Skybatman said:

Eyepainter said:

Skybatman said:

Eyepainter said:

Skybatman said:

Yeah, so how finished is your fan edit ?

There’s no timetable for when it will be finished, but I think it’s safe to say that I’m more than halfway there. I’ve gotten all the major changes down for the actual edit, and it’s looking like the final runtime is going to be a short and sweet 91 minutes. All that I’m changing at this point is the tiny nitpicky stuff. (Such as whether the pause at the end of this shot is too long, or whether that line can be safely deleted with no impact on the rest of the film, etc.)

With that said, there’s still quite a lot of work to do. I’m still educating myself on Davinci Resolve, and I’m still learning about color grading since the lesson is nearly 2 hours in length. However, I did manage to pick the Blackmagic 4.6K Film to Extended Video v4 LUT a couple of days ago to give the HD file I’m using an extra quality boost. I will probably make some more improvements once I’ve made it through the lesson, but for now, the movie looks good enough.

Subtitles are good, but not perfect. I decided to change the lines a little from the theatrical version since some of those lines are bad. I’m currently using the Franklin Gothic Demi Cond font with a stroke of size 3 to make it more readable. However, as of this posting, they don’t fade in and out like they do in the theatrical version. I’m fine with it this way, but getting the subtitles to behave like they did before would be a nice little extra. I’m gonna try out TheAlaskanSandman’s advice and see if that makes the subtitles fade in and out.

Sound editing is a lesson I haven’t watched yet, and I’m still a dunce on that subject. However, I have learned how to use crossfades in the audio transitions, and when they work, it’s nice. But I do need to get around to learning how to sound edit. Most of the dialogue from the droids, and those annoying whoops and yippees from Anakin Skywalker need to be removed. And soon. There’s a tutorial on sound editing on Davinci Resolve, but like the color grading lesson, it’s a long one.

Video transitions are also incomplete. I watched a youtube video on how to make wipes and transitions look more like something out of Star Wars, but I haven’t done it yet. I might consider trying that next.

Lastly, there’s the opening crawl. That’s been the biggest pain in the ass. I’m currently using Blender to get the opening crawl rewritten, and I obtained a custom crawl creator from a fanedit.org user named DigModiFicaTion. But it’s been a headache, and special effects are not my forte. I’m trying to watch some YouTube videos on how to do it, but I still suck at this.

So yeah, the main stuff is done, but a lot of the more technical stuff is still a work in progress.

Aliens like Jar Jar and Nute Gunray, they getting subtitles ? Anakin will continue as the chosen one ?

If I wanted to make this movie worse, yes, I would give Jar Jar and Nute Gunray subtitles. I do not wish to make it worse, and therefore, Jar Jar and Nute Gunray have no subtitles. The main reason I’m changing the subtitles is because some of the lines are really bad. For example, Anakin and Sebulba’s little trading of insults before the podrace begins is, and I quote:

“You won’t walk away from this one, you slave scum!”

…And…

“Don’t count on it, slime ball.”

Even in 1999, those exchanges were cliched beyond belief. Changing them up to make them more original is a good idea.

As for Anakin being the chosen one, there is little I can do about changing it (with the exception of getting rid of the midichlorians, which I can do). Anakin being the chosen one is such a big deal through the entire prequel trilogy (Especially when you get to Revenge of the Sith) that changing all of it is impossible. One of the more humbling lessons I’ve learned while editing Episode I is that you can’t get rid of every bad thing. Even in the better fanedits (Like HAL9000 and l8wrtr) there are things that I wish had been taken out. My version is not immune to this, either. It’s just that the prequels were that problematic. So, my goal for this edit is not to write a checklist of everything that was good and bad and erasing the bad out of existence (although that is a noble pursuit). My goal is to create the most complete narrative that I can possibly make. Bringing everything together under necessity and probability, or at least, getting as close as I can to that. I believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and if my fanedit makes for a better whole than what we got theatrically, then I’ve done my job.

Your edit your rules man, When will you release the full change list?

Hard to say. The original film had a running time of 136 minutes, and since my edit is only 91 minutes as of this post, that’s 45 minutes’ worth of changes. The list could fill a novel at this point. Plus, I still have to work on sound editing, so I don’t yet have a clear idea on what dialogue and sound effects will be removed until I’ve had some training on Resolve. I’d guesstimate that it’ll be released at the time when it’s all done. By that point, I’ll have a pretty clear idea of what’s in and what’s out. Even then, writing down all the changes is gonna be long and exhaustive.

Skybatman said:

Eyepainter said:

Skybatman said:

Yeah, so how finished is your fan edit ?

There’s no timetable for when it will be finished, but I think it’s safe to say that I’m more than halfway there. I’ve gotten all the major changes down for the actual edit, and it’s looking like the final runtime is going to be a short and sweet 91 minutes. All that I’m changing at this point is the tiny nitpicky stuff. (Such as whether the pause at the end of this shot is too long, or whether that line can be safely deleted with no impact on the rest of the film, etc.)

With that said, there’s still quite a lot of work to do. I’m still educating myself on Davinci Resolve, and I’m still learning about color grading since the lesson is nearly 2 hours in length. However, I did manage to pick the Blackmagic 4.6K Film to Extended Video v4 LUT a couple of days ago to give the HD file I’m using an extra quality boost. I will probably make some more improvements once I’ve made it through the lesson, but for now, the movie looks good enough.

Subtitles are good, but not perfect. I decided to change the lines a little from the theatrical version since some of those lines are bad. I’m currently using the Franklin Gothic Demi Cond font with a stroke of size 3 to make it more readable. However, as of this posting, they don’t fade in and out like they do in the theatrical version. I’m fine with it this way, but getting the subtitles to behave like they did before would be a nice little extra. I’m gonna try out TheAlaskanSandman’s advice and see if that makes the subtitles fade in and out.

Sound editing is a lesson I haven’t watched yet, and I’m still a dunce on that subject. However, I have learned how to use crossfades in the audio transitions, and when they work, it’s nice. But I do need to get around to learning how to sound edit. Most of the dialogue from the droids, and those annoying whoops and yippees from Anakin Skywalker need to be removed. And soon. There’s a tutorial on sound editing on Davinci Resolve, but like the color grading lesson, it’s a long one.

Video transitions are also incomplete. I watched a youtube video on how to make wipes and transitions look more like something out of Star Wars, but I haven’t done it yet. I might consider trying that next.

Lastly, there’s the opening crawl. That’s been the biggest pain in the ass. I’m currently using Blender to get the opening crawl rewritten, and I obtained a custom crawl creator from a fanedit.org user named DigModiFicaTion. But it’s been a headache, and special effects are not my forte. I’m trying to watch some YouTube videos on how to do it, but I still suck at this.

So yeah, the main stuff is done, but a lot of the more technical stuff is still a work in progress.

Aliens like Jar Jar and Nute Gunray, they getting subtitles ? Anakin will continue as the chosen one ?

If I wanted to make this movie worse, yes, I would give Jar Jar and Nute Gunray subtitles. I do not wish to make it worse, and therefore, Jar Jar and Nute Gunray have no subtitles. The main reason I’m changing the subtitles is because some of the lines are really bad. For example, Anakin and Sebulba’s little trading of insults before the podrace begins is, and I quote:

“You won’t walk away from this one, you slave scum!”

…And…

“Don’t count on it, slime ball.”

Even in 1999, those exchanges were cliched beyond belief. Changing them up to make them more original is a good idea.

As for Anakin being the chosen one, there is little I can do about changing it (with the exception of getting rid of the midichlorians, which I can do). Anakin being the chosen one is such a big deal through the entire prequel trilogy (Especially when you get to Revenge of the Sith) that changing all of it is impossible. One of the more humbling lessons I’ve learned while editing Episode I is that you can’t get rid of every bad thing. Even in the better fanedits (Like HAL9000 and l8wrtr) there are things that I wish had been taken out. My version is not immune to this, either. It’s just that the prequels were that problematic. So, my goal for this edit is not to write a checklist of everything that was good and bad and erasing the bad out of existence (although that is a noble pursuit). My goal is to create the most complete narrative that I can possibly make. Bringing everything together under necessity and probability, or at least, getting as close as I can to that. I believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and if my fanedit makes for a better whole than what we got theatrically, then I’ve done my job.

Skybatman said:

Yeah, so how finished is your fan edit ?

There’s no timetable for when it will be finished, but I think it’s safe to say that I’m more than halfway there. I’ve gotten all the major changes down for the actual edit, and it’s looking like the final runtime is going to be a short and sweet 91 minutes. All that I’m changing at this point is the tiny nitpicky stuff. (Such as whether the pause at the end of this shot is too long, or whether that line can be safely deleted with no impact on the rest of the film, etc.)

With that said, there’s still quite a lot of work to do. I’m still educating myself on Davinci Resolve, and I’m still learning about color grading since the lesson is nearly 2 hours in length. However, I did manage to pick the Blackmagic 4.6K Film to Extended Video v4 LUT a couple of days ago to give the HD file I’m using an extra quality boost. I will probably make some more improvements once I’ve made it through the lesson, but for now, the movie looks good enough.

Subtitles are good, but not perfect. I decided to change the lines a little from the theatrical version since some of those lines are bad. I’m currently using the Franklin Gothic Demi Cond font with a stroke of size 3 to make it more readable. However, as of this posting, they don’t fade in and out like they do in the theatrical version. I’m fine with it this way, but getting the subtitles to behave like they did before would be a nice little extra. I’m gonna try out TheAlaskanSandman’s advice and see if that makes the subtitles fade in and out.

Sound editing is a lesson I haven’t watched yet, and I’m still a dunce on that subject. However, I have learned how to use crossfades in the audio transitions, and when they work, it’s nice. But I do need to get around to learning how to sound edit. Most of the dialogue from the droids, and those annoying whoops and yippees from Anakin Skywalker need to be removed. And soon. There’s a tutorial on sound editing on Davinci Resolve, but like the color grading lesson, it’s a long one.

Video transitions are also incomplete. I watched a youtube video on how to make wipes and transitions look more like something out of Star Wars, but I haven’t done it yet. I might consider trying that next.

Lastly, there’s the opening crawl. That’s been the biggest pain in the ass. I’m currently using Blender to get the opening crawl rewritten, and I obtained a custom crawl creator from a fanedit.org user named DigModiFicaTion. But it’s been a headache, and special effects are not my forte. I’m trying to watch some YouTube videos on how to do it, but I still suck at this.

So yeah, the main stuff is done, but a lot of the more technical stuff is still a work in progress.

Skybatman said:

Did you gonna edit the full prequel Triology or the full saga ?

Just the prequels.

I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to look through all the LUTs on Resolve. It’s a long story, but I’ve chosen one. If you want the long explanation, read through this. If you don’t like the suspense, skip to the last two paragraphs.

The biggest issue I’ve had with the Schorman preservation file is that the brightness is a little too high. Blacks look like a very dark gray, even in space. This became even more obvious after I switched over to the anamorphic file. The generated black areas on the top and bottom gave it away. So, I knew that I needed to choose a darker LUT to fix the brightness issues. However, this came with its own set of problems, because a lot of the darker LUT’s I found had an overabundance of color saturation. The color on these LUT’s were so high that they were bleeding out. Queen Amidala’s red dress and the lightsaber effects were two big casualties of the oversaturation and could potentially burn your retinas if you looked at them too long.

So, my ideal LUT was going to be one that was dark, but not too colorful. With those two criteria, I found that the two sections of LUT’s that worked the most were Resolve’s signature Blackmagic LUT’s or the “film look” LUT’s. I was tempted to try the “film” LUT’s so that the movie would look more cinematic. Plus, they were the least colorful LUT’s of the lot. Unfortunately, the film LUT’s had extreme contrast issues in several scenes (The force was not strong with the sands of Tattooine, my friend). So that meant I was stuck with the Blackmagic LUT’s.

Of those LUT’s, the v4’s met my ideals the best. Eventually, I went into a toss-up between the 6K Film to Extended Video v4 and the 4.6K Film to Extended Video v4. The 4.6K won out in the end because the 6K looked a little more washed out than the 4.6K. So unless there’s a better alternative, the Blackmagic 4.6K Film to Extended Video v4 is my official LUT source for now. The blacks look very black, which is nice. And the color saturation is balanced well enough, being somewhere between faded and colorful at the same time, if that makes any sense (In the dinner conversation, for example, the browns of Tattooine look faded and pale, yet the skin tones look rich). I would try using multiple LUT’s, but that would take weeks, possibly months. So, I’m just gonna be lazy and stick to this one until further notice. Besides, I’m more worried about the edit itself than I am with how pretty it looks, and this LUT looks good enough.

I’m going to be excruciatingly busy at work this weekend (I’m talking getting up at 4:30am busy), so I won’t be working on the fanedit this weekend. I will resume on Monday when the craziness that is my day job passes.

Got my re-edit done last night. The movie looks better now that it’s anamorphic (although I’m using a 1366 x 768 screen, so the difference is subtle on my computer). I’m gonna try to learn about color grading and fidget with the color LUT’s today (and I say try, because I have to get my car in for a fix, and the color grading lesson is longer than my fanedit).

I’ve been playing around with the cross fades for audio transitions, and while they’re not a cure-all for every choppy audio edit I’ve made, they’ve made my day when they work.

TheAlaskanSandman said:

Eyepainter said:

TheAlaskanSandman said:

Eyepainter said:

TheAlaskanSandman said:

I’ll see if any possibilities of getting the deleted scenes in HD are available, but for now, they’re in DVD quality until further notice. Sorry, folks. I tried. Still, if there’s another way to improve the quality, I’d be happy to know about it. Feel free to let me know if you have a solution.

There is currently only one project im aware of that is upscaling them, but hasn’t responded back or posted anything in while. They’re using Topaz to upscale them, and look great so far. I have Topaz but need a better Graphics card to handle it. If you’re having problems running Mp4 in resolve then you would def need an upgraded Graphics card too. It does 4k and looks great so if you’re interested and feel like trying, i think its worth the purchase.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Prequel-Trilogy-Deleted-Scenes-AI-Upscale-a-WIP/id/78092/page/1

It’s okay, Sandman. I already posted this, but I’ll repeat myself. I forgot to download the audio track. I’ve gotten that taken care of, so the problem is solved. Now, my main concern is re-editing my version with the HD file I’m using (Which is almost complete, thankfully). Once that’s done, I have to start learning how to use Resolve and get the sound edited, the opening crawl changed, The color graded, the transitions fixed, the subtitles looking Star Wars-y, and so on.

No problem, its just an alternative to the great work Hal has done so far. All of us are running off the Hal versions for now, but especially with the 4k releases there is a need for some for an even crisper, cleaner upscale.
As to Sound editing and color grading in resolve, there are many great youtube videos or webpages i have found that are very helpful in explaining how to export in surround sound or edit and color grade. A lot of people like to use color luts and i believe there are some available in the community. So some options there.
As far as the opening crawl changed, best option imo is a blender template someone on the forum created. It keeps the scale and fade, etc all right as the text scrolls off into the horizon. Blender is a free open source project. There are many other alternatives though and the option of seeking help from some one with Blender.

Ive no suggestions for subtitle fixing as im not even there yet in my own edits. Im stuck on vfx work. There is a technical section of the forum though where you may find help or answers.

Well, my training and education is beginning to pay off, since I figured out how to do subtitles in Resolve. As it turns out, all you need to do is right click above the video timeline and click ‘add subtitle track.’ Then, you just add subtitles in the timeline wherever you need them.

Okay, that’s the easy part. The hard part is getting them to look right. I went to the track style tab and I set the font to “Franklin Gothic Demi Cond” for the time being. It looks good enough, but if I can find a better font, I’ll use that instead. However, I’m still wondering how to make the subtitles fade in and fade out like they do in the prequels. That’s been a pain so far.

Oh ok, i thought you were trying to redo hardcoded subtitles. As far as fade in. Can you put the subtitles as a different track from your video? If so, just export the subtitle track with subs against black screen. Then re-add them into the project and set composition mode to screen. Then on the tracktime line, grab the corners and bring them in to create the fade

(when adding things as a screen, the black in the video will be removed and only bright colors remain.)

I’ll see if I can do that as soon as I finish re-editing the anamorphic file I’ve switched over to. As of right now, though, there are only two things I’ve changed. The first is that I’ve turned on the stroke and set it to 3. I’m not sure if that looks like something out of Star Wars, but the black halo around the letters makes it easier to read, especially in bright backgrounds. I suppose the only concern I have with trying your method is whether the text will be too bright after the black is removed.

The second thing I’ve changed is the wording on some of the lines. As it turns out, there are two things I have full creative control on. The first is the opening crawl, and the second is the subtitles. Unless you are well versed in Huttite (Which I’m not, by the way), I’m confident I can get away with changing a couple of lines from the subtitles. That taunt between Sebulba and Anakin before the podrace can be changed into something far less cliched (“You won’t get away with it this time, you slave scum.” and “Don’t count on it, slime ball.” haven’t aged well).

…Aaaaand in another act of unbridled stupidity by yours truly, I just realized I forgot to edit the film anamorphically.

Let me explain.

When I obtained the Schorman preservation files for the prequels, I converted Episode I to DNxHD without using my head. I converted the file as is without looking at the other options. So, I’ve been editing Episode I in a 16:9 format with black areas on the top and bottom of the frame without a care in the world. Until now.

Now that I looked at the options again, I found out there is an option to crop the black areas off and stretch the movie to a 16:9 format. Then, I can unsqueeze it using the 1.3x anamorphic option in Resolve. Not only is the anamorphic file smaller (38GB as opposed to 47GB for the unsqueezed version), it also means that the file is at the highest quality possible, since all that’s being used is the actual movie (much better than the movie and 25% black on the top and bottom).

On the bright side, this means that the video quality will get another upgrade. The bad news is that the new file hasn’t been edited yet, and I’m gonna have to go through the process of editing the film again. Hopefully, the process should take a few days (provided my job doesn’t take too much of my time). My apologies for that, but there’s a silver lining to this problem.

TheAlaskanSandman said:

Eyepainter said:

TheAlaskanSandman said:

I’ll see if any possibilities of getting the deleted scenes in HD are available, but for now, they’re in DVD quality until further notice. Sorry, folks. I tried. Still, if there’s another way to improve the quality, I’d be happy to know about it. Feel free to let me know if you have a solution.

There is currently only one project im aware of that is upscaling them, but hasn’t responded back or posted anything in while. They’re using Topaz to upscale them, and look great so far. I have Topaz but need a better Graphics card to handle it. If you’re having problems running Mp4 in resolve then you would def need an upgraded Graphics card too. It does 4k and looks great so if you’re interested and feel like trying, i think its worth the purchase.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Prequel-Trilogy-Deleted-Scenes-AI-Upscale-a-WIP/id/78092/page/1

It’s okay, Sandman. I already posted this, but I’ll repeat myself. I forgot to download the audio track. I’ve gotten that taken care of, so the problem is solved. Now, my main concern is re-editing my version with the HD file I’m using (Which is almost complete, thankfully). Once that’s done, I have to start learning how to use Resolve and get the sound edited, the opening crawl changed, The color graded, the transitions fixed, the subtitles looking Star Wars-y, and so on.

No problem, its just an alternative to the great work Hal has done so far. All of us are running off the Hal versions for now, but especially with the 4k releases there is a need for some for an even crisper, cleaner upscale.
As to Sound editing and color grading in resolve, there are many great youtube videos or webpages i have found that are very helpful in explaining how to export in surround sound or edit and color grade. A lot of people like to use color luts and i believe there are some available in the community. So some options there.
As far as the opening crawl changed, best option imo is a blender template someone on the forum created. It keeps the scale and fade, etc all right as the text scrolls off into the horizon. Blender is a free open source project. There are many other alternatives though and the option of seeking help from some one with Blender.

Ive no suggestions for subtitle fixing as im not even there yet in my own edits. Im stuck on vfx work. There is a technical section of the forum though where you may find help or answers.

Well, my training and education is beginning to pay off, since I figured out how to do subtitles in Resolve. As it turns out, all you need to do is right click above the video timeline and click ‘add subtitle track.’ Then, you just add subtitles in the timeline wherever you need them.

Okay, that’s the easy part. The hard part is getting them to look right. I went to the track style tab and I set the font to “Franklin Gothic Demi Cond” for the time being. It looks good enough, but if I can find a better font, I’ll use that instead. However, I’m still wondering how to make the subtitles fade in and fade out like they do in the prequels. That’s been a pain so far.

Just made it through part 1 of how to use fusion. It’s mostly a George Lucas inspired fever dream, so I don’t plan on using it for much, but I might find a use for it with the subtitles. For now, though, let’s talk about some more changes.

Entering the Spaceport…

There isn’t much to change with this scene. It’s mostly Qui-Gon describing the place, and its purpose is to get us to Watto’s shop. The only thing worth cutting out in this scene is Jar Jar stepping in poop. This is where Jar Jar really does start to get on everyone’s nerves.

Hello, my name is Anakin.

The first thing I’ve removed from Watto’s is Qui-Gon telling Jar Jar not to touch anything, as well as Jar Jar sticking his tongue out at Qui-Gon, and playing around with the droid. But in between, we are introduced to a kid named Anakin Skywalker.

Much like Jar Jar, there is nothing I can do to remove this kid. In fact, it’s even worse because unlike Jar Jar, whose purpose is served near the end of the 2nd act, Anakin takes up a lot of the storyline of this film. Wait, I take that back. He takes up a lot of all 3 movies. Trying to get rid of Anakin is impossible. So what I’m doing is essentially what every other fan editor is doing: making Anakin a better character. Or at least, the best he can be.

We start with Anakin’s “Are you an angel” talk with Padme. I know, it’s a badly written scene, but it’s the only way to introduce this kid. I’ve kept this talk in full, save for one tiny change. In the version we’ve all seen, Anakin says “They live on the moons of Iago, I think.” I’ve cut the last two words out, because it makes him seem a little dumb. Now he says, “They live on the moons of Iago.” Which makes him sound more confident and decisive. Otherwise, the rest of the dialogue stays. However, Jar Jar’s antics with the droid at the end of the scene have been cut.

On the matter of Republic credits.

This scene is where Qui-Gon starts to destroy his likability as a character. As the movie goes on, Qui-Gon starts to use some tactics that seem very… Unlike the jedi. I get that he is supposed to be different from the others, but some of those actions have been deleted to improve his character. Him using the jedi mind trick on Watto is the first to go. Because getting some junk dealer to take your republic credits that won’t benefit him in the slightest seems very out of place for a jedi. And don’t talk to me about Episode IV where Obi-Wan uses the mind trick on the stormtroopers. That scenario is different, because it’s a life-or-death situation, and the stormtroopers are out to kill whoever has the droids. Watto, despite being one of the bad guys on Tattooine, is just making his way in the galaxy in this scene.

With that rant over, everything else in this conversation is in.

Leaving Watto’s shop

There’s another Jar Jar moment in here that I’d like to get rid of, but I have a bad feeling that it won’t. It’s a shot of Qui-Gon telling his fellow group that they’re leaving, but here’s Jar Jar being a clumsy idiot in the background. I can’t get rid of Jar Jar stumbling about. However, I have tried my best to make it less annoying. I cut the really cartoonish KER-PLOP at the end of the shot. I’ll see what I can do about this as I learn more about Resolve. If you know of a way to get rid of this moment of clumsiness from Jar Jar, feel free to let me know how.

I’ve also removed Jar Jar’s inability to figure out which direction to go even though Qui-Gon, Padme, and R2 have all turned left.

Outside of Jar Jar’s foolishness, I’ve removed the last two shots where Watto tells Anakin to clean the racks as they’re just filler. Plus, it’s an easy way to get rid of Anakin’s first “Yippee!” from the film. The scene now ends with Anakin telling Watto, “They seemed nice to me.”

Do you have anything to barter with?

The scene where Qui-Gon communicates to Obi-Wan about what they can trade for a T-14 Hyperdrive has no changes made to it whatsoever. It’s short and sweet. You can argue about how they could’ve looked for another dealer, but there’s no way I can edit that plot hole out of existence, even with the tools I have.

TheAlaskanSandman said:

Eyepainter said:

TheAlaskanSandman said:

I’ll see if any possibilities of getting the deleted scenes in HD are available, but for now, they’re in DVD quality until further notice. Sorry, folks. I tried. Still, if there’s another way to improve the quality, I’d be happy to know about it. Feel free to let me know if you have a solution.

There is currently only one project im aware of that is upscaling them, but hasn’t responded back or posted anything in while. They’re using Topaz to upscale them, and look great so far. I have Topaz but need a better Graphics card to handle it. If you’re having problems running Mp4 in resolve then you would def need an upgraded Graphics card too. It does 4k and looks great so if you’re interested and feel like trying, i think its worth the purchase.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Prequel-Trilogy-Deleted-Scenes-AI-Upscale-a-WIP/id/78092/page/1

It’s okay, Sandman. I already posted this, but I’ll repeat myself. I forgot to download the audio track. I’ve gotten that taken care of, so the problem is solved. Now, my main concern is re-editing my version with the HD file I’m using (Which is almost complete, thankfully). Once that’s done, I have to start learning how to use Resolve and get the sound edited, the opening crawl changed, The color graded, the transitions fixed, the subtitles looking Star Wars-y, and so on.

No problem, its just an alternative to the great work Hal has done so far. All of us are running off the Hal versions for now, but especially with the 4k releases there is a need for some for an even crisper, cleaner upscale.
As to Sound editing and color grading in resolve, there are many great youtube videos or webpages i have found that are very helpful in explaining how to export in surround sound or edit and color grade. A lot of people like to use color luts and i believe there are some available in the community. So some options there.
As far as the opening crawl changed, best option imo is a blender template someone on the forum created. It keeps the scale and fade, etc all right as the text scrolls off into the horizon. Blender is a free open source project. There are many other alternatives though and the option of seeking help from some one with Blender.

Ive no suggestions for subtitle fixing as im not even there yet in my own edits. Im stuck on vfx work. There is a technical section of the forum though where you may find help or answers.

As for everything outside of Blender, Resolve has its own training video links in the program. I just about finished the cutting stage save for a few cuts here and there that I’d like to improve on. Once that’s done, I’m spending a couple of days educating myself. I’ll probably be talking about further changes I’ve made during that time, since I have nothing better to do.

TheAlaskanSandman said:

Eyepainter said:

TheAlaskanSandman said:

I’ll see if any possibilities of getting the deleted scenes in HD are available, but for now, they’re in DVD quality until further notice. Sorry, folks. I tried. Still, if there’s another way to improve the quality, I’d be happy to know about it. Feel free to let me know if you have a solution.

There is currently only one project im aware of that is upscaling them, but hasn’t responded back or posted anything in while. They’re using Topaz to upscale them, and look great so far. I have Topaz but need a better Graphics card to handle it. If you’re having problems running Mp4 in resolve then you would def need an upgraded Graphics card too. It does 4k and looks great so if you’re interested and feel like trying, i think its worth the purchase.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Prequel-Trilogy-Deleted-Scenes-AI-Upscale-a-WIP/id/78092/page/1

It’s okay, Sandman. I already posted this, but I’ll repeat myself. I forgot to download the audio track. I’ve gotten that taken care of, so the problem is solved. Now, my main concern is re-editing my version with the HD file I’m using (Which is almost complete, thankfully). Once that’s done, I have to start learning how to use Resolve and get the sound edited, the opening crawl changed, The color graded, the transitions fixed, the subtitles looking Star Wars-y, and so on.

No problem, its just an alternative to the great work Hal has done so far. All of us are running off the Hal versions for now, but especially with the 4k releases there is a need for some for an even crisper, cleaner upscale.
As to Sound editing and color grading in resolve, there are many great youtube videos or webpages i have found that are very helpful in explaining how to export in surround sound or edit and color grade. A lot of people like to use color luts and i believe there are some available in the community. So some options there.
As far as the opening crawl changed, best option imo is a blender template someone on the forum created. It keeps the scale and fade, etc all right as the text scrolls off into the horizon. Blender is a free open source project. There are many other alternatives though and the option of seeking help from some one with Blender.

Ive no suggestions for subtitle fixing as im not even there yet in my own edits. Im stuck on vfx work. There is a technical section of the forum though where you may find help or answers.

Ahhh, Blender. That program has given me many a headache (and perhaps a PTSD flashback or two). I’ll see if I can find some instructions on the template because I have no idea what I’m doing when I use Blender.

TheAlaskanSandman said:

I’ll see if any possibilities of getting the deleted scenes in HD are available, but for now, they’re in DVD quality until further notice. Sorry, folks. I tried. Still, if there’s another way to improve the quality, I’d be happy to know about it. Feel free to let me know if you have a solution.

There is currently only one project im aware of that is upscaling them, but hasn’t responded back or posted anything in while. They’re using Topaz to upscale them, and look great so far. I have Topaz but need a better Graphics card to handle it. If you’re having problems running Mp4 in resolve then you would def need an upgraded Graphics card too. It does 4k and looks great so if you’re interested and feel like trying, i think its worth the purchase.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Prequel-Trilogy-Deleted-Scenes-AI-Upscale-a-WIP/id/78092/page/1

It’s okay, Sandman. I already posted this, but I’ll repeat myself. I forgot to download the audio track. I’ve gotten that taken care of, so the problem is solved. Now, my main concern is re-editing my version with the HD file I’m using (Which is almost complete, thankfully). Once that’s done, I have to start learning how to use Resolve and get the sound edited, the opening crawl changed, The color graded, the transitions fixed, the subtitles looking Star Wars-y, and so on.

I’m nearing the end of my HD re-assembly of Episode I. I will update everyone when I’ve gotten through the rough cut. In the meantime, here’s some more info on the changes.

Darth Maul has entered the chat

I’ve kept Darth Maul’s intro scene… Mostly. I’ve cut out a few lines. The first line I’ve removed is Palpatine’s “I want that treaty signed!” Next line is Nute Gunray’s cowardly line, “My lord, it’s impossible to locate the ship! It’s out of our range!” And the third line I’ve taken out is sadly a good line. Palpatine’s “Not for a sith.” is a pretty spooky comeback, but having taken the previous two lines out of the conversation, it’s out of place and doesn’t serve a purpose. I’ve also cut this scene shorter. The scene ends with Palpatine’s “he will find your lost ship.” followed by the end of their transmission. So now the Neimoidians “This is getting out of hand! Now there are two of them.” and “We should not have made this bargain.” are both gone.

Would a queen thank a droid?

As I’ve mentioned in earlier postings, I took out R2 saving the ship. Since it’s gone from my edit, the scene with Amidala thanking R2-D2 for the repairs is even more useless (Not that it was ever useful to begin with). It’s gone.

Introducing Padme

The scene with Padme cleaning up R2 and meeting Jar Jar Binks is also gone. It’s just Jar Jar recapping everything that’s happened to him (You know, in case no one was paying attention). I don’t see the point in keeping it in. Deleted.

Landing on Tattooine

There isn’t much to delete in the ship’s landing on Tattooine. The only two changes I’ve made are at the end of the sequence when Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, and R2 are walking to the nearest city in Tattooine. Jar Jar’s complaining about how the sun is murdering his skin has been cut. I’ve also taken out Panaka’s second usage of “wait.” The first “wait!” got the point across. There’s no need to repeat the word.

Alright, now with the deleted scenes problem solved, I think it’s time to discuss some more changes.

Flying away…

So, the next Jar Jar moment I have deleted is on the ship. Obi-Wan tells Jar Jar to stay out of trouble where all the repair droids are. He says hello to R2 and pals and… That’s it. I see no reason keeping this, and I’m willing to bet everyone else feels the same. So now, the first scene inside the ship is Qui-Gon entering the cockpit.

R2’s “hero” moment

This is one scene where I’m making a dramatic departure from the other fan edits. All three fan edits that I’ve taken inspiration from have R2 saving the ship from it’s “shield generator” problem, and our heroes escape from the blockade thanks to everyone’s favorite droid. The HAL9000 edit has this. The l8wrtr edit has this. Even the famed Phantom edit has this. I do not have this.

Here’s my issue. As I mentioned in my background, I’m following two rules that I learned from Aristotle’s Poetics. To make everything necessary, and to make everything probable. R2 saving the ship is in violation of that first rule because at the end of the day, it affects nothing. All that happens is that the ship gets damaged anyway, and everyone has to go to Tattooine for parts. So, R2’s contribution ends up being unnecessary.

On top of that, it also ruins the tension. (How many times have I said this?) Having R2 save the ship makes everything easier for our heroes to escape, but if you take it out, everything becomes much harder. Now, in my edit, not only does the shield generator get hit, not only are the shields down, but they don’t have enough power to get to Coruscant because the hyperdrive is leaking. In the theatrical version, the ship gets away from the blockade because it was saved by a droid. In my version, the ship gets away from the blockade out of sheer luck.

Bottom line: It’s unnecessary. Doesn’t contribute anything to the plot. Let’s give the ship a beating.

Hey, here’s that planet you remember from Star Wars!

I’ve made no changes to the discussion on whether the crew goes to Tattooine or not. Mainly because it’s one of the few moments in the film where the logic makes sense. Tattooine isn’t controlled by the federation, but it is controlled by the Hutts. The Hutts aren’t looking for Amidala, so even though it’s far from ideal, it’s better than landing on a federation planet. Can’t argue with Qui-Gon’s logic in this scene.

Hal 9000 said:

I know it’s not ideal. It was just what I had leftover from what I was doing.

That’s alright. I feel stupid, but after getting the deleted scenes synced up, and adjusting the aspect ratio settings to their correct format, I have to say they look really nice now. Thanks again!

Hal 9000 said:

The audio files are separate, and are in a separate folder. SD video files are included for sync reference.

Alright, my mistake. I’ll go find them.

I have another update. I finally got to download the HAL9000 upscaled deleted scenes, and… There’s no soundtrack. The files are as silent as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. So, I decided to pull out my DVD files again and see if EaseFab could convert them to DNxHD. They went through, but the quality is obviously not 1080p. Still, it’s better than nothing at the moment.

I’ll see if any possibilities of getting the deleted scenes in HD are available, but for now, they’re in DVD quality until further notice. Sorry, folks. I tried. Still, if there’s another way to improve the quality, I’d be happy to know about it. Feel free to let me know if you have a solution.

Well, since I haven’t talked about changes lately, I think now’s a good time to return to that.

Sleeping with the fishes…

When I last left our heroes, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Jar Jar met Boss Nass. Now, we approach an entirely useless grouping of scenes where they travel underwater and get attacked by a bunch of fishes. Yeah. I’m cutting those scenes out in their entirety. I’m not even saving Jar Jar’s supposed character background about how clumsy he is. Not that anybody cares about that. The whole thing is unnecessary, so what’s the point of keeping it in?

Scheduled invasions and naive queens…

Somewhere in between the above mentioned useless scenes is one that I’m having a debate over. In this scene, the Neimoidians are talking with Sidious about the invasion being on schedule, how the senate will have no choice but to accept the invasion, and how Queen Amidala is young and naive. This is an exposition heavy scene, and on the one hand, I suppose it might have some useful info for the audience. And I also think the mention of Queen Amidala being young and naive adds a bit of superiority to the villains, since it implies they know how to deal with this situation better than the queen. But on the other hand, it’s a scene that is so boring and filled with a lot of stuff about the senate. I’m sorta leaning towards deleting it, but it’s currently a toss-up for now.

However, if I do choose to keep this scene, I have still removed the last two lines, “you did not tell him about the missing jedi”, and “no need to report that until we have something to report”. These two lines make the Neimoidians look like idiots, and anything to make these guys smarter is a good thing.

Feel free to express your thoughts on this scene.

Invasion

It says a lot that this scene now occurs 10 minutes into the movie, as opposed to 20 minutes in the theatrical cut. We’re now in this scene in about half the time.

So, I have kept the droids taking over the palace, as well as Amidala by herself as the droids invade outside the window. However, I’ve taken out the short conversation with the Neimoidians and the droid about how the queen has been captured. I think the previous visuals made that point clear already, so the two lines “Viceroy, we have captured the queen”, and “victory” are out.

I’ve also removed the stairway scene where the Neimoidians talk about the treaty with Amidala and how she won’t cooperate and how the Neimoidians tell her she will cooperate when she sees the suffering of her people and blah blah blah. Yeah, it’s a boring scene, and it does nothing but give us more political dialogue we never asked for. And in case you’re wondering, the droid dialogue in this scene is also gone because I removed the whole scene.

Escape from Naboo

So Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Jar Jar arrive at the palace. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan make their move, jump down and attack the droids while Jar Jar just… gets caught in something and starts yelling about it. I’d like to remove that Jar Jar bit, but the shot in question is the only one that shows Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan jumping off. I do plan to learn sound editing on Resolve soon enough, so there’s a good chance I could remove Jar Jar’s annoying yells during that shot. In fact, I’ve cut out Jar Jar’s annoying line “Meesa got bombat” or whatever he was saying at the end of the confrontation. I have no idea what he said, and I don’t care.

I’m keeping the moment where Qui-Gon talks with the governor about what’s happened. However, I’m taking out the line, “We’re ambassadors for the supreme chancellor” because I intend to change the opening crawl so that Chancellor Vallorum isn’t the one who sends the jedi, but the governor. This places less emphasis on the senate, and more emphasis on Naboo, which is where the central focus should’ve been on from the start (Not saying it’s perfect, but at least there’s no “taxation of trade routes”-level boredom going on).

Before Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon slice up some more droids and free the pilots, I’ve made quite a few changes. The first change I’ve made is the removal of Qui-Gon’s line, “won’t be a problem”. That line ruins the tension instantly. If the jedi aren’t worried about this, then it only stands to reason that we aren’t worried about this, since we’ve been following these two since the beginning. The governor’s line “They wouldn’t dare” has also been removed, since it’s a pointless and cliched line. I’ve taken out most of the end of this conversation, since it doesn’t get to the point. I started off by taking out Amidala’s horrible line reading “Either choice presents great danger… To us all” and took everything else out until Amidala says “Then I will plead our case to the senate.” That gets the point across much faster.

As for the actual confrontation with the droids, I decided to rip off the l8wrtr edit here, take out all of the droid’s indecision, and go straight to the droid saying, “You’re under arrest.” Straightforward, and to the point. With that said, pretty much all of the action that happens in this scene is intact. I would cut out more from this scene if I could, but I can’t find anything so extremely bad that it warrants being left on the cutting room floor.

4throck said:

One thing you should do it to remove all the “oops” and “oh oh” from Anakin. That makes him feel more adult and the action more believable.
You can even make him go into the space battle willingly. Actually makes more sense if he just decides to go, it’s more in character.

You’ll be happy to know that I’m doing both with this edit (of course, I still have to educate myself on how to remove dialogue and sound effects from Resolve, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, since the link is easy to find in Resolve. Even then, I’ve been able to kill off a lot of whoops and yippees just from cutting them).

Alright, it’s been a while, so here’s an update. I decided to try both options for Resolve. I tried TheAlaskanSandman’s method of using Handbrake and converting the files to mp4, and I also bit the bullet and bought EaseFab in its entirety, which means I also got the file converted to DNxHD 1080p. Between the two, I found the DNxHD file ran with Resolve perfectly, while the mp4 file, for whatever reason, was ridiculously slow to the point where my computer couldn’t catch up. So, I’m sticking with the DNxHD.

As for the deleted scenes, it’s a long story. I PM’d HAL9000, and while I did get the links, unfortunately, he doesn’t have all of the scenes. I’m still waiting to see which scenes are available because the Schorman HD files I downloaded this week exceeded my quota on Google Drive (Patience, my young padawan, patience). HAL informed me that he got the files from DrDre, so I decided to PM DrDre, and even more unfortunately, he doesn’t have the links anymore. So, for the time being, things are looking grim on the deleted scenes. I won’t know what scenes I do have until I’m allowed back onto Google Drive, but that’s the situation.

In the meantime, though, I’m having a blast going back and re-editing the DNxHD to a very close approximation of the DVD file I used when I was editing on Shotcut. I’m cutting out Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Jar Jar’s underwater adventure as I type this.

TheAlaskanSandman said:

Eyepainter said:

I’ve got two updates.

First, I decided to PM Schorman13, and I now have the HDTV preservations for all three prequels. Plus, I’m working on editing them on DaVinci Resolve instead of Shotcut. However, like my DVD files, Resolve didn’t accept the HD files. I decided to look some things up, and Resolve doesn’t accept MKV files unless they’re converted to DNxHD ideally (DNxHD 1080p is the best way to preserve the quality). I downloaded a video converter called EaseFab, which I hoped would convert the file for free, but as it turns out, it only converts the first 3 minutes until I pay up. Still, I did get those 3 minutes onto Resolve, and the quality looks identical to the MKV file, so it works. I’m waiting for my paycheck to show up in the next couple of days so that I can buy the full package and convert the whole movie. It’s inconvenient, but it’s temporary.

Which leads me to my second update. Now that I’m working with an HD source, I’ve just found out that I don’t have any way to add in deleted scenes at this moment, or at the very least, ones that look good. I know that other fan edits have found upscaled versions of the deleted scenes, so I know it’s far from impossible. I’m gonna be looking into this and seeing if I can find those over the next few days. For those who want specifics, I’m looking for two deleted scenes: Anakin’s confrontation with Greedo, and Farewell to Jira. If you happen to have upscaled versions of those two scenes, and would like to send me a link, feel free to PM me. I’d be happy to use them.

Hal9000 is the best source for deleted scene atm.
For resolve i just use Handbrake Super HQ 1080p30 Surround MP4 H.264 AAC stereo; Dolby Digital (AC-3). Im not a pro or tech at video stuff, and its also has to work in After Effects for me.

Inside resolve though, make sure you set your composition settings to custom. Or you’ll get black bars

https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/latest/technical/official-presets.html

I used Handbrake in the past when I downloaded Harmy’s Despecialized Editions back in spring, and the quality I got was highly compressed and took away a lot of the finer details. Still, I don’t think I used the Super HQ setting before, so maybe I’m just impatient (For whatever reason, or maybe because it’s my computer, it takes a ridiculously long time for Handbrake to convert the files. Last time I used it, it took nearly 8 hours to convert an MKV file to mp4).

Anyway, I’ll see if I can PM HAL9000. I’ve seen his prequel fan edits, and the quality on those edits were amazing.

I’ve got two updates.

First, I decided to PM Schorman13, and I now have the HDTV preservations for all three prequels. Plus, I’m working on editing them on DaVinci Resolve instead of Shotcut. However, like my DVD files, Resolve didn’t accept the HD files. I decided to look some things up, and Resolve doesn’t accept MKV files unless they’re converted to DNxHD ideally (DNxHD 1080p is the best way to preserve the quality). I downloaded a video converter called EaseFab, which I hoped would convert the file for free, but as it turns out, it only converts the first 3 minutes until I pay up. Still, I did get those 3 minutes onto Resolve, and the quality looks identical to the MKV file, so it works. I’m waiting for my paycheck to show up in the next couple of days so that I can buy the full package and convert the whole movie. It’s inconvenient, but it’s temporary.

Which leads me to my second update. Now that I’m working with an HD source, I’ve just found out that I don’t have any way to add in deleted scenes at this moment, or at the very least, ones that look good. I know that other fan edits have found upscaled versions of the deleted scenes, so I know it’s far from impossible. I’m gonna be looking into this and seeing if I can find those over the next few days. For those who want specifics, I’m looking for two deleted scenes: Anakin’s confrontation with Greedo, and Farewell to Jira. If you happen to have upscaled versions of those two scenes, and would like to send me a link, feel free to PM me. I’d be happy to use them.

Well, I’m really late, but could you PM me the links? I’m trying to do some fan edits of the prequels, but I could use editing them in HD.

Put Star Wars and Barney the Dinosaur in the same universe.