I sort of wonder if this movie will at all acknowledge or reference that Chewbacca once stood next to Yoda during a Jedi Council meeting the day of the Jedi Purge, and then howled sentimentally as Yoda gave him a somber goodbye and blasted off into the night sky.
That is probably the best way that idea can be executed. Great work!
But, I don’t have an impetus to remove the sequence. Especially since we won’t be getting any more Leia.
Just wanted to post this here. Spot on, and rather touching, I thought:
I wish I had any advice whatsoever to give, and I’m really sorry to hear about expensive coasters being made. 😦
Very fair criticism. Thanks for taking a look at it, and I’m glad you enjoyed it overall. 😃
It’s subtle, but I think if that’s all that can be done it it still helps sell it.
Yeah, I wouldn’t want to decaptitate Luke or anything. I was just wondering if scooching the saber up slightly in the shot might help it feel more natural. As it is, a crappy theater could conceivably accidentally crop the saber out of that shot when it is projected.
If you tried it, then I’m sure it’s a dead end, but I’ll try playing with it when I have the chance.
Very, very rough test for an idea regarding Luke dropping the lightsaber:
Just a thought. The lightsaber right before Luke drops it is a bit low in the frame, given the action we are about to follow of it falling out of frame. I wonder how this might look zoomed in slightly and bringing the saber closer to center of the frame. Perhaps someone with the 4K copy could provide this single shot if this proves to be an improvement.
EDIT: I lied. Of course it’s not “just a thought.” I want it to be good so that I might use it myself. 😉
Fair point, Mala. I’ll… think about it. 😃
It’s Star Wars tradition to be chock-full of weird sex stuff. Or maybe it was just us all these years.
Hmm… yes, of course! The Last Jedi is full of latent sexuality. It’s really the key to everything! The milking scene, Rey asking Kylo for a cowl, the touching hands scene, Rey believing she can save Kylo, Holdo emasculating Poe, etc etc.
I can’t tell if I’m kidding, or if I just need some sleep. It all makes so much sense now. Except BB8’s antics.
The music was not crossfaded at all, but merely begins earlier now in order to keep the whole cue.
Star Wars - Episode IX: FINN POLITELY DECLINES ROSE
Here is a slightly different attempt at Rose’s final line:
https://vimeo.com/267589743
password: fanedit
I’d be interested. What’d you post? There are thousands of comments.
Here is my post on that thread:
http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1201956/action/topic#1201956
Nice, thanks. Good points; this movie certainly gives us substance to digest, which I am glad for. I said TFA felt a little anemic when it came to mythic substance.
Some thoughts on your workprint.
Early on, it is a little noticeable how Finn just randomly says, “I’m not a Resistance hero” even though Rose never calls him that. Yeah, she says, "THE Finn”, but she could’ve meant, “Yeah, the First Order traitor, Finn!” I do like the idea of cutting the “breathe” line, but I wonder if more of what Rose says could be kept.
Hard to disagree with you.
I believe the box Luke sits on at Crait still moves, at least in the version I watched.
Yeah, I forgot that I hadn’t actually gotten that clip back yet, but it should be forthcoming.
I really liked the new placement of the Luke and Yoda scene. I feel like it really works there.
Favorite single change.
I don’t think the changes to Finn’s sacrifice were very seamless. Maybe I’m just biased since I’ve seen it a few times, but the trimming of his attack run is noticeable, mainly how the music crossfades. Also the trimming of Rose’s lines wasn’t seamless to me either. I wonder if you cut “I saved you, DUMMY” but kept “not about fighting what we hate” line, it might work better. Maybe just keeping the first half and let the audience assume the rest? I’m not really sure on this one. I don’t know if it is the line that doesn’t work or the moment the line is in.
I’m uploading a clip to test a slightly different approach.
I feel like without seeing the Canto Bight slave kids at some point earlier in the film, it feels really out of place seeing them at the end, especially with the focus on the ring that has no context anymore. Are we to just assume now that they are just random slave kids somewhere out in the galaxy, unrelated to Canto Bight? I think the way you trimmed it still leaves some questions but I think it pretty much works. I wonder when you cut to them rushing into the casino, you could have the music continue to play, but quietly fading out, in the background to help the cut. It just halts at the moment. Not a deal breaker though. It’d be great if you could use a shot of them leaving the planet, but it would be hard to use what’s available and it not look weird.
I imagine it wouldn’t work, but I will attempt a more gradual fade out of the casino steel drum music. And the more I think about it, I like that we don’t already know these kids. They’re just Cinderella-archetype kids in bad situations using brooms as lightsabers and wearing Rebel Alliance decoder rings as they tell stories in the basement when their pig monster master is away. For all we know, this could be a glance into the far future.
I’d be in favor of keeping the leaf/reed moment. Or at least keeping, “Okay… but what is it?”
I can’t keep only that one line without screwing up Rey’s eyeline between shots. It doesn’t matter, since I am putting the reed moment back in. It works well without it, and I think Darthrush’s version will do this very well.
Overall though I think most of your cuts were pretty seamless. I didn’t read your cutlist before I watched it and I actually didn’t notice some of the changes, like removing the coin sounds from BB-8 (though I think you can still hear it a little when he gets thrown out) and the removal of the cowl line. Good job.
Thanks! The coins can still be heard somewhat with BB8 being thrown out, though if you weren’t already primed for them, I bet they would just sound like bits and pieces of BB8, as if he hit the ground and shook a few things loose inside.
Thanks, Mala. 😃
I wish my brain could tell you right now. For a few things: DTS audio, flawless opening crawls, greatly improved Boleyn sequence, various little changes, removed ‘high ground’ altogether, etc.
I would suggest getting V5 for archival purposes, since there will NOT be any further updates. But there’s not much to tout aside from ‘presentation’ aspects and little things.
V5 is the “Oh, all right, let’s go round one more time and make it as good as it can be before placing it permanently beyond my reach.”
The “put a cowl” line is also the opposite of a latent sexuality since it clearly denies it. I thought it was a very clever removal.
What better way to include latent sexuality than by ‘clearly’ denying it? 😉
And thanks, Darthrush! That’s a good question. I think this edit will be a fairly lightweight one. Sort of like my old prequel edits (2006ish). If I can trim away what cringe moments I can (subjective), perhaps the rest won’t be as bothersome. And if I can remove a good swatch of the Canto Bight digression, perhaps the subplot can still feel solid enough while reducing the runtime a little.
Also wanted to mention I posted some thoughts on the Wisecrack video Hal posted earlier on the TLJ discussion thread if anyone would be interested in reading them.
I’d be interested. What’d you post? There are thousands of comments.
The milking scene is still in; I loved that right away and wouldn’t want to remove it. This film has a lot of latent sexuality, in keeping with Star Wars. That’s also why I will be re-adding Rey asking Kylo to put something on when he is shirtless; it helps set up their “touching hands” scene.
What do you all think about potentially reinstating two things?
The leaf/reed scene - Luke is sardonic, and it fits in with his character, makes the point the scene is going for that Rey doesn’t know the first thing about the Force, and is a genuinely funny moment. With the surrounding caretaker humor gone, maybe this one is worth keeping.
“…not about fighting what we hate, saving what we love.” - This line sucks, but perhaps it’s worth it to cap off the Finn and Rose plot’s point. It harkens back to the opening act, and shows her (dumb) growth throughout the movie. I do not like the line. But… eh?
If it works out that way, that would also work.
A quick thought before I have to run off for the day. The Canto Bight casino scene now seems to be a big joke, but in a good way. There’s a long establishing shot, immersing us in the environment, and we see the glamorous master codebreaker… only to be tossed out on our asses and change scenes.
Given the subversion theme of the film, I think this change works well!
The separate wav is the unprocessed raw audio output for anyone who knows how to do whatever they like with it and mux in.
I encoded V5 of the prequels at full throttle so encoding to a SL-BR would require some compression. I didn’t want to skimp.
Okay, just finished watching your workprint, version 1.0.
I fully admit that some of this is just me thinking out loud. Some of these are things specific to your fanedit, and others are just points about the film that I wish were changed. You may agree or disagree with some of my comments, but these are just my gut feelings on what I just watched. I hope this helps.
Thanks for previewing this!
- The Poe & Hux "telephone call"
- MUCH better — your edit retains the humor without making it over the top
- Absolutely my favorite rendition of this scene that I’ve watched so far
- I wouldn’t touch this any more: it’s perfect in this form
Thanks very much. I’m rather pleased with it as well.
- BB-8 fixing Poe’s X-Wing
- Full disclosure: I’ve never been a fan of this sequence
- Having BB-8 stick his whole head into the panel seems silly
- I really have no idea if there’s a way to improve this, so I might just have to get over it
I agree. This deserves playing around with a bit more, but in this cut we will still get a fair bit of BB8’s antics later on (implied binding and gagging of multiple prison guards, and hijacking an AT-ST), so perhaps this opening waterpipe gag sets us up for that a little more gently? (At least with BB8, there’s no already defined physical limitations which seem to be violated, the way that R2 and 3PO were violated in AOTC.)
- Paige Tico (bomber pilot) sequence
- After she climbs the ladder to grab the remote, she falls
- She keeps kicking the ladder again and again to get the remote to fall, but I think this goes on for way too long
- I find myself screaming at my TV, “Just get up and go get it! You could have gotten it by now!”
- I understand that maybe she’s injured, but we never see that, so it just looks like she’s lazy
- I would recommend cutting it so that the remote falls on perhaps her third kick of the ladder
- Also, I would cut the shot of the remote flying past her (keep the slow motion and her catching it, but the shot where she just watches it fly past her head is annoying).
This never bothered me, and I’d prefer to more or less leave things alone unless I have reason not to, but I could experiment with these ideas. Given my restrained approach to TFA, I feel like I ought to continue that somewhat.
- Luke lightsaber toss
- Still not sold on Luke tossing the lightsaber over his shoulder
- Other people’s edits have Luke simply dropping the lightsaber, which is a good alternative
- But this alternate take of the throw (from BTS footage) remains my favorite
Luke dropping the saber, on paper, is great. I sincerely hope to be able to use it in a fan edit, but only if it is absolutely seamless. The alternate take is beautiful, but I don’t think it works to cut to it with the footage we have available.
- The space attack on the Resistance cruisers
- Is it possible to trim or cut the shot of Poe being thrown back from the explosion in the hanger? It looks ridiculous, he’d be dead
Eh, seems peripheral at best to the issues I want to address with this movie.
- I cannot support the floating Leia / Mary Poppins sequence whatsoever
- My suggestion: have the explosion on the bridge, but the next time we see Leia is when they put the Oxygen mask on her
I’d rather leave the sequence alone, weird though it is. To me it’d be too awkard to dance around it, and it didn’t bother me anyway.
- Ahch-To Stuff
- Great job on cutting the “sad eyes” porg. The scene remains funny, but not over the top
- Also, great work to you (and the community) for the work done to remove the caretakers from the island
Thanks!
- Getting rid of the “Luke tickling Rey” scene was smart, but I do admit that it felt rather rushed
- After Rey says, “Okay,” you currently have it cut to Luke throwing away the leaf and telling her to breathe. I would suggest having her say, “Okay… but what is it?” (just as she does in the actual film), and THEN cut to Luke throwing away the leaf. I think this would make the scene feel more complete. Maybe I’m wrong.
Rey’s eyeline aligns with the shot that is placed afterward in the workprint immediately after she says, “Okay.” I agree with you in theory, though. I am not sure whether I will ultimately keep or discard the leaf gag. It does fit with Luke’s character, to be fair. Moreso than the Jakku joke I already relented about cutting.
- When Rey confronts Luke just before she leaves Ach-To, I really would like the idea of us seeing some of the TFA “force back” / flashback clips integrated into the moment when Luke looks into Ben Solo’s mind… that way when he ignites his lightsaber, it truly seems like it was out of instinct. Maybe not in your edit if you don’t want, but I would like to see it done by someone.
Eh, the movie leaves it to our imagination, and I don’t see reused footage adding anything helpful.
- Canto Bight
- AMAZING. The fact that I can make Canto Bight into only one bullet point should tell you that it was a success. It’s so much faster paced, and I’m all for removing the political BS. You nailed it.
Thanks. This is the biggest single thing in need of addressing in a fan edit.
- On the Star Destroyer
- I’m not crazy about BB-8 driving an AT-ST, but I don’t know if there’s a way to cut it
I’m with you on this one.
- When Hux is looking at Snoke’s dead body, his lower half falls out of the chair for no reason… cuttable?
Eh, it adds some very light humor and motion to Hux gazing out over the destruction. No reason comes up in my mind to remove it.
- Finn’s sacrifice scene
- I’m just sort of thinking out loud for this one
- I’m still of the opinion that Rose shouldn’t run her speeder into his ship… instead I wish we could make it look like his ship gets shot or maybe that it breaks down before he can sacrifice himself
- But if we really have to keep Rose, then I like the change you made to cut the stupid “love” line. While I wish they didn’t kiss, that’s going to be hard to cut out, so I guess I’ll deal with it.
The Finn and Rose subplot exists. Much like how I approached Jar Jar in my TPM edit, there has to be enough remaining to feel like it belongs and hasn’t been modified by a trigger-happy fanboy.
- Luke facing down the First Order / Kylo Ren fight
- Selfishly, I still like my edit to play The Jedi Steps during this sequence. But to each their own. 😉
I like your rescore, but the existing music accompanying Luke as he marches out there was my favorite moment of the film. “The moment you’ve all been waiting for since 2013… it’s Luke Skywalker, motherfuckers! And he’s gonna lay down some MLK style nonviolent Resistance on you!”
Only other thoughts…
- Was really hoping to see a few of the deleted scenes
- The Finn / Poe deleted scene where Poe is catching Finn up on what’s happening
- “Luke Mourns,” though I don’t know exactly where it would fit, to be honest
- And the stormtrooper / elevator deleted scene… the fan-edited one that removes their voices and just makes it more of a tension building sequence is pretty great
The Luke having a moment scene is the only one I plan to use, I just haven’t done it yet. The Poe and Finn scene would virtually require that I also include the BB8 recording scene and shuttle heading to Crait. The scene doesn’t really add anything important, other than also requiring I add more scenes to an already overlong movie. I would, though, reallllllly love to include the deleted scene with Finn and company on the Star Destroyer, but it is full of unfinished set extensions and is unsuitable for that technical reason. Shame, really.
- Finally, I’m curious about your reasoning for moving the Luke / Yoda sequence later in the movie? Not sure how I feel about it because it seems like a much slower scene compared to all the fast paced stuff going on before/after its new placement. Maybe I can appreciate it if I understand the reasoning why it was moved there.
At this point in the movie, we’ve seen our characters fail and reach their lowest points, and this scene with Luke and Yoda reflects back on Act 2 before launching into Act 3. In the theatrical, Luke seems to have this realization ahead of the action. Now, it serves a bridge between Acts 2 and 3. Also, the transition from the ending of the Yoda theme to Finn and Rose felt unpleasant to me.
Great work for this first version. I really enjoyed this immensely more than the actual film. While I still have little things to nitpick about, I would absolutely take this over what we initially received. Once again, awesome job.
Thanks very much. I hope to be able to do more with it before laying the tools down.