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:
Password: fanedit
^ 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.
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.
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. 😃
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:
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.
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:
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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.
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. 😃
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:
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.
BTW, here’s the shifted Leia scene:
Password: fanedit
I went through almost a dozen different bits of music before finding something halfway serviceable.
I’ve been away for a little bit, but I’ve been keeping up with your posts and everything keeps looking good. I think a discussion can still be had regarding the Finn dream inclusion, but I think it fits it wonderfully and I like the idea of Rey not answering with ‘Luke’, and letting it be open to interpretation (Luke? Finn? Ben?). I’m wondering how you’ll make a POV shot of Finn’s ship though.
That’s the real trick. I’ve been unable to find any decent shots of that pirate vessel from any other angle, so I would have to imagine what the front would look like, hand-paint it and place it within a photo of a forest clearing. Not impossible, just time consuming.
Honestly, I would say you should stick with this idea for the sole purpose of differentiating it from Restructured. Technically it still is the Restructured model, but with a twist. I will say that the one thing this addresses is the complaint of the extended Hosnian destruction kind of detracting from Han’s death scene. I’ve always seen it as a one-two gut punch sorta thing, but pushing the Hosnian destruction back allows for Han’s death to not have to share the spotlight, if that makes sense. I’m sure someone could describe this better than I could at the moment.
That’s definitely a big reason for this edit.
With that said, since the ‘Starkiller’ motif starts playing when Han touches Ben’s cheek and as he falls, will you replace the music with something else, or let it play out in relative silence before Chewbacca’s roar breaks it? What about when you cut to Leia’s reaction a little later? Will there be different music? New ambience?
It actually works fairly well to leave a few notes of the Starkiller theme and cut straight from the wide aerial shot to Chewie’s roar. It’s an immediate reaction in keeping with that character.
I also like how Poe doesn’t necessarily blow up Starkiller now, but the damage he did triggers it once it fires. It doesn’t make destroying it feel so easy. Also having the Starkiller motif play over the Oscillator blowing up and the planet crumbling makes Starkiller feel that much more powerful, that its cannon is literally ripping the planet apart. And I think this works better than the drawn out Resistance reactions from Restructured in some other ways as well.
I do have a few nitpicks though. One thing I wonder about is how having Hosnian blow up right after Rey’s victory over Kylo, which is sort of the climax of the film (like Luke blowing up the Death Star in ANH), will affect the ‘emotional flow’ of the film. So now the audience is like, “Yaaaaay- oh, wait.” Does that make sense? Maybe we’ll still get that when they escape and Starkiller blows up?
Actually, I think it would be interesting to cast Rey as more of a Darksider in this moment of brutality, whether that requires a music change or something else. But if the audience feels like Rey is going down a dark path here instead of righteously smiting her enemy, the shift to the Starkiller firing would make a lot more tonal sense.
I think there was a similar point of concern with Restructured, which was why having Starkiller target the Resistance Base afterward and then Poe stopping it was retained, right?
I think that was retained solely because of concerns that Poe would be acting out of vengeance, since the System had already been destroyed.
Now, if a goal was to escape with the final piece of the map though wink wink nudge nudge, it might maintain some semblance of victory. (Not trying to push that idea on you. The third act map idea might just be what I eventually add to the tapestry of TFA fan edits)
I really like that idea, and it might be something I include if the idea of Rey’s map vision falls apart.
Some smaller nitpicks, I know you had to trim Kylo and Rey’s duel a little because shit starts crumbling around them, but the cut stood out to me and I wonder if there is a way to retain any more of it. Secondly, the wide shot of Rey laying on Finn feels like it lasts too long. I wonder if you could keep the shot of Rey turning off the saber and running into the woods, as well as having the music end sooner, could help not make that shot feel as dragged out. That’s just my own personal feeling though.
Good points. I cut the closeup of Rey and her deactivating the saber/running into the woods because it felt weird with the music, which seems to require wide shots. The final wideshot of the dark woods is slowed down to something like 30 percent, which I agree is too slow, but I really wanted to linger on the shot and communicate that this is where Rey is willing to die.
There a few issues here and there but I think this could work with just a little more polishing. Great work on this idea, man.
Thanks! This was all sorted out in literally one day, so there’s a lot more polishing to do. 😃
Oh no, I’m skipping around again…
This time right to the end, with another work in progress:
Password: fanedit
So why not keep the Restructured version of the Hosnian Destruction? There are several issues with that version which this seeks to fix.
First, the break in action after Han’s death always felt weird to me, even when it was just cutting to Leia’s reaction, and the Starkiller Firing exacerbated the issue. In this version the Leia cutaway happens instead of the ‘Two Minute Warning’ scene in the theatrical.
Second, and related, there’s now no need for another Snoke scene or recharging of the weapon. Poe and company do all they can, but fail to destroy the Oscillator in time, no need for a vengeful final run.
Third, the weapon firing now has a real effect on the plot since it does in the Oscillator, which then creates a planetary ticking clock and ends the lightsaber fight.
Speaking of clocks, I hadn’t intended to make the ‘Two Minute Warning’ accurate to the second but it just so happened to work after cutting the cliffhanger shots in the duel.
It’s part of a larger idea where Rey decides to go with Finn instead of simply running into the woods. I’ve also removed her saying ‘Luke’ in response to Maz’s insistence that ‘someone’ could still come back. In this version it’s ambiguous as to whom Maz is talking about. Finally, I’d like to create a shot of the pirate ship to place as a POV for Rey when she stops in the woods to catch her breath.
Putting Finn into Rey’s Vision:
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I’m hoping to get the fully complete version of this out soon, but in the meantime I decided to use the updated Color Correction tools in Premiere 2019 to see if I couldn’t improve one of the shots that I felt never got its due in version 1:
https://diff.pics/hPh52iqZu7jm/1
The second image is the Tech V1, notice the flat and orange skintones versus the update.
^ by https://www.instagram.com/camveefx
(a fair few more pieces of quality SW art on there too)
Now I imagine an alternate ending to Episode 8 where Rey is shown holding one half of the lightsaber on the Falcon. Cut to the Supremacy, where First Order salvage crews are evacuating before its demolition. As it is engulfed in explosions, Kylo watches from the bridge of one of the few remaining Star Destroyers, holding the other half of the lightsaber in his hand. Credits.
Can she wake only after the weapon fires (which with yours as with Hal’s, comes after Han’s death)? A bit of artificial camera shake?
Not sure I understand this.
Also, random idea: What if Takonoda had evidence of habitation? I’m thinking some cities visible from space and in the distance in the establishing shots. I think it would convey that Han is taking our heroes into the Republic proper, a more civilized place than for example a cantina on Tatooine. The patrons of this place already feel less dangerous than the pirates they supposedly are. The subtitled dialogue between Finn and the pirates could suggest this as well, something like:
‘I was told you could get me to the outer rim’
‘You’d be safer here in the Republic.’
JEDIT: Giving some habitation to the planet would also make Rey’s running away more logical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHl75yymjBM&t=0s
So it’s an April 1st video, but actually kind of interesting.
Side note: The blue in ANH was often so degraded on the Blu-ray (which is why the milk just looks dirty here) that I had to isolate the milk in one shot of my Technicolor project to return it to its original hue.
Wouldn’t that have worked better as The Forks Awaken?
Indeed.
I’m struggling right now on the end of the movie. I’d like to move the final scene if possible, but there are limited options. The most promising to me is to place it after the interrogation:
https://vimeo.com/327124146
Password: fanedit
I tried including some dialogue from Kylo about the island, but it feels more powerful without dialogue. Also, should Rey hear Hux’s speech or should it transition without her waking up?
JEDIT: I’ve also tried to place the scene after Kylo witnesses the sun draining but before Rey tries to escape, yet the problem is simply that it feels too much like she’s actually on the island rather than in a dream. The costume is problematic as well. Really at this point I’m just interested in repurposing the music somewhere.
Happened across this by accident, don’t think I’ve seen it before
Oddly similar to the possibly official Episode 9 Poster.
