A gun that shoots Death Stars…
JEDIT: Or a Mega Star Destroyer built around Starkiller Base that deploys Death Stars as if they were starfighters.
If you do a LUT, I can apply it to my project and see how it looks. (Not sure if it was just DrDre’s LUT for TLJ that caused artifact issues or FCPX’s application of it.)
No, I don’t think their subtle acting would be a match for the tone of the ending. The main reason I don’t particularly mind this oddity is because it seems like an unintentional (or maybe even subconscious) mirror of ANH famously withholding a medal from Chewie.
The crawls already read to me as the ‘back of the video cover’ sort of synopsis. Less about technical accuracy and more of a grip.
Any ideas as to when ROTJ will be released? Are you removing Vader’s “Nooooooo!” from the Palps-Luke scene too?
I’ll probably revisit ANH first, and I have no idea for an ETA at all. I’ve got V3 of TFA:R going as well.
Certainly well ahead of a marathon (or even week by week serial viewing) ahead of Episode XI.
I’ll mail him a fire.
Hmm… Regarding the Leia shot immediately prior to the Hosnian destruction:
The borrowed closeup shot of Leia that we want to replace occurs right before the shot of the red beam colliding with the first planet (or moon or whatever it is). It’s just about three seconds long. Whatever is placed there ought to carry a fair amount of emotional weight.
The proposed shot of the ‘Death Star DJ v2.0’ from TLJ would not work, because it would have to be placed right before the weapon begins firing in the first place. Even if everything could be pushed forward, it would not be of sufficient length.
I think a long shot of the D’Qar planet would be an odd choice, as the next shot would be of the system being destroyed. Seems unnecessarily confusing.
At this point I still need a viable alternative shot in order to replace the one with Leia.
I was able to take a look at it. He removes Han marveling over the power of Chewie’s bowcaster, and relies on this cut to show Rey and Finn joining back up with them.
This works rather well, I agree, but I don’t want to remove that moment, or the handful of other moments his edit does. Given this, I think a better solution for this project is a simple cut from “What do they look like?” and “They look like that!” to “I’ve got the door. Cover us!”
Thanks for the suggestion, though!
I’ll get hold of a copy of his edit and compare his approach to a simple, single cut as I have it currently. As long as it’s not too ‘creative’ to fit this project’s mentality, I’ll consider it! I don’t recall how he had it by memory.
Just to pop in real quick: I’m glad there’s an emerging consensus to keep the latter restructuring about the base(s) they way they were in V2, because I agree and know not everyone does and now I can cite the consensus. 😛
I’d prefer to just keep one edit for TFA, rather than split off. I was okay with that before, so I think a good boundary line for me is what I can get away with noncontroversially.
I am partial to the 1997 mixes, so I’m happy to let that be featured for a custom SE, including the scene where Chewie interrupts Leia.
I am not interested in fixing continuity issues aside from ones introduced by the SE, or to help the SE do what it was trying to do. I got into Star Wars with the 1997 SE versions first, but was exposed to the originals as well, so I want the experience of watching these to feel familiar, like listening to a favorite song. As cool as Revisited is, it certainly can’t provide that. I’ve heard Luke deliver that line with the continuity error present for 20 years, and I don’t want to change it.
I rather like the color timing of Adywan’s older 1997 SE reconstruction. It may not be as accurate to the original, but it’s a great match to the 1997 SE and feels more right to me. (ANH’s color timing for the 1997 SE is too red in places and ROTJ shouldn’t matter as much.)
But yeah, this was a very quick edit of a few sources it took someone else ages and tons of effort to produce, so I’m very grateful to be able to and encourage others to do the same if they’d like.
Not sure how doable it is without trying, but I like that idea.
Thanksgiving 2015 had me quoting that as well.
“There’s been a turkey carving. Have you felt it? The dark meat… and the light.”
Did I? I thought I used Revisited footage for that shot.
You’re referring to when the Wampa strangles Luke’s tauntaun?
I feel that most of the above suggestions would be too far for me, and especially for the original scope of this project. I don’t have a problem with most of those. Finn is characterized as kind of dumb in TLJ, so most of his stuff in TFA is in keeping with this. The only change of the above that I do fully agree with is the “no look” shot.
Thank you for reminding me of your specific plan. I haven’t been paying close enough attention!
Excellent feedback so far. I will see about some of those shots you mentioned from TLJ when I get the chance, and continue to chew on the structure post-Hosnian destruction.
And you’ve convinced me about Rey’s “myth” line. My concern was that it implied she may not know a great deal about Luke, as if the story were just something she was vaguely aware of.
“Luyke Skywalkah’… 'Ah thought 'e was a myth, 'ah did!”
JEDIT: Does anyone have any strong feelings against cutting Rey saving Finn from the rathtars and/or removing Chewie walking past Leia?
That’s really incredible work. If we would be so lucky to somehow totally exclude Rose from Ep9, or have her totally relegated to an easily excisable role, this would be excellent.
The biggest thing I need input about is whether to undo V2’s innovation to establish that the First Order discovered the location of the Resistance base and targets them right after destroying the Hosnian system. The impetus for this was the idea that TLJ may rely on this plot structure from TFA. Though, TLJ turns out to establish on its own that the Resistance base was exposed by virtue of attacking SKB at all. I would argue that TFA(:R V2) establishing their knowledge of its location still assists TLJ, though.
The way things play out in V2 is as follows:
The question is whether it would be preferable to revert to the way things were in V1:
Personally, I prefer V2’s structure for this since it preserves the original film’s motivations and dynamics after the Hosnian system is destroyed, tightening up ambiguity and is slightly more in keeping with TLJ.
I appreciate your input, since I know many of you have considered V2 as a real “replacement” version. Though I will step a little bit further outside the original bounds of the project, I still intend to keep things pretty basic. Hopefully the new changes are uncontroversial enough so as to still be suitable for those of you wanting to adopt this as a ‘gentle restructure’ replacement.
I think it is worth revisiting this project once more for a V3 in light of a few things from TLJ, including the reality that it was not free of the need for fan editing as I had hoped when I approached TFA with an extremely restrained hand.
I will be removing Finn firing directly at his peers immediately after trying to escape with Poe in the TIE fighter. While he does not fire directly at the troopers on the ground, he does fire at the empty TIEs (which causes destruction on the ground) and the command center. The idea that Finn is willing to kill his fellow troopers so quickly is not brought to as much of a head at this point. (The film’s Wilhelm scream was thereby removed, and so shifted slightly within the same scene.)
https://vimeo.com/288950648
password: fanedit
I will remove Kylo Ren naming FN-2187 from memory, leaving that bit of information to come from Captain Phasma.
Rey will not tell Finn she thought Luke Skywalker was a myth. I seem to recall JJ Abrams regretting that line’s phrasing, and that the idea was something along the lines of, “Gee whiz, Luke Skywalker is legendary!” To me, it implied she literally did not believe he existed. Given her level of familiarity with his story in TLJ, this line seems out of place to me. Now she will react to Finn’s revelation with an amazed, “Luke Skywalker?!”
I will cut away the short escapade where Rey saves Finn from the rathtar.
I’ll try again to include a line from Poe to Leia about how Finn is aware of the weapon systems of the FO due to working on their base, as NeverarGreat described he is doing for his project.
Possibly may remove Han’s “no look” shot as that seems out of character for him.
Possibly recolor the Takodana battle to appear more like sunset.
I will use NeverarGreat’s clever idea to move an establishing shot of the Falcon in hyperspace to add tension to the scene where they enter SKB at lightspeed.
If it’s possible, I would like to find a different shot to place immediately prior to the Hosnian system being destroyed, instead of cutting to Leia. If we can avoid cutting to Leia, it can be left slightly ambiguous about whether she is reacting via the Force to the planetary destruction only or if Han’s death is part of it. This one may need to stay as is, since it was hard enough to find enough shots to include!
Sir Ridley may be able to provide two shots in which Kylo Ren’s facial scar is modified to match its appearance in TLJ.
Sir Ridley may also remove Chewie from a certain shot at the end of the film, to avoid walking past Leia with uncharacteristic disinterest.
Ach To will be recolored to better match the different weather conditions in its first scene in TLJ. The best way to harmonize them is to suppose that the Sun emerged from behind the clouds during the few moments between the close of TFA and opening of TLJ.
https://vimeo.com/288952042
password: fanedit
Rose attempts to fly her fighter into Luke as he confronts Kylo Ren in order to prevent him from sacrificing himself. Being unaware of his true situation, she passes through him and hits Ren. The surprise causes Luke to wake up and die.
Thanks for that feedback; I’m glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully this version would have subverted one or two fewer expectations.
Go to great lengths to establish that Vice Admiral Holdo was never actually present. She was astral projecting herself from the other side of Luke’s island. However, when she kamikaze’d herself into Snoke’s ship, she woke up and died anyway. And never explain it further.
Well, I’ve managed to get ESB uploaded to the Google Drive, for anyone interested in it. Again, this was a simple and quick project I would have done for myself regardless of any outside interest, so it’s not something to be made a big deal about. I’ll probably watch it next year with family and friends ahead of IX, and hopefully will have given ANH and ROTJ similar attention. And, until radical new source material is revealed and processed by this community, it’ll be all I can do.
Honestly, I would prefer they lay off the Skywalker saga for a long while. Perhaps they could pick it up again someday, with something like a 100 year timegap.