Eyepainter

Just removed a few minor things from the first 20 minutes. The last two lines during Kylo Ren’s first meeting with Palpatine, “She is not who you think she is.” and “Who is she?” have been taken out in continuity with my Episode VIII edit. The way I edited the Kylo/Rey dynamic in the previous film implies that Kylo already knew who Rey’s family was, so he doesn’t need ol’ Palpy to confirm this. This means that the final line in the opening Palpatine scene is now “End the jedi, and become what your grandfather, Vader, could not.”, placing a lot more emphasis on Kylo’s motivation by the end of the scene.

I’ve taken out Rey’s parroting of Leia’s line, “Nothing’s impossible…” So now, the conversation begins with Leia saying, “Nothing’s impossible.”, followed by Rey adding on, “But around the training course.” Same point, but with less repetition.

I also decided to remove Rey’s “Never underestimate a droid.” line during the Pasaana chase, along with Rey’s “Not now, BB-8!” So now, the whole “never underestimate a droid” bit is out of my edit. I still have BB-8 being useful during the chase, though.

CaptainFaraday said:

I think there’s two directions you could go with it:

One, you leave as much of Finn in as possible in the Crait Battle. That’s basically what I did - I cut it all down as much as possible, but I didn’t really change any of Finn’s parts. If you have a look at my workprint you’ll see how I handled it (and I can always send it to you at native resolution if you wanted, but I’m working in DVD quality, which I think is lower resolution than you are).

Two, you go the other direction, and trim as much of Finn out as possible. This would gel with him being absent from the rest of your edit; treat him like Rose in TROS, a main character in the previous film, now a minor Resistance character.

Or, if you want to split the difference down the middle, keep him in the Crait Battle as much as possible, but leave his suicide run out entirely. Poe tells everyone to pull back, then the next time we see him is back inside the mine talking about the vulptexes. Since he’s absent from your version, his suicide run isn’t the thematic resolution to a journey he’s been on, so leaving it might feel weird.

Just did an exhaustive re-edit of the Crait battle, and so far, I’ve gotten it down to mostly Finn, with Poe occasionally mentioning something important. Still, I’d love to take a look at your workprint just in case I’ve missed something (Which I might have). Oh, and it’s okay if it’s in DVD quality. My computer is running out of storage space at the moment.

CaptainFaraday said:

With the “two endings” thing, I found that extremely truncating the speeder battle on Crait helps a lot. You’re not asking the audience to emotionally engage in a third big battle with fresh stakes all over again, and, it keeps the energy up briefly while saving the emotional investment for Luke vs Kylo.

I like this idea, and in some other edit, I think it would work very well. However, because of what I’ve done with Finn (he’s resurrected just before the little transports fly off for Crait in my version), the speeder battle is now the only scene where he gets to do anything. I don’t feel comfy cozy removing a lot of stuff from that battle and giving Finn nothing to do on Crait.

Maybe I can salvage it a little by placing as much of the focus on Finn (and bringing back some of the footage of him that I’ve deleted so far), while leaving everyone else during the speeder battle on the cutting room floor as much as possible. I would still have to come up with an explanation for Rose crashing into him, though. Maybe I can turn it into an accident with some careful editing.

I’m not sure if it’ll work, but I’ll give some time to entertain this train of thought.

Just made a few more tiny changes to the opening space battle. I’ve cut out the last remnants of Poe waiting for the X-Wing to charge up so he can take on the dreadnought. It wasn’t needed that much, and I don’t think anyone will miss it that badly.

I’ve also taken out the lines, “He’ll never penetrate our armor.” and “He’s not trying to penetrate our armor. He’s clearing out our surface cannons.” These two lines are a little too exposition-heavy, and our focus needs to be more on Poe at the moment.

I’ve also trimmed the shot of all the bombs dropping out of Paige’s ship by a few seconds so that it doesn’t drag too long.

sade1212 said:

I’d love links to your edits as well (and/or workprints) when they’re available, please. The changelist has a lot of cuts I’d enjoy seeing how you’ve executed.

The workprints are available. They’re incomplete, unpolished, and I’m still making changes even now, but they do give you a general idea on where I’m going with the sequels. I’ll send you a PM shortly. If you catch anything in the plot that needs improvement, feel free to let me know. 😃

The Star Wars Purist said:

Replace all the flyby sounds with variations on the “Mario’s going to fly for you” airplane sound.

Biggs: Ow! I hit my nose!

Just did some more research on 35mm film color, and I came up with a bit of an idea for the color grading again. I’m not sure if I’ll go along with it, but I’ll post some screencap comparisons when I find the time.

I decided to do something a little… Unusual. I exported my edit to an MP4 file, then I started a new editing project on DaVinci Resolve, added the MP4 file, and started reworking the edit by moving the Yoda scene. This gave me a quick and easy way to access both the original and HAL9000/Poppasketti ideas for Yoda’s scene. I sat down and watched the HAL/Poppasketti version, which moves the Yoda scene to just before the Crait battle. Here are my thoughts at the moment.

The second half of the film has been the most challenging part of the edit so far. A lot of this has to do with the film’s unusual structuring job. In most movies, there’s only a need for one final showdown, not two. Unfortunately, there’s no way to really fix that gaping issue, because the first ending takes you into the second ending. So, my hope was high that moving the Yoda scene might fix that issue. And to my disappointment, it didn’t.

I don’t think it’s a bad change, per se. Moving Yoda’s moment does an interesting job at making a lot of things take place over the course of one night, which strangely enough, gave the film a faster pacing. I was surprised that Luke’s scene when he wakes Leia up from her coma actually worked well, especially since it’s placed after the “caretaker village sequence” deleted scene I’ve added in. The end of that scene, where Rey gets mad at Luke for abandoning “some old failed husk of a religion” gives the next scene, where he communicates with Leia, some much-needed character development for Luke.

And yet, the whole thing just felt so… Off. Like I said, the edit still suffers from the hair-pulling double ending, and I’m not sure there is a way to fix it even with the placement of Yoda. I suppose the advantage is that the two endings now take up roughly the second half of the movie, while previously, it took up the last 45% of the film, but the structure still feels a little messy. I think I’ll go with the HAL/Poppasketti arrangement, but I’m not gonna call it a life saver for the movie. I’ll see if I can come up with more ways to fix the structure of the film before I commit to the HAL/Poppasketti arrangement.

Blueffalump said:

A more radical edit of Rise of Skywalker? Yes, please!

I just rewatched Hal’s Ascedant cut (V1) and while I feel that it’s a huge improvement and possibly close to the best a conservative edit could do, there were still way to many moments of me not caring at all or just rolling my eyes heavily. At the very least a third of the movie felt like dead weight to me, if not more. Getting rid of a lot of the jokes and sidequests and keeping the focus on the Kylo/Rey dynamic seems like a great idea, as the latter was the only part I found interesting. So I’m very curious about your version.

I hope it lives up to your expectations! 😃 I’ll be happy to send you a PM when it’s released.

Anakin: You’re a Jedi Knight, aren’t you?
Qui-Gon: What makes you think that?
Anakin: I saw your laser sword. Only Jedis carry that kind of weapon.
Qui-Gon: I killed a Jedi and took it from him.
Music stops. Cut to reaction shot of Anakin.

While I’m still thinking about what to do with Yoda, I’ve moved General Hux’s exposition-heavy scene regarding why the First Order can’t blow up three tiny cruisers to another spot. The original placement occurred rather awkwardly, because it occurs after Leia gets blowed up real good. I’ve moved Hux’s scene to the beginning of the battle, just after Poe gets permission to “jump into an X-Wing and blow something up.” This placement feels more natural, and with my removal of the flying Princess Leia moment, Leia and pals getting the explosion treatment becomes the end of the scene, throwing quite an emotional impact on the audience.

Well, that was faster than I thought. Turns out all I had to do was remove Snoke’s long speech about how Kylo won’t change and how he can sense Kylo turning the lightsaber and blah blah blah blah blah. It’s nowhere near as polished as HAL9000’s edit, especially without the musical cue, but I’m not HAL, and I don’t consider myself an expert at those kinds of musical tricks. As long as it works, and it gets the same point across, it’s good.

Another thing I’m reflecting over after watching HAL’s edit of VIII is where to place Luke’s meeting with Yoda. If you watch the workprint, it’s the theatrical placement, right after Rey leaves the planet. HAL9000 took a different approach by moving that scene to just before the Crait showdown. It works for HAL, because his approach was geared more towards Luke Skywalker. However, it may not work so well for my edit due to the more ambiguous tone I plan to set for the ending. My ending isn’t quite as centered on Luke, and gives things more of a “cliffhanger” feel due to leaving the plot of Rey and Kylo up in the air by the time the credits roll.

I also wanted to move the scene where Luke uses the force on a hospitalized Leia to just after Luke’s meeting with Yoda, showing the beginning of his change (Something that another fan editor did, but I can’t remember who, unfortunately). Moving the Yoda scene near the Crait battle scraps that idea, because Leia is no longer unconscious by that point in the film.

I’m torn on this one. On the one hand, I can see how moving that scene would be nice for structural reasons, but I’m not sure it works for the direction I have in mind for my edit. I’m curious about what others think. Should I rip off HAL again, or stick with the theatrical direction?

Artan42 said:

I’d say that addresses my issues, especially Starkiller Base. It looks better on the skintones as well.

Good to hear! Thanks for the advice. It was very helpful.

Just watched HAL9000’s fan edit of TLJ, and I liked the approach to

Snoke’s death

enough that I wanted to try a similar thing with my edit of VIII. I’m not sure how I’m gonna do it, but I’ll think of something.

Back from work. As promised, here are the screencaps I’ve assembled for Jakku, Starkiller Base, and jolly old England. The top example is the previous grade, while the bottom example is the correction. Click on the spoiler tag below to see what’s changed.

Change Rey’s final line in TROS to “Rey Lannister.”

Can I have a link as well?

Artan42 said:

I think the colour grade is an overall improvement, I’ve never been a fan of the technical side of Abrams’ films (colourgrade, too fast cameras, weird zooms, etc.).

There’s some that look off, Jakku looks too much like Tatooine when it’s more yellow than orange (orange, red, and yellow are the only ways of distinguishing between Tatooine, Geonosis, and Jakku), Starkiller base looks far too green (the exterior) for me personally and the naturalistic lighting on the last picture makes it look too much like England.

Overall it works on every other scene.

You make some good points. Although Jakku has always been Tattooine 2.0 for me (For better or for worse. Mostly worse). I never saw the difference between yellow and orange on Jakku and Tattooine. They both looked similar to me, with the difference being that one is less sandy than the other. The reds of Geonosis, however, those I see clearly.

Anyway, I think most of your criticisms can easily be resolved by increasing the reds and blues in the white levels of the image. I’ll make that adjustment now, and when I get a day off or two from my job, I’ll be happy to throw in some more screencaps.

Changes updated!

I suppose now is a good time to talk about the color grading. Because I’ve been working on that too while checking for any other little details I might have missed.

I decided to try a similar approach as I did with my Terminator 2 fanedit. I was pleased with the way the color grading turned out for that edit, and I was planning on doing a similar thing for the sequel trilogy. That is, doing a LUT with a powergrade. I’ll let these YouTube videos explain the basics:

https://youtu.be/mt4FMClxhbc
https://youtu.be/PchQ0fWGUR0

These sequel trilogy fanedits will also be the first time I’ve used DaVinci Resolve’s all-new “HDR DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate” color processing mode. I’ll let this YouTube video explain the boring stuff:

https://youtu.be/uuoZzF8vB8g

As explained in the above video, this is a good alternative to LUTs. Back when I announced the workprint, I mentioned that I used a Kodak D55 LUT for Episode VII. This is no longer the case, as I had a lot of trouble working on the color grading. So, I’ve ditched the LUT for DaVinci Wide Gamut instead. My apologies for those with the workprint, but it wasn’t working for me. Grading has been much easier for me with the DaVinci Wide Gamut.

One last thing I should mention is that I’ve added a fifth node to the four node process mentioned by Mononodes in YouTube video #1. The fifth node is midtone detail. I loved cranking that sucker up for Terminator 2, and it made the edit look extremely detailed.

For comparison, here’s what my powergrade looks like without the MD:

…And here’s the powergrade with the MD set to 100:

I will be comparing my color grading with the 2016 blu-ray, as that’s the version I own. Overall, I don’t think the changes will be gigantic, as I thought the blu-ray looked good enough. The only difference is that I wanted to make it look more film-like. So, I got Puggo Grande’s 16mm preservations of the OT, and looked at them for reference. Episodes V and VI looked way too red, so I stuck with Episode IV for reference. I went all the way for starters, but it looked too blue, so I’ve adjusted that and made the black levels only faintly blue. I also went and adjusted the white levels towards the slightly green side as best as I can. Then, I raised the gamma for the finishing touch. Most of the screencaps will demonstrate the bluer and greener sides of my color grade, so keep that in mind while looking at the comparisons.

Here’s the blu-ray:

Here’s my personal spin with all adjustments accounted for:

You will find the remaining comparisons in the spoiler tag below. The blu-ray example is the top example, and my adjustments are the bottom example. Let me know what you think, and if anything needs improvement (gulp).

Took out two of Kylo Ren’s lines due to changes I’ve made to the plot. The first line I’ve removed is “The girl I’ve heard so much about.” Mainly because the part where he learns about her doesn’t exist anymore in my edit. The second one is “…We have the rest. Recovered from the archives of the Empire, but we need the last piece.” This was done to fix a plot issue that came about thanks to my removal of Rey resisting Kylo’s force probing. Taking that line out means that neither the Resistance nor the First Order get a complete map of where Luke is. So the Skywalker map Kylo Ren gets out of Rey is incomplete, and he can’t do anything with it.

I’ve decided to say, “Screw it!” and take out Rey deciding not to sell BB-8 to Unkar Plutt. I also decided to go through the sound editing and take out Rey’s lines, “In the morning you go.” followed by “You’re welcome.”

I believe that removing this makes Rey just a little bit more of a jerk, which will tie in well when we find out about her family history in the later films. It also means that she’s not as perfect in the ethics department, moving her away from the Mary Sue issue surrounding her character.

Mrebo said:

I did this quick edit just to see the gag but I think it’s too jokey. I’m on the fence whether to keep that single Jar Jar moment at all, in its proper place, but definitely cutting the first tongue shot. I go between not liking the antics and thinking a Gungan creature is not theoretically a bad idea that can work if toned down.

https://streamable.com/mhwxv4

I’m leaning towards getting rid of that Jar Jar moment. I even cut that joke out of my own edit because (like a lot of Jar Jar moments) it distracts from the main focus of the scene, which is on Anakin and Qui-Gon in this case (and occasionally, Shmi and Padme).

Just watched my edit in full. I think the restructuring works. I’ll update the changes list sometime when I’m not working my day job.

Next, I’m thinking about removing Rey’s decision to not sell BB-8. It doesn’t seem to me like it adds much to Rey’s character (other than to make her look like a goody-two-shoes protagonist. Even then, I think that’s a problem, especially since we find out in Episode IX that

she’s a Palpatine).

The only problem now is that the remaining exposition about Rey waiting for her family makes for a very short scene, and my main concern is that it might be too short. So I’m torn between keeping a scene that may be better left on the floor, or risking messing with the flow and timing. I guess I’d like a second or third opinion on this dilemma.

oojason said:

Temporary lock. When I have time tomorrow… I’ll sift through the PMs in my inbox - and then the forum threads - supposedly with politics or offensive posts in.
 

Edit: thread unlocked.
 

Not much doing at all - though please knock it off with the politics…

Just in case some members have forgotten:-

“No politics; only light discussion of current events is permitted, and only in the Off Topic section”

Thank you. 👍
 

Understood.

Make the OT and PT come full circle by removing the Ewoks and substituting them with the Gungans.

Anakin Starkiller said:

CaptainFaraday said:

Eyepainter said:

Change the official logo of the resistance to a swastika, and digitally add one to the sleeve of every member of the resistance.

We may have just topped my Israel-Palestine idea for the actual worst edit idea in this thread.

No, Israel and Palestine is worse because it’s:

A) Current

B) Not an overused internet punchline

I object to the Starkiller’s statement! Overused internet punchlines will always be worse.