NeverarGreat

Here’s a mockup of the Snoke scene and the battle leading up to it:
https://vimeo.com/214272131
Password: rough

I wanted to test the idea that Kylo would abandon the search for the droid even without knowing about the impending Resistance attack. Results are mixed. On the one hand, I like that the First Order began their retreat before the Resistance attacked, which shows that it wasn’t because of the strength of the Resistance but the decision of Kylo. On the other hand, I wish there were more shots of the First Order retreating. The extra Poe shots don’t work either.

I am thinking about deleting Bala-Tik’s dialogue about the droid entirely, and shifting the first Snoke scene to just after the Maz Castle battle.

This creates quite a few new meanings and interpretations.

First, the gangs don’t know about the droid, since that information would probably be secret to all but the First Order’s own spies. The Maz Castle spy is the first and only tip-off to the First Order about BB-8.

Second, the villains don’t make a pit stop at the Starkiller while they are supposedly tracking the Falcon. This keeps the change of location very simple, and visually introduces the Starkiller only when it becomes important to the 3rd act. If the deleted Leia scene happens directly after this, it would place strong emphasis on the Republic going into the final act of the film.

Third, it keeps Kylo’s identity a secret until Han’s reveal after the battle, and the Snoke scene becomes a follow-up to and confirmation of the reveal.

Fourth, it makes Snoke seem a bit more in control as he has presumably heard about and considered Kylo’s decision to take the girl instead of the droid. The later grumbling about the droid after the interrogation scene would be cut, as well as Hux’s finger-pointing. In this scene Hux even tries to take responsibility for the bungle, which gets shouted down. Oddly, Snoke doesn’t seem angry with Kylo for abandoning the droid, which leads me to…

Fifth, Snoke seems very concerned about the effect of Han Solo on Kylo Ren, and thinks that it may be too much of a test for him. One interpretation of this is that Snoke thinks that Kylo avoided gaining the droid to avoid facing his father, or even that Kylo was intentionally helping Han and the Resistance by giving up the droid. This is more than a hint that Kylo will be redeemed in the 3rd act, making his eventual decision all the more cruel. (It may be worth removing the lines about needing reinforcements at the battle in order to make his decision that much more questionable)

Sixth, and most importantly for Rey, the awakening that Snoke speaks of happens after Rey’s ‘call to adventure’ Force vision, leaving no doubt as to the source of the awakening.

I cleaned the audio for Rey’s Dream, now Luke is inaudible and there is the sound of the ocean:

JEDIT:
Version 5
Version 5 Audio

Tobar said:

NeverarGreat said:

I know someone here posted an image from the twitter feed of the Last Jedi trailer composer, but I can’t find that anywhere. Does anyone know who composed that music?

Frederick Lloyd

Thanks!

DigMod said:

Remeber though, the ambiguity of the Force is why we all love the Original Trilogy. I just assume that she learned it when she probed Ren’s mind. I also assume she was driven by the dark side, or heard Vader’s voice about giving into hatred to destroy Ren. I tried the overdub and really liked it, but it was too on the nose.
I look at it as she learned on the job. The very first force user learned the same way. If she is who I think she may be, it would make perfect sense.

In short, I think saying or showing too much is not the way to go.

Just my 2¢

I would agree with this except that she uses the same type of line delivery that Obi-wan and Luke use in the OT when performing the Jedi Mind Trick™. In an ideal world she would have picked up this exact ability from Kylo and used it. However, if the dark Force vision works, it may change the feeling of the scene enough that it’s no longer an issue.

As for the Vader helmet on the base, I would be surprised if it ever made an appearance outside of this film, except perhaps as a background decoration in Kylo’s lair.

Sure, just put a credit at the end, but you might want to wait for SirRidley’s version in Restructured.

She has just invaded the mind of Kylo, and he knows how to get information from people. Perhaps if we heard his voice when she’s thinking about what to do: ‘I can take whatever I want’.

Also, I’ve been thinking about how to repurpose Kylo viewing the Starkiller beam, and the interrogation scene may be a good place. Since it’s only canon to show the personal visions of the main character, Rey would have to be the one viewing them. So to do this, Kylo’s prayer before the interrogation could cut right after ‘I will let nothing stand in our way’. Then, as the tables turn and Rey gains the upper hand in the interrogation, she sees the Starkiller shots and the Vader mask overlaid with the missing ‘grandfather’ dialogue. This would serve as a revelation to both Rey and the audience at the same time, which can only be a good thing for the story.

If she had heard of the Jedi mind trick somewhere, this scene would work well. It’s just that we don’t know what she does and does not know about the Jedi. I’ll think about this some more.

I know someone here posted an image from the twitter feed of the Last Jedi trailer composer, but I can’t find that anywhere. Does anyone know who composed that music?

Lord Haseo said:

NeverarGreat said:

Rey understands Droid-speak, but I think she’s the only human who can do it 😉

I’m going to need citation on the part where you say Rey may be the only human that knows binary. If you’re right then that’s weird as shit.

Oh, you said citation, not cetacean.

Sir Ridley said:

NeverarGreat said:

It may be possible by using the end of the shot at the end of the film where the Falcon jumps out of the Resistance system, and then there are two possible shots of it falling out of lightspeed, both requiring the removal of a planet.

Okay, that should be possible. I don’t really see the need for the addition though. Would it really make sense to put the ship into lightspeed at that time? They just escaped, and Rey leaves the cockpit to meet up with Finn (I don’t think leaving the controls and just lightspeeding blindly is a good idea) and they haven’t even decided where to go yet. And then they would leave lightspeed without being at the controls, is that even possible? Or does the ship leave lightspeed because of the gas leak?

She does mention at the start of the repair scene that it’s the motivator, which I would assume is the hyperdrive motivator. She then says that if the ‘propulsion tank’ overflows it will flood them with gas. So the ship drops out of Hyperspace because of the sudden leak. Han also leaves the console while at lightspeed, so once you have a course and jump I expect there’s not much risk, at least with a good ship. It’s also established that Rey is no slouch when it comes to the hyperdrive of this particular ship.

It’s a bit of a stretch to think that they would jump without a clear destination, but it’s also a stretch to think that they celebrated before getting out of the system, and then just hung out near Jakku repairing the ship before being found by Han Solo, who was found by two gangs, and none of this appeared on the Finalizer’s radar.

I found a potential source for the Falcon going to lightspeed. Recall that I cut the Falcon’s jump with my Starkiller destruction re-foley, so I could merge that with the end of the escape from Jakku shot:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/207415
It would require some blurring and engine glow to the first shot, but it might work.

So…it’s big.

Rey understands Droid-speak, but I think she’s the only human who can do it 😉
Luke only gets the gist of things like strong yes and no answers.

RogueLeader said:

DominicCobb said:

Yeah I feel like that’s the one I’m sort of leaning towards but it’s hard to know how well it’d work without actually seeing it.

I went ahead and made a rough version where his counsel with Vader is in between Han & Leia’s talk and Rey’s interrogation. Didn’t put the entirety of those two scenes in the video, just enough to get the gist. I also went ahead and put the two Maz scenes back together where the Kylo scene originally was just to see if the transition would work without it in between them. Like I said, it’s rough, but maybe it’ll help you guys decide if this direction is worth pursuing.

https://vimeo.com/213984598

I don’t think we need the establishing shot of the Finalizer for this cut, since we can assume that Kylo’s prayer happens on Starkiller Base. The TIE mountain shot could preface both scenes, linking them more closely together.

I think a change of music would help the Maz castle scene.

Sir Ridley said:

Nice initiative! 😃 I like most of your ideas, and as you know I’d like to use some of them for my edit which is also based on Restructured. I’ll make my own thread eventually.

I have a few questions and thoughts.

"Insert shot of the Falcon going to lightspeed …"
Is there usable footage for this?

It may be possible by using the end of the shot at the end of the film where the Falcon jumps out of the Resistance system, and then there are two possible shots of it falling out of lightspeed, both requiring the removal of a planet.

"… trim Bala-Tik’s dialogue about the First Order looking for a droid …"
I feel like this is easier said than done. Bala-Tik mentions the FO looking for a droid and two fugitives, which leads to them wanting to search the ship, and then finally saying “kill them, and take the droid”. All of this is connected, so I think you’d have to remove all of this dialogue and cut from “Nowhere left to hide” to the Rathtars attacking, and move Rey opening the Rathtar cage to a slightly earlier point. Not sure this would flow well, and the increasing tension between the gangs and Han would be lost.

This is the one scene where I’m fine with a lot of cuts, since the Rathtars are one of the weakest parts of the film IMO. After ‘Nowhere left to hide’, Rey could open the cages, then cut ‘and take the droid!’. Then keep the initial Rathtar attack, but cut Finn’s improbable capture and rescue. Maybe cut Han’s blasting the door open with the Bowcaster, since it doesn’t make any sense and it closes later in the scene.

"Regrade Maz’s Castle after Rey runs away to look as if it is occurring in late afternoon"
It’s possible, and it makes the sunset shot make slightly more sense. But you’d have to regrade about 10 minutes of footage (until they leave Takodana). Might be worth it though, if it looks good.

I think a few scene-specific regrades would do wonders for the OT look of the film, especially the Falcon scenes and the droids.

“Reincorporate Kylo’s investigation of the Falcon” - Using xxtelecine 7xx’s clip I’ve done some further cropping and editing to make the timecode removal more seamless. Looks good, I could upload a clip later.

And I made a version of the island dream shot, I’ll upload that as well.

I look forward to seeing them!

I feel like, based on what you said, that the Kylo scene should go as late as possible in order to keep it fresh in the audience’s mind. I like the idea of putting it right before the interrogation scene, so that Rey can call him out on his Vader worship right after his visit to the ‘shrine’. Then, after she throws him for a loop, she escapes and further infuriates him.

What are you DOING back there?!

As much as I don’t want to do a shot-by-shot color correction of TFA, there are certain scenes that do warrant color work. For example, many of the closeups of C-3PO look terrible to me, while the wide shots look much better. I thought it was just how the different suit reflected light, and though it is partly that, it’s also that he’s been graded to be too flat and green in comparison with how he looks in the wide shots and the rest of the saga.
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/207316

DominicCobb said:

For similar reasons (that I’ve touched on elsewhere before) I think the Vader scene should be moved, as it’s placement in the theatrical is kind of a non sequitur.

That’s an interesting idea. I was just imagining how it would play back to back with Rey’s Dream (they both feature a helmet from a deceased warrior), but of course it wouldn’t work there. Were you thinking it should be closer to the final confrontation in order to bring his conflict to the fore?

My girlfriend and I both had a strong negative reaction to the shot when we saw it in the theater, since it seemed so tacked on. It was especially strange for her since R2 is her favorite character. It would have been so nice to see them in the background on the Tantive.

I haven’t watched the video, but this might have something that you’re looking for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EVS7CF_LyQ

Neat! Though I don’t think it’s seamless enough for this edit.

If it didn’t have a timecode I’d probably use it. But I understand why it was cut - it really only exists to have Kylo become aware of/ruminate about Han’s presence, and it takes precious screentime to do it. DigMod just cropped the video, but it’s pretty obvious in some shots.

This is very complicated.

I will be sure to check them out.