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!
That’s interesting. I’ll have to check that out!
I don’t think Obi-Wan’s line is improved by removing Anakin’s. Sorry; I don’t see myself doing that. Thanks, though, for suggesting it.
I don’t understand; what was changed there?
I suppose being introduced to the oppressed kids at that point in the movie along with what would become a sentiment of “I wish I could do something about this place but we have our mission” would make the film’s epilogue more inspiring.
Finn and Rose can’t do everything everywhere there’s trouble, but YOU can. Eh?
I will mull this over, and maybe by the time I get my revisions of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 out the door I can make a quick stop at TLJ again. But probably not until after 9 is out, in case anything about it has influence over editing TLJ.
I wonder what meaning people would have made out of TLJ:L V2 if it were what they had seen in the theater. I imagine people would respond to people who would say Finn’s arc doesn’t make sense by pointing out how Rose and DJ represent two paths he could go down.
In the first Canto Bight scene he hears from Rose that the First Order raped and executed her family or whatever, but he already knew they were bad. Then he learns about third party war profiteering, which DJ teaches him again later anyway. Then, he learns that the wealthy locals are oppressive and maybe wishes he could do something about it, but doesn’t directly.
And… I guess his arc seems to be about the same with or without that scene. All the later sequence does is give some wealthy people an insurance payout.
I know it’s impossible to really do, but I wonder what the argument and thoughts would have been if this is what the movie was.
What would you have done if you could have? I’ve got some stuff to do fan editing wise with the other movies, so my attention wouldn’t come around to TLJ for a while in any event, but I’m open to ideas about this.
At present this seems like something people in the alternate universe would have said, “These deleted sequences would have really fleshed out the character of Finn but they aren’t very good and would have messed up the pacing.”
Truth be told, while I want any of my edits to be watchable as films, I… I don’t really care about Finn. He just doesn’t seem believable for what he’s set up to be, I guess.
Just thinking out loud, but I guess one could reinstate the first Canto Bight sequence as it was and still remove the fathier sequence. We would see the Cinderella kids, and later we would just assume the broom boy always had a rebel alliance ring. It might actually give Finn more of a motivation to see evil and not really be able to do anything about it directly, y’know?
Either way, I’m glad you enjoyed the edit for the most part. Are there any edits at present that you’ve found you enjoy as a more solid film overall?
Replace the cries of agony from the Droid sucked through the pod turbine with droid dying sounds for consistency.
😦
Just kidding. Wow, thanks for the kind words. I’m glad this one finally seems to feel like a viable thing to have projected to our hypothetical unsuspecting time travel audience. You’re list simultaneously feels like potential improvements without feeling like I should regret anything. Sounds perfect for you going forward and making changes of your own.