Hal 9000

Jedi Rocks.

Thanks for the injection of enthusiasm! I’ve commented elsewhere that I see the importance of Luke choosing to use the image of the saber he rejected at the beginning of the movie. When TFA came out I said I’d have rather the green saber been the macguffin than digging Anakin’s out from the void. I get why it’d be desirable, but why open that can of worms?
But, given that TFA gives us Anakin’s and that Luke rejects it at the start of TLJ, it’s right that he should wield its image at the climax.

Here’s at least one attempt at a transition from Finn and Rose in hyperspace to Luke back on the island. It’d be necessary in order to remove the fathier chase and truly decimate the Canto Bight portion of the film, in conjunction with the previous clip I posted.

https://vimeo.com/266235899
password: fanedit

The OST was used to provide a musical transition.

How does the hive mind think this little sequence plays out as a total package? It is based heavily on darthrush’s take in his thread. Here the idea is that Finn and Rose are heavily focused on the getting to the codebreaker quickly and don’t give a rip where they are at. It is obviously now a much shorter sequence, but I think this mini-throughline might sell it well enough.
Rear channels used to remove sounds of coins rattling around inside BB8, replaced with a sound of BB8’s normal rolling sound.

https://vimeo.com/266143726
password: fanedit

^ That take would have been so much better. Too bad we don’t have usable footage.

That, I could get behind.

I modified the wind sound to bring it down somewhat. It’s amazing sometimes what taking a break and returning to a challenge can yield.
And thanks for the kind feedback. I’m starting to feel better about this project. Good thing is there’s no reason to rush.

When Rey reaches out and sees “The Island,” she is actually seeing two Ewan McGregor’s fighting each other from 2005’s ‘The Island.’

Eh? I’ll see myself out.

darthrush said:

Thanks for the thumbs up, I’m glad I got it right!

No Leaf Joke

https://vimeo.com/265290771

-Cut from Rey saying “Okay” to Luke resting her hand on the rock.
-Replaced “Reach out with your feelings” with just “Reach out”

Wow. I really enjoyed that moment in the theater, but my goodness, it really does play out better like this. You’ve convinced me.

Here’s another attempt, this time trying to include the shot of Luke discarding the reed he is shown holding. I submit it to get a sense of whether people think the shot is better in or out.
https://vimeo.com/265385058
password: fanedit

It still took some FX work to transition from the Falcon leaving Jakku to the originally unrelated shot from the end of the movie.
It wasn’t really related to the main goal of the edit (or was it?), but I couldn’t resist including it when I saw his mock-up. (And, as I say, it lets us use a tiny part of TFA in a different way which would have been cut otherwise.)

I’ve invested as much care and attention to this sequence as I possibly can, and I believe this is the best I am going to get this to look and sound. It’s the caretaker removal. Wind and porg sounds have been added fresh, in order to allow the clean music from the rear channels to be duplicated to the front and center channels and carry on from Luke and Rey’s conversation, rather than trying to transition into the more dramatic music originally associated with the final exterior shot. The levels were adjusted throughout to make it flow as seamlessly as I can contrive.

https://vimeo.com/265308666
password: fanedit

During the final shot in which it is visible, just depict it exploding!

It was to let the musical rescore transition naturally.
But, if it’s any consolation, we see the Falcon jump to lightspeed in this version after they leave Jakku, taken from this scene (by NeverarGreat).

Nah. Just like the prequel trilogy is unhelpably ‘prequel’ (in terms of assuming you are familiar with what came before), the sequel trilogy so far seems very much a serial. I have no interest in revisiting TFA in light of TLJ. There were other little things about TFA that could have been trimmed, but I liked the movie and preferred not to hack it all up. Despite how that last sentence sounded, I am looking forward to Sir Ridley’s edit which will make many of these little trims in addition to what’s in TFA:R.

Makes sense, I suppose. No problem about it from me.

I have no idea what would cause that unless something was corrupted. Could your torrent client verify the data you downloaded, maybe?

Okay, good. You may have happened onto the link while the others were being prepped or uploaded.

I agree; AT-AT makes more sense.

Best Star Wars book I ever read.

The most noteworthy ones are a new, perfect opening crawl from Sir Ridley of OT.com, DTS audio thanks to ChainsawAsh, and reinstating a number of small moments such as Sebulba skidding to a stop at the end of the podrace that hopefully help this feel like a proper film and not a re-cut.

Even if the fathier chase sequence is removed, I would still be in favor of keeping the slave kid epilogue so long as we get the brief introduction to them as Rose is lecturing Finn as he uses the binoculars.
Of course, if they are arrested immediately, that’d be gone.

I’d like to get a discussion going about how to handle Canto Bight.

It seems like there are three options.

A) Keep the existing structure intact, but trim down the fathier stuff somewhat. This option introduces the fewest issues, but solves just as much less of the problems this stuff has.

B) Remove fathier sequence altogether. This would look like:

• Finn and Rose arrive on Canto Bight. Finn is infatuated with the place, until Rose spills her guts about her history with the FO and how the town houses war profiteers. (This will be trimmed just a little, removing the namedrop of ‘fathiers.’ Alternatively, Finn and Rose could immediately spot the master codebreaker upon entering the casino and be thrown in jail.)
• Finn and Rose are incarcerated, meet DJ, and we transition directly to the three of them in hyperspace making their deal.
• Later, their story proceeds as it does originally.
  One slight problem is that transitioning to hyperspace heavily implies that we are viewing the same shuttle they left on, despite a brief establishing shot to the contrary that audiences wouldn’t pick up on. It might be slightly confusing when it is revealed that DJ stole the ship. I believe a FX shot of BB8 following the group as they leave the cell would be helpful. (Could even just be to show him leaving the shadows, similar to the shot where he watches the guards. Doesn’t even need to be added to an existing shot. Just something to indicate that he sees them leaving and is going to follow.)

C) Finn never leaves the rebels in the first place, and we are never formally introduced to Rose. This does not seem like a workable option to me, because the character of DJ will return in Episode 9, and I’d want to keep Finn’s involvement in the story. (I.e., it’s not an option to just keep Finn with the rebels all along and hardly show him. We do need to actually go to Canto Bight.)

Here’s the current state of the first caretaker removal scene:

https://vimeo.com/263917292
password: fanedit

JEDIT: Nevermind; I’ll let you guys give your opinions without hearing mine first.

toastedzen said:

I am trying to create a DVD9 or BD25 out of the 1080p file for TFA. I noticed you only have the DVD5 up. Is there a larger ISO version you created already?

Thanks for the kind words, and I am glad you enjoyed them!
Where are you only seeing DVD versions listed? There should be at least three options.

I seed from behind a VPN, but sometimes I turn it off. Keep the torrents running and you should get them in time. Or use the Google Drive links from Reddit.
And thanks for the kind words.