NeverarGreat

ziggyonice said:

Is there any chance you could have Rey say some sort of dialogue? Maybe she could say something, off camera, to Artoo? I’m picturing her saying something about “I saw you in a dream” or something.

Didn’t she say something like that in The Last Jedi? Does any of her dialogue reference dreams or flashbacks or anything that might be edited to fit the context of the scene? Just trying to find ways to piece it together.

Off-camera dialogue is hit and miss at the best of times, so I’m reluctant to go this route. It’s also nearing the end of the movie, and it feels more ‘Star Wars’ to begin minimizing dialogue in favor of imagery.

RogueLeader said:

I do think that the issue is just coming back to the fact that the audience might not put two-and-two together and remember that Rey saw R2 in the dream, and because of R2’s relation to Luke, it made her realize he might have the rest of the map. Maybe if 3PO could say to Leia, “Rey’s found some much needed good news.”

That would be nice, but I don’t know if 3PO ever uses her name in a sentence. I didn’t find anything of use in the TFA Lego game, though there might be later game recordings?

Veering off in another direction a little. We discussed before the idea of putting the Hosnian destruction right after Rey defeats Kylo, and how I was concerned if the high of the duel’s climax could clash with a somber moment immediately after, and Nev, you speculated on the idea of possibly changing the music to be a little darker and less heroic, if that makes sense.

I’ve thought about this some more, and I wonder if you could possibly replace the latter half of that track, starting with the Force theme as they are fighting for each other’s blades then Rey slices his face, with the alternate track for Han’s death scene? It is basically a darker version of the Force theme, and I think the way that track ends would flow really well into the ‘Starkiller’ track. Not sure if the timing would be right but might be worth experimenting with.

Interesting, I’ll give that a try.

yotsuya said:

I just found this and read the first post. I had to laugh at the idea that Rey flew the Falcon so well. She practically crashed the thing trying to take off. Once they were in the air she did pretty good, but when you compare that to Luke, he flew his X-wing like a pro from the beginning.

Luke is the best stunt pilot in the outer rim territories, and has clearly been flying for years. And it’s notable that even he never does anything terribly flashy in the OT. Rey’s handling of the Falcon is about how you’d expect in the first few moments, but after that she successfully executes maneuvers far in excess of anything we’ve seen before. If anything, the contrast between almost crashing and ace-level piloting makes her abilities all the more noticeable.

Rey has to try things before she succeeds, pretty much the way Luke did. And she does have a teacher. She learns just about everything she does from Kylo Ren.

She has never seen Klyo use a Jedi mind trick or even successfully gain his desired information from interrogation, though she manages a successful and proper mind trick after a minute or two of trying.
She has never seen successful telekinesis or levitation, yet apparently learns this on the first attempt after only a moment of intention from Kylo. Interestingly, Kylo never indicates that he is aware of teaching Rey ‘You need a teacher! I can show you the ways of the Force!’ and Rey never acknowledges that she has gained knowledge from Kylo ‘The Force…’.

I’d still like to know who taught Luke to lift his lightsaber in TESB.

If only there was some sort of Jedi mentor which has been established to help Luke from beyond the grave, or a time jump of several years to help the audience suspend their disbelief. Or both.

dahmage said:

devils advocate: but when sunlight filters through snow, isn’t it gonna be blue?

Somewhat, but less than you might think:

CarboniteSolo said:

I used Darth Lucas’ template using his spines, slightly modified. Here’s all nine episodes, I haven’t completed the rest, but I have finished Episodes I-IX. I hope you like them. I love the artwork and I didn’t want to cover them up with words, so this is kind of inspired by those old Star Wars VHS tapes of the 90’s and the classic Star Wars toys of the late 70’s and early 80’s. I left the back covers blank. You can add what you like to them, enjoy. Thoughts and comments appreciated, good or bad.

The last one is for fun.

If only the lightsaber from TFA was edited out of this, it would be perfect.

RogueLeader said:

NeverarGreat said:

Just need to figure out a way to desaturate the planet while keeping the color of the explosions.

Maybe someone could tweak those explosion shots enough to find a good in-between to maintain the explosions color but still be desaturated enough to not make a huge difference from the rest of the shots?

If not, you might have to rotoscope around the explosions to maintain their color. I think it would be worth trying, but I don’t think you’d have to go with the blue star angle, Jakku could just have a different atmosphere or something, like Mars.

I think this, and the potentially more challenging idea of adding MORE wreckage to Jakku are the best methods of differentiating Jakku that are somewhat feasible.

NeverarGreat said:

This would effectively establish Starkiller Base and its range and accuracy using a Rogue One style ‘single reactor’ attack. It would be dramatic enough to substantially raise the stakes, but still modest enough when used on this remote pirate base to justify the Republic’s continued inaction.

This is a cool new idea! Coming full circle. It could fit into the idea of Maz’s Castle being like a safe zone, neutral ground, except instead of just the castle it is the planet. Maybe you could use the subtitled aliens with Finn to provide some additional context for the defense platform as well!

But yeah, it would definitely require some new vfx for sure. I’m not sure how you would do that. And the platform would have to appear significant enough that it would require something as drastic as using a giant laser and exposing Starkiller rather than just attacking it with a Star Destroyer. Like, one Star Destroyer wouldn’t be strong enough to take it out. But they would have to use it in order to get the map.

I do think the important thing would be to make this idea as simple as possible, because if it is too complicated it might be confusing for the audience. So however it works, I would go with whatever is the easiest to understand visually.

EDIT: Establishing Takodana even more as a Switzerland-like neutral planet with some sort of defense would also help explain why Han felt comfortable with waltzing into the castle, since he would think they were safe there.

To explain why the base fires on such a small target first, it might work just to slightly alter Hux’s pitch to Snoke: ‘The weapon. It is ready. I believe the time has come to use it. Then we will destroy the government that supports the Resistance…the Republic.’

That would make it seem like this is really just a test to be followed quickly by the destruction of the Republic before they lose the element of surprise.

Interesting to note that the final film of each trilogy forms an alliterative progression:

Revenge
Return
Rise

I’ve come to accept the Starkiller weapon, since without it the movie would definitely lose tension in the third act. However, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better introduced.

This is a variation on Restructured:

There is a defensive installation on a moon of Takodana or an autonomous defensive station, which is taken out by Starkiller so that Kylo can attack the castle. If it’s a station it could be generating a planetary shield. This allows for the inclusion of shots like Kylo watching from the bridge of the Star Destroyer and some of the original effects of the distant Hosnian wreckage. You could also keep lines such as ‘It’s the First Order, they’ve done it!’ and ‘Finn’s familiar with the weapon that destroyed the (defensive) system, he worked on the base.’

This concept would require some effects work to establish the satellite/moon. I think it would be effective to use the wide shot of the Hosnian system except with just a single beam of energy hitting one of the more remote planets turned satellite with Takodana in the foreground. I think an autonomous defense station would make the most sense here, so that it could be established in the shot where the Falcon arrives at the planet, heavily armed with its weapons trained on the Falcon. It could also be in stable orbit over the castle.

This would effectively establish Starkiller Base and its range and accuracy using a Rogue One style ‘single reactor’ attack. It would be dramatic enough to substantially raise the stakes, but still modest enough when used on this remote pirate base to justify the Republic’s continued inaction.

RogueLeader said:

Both the Art of TFA and TLJ mention the Wizard of Oz quite a few times, and it makes me want Nev, or someone else, to continue that idea of making Jakku look more desaturated and like a purgatory. They wanted Jakku to feel like this miserable place Rey had to live in and I think that would help, plus it give Rey this ‘Dorothy in Kansas’ parallel. But I guess these are more radical ideas, but it seems like most people would have been okay with a little more visual distinctiveness in the new films. It seems to be thing that George Lucas liked about TFA the least.

Just need to figure out a way to desaturate the planet while keeping the color of the explosions.

ziggyonice said:

RogueLeader said:

I wonder if you could have it where Rey says, “Luke” during one of the shots of R2. You could take it from her conversation with Maz, since you might cut that line.

This seems like a great idea. We need a better indication of Rey connecting Artoo with Luke. Having her say his name might be a good step in the right direction.

I am still wondering though if it would be simpler to just cut straight from Rey looking at R2, to them going to Leia about good news, and if adding this extra stuff is making it more confusing or less confusing. I think this new stuff is cool, just trying to look at it objectively.

I’m also wondering this. This seems like a good idea, but without actually seeing Rey fix Artoo, it becomes a little confusing about what just happened.

I think the short version does well convey the connection between Rey and R2, but without anything else it only strengthens the theory, common after the movie’s release, that Rey’s mere proximity to R2 allows him to wake up, and might make it seem like Luke planned all of this out in advance using space magic. Needless to say that’s not the message I want to send.

So I guess it’s back to figuring out how to get Rey beside of R2 before cutting to night.

It’s a problem with the final encode which wasn’t caught for version 1, but will be fixed for v2.

Anakin is written as a creep in AOTC, but that wasn’t driven home so completely until I watched this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ww3NDNC4eA

It’s an interpretation of the character which might actually work in isolation and could be fascinating. However, it is this aspect of the prequels, above anything else, that makes them fundamentally incompatible with the spirit of the OT. Luke’s journey is predicated on the belief that his father was basically a good man, but if Anakin is really just a predatory creep then his redemption rings hollow. But take away Anakin’s predatory and creepy behavior and you have removed his most distinctive and interesting trait.

I don’t know how you would go about fixing this problem.

Very nice. What is the source of this artwork?

EddieDean said:

Christ, Nev, how are you able to turn ideas into reality so quickly?

It doesn’t take that long to roto still images if you’re not too concerned with quality 😉

littlev87 said:

Would it be possible to roto rey from the scenes where she fixes bb8’s antenna and put r2 in the shot? I think You’d only need a half second shot to convey the idea.

Unfortunately it’s too windy in that shot and the angle isn’t great, but that got me looking through the rest of the movie for something, and the closest I can find is when she bends down to talk to BB-8 after leaving Jakku. Even then the angle isn’t ideal and she puts her hands up in a strange way. The scene may be reaching the limit of the available footage.

JEDIT: Here’s the progress so far. I added a cable to connect the machine to R2, and zoomed/shifted the final shot of the scene so as to avoid having to place the machine into shot again (I don’t have a good alternate angle of it). Finally, moving Chewie to the night scene gives it more time to breathe, and I’m fairly happy with how this is shaping up given what there is to work with.

https://vimeo.com/331149498

Password: fanedit

Here’s a concept for the tools. I couldn’t find a small datapad, and thought it might be missed anyway, so I went for something hefty:

https://vimeo.com/331079693

Password: fanedit

Valheru_84 said:

^ That works amazing well and actually gives the film a bit of breathing time for the audience after the big hits have just hit and seeing the character’s reactions and emotions.

Was very impressed with what Hal’s reconstructed edit was able to achieve and your one seems to be taking it to new un-imagined heights. Keep up the great work!

Thanks!

As a side question - How would you say your edit compares currently to Digmodification’s “Heir to the Force” TFA edit? His is highly recommended as a compatible companion edit to ForceGhostRecon’s TLJ “Clean Cut” or “Last of the Jedi” purist edition edits but your eventual edit sounds like it will be a strong contender as a definitive pick and it is already compatible with FGR’s edit as well due to your edit ending on the Falcon going to hyperspace.

I’d say Heir to the Force has has a different focus, from what I remember it’s centered on keeping the Kylo reveal and cutting a lot of the more silly moments. The focus of this edit is (hopefully) to more fully develop the characters and plot which already exist. This means they’re quite different and not easily comparable.

As for it acting as a companion to a TLJ edit, I actually haven’t seen any of them except for Hal’s Legendary edit (and maybe one more I can’t remember right now). The ending of my edit is still up in the air as to whether to end it with Hyperspace or keeping the island. I’m actually leaning toward the island since I can’t find anywhere else to put that footage.

RogueLeader said:

This is pretty cool Nev.

I showed this to someone, who has seen TFA a few times, to see if they understood the intention.

They didn’t totally get it, and thought that maybe Rey and R2 had a special connection, but they didn’t really put it together that Rey remembered R2 from the vision and got him to check his memory for the map.

Just thought I would try to see if another person would understand without your additional context, and at least in this one example the person didn’t fully get it.

That’s unfortunate, but understandable. There’s precious little for an audience member to go on here.

What if there were some tools/computer equipment plugged into R2 when he wakes up? I imagine it could be slightly behind where BB-8 sits for most of the scene, and could consist of a datapad, Rey’s satchel (and staff?), and a cord plugging into somewhere on the side of back of R2. When he wakes up the color of the datapad screen could change or flicker, and the rest of the shots in the scene (except the last one) are already framed to conceal this area of the set so I wouldn’t have to do too much work in that regard.

TheLazure said:

I just discovered this fanedit. Wow I am so excited for this. This literally reinvoked my hype for Star Wars.

Glad you are liking it, hopefully it won’t take too terribly long to finish this beast. 😃

Hal 9000 said:

Didn’t The Clone Wars feature Darth Bane talking to Yoda? I never was a big fan of the series but watched that portion as I was delving into it based on a tip from smudger9 that there was some new Liam Neeson dialogue that could be culled for my Ep3 edit.

Anyway, wasn’t the appearance of Bane only a vision or phantom being animated by someone else? My understanding of Lucas’ intention (circa 2005+, at least) is that Qui-Gon (re?)discovered a way to eternal conscious persistence via the Light, which the Dark was incapable of providing. Light-siders could (potentially?) live on past death, but dark-siders couldn’t.

If that’s true, and J.J. isn’t stepping away from that, I’d say Palpatine’s role in IX would have to be merely an appearance rather than the being himself. I also cannot fathom Palpatine and the Death Star in the ocean being a coincidence.

And how the hell is there that big of a section of either Death Star still extant? Those things each blew up so thoroughly that I find it laughable. Circle any one of the specks that fly away from the center on your screen and tell me that it could have fallen into an atmosphere and survived to be that big.

I’m overall not encouraged too much by this trailer. I hope J.J. didn’t just implode in on himself while writing this one.

JEDIT: This might be sort of a drunk ramble sort of comment, but I’ll be especially frustrated if the Sequel Trilogy as a whole turns out to be flat or bankrupt because its announcement was what prompted an obsessive part of me to pour countless hours into doing my newer prequel fan edits.

Y’know, in the Summer of 2012 I watched the OOT and was happy not to follow it up with the prequels at all. I only did so because my wife wanted to, and we watched Q2’s edits. I shrugged afterward, and resolved to just revisit the OT every few years. I was happy; I was fine. Then in October Disney changed everything and I felt like I had to satisfy my tireless perfectionism by going back to the prequels. If the ST ends up detracting from the OT rather than at least enhancing it, it’s gonna really suck for me.

God damn those prequel movies.

If Uplifting of Shmi Progeny turns out to be a pile of Sith then at least The Final Space Wizard could serve as a fitting end to the saga. It even has ‘Last’ in the title.

JEDIT about the DS2 above, I agree that the explosion could have simply gutted the interior and broken the exterior like an egg.

Good suggestions RL! However, although I have fixed the R2 shot in the latest version, the shot of 3PO alone has been cut as well as quite a few more changes. Probably best to just show the video and discuss below:

https://vimeo.com/330916894

Password: fanedit

So in wanting to retain R2 waking up, it creates the necessity of some time passing yet there is no scene to fill the intervening time. That is why the change to night, and it also allows us to see the rings of D’qar from the ground which was a suggestion from another thread. The night color grade lightens up throughout the proceeding scenes until we see Rey watching over Finn the next morning, and I think it definitely reads as morning now instead of late afternoon.

Valheru_84 said:

DominicCobb said:
What I’m getting is, Rey needs to be jailed in IX for theft. Let’s Make Star Wars Pointlessly Pedantic About Possesions and Inheritance! That’s what the series has always needed. Can’t wait for the climactic court case where Kylo Ren claims ownership of the Falcon.

Valheru_84 said:
It is not my intent to be overly literal and logical about it all (it’s just how my thought process works), my initial feeling that Rey didn’t have the right to just take the saber from Luke was just that - a feeling, which contributed to my dislike for the character. It is only in discussing and trying to explain it that I am looking deeper myself and laying out my detailed perspective on why I happen to see it this way, often in response to simplistic replies that seem to brush it aside as nothing of consequence despite it having an impact on the judgement of Rey’s moral fibre (which is why I also tie the matter into her physical abuse of Luke and threatening him with the saber which at this point is not even her’s to use).

Hey Dom…you remember how I made that point a while back how I felt that Rey had no right to take Luke’s lightsaber that he inherited from his father? - I’d completely forgotten that Rey also took the original Jedi texts! So while there are some shades of grey and certain points of view (if you will) that can be debated about the whole saber matter, I think the Jedi texts are pretty much a clear cut 2nd example of Rey’s tendency to just take things that don’t belong to her (ie. stealing). Whatever justifications can be made that do ring true, it doesn’t change the circumstances under which she took things that weren’t hers to take.

She’s just indefinitely borrowing things that would otherwise gather dust.

That immediately came to mind.

I wish the titles were more like original Star Trek episode titles. A Taste of Armageddon, Dagger of the Mind, Patterns of Force, Whom Gods Destroy, The Lights of Zetar, and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield would all be so much cooler than every other Star Wars title so far.

Here’s an attempt to expand the R2 scene:

https://vimeo.com/330417714

Password: fanedit

It’s very rough and it could easily use the entire back half of the R2 waking up scene, I just cut it because 3PO deciding to tell everyone could imply that the droids thought Rey might not.

Rh_2002 said:

I cannot wait till this is done, all the time youve put into this is absolutely insane! The finished product is gonna feel amazing after watching!

Thanks, it’s been a long process but I hope the results will speak for themselves. 😃

RogueLeader said:

Geez, Nev, Rey seeing R2 and remembering him from her vision is actually a solid idea. It does make you wonder why they didn’t think to check him earlier, but if feels more natural and a little less convenient than R2 waking up or finishing his data search as soon as everyone is back at the base. And you’re basically addressing this by still keeping the first scene where 3PO basically dismisses the thought (thanks 3PO).

Sure, the scene is a little awkward, but the thing with R2 at least gives it a nice function within the story.

This is another cool alternative it would be cool to get more feedback on. And like you said, what I like about it is that this idea says more about Rey’s actual personality and less on her “special powers”. Too bad we can’t see Rey help R2 wake back up.

Yeah, my options are limited to exactly one shot of Rey inside HQ.

Ziggy, that extra bit of dialogue is a good idea! Could fit in when the officer is looking at everything falling apart before he runs off.

Is that really necessary though? I don’t think there would be any confusion as to the planet’s fate since it was established that destroying the Oscillator could cripple the planet.

There is exactly zero chance of Plagueis in the sequels, since it’s not a character/plot device/vehicle/theme/creature/action figure from the original trilogy.

With the Knights of Ren apparently actual characters in this, I assume that the TIE attacking Rey is piloted by such a Knight since it’s quite clearly not Kylo’s design.

It’s just that a lot of people are assuming it’s Kylo in that TIE, which I don’t see at all.

JEDIT: As for bringing Palpatine back in some capacity, I don’t hate it, and have argued in the past that it makes a lot of sense to have the big bad from the first six episodes cast a shadow long enough to cover the entire saga.

So the idea of Rey seeing the full map in her Force vision is something I’ve been hesitant to actually implement, first because it would require a fair bit of effects work, and second because it effectively removes R2’s only contribution in the movie. The trouble is that Rey has nothing to do with piecing the map together, rendering her quite passive in her own story.

Thinking about it some more, I realized that there might be a way to fix Rey’s passivity as well as keep R2’s contribution, considering Rey has seen R2 in her vision:

https://vimeo.com/330166072

Password: fanedit

For this concept, I would revert back to the theatrical version of the first R2 scene and cut the second one as shown here. What appeals to me the most about this as opposed to the map vision is that Rey doesn’t use an impressive Force power to find Luke; rather the problem is solved simply by her attention to and care for the most humble characters of the story.