Hal 9000

^ I can take a look (and listen) about Obi-Wan snooping around the Separatists’ meeting. My only concern is that Nute Gunray specifically stating he is holding out for Padme’s head may gently undermine TAS’s goal to imply Dooku is assassinating Padme due to secret loyalty to Palpatine. (It doesn’t make sense to the investigators, but it makes sense to us because we know this.)

I agree his sequencing works very well, along the route of leaving the action sequence out. At this point I’m resolved to including an abbreviated version in the name of having something that feels legit. I know there’ll be a couple more (quick, minor) groaners to come in service to that goal.

Didn’t he remove it entirely?

Few thoughts while I have a quick moment to duck in here:

Of course I don’t mind people sharing hybrid versions. What have my projects been if not hybrid versions?

Sir Ridley sent me the needed shot of Anakin’s saber retracting, implying he surrenders when Jango shows up and probably has it confiscated later. I feel like we are lucky the musical transitions could be contrived to fit as well as they do, and I don’t think it’s probably worth it to press it further by including Anakin breaking his saber. That bit with the cutting machine and Anakin happening to get his arm stuck in an arm-sized thing feels cartoony to me.

For V6 I am hoping to err on the side of things feeling polished and suitable for theatrical exhibition. There will be a few bits and pieces thrown in that aren’t the most savory, things removed in prior versions, in the interest of this.

nl0428 said:

TM2YC also revealed the Jedi the same way The Phantom Editor did by digitally painting out the lightsabers in the background in one shot of Dooku.

Unfortunately, the final product of TM2YC’s edit is rather low quality, and looks poor when one shot is placed alongside the others. He also used the BluRay source, so any alterations I make to get it in line with my source material makes it suffer further. I do like the idea of that change, but I can’t really use TM2YC’s work to do it. (He did a great job; it’s just that his output doesn’t gel with what I’m using.)

Well, here’s my full raw list I’m working from:

[Possibly remove audio for line “I’m not sure how much longer I can hold off the vote, my friends”

Readd the last part of Jar Jar introducing the jedi at Padmé’s HQ

Fix lack of audio channel 6 from 9:41ish to 12:06ish, perhaps just lazily copying channel 5]

[Put in “easy Jedi business go back to your drinks

[Try to remedy the abrupt scene end after “But I am grown up - You said it yourself”]

Include abbreviated Dex’s Diner, and original zam death line

[Place lines from Jamila scene about staying in the lake country to refugee transport scene]

[Fix the audio during landing platform deleted scene which abruptly goes to 2.0 stereo; the beginnig and end of the scene are okay]

Consider suggestion about ep2 continuity error from using lake house to establish Padme’s family house

[Consider using Mala’s version of Anakin leaving to look for Schmi, which has no dialogue]

Undo Dooku’s modified line of “a thousand more systems”

Replace 3PO’s line about never having flown before.

[Maybe reorder scenes like Q2 has it for where the droid factory used to be]

[Put in Yoda saying he is going to go visit Kamino]

[Put back in Mace sneaking up on Dooku in ep2]

[Look into TMTYC’s recreation of the Jedi reveal in the arena from AOTP]

There is a shot of Anakin in pain from lightning that should be moved away from right before Padmé in the sand to just before leaping to save Obi-Wan

Fix video glitch in middle of end credits

That’d be lovely. I’ll send you over the shot. 😃

In trying to see whether Anakin’s saber can be destroyed here, it doesn’t feel right not to see something apparently release the stone jar containing Padme, be it R2 or Anakin. If I use the version I’d posted, about all that I see could be done is to animate a retracting saber over a shot not in the clip as he reacts to Jango appearing. If anyone would want to do so, it would be a better sell than the closeup that would need to be used.

That’s not a bad idea about starting a line of dialogue before cutting to the scene, but I think it would feel somewhat uncharacteristic of this particular movie.

My next task will be to attempt a mock-up that features Anakin’s saber being destroyed and implies it must have been the Geonosians who release Padme’s jar. (I guess better to arrest, try offscreen, and execute than to let get smelted.)

I’m not sure how it’ll go, but I’ll give it my best shot.

L8wrtr trims Padme a bit more than I have, but something about it feels a little quick to me. I’ll revisit this scene again soon and just give it a shot. And I don’t see it being possible to reinstate Anakin’s saber being destroyed without throwing R2 back in, too.
Sounds like going this route will be a compromise for sure, but at least it’s “hmm well that scene wasn’t very good” rather than that as well as “that fundamentally violates stuff that came before.”

I just got a copy of his edit and while it’s a small file size, I think culling that one shot would be worth it. I’ll go for it, as long as it blends in as well as it should. Thanks for mentioning that!

All right, here’s the entire sequence, deleted scene included, for your consideration. (I’ve improved the audio a little since the prior clip, too.) Project yourself back into a physical theater seat in May 2002. Feel the cushion beneath you, smell the popcorn, and roll your eyes gently at the small child sitting in the row in front of you. Then, consider whether the following clip or the existing version of TAS better meets your expectations for a complete, finished film.

https://vimeo.com/342042553
password: fanedit

This is a question of the less of two evils: a dumb action sequence no one likes, or the feeling that something is missing. I’m making my best attempt to set up a Plan B of how including it would be, for now.

lol, like they just sprint straight there?

Here’s what I was able to do with about 20 minutes to focus on the droid factory. It’s worth revisiting with another pass later, but I think this is about as good as I can do with the existing musical score with the shots laid out this way. It seems to me that a level of insanity that perhaps only Dom could muster would improve upon it very much, maybe redoing most of the foley and laying in new score.

https://vimeo.com/341941628
password: fanedit

Immature: https://youtu.be/FwAjUAVu16o

Nah, I prefer to stick to the official versions. I want to have the films feel familiar and changing too much undoes that. It’s subjective on my part, but I don’t want to stray too far down the slippery slope past what the official releases did. I break my own rule at a few points, though.
So… I’m okay with leaving most of that stuff alone.

I’m fairly certain I retooled the cracking sounds and that a more subtle version is what will be there. 😃

I recall thinking about and discussing it here, and then reflecting the decision in the work Brent I have on my hard drive. However, in this moment and without a lot of sleep, I don’t remember what we decided!
I believe I did leave some bone cracking in there, but that it was rather subtle.

All I’ve been able to do so far is sequence the droid factory, getting the shots in order and rendering an extremely rough cut with simple cross fades. It’ll have to wait until I have some time to dedicate, but I am confident it can be made to feel believable. I’m intrigued by Dom’s rescoring project, but I’m afraid I don’t have it in me to attempt a massive overhaul. It’ll hopefully just feel like the existing cues aren’t chopped up.

And if anyone does care to animate the shot after Jango appears where Anakin lowers his broken saber, replacing it with a deactivation, that’d be great. For lack of that, the shot L8 used works well enough.

Another question is whether, if this indeed is put into the edit, do we really need the scene between Padme and Dooku. We’ve already heard his deal in the scene with Obi-Wan, and it doesn’t provide a direct bridge to execution, either.

Yeah… the balcony scene sure feels like it’s setting some specific things up that just would be dropped without the fathier chase sequence. I’m not sure retaining it and not the chase would really make for a more convincing film.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

Maybe it should be the glowing “peace” orb from the end of TPM. 😉

Or this…

Interesting. What music do you have in mind for the factory? Or are you patching up what’s there?

It looks like L8wrtr sequenced the droid factory scene about as well as one can, so my ‘pitch version’ will be pretty similar. Though, I hope I can get the music to feel smooth. Granted, the music is a hack job to begin with.

Thank you too for that feedback. I really do appreciate it. It’s very difficult with my life right now to actually sit down and do any “creative“ work on these projects, so the encouragement goes along way.

Mala is right that I seem to continue to reinstate more and more as I continue to process these movies. You should take a look at my old edits from about 2007. I even left a midichlorians!