Hal 9000

I apologize for the bump, but I wanted to declare, for my own sanity, an official ‘seal’ against further tweaking:

I will NOT revise this project any further, regardless of good ideas, new resources, or perceived flaws unless each of the following condition is met:

• Genuine HD versions of the DVD deleted scenes become available (no upscale)

This goes for all three prequel films. I won’t bump each one.

Consider this a binding magical spell that can’t be broken without that condition being met. An absolute prerequisite.

On a personal note, thinking back over my long history jacking around with this set of particular movies, I really feel like it’s time to stop. I can’t keep doing this and the obsession needs to end.

I’m going to see this project through, and give it as good a release as we can. I’ll even hold out in order to release an alternate ‘Rey Nobody’ cut.

But once it gets laid in place, there will probably not be a V2. Any and everyone will be more than welcome to take it and run with it to tweak and do with what they please. I’ll put out a lossless audio export and all.

But I have to make a decisive break with this when this is over. Otherwise I’ll see imperfections and be tempted to get sucked back into it. It served a purpose earlier in my life that was helpful, then I went back to it to do it right in 2013, and I’ve been pretty focused since. The prequels have been given several passes, the OT is about as reasonably good as I ever thought they’d be, TFA is wonderful, TLJ is nice, and TROS will be more fun. There will always be unfortunate aspects of them, imperfections, and issues. But I need to let go of them and let them lay.

I thank you all again for continuing to make this last hurrah surprisingly fun, but that’s what it’s going to be.

Here’s a quick mockup of using the unused score for the moment in TFA. I don’t think it’s nearly as effective, and it doesn’t sync precisely to it. It would require me to do a whole new release and encode and all of that, which I reeeeeally do not want to do. And it would only downgrade that movie anyway.

https://vimeo.com/426097526

It doesn’t fit with the music to keep it in, this or any other musical piece that was considered.

It might not be so bad to just put the unused music in TFA instead. I wouldn’t have to do a new render, just audio and remux, and then distribute. If I go that route, I would probably wait for TROS to be completed just to make sure there’s nothing else to do.

If I can tonight, or whenever, I’ll mock it up to make sure it doesn’t, y’know, ruin the TFA moment or anything.

Maybe we can get the real Shaw’s ghost to do it…

Yeah, I mean, if they had really gone this way for the movie they would have had Hayden do it, so it feels fair to me.

TK-422 said:

Here’s a few uses of the Force Theme that could work (I think):

(ROTJ) Leia Breaks the News/Funeral Pyre for a Jedi: About 1:20 to the end

(TPM) The Tide Turns: 0:57 to 1:28

(AOTC) Return to Tatooine: 3:11 to 3:35

(ROTS) Battle Over Coruscant: 2:00 to 2:27

(ROTS) Anakin Vs. Obi-Wan: 4:03 to 4:30-ish

(ROTS) Battle of the Heroes: 1:58 to 2:13

I think they’re all pretty solid and could work well, but my personal favorite is The Tide Turns. It’s from the scene where Anakin destroys the Trade Federation control ship, although it’s used again in ROTS when he and Obi-Wan land the Invisible Hand on Coruscant, so it might feel overplayed. But I think they’re all good candidates if you’re looking to replace Burning Homestead. It does feel like a callback to something we JUST saw after all.

I hate to say it, but I don’t think any of those quite feel appropriate. They’re either too whimsical and not battle-y enough, or heavily choral in a way more befitting the prequels. Ugh.

As I’ve enjoyed seeing jonh say… shit!!

It’s preeeety janky.

https://youtu.be/M3Xo6Z3TZnU?t=203

Well, you answered halfway for me already. The deleted scene we get for Finn vs. Phasma is so much better, and very little of what makes it worthwhile is present in what we see in the movie. Finn doesn’t need to punch Phasma in the face to show us he’s had an arc. It’s got some silliness with the AT-ST and BB8 that I never cared for. The pacing doesn’t work to keep the fight and use the shuttle scene, which itself seems to show us all we need to see about Finn at that point, calling back to a deleted scene reinstated earlier. And when Poppasketti added Phasma’s body on the floor to his version, I knew it was right to cut the scene.

Yes, I am using jonh’s awesome work for the ghost scene in TROS.

But I won’t be adding Hayden to ROTJ. It just doesn’t feel appropriate for the movie, but feel free to take my version and edit him in yourself.

And the DSII explodes with its overall shape intact, but suddenly starts rocketing away from Endor at an incredible rate. We see a time lapse of it rocketing toward another moon.

Yes. Disney+ series would allow IX to still be the end of the Skywalker Saga sort of, and let it continue without the sort of “omg blockbuster pew pew planets destroyed JJ OMG OMG OMG” drive that theatrical releases would likely have.

I don’t disagree. Any uses of the Force theme come to mind to try? It should be accompanied by something afterward, like Burning Homestead has that deus irae part leading up to the Death Star motif.

I wouldn’t replace the medal with it, but it could be added as an Easter egg someplace.

I’d imagine it would’ve either been buried with Padmé (canon), or blowed up along with Alderaan (Hal9000 heretical bastard canon).

I mean, if by some miracle they just decided to drop millions of dollars and release heavily extended versions somehow, that’d be incredible for us with what we do here.

There’s no way they’d do that. TROS would be the most likely, and it’s a zero chance even then.

It’s more powerful there, too! Lol

Eh, maybe we’ll find a better piece. But it wouldn’t be the only time TROS made a heavy-handed callback to TFA.

Yes, it was touching for the trailer and it really belongs in that kind of context. It gave me chills too in jonh’s clip! But it doesn’t feel right within the movie itself, in the theater about 1 hour and 50 minutes in. As a clip or trailer, yes it’s awesome.

Here’s what I mean. I haven’t lined up the rough mix perfectly, but it shows the difference between the two pieces.

TFA unused track test (rough, quick job): https://vimeo.com/425712159

Burning homestead (polished): https://vimeo.com/425712582

There’s a treasure trove here, and when things get out into the bigger fandom world it really strikes them.

Jonh deserves all the trophies.

I won’t be using the Vader fan film.

I’m happy to entertain ideas for a different musical cue for the ghost moment. I tried the unused score for the counterpart moment in TFA but it didn’t really feel as powerful for the moment. I overwrote what I did but I could see if I can just toss it together again real quick so you can hear it.

A few characters name Exegol onscreen throughout the movie, too. I’d be surprised, but if there exists usable 3PO dialogue about Korriband or Moriban or whatever, I certainly wouldn’t mind a tiny bit of worldbuilding as he says something like, “The hidden world of the Sith, after what happened on Korriband” or something like that. Just a throwaway line that hints at something more complicated.

Leia helped him die or whatever, too!

Ed Slushie said:

Speaking of Exegol, do we know if there’s any recording of Threepio saying the word “Korriban” (or “Moraband”)? The way they introduced the idea of Exegol in the movie kind of gave me the impression they had just forgotten about Korriban, and I only later realized it was important to the story for Exegol to be a planet nobody had ever been to before. I think if after “the lost world of the Sith” Threepio said something like “where they went after the siege of Korriban, and supposedly remain to this day” then it would be a lot clearer.

That’d be cool!

Yeah, I think that idea is better pursued outside this particular project.

Yes, and it was not quite what she expected when she first had the vision. Good point, that’s often how that works in stories.

Add the Animaniacs to the Ewok BBQ ready time eat Luke and Han.

How are you accomplishing that?