Looks like all these transitions would work well - I think the TIEs over the mountains establishing shot would help with Rey’s introduction though, and the transition from Han to the base is a little odd. Too quick, maybe?
If everyone’s okay with being away from Rey for a while, the scene reordering becomes more simple:
Resistance Base
Weapon Charging
Battle Plans
Farewells
Interrogation
Snoke
Not knowing what’s happening with Kylo and Rey may be a good thing, since the focus would be on Finn and his plan to get Rey. As it is, Finn concocts a desperate plan to save Rey when we know she’s already escaped and is in the process of finding a ship to escape.
So if we wanted to make this a more dramatic rescue (Read: ignore because I get carried away), the next scenes could play out like this:
Snoke
Landing at Lightspeed
Rey’s Failed Mind Trick
Lowering the Shields
Preparing to Storm the Detention Block (ending with “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” “Hell no.”)
Rey’s Escape
Hangars on Lockdown
Rejoining Rey
I’m sure some sculpts or molds for classic Yoda still exist and could be used to replicate a new puppet. Even if they were too fragile to cast from again they could be digitally scanned and 3D printed?
The Harmy of Yoda puppets:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/how-one-star-wars-creature-maker-is-trying-to-130454474.html
Fascinating. The first prototype is a bit odd, so hopefully they’ve honed the design.
The scene in the original version is actually shorter, so it really comes down to the music tying it together. It really needs a final note when Rey and Finn exit the oscillator, and a beat before Snoke starts talking. I think that would make it sound like there was more of a time difference between the scenes.
First of all, good job on the scene, it’s as good as I could imagine it getting with the resources at our disposal.
However, the reason I abandoned that short Snoke scene was because there were too many weird things about it, such as the complete lack of acknowledgement about the Republic’s destruction, further keeping Snoke in the dark about First Order information (when were they going to tell him about that reconnaissance ship?!), and the brevity of the scene makes it seem too perfunctory and ad hoc. It’s certainly serviceable though, so it’s better than nothing if it comes to that.
JEDIT:
I’m glad people like the Starlight mockups. I’m a big fan of keeping the focus on Rey as much as possible, and trying to imply that she’s learning over an extended period of time through Ren’s interrogations. Even though the discussion has moved on a bit, I had made this mockup just this morning:
https://vimeo.com/244699807
Password: rey
This follows the sequence:
Resistance Base
Weapon Charging
Interrogations
Snoke (reconnaissance tracking)
Failed Mind Trick
Battle Plans
Farewells
Successful Mind Trick
Landing from Hyperspace
Of course, the necessity of keeping the charging-Battle Plans connection renders this rather moot.
Here’s the sequence I’m looking at:
Resistance Base
Weapon Charging
Battle Plans
Farewell
Rey’s Interrogation
Snoke
Rey Escapes
Landing at Hyperspace
Since the bolded sections must stay together, Rey’s interrogation must fall on one side of them or the other. I feel like we’re away from her almost too long in the Theatrical version, so at least part of the interrogation should happen before the weapon charging. However, since Snoke’s scene should happen after the charging, there’s no natural way to include her in this section of the film. That’s a problem if Rey’s still supposed to be the main character.
So either the bolded section must be split somehow, or Rey’s interrogation must be split into two sections, with one before the bolded section.
Here’s an old mockup of how such a split could happen, just disregard the sequence: https://vimeo.com/214598035
Password: learning
So, has anybody ever seen a Star Wars movie?
That Porg shot really shows the awkward side of practical effects.
What part of that porg shot looked awkward to you? I’m not a huge fan of the porg design, but I thought that shot looked incredibly realistic.
The mouth looked rather strange, as well as the wings looking like they were on simple hinges. It will probably be better in context.
Here’s an idea: cut back to the Resistance planning room right after Snoke says “Bring her to me.” Since they’ve just been talking about the reconnaissance ship and the Resistance Base, it makes a lot of sense. Then after the Han/Leia farewell scene show the establishing shot of the TIE’s over the the Starkiller Base mountains from earlier (where I assume it’s been deleted in favor of the planetary establishing shot), then cut to Rey’s mind trick scene. This also gives Rey more time to figure out how to mind trick the guard and less time aimlessly wandering around the base.
@Dominic: I think sometimes we worry too much about confusing the audience. I know I do 😉 But the plan before the reconnaissance ship was to destroy the Republic, so it’s pretty clear that it’s still in their crosshairs.
Disney seems bent on remaking everything except Song Of The South at this point. I would be up for a new version of The Black Cauldron though.
I second the motion for a new version of The Black Cauldron.
The Black Cauldron 2: Fifty Shades Blacker
The Vimeo links don’t work for me.
JEDIT: Now they do 😃
Yes, the Kylo to Battle Plan transition is rough. I’ll keep thinking about it…
I quite agree that this is the place in the movie where everything starts to fall apart - the heroes are all trying to run away from the conflict in increasingly nonsensical ways.
I was already planning on moving the first Snoke scene in my edit. 😃
On a different note, and maybe for V3, is the issue of the First Order knowing the location of the Resistance Base. This will still need to be explained somehow. Previously I’ve tried to include a scene where Hux talks to Snoke after the Oscillator attack and they decide to destroy the Resistance. However in addition to requiring all-new Hux dialogue this has the issue of diminishing one of the benefits of this edit which differentiates itself from ANH.
Another solution would be to rearrange some scenes so that both the Republic and the Ileenium system are potential targets at the same time. Here’s how it could work:
(Optional) Move the first Snoke scene (and the reveal of the Starkiller) to just after the introduction of Leia. This makes more sense anyway, since the Finalizer should have been hunting for the Falcon instead of returning to base for a few lines of exposition. The scene would play out exactly as before except without the line “The droid we seek is on board the Millennium Falcon in the hands of…”. The reason for moving this is so that Snoke’s dialogue is re-contextualized to imply that he knows about Kylo’s abandoning of the droid.
Hux goes to oversee preparations, and the Starkiller charging sequence happens just before Rey’s interrogation, with the target being the Republic as usual.
After the interrogation, the scene with Snoke would be similar to the theatrical version:
“The scavenger resisted you!”
“She is strong with the Force! Untrained but stronger than she knows.”
“Ren believed that the girl was all we needed. As a result, the droid has been returned to the hands of the enemy. They may have the map already.”
“Then the Resistance must be destroyed before they get to Skywalker.”
“We have their position. We tracked their reconnaissance ship to the Ileenium system.”
“Good. Then we will crush them once and for all.”
“Supreme Leader. I can get the map from the girl. I just need your guidance.”
“If what you say about this girl is true, bring her to me.”
Finally, keeping the 30 seconds to fire scene with Hux would clearly establish that the weapon was still operational, and had enough juice for another shot.
I can think of several more benefits to this rearrangement. First, Snoke is not being kept in the dark about Kylo’s abandoning the quest for the droid - Hux merely hammers home the point that Ren’s plan had failed. Second, the choice of which planet to destroy first is left ambiguous and it’s reasonable to assume that the decision would be left in Hux’s court. This gives the character real consequences for his hubris, since he was aware of the threat posed by the Resistance and destroys the Republic first anyway. Third, since there are now two planets at stake, a first-time audience may be truly worried for Leia’s fate, especially if they know that a major character is killed in the third act. Fourth, the extended Hosnian destruction sequence would gain a new meaning as characters on D’Qar realized that they might be victims of the first firing.
Finally, the decision of Hux and the ambiguity of the target system could not happen with ‘another Death Star’ - this dramatic situation could only occur with this type of hyper-lightspeed weapon. In other words, the Starkiller might finally live up to its potential in this edit.
Oh I got the reference, no need to defend yourself 😃
I’m always afraid of running afoul of rule 5, so coming from a mod, this is comforting to me.
The War of the Stars II: The Future in Motion
or was it Terminator 3: The Coming Storm?
One of the two.
I think most people would agree that something about unmasked Vader looks off, and it’s been off from 1983 to present. Whatever visual change is implemented, the audience should probably feel pity and empathy at the human who has suffered so much with the consequences of their past mistakes.
In keeping with the stated purposes of this edit, whatever is done should lend more realism to the scene, so I’d suggest having places on his head where the helmet has rubbed the skin raw, such as around the cheeks and perhaps the sides of his head. I’d imagine that just having had a long and difficult fight, he would be sweating profusely. And finally, since we see the Emperor’s electricity coursing through his skull, there should be freshly burned areas of skin on his head.
To be fair, we aren’t supposed to know he’s a janitor at this point in the film, and that oscillator seems to be in walking distance of the primary habitable and command center areas so it’s a good bet he’s cleaned that really long bridge a time or two.
I think it’s more the dark circles and the red lips that make him look a bit clownish.
this droid is named Buford.
That’s B-U4D to you!
Probably not in a good way.
Speaking of:
https://hackernoon.com/more-than-a-million-pro-repeal-net-neutrality-comments-were-likely-faked-e9f0e3ed36a6
Very nice indeed.
What if you faded in the sound of R2 searching his files from the end of Chewie’s shot? As it is it might be a bit sudden for first-time viewers.
Coco:
Another excellent movie from Pixar, even better than Inside Out.
