Hal 9000

R2 was one all along.

The Falcon too, voices again by the Solo droid person.

Reno Skywarp said:

Not trying to change the direction of the topic, been away for a month+, was there a final scene created for Mustafar? If so can someone send the link if they have it? Thanks in advance

It looks like this: https://vimeo.com/529875645

Picturing Snoke in a skimpy gold outfit.

Not bad, man! Could you also try a take where you imitate the existing evil 3PO voice as though trying to fool someone already familiar with it?

Sounds good! I do like the verse. 😃

My only concern with something fairly vague is that unfortunately we are stuck with a plot point of needing 3PO to translate AND another of using the dagger itself to still get the location to go to. I feel like in order to justify 3PO’s role the translation needs to give them something fairly concrete. If not “go to these GPS coordinates,” then a strong tip that Rey needs to do something or posture herself a certain way with the dagger.

sherlockpotter said:

She’s on the throne for exactly 8 frames in the theatrical cut.

I see what you’re saying, sherlock, now that I could look at the scene properly. For Rey to be zoned out, it would ideally be the first part of the scene. However, there’s too much time between where that would place “how busted is the landing gear?” and the crash landing for it to register as comedic, not that that needs to be a dealbreaker on its own. As it is in V1, there’s a second or two of breathing room introduced in the transition to arrival on Endor by reversing the final shot of Finn and the establishing shot of space that would be a shame to dump. I imagine it feeling awfully breakneck to smash cut out of that super tight cockpit scene.

It seems to me, and I’m known to be conservative, that our best shot at truly getting away with an alteration is to make it subtle and play nice with how the scene was presented in our source material. Perhaps after the cockpit scene, we cut to the quick shot of the panel that Rey and Finn are working on spark, then the new closeup of Rey as Finn asks, “Endor? You sure?”. In order to work, it cannot linger and should just be a short reprise of the whisper with perhaps a quick flash or something relevant.

I may not be able to do any editing for a bit, but I’ll keeping track and will have some work mapped out when I am able to.

Not to be blunt, but I’ll shoot Palpatine speaking Sith down right now. That’ll be better for the general thread.

It seems to me that the shot is already a little dodgy since it’s just a zoomed in clip of what comes a second or two later. I’d rather go for a subtle reprise of the Sith whisper for a moment before Rey responds to Finn’s inserted question. More of a bunt, I guess.

Hmmmmmmmmm, interesting. Nice mockup, sherlock! I think that could work if perhaps the whisper is not repeated and only said once, and not having a dramatic musical sting that loud. Just a little thing to show she’s lost in thought a moment as she recalls what the dagger revealed.

I don’t think it’s really necessary to move this to before the quick cockpit scene. Feels to me like something better left alone so as to help the rest of what we’re doing to the scene stand up to scrutiny. (Fewer change-liabilities.)

Nice, everyone. Burbin’s take is something I could imagine reading online after TROS(:A) was released in theaters and find interesting.

And it all seems doable, at least until I have to put the pedal to the metal.

I apologize that I won’t be able to for a little while as I have a lot to try to push through in the next few weeks. But I’ll try to keep tabs and orchestrate best I can until I can do what I need to in the NLE. (In many ways I have the easy job.)

So, it seems the idea is to do the following, and for it to all be coherent:

• Remove Rey’s two lines when picking up the dagger in two scenes that tie into her parents as well as their screams, replaced with Sith whispers

• 3PO says he can’t translate the inscription, but doesn’t explicitly mention he knows “exactly where the Wayfinder is.”

• Redub 3PO reciting the inscription, saying something like “only this blade tells the weirder where to find the Macguffin if they press into the eêëēęvil.”

• Finn doesn’t mention Endor since 3PO didn’t actually reveal the location.

• When Rey picks up the dagger again and seems transfixed in Kylo’s emo room, she gets two quick flashes of Endor and/or the DSII

• As the company heads to Endor, add Finn’s line implying Rey knows and told them their destination. She arrives and follows the dagger. (The line “only this blade tells” she says to herself here might be a tiny bit awakened now, though. Can’t remember the shot but it may be easily removed if it needs to be.”

• Unrelated logically to the other ideas here, maybe have a touch of Sith eyes on evil Rey.

Am I up to speed?

Litt-le buggahs!

Do you two mean you like V1 of this project or the theatrical presentation of the dagger?

I think if we do go with the 3PO redub and related changes it could make sense to remove Rey’s line about “horrible things”.

^ Sherlock, you talking about having Finn mention Endor while they’re on the way? Yeah, I think that’d be just fine if we go that route.

And it’s all okay if the 3PO dagger idea ends up not working well enough to… work. It’s intriguing at least, but I’m skeptical it could make the dagger thing feel like it was folded into the Wayfinder and feel even more redundant.

I had to skim the last two pages super fast in order to chime in before the avalanche continues!

Here’s what I’d like to try:

Dub 3PO with a compelling enough voice and sound design to captivate audiences the world over as we see our neurotic metal friend light up with red eyes and speak the Devil’s words. I’d like to avoid having it be any sort of “chosen one” angle. I suppose that because 3PO says, “The location of the Wayfinder has been inscribed upon this dagger,” it means we can’t do something quite so vague as suggesting that the dagger would direct the bearer to the Wayfinder no matter where it happened to be. Which, unless I’m mistaken, is too bad because that would allow us to ditch the idea that Ochi or somebody MADE the dagger to point to the DSII.

Would it be fully coherent across the film to nix the dagger as having the specific geographical location (Endor, the shore) on it at all? Could it be something like “listen to the dagger in your evil heart and it will take you to wherever the Wayfinder happens to be at the moment”? (If that were so, it would probably seem even more silly that there is a macguffin to get to the macguffin!)

Yeah, I guess we’d still have to have the blade plant Rey at the site of the DSII, but dubbing 3PO could allow us to make the implication more clear than in V1 that she is using the dagger mystically. All in order to remove the kind of dumb compass moment. lol

She does look more like Papa Palpatine.

Well, it seems removing “horrible things have happened with this” and “no” would be fairly safe to do in order to emphasize the dagger-as-compass angle.

I hit a kangaroo on the way to work while trying to eat vegemite and got hit by a boomerang when I got out of the car (on the left side of the dust road).

Interesting idea; I guess we could remove the dagger as (necessarily) the murder weapon of her parents. It would add focus on communicating that the dagger is whispering to her to be used to find the Wayfinder, but it would no longer set up the reveal about her parents tucking her away and being killed. But it’s probably worth it.

Replying here to something from the general thread because it’s relevant and something to consider for this project.

RogueLeader said:

Here are some of the ideas I had written down.

Some thoughts on the Kijimi sequence: Kijimi in Revolt, 3PO’s Irreversible Sacrifice, and Poe’s Past.

• Add details to Kijimi to establish that it is revolting.
• Add graffiti to one of the walls of the Kijimi streets. Rebel symbol, crossed-out stormtrooper helmet, or Luke posing like the original Star Wars poster, with lightsaber overhead.
• While they’re sneaking around, add civilian protest shouts in the distance, maybe something like, “For Skywalker!” Maybe then we could hear blaster shots or an explosion.

Do we have any concept art or anything for the graffiti that was to be painted on Coruscant for DOTF? Perhaps simply (ha!) tracking and comping that onto some wall someplace could be a nice hint at a suppressed sense of rebellion. (Can’t tell from memory but maybe the wall Poe is up against during some of the long shot of him scouting the area after landing on Kijimi.)

RogueLeader said:

Making the Dagger an Ancient Artifact

• In order to make the dagger distinctly ancient, redub Red-Eyed 3PO to give a new translation of the dagger. Instead of giving the exact coordinates, the new translation instructs the wielder to hold the dagger and embrace the darkness it holds. If they accept this “test”, the dagger will show them the way.
• Cut Finn saying, “The Endor system? Isn’t that where the last war ended?” This will be pushed to later. They don’t have time to react to the translation, because the First Order shows up.
• After Rey senses the dagger on the ship, cut Poe asking why they need it, and Rey saying, “A feeling.” The new translation makes it clear that they need the dagger to find the Wayfinder.
• When Rey picks up the dagger and stares at it, she begins hearing whispers/screams and eventually sees a quick glimpse of the Death Star ruins. Kylo Ren interrupts her right after this moment. (This would tie in well to the whispers guiding her to vault on the Death Star, as Ascendant currently has it.)
• At the beginning of the scene with Rey and Finn fixing the Falcon, add a part of Finn’s earlier line, “The Endor system? Where the last war ended?” (Either sentence, both likely won’t fit). Rey continues “All that matters is finding the Wayfinder. Finding Exegol.” Adding the line here helps clarify that Rey told them about her vision of the Death Star after they regrouped, and now they are heading there.

That dagger redub idea is great! You seem to have thought of its implications and addressed these. It’d help sell the mystical dagger idea for sure. I’m sure someone around here could record and process the lines. It won’t be authentic Anthony Daniels, though of course it was distinctly different from his usual voice. I would say ideally someone could do a fair impression of 3PO’s Sith voice and process it, matching the tone and substance of the original performance. (Attempt to match it but it need not be perfect since it’d be the only occurrence of the voice.) It’d be a tough job, though, because the audience’s ears will perk up to really take in the unique moment and attend closely to the delivery and sound design.

But man, that could be glorious.

EDIT: Responding in the Ascendant thread.

I agree. Let’s try to seed ideas that aren’t in service to an already established Ascendant goal to the general thread. I promise I will still see it there.

To comment on the recent idea from JJB here: I don’t see the point of making a change to Kylo’s line, and it drains all feeling from it. I don’t think so.

Yeah, lol. I remember mistakenly thinking that in TFA the child’s voice coming from Maz’s basement was the younglings that saber had slaughtered.