NFBisms

Kylo Bylo

I would definitely watch an edit of those Ewok movies + ROTJ!

hey i found some sith whispers from kotor

Anakin Starkiller said:
I 100% believed he was trying to tell Rey he loved her and was shocked to find people read it differently. I may not have picked up on Stormpilot, but Finn’s simp act is hard to miss. Why else would he rush over to the Death Star ruins?

That subplot is basically jealous Han thinks Leia loves Luke in ROTJ lmao

I don’t know, if Finn’s simp act is supposedly telegraphing a romance, then all of the Finn/Poe stuff has more weight, because it’s more overt than that little un-reciprocated crush. But I digress.

Klaud Squad here:

Idk if Klaud was supposed to be removed completely or not, but he’s still in one shot during the beginning Falcon chase, falling over with his classic Awed-Klaud™ face

Anakin Starkiller said:

Look, I’m not opposed to Stormpilot, but at the end of the day I never picked up on any signs, and I say this as a Reylo fan. Maybe I’m just too straight to ever pick up on gay hints. Harley and Ivy seemed outta nowhere to me in Harley Quinn so…

I don’t think you have to be gay to feel any of that tension bro. xP

Yeah, I wasn’t really thinking about any of that when working on this to be honest. The movie is what it is, and pretty much everything about this edit is coming from a different place creatively than “righting its wrongs.” (Which makes it a lot of fun to work on!)

That said, Maul probably won’t be in this edit for reasons along those lines. If there’s one thing I think they “should have” done, it’s make Qira’s decision to leave Han entirely her own. Of course Han may think she up and abandoned him, but we know she was trying to protect him. I think it would’ve been really interesting and heartbreaking if Qira ultimately decided she wanted Dryden’s throne more than she wanted to be with Han, and that’s why she leaves. It’d really hammer in how much she’s changed and moved on, and I feel even has roots in her yearning for more back on Corellia.

I think that fits the melancholy of Coaxium Bebop really nicely, and even mirrors the themes of Spike Spiegel’s own stunted emotionality from the original show. Han living in the past, falls into cynicism as a defense mechanism for all his hurt, and that follows him even into his backslide around TFA times.

Ideally, I’d like this to be almost a critique of Han’s character.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement on this pretty obscure idea!

For an update, those 15 minutes have been tweaked a bit since I posted. I’ve added (back? I had to re-foley myself) some sound in the later parts of the clip and swapped out approximately the last third of “Elm” used with another portion of it. I just thought that it got a little repetitive at the end, so I use the guitar plucking from this point in the track. You’ll hear in the full edit I will release.

In the meantime, Here’s a rough draft of the next 13 minutes

Tracks:
Farewell Blues
You Make Me Cool
Too Good Too Bad
Stella By Moor
Green Bird

I don’t want to end up posting part after part before it’s fully done, but I did feel iffy about this immediate next portion. Levels, dialogue isolation, etc. I also wasn’t so sure about my usage of Green Bird, I feel like I might be stretching the premise thin here? Anyway, thoughts would help.

Not gonna lie, until the previous post I definitely thought we were talking about Yoda looking stoned.

EDIT: not that he does (look stoned)

EDIT EDIT: ok not that that isn’t normal for him

Here’s a rough draft of the first 15 minutes

There’s a color grade and some grain/film effects to age the footage a bit - I thought that fit the vibe. The B&W flashforwards will stay clean and HD, the majority of the edit will be like in the preview, and I have another grading scheme for the scenes that take place on Corellia. Basically, it’ll be more saturated and grimy the further back in the timeline, with the OT/ST clips being monochrome.

Music used:
Memory
Spokey Dokey
A Heavy Blues Hook (from YouTuber WhistlersBrothers)
Don’t Bother None
Yo Pumpkin Head
Elm
Road to the West

Bebop uses not only music but also silence really well, so I tried to have stretches of just environmental sound to capture that laid back feel leading up to the heist, as well as tension during Enfys’ attack. For the cold-open “Memory” sequence, I used the Imperial alarm in place off the church bells.

I’m thinking about starting session two with Corellia flashbacks before returning to Beckett, Han, and Chewie.

Cowboy Bebop isn’t really anime anime FWIW. Its influences are rooted in western culture and cinema and none of the otaku culture and tropes that typically turn people off of the medium are in it.

I will say, part of me kind of hopes some people will watch this edit without having seen Bebop actually. I highly recommend the show either way, but I also want the edit’s style to speak for itself and not just be a novelty of “Oh! I get how this is a reference! etc. etc.”

I think there is something inherently melancholic about Han’s story in Solo, and I think the tone and pacing of Bebop really bring that out more. He’s just a kid, willingly headed towards a darker, complicated, criminal future because of his heart. And that defines his life, even in his final moments. It’s amazing how well that thematically works with Bebop.

(password: fanedit)

Cowboy Bebop is one of my favorite shows of all time, and Star Wars is a franchise very close to my heart. Naturally, I’ve always been thinking of ways I could express my love for both. So here we are! This is a fanedit I’ve been fooling around with of Solo (2018) in Cowboy Bebop’s style. I mean, it’s perfect. Space cowboys and past loves, they’re thematically perfect for each other.

Basically, this edit will be Solo re-scored and edited to be more introspective and melancholic. The soundtrack is an eclectic mix of primarily jazz and blues. It’s very stylistic and deliberately paced, but a lot of fun.

I hope this can scratch those Pulp Empire, or Neon Noir itches.

Here’s the original “Memory” cold open I’m emulating in the preview for comparison to the source

Music is a very important part of Bebop’s DNA, and that will stay true for this edit. Sequences of the film will be split into sessions, named after certain songs and musical references (for example, part one is named after The Rolling Stones’ “Silver Train”) and I’ll definitely be using motifs throughout. “Memory”/“Adieu” for flashbacks/forwards, etc.

It’s not even close to being done yet, but I needed a break from some of my other edits to do something a little more fun. It’s generally just re-scoring and de-foleying so far, but I’m thinking about making some graphics for the bumpers in between acts and whatnot. I’m also open to some music suggestions - from CB or otherwise. Some Empire Jazz might make it into here. 😉

Stay tuned!

It’s pretty simple I’d think: Star Wars as a series is about storytelling, and the act of passing stories down. It’s rooted in a fun genre pastiche, with the original film(s) as a classic monomyth set in a storied world. The prequels then set out to deconstruct the ideals inherent in those stories from a more sociopolitical angle (The Empire rooted in capitalism, the classical masculine ideals are problematic, etc.) then the sequels tr(ied) to make sense of it all from a postmodernist perpsective: why are these stories important to us? How do you apply their lessons to real and imperfect people?

On every level, from Luke’s quest to fulfill his father’s legacy, to George’s borrowing of references, to even its cultural impact thereafter - Star Wars is about legends and how we interpret them. How the Jedi interpet their code, how Luke chooses to see his father, how Rey or Kylo see history, and their futures.

imo

I guess my unpopular opinion is that “greater plot” is one of the most overrated things in media criticism, though I don’t deny that some things could benefit from honing in on one. (Although even that’s a pacing thing, and not really about a certain mode of storytelling.)

Just hanging out with characters I like, in a world I’m invested in - it’s not even that that’s “good enough for me” like I feel someone would ascribe to this opinion - I genuinely think the format has potential to be, and often is, just as good as or better than an overarching plot.

I can understand why someone would want/need that since that was me once upon a time - just when I was 19 and hadn’t really watched anything. I hope that doesn’t sound condescending.

It’s not too negative! (Nothing will be for me tbh!) I definitely understand what you mean and was on the fence about it. Hence the question mark.

I’m of a few minds about it. I definitely think it makes Anakin immediately more unsympathetic, but I also feel like that should be okay if everything that gets him to that unsympathetic point makes sense. It’s the story of Anakin’s fall after all. If he goes from a good person to a bad child-murdering one and it tracks - well, that’s the kind of thing that impresses me in other media. It’s so dark in a way that is emotionally affecting if not for remembering who he was and for the people close to him. It’s not like this scene isn’t implied by the events in the film anyway.

But yes, overall the arc from I-VI for this character is redemption. That is much harder to argue for if Darth Vader is explicitly a mass murderer of children. I think I might make two versions when the time comes.

I don’t think Bail’s name is said out loud in any of the movies, honestly.

I’ve been catching up on Better Call Saul and I think it’s great! Breaking Bad is somewhat overrated imo and BCS definitely exceeds it for me. It’s just a lot more fun to watch and I find all the characters much more fascinating.

I’m not opposed to it on the grounds of all the fan editing possibilities, honestly. Not that this would ever happen.

It kind of kills the momentum of the sequence for me. It’s pretty much an epilogue (essentially extraneous to its conclusion) to the Yoda vs Palpatine fight: Yoda has already fled and Palpatine has comfortably moved on to the next order of business in the plot - but Anakin vs Obi-Wan hasn’t even finished yet. It’s just a preference thing.

So, there was a big mistake in my previous workprint. I’ve since taken it down and using that as an excuse to replace it with a new version. This one has a few huge changes (based on ideas from sade1212) that might end up being temporary.

First, a couple of the smaller fixes to clips from before:

Cleaned up Padme/Anakin reunion rescore, right to left wipe to Kashyyk, removed “…and not be pushed around”

Anakin’s “Nothing…” in the fountain scene given more room to breathe before Utapau transition

“Is that bad?” tweaks (sound fx, lipsync, minor direction, and holding on shot before transition

Okay, so courtesy of sade1212, I tried my hand at implementing an idea of theirs from the Radical Redux thread I really liked. Subject to change back.

Anyway, the basis for this change is that Anakin’s exact mindset in turning to the dark side has always been somewhat muddled and nearly inscrutable. We probably understand why he chooses it, but not how he can. How can a good man do these terrible things? The theatrical asserts that he’s always kind of been troubled and scary in that way, but I’ve obviously moved away from that to make him more well-adjusted. I’ve previously leaned on Anakin developing this philosophy of “ends justify the means;” where he visibly feels remorse and never explicitly extols the virtues of galaxy-ruling. He knows he’s done terrible things but it’s for Padme!

The underlying issue with that execution of it - while it has worked for me and others - is that Anakin then becomes almost a secondary character for what should arguably be the most important part of his development. The next time we see him there’s distance between us and him - he’s done all the bad things offscreen and how he feels about it is only given to us after that fact.

Anakin visits Padme before he marches the temple
So sade’s idea was to have Anakin visit Padme directly after his christening as Darth Vader. I like this for a lot of reasons. Where this scene is placed originally, is exactly what I mean when I say there’s distance between us and Anakin. He’s acting somewhat normally, seemingly unfazed by what we know he’s done. Any empathy we had for him is lost because we can’t relate to that. Sure, we can extrapolate an internal justification process or him burying his feelings, but there’s no real payoff for that understanding (unless you count the “Nooooo”/scream from Vader, which I have removed), no elucidation that that’s what’s happening.

With this new placement, Anakin has only betrayed Mace and only just agreed to march on the temple. He has yet to commit his crimes, so now this scene is contextualized as cold feet, trying to re-affirm why he would do the things he will while he’s still relatively “innocent.” I tried to play up how he doesn’t know what he’s about to do, and avoided him talking about his allegiance to Palpatine. He knows Padme would be against him, and now the scene is rife with half-truths and uncertainty. When Padme brings up Obi-Wan, he’s taken aback because it’s the first real consequence he has to face.

Re-Implement Younglings?
In looking for a scene to replace the previous, I felt like the youngling scene might work now as its own beat in the story, rather than glossed over in a montage. It used to be a 180 that was hard to justify, but now we have context for Anakin’s state of mind. He was hesitant, but he has to do what he has to do. Turning it into its own beat makes it a point of no return in his descent into depravity, especially as Anakin is never even slightly optimistic after this. He just wants to save Padme. I think it adds to the tragedy now rather than confuse it.

That scene’s not in the edit unfortunately, but I agree it’d be cool to see!

Wow, I didn’t think anyone was going to do my Appo idea right after I mention it lmao! Sade, is it alright if I use it? Saves me a lot of time.

I’d love a few more small references to Clone Wars characters, whether that’s Ahsoka, Rex, or Maul. But the edit is great as is, that would just be a nice bonus.

I was actually thinking about adding Appo’s arrow to the clone trooper talking to Organa when he visits the temple, but haven’t had the time or motivation to really do it yet. Mostly because that’s a really obscure reference, that’s already a reference in itself to Filoni’s time with Avatar: The Last Airbender. xP

This is outside of my resources, but it would also be sick if someone added Rex in a hologram to the meeting (just signing out) before Cody signs in to tell everyone about Obi-Wan engaging Grevious.

There was a point in time where I tried to have Anakin and Mace talking about Maul right before Cody in that scene as well, but it never worked enough to make it onto any workprint.

Yeah, I was about to say, some of the changes you (CMMAP) talk about aren’t even changes I made. Even still, a good chunk of the suggestions you have are within a philosophy for the film that I’m not quite aiming for: hiding a lot of important plot details for the sake of making reveals happen in chronologically later content. I personally don’t think it can be done effectively, and I think a lot of the film’s emotional weight relies on us knowing about Darth Vader and how it ties into the OT.

Yeah, and not to disparage the efforts of everyone who’s tried this with other scenes (because the work is solid itself, just needs some cleaning up) but I have a problem with how even more manipulative it makes the scene come off. It’s a great emotional piece (not gelling with Williams aside) on its own, but in this context only highlights how much TROS wants or expects you to care without having done anything to deserve it. I love Babu Frik as much as the next guy, but the whole contrivance of losing the battle -> “just people!” saving the day becomes even more hamfisted and patronizing.

I would just keep the Mustafar lines honestly. It’s not a huge deal if he doesn’t go straight there, and I even like how it’d be Anakin lying more explicitly to Padme.

How are you planning to handle the transitions? I might even want to try this in my own edit…