NeverarGreat

Yeah, I feel like this might work better than the recut scene simply because it conforms to people’s memories of the scene (How’s that for an about face?). When I showed it to my friends, the cuts were so subtle that they didn’t even realize at first that the Hosnian Destruction had been removed. the more that this scene is changed, the greater the chance that people will notice and be removed from the flow of the film, simply because it’s different than the theatrical presentation.

Kexikus said:

Sir Ridley said:

Things are moving forward! Here’s a new clip with all the good bits, from Rey leaving the castle and until her return.

Change list:
• Intercutting à la DominicCobb (new)
• Updated score without repeating parts (new)
• Better sound mix (new)
• “They’ve found us”
• No sunset TIEs
• My unnecessary wipe removed (new)
• Finn takes the lightsaber from Maz quicker
• “Those beasts” cut, “they’re here” left in

https://youtu.be/AWP1FJQyF6A

I have to admit that I don’t like the new intercutting. For me the scene worked better with the original cut. Everything else you did is fantastic though.

@NeverarGreat:
This could work. It would however create some continuity problems since Kylo’s shuttle arrives after the TIEs so it wouldn’t make sense to be the first ship to leave the Finalizer.
Also I don’t see the problems with the current version: Finn sees TIEs and runs back to find Rey (and the others). When he arrives at the castle Han and the other patrons just noticed the TIEs as well. The latter didn’t expect such an attack at all so their shock makes them slow to react but they are starting to realize that they have to flee. Han, Finn and Chewie on the other hand return to the castle to find Rey but instead they only find Maz who gives them the lightsaber.

That’s the thing though: Kylo’s shuttle ISN’T the first ship to leave the Finalizer, it is implied that the other ships were launched first and approached stealthily from a different direction while the shuttle approaches under the auspices of peaceful negotiation. The TIEs would still arrive first and wreak havoc as in the final film.

With this idea, I’m just reconciling the fact that the TIE fighters and landing craft seem to approach the castle low and from over the forest with the fact that in this edit, the Finalizer is almost directly overhead or at least over the lake somewhere. In every version of this edit, there is a slight continuity error because of these facts, which this idea solves.

And as I said, the current version doesn’t have any outstanding problems (apart from Finn’s line change which I assume will be in version 2), however with this idea there is no need for the patrons to flee at all, since the shuttle flanked by two tie fighters would not be seen as a hostile action.

If you’ve ever wanted to see a nascar race in SPAAAACE or a double-bladed lightsaber or a bunch of Jedis fighting at once or Yoda with a lightsaber being completely “”"""""“badass”""""""" (I can’t put enough quotes around that word) or Anakin fighting Obi-wan on a river of lava for 20 minutes…in short, if you are 12 years old…then the prequels may be worth watching even once. Perhaps then you will recognize that you didn’t want to see these things in the first place, and you could take this opportunity to appreciate the prequels for allowing you to realize what a blessing the OT really was.

Or you could just stew in your hatred and disappointment. That’s cool too.

DominicCobb said:

Well the edit doesn’t remove the main reason Finn sticks around which is that he cares about Rey and is worried with her missing that the FO has captured her. Him and Han and Chewie might not bolt for the Falcon when the whole reason they’re there is to get BB-8 safely to the Resistance (and he’s currently missing with Rey). Maz I guess would be making sure that the lightsaber makes it out of the castle in tact (and eventually to Rey). As for everyone else I think we have to assume they scramble off screen (as in the theatrical).

Very well, I can mostly buy this. I am still concerned with the rapidly closing assault force however, which is clearly on the attack.

Watching Restructured V1 again, I think I might have a solution to this whole thing without the need for the dramatic cuts that we have all been suggesting:

1: Finn sees the distant Finalizer like in the edit, but instead of TIEs and landing crafts he sees only Kylo’s shuttle (perhaps with two flanking TIE fighters) descending from the clouds.

2: Han and extras see the ships, and assume that the First Order will be negotiating for the droid, with the threat of the Finalizer so nobody attempts an escape. Finn says ‘they’ve found us’ as suggested, and assuming that they have some time, Han and Company go to find Maz (and hopefully Rey).

3: Rey talks to BB8 then notices the TIEs and landing craft overhead, and only then does the audience realize with her that the castle will be attacked. Arriving at the battle, she sees Kylo’s shuttle touch down in time with the surprise attack.

In short, everything in the scene can go as presented in V1, except that the cloud of TIEs and landing craft is now just Kylo’s shuttle.

I saw this at our local theater as well.

No it’s all good here, I’m just glad people care about the colors. In my opinion, any of these recent attempts look great.

Jetrell Fo said:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”

What people don’t seem to recognize is that ‘reality’ doesn’t necessarily map onto the findings of science. This is not to say that the universe as described through scientific principles is not factual - it usually is. However, it is incomplete. It is my belief that there is more than this universe, and people can and do travel into these realms. For some people, reality includes not just the screaming abyss, the horrible nightmare, and the demiurgic machine, but places of spiritual rest, vivid attainment, and absolute oneness. The modern laser focus on scientific materialism distorts the reality of normal people into accepting a form of frightening powerlessness, and most of those who escape this do so by rejecting science. The answer lies in allowing physics to be but one aspect of an infinitely greater metaphysics.

MalàStrana said:

Beautiful portfolio

https://filmschoolrejects.com/star-wars-shots-28f53660b458#.epa58sv8c

Won’t anyone think of the COLARS?!

They are doing and saying all the right things for this train wreck of an idea. I may just become interested in it by the time the trailer drops.

My thoughts on phenomenology are phenomenal. I should really write a book. Oh wait, I am.

bromeo said:

Sir Ridley said:

I improved it! I fixed the volume dip (thank you ForceGhostRecon), mixed better (thank you MalàStrana) with more tie sounds, and added a new score (thank you Kexikus). There’s still room for tweaks and fine tuning but I think it works much better already! Take a look:

https://youtu.be/ehQWQ_jkOCQ

Most impressive! Now I only need that shortened Rathtar scene in this edit and my life will be complete! I appreciate you fellas so much, wow.

JEDIT: BTW, now that we have that awesome “they found us” line… should something be done to Maz’s “Those beasts, they’re here!” (at 01:09:30 in the current edit)? Feels a bit funny that no-one informed her about the incoming attack. Not as important as some other cuts though.

I feel like a broken record saying this yet again, but why isn’t the castle a seething pandemonium when they see the First Order on the attack? Why doesn’t Finn and company immediately pull up and leave upon seeing this, since running was exactly what he said he would do in such a situation? Why don’t Han and Chewie immediately go to the Falcon to help fend off the attackers? Why in the face of annihilation is everyone instead taking some time out to ogle Luke’s lightsaber? I feel a bit like Yarael Poof here.

nightmare scenario: Alden Ehrenreich has the CGI face of young Harrison Ford.

^It might work well if the entire line was dubbed, but since it’s just a section, I can definitely hear the edit.

I’m not sure how to fix this scene. I’ve just finished a very rough animatic for the sort of thing I was imagining some pages earlier with the damaged spaceship, but I’m still not completely happy with the idea. I think there’s still too much being changed when the optimal answer would be something simple.

I don’t like the idea of Han and company seeing TIE fighters in the sky and ignoring them for another scene, nor do I particularly like introducing another spaceship only to have it be destroyed, since that entails a lot of effects work. Anyway, here’s the animatic if anyone is interested:

https://mega.nz/#!mRFzTLzT!_sU9oHbMQr9-ZzMKWXKflhCxF_biyI0K_xAsQhUOtIQ

Oh no you don’t! I just finished this reel to my liking, so you guys will just have to live with my less than perfect work.

😉

I guess that explains why I got an L in Roman Numerals class.

suspiciouscoffee said:
I called it Episode C just to pick a number.

I think I found your problem.

There is definitely some confusion as to the capabilities of Starkiller. Since the Hosnian system isn’t destroyed early in the film, we aren’t shown that it can destroy something many systems away, and the first time we are made aware of this is apparently during Hux’s speech.

When we were watching this edit, we had a discussion about whether the Starkiller had any sort of propulsion system like the Death Star. Since I am familiar with the Corellian system in EU, I thought it was plausible that the Starkiller would be able to trundle up to any old star and use it as fuel for its hyperspace laser weapon, but this seemed absurd to certain other people. I don’t know how to deal with this problem, but I’ll keep thinking about it. 😃

He puts more energy and hatred into that speech than anything I’ve seen in Star Wars.

The first post is ALWAYS up to date 😉

I can hardly imagine a scenario where Rey isn’t Luke’s daughter, especially since Daisy Ridley all but confirmed it. It makes a lot of sense that Han and Leia would be her aunt and uncle figures, since they basically act like her relatives throughout TFA.

He was using the popular Blue Rays sunscreen.

I’m still getting used to having 3PO blink at me. I can almost sleep at night.

I think that the Alderaan explosion was the one most in need of an update, but the one they gave it did little to make it better. If it was just the larger explosion it would have been fine, but they gave it the praxis shockwave, which just made it look dumb.

DuracellEnergizer said:

An obvious indication Ben was spanked as a child … or perhaps not spanked enough.

I’ll leave it up to personal interpretation which is the correct conclusion.

Trying to have it both ways?

Ryan-SWI said:

Say what you will about any other film from I - VI, but each film added something significantly new in one way or another, and all of them stood on their own narratively without having to wait for the next movie in the series to explain all the nonsense it created.

But again, that was a personal preference list.
If we’re talking objective filmmaking the list would probably (for the most part) look like a lot of the other lists on here, but what’s the point of posting the same list over and over again.

I’ll bite.
ANH brought the most new things to the table in terms of ideas since it was the first, obviously. The Force, the Jedi, Empires and Rebellions, etc.

ESB essentially brought the Dark Side to the table, although it had a passing reference in the first one. The idea of Jedi Masters was also stated outright, and massively expanded the mythos of the Force via Yoda with visions of the future, nightmare encounters, and Force-sensitive trees.

ROTJ didn’t introduce many new ideas, and if one were to look at it in a forgiving light, one could make the argument that it merely had to reconcile the disparate ideas of the first two films in the mind of our protagonist. He understands the need for emotion in his life, but also recognizes that taken too far, it could consume him. He becomes more than a Sith or a Jedi, and finds a different path, one that ultimately leads to his father’s redemption.

TPM introduced the idea of a scientific basis of the Force in Midichlorians, as well as the idea that the Force itself can conceive of life forms. Taken together, this implies the mythical ‘Chosen One’. Also introduced, though already existing with out name in the originals, was the idea of the Sith as philosophically opposed to the Jedi. This one was definitely idea heavy, though most would agree that the ideas were bad.

AOTC introduced the idea that Jedi cannot form attachments, and this became the overriding theme of the film. This was definitely a risky move, since it flew in the face of much of the EU at the time.

ROTS suffers from the same problem as ROTJ in that it brings little new to the table, but again an accommodating interpretation is that ROTS must merely allow the conflicting ideas in the previous films to be juxtaposed in the protagonist’s mind. In this case Anakin had to reconcile the attachment that forms the meaning for his life with the admonition against attachment of the Jedi Order. Also implied in the immaculate conception by the Force is the idea that his life is solely the result of the Force, and by extension he can do nothing to change his Chosen One destiny. This is in conflict with the understanding that the Force obeys your commands. It is free will versus determinism on a galactic scale, so on this level at least the film gets a pass.

TFA on this scale may be the weakest of the bunch, since it is the job of the first film in the trilogy to introduce the big ideas. ANH and TPM were both very strong thesis statements followed up by equally challenging ideological rebuttals, but what is the thesis of TFA? I honestly don’t know.