Hal 9000

Excellent feedback so far. I will see about some of those shots you mentioned from TLJ when I get the chance, and continue to chew on the structure post-Hosnian destruction.
And you’ve convinced me about Rey’s “myth” line. My concern was that it implied she may not know a great deal about Luke, as if the story were just something she was vaguely aware of.

“Luyke Skywalkah’… 'Ah thought 'e was a myth, 'ah did!”

JEDIT: Does anyone have any strong feelings against cutting Rey saving Finn from the rathtars and/or removing Chewie walking past Leia?

That’s really incredible work. If we would be so lucky to somehow totally exclude Rose from Ep9, or have her totally relegated to an easily excisable role, this would be excellent.

The biggest thing I need input about is whether to undo V2’s innovation to establish that the First Order discovered the location of the Resistance base and targets them right after destroying the Hosnian system. The impetus for this was the idea that TLJ may rely on this plot structure from TFA. Though, TLJ turns out to establish on its own that the Resistance base was exposed by virtue of attacking SKB at all. I would argue that TFA(:R V2) establishing their knowledge of its location still assists TLJ, though.

The way things play out in V2 is as follows:

• Resistance performs a recon mission about SKB in light of Finn’s provided intel
• Resistance launches an assault on SKB after learning that they are preparing to use it to attack(… someone; we know its “The Republic,” but the Resistance is never shown to know that)
• The First Order destroys the Republic capital
• Snoke is informed by Hux that the location of the Resistance base has been discovered, and they target them
• Poe and company destroy SKB in time to save the Resistance base, though aren’t quite as upbeat about it since they still allowed their government’s capital to be destroyed

The question is whether it would be preferable to revert to the way things were in V1:

• Resistance performs a recon mission about SKB in light of Finn’s provided intel
• Resistance launches an assault on SKB after learning that they are preparing to use it to attack(… someone; we know its “The Republic,” but the Resistance is never shown to know that)
• The First Order destroys the Republic capital
• Poe and company destroy SKB for unstated reasons. While these reasons may be inferred, they certainly aren’t implied very strongly.

Personally, I prefer V2’s structure for this since it preserves the original film’s motivations and dynamics after the Hosnian system is destroyed, tightening up ambiguity and is slightly more in keeping with TLJ.

I appreciate your input, since I know many of you have considered V2 as a real “replacement” version. Though I will step a little bit further outside the original bounds of the project, I still intend to keep things pretty basic. Hopefully the new changes are uncontroversial enough so as to still be suitable for those of you wanting to adopt this as a ‘gentle restructure’ replacement.

I think it is worth revisiting this project once more for a V3 in light of a few things from TLJ, including the reality that it was not free of the need for fan editing as I had hoped when I approached TFA with an extremely restrained hand.

I will be removing Finn firing directly at his peers immediately after trying to escape with Poe in the TIE fighter. While he does not fire directly at the troopers on the ground, he does fire at the empty TIEs (which causes destruction on the ground) and the command center. The idea that Finn is willing to kill his fellow troopers so quickly is not brought to as much of a head at this point. (The film’s Wilhelm scream was thereby removed, and so shifted slightly within the same scene.)
https://vimeo.com/288950648
password: fanedit

I will remove Kylo Ren naming FN-2187 from memory, leaving that bit of information to come from Captain Phasma.

Rey will not tell Finn she thought Luke Skywalker was a myth. I seem to recall JJ Abrams regretting that line’s phrasing, and that the idea was something along the lines of, “Gee whiz, Luke Skywalker is legendary!” To me, it implied she literally did not believe he existed. Given her level of familiarity with his story in TLJ, this line seems out of place to me. Now she will react to Finn’s revelation with an amazed, “Luke Skywalker?!”

I will cut away the short escapade where Rey saves Finn from the rathtar.

I’ll try again to include a line from Poe to Leia about how Finn is aware of the weapon systems of the FO due to working on their base, as NeverarGreat described he is doing for his project.

Possibly may remove Han’s “no look” shot as that seems out of character for him.

Possibly recolor the Takodana battle to appear more like sunset.

I will use NeverarGreat’s clever idea to move an establishing shot of the Falcon in hyperspace to add tension to the scene where they enter SKB at lightspeed.

If it’s possible, I would like to find a different shot to place immediately prior to the Hosnian system being destroyed, instead of cutting to Leia. If we can avoid cutting to Leia, it can be left slightly ambiguous about whether she is reacting via the Force to the planetary destruction only or if Han’s death is part of it. This one may need to stay as is, since it was hard enough to find enough shots to include!

Sir Ridley may be able to provide two shots in which Kylo Ren’s facial scar is modified to match its appearance in TLJ.

Sir Ridley may also remove Chewie from a certain shot at the end of the film, to avoid walking past Leia with uncharacteristic disinterest.

Ach To will be recolored to better match the different weather conditions in its first scene in TLJ. The best way to harmonize them is to suppose that the Sun emerged from behind the clouds during the few moments between the close of TFA and opening of TLJ.
https://vimeo.com/288952042
password: fanedit

Rose attempts to fly her fighter into Luke as he confronts Kylo Ren in order to prevent him from sacrificing himself. Being unaware of his true situation, she passes through him and hits Ren. The surprise causes Luke to wake up and die.

Thanks for that feedback; I’m glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully this version would have subverted one or two fewer expectations.

Go to great lengths to establish that Vice Admiral Holdo was never actually present. She was astral projecting herself from the other side of Luke’s island. However, when she kamikaze’d herself into Snoke’s ship, she woke up and died anyway. And never explain it further.

Well, I’ve managed to get ESB uploaded to the Google Drive, for anyone interested in it. Again, this was a simple and quick project I would have done for myself regardless of any outside interest, so it’s not something to be made a big deal about. I’ll probably watch it next year with family and friends ahead of IX, and hopefully will have given ANH and ROTJ similar attention. And, until radical new source material is revealed and processed by this community, it’ll be all I can do.

Honestly, I would prefer they lay off the Skywalker saga for a long while. Perhaps they could pick it up again someday, with something like a 100 year timegap.

I wonder if they could’ve gotten the actor for Fake Wedge for Lor San Tekka’s role in TFA after Denis Lawson declined. 😉

Not a problem, and everything should be up to date (V5) everywhere.

benduwan said:

• insert german track

I don’t have a great deal of free time right now, but if you were so inclined, it would be a genuinely easy and doable task to take any post 1997 audio track for ESB, sync it to my video stream, and make a few slight cuts to bring it in line. There were only 4 changes made which should affect sync with the 2004 or 2011 version: the wampa, the Emperor, and parts 1 and 2 of the extended shuttle sequence at the end.

ESB is coming together nicely, and should be out soonish. It’s a very, very simple and quick project, since Adywan’s two sources were all I needed to draw from. Again, I’m just putting this out there in case it hits the spot for anyone else.

I already have a customized version of ANH out there, though I would like to update it. ROTJ becomes the next priority. All I really need for sources is a decent color-corrected 2004/2011 source. I am hoping that perhaps Adywan’s upcoming color corrected version would be a close enough match to the Despecialized in order to use those as the two primary sources. We’ll have to see.

In order to revise ANH again, I would need a color corrected source, being either NeverarGreat’s or possibly Adywan’s upcoming. I suspect Adywan’s upcoming may be closer to the current version of the Despecialized than NeverarGreat’s, and would look nice as a “Special Edition” look.

Looks like ESB is all I can accomplish for the time being. If I wanted to do a non-OUT watch-through this very minute, I’d probably use my customized ANH, this new customized ESB, and KK650’s ROTJ. I’m hopeful that the entire OT can be finished prior to a marathon viewing for Episode 9. And this will be my final work on the OOT until such glorious times as a proper restoration is released to the public.

EDIT: Oh, and I don’t think there’s enough merit for a second audio track for ESB. I included the 2011 updated sound effect for Slave I, but retained the original Boba Fett voice. I don’t think anyone who would possibly be interested in this project would actually prefer to watch ESB with Temuera Morrison’s voice even for the novelty of it.

Surely not, as that would be comically “take turns telling a story.”

Thanks, I’ll do that for the subtitles. And you’re right about the shuttle; that wouldn’t have occurred to me! It’s another Adywan change which assists with continuity with a SE change. Since I decided to keep two shots of the shuttle ascending to his SSD later in the movie, makes perfect sense to incorporate that change as well. 😃

I seem to recall him teasing that he did, but did not wish to release it out of a sense of wanting to avoid unduly relentless criticism on Lucas.

Each of the films has a looped section of music at the end. Although I have bent this guideline, doing this would fall outside the goal of the project. Also, I doubt sync would be an easy thing to line up perfectly.

The ‘Custom Special Editon’ of ESB will be forthcoming. It’s a fairly quick and easy project to edit, basically just cobbling together two sources from the illustrious Adywan. It’s something I would have done anyway for my own viewing enjoyment, so I may as well present it in case others may find it closer to their preferences.
Primary source is his 1997 SE Reconstruction, as the colors are the best around and it is a little closer match in quality to the 720p Revisited source. It may not be the technical pinnacle of picture quality, but it is sound and more than fits in with the 720p, cobbled-together-by-fans standard that we, sadly, have to settle for for the time being for most OT-related projects. The primary audio source is the wonderful 1997 SE theatrical DTS mix, once again. Until the OT.com eschaton, when the originals are given a proper release, this will be my final word on ESB. (Or, rather, the best that can be achieved in terms of a Special Edition version as a companion to the original theatrical.)

Video Changes, beginning from Adywan’s 1997 SE Reconstruction:

• Used wampa escape scene from Adywan’s Revisited, which brings enhancements while retaining the pacing (and, indeed, sync) of the original version.
• Used the conversation between Vader and the Emperor from Adywan’s Revisited, as he essentially honored the content of the original version of the scene while realizing the potential the 2004 DVD version presents.
• Used Adywan’s Revisited to avoid a continuity error posed by the Special Edition as an expanded cityscape out a Cloud City window disappears a few shots later.
• Recreated the original pacing of the escape from Cloud City, removing Vader departing for and arriving on his star destroyer, though leaving two brief shots of the shuttle ascending.
• Used color corrected footage from KK650 to include the 2004 alteration of correcting Piett’s and another officer’s badges appearing on the opposite side of their uniforms.

Audio Changes, beginning from the 1997 Special Edition theatrical DTS audio mix:

• Reinstated Luke’s line to R2 of, “You’re lucky you don’t taste very good.”
• Used 2011 BluRay audio to include updated sound design for Slave I during its first appearance to match Episode II.
• Removed Luke’s scream from the 1997 mix as he falls down the Cloud City shaft after his confrontation with Vader.

No, since it would be even less of a match to the SE Wampa. I may just use his Wampa sequence flat out, though, since my above hybridization clip is a bit ‘innovative,’ whereas his cleans up and enhances what is fundamentally the original version of the scene.

Adywan’s 1997 SE restoration is the primary source, and his ESB: Revisited is a secondary. For this scene, I tried to bring each one to a rough halfway point. I tweaked it myself, yes.

Here’s a stab at a hybridized wampa scene. Avoids ‘showing the shark’ too much, while providing a more effective reveal. Saber retract sound effect has been removed for continuity.

https://vimeo.com/286703539
password: fanedit

And yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and tackle ESB since all the source material I need is already out there. 720p, a compliment to my ANH Custom Special Edition from a few years ago.

The final act of 2001 synced with Pink Floyd’s ‘Echoes’ is pretty cool.

Collipso said:

i don’t get the “obi-wan should never refer to R2 by name”. honestly, it doesn’t change anything, because they’re still in the very same room and Anakin calls him by his name so… it just seems a bit pointless to me.

It’s a very small thing, for sure. I think the novelization of ROTS characterizes Obi-Wan’s attitude toward R2 and droids in general as somewhat dismissive in order to try harmonizing things with ANH. Probably also building on his comments about droids in AOTC.

Octorox, I do hope this edit comes to fruition and look forward to updates. I hope you are using primary sources for video and audio, and not borrowing them from existing edits, in the name of top quality (unless you are using parts of my lossless audio output).
I urge you to ask Sir Ridley to do a custom crawl if you desire, because he’s the best choice… by far.

I would like to offer you any and all help that I can, because I believe in what you’re doing here. While I am NOT going to re-edit the prequel trilogy ever again, I do think it would be very nice to have this as a companion to LOE. As such, anything to help it fit in would be wonderful, like a decent-looking crawl, chapter markers, etc.

I recently began a personal (not part of a group as with the last few) rewatch of the saga in chronological order, and just finished Empire. In watching my prequel edits, I rather enjoyed Episodes I and II, all things considered, but found III to be bland and uninteresting. It’s probably more to do with me than the actual film, but I can’t be sure anymore. One thing was inescapable: I and II were strong because they did not radically reinvent the movies, whereas III sort of did. It’s impossible to enter the theoretical headspace of a first-time viewer, and the one time I was able to do so vicariously went very well, yet I think it would be great to have a fairly conservative edit of III at the ready.

Thanks for the encouraging feedback; I recently watched Ep1 myself on a whim while taking care of my little baby and not being able to do much else! I was also surprised by how engaged I was, even after having agonized over the details of it for so long. If anything, I wish I would have cut a bit less here and there. (Not whole scenes and sequences, but little bits of dialogue. For example, Jar Jar’s use of his tongue in Watto’s shop and at the dinner table.)