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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
The bulk of Ahsoka’s development is in the first episode, the second is OK but slow, and the last is poor.
I had been thinking I’d switch Trench in for Grievous, and there is enough Trench dialogue to replace the key things (he says ‘I’, ‘on’, and ‘cannon’, so you can at least have him fire the Malevolence’s Ion Cannon), but I realised that if you’re keeping the focus on the first episode, it actually makes Grievous more badass rather than less. And Grievous needs to appear tougher.
I realised a way to make the final edited episode have more threat and heart is if we roll episode two’s attacks on the medical station into this one - plus make it multiple stations. So now, in the crawl, we establish that Grievous has a new flagship and has been destroying medical stations - that’s good and villainous but also strategic this early in the war - and no fleet that’s been sent to stop him has come back alive.
We establish that Abregado system (where he does the pod killings) is near to Naboo/Rendellia, and that he’s been spotted there. Plo goes to Abregado, we use some extra dialogue from episode three where he says “The droids are jamming our transmissions”, episode one plays out pretty much in full. After Plo is saved by Ahsoka, we see him and Yularen tell Anakin that he’s now in Rendellia where there’s another station. We cut to Plo and Ahsoka in episode three calling Luminara for support, and she says she’s on her way, as we see the Malevolence bearing down on the medical station, and the Kaminoan working on helping clones escape. But then we immediately cut to the end of episode two where the three Republic cruisers appear near the medical station, and the start of episode three where they do a lot of laser damage. We splice in Grievous getting into his ship, see Obi-Wan shout “Maximum firepower”, cut to laser fire, and simply have the Malevolence explode - we can cut from one of its smaller explosions to some clone admirals cheering. Grievous goes to hyperspace, we wrap up.
All of the wheat, none of the chaff. And Grievous got to be a savage who just got overwhelmed by superior firepower.
Oof, nice! I’ll try that out over the intro text and see how it feels.
That said, I’m really happy with the actual cuts. I’ve managed to remove the conveyor belt entirely, cut out the mini spiders, and cut out the bits where people are just wandering around in the cargo bay.
The conveyor belt scene took a major rework. You can see it in the clips in my previous post (though excuse any framerate issues.) It now goes:
I also found that the focus on Obi-Wan and Satine is much stronger when we don’t keep cutting away to the lower deck. Her scenes actually flow perfectly, so we get about ten minutes of really nice, deep, character building.
Now I’ve watched it in this format, I think this episode works great as our episode two for the theoretical first time viewer. Right away we get Mandalore, Death Watch, and the Darksaber. We get new layers to existing things: shades of grey within the Republic, new depth to Obi-Wan. And we end on Anakin killing a guy in cold blood with a smirk, which shows that this show is going to explore more of Anakin’s fall.
So I’ve just spent the day really enjoying doing the full Mandalore cut. I’m really happy with it. But technical issues are letting me down.
Rendered when the project is set at 23.976:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tM-wU5cE9WK-9IvZcVfV8hxF2n5w2uHk/view?usp=sharing
Rendered when the project is set at 25.000:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1udn2HmHR3y6JVBB7EyE54-iqBwHVDm3-/view?usp=sharing
I can’t tell if those have any blurring, duplicated frames, missing frames, or any other issues. I’ve turned off resampling for all media.
The other thing you can see there is that I have crushed blacks. I’m passing all media through the Studio RGB to Computer RGB default colour levels filter, which seems necessary because otherwise my blacks aren’t true black on starfields, titles etc. They’re dark grey. And weirdly, the render has the crushed blacks but the preview itself doesn’t, so I don’t know where in the process this issue’s emerging.
PM Sent.