- Post
- #1447286
- Topic
- The Clone Wars: Refocused [COMPLETE] + bonus Quinlan Vos episode by g00b!
- Link
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1447286/action/topic#1447286
- Time
I’ll PM you
I’ll PM you
All good thoughts. I’ll think about some tweaks with all of this in mind - though I am limited by how much space I have for the text, so often I have to pick the shorter option.
I used “Far side of the planet” to imply a long travel time (implicitly a more costly delay/distraction), but also to explain why they fight Ventress at night then return to the base during daytime.
Guys, this analytical feedback is impeccable and very much appreciated.
This episode will always end up a little janky just because of the source material available, but there are some excellent suggestions here.
Burbin, good shout on the redundancy of certain lines in the crawl. I could take back a little more flexibility there.
And that’s interesting on the audio. I did a lot of new audio work to keep it smooth, so it’s understandable that a few elements need tweaking further. I’ll fix a few noted places, but if it’s fully widespread I have an idea of why that might be, and know the fix.
One of the other motivations behind using that particular shot is that we don’t spend much time in space at all, but this way, the few shots we have all tell a clear narrative:
I think I agree with vranir, though, that we require a fifth ‘fleet’ shot
Noted, thanks djonesed and CMMAP. I’ll think further on these. What a tricky episode!
- Instead of opening with Republic ships taking fire, open with the speeder bikes. Your opening crawl already said that the Republic fleet had been forced to retreat to a medical station. If you want an establishing shot, maybe use one that only shows the Separatist ships in orbit?
This point raises some thoughts that are worth discussion.
Obviously a common rule of storytelling is ‘show, don’t tell’, and it’s one that Star Wars famously breaks with its opening crawls. In my edit, for reasons I’ve gone into extensively elsewhere, I need to rely on opening text for a lot of reasons, so I also have to break that rule - at least in a way that this franchise uniquely permits.
I had thought in this example that a nice dramatic scene illustrating one of the points in my opening text had value, actually showing the audience the retreat in spite of the opening text also telling it. But do we think that was unnecessary? An establishing shot would certainly be valuable (I’ve tried without, and the start feels a little flat in that instance), but do you think this was redundant? Showing the blockade above the planet would certainly follow naturally (if that footage exists), but would it be an improvement on showing the retreat so we can “feel” it more than just being told it happened?
I’m also interested in thoughts on the general case, here.
These are all good ideas, thanks for the lovely level of detail. I’ll give it a little while to gather more feedback, then I’ll give them all some serious thought.
…And while I’m at it, I’ve created a few more choices for the opening to s01e00 DARK FORCE RISING.
(I’ve just realised I’ve put a little video glitch in that third clip, but I’d fix it in the final version)
Let me know what you all think is best!
This is a radical recombination of all of the Christophsis content into something which basically serves to get us through Ahsoka’s introduction as quickly as possible. The movie was terrible, and its prequel episodes added little meat to them (beyond Ventress’ re-introduction, and the traitor clone plot I’ll use elsewhere), so this was really just case of making some necessary introductions as coherent and painless as I could.
Noteworthy changes:
I nearly renamed this to MASTER AND APPRENTICE, but I think at this point it’s important that we just tell the Audience ‘Anakin’s getting a new Padawan, get over it’ and nudge them into focusing on her character this episode.
Hooray! This episode is finally finished, and uploading now.
Having just watched it for quality control, I’m extremely pleased with how this has come together. The narrative flows and my scene ordering enhances it, the pacing is tight, and the sound is far smoother. There’re maybe a couple of beats that would prefer to linger a little longer, but I think it’s all as smooth as I can get it given my options. This episode has been my bane for a long time, so I’m very glad to have it in a state I can feel so comfortable with.
Looking forward to sharing this one with you all.
Right, well that’s nearly finished, and I don’t have anything in the way of getting it complete tomorrow.
I’d hoped to get it done today, but I’ve absolutely burnt out my brain by tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition.
Either way, the narrative is complete, the transitions are 99% complete, everything is in place. I’m rendering myself a QC copy I’ll watch tomorrow before putting any final touches through, then I’ll render the final version and watch it one last time before upload.
This one’s essentially the same story as the version already released, only without Bail. So it’s still not amazing. The first quarter is slicker, and now there’s only ONE army (the one that Ventress’ distraction helps land) so I cut a lot of fighting out of the middle, but most importantly, all of the audio is way way smoother, so it should feel way less choppy. Still not perfect, I don’t think, but as good as I reckon this episode can get.
Right, good editing session today, and I’ve got a couple more good opportunities this coming weekend too, so I hope to finish this next episode then.
I’ve been working on the v2.0 polish pass for s01e01 The New Padawan, which is my Christophsis episode (and the first proper episode of the series).
That one was already only barely holding together, but now that I’m a more capable editor, I’ve actually restarted the entire episode from scratch, including reviewing the original content for useful scenes and shots. It’s more work but totally worth it, and I’ll be very pleased to finally finally have this episode put to bed. I’ve gone through the first five minutes, which is actually nearer 70% of the effort for the episode, and it’s already far more polished now, with smoother audio, and the narrative makes far more sense.
Bail Organa didn’t quite work in this episode so I’ve taken him out, and for now I’ve cut my special cold open where we see Maul meet Mandalorians, which I’m not sure about but I’ll let you guys see what you think.
The crawl will do some heavy lifting to give context to the simpler start to the episode, establishing that:
We open the episode now seeing the Republic fleet flee (it’s our establishing shot before we join the ground action), then Anakin and Obi-Wan’s pursuit of Ventress IS the distraction which enables the Separatists to land ground forces. As they fight her, Yularen gets the call from Yoda and Mace saying they need to speak to Obi-Wan, but he informs them of the blackout. We cut back to Ventress, but after Anakin and Obi-Wan have dealt with that, we return to a second Yularen call where he’s told that, since it’s urgent, they’ve sent a messenger (who implicitly can bypass the blockade since it’s just one ship, to get around their comms blackout). I use some nice alternate footage to actually show Ahsoka arriving, so this is all nice and smooth. We’ll learn in the next episode that the urgent issue was the destruction of clone medical stations by Grievous, which Obi-Wan takes point in.
It’ll kinda be two stories at once, but it’ll be worth a try at least. Won’t break any other episodes, in the worst case.
Hmm.
Thoughts on a possible episode to fit into season two, to give a bit more character balance in a season that slightly needs it:
I’d considered the fun romp of Zillo Beast, despite having some problems with that episode (a useful ion weapon never seen again, plus Palpatine’s malice), but on review it doesn’t feature Ahsoka so it doesn’t satisfy the goal of what I’m looking for in this slot.
The other that I’d considered was Innocents/Liberty of Ryloth, which gives us a bit more tie-ins to later media but isn’t super strong on its own. That doesn’t feature our main guys BUT-
I’ve always liked the crash from Jedi Crash (on Maridun). It’s a great action sequence, Anakin gets injured, and Ahsoka looks after him. That’s a nice bit of growth, though I’d want to trim the episode heavily and mostly ignore the natives (and definitely skip the following episode with the goofy separatist attack). Thematically it would fit with season two, where the impact of the war hits the further corners of the galaxy.
I wonder if I could merge the above two? If I do, it’d definitely end up as two parallel plots, rather than two related plotlines, but it’d give us all our focal characters, and the jeopardy for both storylines could be enhanced by the implicit absence of the other characters. Perhaps the skies that the Jedi cruiser crash in are the skies of Ryloth, with the emergency escape jump that Anakin and Ahsoka take taking them off that battlefield and to a neighbouring planet/system. Then Obi-Wan’s and Mace Windu’s actions would be implicitly strained by the absence of the reinforcements. I might need to do some work to tie the plots together a bit more tightly though, or at least have them reference each other.
I’m not certain this idea is workable, but I think it’s the only worthwhile idea to pursue to potentially satisfy a couple of goals that I have for that part of my series. Worst case, I’ll find I can’t do it, and I’ll just retain Innocents/Liberty as a bonus episode.
I’ll check it out (far later).
(That said, am I moving too far away from established canon by using some of these ideas? I don’t want people to consider TCW:R too deviant to consider it a viable ‘true’ alternative to TCW. I’m not trying to produce ‘an experiment’ with this series, I’m trying to produce ‘TCW if it was made today and with hindsight’)
Hm, yeah, the file itself does look fine to me. I rendered it on the right settings, and watched it on my TV as a raw file before release in 1080 without noticing a stutter.
As CMMAP alludes to, it’s always best to download first rather than streaming from Google Drive.
Ooh, here’s another one:
Lair of Grievous isn’t an episode I’m looking to include in any major way, but its two strengths are (1) showing Grievous’ home lair, and (2) some of Grievous’ viciousness, especially when he kills Nadar.
I was wondering if I could incorporate any of that somewhere - perhaps as a scene to precede a Grievous-heavy episode, and one that follows him taking some damage.
One place it could potentially go is at the start of Massacre, where he’s very fervent about destroying the Nightsisters (even though he’s not encountered them onscreen and their main rival in the show thus far is Dooku). You could establish that, in revenge against Dooku, the Nightsisters have leaked key information to the Jedi order, including the location of the hidden base of Dooku’s top General, Grievous. The Jedi have tracked and attacked Dooku, and now pursue him as he flees. That justifies Grievous seeking repair, and we can get in his furious attack on Nadar. Now, his vengeance on the Nightsisters is also personal. This leak could also be the reason that the Jedi peacefully meet with the Nightsisters later after Maul’s return, which I could also play up. It could also help explain why we don’t see the Separatists much in my season two, if they’re responding to a few implicitly major leaks.
Minor idea:
As part of my restructuring of the first season, I’d been toying with the idea of bringing the scene where Ahsoka gets reprimanded for failing her military command and assigned to Guard duty (for her Felucia failiure at the start of the Holocron arc) to a little earlier - maybe the preceding Duchess of Mandalore episode.
However, I’ve realised that I could use it in context to conclude her Ryloth episode, where she also has a major command failiure. It would help justify why we don’t then see her for a couple of episodes too.
I’ll check that out when I get near.
Hi Vidmaster.
I remember! Your insights would be most valuable. I’ve sent you a link to the tracker spreadsheet so you can see the progress and have access to the download links.
The current status is that I’ve completed three seasons out of five, that’s 30 episodes out of 50, to version 1.
Practically, that means that you could choose to start watching now, and you’d have a good few ahead of you.
However, I’ve just completed the planning and started the execution of a fairly large ‘polish pass’, editing all completed episodes up to version 2.
For the vast majority of episodes, they won’t need much polish. Mainly it’s just light cleanup. However, two things to note:
(1) There are a few early episodes which might need more in depth improvement (Christophsis, Malevolence, and Ryloth), which you might decide are best to see in their v2 form as they’ll be ‘more final’ then.
(2) As part of this polish, I’ve also reordered some episodes. For the most part this shouldn’t matter too much, BUT some of their opening crawls reference each other, so until I’ve gone through and polished up all of those crawls, they might feel a little out of order. As I go through the crawls I’ll also be adding some extra useful information to tighten up the seasonal narratives, which again, you might get more value from if you wait.
So it’s totally up to you of course. I think, if I were in your position, I’d choose to wait for the v2s of each episode. Whether you choose to watch each v2 as I release them, or decide to wait until I’ve released more v2s so that you can binge a few in order, is your call, but your reviews will be most welcome either way.
I’ve just released the first episode to v2 standard (episode zero, DARK FORCE RISING) if you feel like kicking off now.
Not to be too Testing about it - and I know there’s been a “FanFix” category of fanedits since time immemorial - but can we collectively stop referring to completely subjective changes as ‘fixes’? Fixes are what Adywan does when he corrects an accidental visual mistake or continuity error, not what’s being done when an editor consciously moves a film away from what was originally intended. Both are totally valid, and half the fun of being in this community is seeing everyone’s very different takes on what can be made from the same material, but surely if there’s anything that’s apparent from the discussions on this website, it’s that there’s a wide variety of opinions about what people do or don’t enjoy or “want to see” in each Star Wars movie.
+1 for more inclusive language
It is a weirdly direct way of asking the question. “Rey whOOo?” It’s aggressive.
That’s why I’d like to remind everyone that we do have the right audio in the right tone to have her snappishly answer “None of your business, that’s who!”
I see what you’re saying. Yoda narration scenes instead of intro text, then smash into TCW:R logo, episode title, then opening scene on coruscant. Worth a play.
Oh, that’s great that you thought the Yavin clone removal was clean, that was definitely the most technically difficult fix I’ve ever had to make. He’s responding to different stimulus originally, there’re some minor clothing changes I needed to mask, I had to zoom a shot to hide the absence of an object in it, the audio needed to slide all over the place, and then after working that out I needed to grab the audio I’d created, export it, add new sound effects which I had to time right, and reinsert it. A proper surgical operation!
I’ve started editing with the audio coming out of my TV (with soundbar) at max volume, rather than my PC speakers, so that I can pick up on the audio a lot more clearly, and ensure it’s high quality even when someone views the episode with high volume.
It is a rather flat opening, you’re right, and I do see the value in maintaining the Yoda intro, both for its charm and as a bookend. I’m interested to see what people think here, but to me, the overriding value in cutting it was that this episode really is now a part of TCW:R, not a standalone thing. It’s here to be tonally consistent with TCW:R and to focus on TCW:R’s characters - not Mon Cala, Dantooine, etc. Those cut shots exist to say “There’s a war on many fronts”, but now that this is episode one of a longer show, we actually see many fronts in the war in our first season.
Perhaps it does feel a little jarring though because we start right in the office - maybe at least a Coruscant establishing shot might ease us into it a little more smoothly.
We also really need to see the droid army really doing damage to Theed (and its people). As it stands, there’s like one tank and about five droids that we see there. The final conflict in TPM should have been in Theed, not in the featureless fields. The entire Gungan plotline is skippable.
I totally respect that perspective, it’s certainly the least important scene of the episode.
The reason I think it’s worth keeping (in that position) is twofold:
This is very much a side thing and way lower priority than anything else, but I’ve also been playing with the idea of turning both Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones into TV-length episodes as a season zero. So essentially this show would emcompass the entirety of the prequel era, as an accessible mixed-media episodic show, that was consistent with (and additive to) canon, but focusing on telling the highest quality coherent story.
The huge advantage of this approach is that chopping into episodes and maintaining my opening text means that I can keep certain plot points offscreen and recontextualise and clarify more of the movie content, and allow us to focus only on the best and most necessary content.
That said, I’d fit all of that around the existing show, rather than the other way around. I don’t want that to be mandatory, and I’d far prefer if my TCW:R allows the viewer to slot in their preferred versions of the movies.
Right, just done a bit of extra thinking on the structure of my last couple of seasons. A bit of shifting I think really tightens up the whole of TCW into neat, digestible, thematic arcs.
There we go. Five seasons. Pretty much bang on ten episodes each, without having to force it. Tight, thematic seasons that flow right, and fit into and develop the wider war. A balance of characters each season, and tight character development per season. The best plotlines set up early and constantly developed throughout. Optional bonus episodes. I think this is it.