Hal 9000

Holy shit, jonh! That’s super fun. I do agree with the consensus, though, that the ‘phantom four’ is a better fit for inclusion within the film itself. (Honestly, part of me braced myself while watching the clip for having to defend my reasons for sticking with the ‘four’ version!)

The ‘phantom four’ is what should’ve been in the film, and this is what the fun online clip should’ve been.

I do agree that a version that makes use of the tweaked improvements to the original four ghosts without the added ghosts would be wonderful. (With purple saber.)
Also, while you’re around, jonh, do you still plan to address the handful of tiny glitches in the Jedi haircut sequence? Once that’s done Nev and I can finish up the Ach-To sequence with its nighttime look. (In case you weren’t aware, it’s going to have a sunRISE now.)

The blade still whispers to her before any obvious “I’m going to tap into the dark side” moments, though. If 3PO is not redubbed and continues to tell them where exactly to go, the blade can still take it from there.

I understand, MR. No hurry at all.

I’ll add the ‘end of Leia’s Jedi path’ to the list of things being considered.

I’ll also add removing the dagger evoking her parents.

And sherlock, I don’t plan on using the idea of restructuring Rey’s death, and I won’t track the idea of adding a shot after the Pasaana chase. But, if a good idea or execution surfaces I’ll be glad to use it anyway.

Here’s the current state of affairs:

Things completed:

• Slight tweak so Rey is shown contemplating before asking 3PO to consider going through with a memory wipe

• Depict Kylo’s TIE with a different color stripe after the first one is destroyed on Pasaana (poppasketti)

• Add a subtle sound of Leia vocalizing as she drops her headphones (JarJar Bricks)

• Replace Luke’s line “a thousand generations live in you now,” with “We’ll always be with you” (MoviesRemastered, NeverarGreat, and ThisIsCreation)

• Remove line, “They sold you to protect you.”

• Add two shots of Coruscant to the conference room scene (poppasketti)

• Recolor the quick light sequence on Rey’s lightsaber during the final scene to nod to Luke and Leia’s sabers by having a blue and purple light sequence (Burbin)

• Fold in a few more audio submissions to the civilian fleet (contributions from ThisIsCreation and Richard G)

• Alter Kylo’s line to, “We’ve become a dyad in the Force” (sherlockpotter)

• Adjust placement of the Leia medal insert shot, as well as lighting (sherlockpotter)

• Remove Finn’s line, “He wanted her alive.” Remove Palpatine’s two lines, “I never wanted you dead, I wanted you here,” and, “…for my grandchild to come home.” This makes Palpatine’s machinations a little more intuitive.

• Replace the Imperial shuttle (used in V1 to replace the regular TIE fighter Kylo took to Exegol at the climax) with Vader’s TIE due to popular demand. (I still prefer the shuttle.)

• Remove line, “from the Southern shore” from 3PO’s translation in order for the mystical whisper effect of the blade to be more needed without the compass plot element.

• Slightly restructure the Exegol space battle’s beginning (DominicCobb)

• Remove the single time either of Rey’s parents address her by name (so we can still imagine that she named herself)

Things being considered:

• Redubbing 3PO’s Sith translation to remove the idea the dagger has the specific location inscribed upon it to support the ‘mystical guidance’ angle. Not strictly necessary. (Would also entail: move Finn’s line about Endor in the same scene, add flash of DSII as Rey handles the knife in Kylo’s quarters, remove line about “horrible things” happening with the blade, remove 3PO saying he knows “exactly where the Wayfinder is,” remove Jannah’s mention of Babu Frik sending her a transmission since he shouldn’t know where they are going in this sequence)

• Depict Kijimi as more rebellious by comping in graffiti and/or adding audible ‘resisting’ of the First Order by the populace

• Add Sith eyes to ‘evil Rey’ when she appears in the DSII, or at the very least remove the milky eyes that appear in Rey’s vision (either normal or Sith eyes)

Things waiting on others:

• Pasaana puppet show to depict Luke’s feats at the Battle of Crait (at least RogueLeader working on puppets, poppasketti and MoviesRemastered provided relatively clean backdrops, and ThisIsCreation has done a vocal dub)

• Redo the “that’s not even a language” trooper moment (Axlanian has the reigns)

• Further extend the Mustafar sequence to slow the pacing (currently features work from poppasketti, MoviesRemastered, NeverarGreat, and 21C Peasant; hoping to augment and include footage from the recent ‘Biomes’ short - unassigned)

• Depict the Skywalker lightsaber fizzling out at a critical moment in the DSII duel (waiting on MoviesRemastered; may be finished)

• Depict both sabers as fizzling out or sparking after the climax on Exegol (waiting on MoviesRemastered; may be finished)

• Correct glitches on jonh’s first pass on giving Luke a haircut, then hand this to NeverarGreat in order to reapply his work to depict Ach-To experiencing sunrise)

• Depict the Skywalker saber as ‘cracked,’ with an unstable blade reminiscent of Kylo’s (kewlfish completed some of the shots needed, as have Luka Frik and MoviesRemastered)

I think y’all are right, and thanks for the feedback. In the abstract this film needs more establishing shots but that specific moment isn’t ripe for wedging one in.

The Mustafar shot really would just need some simple color correction and some TIEs. Agreed, some trees or the hint of some would seal it. (And to darken the ‘hearth’ inside the castle. Or maybe not since we see the lava flowing out from the front.)

I like that idea, Sherlock, but I wonder if that’d be weird to actually have sequenced that way.

Scenes and scenes and planets have gone by, and Hux just now tells him “it was a coordinated incursion.”

I do like the idea of slowing down with an establishing shot after we settle in with Lando, and possibly at the end of that scene, with engines lighting up.

^Love that idea. Brilliant.

With a lot of this stuff that’s actually within the realm of what I can do, I almost wish there weren’t so many talented people with more ready access to free time around here! 😉

And Dat_SW_Guy, here’s the sequence as it stands. We can swap order of shots and stuff like that, but I’d say the total duration from opening shot to closeup of Kylo is locked down:
https://vimeo.com/529875645

That Mustafar shot is great! Either from the front, or possibly from the side with some forrest comped in.

I can’t remember whether there were 2 or 3, but TIEs even go by. But I’m sure we could just have Poppasketti comp in his TIEs over whatever portion of the shot.

And hey, the shot can be as long as we’d like! Maybe I should mock up something just to set the desired length of that shot.

EDIT: Nevermind, the music is already timed perfectly. So the length is set, unless we want to replace one or both of the existing other shots.

I sure don’t get that impression from her onscreen facial expression in that moment.

Seems like something that could be done but probably shouldn’t.

Eh… Seems unnecessary for that moment.

I’ll have to check it out over lunch! It sounds like there may be some establish-shot fodder for TROS:A, which could be useful in pumping the brakes a little.

Duh, thanks!

Jar Jar Bricks said:

We already used the slowmo to fit in Luke’s “We’ll always be with you.” It worked there because it was just a close-up shot of Rey. Not sure if it can work as flawlessly here. I agree with Sherlock.

What do you mean? If it’s right before Rey calls the saber to her at the climax of the film, that wasn’t retimed.

I like that! The explosion feels very authentic SW.

Whoa, man!

And hey while we’ve got you I need to ask, are you still planning to take care of the glitched identified in the haircut footage?

Dude, I wish I had a minute right now to compile the current state of things but I will later unless someone beats me to it.

Take the audio of Chewbacca saying his own name from ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story,’ and add it softly to his introduction with Obi-Wan in the cantina.

Hmm, so let’s see. Even if the audio for the 3PO translation with the red eyes is left alone, the line in the post abide is fine. And there’d be no reason it’d have to be Babu who alerted Jannah. There’s be no technical reason it must be removed but it certainly could be. Babu need not be overly noble or anything.

Not really. I’m planning to implement the concept once V2 is totally finished, and all the pieces for Rey Nobody have been hashed out, but haven’t been involved much with it. It’s got its own thread, though.

Thanks for compiling that, sherlock.

I don’t wish to hold up V2 indefinitely. As Sherlock says, we’re waiting on a handful of things regardless. I don’t feel any particular ambitions beyond what’s currently planned. However, until all the pieces are available, there’s no reason not to kick around discussion of ideas. Worst case we consider and discard them.

But isn’t it more or less the same with the NuEU?

I could almost imagine doing so as an in-joke to anyone who notices or reads the changelog. It’s so inconsequential; why not?

Redub Beru in AOTC.

From the PM:

"The knife landed 100%. They both said “yeah, the knife whispered to her and lead to the location.” Done and done.

Canons also made sense, neither felt like they really missed something. The explanation that hitting the cannons takes out the ships was sufficient for them. Gavin said he was actually happy it wasn’t over-explained or focused on because, in his words, “the previous two films leaned too heavily on that anyway.” Once I told them why the cannons were what they were in the original cut, they both said that the size and scope of the fleet was sufficiently intimidating."

Let me also just pass along from the dozens of redditors who have sent me PMs over the course of the last several days: You’re awesome.

There are way too many to respond to individually, but fortunately most of them seem to understand something of the collaborative scope that has gone into this project. To us here, it’s understood that a nod of appreciation from a viewer extends to everyone who contributed.

A user recently PM’d me saying that he watched all three of the Hal9000-branded ST edits with a few friends who hadn’t seen TROS at all yet. His feedback was very encouraging, describing how the beats seemed to all land as intended. In particular, follow up questions from the user to his friends revealed an intuitive read on the dagger whispers and underbelly Star Destroyer cannons without any confusion.

bbghost said:

Just wondering whether it would be acceptable, with the blessing of those responsible for the original work of course, to make the already finished parts available for other editors before V2 is out, same as the other stuff that’s in V1 currently?

I could get them to you if you need. Any particular reason? My Google Drive is busting at the seams, so I’d just upload them, let you snag them (because they’re large collectively), and take them back down.

I am looking forward to things simmering down with my job, establishing my new source of livelihood, and family and all that crap and get back to real shit: TROS:A V2.