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Hal 9000

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14-Oct-2003
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Post
#936730
Topic
Info: Need special effects for your edit? Request them here!
Time

From the “TFA Fan Edit Ideas” thread, here’s my proposal for moving the destruction of Hosnian Prime to after Han’s death. It would require some visual FX work to replace shots showing a masked Ren with an unmasked Ren, and matting in some relatively static TIEs approaching from straight on.

Hal 9000 said:

I put in some time today with TFA, and have put together a few mockup clips to see what it would take to move the destruction of Hosnian Prime to right after Han’s death.

https://vimeo.com/164864645
For the first scene with Snoke, we would remove Hux, and begin the scene once he’s exited the room. I think it’d be okay to leave the SKB establishing shot, though. A small amount of FX work would need to be done to paint Hux out of a few frames as he finishes walking out of frame.

https://vimeo.com/164864663
Next, we will need to remove Hux’s speech and move it to later. This means we will follow Rey as she runs from Maz’s basement, and continue following her until she notices the TIEs coming in for attack. One problem with moving the destruction of Hosnian Prime to later means that Finn left with the space pirates, and yet later appears back with Han and Maz. The best solution I can think of is to do some audio and visual FX work to make it look like he is reacting to the incoming TIEs, and merely imply that he returned in order to help fight.

https://vimeo.com/164864669
After the interrogation of Rey, we see Snoke again. Here, we will need to bake in parts of Hux’s conversation with Snoke that we removed from earlier. I’ve noted in the clip a few shots that will require FX work to show Kylo Ren unmasked.

https://vimeo.com/164864713
After Ren throws a fit upon finding Rey’s empty cell, we can insert the Hux speech. Once it cuts to people working at control stations, we seamlessly segue into the sun being sucked up, which was originally at this point in the film anyway.

During the Resistance briefing, remove Leia announcing that they are the next target.

https://vimeo.com/164864963
And here is the destruction of Hosnian Prime, Starkiller Base’s sole target. I flipped one shot of the beam vertically so that it tracked better.

One would also need to remove the short scene right after Rey and Finn run from the building where we are told the weapon will fire in two minutes.

I’m still not entirely sure this goal can be achieved seamlessly, but I hope so. Good luck to anyone trying to make this work.

Post
#936699
Topic
The Force Awakens : Fan Edit Ideas
Time

Smithers said:

I hope someone makes these changes and leaves the rest uncut. I’d like to see a rearranged version of the film leaving everything else intact.

Me too. If the FX shots that I’m unable to do were out there, I’d merely do the things outlined in my post (and mute the rathtar burp), and slap a silent version of my logo after the credits, and call it a day.
It would keep Luke as the main macguffin, rather than switching to SKB and then switching back. It would also be a less precise mirror of ANH, with Alderaan and Yavin IV. And you’d avoid the question about how the weapon was able to fire twice if it absorbs its sun each time. Come to think of it, this would dovetail nicely with destroying multiple planets at once; SKB only gets one shot after is absorbs its sun, so it is designed to hit multiple targets to take out the Republic capital.

EDIT: It would also dovetail well with Hux’s line, "The collapse of the planet has begun."

Post
#936640
Topic
The Force Awakens : Fan Edit Ideas
Time

I put in some time today with TFA, and have put together a few mockup clips to see what it would take to move the destruction of Hosnian Prime to right after Han’s death.

https://vimeo.com/164864645
For the first scene with Snoke, we would remove Hux, and begin the scene once he’s exited the room. I think it’d be okay to leave the SKB establishing shot, though. A small amount of FX work would need to be done to paint Hux out of a few frames as he finishes walking out of frame.

https://vimeo.com/164864663
Next, we will need to remove Hux’s speech and move it to later. This means we will follow Rey as she runs from Maz’s basement, and continue following her until she notices the TIEs coming in for attack. One problem with moving the destruction of Hosnian Prime to later means that Finn left with the space pirates, and yet later appears back with Han and Maz. The best solution I can think of is to do some audio and visual FX work to make it look like he is reacting to the incoming TIEs, and merely imply that he returned in order to help fight.

https://vimeo.com/164864669
After the interrogation of Rey, we see Snoke again. Here, we will need to bake in parts of Hux’s conversation with Snoke that we removed from earlier. I’ve noted in the clip a few shots that will require FX work to show Kylo Ren unmasked.

https://vimeo.com/164864713
After Ren throws a fit upon finding Rey’s empty cell, we can insert the Hux speech. Once it cuts to people working at control stations, we seamlessly segue into the sun being sucked up, which was originally at this point in the film anyway.

During the Resistance briefing, remove Leia announcing that they are the next target.
Also, remove Threepio’s line in a subsequent base scene, “It would take a miracle to save us now.”

https://vimeo.com/164864963
And here is the destruction of Hosnian Prime, Starkiller Base’s sole target. I flipped one shot of the beam vertically so that it tracked better.

One would also need to remove the short scene right after Rey and Finn run from the building where we are told the weapon will fire in two minutes.

I’m still not entirely sure this goal can be achieved seamlessly, but I hope so. Good luck to anyone trying to make this work.

Post
#936195
Topic
The Force Awakens : Fan Edit Ideas
Time

ImperialFighter sent me the TFA edit by “Noodle_Finger,” and I gave it a look to see how it handled moving the destruction of the Republic capital to late in the film. For those interested, I’ve typed up the relevant descriptions.

During the first scene with Snoke, following the scene where we meet up with Han and Chewie, he removed Hux altogether. The scene begins with, “There has been an awakening,” and goes on from there. (I’d recommend having the line, “There has been an awakening” read over the establishing shot of SKB, then cut to the interior from there.) The editor removed mention of Han Solo being Kylo Ren’s father, but that’s outside the scope of the SKB third act.

He moved the Hux speech scene to later, so the viewer follows Rey running from Maz’s castle through to when she finds BB8 and sees the First Order coming overhead.

Once we get to the next Snoke scene following Rey’s failed interrogation, he used the bits with Hux that he removed from the earlier scene. The scene now reads like this, with bits from the earlier scene in brackets:
Paraphrased
Snoke: The scavenger resisted you?
Ren: She is strong with the Force. Untrained, but stronger than she knows.
Snoke: And the droid?
Hux: Ren believed it was no longer valuable to us, that the girl was all we need. As a result, the droid has most likely been returned to the hand of the enemy.
[Snoke: The strategy must now change.]
[Hux: The weapon is ready. I believe now is the time to use it… to destroy the Republic. They’ll never reach Skywalker.]
Ren: I can get the Map, I just need your guidance.
Snoke: Prepare the weapon… If what you say about this girl is true, bring her to me.

This would require one brief FX shot to cut Red out of a Snoke-POV shot of Hux and Ren-without-mask shot to replace his masked figure from a shot used from the earlier scene. The editor did it and it looks fine. I wouldn’t think it’d be terribly difficult for someone to recreate.

After Ren’s tantrum upon finding Rey’s chair empty, he pasted in the Hux speech. It goes directly into the Sun being sucked in, which was here at this point in the movie anyway.

Duing Resistance briefing scene, he removed Leia saying that they are the next target.

Once Han gets stabbed, he goes directly from closeup of Ren looking contemplative, to the weapon being fired. Once the planets are destroyed, cut to Leia having her “just a headache” moment, then cut to Chewie reacting.

He also had to remove the cutaway about the weapon firing in two minutes, right before Rey and Finn encounter Ren in the woods.

I’m not gung-ho about fan editing TFA, but I would really like to see the SKB restructuring be pulled off as well as possible, because I believe it would have made the story better if it had been done this way from the start.