Hal 9000

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.)

It’s the worst one.

TPM holds together as a… weird, sort of boring at times… movie. And AOTC is a misguided… boring movie with bizarre slapstick cartoon portions.

ROTS is largely a powerpoint presentation in which everything from the prequels metamorphosizes into the way it was for ANH. Nothing anyone does makes any sense, and it is where the reality of the fact that these were prequel movies rendered itself onto this movie. It’s crunch time.

Just a quick idea from the peanut gallery:

Would it be simple and easy to export an alternate audio track free of audiobook narration? Might be a nice option to present. Provided that it is an easy task.

Not beyond what an already color corrected source would already have done. Hyperspace aside, I really don’t want to fix or correct things aside from hybridizing the official versions.

I don’t think I would want to reinclude a deleted scene not present in the SE. The scene as it is presented is neutral to me, so it would come down to whether the continuity issue can be addressed.
And yes, someone could take my video stream and make a custom audio mix fairly easily. Just sync it up with the start, and make adjustments when it goes out of sync.

Well, it probably won’t exist for some time, if at all. And even then, the DTS 1997 SE audio will likely be my primary source, which would rule out any alternate language tracks.

OP updated again for ANH, to reflect more thinking and refining on the subject.

In putting together a realistic battle plan for this project, here is what I would need (and a few wants included in parentheses) in order to tackle ANH, save for the upcoming NeverarGreat color corrected 2011 transfer and a Despecialized Edition based on it. Here follows what would be needed (or wanted), starting from only these two sources:

• Re-undo R2’s jump cut on the Taintive (Neverar’s source re-added the jump cut, and he ought to be able to export an untouched, color corrected version.)

• Add missing SE vaporators to one shot. (Or simply use OOT to remove them from the first shot.)

• Remove one set of stormtroopers to a SE Mos Eisley establishing shot which are perfect mirror images of each other.

• (Remove the shockwave from the SE version of the Alderaan explosion. If this were done, both Death Star explosions would retain their added shockwaves. Alternatively, Alderaan could keep its SE shockwave, and use the OOT for both Death Star explosions. The idea is to only have one ‘class’ of explosion depicted this way, rather than all and only OT explosions being depicted this way.)

• Depict the Falcon as being in hyperspace during the “sometimes I amaze even myself” scene, with flickering blue wormhole visible out the cockpit and flashing blue light cast on the set. (Refer to Disney-era films for the look.)

• (Smooth R2’s ascension into the X-Wing during the SE ‘Reunion with Biggs’ scene. The alternative is merely not to include this scene.)

• (During the award ceremony, manually modify R2’s red/blue light to match the rest of the saga.)

I agree. Nice thing is that you could offer both in the form of an alternate audio track.

That is a great idea, and I think option B works very well. Am I correct in thinking neither of these changes alter the length of the scene at all?

Replace the in-universe ‘Imperial March’ with the ‘Imperial Suite’ from Rogue One.

It would seem really strange to go from, “They’ve just made the jump into hyperspace,” to a shot of the Falcon exiting hyperspace and Han taking his gloves off, IMHO.

Thanks for the feedback! Moreso than 1-3 or 7, 8 is one which I easily imagine watching the original version rather than a fan edit on some viewings.
I think your read of the entrance to Canto Bight is as intended: one more “gotcha” sequence in the movie in order to remove the fathier stuff.
And I love the caretakers, for the record! 😉

I didn’t really care for it, nor the 2008 Clone Wars series which gets so much love. Rebels, though, seemed more ‘Disney Channel’ to me, and so I did not stick with it through to the end.

I hope ‘Resistance’ is a stylized animation, not more fugly 3D people. 2003-4 Clone Wars Microseries is where it’s at.

Sorry, irrelevant, irreverent comment over.

Given that TLJ builds on the prequel trilogy, in details as well as themes, I think it’s reasonable for Ep9 to appropriately tie into the PT and OT to attempt to conclude the entire story. I don’t see a problem with Anakin appearing.
Even if you want to ignore the PT and SE, it’s not like Sebastian Shaw is available. Perhaps they can depict Anakin as being a youthful middle-aged, about how old Hayden is now. In my book, I’d suggest making him appear vaguely elderly, but not necessarily a Shaw lookalike. To look timeless, in keeping with his ghost in ROTJ somewhat, just like how Ben and Yoda didn’t appear youthful.
I still think it’s profoundly dumb to insert him into a 1983 film the way they did, and would always prefer the original regardless; a new movie with Hayden reprising his role wouldn’t change that. What if McGregor appeared as a force ghost? Would you resent that, too?

You’re starting to scare me.

benduwan said:

Hal 9000 said:

• Ala Adywan, retain the SE Biggs scene, though smooth R2’s vertical trajectory to avoid an awkward jump cut masked by a passerby in the foreground.

why you don´t use the complet deleted Biggs scene?

The Special Edition itself did not use the entire scene, but edited out a brief conversation about Luke’s father. To mask the edit point, someone passes by in the foreground. As this happens, R2 suddenly is much higher up. For Adywan’s project, he smoothed R2’s trajectory and made it more gradual.

I am not suggesting cutting anything from that scene, but merely smoothing out a problem caused by how the SE has the scene cut to begin with.

Here’s a snippet of that portion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwkZT7ETH_8

Compare to the SE’s version:
https://youtu.be/lWYtpdcbLEM?t=44s

Thanks for the clarification, that’s good to be aware of. Having the holy grail of sources would be the biggest hurdle to clear, and the only solution is time.

This thing might not be as ‘out there’ as I assumed. I believe I have the resources I would need for ESB and ROTJ, or I would only need minimal help. No promises, as I am very busy, but I’m going to let this incubate.

JEDIT: The biggest problem will be source material. NeverarGreat’s color correction of ANH is fantastic, but I don’t see anything comparable for ESB and ROTJ. I would need a suitable primary source for the 2004/2011 version to begin with, in the same vein of NeverarGreat’s ANH.

Neverar, are you planning to give the other two the same treatment? DrDre has a thread about matching ESB to the SE grade which looked pretty good, too. For ESB and ROTJ, matching the OOT or 1997 SE would be perfectly fine. (ANH’s 1997 SE transfer had some color issues, and your technicolor grade for it leaves nothing to be desired.)

Updated the preceding post and the OP to remove the idea of hybridizing the original and SE versions of the establishing shot/sequence of Han and Leia in their apartment on Cloud City. If I were trying to “thread the needle” with a perfect version, I’d like to do it that way. But, for a tweaked SE intended as a companion to a properly restored OOT, the SE sequence is just fine.

I also decided that it is worth making an additional exception to the rule by depicting the Falcon as being in hyperspace after the escape from the Death Star in ANH, as Adywan did. At first I thought, “It’s not like ANH had no concept of a hyperspace blue tunnel thing which reflects into the cockpit, because we see it when Han comes out of hyperspace over Alderaan’s location. They just, for whatever reason, chose not to depict this scene in that way.” But, then I remembered that Vader describes the company as just having made the jump into hyperspace immediately prior to the scene, and no passage of time can be inferred.

While I would prefer to stick close to the official versions, this and Adywan’s emperor scene would be worthwhile, wholesome exceptions.

So, here are all the changes that would require manual work, aside from cobbling existing sources together. For ANH, I suppose using NeverarGreat’s Technicolor project (for ANH) would be relatively future proof in executing any of these for the potential use of anyone, if there is desire. (ESB doesn’t seem to require any manual FX work.)

ANH

• Ala Adywan, recreate the timing of the crawl in relation to the music (including the timing of Tatooine entering the frame), while retaining “Episode IV: A New Hope.”

• This would require tampering with available footage beyond merely selecting between official versions. I would like to use only 2011 footage for the “Look sir, droids” scene, though manipulated to sync seamlessly with OOT timing. The beginning of the shot would need to be extended artificially. At present it would only be possible to do this in a way which is shorter than the OOT. It is minor, but I would prefer not to have this scene come off any choppier than in the OOT, while using only SE footage.

• Mos Eisley entrance. This would require some technical work, rather than combining existing official sources. (See OP.)

• Use 2011 footage as 3PO and R2 observe stormtroopers interview a man outside the Cantina, though manually remove the trooper dismounting a dewback in an unconvincing manner. Retain the SE dewback, however.

• While retaining the SE version of the Alderaan explosion, manually remove the added shockwave.

• Depict the Falcon in hyperspace after their escape from the Death Star. (Could be taken from the upcoming Revisited HD Remake, though would be relegated to 720p.)

• Ala Adywan, retain the SE Biggs scene, though smooth R2’s vertical trajectory to avoid an awkward jump cut masked by a passerby in the foreground.

• Manually fix the SE’s little issue where Leia starts to move her hands upward right as the frame freezes as we wipe to credits.

• Manually fix the scale issue between the added Cloud City balcony and our heroes as they run past. (The scene where they meet up with R2.) Could borrow from Adywan, though would need to use the SE’s version of the sky over his for continuity’s sake.

ROTJ:

• Either use OOT or apply manual work in order to remove two SE shots of Boba Fett with the SE backup singers.

• Use the 2011 galactic celebration montage, modified: Matching the 1997 SE’s timing and audio, replace Tatooine with Naboo manually. (I could probably do this myself.)

Jarbear, thanks for the feedback! Glad your movie night was fun for all.

RogueLeader, I did not attempt to do an alternate audio track with the original music for that scene, and I do not believe it would have happened to sync nicely with the existing music being conformed to the new scene timing. It… might? But, I didn’t have a reason to see.

NeverarGreat said:

I assume you know of my version of ANH, which is a hybrid Special Edition conforming to several of your desired changes. 😉

Thank you for reminding me. It sounds like that and a future DeEd would be the way to go.