Thanks for all the feedback! I agree with everyone that changing the backgrounds of some shots would clear up the continuity issues, but I’m afraid that’s a bit beyond my abilities.
RogueLeader said:
it is really hard not to show Tarkin’s face in that first scene, but what if you instead you just try to limit how much you show his face
Broom Kid said:
The only real problems with digital Tarkin are the lighting (he’s a little TOO translucent and starkly lit, he should be flatter) and the way his mouth moves unnaturally
My objections to the CGI aren’t just limited to how bad it looks, but more so the fact that Peter Cushing is dead and couldn’t consent to the process (whatever his estate approves). It just feels incredibly violating to me to have your visage commodified by a corporation long after you have any control over it. I think their insistence that they are honoring his performance is a little rich considering that they recast two other roles whose faces weren’t as distinctive. If they truly valued his acting they could honor it by giving the role to another fine actor to interpret (Guy Henry’s real face and all).
(Also just trying to cut down his face is a losing battle; they already limit it a great deal and the shooting and editing style in his scenes changes a fair bit to accommodate this). Really, editing him out partially or completely is going to look rough without additional coverage. (All that extra footage in the trailers and almost none in the scenes I needed!).
RogueLeader said:
As Tarkin turns to deliver the line about the “rather talkative cargo pilot”, this is when you cut…
All of these are good ideas, but the problem is that it’s all match cuts as he moves around Krenic, and cutting it down just make it look like he’s telporting. Some of your ideas are somewhat different than what I tried, so I’ll give them a go.
Cut the “You have made time and ally of the Rebellion.” line and shot.
This is a good idea, I remember doing it and then reverting it. I think because the music pulses a bit here it was a more obvious cut, but I might be able to finesse it a bit.
Then, after Krennic turns to face Tarkin, you could cut to the close-up of Krennic that you slowed down. “I will not fail.”
The neat thing is I took a shot of Krennic from the trailer of him just staring, color matched it to the later footage in the final film and smoothed the gap between the two by abusing Resolve’s “smooth cut” feature.
For the next Tarkin scene, I don’t think you really need the extra shot you added in that has continuity issues. I honestly think you could jump cut from the shot of Krennic stepping forward to the shot of him turning around and it wouldn’t feel that strange. I at least think it would be better than if you kept that additional shot that is from an entirely different scene.
That would just be a jump cut; the shots are framed basically identically. I could do a big zoom on the second shot, but it’s still missing time of him turning so you couldn’t get a match cut out of it. I originally had another shot of the technician working the controls here, but the fact that I do this quickly again made it obvious he was filling a gap.
I like the way you had Tarkin’s following dialogue in the next scene as VO. I think it works well here.
Thanks, there’s really no other way to handle this scene other than making Tarkin a hologram or a audio waveform on the Death Star screen, which is beyond my skills.
The scene where Tarkin wants to speak to Krennic, I think you should just end that scene with Tarkin asking if the plans are on Scarif and the officer replying yes. Ending the scene there would be enough to infer what he is going to do, and we don’t need to know that he is “informing Lord Vader”. Vader can just be a surprise at the end of the film. Another reason to do this is because you’re forced to overuse that one wide shot and it is noticeable.
I think I tried to do this but the audio wouldn’t cleanly cut; maybe the center bled into the stereos or something to do with the music length? I might see if there’s a way around it.
If you keep Leia’s face concealed (Broom Kid made a very fair point about it!), maybe you could add the sound of R2’s wheels getting closer to Captain Antilles, which will help the audience assume that he is right there with him and Leia when she delivers that line.
Smart move.
Also, I don’t think you need the quick shot of the rebels pulling the plans back out and saying, “Let’s go!”. Just showing the plans transmitting (and hearing it say ‘transmitting’) is enough to know what is going on. I just assume those are some rebels on the Profundity who don’t make it off alive, and they’re transmitting it to the Tantive IV.
Yep, that’s how it should look like (and what makes sense within the context of the first film and presumably similar to how it was going to be before the reshoots.) The reversed footage actually looks pretty good. I think I needed the 2nd shot for length, but that was before I added that closeup of Vader, so I might be able to cut it now.
I don’t know if you’re using wipes throughout, but I think having the fade-to-white just fade back onto the Tantive IV flying away from the Profundity would work as well if you decided not to use wipes too. It just feels a little out of place there to me because wipes typically imply time is passing, and you don’t really have wipes in the middle of battle.
I actually like the idea of some time passing here, because it makes more sense for the Tantive to be some distance away. I do think a fade might work better, how does this look?:
https://vimeo.com/364437724 pwd: originaltrilogy.com
BedeHistory731 said:
Now that you’ve moved 3PO and R2 to the end, would you consider cutting out their Yavin appearance?
Yeah, if I can do it cleanly that makes sense.