Master Lawdog

KK650 just did a regrade of the film, and it looks pretty good. Check it out when you can, Hal.

Hal 9000 said:

I’m not sure, I’m really not. I don’t savor making big changes to core events like that.
Reordering scenes for better impact, sure! Could you perhaps repost your idea for how they go, now that I am more familiar with the movie?

Sure thing! I may also post another alternate way Kylo Ren’s opening journey can be shifted later in another post. But here is the structure I pitched.

Opening with Kylo Ren and Palpatine

Rey’s Training

Rey & Leia’s Conversation

Light Speed Skipping Sequence

Kylo Ren’s Mask Repaired

Falcon’s Return to Resistance Base

Resistance Discussing Palpatine’s Return

Group Discusses Traveling to Pasaana and Depart

First Order Conference Discussion

Group Arrives on Pasaana

Rey and Kylo Ren’s 1st Force Conversation

Group Meets Lando

Speeder Sequence

Knights of Ren Arrive on Pasaana

Underground Cave Sequence

Rey & Kylo Ren TIE Fighter and Force Lightning Sequence

Rey & Finn Discuss Her Power

Falcon is Boarded the First Order Ship

The Group Mourns Chewie’s Death and Discuss Traveling to Kijimi

First Order Take Chewie Into Custody

Arrival on Kijimi and Encounter with Zorii Bliss

The Group Hacks C-3PO

C-3PO is Shut Down

Kylo Ren is Reported of Activity on Kijimi

Poe & Zorii Talk

C-3PO Translates the Message

The Group Flee and Kylo Ren Arrives

The Group Board the First Order Ship

Rey Mind Tricks the Stormtroopers

Kylo Ren Searches Kijimi

Chewie is Rescued

The Group is Captured

Rey & Kylo Ren’s Force Duel Part 1

Pryde Orders to Kill the Group

Rey & Kylo Ren’s Force Duel Part 2

Hux Reveals Himself

Kylo Ren Offers Rey to Join Him

Pryde Kills Hux

Rey & Finn Discuss Her Lineage

Kylo Ren & Palpatine Talk

The Group Arrive on Endor

Encounter with Jannah

Finn & Jannah Talk

Rey Travels to the Death Star

Finn & Poe Bicker About Rey

Rey Searches the Death Star

Leia Feels Ben

Rey vs. Kylo Ren

The Group Arrive Back to Leia’s Death

(Possibly add in an exterior shot of the planet’s surface as Chewie’s painful growl is echoed. Maybe try adding a cross fade to another shot to simulate the passage of time on the planet to help sink in the impact of Leia’s death. Just an idea.)

C-3PO’s Memory Restored

Finn Talks with D-O

Poe Talks with Leia & Lando

Finn & Poe Discuss What They’ve Learned

Rey & Luke’s Conversation

Ben & Han’s Conversation

Palpatine Promotes Pryde

Resistance Discuss Traveling to Exegol

Poe’s Speech

The Resistance Takes Off

Rey Arrives on Exegol

The Resistance Arrives

The Battle Begins

Ben Arrives and Begins His Search for Rey

Palpatine Offers Rey the Throne

Ground Battle Occurs

Palpatine Allows Rey to Kill Him

Ben vs. The Knights of Ren

Palpatine Comes Back to Power

The Fleet Arrives

Palpatine Releases His Power

Rey Defeats Palpatine

First Order is Defeated

Reylo Moment and Ben’s Death

The Resistance Departs

Celebration

(Maybe leave it on a black screen to let the music wrap up before transitioning to Tatooine. Maybe even add an FX shot of the Falcon flying towards the planet. Someone could help you out with that.)

Rey on Tatooine

So, I’ve been thinking. I know that in my restructured scene order pitch, I still put Kylo Ren’s mission on Mustafar and finding Palpatine at the beginning, but I was wondering if there may be a way to shift it to much later. Perhaps before the group arrives on Pasaana.

Also, Shadester9 is planning on making his own edit of the trilogy and had an idea of keeping Ben alive. I know this change may go against your philosophy of creating drastic changes within the storytelling of Star Wars, but I still think it was a very poor and complete waste to end his story in the trilogy. His idea was to cut to Rey (the next time we see her) taking off in the X-wing after her and Ben’s kiss, and the final shot shows his TIE fighter in the distance as Rey and BB-8 looks out over the twin suns. Some VFX work will be needed, but it is duable. It may also be possible to add his TIE fighter taking off in the distance during the shot of Rey leaving Exegol.

I also have an idea of making a list of scenes that could be re-scored with certain tracks. As fantastic as John Williams’ score for IX was, I think many of us can acknowledge that there were some moments that missed opportunities for certain cues.

Let me know what you think when you have the time to check it out. Thanks!

DuracellEnergizer said:

I think Filoni and Zahn are very much alike; they write very, very good fanfiction, but still succumb to pitfalls which come with the territory.

I’m not as familiar with Timothy Zahn’s work, as I have not read his trilogy, but people love him too. I can see why, as Thrawn is a great character/villain.

Hal 9000 said:

I’m super busy with work and life, and feel that I have very little real creativity to offer this film.

So, for now I’m sort of stagnate. Like the updated OP says, I’m anticipating being an MC for this one more than ever. I’d like to compile and put out something, partly to round out the whole saga, and I know many here don’t necessarily want to commit to a full edit while they produce wonderful clips and concepts. But that only comes with time and patience.

Understandable. This is going to be a difficult movie to work on, especially without the usage of deleted scenes. Hopefully they are released soon, but I also believe that us fans can find work around secrets to fixing something such as re-scoring and restructuring.

Enjoy your time, Hal.

Hey, Hal! Just thought I’d check in. How’s the project going?

I’ll be real honest, I have never understood why people praise Dave Filoni as being if not the best, one of the best creators working at Lucasfilm. I thought Clone Wars was a very hit and miss show, Rebels was fine, but could’ve been better, and he’s directed the worst episodes of The Mandalorian. I’m not a fan of the guy, and I’m also not a fan of how he constantly puts Ahsoka Tano in nearly everything he is involved in (a character that I’m also not much of a fan of). This is just my opinion, and I understand that many will disagree with me, but I just can’t get behind him.

I’m not the best at color correcting, but I’ve made some attempts to brighten the image and reduce the blue, and it surprisingly looks better.

StarkillerAG said:

I think Hal is justified in wanting to regrade the movie. It has the same problem as Attack of the Clones, where the entire movie has an odd blue-green tint. It is the way it was shown in theaters, but when you look at behind the scenes material the colors are much more natural.

That is true, I just imagine that this would be a hard process.

However, this would be a case of changing the film’s original look, whereas in the past you’ve tried to restore the original look.

The Original Trilogy had the problem with the poor color timing on the 2004 DVD and 2011 Blu-ray releases, The Phantom Menace had a strange pink tint in its 2001 DVD release, and was fixed in the Blu-ray release, but had a lot of DVNR issues with its picture. Attack of the Clones had an odd green tint applied to its Blu-ray release, and the rest didn’t have any problems whatsoever.

This color grading attempt for The Rise of Skywalker seems to be in line with how people complained and graded Solo since it had a dark muddy look to it.

Have you thought about someone grading this film? Many have complained on how much blue is seen in its look.

I gotta say, I’ve been watching the Disney+ versions of the trilogy, and I’m quite amazed by the video quality and remastered colors. I do wish they also did the same with the audio mix, rather than just reuse the 2011 mix. Somebody let us know exactly what the 4K home video releases are like.

ChainsawAsh said:

I’m 100% all for adding some “For Skywalker!” voices to the end battle! I wonder if we could Tweet some TCW/Rebels VAs to record just that line in-character. They’re all stuck quarantined inside already, they must be bored, right?

Yeah, but don’t you think in a case like that you’d have to pay them? Not saying they wouldn’t do it for free, but they’re professional voice actors, rather than ones who are on YouTube and do it for fun.

Hal 9000 said:

I felt justified in finding rips due to having a Disney+ subscription, and will rip the physical disc once I can get it. No timetable with what’s been going on; we’ll see.

Okay, just curious since you used it as a workprint for Return of the Jedi.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m going off topic, but may I ask where you managed to get 1080p versions of the 4K Remasters of the trilogy from Disney+, Hal?

Chase Adams said:

Just realised that Ridley’s Falcon cockpit shots are missing the middle beam in the window. It seems that in all other films the beam is there.

Adywan’s Revisited added in the center beam

NeverarGreat said:

Having used both Mac and PC, both feel solid to me. PC can be less stable simply because of the array of components available of varying levels of quality, but any build of decent quality parts will be as stable as a Mac. I use PC because that’s what I grew up on and Mac feels awkward to navigate, but that’s all personal preference.

I hear that Davinci Resolve has good video editing on par with FCP or Premiere Pro, maybe you could try that?

I totally agree with you. Nothing against Apple, but I prefer Windows computers, they’re much more user friendly in my opinion.

RogueLeader said:

I guess this might not be useful for Ascendent, but rather than try to rescore the kiss scene, I wonder if it would feel more natural if you were to place parts of that track into one or two of the previous films? Like when they touch hands in TLJ, you could replace the Force theme, which I feel gets overused somewhat in the Sequel Trilogy, with a part from the Farewell track. You could retroactively establish it as their love motif.

EDIT:

I’ll be honest, I really really don’t care for Reylo, but it is undeniably really hot. We should lean into that. - JJ Abrams to Chris Terrio

That could work!

Here is a concept clip I put together re-scoring this scene with Samuel Kim’s cover. It’s not perfect, but it’s worth a try to get a vision.

Samuel Kim’s Cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JGe5GAhOf4

https://vimeo.com/400027193
PASSWORD: fanedit

Hal 9000 said:

Yub Nub!

Nah, I prefer Victory Celebration instead.

Hal 9000 said:

Hmmm… should I really remove the song Ben Solo was conceived to?

What was that anyway?

Chase Adams said:

Hal 9000 said:

I’d love a still image (hell, or video) of Rey’s father with a third eye on his forehead.

https://pasteboard.co/J0eCKsW.png

Well according to the novelization, he’s apparently a failed clone of Palpatine, so why not. 😝

Hal 9000 said:

Eh… doesn’t seem to fit snugly. I don’t mind if anyone wants to reach out, but I don’t see this as particularly valuable. I would like, though, to gently fold in a couple bars of Across the Stars.

Ben and Rey still had a love theme that John Williams wrote. Across the Stars was Anakin and Padmé’s love theme, very much how Han and Leia had a love theme too which mashed their themes together.

I was thinking about also using Sam Kim’s cover of Ben and Rey’s theme to rescore the kiss. Nothing necessarily wrong with John Williams’ music in that scene, just feels a bit off at what’s happening on screen. It may help the actions feel less off and more in the moment.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7JGe5GAhOf4

RogueLeader said:

nl0428 said:

I think it’d also be best if we remove Finn trying to tell Rey that secret of his, that being his Force abilities. It’s never resolved/answered at all.

Might not be right for Ascendant, but another member is working on a clever way to reuse those scenes for a different context. Maybe they will share it soon! Hopefully it will work.

Not sure what the new context would be. Making it seem that he’s into her seems wrong seeing where their story lines went.