think jumping into a montage, while untraditional for the series, does give a sense of the passage of time, and a suggestion of what Kylo’s been up to. Not to mention showing that there’s a challenge to get to Exegol, considering how much runtime is devoted to our heroes trying to reach it.

That’s not to say I’m not considering starting with Exegol, but it’s not the slam dunk choice for me that it is for some.

…That’s basically the sequence you need to get to Mustafar and make everything else that blips by make sense. But it has to be made out of already used footage and completely new VFX, because Abrams & Co. didn’t give it to us anywhere else.

I get where you’re coming from, but I think there’s probably a middle ground between that and what the film gave us, where you’re still dropping into the battle with some build up (but not making it a whole sequence).

Broom Kid said:

NeverarGreat said:

It feels odd to go from Kylo on the destroyer to down on the planet with no establishing shots in between.

I agree. The technical work is good, but from a storytelling pov this basically just adds another location to the already fairly large list of locations (EXT: Space, INT: Star Destroyer, EXT: Forest, EXT: Ruins, INT: Ship, EXT: Space) being blipped through in about 3 min before Kylo is actually on his way to do what the crawl says he’s doing.

You’re not wrong. I think my urge is to have some sort of lead up to the Mustafar scene. I do think an establishing shot of some sort instead (possibly with TIE flyby) would be preferable.

However, the crawl is a big improvement. The only thing that feels very strange to me is to mention that Leia is ‘ailing’ right before playing up the strength of the Resistance.

How about something like this?

…

I don’t think that’s THE solution, but maybe there’s an idea or a direction in there that might be useful? Use (or ignore) as needed 😃

That’s not bad, I always appreciate rewrites like this, regardless of what I use they’re helpful to step outside of what I’m stuck with and see alternate angles and maybe fire up some ideas. I’ll play some more with this in mind. I will say I do want some sort of reference to Luke’s actions at the end of the last film, and so having the “spark of hope” line seems to me an elegant way of doing that.

Hal 9000 said:

DominicCobb said:

The reforging of Kylo’s mask will be interspersed with similar flashing images from Rey’s vision, though clearer flashbacks this time. First we’ll see Kylo killing Han with Luke’s voiceover - “You killed him.” Then Kylo’s saber phasing through Luke with Rey’s voiceover - “You lost.” Then finally Kylo offering his hand to Rey - “Join me” - and her shutting the door on him with her voiceover - “Creature in a mask.” Hopefully giving some motivation for Kylo hiding behind the mask again.

So looking forward to seeing this! Just saying.

It’s funny you mention it, I’ve been souring to the idea for a bit but I think I found a way to make it work.

What some people don’t realize with Lynch is how close he came. He was actually Lucas’s number one choice ahead of Marquand but ended up pulling out.

captainsolo said:

At the very least it would have been more like an Indy film because George could produce Steven but not try and over the shoulder direct/second guess in the manner that is continually suggested he did/tried to do with Richard Marquand.
Ironically Spielberg had just finished Poltergeist where it is strongly felt he did this with Tobe Hooper and ghost directed much of the film himself.

I’m sure Spielberg would have insisted on rewrites and the film would have been stronger because George would have felt he had to listen to him. But it also would have had a Spielberg flavor which is alien to the Star wars universe too.

Weirdest of all is that this could have been directed by David Lynch.

Not even rewrites, the script was still being worked on and Marquand was involved with the story meetings. It’s safe to say with any director the film would be quite different because of that. With Spielberg, you could probably safely say it would have been better.

That said, it’s not entirely clear how seriously Spielberg was ever considered. But that might’ve been different without the DGA issues of course.

Didn’t think it would work but I was wrong, that looks rad.

RogueLeader said:

Some damn nice bling.

I remember seeing that concept art of the black and gold Kylo helmet even before we saw any official image of Kylo Ren. Thought it was really cool.
I think if you change the silver to gold, you could do it in all three films. Then keep the red cracks red.

Oh I’d hate to lose the silver. I just think the gold visor might be a clearer way to get across the “regal” idea you had for TROS specifically, even if it wouldn’t make that much sense that it was changed.

DominicCobb said:

What if the silver on his mask was gold like in the TFA concept art?

What if the silver on his mask was gold like in the TFA concept art?

NeverarGreat said:

It feels odd to go from Kylo on the destroyer to down on the planet with no establishing shots in between.

Yes I think an establishing shot would be ideal. My goal here was to try to see if just purely through music and sound design I could make the cut work. At this point I’m now too into it to tell, so feedback like this is valuable.

However, the crawl is a big improvement. The only thing that feels very strange to me is to mention that Leia is ‘ailing’ right before playing up the strength of the Resistance.

The second graph still needs some work, yeah, that’s one of the things. On the one hand it feels weird to even say something like that at all in a crawl, but part of me thinks it’s necessary set up for her out of left field death. Perhaps I can try to work in the word “persevere” or something like that.

Here’s my opening, showing my new crawl and my version of an idea that’s been tossed around here a bit (using the TLJ deleted star destroyer bridge shots):
https://vimeo.com/403066614

ray_afraid said:

The Emperors return, no matter how it’s handled, nullifies Anakins sacrifice, Luke’s mission to redeem him & therefore entire point of the OT.
Seems like a bad idea.

Does it really though? Luke still saved Anakin and vice versa, they still beat the Emperor and won the war (even if temporarily).

Hal 9000 said:

They had to make the most of what little Carrie Fischer footage they had, and making some sort of point to surround Leia handing her the saber was a way to do that.

I don’t really buy that though, they wouldn’t need deleted footage to accomplish that, they could easily use a double (and probably did).

The more I think about it, the more interesting it would have been if they had brought back Palpatine in VII. I like the idea, which wasn’t really played with, that the ST sort of adds some narrative urgency to the existence of the prequels, and their placement after the OT in watch order. They played a little bit with the failure of the Jedi order angle, but imagine if you followed up the movie where Palpatine talks about cheating death (III) with a film where he comes back to life (VII)? When viewed in release order it would seem like the PT is a flashback where they’re setting up the next chapter, the ST.

RogueLeader said:

OutboundFlight said:

Chase Adams said:

RogueLeader said:
Pre-transformation Palpatine looks more like Ian McDiarmid with white contacts, to me, instead of looking like the Emperor. I don’t know if that makes sense, but there seems to be very little make-up on him that we associate with the Emperor, beyond making him extremely pale.

I believe the intention was to make it like Palpatine’s spirit was possessing a fresh, un-deformed, new corpse body. Once he is ‘restored’ he resembles the true Sith Palpatine appearance.

https://pasteboard.co/J1D7Vli.png

I got the opposite impression from the deformed fingers.

Also, doesn’t seem like what is left of his fingers have been stitched together? When he raises his hands, I recall there being a line down one of his fingers that resembled a surgical scar.

I think ultimately the idea is supposed to be that he is a decaying clone, and/or multiple clone parts stitched together.

RogueLeader said:

This is pretty rad, but I’d be curious to see a more subtle concept that’d be presumably easier to implement.