It didn’t sound good in practice, and even a good delivery of the line would feel weird thrown into the scene as it is. So, I went with a weird compromise: I added it, but it’s at an extremely low volume that no one could possible hear.
Basically, I didn’t end up going with it.
Wouldn’t be a bad idea, and I might be able to play with it a little.
As far as 3PO’s line, it isn’t made clear that the good guys know the FO’s target, which is sort of a good thing for the edit.
V4 is coming together and will be out soonish. Here’s the final list of changes, with new changes with an asterisk*:
As Finn mans the TIE fighter with Poe, trimmed firing upon fellow stormtroopers so soon after planning to escape. Now, he causes peripheral damage to prevent them from firing at him and takes aim at the command center. (Slightly shifted the placement of the film’s trademark Wilhelm scream in order to retain it.)
Removed Kylo Ren identifying Finn’s stormtrooper ID from memory.
*Made it appear that Finn woke from the TIE crash shortly after daybreak, with the dark effect gradually declining as the scene progresses. (Idea from NeverArGreat)
Added the Falcon jumping to hyperspace after leaving Jakku, then being ripped from hyperspace soon after, along with removing a now-out-of-place line from Finn about “get[ting] out of this system.” (FX by NeverarGreat)
*Removed Han’s somewhat kindly, “Come on outta there” to Finn and Rey while leaving the directional nod (thanks to NeverArGreat).
Removed Rey saving Finn from the rathtars, cutting from Finn’s line, “They look like that,” to Han and Chewie arriving at the door to the Falcon.
Removed General Hux from the first scene with Snoke, where he suggests using the weapon to destroy the Republic. (FX by Jackpumpkinhead to remove Hux walking offscreen during first shot)
Removed Finn’s comedic line about almost being killed several times by Chewie while tending to him on the Falcon (Mimicked DigModiFicaTion’s approach).
*Removed Han describing the need for Maz to help them get a ‘clean ship.’ It doesn’t add anything, and their motives are already clear enough. (Idea from NeverArGreat)
*Subtle rendition of the first part of the Emperor’s Theme has been added to the Imperial March as we see Vader’s shattered helmet (thanks to Sir Ridley).
*Added two lines from the Emperor during Rey’s Force vision to very gently hint toward the revelations within Episode IX.
*Repurposed excised footage from the rathtar sequence to depict Rey separated from Finn in her Force vision. (Thanks to NeverArGreat)
After Rey flees Maz’s castle after her Force vision, replaced the Hosnian system being destroyed in the sky with a Star Destroyer. Finn and Han now gaze up to see that the First Order has caught up with them, as they feared. Finn’s line to Han about the First Order has been changed, including a brief visual modification to his mouth. (FX by Sir Ridley and NeverarGreat)
*Reinstated Han shooting a stormtrooper while facing the other way, which had been removed in V3, due to its reference in Episode IX.
Throughout the battle at Maz’s castle, applied a slight sunset color correction to harmonize the sunset lighting present before and afterward.
*Audio from the trailer was used to add a sound effect to a TIE being shot down (turned out to be barely noticeable, but I did it anyway).
New deleted scene included of Leia discussing the Republic. The scene was originally intended for earlier in the film, and Leia’s prominent braid has been removed to match her scenes immediately prior and after. Audio has been redesigned to accompany a finished film, and the sequence retimed to accommodate it. (FX by Sir Ridley and NeverarGreat)
When Finn is introduced to Leia, removed mention of the Hosnian system’s destruction, though retained mention that Finn had worked on the base (thanks to FX work by NeverarGreat).
R2 now has a blinking light to indicate that he has begun searching for the map. (FX by NeverarGreat)
After Rey resists Kylo Ren’s mind probe, added the portion of the Snoke scene from earlier where General Hux suggests using the weapon to destroy the Republic. Kylo Ren’s face has been overlaid where his mask was for one shot, and a few shots from behind have had the back of his head replace his hood. (FX by Jackpumpkinhead and krlozdac)
*Fixed two continuity errors introduced by the restructuring: Snoke is now seen rising from his seat in a new context rather than suddenly appearing upright, and his mouth no longer moves in a shot in which he is silent. (Thanks to NeverArGreat for the former.)
Moved General Hux’s impassioned speech to after Kylo Ren overreacts to Rey’s escape from her cell.
After the speech, the nearby Sun beings to be drained, as Hux and the troops gaze upon the stream being sucked into the planet. (Recolored to yellow-orange, and reversed so as to appear to be going down into the ground)
During the briefing scene at the Resistance base, removed Leia identifying their base as the Starkiller’s next target, Threepio lamenting the prior loss of the Republic fleet, and well as mention that the First Order is charging the weapon “again.”
Cleaned up the smoke and debris around the Starkiller weapon exhaust when the X-Wings approach. (FX by NeverarGreat)
During a brief cutaway to the Resistance base as Han and Chewie infiltrate the oscillator, removed Threepio’s line, “It would take a miracle to save us now.”
Removed Finn’s comedic moment of misunderstanding Han’s head nod while searching for Rey (Mimicked DigModiFicaTion’s approach).
Immediately after Kylo Ren kills Han, the Starkiller fires and destroys the Hosnian system, as Leia senses it through the Force. (Some FX by Sir Ridley and NeverarGreat)
As Finn and Rey start to head outside the oscillator, cut to Snoke and Hux planning to destroy the Resistance. (FX by Sir Ridley)
First Order technician redubbed to state the weapon will be fully “re”-charged in 30 seconds. (Voice from AbramPT)
Chewie has been cropped out of a shot of him walking past Leia. (Crop and image enhancement by Sir Ridley)
Extended the shot of R2 waking up, to allow him to finish searching his backup data. (FX by NeverarGreat)
Color corrected Ach-to to bring it a little closer to the corresponding scene’s lighting and weather conditions in The Last Jedi.
*Added a few subtle porg sounds to the background, replacing two native bird sounds.
The final shot of the film has been stabilized. (FX by NeverarGreat)
(Let’s be real, don’t all of us have a hodgepodge of edits from different editors as our own personal “definitive” sagas at this point, anyway?)
Not me. I can survive in space.
Err—, anyway, thank you all for your understanding. It’s not something I come to lightly. And joking aside, even I have TCH as an alternative to Solo.
Thank you for setting the tone for responses; don’t make it harder for me than it already will be.
My life is a nonstop, day-in and day-out stamina challenge and every day is full to the brim. I’ve got a lot on my plate and I’m exhausted across the board. And it’s not gonna change anytime soon.
I would find it personally liberating to sort of dis-commit to this project for now. I will get the disc ripped when it comes out and might be able to mess around here and there, but the project management and time involved in the whole thing would be overwhelming to me the way things are now. There would be weeks at times between opportunities to sit down and do any kind of meaningful editing work.
It would be much better for me to act more in a contributor role for this sort of thing, and I’d be happy especially to make particular changes and ensure the audio is done as well as I can get it. But it would be a big ask, I’m finding, to get me to see this through the way I have in the past.
I know morale is rightfully low about this movie, but unless anyone else wants to helm this I am going to do myself the favor of not promising anything in advance and seeing how it goes. I’m not already attached to a particular view for this movie or have any earworms for specific changes, so that’ll make this easier to set down or to accept a version from someone else.
I’ll finish up ROTJ since I’ve got it virtually complete beyond sprucing up the new video source with some help from Sir Ridley and/or DrDre and plugging it in. (And TFA:R v4 since it’s almost done, of course.)
I’m usually someone who gets possessed of an idea and follows through, but life’s circumstances are hell-bent against it, it seems like. It might actually be healthy for me in particular to support someone else’s project and set it down in my collection without having it be under my microscope. I can obviously still be counted on as a contributor, especially making a second attempt at editing audio together as an alternate ‘take’ to draw from.
Yeah, I’d settle for removing anything that would prevent headcanon from smoothing this out. One idea is to make sure the interior of those Final Order destroyers have personnel with First Order insignia.
I think the official story, from material outside the film itself, is that the Sith cultists smuggles in garbage and made the fleet that way.
Just, yeah.
It’d be ambitious, but I don’t know if someone here would be THAT good to just film and insert themselves at one of the boardroom chairs to deliver whatever exposition we dream up.
I think it should be a priority to find ways to state or imply that Palpatine stashed many Star Destroyers from the days of the Empire, possibly manufacturing them to be stored in reserve. (Because having cultists on an unknown world building “the largest fleet the galaxy has ever known” by smuggling in parts here and there that are all identical to a specific model of a decades-old destroyer is reeeeeal dumb.)
And the manpower for these stashed destroyers come from the First Order which was ushered in by Snoke as a puppet.
It’s still convoluted, but that makes a great deal more sense at least.
Neat! Hope you enjoy those as well, and thanks for saying so. 😃
Good. I mean, it’s the end of the movie!
Of course. Thanks. 😃
I’ll send you a PM.
I know you’re alluding to something, but I can’t remember where I got that exact phrase.
I agree in principle. It would also fit in with Snoke-as-Palpatine-wearing-VR-headset, as he ordered the same thing before.
Just a pedantic clarification: I used to have the Wilhelm added to the BB8T-ST, but I removed that scene in V3. So, now it’s during the hangar scene.
Luke is a sane character in an insane meta narrative across the ST.
“Heir to” sounds preferable to me, more formal than “heir of” in the way I feel these title crawls should be.
The Jedi in this sentence is or are the total package. Rey is heir to all that the Jedi were and had. “To” communicates that she inherits their sum totality, whereas “of” sounds like the Jedi are passing something down while remaining distinct. Like maybe they left her their beach house. I think that book title gets it right.
“I’m the best kind of correct: technically correct.”
PM sent
I’m planning to use the new version for ROTJ once it’s on disc. ROTJ looks pretty good as is to my eyes, so I don’t feel the need to wait for Adywan to produce his color corrections first.
I’m not planning on revising ANH or ESB, though. They were done top to bottom using those sources and I’m not gonna start over from scratch when they look pretty good.
I like the crawls above - tried taking the best elements of all of them, but with respectful nods to the way JJ likes his stories to unfold:
The dead speak! The villainous COUNT DOOKU has returned, to herald the return of his dark master, EMPEROR PALPATINE. Dooku is killed by Admiral Pryde, but not before revealing a secret Sith technique to create a new galactic navy where each ship gets its own Death Star laser!
Luke Skywalker’s message of hope has reached the far corners of the galaxy, and the civilians of countless worlds are almost committed - they need just one more famous hero to come and get them before they rise up to join the resistance against the evil FIRST ORDER and also the new and bigger FINAL ORDER.
Meanwhile, Rey has read in the Jedi texts that her force bond with Kylo Ren is a FORCE DYAD, which is one of the reasons she’s very powerful. But could there be another, darker source of her power? Watch the movie to find out! Also Finn will be there.
Best one yet.
‘Heir to the Jedi…’ is correct, if semi-archaic.
I don’t think it would be wrong to say something like “heir to the throne,” and “heir of the throne” would sound wrong. ‘Jedi’ acts as a noun in this case.
But hey, we’ll see what the crawl ends up like. It’s one of the best parts of doing these edits.
That was right around the time I first learned about torrents.
Those were good days.
Good days.
computer explodes
Yeah I’m sure I’ll give the crawl more attention as we get closer to being able to work with the source material directly. For now I’m kind of enjoying taking a mental semi-break from all this.