EddieDean

And here’s the ending. Those credits took bloody ages, and I’m dreading recreating them fifty times.

There’s simply not enough concept art for this episode, so I’ve made the decision that all episodes in this show will feature a mix of concept art and other concept design like props and character models/costumes. It’ll be part of this show’s identity.

Either way, the ending can be found against episode S01E02 in my tracker.

I’m going to render the whole episode now as my first full complete release episode, version 1.0.

Then I’m having about ten G&Ts.

Right, and here’s the rebuilt intro for S02E02 Mandalore episode.

https://vimeo.com/496397592

With huge thanks to McFibb for his v2 of the intro music!

Please, as before, let me know how you think this flows, in terms of timings, and feeling.

Yes - thanks for all of your help with that. TSMUXER is what’s fixed it for me in the end. So after I’ve repaired episodes one and two, I’ll spend a day watching Always Sunny and running all my sources through that for video and ffmpeg for audio.

Unfortunately as to your nitpicks, I’m using the longest possible shots there. It’s one of the things I’m meticulous about - I cut the longest possible shots out of the track, to give myself the most possible to play with, then I trim them down if needed. So I think that that version of the sequence is as good as it can be. And as you say, it’s no worse than Clone Wars’ slightly less-than-perfect standard, so I think it’s forgivable.

I don’t feel like the music drops, though - and looking at it, that is the original track which played there. But I don’t think it warrants a repair.

I think I’ve fixed my video stream issues. I’ve recreated the complex bit from my S01E02 Mandalore episode, and resynced everything. I’d appreciate some validation on that clip. If that syncs right and has no framerate issues, then that’s the last technical issue solved, and I can get on with more episodes.

https://vimeo.com/496375038

Also, I’m a bit stuck on Bail Organa in my S01E01 Christophsis episode. I’m using his scenes and audio from Cat and Mouse in three places:

1. During Asajj Ventress’ fight with Obi-Wan and Anakin (originally from Hidden Enemy), bombers target Bail’s base, to make it seem like she was a deliberate distraction - I think this works because as soon as Anakin and Obi-Wan head outside they see a landing force has arrived, which emphasises they’ve been duped.
2. At the beginning to the main Christophsis plot from the movie, I take a scouting scene from Hidden Enemy and play Bail’s “help me” dialogue and then have Anakin and Obi-Wan talk about it. Again, I think this works, because you’re now reminded that (1) there’s a large ground invasion force coming, and (2) Bail’s still under pressure so there are emotional stakes.
3. At the very end, as Anakin and Ahsoka fly back from taking out the shield generator and arrive back at the main base, I cut in a shot of Bail saying “Thanks, you saved a lot of lives today” (originally the ending of Cat and Mouse). I don’t think this works perfectly. You can just about get over the fact that the background is a little different because it looks like Bail’s in shadow and there are shadows in the other surrounding shots. But it cuts right into Anakin and Ahsoka talking to Obi-Wan and Yoda without acknowledging Bail. I’d really appreciate if anyone could have a think about options here. I think ultimately if this doesn’t work, I’ll have to take out Bail altogether, cutting the previous two scenes too.

It’s something Movies Remastered has previewed but not released yet, but it does look very effective!

Oh nice, I didn’t know you were collaborating with other members of these forums. I really liked your Kylo’s scar heal edit, will you be making your shots available for other editors to use in their own edits, like Hal’s TROS Ascendent?

Right, there’s a rough cut of my S01E01 Christophsis episode on the tracker now too. Again, it’s not the release version, but it’s all of the cuts for the full episode. It has the right colour, but some framerate issues - I’m posting it in case people want an early opportunity to review and feedback. There’s one bit that doesn’t quite work, and a couple of bits that need more polish, I think, but I’ll see what you guys say.

Sorry - I meant the VFX! I don’t have a particularly trained ear for the AFX but it sounded perfectly natural to me.

Not really answering your question, but the wizards over at Star Wars Audio Comics have made their version of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6cC2rSblIE

No worries buddy! It’s a good trailer either way. Where did you get the crackly saber effect?

I’ve updated the tracker with a better review cut of the first Mandalore episode. This one still has framerate issues (though they’re not bad at all to my eyes), but importantly has fixed black levels, so its colours are correct. This is an end-to-end version of my cut of the episode, just needing the framerate fix and the intros and outros.

Same deal with the Christophsis episode is on its way too.

Sent.

Movies Remastered, we try to avoid any drama here. And that tends to include references to it unless we have to.

Since the Star Wars fandom has quite large and vocal pockets of toxicity and controversy, yet fanedits necessitate critical analysis and constructive disagreement, we naturally risk attracting that drama.

It’s not personal - we just have to be relatively vigilant, so that the community here can thrive.

It’s possible, but their canon voice has that pitch, and it appears that way in other media. I don’t want to have to edit their appearances in the prequel trilogy and rebels, and any possible future media which includes them. I think taking a holistic view to the Star Wars franchise as a whole, it’s best to accept all of the fabric as canon, but then to just minimise the annoyance on a case-by-case basis.

Hooray! Fixed my crushed black levels. Turns out that since I’m outputting using an AVC codec, it assumed studio levels, so automatically applies a studio to computer levels filter. So I just had to undo the manual application of the filter. I’m uploading that clip to replace the other one, it’ll be in my tracker about 15 mins after posting this message.

On to the framerates. If anyone has the slightest idea why the following might happen, please point me in the right direction:

• Mediainfo reads the original source mkv files as 23.976fps
• Mediainfo reads the ripped mp4 video files as 23.976fps
• In the media window of Vegas Movie Studio when selected, it recognises the files as 23.976fps (VFR?!)
• When I check the file properties in Vegas, it recognises the files as 25.000fps (greyed out)
• When the project settings and ruler are at 25.000fps, the frames align to the ruler
• When the project settings and ruler are at 23.976fps, the frames do not align to the ruler

Thanks sade. I’ve tweaked that second of your points to have his dialogue start after we see his mouth not moving.

On the first, I can’t make the shot longer, because it cuts immediately to Obi-Wan looking at a helmet directly then getting jumped. I had to keep those two shots together otherwise the jump comes too quickly interrupting Satine and Viszla. I’ve shifted the musical cue a little later though, so that the peak of interest from the audio comes as the helmet becomes obvious to the viewer, to draw our minds to it more. I think that’s about as far as I can take it, so I think that’s this episode as good as it can get. So long as there’s nothing in the existing content that people think absolutely does not work, I think this is the v1 version.

I now need to fix these bastard framerate and black issues, before moving on and finalising the opening and closing credits.

Sent.

I think I’ve cracked the Mandalore no-conveyor sequence! Take a look at the clip at the link for that episode in my tracker. It’s now the version of this scene which I mentioned above.

(As before, please excuse the frame issues and crushed blacks - I’ll try to fix these now.)

He calls her after seeing the armour but before getting jumped - so now he’s not deliberately putting her in danger. I changed his audio so instead of saying he’s in trouble or it’s urgent, he says “It’s the Death Watch”, which makes her get up from dinner. Then he gets jumped, and he’s fighting as she drives to him. Just as she arrives, she sprints down the corridor asking “Where are you?”, as he gets accosted by the second guy - which prompts him to reply with “Satine! Look out!” since he’s realised he’s brought her to danger. But since we’re following Satine on screen, we can then cut to Obi-Wan’s finishing blows on the Mandalorians, just as she appears.

It’s a quick version of that scene - but it essentially works as a prelude to the following scene rather than as a scene itself. It basically gets them quickly to the point of discovering the full encampment, which is a slower paced scene.

Thanks as always Sade.

Glad you spotted why I had to have the brief scene of Obi-Wan arriving on speeder where it is. There’s a little more tension if Viszla’s explaining shadowy forces when we don’t already know they’re active around the corner, so I needed something to split the two early scenes in his dining room (one standing, one seated). It’s a bit of a short shot but I don’t think it’s egregious, and it gives us more benefit than it takes away.

Glad you thought the cuts were clean (and liked the comedy background punching, which I thought was fun) - while I might not end up with this version, it’s good to know my skills are halfway decent.

I think I’ll try an alternate version of the no-conveyor scene as detailed above, where Obi-Wan doesn’t realise he’s drawing Satine into danger. I won’t have them randomly say “The boss will love his lightsaber” - we’ll infer that (since we already know the mine has multiple entrances), he forgot it in the chaos, and then Viszla picked it up and exited another way in time to face him.

The reason that I really want to remove the conveyor sequence if possible though is that it’s such a Bond villain idea. If you want to kill him, he’s unconscious, shoot him in the head (like Viszla does to one of his own guys later). It’s a plot driven by a silly decision, and I don’t want our first sight of Mandalorians in this show to be one that cheapens them.

Amazed that you spotted the elevator cut - that’s a very good eye. I’ve just had a play with that and actually it feels so much smoother without the SFX of the door opening that I’d put in. The SFX made it feel like one continuous scene chronologically, taking out that SFX allows it to simply be ‘shortly after’. Plus, you have fewer ‘events’ hitting your mind at the same time. One thing I’ve noticed from producing these first couple of edits is that I can strategise well and make decent cuts and transitions, but I don’t have a strong subjective feel for the results - my mind can do the ‘overall’ view and the ‘detail’ view, but is less good at the ‘natural flow’ view. All the more reason to iterate using feedback, and it makes those of you that’re actively giving notes all the more valuable, so thanks for your efforts.

The plan for Duchess of Mandalore is to play it (in its entirety I think?) a few episodes later. It feels like time passes by then, Satine’s a little settled on Coruscant.

TRACKER UPDATED

Hi folks, I’ve produced a new version of the tracker, listing all episodes, their status, and links to clips/finished episodes. PM me for a link.

Excellent feedback kerperlo, thanks! Detailed feedback like this is extremely useful. I’ll check over all of those. The quick cuts you mention are all part of the original episodes, though.

As for the 13:00-14:00 sequence (which is also the sequence in my clip above), if that doesn’t work for people that’s tricky, because this uses as much as possible without the conveyor belt. I wonder if there’s an alternative ordering which goes like:

• Obi-Wan explores the mine and sees the Mando equipment, but doesn’t get attacked
• He calls Satine at dinner, without implying he’s in trouble (instead we imply he’s calling her to show her the Mando kit in production)
• While she’s on her way, he gets jumped
• She arrives just in time to see him finish off the last couple of guys
  I could cut around the dialogue which refers to him losing his lightsaber, but Pre Viszla is still going to have it on his belt.

Knight of Kalee said:

EddieDean said:

Right, while letting other tasks do their thing, I’ve taken a closer look at the necessary cuts to the Malevolence arc - our episode four.

All of the wheat, none of the chaff. And Grievous got to be a savage who just got overwhelmed by superior firepower.

I’m really on board with your suggestion of trimming the arc in a way that keeps Grievous 😉

Haha, no worries. I don’t want to do anything too radical with these edits. As I’ve said before, I don’t want to break its relationships with other canon, though I don’t mind changing little things. For example in my Malevolence episode, having Abregado near to Naboo. (I don’t know if it is officially.) But I think changing the ordering, and cutting out certain sequences, are going to be necessary to make this a stronger show.

PMs sent. Nitpick it to bits.

There’s a full version of my Mandalore episode - but with crushed blacks and some frame sync issues - available by request if anyone would like it to review the story flow and cuts.

Not sure I follow kerperlo, regarding the Mandalorian, sorry.