NeverarGreat

Thanks!

SWOTFAN25 said:

What do you guys think about the star wars fandom in general right now.

I love the members of this website but if you go elsewhere specifically YouTube its just a complete dumpster fire.

Its either clickbait from Mike Zeroh, #StarWarsDead, or “Disney/Kathleen Kennedy should be burned alive” videos. Besides the Vader fan film to me its all pretty embarrassing…

Youtube has always been a Wretched Hive, moreso after The Last Jedi.

I have no hard data to back it up, but I fear that a lot of the toxicity around Star Wars right now is coming from my generation, the ones that grew up watching the OT on VHS and seeing the Prequels in theaters, people who are now in their thirties or forties. Because I can’t imagine people like my parents, children of the 60’s and 70’s, caring too much about what the Mouse House is doing with the franchise after the mess that GL had made, nor having the time to whine about it in YouTube comment sections. And it’s funny, because I had come to assume that the folks here at the OT forums were the nitpicky cantankerous grumps, whereas many who grew up enjoying the prequels would love the franchise no matter what.

But there are still places unaffected by the toxicity:

https://sleemo.com/

That’s one I visit whenever I feel like the criticism and toxicity becomes too much.

I realize now that there are certain ways in which I interpret the (soon to be) three trilogies which allow me to appreciate them. The Original Trilogy requires the least interpretation, mostly just stripping it of the later EU baggage so that the films can stand on their own as the works of art they are. The prequels I can appreciate on the level of theme and concept, stemming from the pulp anthropologist mind of George Lucas. The themes of corruption and allusions to the Roman Republic, wrapped in a stilted classic Hollywood style make these truly unique and valuable films.

Finally, I find I can really appreciate the ST for its high production values and the genuine love for Star Wars on display, centered around some genuinely excellent and magnetic characters. The weaknesses of the ST being an overreliance on coincidence and fan service make it feel like the most extravagant fan project of all time, which I think is why it’s so easy to fanedit - the trilogy itself is an evolving collaboration between fans of the series with naturally differing viewpoints, so what’s one more viewpoint in the mix?

Sounds like fun!

Maybe you could use TFA Restructured as an example of a collaborative edit - I personally had a blast working on it with Hal and Ridley and the many others who contributed. The Leia deleted scene and the Star Destroyer over Maz’s castle were both areas that simply couldn’t have been done (or done well) without everyone working together.

And of course if you’d like to use any TFA:Starlight materials feel free.

SWOTFAN25 said:

Sir Ridley said:

SWOTFAN25 said:

NeverarGreat said:

Thank you!

The edit is in progress, and probably won’t be released for quite some time due to the number of edit’s I’m still working on.

As for the TIE crash, I can see your sequence working, but you’d have to lose the scene of the female officer informing Hux of the impending crash. I’m working on some ideas for that scene right now though, and it might be worth losing that bit.

JEDIT: Here’s a somewhat rough mockup of a much earlier concept - the First Order has visited the crash site before Finn wakes up and has left a probe droid behind:

https://vimeo.com/312448116

Password: fanedit

What it really needs is a decent establishing shot of the droid.

Force Awakens Restructured V3 is amazing. HAL 9000 gives you a TON of credit in the commentary. I just need to know, how did you get the time stamp off of the deleted scene with Leia!?

I removed the time stamp from the deleted scene where Leia talks to Snap Wexley and Korr Sella (NeverarGreat did a small part of it too) for TFA Restructured. I used Adobe After Effects to recreate the video hidden behind the time code piece by piece by using still images that were animated to move around and follow the background (and sometimes people and objects) that moved behind the time code. Some shots were easy with a simple background while others needed many layers of objects that had to be animated in various ways to recreate the hidden footage.

Extraordinary work, I should’ve double checked that it was you not Neverar lol

If you want to see the process I used for removing the timestamp from one shot (which was quite similar to Ridley’s approach on the rest of the scene), I posted a little walkthrough here (page 7 of this thread):

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Force-Awakens-The-Starlight-Project/id/54912/page/7#1147760

Thank you!

The edit is in progress, and probably won’t be released for quite some time due to the number of edit’s I’m still working on.

As for the TIE crash, I can see your sequence working, but you’d have to lose the scene of the female officer informing Hux of the impending crash. I’m working on some ideas for that scene right now though, and it might be worth losing that bit.

JEDIT: Here’s a somewhat rough mockup of a much earlier concept - the First Order has visited the crash site before Finn wakes up and has left a probe droid behind:

https://vimeo.com/312448116

Password: fanedit

What it really needs is a decent establishing shot of the droid.

Okay, I’ve added some distortion to the images, as well as some villainous dialogue implying that Kylo thinks these visions are from Vader.

https://vimeo.com/312342613

Password: fanedit

I didn’t plan on using so much of the music, but it’s just so good I couldn’t help it.

DZ-330 said:

As long as 20 people here donate at least $4 dollars each month that more than covers it. In my opinion, if you can’t spare $4 a month maybe you should stop reading this and update your résumé. 😜

Also, is there a way we can add some kind of indicator to how much is left before the deadline? It may help to incentivize people to donate.

An indicator would definitely be helpful.

Donated!

The ‘Agreed’ is from the TFA Lego game. It’s not 100%, but works well enough I think and primes the audience to expect that the scene will play differently.

You’re right, there’s something still not working about the First Order imagery. If the goal is to make them an intimidation tactic by Kylo, then they need to be more personally relevant to Poe or have Kylo say something villainous about the Starkiller threat.

It’s funny, I did originally have a shot of BB-8, and even played with form cutting to Starkiller, but both versions felt too obvious.

I see what you mean about the reused footage though. If only there were some more deleted materials to use. As it is, the only way to not reuse shots is to rely solely on visions from Kylo like the deleted weapon charging shot and the stormtrooper salute. Maybe it would work if it were implied that the mind reading is mostly projection used to wear down the victim.

And yes, the final shot of Poe was an intentional nod to the trailer 😉

JEDIT: Here’s the interrogation with minimal Poe flashbacks and almost all deleted material from Restructured:

https://vimeo.com/312240300

Password: fanedit

It might also be interesting to remove the Poe shots from earlier, and have them here instead so that there is a slight mystery for some people as to what he actually did with the plans.

I’ve tried several approaches, though none of them were quite what you propose. However, I think it’s best to let this stay hypothetical and move on to other ideas.

For example, I was thinking about how there really should be an introduction to the Starkiller threat early in the movie so the audience isn’t blindsided by it later on, and also considering how the Resistance seems to know about it (in Restructured V3 Poe will say ‘Finn’s familiar with the weapon system, he worked on the base’). So how does Poe know about it? I thought that it would be neat to show some brief clips from the Hosnian destruction scene in Kylo’s interrogation of Poe, keeping some original shots to make it clear that these visions or predictions are unique to Kylo and differ slightly from actual events:

https://vimeo.com/312200109

Password: fanedit

It will also serve to foreshadow the type of thing I will do in Rey’s interrogation scene, and establish how Kylo’s mind reading is a two way street even for non-Force users.

EddieDean said:

I always read Maz’ “union dispute” line as a joke, since she’s clearly not disputing anything. I figured she was just being sarcastic during a gunfight.

I don’t know, I imagine that Maz is the type of person to get caught up in a whole lot of causes, union disputes included.

Dr. Krogshöj said:

There’s only one thing that bothers me in the first act. Whatever sequence you end up with, Poe’s only waking up during the night following Rey’s and Finn’s escape with the Falcon. So he gets off Jakku, back to the Resistance and to Takodana while the Falcon flies from Han’s freighter near Jakku to Takodana. Which implies that it has a really, really, REALLY slow hypedrive at this point.

Poe’s hastily contrived survival has always bugged me, but there’s really not much I can think to do about that. On the other hand, I like to think that Finn’s escape from the First Order on Jakku had to do with fellow Stormtroopers looking the other way in their search.

In other news, I’ve played around with the idea of opening with Rey, and I’m quite satisfied with the fact that there’s simply no way to do that restructure with the available footage. Congratulations RL, you were right 😉. However, I just had to see the concept of the false starfield in action, so I put some time into the mockup:

https://vimeo.com/311822845

Password: fanedit

Here’s a fairly quick and dirty version of the restructure.

https://vimeo.com/311589354

Password: fanedit

The sequence is now:

-Poe arrives on the Finalizer, Finn is accosted by Phasma
-Poe is interrogated
-Rey’s day and finding of BB-8
-The Rescue
-Hux sends the squad to the wreckage
-Finn awakens/sees Niima outpost
-Hux and Kylo bicker
-Rey arrives at Niima with BB-8/Plutt bargains for the droid
-Finn arrives at Niima.

The Apocalypse TIEs seemed out of place, so I decided against using them. Without that buffer, I had to leave the Hux and Kylo scene where it was originally.

RogueLeader said:

That’s true too. I don’t think it would hurt to try and push the grass in one direction, and if it is too much, find a happy medium somewhere.

You also will have that wide shot where Rey swoops by the sunset on her way back home. The sun is very visible there so you’ll have a clear shot to illustrate the sun’s color.

Grass?
Regardless, I’ve since discovered that every attempt at turning the sun/sky a different color plays havoc with the explosions and blaster bolts later on. If it was just a few shots I could work around it, but there are dozens of shots which would need serious work and I don’t know if it’s worth it.

Dr. Krogshöj said:

There is an exterior shot of the Finalizer just before Kylo Ren’s monologue to Vader’s helmet. Since you already plan to move that scene (as far as I remember), it might act as a buffer between the Interrogation and the Escape. The problem is, there’s Starkiller Base in the background so that would have to be removed, which is surely a time consuming project if it’s even possible.

Good idea. There really needs to be less time between Finn being sent to Reconditioning and the rescue. As it is, I don’t know how to do that without Rey’s day getting in the way. Unless…

Opening crawl paragraph 3 describes how a clue to Luke has been found on a planet ravaged by war.
-Cut from false starfield to Rey opening the compartment, as was intended at some point in TFA’s writing.
-Show Rey’s day through shot of her riding past the setting sun at dusk, then interior of her home until the wall of scratches.
-Use this as a transition to Tekka describing the despair in the galaxy, through his remark about Leia being royalty.
-Closeup of BB-8 viewing danger, rushing into the hut to warn Poe.
-Action, Kylo, return to Finalizer, etc.
-Poe’s interrogation.
-Rey’s home interior, making dinner (repurposed as breakfast), sitting out watching the evening (morning), finding BB-8 (sans ‘tomorrow you leave’). This extended introduction to Rey might justify using the Reydream here.
-The rescue, Finn’s journey to Niima, Hux and Kylo bicker.
-Rey arrives at Niima, Plutt’s offer.
-Finn arrives at Niima.

This restructure has many advantages - the passage of time is very clear in day and night cycles, Rey gets enough of an introduction to perhaps use the Reydream, and Rey finding BB-8 is short enough that Finn could reasonably have postponed his trip to Reconditioning, vs the original where an entire day goes by in the meantime.

So that’s a no on my western war musical concept?

I’m glad people understand where I’m coming from here, even if the LUT isn’t there all the way.

The trouble is that if I go too far in an unnatural lighting direction, it starts to look like the image is simply ‘wrong’, in a way that doesn’t feel intentional. But I see where the sun and sunset could use some more blue.

I do have the Battlefront SFX, and I’ll be sure to make use of them in the final edit. 😃

In other news, the new computer is up and running, which means I can begin the authoritative version of this weird collection of ideas.

…but that doesn’t mean I can’t have new ones. Sparked by the discussions in the Sequel Radical Redux Ideas, here’s a concept for a more desolate and alien Jakku:

For Comparison:

The idea is that the sun is quite blue, turning the light more and more blue as the sun reaches its zenith.

With this single LUT I am able to bleach the highlights while leaving low light situations in fairly good color:

DominicCobb said:

OutboundFlight said:

DominicCobb said:

Shopping Maul said:

I think the difference here is the actual intentions of the filmmakers. For example if I have a problem with the Ewoks, a quick online search will show that Lucas was referencing the Vietnam war. Okay, that might not change my mind, but I can at least see where he was coming from and get a sense of the intention.

So with Rey I might be perplexed at her power levels and how that might clash with my sense of SW canon. If I hit Google what I’ll find is Kathleen Kennedy banging on about ‘strong female characters’. Ewoks as a Vietnam allegory makes sense to me. Palpatine as Nixon makes sense to me. Rey being superwoman because ‘strong female characters’ is nonsense. That’s not storytelling being inspired by politics. That’s politics subsuming storytelling.

I think you’re misunderstanding the phrase and what it means. I’d also be curious to see those Kennedy quotes as I’m not sure what you’re referring too.

OutboundFlight said:

When Rey and Kylo face off for a round two of TLJ, Rey wins off-screen. We have one character effortlessly beating the other twice,

I don’t have a problem with the rest of your post (some of it I agree, some agree to disagree), but this is just plain inaccurate. Rey does not win off screen. They come to a draw with the lightsaber and she runs away while Kylo’s knocked out. That’s not her “beating” him. As for the other win, it clearly was not “effortless,” as she was on the ropes before she used the force.

Although she may have not knocked Kylo out, she was the first one to wake up (or she never said awake the whole time). Regardless Rey was stronger and was awake where Kylo was knocked out. Had she wanted she could have killed him right then and there (and I wonder why the story didn’t lean in on this). That sounds to me like beating.

That’s, frankly, insane. We’re now equating “waking up first” and “not murdering someone in cold blood” with “effortlessly beating someone in battle”? Just like Rey, Luke ran away from Vader in ESB - and he wasn’t even knocked out! Does that mean Luke beat him?

This really gets down to the meat of what we were talking about earlier, in regards to incorrectly evaluating Rey by mere action film standards. Rey’s goal in the throne room was not to kill Kylo. Her goal was to turn him to her side. She didn’t win at all, she literally lost.

You admit that the assumed genre of the movie has a lot to do with whether Rey has won or lost in this scene, yet in the same breath you say that the action genre interpretation is ‘insane’ - a genre that is heavily infused into Star Wars DNA.

From the pure drama or romantic drama interpretation, Rey has definitely lost this fight.
From the pure action interpretation, Rey has at least matched Kylo if not bested him in her recovery.

At the very least, you must admit that the scene sends mixed messages depending on interpretation.

BTW, there is no comparison to Luke in ESB. Luke was battered, literally disarmed, beaten, and emotionally shattered. He survived by the thinnest of margins and the scars of the battle, both literal and emotional, dominated the rest of the movie and beyond. Rey is back to her peppy self literally the next time we see her, lending credence to the pure action interpretation of the confrontation.

Exactly!

It would be quite excellent to have these in HD, especially since there’s been some talk of integrating some battle footage into ROTJ.

I’m still planning on using this restructure, or something close to it.

RogueLeader, are you suggesting this sequence?

-Poe arrives on the Finalizer, Finn is accosted by Phasma
-Rey’s day and finding of BB-8
-Poe is interrogated
-The Rescue
-Hux sends the squad to the wreckage
-Apocalypse TIEs
-Hux and Kylo bicker (work in progress)
-Finn awakens/sees Niima outpost
-Rey arrives at Niima with BB-8/Plutt bargains for the droid
-Finn arrives at Niima.

As you say, there would need to be a buffer of some kind between the interrogation and the rescue, and I don’t know what could go there. Poe waking up seems tailored to the interrogation scene, so I’m not sure if that would work.

I think part of the idea for the restructure was to give some indication of why Rey was being introduced. In the original she is introduced with only a cut from Finn to Rey, whereas the restructure places her introduction after Hux’s comment ‘Well, if it’s on Jakku we’ll soon have it.’ The focus swings back to Jakku here, and we see the person standing between the villains and their prize. I also think it would be neat to extend the shot of Hux to make time for a horizontal wipe to Rey in motion with the opening compartment door.

I thought that the time between movies was more like 2-3 years from ANH to ESB and less than a year between ESB and ROTJ.

RogueLeader said:

Man, I really don’t like Thor Skywalker. All of his stuff is very clickbaity. He speaks with this same tone in all of his videos, as if each sentence is some deep point he is making. It’s really manipulative, and makes people feel like they agree with what he’s saying without even thinking about it. But I guess that describes most clickbaity Star Wars YouTubers.

EDIT: And personally it seems a lot of female fans like Rey, and it gets kind of tiring hearing the perspective of male fans (or the one or two female YouTubers who have a large male audience). That’s personally why I like the Reylo community a lot. At least they actually have fun watching these movies, and their conversations are generally positive.

I generally appreciate the points Thor makes, though not the affected gravitas. However, I think there are far worse offenders in that category (Nerdwriter, I’m looking at you).

However, your point about the Reylo community got me thinking…most of the male critics of Rey like to point out how egalitarian they are by offering up Strong Female Leads, and they’re invariably Ripley/Sarah Connor/Furiosa/etc, in other words action heroines. They then compare Rey to these examples to show how easy her victories seem in comparison to these legendary badasses.

But maybe they have made the mistake of assuming that the Star Wars ST falls under the action genre, when the reality is that the ST could simply be a different genre altogether.

In a drama, especially a romantic drama, the female lead is rarely beset by physical obstacles, but rather mental/emotional ones. The most defining flaw of Rey’s character is a desire for belonging against the growing feeling that her every relationship is doomed. Rey would not be out of place as the lead in a drama, but since Star Wars has such a strong aspect of action there is also the expectation for Rey to be an action heroine and conform to the rules and limitations implied in its previous installments.

That’s where the disconnect seems to be - the Reylo crowd reads the ST as a (romantic) drama, while the ‘""""“True”""""""’ Star Wars fans read the ST as an action movie and a strict continuation of everything in the first six Star Wars installments.

These looks great! And def agree that the first one is better.

(also glad that my OCD could be put to some use 😉)

Hal 9000 said:

Here’s a candidate for the entrance to Mos Eisley. I carefully blended Adywan’s color corrected BluRay master, NewGuy’s ANH, and the Despecialized. Sometimes I overlaid the first two in order to better blend between sources, since they align perfectly. A little film grain is applied in spots to help mask transitions between sources, also.

https://vimeo.com/310480965
password: fanedit

It’s a good balance of old and new!

The thing that sticks out to me though is the first wide shot of the city after they enter. It feels like this should be switched with the next shot, since the speeder at least feels like it’s going as fast as it did before. But there is also the issue of the checkpoint. The wide shot makes it look like there are spacious boulevards with ample room to evade detection, yet this is in contrast to the sudden crush of people and buildings in the next shot and the inevitable checkpoint. This is a problem in the SE as well, in the panning aerial shot.

I think that using this

and then this

directly after entering town, but before the checkpoint would illustrate the narrow streets in this part of town. Then you could use that aerial shot to help dissolve the tension after they escape.

screams in the void said:

this is my favorite Star Wars poster of all time …http://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/starwars/post/2013/06/09/Japanese-Empire-Strikes-Back-Magazine used here for the cover of a Japanese magazine

That reminds me, I need to put this print back up on my wall…