EddieDean

bojangles said:

Also, what were your thoughts on the proposed changes to the Citadel episode? I just wanted to know if you ended up considering them for a new version or not.

Yeah, I’ll revisit that content. Perhaps not too soon, as I have a few other things taking my free time in the short term, but I’ll get back into it (and review yours) and see what can be reasonably trimmed. I don’t know why I have such edit-blindness for that episode but I’ll do my best.

In other news, I realised the perfect place for those shots of Plo rescuing Ahsoka. It naturally belongs in the Malevolence arc, where it’s the most relevant, and I had thought I’d put it playing over the moment where she talks about it. But the show doesn’t use the ~2 second voiceover flashback as a storytelling devic, so it doesn’t really work. However, instead it’ll fit really nicely when Ahsoka reaches out with the force to Plo. That section was already cut quite awkwardly, so it’ll clean that up nicely, whilst also being a totally valid ‘feeling’ for Ahsoka to be feeling for when she’s searching for the person who first discovered her.

smudger9 said:

https://ifdb.fanedit.org/eddiedean-wins-march-2023-feotm/

Congrats Eddie 👏

Hooooooly shiit! Damn that’s a privilege. Thank you all so, so much for your contributions and support folks, I sincerely couldn’t have done it without you. Huge love to you all.

Ooh, I like that ‘not today’.

OK, I’ve had some requests lately for how I produce the intros and outros for my episodes.

And just before I begin, I absolutely welcome you guys to make your own TCW:R episodes using this format. If they can maintain the same quality (and that’s a fairly low bar), I’ll gladly host them and present them as extra episodes, or alternate versions of my existing episodes.

So here we go:

• I’m editing in 1920x816x32, at 23.976fps.
• Intro
  • Titles (music is untouched; you’re very welcome to just rip this whole sequence)
    • Lucasfilm Logo (ripped from somewhere, probably the Mandalorian)
    • Red/blue helmets (reordered mix of Bad Batch and Mandalorian, with light colour changing to have especially the reds match; again you’re welcome to just rip mine)
    • Star Wars Logo (ripped from somewhere, probably the Mandalorian)
  • Opening Text Section
    • Music has 1.16 frames overlap with Intro Titles music and a basic n-shaped crossfade
    • Text uses news gothic becker no.2 font, HSV [190, 0.81, 0.74, 1.0] colour, and each element has a 1.0sec fade in/out. Font size 16 at 1.0 scale. Text is never wider than the innermost ‘safe area’ (a default overlay setting)
    • First screen has format 1/2/2 lines, (first line is always the opening line for a given season), second screen has 2/2/1 lines.
    • Screen 1: First line (location 0.5/0.75, anchored on center) starts at 5.12 frames (including music overlap). Second (loc 0.5/0.55) at 10.19 frames. Third (loc 0.5/0.3) at 16.17 frames. All three end at 27.19 frames.
    • Screen 2: First line (loc 0.5/0.7) starts at 27.19 frames. Second (0.5/0.45) at 34.11 frames. Third (0.5/0.25) at 43.01 frames. All three end at 50.01 frames.
    • 0.12 frames no video.
    • TCW logo comes in at 50.13 frames (should hit the music beat). No fade in, 1s fade out, ending at 58.20 frames.
    • Episode title fades in (1s) at 58.20 frames, then out (1s) at 01:09.14 frames. Same font and colour as the other text, always all caps, font size 52 at 0.6 scale, always centered.
  • I eyeball (earball?) the fade into the episode’s music, leaving ABOUT 2s after the title fully disappears before fading in (1s) to the episode’s video. You have to do this by ear and just get the feel right.
• Outro
  • Sometimes I play the episode out by extending the ‘outro music’ into the episode itself, if it fits the tone. Otherwise, I just make sure we end on a nice note (you can stretch that final note and fade it out to give it a bit more finality), then into the outro music.
  • I always try to have a second or two of black before the credits, with the credit text and concept art kicking off at the first note of the piano (di-do-di, doo-doo-doo-di-do). If you do it right, it should say ‘JOHN WILLIAMS’ just as the OG SW theme kicks in.
  • Credit text and concept art now play in parallel:
    • Credits use the same font and colour as above, scale 0.5, with the job title at font size 36 and normal case, and the person’s name in all caps and font size 52. Credit text is always centered (0.5/0.5). Credits always have 1s fade in and 1s fade out.
    • Credit timing (from the first appearance) is: 0.0 Created and Executive Produced by GEORGE LUCAS, 14.11 Executive Producer CATHERINE WINDER, 25.12 Supervising Director DAVE FILONI, 37.22 Directed by [PERSON] (and [PERSON] if two, or just all their names if 3+), 47.04 Fanedited by [YOUR NAME], 56.04 Written by [PERSON] (same rules for multiple directors if you’re combining episodes), 01:04.21 Score by KEVIN KINER With Arrangements by SAMUEL KIM and MCFIBB, 01:18.13 Original Star Wars Themes and Score by JOHN WILLIAMS. End at 01:30.19.
  • For concept art, I grab it from here. Each episode has a concept art gallery that I grab interesting stuff from if possible. I always avoid showing any text that may be on any of those images. If there isn’t enough actual concept art, I fake it. The episode galleries (also on that page) have nice screenshots from the episodes. I download them, open them in GIMP image editor, then apply Filters > Artistic > Oilify, with most settings kept to near the left hand side, so they look like concept art. The key is to reduce specific points of light. Cheating!
  • For concept art timings (from their first appearance): 0.0, 19.12, 37.22, 56.04, 01:11.04, end at 01:30.19. Always 1s fades.
  • Custom credits (feel free to steal mine) run from 01:30.19 to 01:32.08 and that they’re backed by a frame of the starfield from the proper credits
  • Then it’s the rest of the proper credits from the episode (cutting the bits you’ve already included like writer and director, but using whichever has all of the voice actors in it), then the standard Lucasfilm logo to finish (skipping the older one on the white background)

Generally, it’ll be easiest for you if you grab one of my episodes then build your own elements on top of it - literally laying them on the top so you make sure the timings and positionings align.

Let me know if you guys want any of my specific assets.

I guess the other solution could be Boba seeing Mando’s ship take off as he flies away?

The biggest (only?) link the Pershing storyline has to the rest is the finale content with the reveal that Moff Gideon is still into clones, so I think that storyline belongs in whatever ends up being your final movie (6 or 7).

smudger9 said:

Elyk said:

I just finished watching this edit and as I have come to expect from Smudger’s work, am very impressed. I don’t really have anything to add that hasn’t already been mentioned in the thread. I very much enjoy the flow of the narrative, and am very thankful for how much time, effort and creativity you put into your work. I am looking forward to seeing how all of the edits evolve as more content is added. On a slightly different topic, I know in the past you have said you don’t want to revisit your Clone Wars edits, and I am sure you are tired of the question. However, with you dipping your metaphorical toe back into animated editing with the Bad Batch, has your position softened on this? I know I and many others would love to see your completed vision for that series. I do understand that BB is a much less onerous lift than CW but I can’t help but hold out hope! Regardless, thank you for this edit and for your willingness to share. Looking forward to Episode IV!

Thanks so much for the review. I often think about revisiting Clone Wars especially seasons 6 and 7, but sadly time is always the limiter. I’m just about keeping up with the live action releases…

If you wanted to collaborate on more moviefied Clone Wars I’d be down… I’ve put a LOT of thought into them 😉

That sounds great - where’s the link?

Let’s call it a “passive oversight”, in that yes, I didn’t think of it, but also, the first 2/3 of the Clone Wars were a transitional period where both types of armour appeared side by side as the earlier was being phased out.

…Unless it’s named characters actually reverting their armour update on-screen, in which case, yeah, regular oversight.

I don’t think so, other than potentially adding the remaining stuff (from the two weaker episodes) in a lower cut. I used all of the Mace/Syndulla stuff in the existing episode, though.

Acbagel said:

EddieDean said:

Here’s a video clip including both edits.

I got around the Greef situation by just cutting more. It’s not implicit that Greef is meeting Mando a long journey away from the city, so we don’t need travel scenes. Greef begins with his bodyguards, which is sensible even with this interpretation, since they did leave each other on bad terms. That’s the purpose they serve here, then we don’t need to see them again. Then I flipped the scenes so that Greef asks to see Grogu first - and the tension dissipating there as we see that he also genuinely cares for Grogu is what sells us on the fact that they’re now not going to get into conflict. Greef just seems legitimate. Then they talk about the situation a little, but Mando just says “I have a plan.” (I know you like it when we just get straight into the plan, rather than explaining it first!) We then have a quick montage, then just cut straight to Greef escorting Mando to the Imperials - if we notice Greef’s injury, we can assume he faked it to make it look like his capture of Mando was legit. A smooth musical transition helps sell this all too.

For the second scene, “You just got your bell rung, you’ll be alright” is a legitimate statement, rather than Cara being actually worried about his mortality. The flamer then immediately attacks, so we don’t waste any time with them forcing an emotional scene. Grogu works his magic, and IG opens the grate then picks up Grogu. Again the music then carries us to the scene of Mando walking - we don’t need a wipe. Mando updates them on the situation as he’s struggling, then he stops and tells them he can stand. He’s now OK, and has recovered from essentially just a temporarily disorienting knock to the head.

I don’t massively feel like that’s the turning point for him not hating droids - I always felt like that was more of an odd prejudice (plus IG is an assassin droid) that he just gradually gets over.

Interesting, that’s a solid edit and your cuts do work well enough that the concept could work. However, my next concern is that if I do end up altering the ending anyways, we are already looking at a 1 hour 57 minute runtime. Cutting out so much more would be pushing this film too far into the shorter end and I really don’t feel like it slows down too badly anywhere as is. If I were running long, I would definitely feel stronger about cutting there, but the runtime is spot on where I like it and it’s not like those scenes are necessarily bad.

Not so! This is from your book 2, which clocks in longer than the rest at 2:15. So it’s not massively longer, but I do think that both of those scenes hurt the pacing in an already oddly slowly paced finale.

I loved your book 5, so what you’re saying about it there sounds very exciting!

Ahh, yeah. Well maybe it belongs in the Malevolence episode, as a brief cutaway when she describes being brought to the Jedi by Plo?

Sirius said:

I watched Dreams of Destiny (Interlude) here, and I really liked it. The order of the shorts was excellent.

A random question: I didn’t watch the other episodes you edited, and I remember that in one of the original clone wars episodes, there’s a brief flashback of very young Ahsoka with Plo Koon. Did you insert this scene in one of your edits? This doubt arose due to the fact that this specific scene was introduced in a recap, as far as I remember.

I’m not sure. I think I remember that too, but I’m not sure where. If it’s in one of the episodes I used, I would have kept it, but if it’s in a cut episode, I don’t think I’ve added it elsewhere.

SpenceEdit said:

EddieDean said:

Hm. That’s an interesting one, and I’m surprised I hadn’t thought of it! But I should be able to pull something like that together. I’ll have a think.

Let’s see, what are the key bridging stories?

• Anakin’s development, dissatisfaction with the Jedi, and relationship with Sidious.
• Anakin’s relationship with Obi-Wan and Padmé
• Yoda and the Jedi’s investigation of Sifo-Dyas
• The mystery of the clones and Order 66
• At the very least Ahsoka joining and leaving Anakin.
• I don’t think Maul or Mandalore need to be major plotlines

Is there anything else?

Ahsoka leaving would actually be a good ending to the series, if you were going to do it that way.

It would, BUT I don’t want to lean into alternate orderings, because that makes it more complicated for viewers - and might mean I have to produce alternate versions of episodes which remove references to the timeline.

Hm. That’s an interesting one, and I’m surprised I hadn’t thought of it! But I should be able to pull something like that together. I’ll have a think.

Let’s see, what are the key bridging stories?

• Anakin’s development, dissatisfaction with the Jedi, and relationship with Sidious.
• Anakin’s relationship with Obi-Wan and Padmé
• Yoda and the Jedi’s investigation of Sifo-Dyas
• The mystery of the clones and Order 66
• At the very least Ahsoka joining and leaving Anakin.
• I don’t think Maul or Mandalore need to be major plotlines

Is there anything else?

Here’s a video clip including both edits.

I got around the Greef situation by just cutting more. It’s not implicit that Greef is meeting Mando a long journey away from the city, so we don’t need travel scenes. Greef begins with his bodyguards, which is sensible even with this interpretation, since they did leave each other on bad terms. That’s the purpose they serve here, then we don’t need to see them again. Then I flipped the scenes so that Greef asks to see Grogu first - and the tension dissipating there as we see that he also genuinely cares for Grogu is what sells us on the fact that they’re now not going to get into conflict. Greef just seems legitimate. Then they talk about the situation a little, but Mando just says “I have a plan.” (I know you like it when we just get straight into the plan, rather than explaining it first!) We then have a quick montage, then just cut straight to Greef escorting Mando to the Imperials - if we notice Greef’s injury, we can assume he faked it to make it look like his capture of Mando was legit. A smooth musical transition helps sell this all too.

For the second scene, “You just got your bell rung, you’ll be alright” is a legitimate statement, rather than Cara being actually worried about his mortality. The flamer then immediately attacks, so we don’t waste any time with them forcing an emotional scene. Grogu works his magic, and IG opens the grate then picks up Grogu. Again the music then carries us to the scene of Mando walking - we don’t need a wipe. Mando updates them on the situation as he’s struggling, then he stops and tells them he can stand. He’s now OK, and has recovered from essentially just a temporarily disorienting knock to the head.

I don’t massively feel like that’s the turning point for him not hating droids - I always felt like that was more of an odd prejudice (plus IG is an assassin droid) that he just gradually gets over.

Further thoughts on Arabian’s idea: If we do just end Book 1 with Mando flying to space and cut to black there, then it lets you potentially start Mando’s story much later in Book 2, allowing Boba to take the lead and with less backwards and forwards. Alternatively/additionally, maybe you could actually have the Boba overlap point a bit later - Mando could be on Tattooine for much longer, leaving Fennec for dead, before Boba comes to Mos Eisley and nearly bumps into him, potentially only then heading out to the desert to find Fennec. Pelli’s dialogue might be modified at the point where Boba sees her walking with her droids, to discuss Mando’s quarry, to give Boba the hint to go save her. Then Boba and Fennec’s plotline could interleave with Mando’s plot on Nevarro, to keep both in focus.

Also, I made my own cut of your current Book 2, which removed Greef’s intended betrayal and the fireside scene (Mando just says “I have a plan” at their first meeting and we cut to him in cuffs meeting Werner Herzog), and also removed Mando needing to take off his helmet (he just “gets his head dinged” but then after the team open the sewer vent he’s walking - with help, through the tunnels). I found that both of these worked nicely to improve the pacing in that sequence.

I definitely agree with your assessment that those other three episodes are the worst of earlier seasons.

Assassin I think is important for some early Ahsoka characterisation, though it isn’t great.

Seven Warriors is, I think, a decent season opener, but is mainly there for balance. And Attachments is entirely there to balance the season it’s in, rather than on particular merit, though I do love its opening action scene.

And, yes, Citadel is arguably more impactful than each of those, if one’s chasing those wider moments in particular.

Bojangles, if you’d like to list out your changes I’ll review each one in turn, because I would like to tighten this episode up. There’s just something about it that really turns off the editor in me!

RELEASED - S03E06b - The Citadel Rescue (v2.0)

• RELEASE VERSION.
• This is a BONUS episode that is NOT part of my recommended viewing order! (See below!)
• This is numbered as episode 6B of season three - fitting between s03e06 and s03e07 if you want to watch it.
• Comprising the original episodes The Citadel, Counterattack, and Citadel Rescue.
• Running 65 minutes.
• DOWNLOAD LINK is in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access.
• Note: It’s recommended that you download this before watching, rather than streaming it directly from Google Drive.

By popular request, here’s the Citadel arc, added into TCW:R. I don’t vouch for this episode as part of TCW:R, indeed it is NOT part of my ‘Recommended’ cut (or my ‘Filoniverse’ cut) of the show. Instead, this belongs to what I call the ‘Continuity’ cut - additional content mainly just for those people who don’t mind weaker content so long as it expands on characters from wider canon (in this case Tarkin and Echo).

But, importantly, it IS a bit weaker than other episodes - so please consider yourself warned before you mark me down for its inclusion! I don’t recommend it for a first-time viewer, or one who is mainly looking for a quality watch. It’s here as an optional extra, mainly for those who know they like it.

Why don’t I recommend it? And should you watch it on your run-through? Firstly, let’s look at why people have requested it, and why it remains a popular arc:

• Firstly, it features a semi-major (to the Clone Wars) character death, which becomes a major plot point the Bad Batch show. So a lot of people think it’s important for that reason alone.
• Secondly, because it features Tarkin, and some good Anakin-Tarkin content. I completely agree on this point - they’re great scenes.
• Thirdly (but far less importantly), there are a few other decent elements, like a bit of ‘state of the war’ drama, and Plo Koon’s appearance.

But, why don’t I like it? Your mileage may vary, of course, but for me:

• There is VERY little meat beyond the Anakin-Tarkin content. There’s barely an emotional core to the story, Ahsoka’s plotline barely gives us anything new for her character, and though it talks a big game (with the Nexus Route and arguably the most useful Separatist droids), it has no impact on the wider story of the Clone Wars and these plotlines are never picked up again. Everything it does (other than Tarkin), other episodes do better.
• The pacing is SLOW. It’s an hour of combat and travel, split-up and meet-up, capture and escape. All of the combat is more of the same we’ve seen before, and I spend my watches through this desperately awaiting the next nugget of dialogue.
• The aesthetic is poor. It’s got a very cool looking planet - purple cracked with rivers of yellow lava - but once that cool impact starts to fade it makes for an extremely dull and repetitive backdrop, more akin to the early season one/two locations. Osi Sobeck is yet another hammy cackling villain, and it over-uses lightning-like energy fields, which I especially dislike in Star Wars.
• The character death I mentioned above is extremely throwaway. It’s not a focus of the episode, and that character doesn’t feature other than to die in an explosion, meaning that all you need is the characters in a future episode to say “oh yeah, he died offscreen” to get the same impact.
• Many of the episode’s ideas are cheaply used without considering their impact on other content: The use of carbon freezing both pre-Empire and without eye damage. Republic-hacked battle droids (never used again). New Separatist battle droids with legitimately useful design and tactics (never used again). The idea of a secret hyperspace lane between rival homeworlds (never used again).

It is a load of better-elsewhere blandness and frustration wrapped around a very small amount of interesting content. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just got a stick up my arse about this one. Look, it’s not bad, it’s just fine. Either way, you asked for it, so here it is!

Anyway, when it came to editing this, I was hoping to find some sensible trims, but like the first time I reviewed this content, I found it’s a particularly hard one to cut. The goofy droids carry important plot, the frustrating use of carbon freezing is necessary, the good Anakin-Tarkin dialogue can’t be removed from an otherwise pretty worthless ‘split up’/‘meet up’ sequence, and so on. Ultimately, rather than do a deep dive on the feasibility of possible routes for polish (like focusing solely on Anakin’s side of the ‘split up’ sequence), I opted to just leave it all as-is. There are maybe a couple of combats which could have been cut, but I don’t think there’s value in trying to unpick the whole thing and put it back together again.

So, essentially, this is just the full three episodes, stitched together. The only change I made was removing the redundant opening scene.

Noteworthy changes:

• This episode is titled ‘The Citadel Rescue’. I figured that people looking for this need the word ‘Citadel’ in there, and I haven’t edited it enough to justify a fruity new name.
• Regarding placement, I think it belongs here, in the middle of Ahsoka’s journey to independence, but before her more extreme trials later this season.
• I used the opening crawl to essentially replace the original newsreel and the very first scene. The first scene is exposition, and repeated a lot of content from the newsreel anyway, so I killed two birds with one stone and just covered that initial plot, so we can kick off the episode with Ahsoka wanting to join.
• I also, in the crawl, mentioned that the droids there fight captive Jedi to develop new tactics. Hopefully that explains why we see some very competent droids here that we won’t see again.
• Other than that, it’s all as-is.

I will take suggestions for trims, if anyone can spot any, for a future release, but for now, this is just The Citadel arc, pretty much untouched.

I really don’t think it’s necessary, especially since I don’t like how it looks. But I haven’t thought about that for a good while.

After having a good few requests for it, I’m now working on the Citadel arc. I don’t think it belongs in the main/recommended cuts, because for me it’s just too little value for too much time. But it’s arguably the most important of the less important episodes.

I don’t think I’ll be able to turn it into anything particularly tight, but I will at least give it a crack.

Please fire me a PM!

A couple more thoughts on making the Pershing plot tie a bit more into a solid movie surrounding the season finale content:

• The moment in the Pershing storyline where it’s mentioned that Gideon never made it to Coruscant for trial could lead nicely into Carson’s discovery of his shuttle, bringing him back into the fray and further emphasising the link.
• Then, the Shadow Council scene could return here a few scenes later. If we emphasise the link Pershing > Carson > Gideon (which’ll supplement the existing Pershing > Kane > Gideon link), that’ll further allow the Pershing content to feel like setup for the Gideon (and thus Mandalore) plot.
• I know you like the Shadow Council scene where it is - and it is genuinely good there - but this might be better value for money. (Or perhaps it can be split in two, with the state of the empire in the earlier movie, and the requisitions part in this one).
• You might also be able to transition from the end of the Pershing storyline to a wide shot of the Gideon clones (maybe also the close shot of the one opening his eyes), to tell the audience ‘oh shit Gideon has clones’ before the Mandalorians find out. Then, when Mando discovers and destroys them, it’s a bit more of a thing than simply discovering and destroying them in one scene. Then, Gideon’s after-the-fact monologue about how angry he is that his clones died will feel a bit more relevant as we the audience have spent more time on that plotline.

Thank you both for the kind words. It’s been a privilege working with Acbagel, who has impeccable technical skill and a real eye for the fine detail of making each scene feel great.

Acbagel, I really think it’s worth considering making two films. Your early intercutting sounds great, I think you really could close out that sequence with the pirate king content, as it’s such a punctual high that changes the status quo and feels earned.

And while Pershing’s content isn’t massively linked to the main plot, it IS at least foreshadowing for the reveal of Gideon’s clones. I think it could intercut with the remainder of the season to create a fantastic second movie focused purely on the return to Mandalore and Gideon’s role in it. And plus, it would pad the time nicely between the pirate king stuff (we found a home on Nevarro!) with the following stuff (actually, we’d prefer a home on Mandalore!)

I really feel like if you got a rough cut of that together it’d give you the sense that the season really works nicely as two films.

I strongly urge you to consider this!

Thanks very much for the feedback! I’m very glad you’re enjoying it.

The remaining early Tartakovsky stuff (including Ilum) is next to be re-included. It actually WAS there previously, as the interlude in an episode grouped with the Forces of Destiny stuff. But I replaced that version with the new interlude pairing FoD with the TotJ episode, so it’s on the cutting room floor again, temporarily. It’ll be the next thing I pick up.

As for the Filoniverse cut not being self contained, I feel like that’s the compromise the viewer has to accept. To speed run the show, you must assume that other skipped stuff may be referenced. I don’t have the intention to create alternate openings, or generic ones that work either way, at least. The recommended version is the recommended one - Filoniverse cut is more of a bonus.

Hope you enjoy the rest!