JoyOfEditing

Mark’s Down On Your Syntax said:

JoyOfEditing said:

Yo! New RECUT is now live for Watto’s Shop: https://youtu.be/PEOioLEokYs

I’ll be covering this sequence in Episode 5 of the Joy of Editing. In the meantime, lemme know what y’all think and Enjoy the Edit!

I like it, I like the pacing and the presentation - it both looks and feels better. Though there is one small thing I’d change if it were my edit. I’d remove the shot of the group exiting the shop, where Jar Jar is flopsying about in the doorway. Not because of any anti-Gungan sentiments, because mesa liken the Gungans, but when Padme says goodbye and smiles at Ani he doesn’t verbally respond, and we don’t see that it’s because he’s giving a little social smile back at her until after that shot of them all leaving. Ani mightn’t have had time to say anything because Watto flew in right behind Qui-Gon. So, if their exit is removed, we can go right from Padme’s face to Ani’s reaction, to him turning to look at Watto. It’s clear that they’re all leaving because of Qui-Gon speeding through and Padme turns to leave as she says goodbye so nothing important would be lost. To me, the rhythm is better and bringing those two shots together ends Padme and Ani’s first meeting on a connection rather than a separation, which is, I think, the point of that interaction.

Just my thoughts. But great work as usual, I love everything you’re doing here.

Yo! Glad you’ve been enjoying the recuts!

To your point, that would be an excellent way to cut the sequence! In fact I’d say George Lucas agrees with you, because the original way that scene runs is this: Padme says, “I’m glad to have met you Anakin.” - Anakin calls back, “It was good to meet you too!” (This is the shot I cut) - The crew exits and Jar Jar get confused - Cut Back to Anakin smiling after Padme and Watto complaining.

But. . . There is a overly-complex reason why I changed that wee little cut. Frankly, it’s hard to explain without writing a novel, so I’ll try to break it down into pieces.

1. Technically: The cut on action of Natalie turning to leave improves the rhythm and feels super natural.

2. The in-scene flow/humor is easier to follow for the audience. The original cut is this: Jar Jar is dropping a bunch of crap - Qui-Gon is annoyed with him/Watto for not taking the credits - Jar Jar drops the crap - Padme says goodbye - Annie Says goodbye - Padme is actually leaving this time - Jar Jar is confused - Annie smiles - Watto Complains.

Here’s what the focus of the original sequence looks like if I assign numbers to the characters (Qui-Gon = 1, Padme = 2, Jar-Jar = 3, Annie = 4, Watto = 5): 3 - 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 4 - 5

And here’s the flow of my cut: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

By reworking the flow that way, the logic/humor of the scene is changed to this: Qui-Gon is JUST ticked with Watto and ready to get out of there. His brisk departure breaks up the meet cute between Anakin/Padme, so the cares of the world are breaking them up, not a juggling Gungan. If you don’t cut back to Annie, saying goodbye, Jar Jar’s confusion acts a “back to reality” beat - The “Angel” has left the building taking the magic with her. The transition from Anakin’s theme to street noises also helps to sell this effect. The cut back to Watto, completes the “Tone Sandwich”: Qui-Gon is worried about paying for the parts - Padme flashes Anakin a warm and beautiful smile - Watto dismisses the “Outlanders” for not paying properly.

3. The META reason that I made that change has to do with how Watto’s Shop is a inverse mirror of Luke’s introduction in Episode IV, specifically the scene in Obi-Wan’s house. In that scene Obi-Wan tells Luke he needs to go save the Princess and freely gives Luke his fathers’ lightsaber. In the Phantom Menace, there is no way for Anakin to be close to Padme, because she is a Queen and he is a Slave, BUT he follows her anyway - at least in my cut. . .

Originally, we cut from Watto’s shop to Qui-Gon chatting with Obi-Wan about the money situation, then to Jar Jar getting into a fight with Sebulba, then to Obi-Wan fretting about the Sandstorm, and then to Annie inviting his new friends to ride out the storm at his place.

In my cut we go straight from Anakin being sent home by Watto to Obi-Wan fretting about the Sandstorm, which means that we then cut back directly to Anakin tugging on Qui-Gon’s tunic trying to get his attention. In that exchange Qui-Gon lifts his robe to reveal his “laser sword” which Anakin’s looks at with longing. This change makes it feel like Anakin intentionally followed Padme and Qui-Gon, because they both have the two things he wants, but can’t have - Love and Power. Anakin’s lust for forbidden love and power will lead to his downfall, and so in this little sequence you have the foreshadowing of Anakin’s entire journey. Luke is called to save a Princess and become a Jedi, whereas Anakin will find a way to achieve his desires, because he’s afraid of missing out.

So! To finally answer your original point, that is why I cut Padme leaving the shop focusing on the separation rather than the connection, so that their initial meeting foreshadows their inevitable separation at the end Revenge of the Sith.

. . . And this is why editing is hard, lol!

Mark’s Down On Your Syntax said:

JoyOfEditing said:

Yo! New RECUT is now live for Watto’s Shop: https://youtu.be/PEOioLEokYs

I’ll be covering this sequence in Episode 5 of the Joy of Editing. In the meantime, lemme know what y’all think and Enjoy the Edit!

I like it, I like the pacing and the presentation - it both looks and feels better. Though there is one small thing I’d change if it were my edit. I’d remove the shot of the group exiting the shop, where Jar Jar is flopsying about in the doorway. Not because of any anti-Gungan sentiments, because mesa liken the Gungans, but when Padme says goodbye and smiles at Ani he doesn’t verbally respond, and we don’t see that it’s because he’s giving a little social smile back at her until after that shot of them all leaving. Ani mightn’t have had time to say anything because Watto flew in right behind Qui-Gon. So, if their exit is removed, we can go right from Padme’s face to Ani’s reaction, to him turning to look at Watto. It’s clear that they’re all leaving because of Qui-Gon speeding through and Padme turns to leave as she says goodbye so nothing important would be lost. To me, the rhythm is better and bringing those two shots together ends Padme and Ani’s first meeting on a connection rather than a separation, which is, I think, the point of that interaction.

Just my thoughts. But great work as usual, I love everything you’re doing here.

Ah! The ol’ duplicate post glitcheroo. . . See below. 😉

Hal 9000 said:

Replace the films’ opening logos with the Disney+ helmet fanfare.

And replace the 20th Century Fox Fanfare with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNEqQNQNs6I

G&G-Fan said:

JoyOfEditing said:
It starts with the Death Star II being built and ends with it being blown up.

Huh?

I understand everything else but I’m a little confused here.

Return of the Jedi begins with Vader arriving at the Death Star II as it hovers over Endor, and it ends with the Death Star blowing up and a victory celebration down on the planet.

The Phantom Menace directly mirrors Return of the Jedi, because it begins with the Jedi arriving at the Trade Federation Control Ship as it hovers over Naboo, and it ends with the Control Ship blowing up and a victory celebration on the planet.

Make sense?

G&G-Fan said:

You said Ep1 would be the new introduction to Tatooine. Can you explain in detail how you’ve accomplished that?

I will. But not yet, because that’ll be one of the things I cover in Episode 5 of the YouTube show. It’ll be a lot easier to explain with visual aids. 😉

Bingowings said:

JoyOfEditing said:

This is all Phase3’s fault. . . He shot me the cut shots from the Naboo Space Battle that he’s restoring, and I decided to see if I could figure out where they went. . . This is the result [music is a temp-track to check pacing and color/sound is WIP]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1864hKUDsi9-FnuZUda_rxcb_S3fe763I/view?usp=sharing

Maybe just one, “I’m trying to stop”. The one shot I would love someone to add is the Trade Federation fleet approaching And surrounding Naboo at the beginning. But I am on record saying the big issue with The Phantom Menace is it’s not linear enough. The Queen should start out on Coruscant and intend to rescue her people on Naboo with Jedi but get shot down and forced to land on Tattoine en route. Finally getting there at the end. If ANH had the same structure as TPM Luke would have found out the Rebel Base was on Tatooine and have to go back there to blow up the death star.

I hear ya, but Phantom Menace, isn’t mirroring A New Hope, it’s actually mirroring Jedi which is also a circle (It starts with the Death Star II being built and ends with it being blown up).

As far as the Queen running away from Naboo to seek political help in Coruscant and then returning to Naboo to claim her rights, that sort of thing is common in Medieval/Early Modern History (Charles II is a good example). Since STAR WARS’ genre is a Spiritual Epic in the mode of Medieval Romance, I think it makes a lot of sense for George to use that idea as a story telling system.

Yo! New RECUT is now live for Watto’s Shop: https://youtu.be/PEOioLEokYs

I’ll be covering this sequence in Episode 5 of the Joy of Editing. In the meantime, lemme know what y’all think and Enjoy the Edit!

That guy with no name said:

JoyOfEditing said:

That guy with no name said:

Finnaly finsihed this shot:

Streamable: https://streamable.com/s64hjz

Thanks to TheStarWarsPurist and TheOnlyIDontEvenKnow for their incredible Modeling work!
Thoughts, comments, or concerns aren’t only allowed but encouraged.

I love it! Your timing on the hit effect is so flippin’ crisp, and the CG work is SUBERB!

This is teeny-tiny niggle from an animator who has composited WAY too many blast effects - you might wanna adjust the opacity/blending mode of the smoke effect that is sitting over the sparkler to better match the wide shot. I used to composite blasts the way you’ve got it now, but after doing a million of them, I switched the way I layered/masked them and the results were much better.

You don’t need to change what you’ve got, I’m the only one on Planet Earth who will notice, lol! But if you composited the effect in AE, I’d be happy to take a quick look at it. Bottom line, this is amazing work!!!

In what way? It’s not on any blending mode. The element itself has a transparent background, changing it to screen or lowering the opacity will just reveal what’s behind it. I did this composite in Resolve’s Fusion.

Gotcha! I’m actually saying go in the opposite direction. Without seeing how you’ve laid out the comp, my guess was that you had two elements (sparkler/smoke) screened or added on top of each other.

I think the smoke element is currently a bit too transparent, because on the back half of the shot, it kinda looks like the sparkler is on top of the smoke rather than shining through the smoke from behind.

In the original shot you’re replacing, you don’t get a clear look at the sparkler until the wide shot when the smoke starts to break up. In the close shot, there’s just a glowy white center where the sparkler is shining through the thick smoke.

To match the original, I would make the smoke effect less see-through and overclock the sparkler by quickly junk animating a blurry white solid over the sparkler on an add or screen layer to mimic the way the light from the sparkler would diffuse through the smoke particles (like it did on the original panel).

Am I making sense? I think that quick tweak would make your effect completely indistinguishable from the practical effects that surround it, because the elements and timing you’ve got are already perfect.

That guy with no name said:

Finnaly finsihed this shot:

Streamable: https://streamable.com/s64hjz

Thanks to TheStarWarsPurist and TheOnlyIDontEvenKnow for their incredible Modeling work!
Thoughts, comments, or concerns aren’t only allowed but encouraged.

I love it! Your timing on the hit effect is so flippin’ crisp, and the CG work is SUBERB!

This is teeny-tiny niggle from an animator who has composited WAY too many blast effects - you might wanna adjust the opacity/blending mode of the smoke effect that is sitting over the sparkler to better match the wide shot. I used to composite blasts the way you’ve got it now, but after doing a million of them, I switched the way I layered/masked them and the results were much better.

You don’t need to change what you’ve got, I’m the only one on Planet Earth who will notice, lol! But if you composited the effect in AE, I’d be happy to take a quick look at it. Bottom line, this is amazing work!!!

That guy with no name said:

Hey everyone, quick question… for the Greedo sequence, do you prefer the subtitles to fade in and out, or just to end?

For some reason the original hard pop-out method is easier on the eyes. When I added some titles to my cut of Jedi, I was surprised that the original titles didn’t fade, but after trying it both ways, the hard cut felt so much better.

G&G-Fan said:

Are the 2011 Blu-rays a good source for the Prequels? I know they’re definitely not for the OT from all I’ve learned about OT restoration (thank goodness for oohteedee’s D+77/80/83). But they’re the highest quality versions of the Prequels I currently own and I want to know if they’re good to use for sources for edits or if I should get something else.

It depends on how you want to approach it. If you want the closest to the original theatrical color, then the HDTV versions are to my knowledge the best, until the folks doing 4K99 restore 35mm prints of the Prequels.

Personally, I use the 2019 4K-HDR masters for the prequels which have the worst color, but the most color information, so I can customize the grade without losing quality.

Basically if you’re gonna grade it yourself, use the 2019-HDR, if you want the best raw color available use the HDTV (The 2011 Blu-Rays would be the runner up to the HDTV masters).

Spartacus01 said:

It is not exactly a radical idea, but I would still like to propose it. Essentially, I believe I have found a way to integrate the scene from Attack of the Clones in which Anakin vents his grief to Padmé after his mother’s death, without necessarily including any mention of the massacre he committed against the Tusken Raiders.

My idea is quite simple: right after Anakin says, “It is all Obi-Wan’s fault. He is jealous. He is holding me back,” the scene would be cut immediately to the moment when he collapses to the ground and sits down, with Padmé approaching and saying, “To be angry is to be human.” I believe that, with the right cut, it could come across as realistic. This way, it would be possible to preserve the most important part of the scene — namely, Anakin’s desire for omnipotence and his determination to prevent people from dying — without keeping the part where he essentially admits to Padmé that he killed children.

To achieve this, I think the scene would need to be stripped of its original score and rescored entirely. However, I am fairly confident that it is feasible. What do you think?

For what it’s worth, here’s my two cents on how to address that problem: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ml90rgWBTyGyIv0d2pM0xU-foauZ_Esp/view?usp=sharing

To me, the “I hate them!” line isn’t over done. . . cause it’s his mom. . . My mom broke her ankle in the Grand Canyon, and I’ve never been so ready to fight a National Park in my life!

G&G-Fan said:

How do you compensate for the Force not being explained in any of the Prequels? That’s one of the biggest issues I’ve had with the chronological order. Ep 1 assumes you’ve already seen Ep 4 where it’s actually explained as an “energy field” that binds the galaxy together. The only way I’ve been able to brainstorm a fix is placing it in the opening crawl of Ep 1, which I myself am skeptical of due to not wanting to bombard the audience with too much information.

Man, you’re always coming up with the great questions that are hard to answer, lol!

Here’s the crazy thing: For my money you don’t need to compensate at all, in fact you shouldn’t.

I think George purposefully kept detailed explanations about the Force (Except for Qui-Gon’s midichlorian chat) out of the Prequels on purpose. The reason for this has to do with STAR WARS’ use of a Christian-style narrative structure.

This is a MASSIVE simplification, but this is how STAR WARS’ two trilogies copy the narrative structure of the Old and New Testaments.

Let’s take Moses (OT): He’s an Israelite born into slavery who is adopted by an Egyptian princess, where he abuses his princely power and kills an Egyptian slaver master. He then runs away into the desert and lives as a Shepherd for 40 years, where God reveals himself to him in a Burning Bush. Moses then returns to Egypt and frees his people from slavery, but Moses’ anger (The same uncontrolled anger that led him to kill the Egyptian) gets the best of him, and he is unable to fulfill his destiny and bring the Israelites into the Promised Land.

Now Jesus (NT): He’s born during a great political crises in Roman Palestine, where there have been waves of Jewish rebellions against the Roman Authorities. Caesar has just ordered a worldwide tax to be carried out over the whole Roman World to reassert his power. After Jesus’ Baptism (his calling by God), he goes into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the Satan. When he returns from the desert he preaches the good news of the Kingdom of God (a new way of being human), and sacrifices himself to bring unity between God, man, and creation.

Now STAR WARS (Which mixes elements of the OT/NT): In a time of great political turmoil and taxation, a young boy is born in the desert, but is then adopted into the powerful political/religious order of Jedi Knights. Instead of being trained in the Spiritual Ways of the Force, Anakin is unwittingly pulled into the political machinations of the Jedi and the Sith. He tries to return to the desert to free his mother from slavery, but instead his anger gets the best of him, and he massacres the Tuskens. This same uncontrolled anger leads him down the path to the Dark Side, and he is unable to fulfill his destiny to bring balance to the Force.

After spending 20ish years in the Desert and the Swamp, Obi-Wan and Yoda, who were once more concerned about the politics of the Clone Wars than instructing Anakin in the Mystical Ways of the Force, have reconnected with the Living Force and are now ready to instruct his descendant, Luke, in the way he should go. Because Luke has learned to control his anger and see through the eyes of the Force, he is able to return to Tatooine and free his friends from Slavery, and when the Ewoks take his friends prisoner, he doesn’t see the little Teddy Bears as an enemy to be destroyed, but as future brothers brought together by the Force (that is why such a big deal is made about the Ewoks adopting Luke and Co into the tribe.) Finally, Luke understands that the will of the Force is for him to sacrifice himself to save his Father and the Galaxy. THE END.

In Short - A Biblical cycle tends to go: Political Machinations leading toward destruction, a reconnection with God in the desert, a leader called out of the desert to free God’s people from slavery (physical and spiritual), and then the success or failure of the leader based on their trust and obedience to God. STAR WARS follows that pattern by NOT revealing the Force until the deserts of Episode VI, just like God doesn’t reveal Himself to Moses until the burning bush, or Jesus isn’t revealed to be the Son of God until AFTER his temptation in the desert, with the first section of the Gospels focusing on the Political Turmoil that engulfed his childhood.

That’s just my take. You could easily approach that problem a million other ways, but as the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 😉

This is all Phase3’s fault. . . He shot me the cut shots from the Naboo Space Battle that he’s restoring, and I decided to see if I could figure out where they went. . . This is the result [music is a temp-track to check pacing and color/sound is WIP]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1864hKUDsi9-FnuZUda_rxcb_S3fe763I/view?usp=sharing

Phase3 said:

JoyOfEditing said:

I’m looking for those reels as well. . . Here’s a good list of names from the “Rebel Mac Unit” at ILM that worked on most of the fighter shots. You might have more luck searching than I currently am.

https://www.lucasfilm.com/news/digital-road-rebel-mac/

Thanks so much for the link - that helps a lot! Yesterday I found a very large amount of VFX reels online, however without the names of the staff who worked on the scene, I’d be endlessly searching through each video. Now I can narrow down my search!

If you PM me some of the reel links, I’d be happy to help scan through them. Mindless work like that is great when I get stuck on an edit, lol!

YouTube would never allow me to post this much copyrighted content, but if any of y’all want to see the full recut covered in the most recent episode, here it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1esLN36PG8O-2t6KnJrW9WLuoodHb1CCf/view?usp=drive_link

For my money, you can’t really get an idea of the way how well the story flows in this rework without seeing it in full, but y’all will have to be the judge of that. 😉

Phase3 said:

An update:
JoyOfEditing sent me a message, in which he reminded me of the footage in one of the early TPM trailers, which shows the Naboo starfighter spinning out of control. I had forgotten about the trailers!

For the shot of the starfighter, I will extract the footage from the trailer and upscale it. I’m also looking through ILM VFX reels uploaded by ILM staff; hopefully I’ll find some more starfighter footage.

Here is a comparison between the DVD footage, and the 35mm trailer:
DVD:

35mm trailer:

I’m looking for those reels as well. . . Here’s a good list of names from the “Rebel Mac Unit” at ILM that worked on most of the fighter shots. You might have more luck searching than I currently am.

https://www.lucasfilm.com/news/digital-road-rebel-mac/

BedeHistory731 said:

I rather like how you’ve implemented the changes, especially cutting from the conference room to the paltry search effort. The only gripe I have is the skeleton suddenly appearing behind the droids in the scene. Would it make sense to incorporate it into the establishing shot?

I’m not gonna lie, the thought totally crossed my mind. The two problems I ran into were that I don’t have a good shot of the skeleton from an angle that would make sense to insert it, and the continuity of the unaltered Threepio sequence is itself kinda wonky (So is the scene were the droids split up. . .). If you pay attention the dragon actually does a bit of teleporting shot to shot in the original sequence.

In the end I decided that the skeleton is in on a dune in front of the camera for the whole sequence until it pulls back at the end. The close shot of Threepio is still a bit wonky with this logic, but I didn’t feel like repainting and roto-ing that shot, because the sense on the sequence still gets across to the viewer clearly.

G&G-Fan said:

Color-matching the ESB Imperial scenes to match the stark black look of the ANH Death Star

I ended up going with a color grade halfway between aNH and tESB for the final look of the DEATH STAR. It’s about halfway through the video linked above.

Whaddya think?

Phase3 said:

For anyone interested in the extra footage of the Jedi & Sith duel, I’ve had some success in removing the “ghost frames” and heavy interlacing:

Before:

After:

Once the upscaling process has finished, I’ll upload them and share them.

Bro, you just gave me flashbacks to my early days as a producer, when basically all I did was de-interlace BETACAM footage. . .

EPISODE 4.2 IS FINALLY LIVE!!! - https://youtu.be/SF0DdwLG-CI

Enjoy the Edit!

-JoE

Fantastic work as always, boss! Given the original picture quality, I think this pass is about as much quality as you can possibly squeeze out of those frames. That must have been a ton of work to get the settings right!

I’m not familiar with the extra laser sword footage. How many extra shots of Duel of the Fates are there? And do you reckon any of them in particular are worth re-inserting?

G&G-Fan said:

Color-matching the ESB Imperial scenes to match the stark black look of the ANH Death Star

I’m probably gonna stick with switching the Death Star to the ESB colors, because then the Imperial look will be consistent across the OT, but now you’ve got me curious to see what aNH’s idiosyncratic colors would make Empire footage look like. . . If I get a chance today, I’ll play around with it and post the result.

G&G-Fan said:

I’d kinda prefer the reverse. I think a more stark black look fits the Empire perfectly.

So are you saying you wish tESB was recolored like aNH? Or am I just really confused?

JoyOfEditing said:

HAPPY STAR WARS DAY!!! - Here’s my recut of the Bespin Duel from tESB in the style of the Prequel fights: https://youtu.be/WCWVJhDJyhA

In other news, I finished the script for 4.2 of the Editing Show, so if work doesn’t get to crazy, the next proper episode should drop next week.

Speaking of Episode 4.2, I’ve been working on trying to match the Death Star Scenes with the Imperial “look” from Empire Strikes Back.

Here’s a comparison of happens when you color match the conference room with the Executor’s bridge:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12y0SU2SG173NqzlHLdyP_kH0RYhkycrO?usp=sharing