NeverarGreat

darth_ender said:

NeverarGreat said:

Let’s rewrite that bloated crawl!
From my thread in the Scriptwriting subforum:

EPISODE VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS

Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, has vanished.
In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER
has risen from the ashes of the fallen Empire.

To counter this deadly threat, the Republic
mobilizes a covert RESISTANCE led by
General Leia Organa, to gather allies from
the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

As the FIRST ORDER prepares a crippling
blow to the Republic, its dark forces gather
above the graveyard planet of Jakku…

I like this crawl. Succinct but revealing more information.

Here is my go. Bear in mind, I’m attempting to reveal several more details, but keep it concise. I have a feeling it’s still too long, but take a look:

The democratic NEW REPUBLIC rules with a just hand. But from the ashes of the evil Galactic Empire, the FIRST ORDER has arisen, its strongholds hidden among the recesses of the Unknown Regions.

This new Order, determined to restore the glory of the Empire, have secretly poured resources into a new weapon of rerror: the Starkiller!

General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE to combat such evil. With little support from the Reupublic, Leia is desperate to find her missing brother Luke Skywalker. She has dispatched her most daring pilot on a secret mission to Jakku, where a group of Force worshipers may hold a clue to Master Skywalker’s whereabouts…

The advantages of this crawl include: a) greater distinction between the Republic and the Resistance, and make the situation appear more dire for the latter; b) allusions to the otherwise surprising DS3; c) explaining why the First Order is still a force to be reckoned with; d) containing most of the same info as the original crawl; e) perhaps explaining why Jakku holds any clues at all; f) its consistent with the background designed for the world building, but not revealed in the film itself.

The disadvantage is that to include so much information, it can make for some clunky wording and an overly long crawl. I’m interested to read others’ thoughts on the matter.

I agree that the Starkiller should be mentioned by name in the crawl. Here’s an updated version:

The galaxy is in crisis.
With no Jedi to resist it,
a tyrannical First Order
has risen from the ashes
of the Empire to threaten
the fledgling Republic.

As the Republic hastens
to form a Resistance led
by General Leia Organa,
the First Order prepares
to destroy the Republic
once and for all with a
lethal secret weapon,
the STARKILLER.

Desperate for allies,
Leia has sent a pilot
to the war-torn planet
of Jakku to learn the
location of the Jedi
while dark forces
gather far above…

SLAVE LANDO

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/off-the-clock-space-opera-millennials-and-their-gr/1100-5371/

Some good thoughts here.

TV’s Frink said:

I found plenty in Rey for me to be emotionally invested in. Same for Finn.

shrug

I didn’t mean for it to come across like I wasn’t invested in them as characters, simply that the editing tended to thwart certain important moments. I would also list the moment when Finn and Rey have just left Jakku, a point in the film that was crying out for a quiet scene for character development. Instead the ship immediately starts to fall apart and it’s another distraction for the audience.

moviefreakedmind said:

The official website used a frame from the unaltered version of Star Wars. It’s cropped and weird looking, but it’s not from the GOUT or the Special Edition.

Here’s the Blu-ray with a luminance boost compared to the promotional image that I quickly regraded:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/156949

As you can see, the promo image has tons more detail, especially in Luke’s costume. It also looks like there’s different warping here, just like in the Reliance shots. I’d guess that this was from a potential new release, or as has been mentioned, a film still from the '97 version. It would be wonderful to have a scan of that just to get the missing detail for this shot.

I realize that contributing to this thread is almost certainly an exercise in futility, but here it is:

There is no such thing as a perfectly plotted film. Films are similar to dreams, in that their primary value is in generating an emotionally compelling illusion. Thus, plot holes and conveniences are only a problem when they break this emotional illusion.

It is in the strength or weakness of its emotional content that a film succeeds or fails, since people rationalize any experience which they find emotionally compelling, regardless of its internal logic. So the extent to which people are defending the conveniences of ANH while disparaging similar conveniences in TFA speaks to the differing levels of emotional investment in these two films.

Now does TFA lean on convenience more than ANH? Yes. That is one of Abram’s weaknesses as a storyteller, and the fact that the script was rushed and cobbled together at the last minute rather than being worked on for several years like that of ANH definitely shows. TFA is a frustrating film, at once more energetic and spirited than almost anything else in the Star Wars saga, and at the same time less logical and less ‘earned’. I don’t think it is particularly valuable to compare the levels of convenience in ANH vs TFA since TFA has lost on that count, but I think it is valuable to talk about the emotional arc of the film’s protagonist, Rey, since emotion trumps logic in film every time.

So what about TFA’s final duel? The fact that so many people have a problem with Rey defeating Kylo Ren while simultaneously accepting Luke’s ‘One in a million’ shot at the end of ANH speaks to a failure of emotional investment. Rey is established through her actions to be a competent fighter and a quick learner who is unnaturally strong with the Force, so logically her victory over the wounded and emotionally unstable Kylo Ren makes sense. However it FEELS off, like we are being asked to accept too much. In ANH, Luke’s journey from his acceptance of the quest at the end of act 1 has been building to the moment of truth, where he learns to let go of machines and even his own senses in order to succeed. It doesn’t make sense logically, yet we accept it because it feels RIGHT. So why does Rey’s moment feel unearned? I think that it is because she begins to win the EXACT MOMENT when she fully accepts her latent ability.

Remember that in ANH Luke chooses to trust the Force over a minute before he takes his shot. During this minute he has to reassure the base that everything is alright, then R2 is hit, then he is saved by Han Solo and Chewbacca. Only after all of these events occur is he allowed to take the shot, during which time the audience has had time to process his decision and become invested in his gambit. Contrast this with Rey’s immediate Force powerup and the difference is striking. Rey first pulls the sword from the snow (or stone), an event with Arthurian association which is filmed to surprise the audience as much as Ren. Just as we are recovering from the shock of her power, we are given another surprise as she taps into the Force at the exact moment it is required. At no time is the audience allowed to process the events which are taking place, so it feels like two titans battling for domination, and who are only parted when the earth itself splits asunder. After this Rey can only be a force of nature, not a mere mortal as Luke was even at the end of ANH.

Now this doesn’t mean that I didn’t like this scene or the film in general. If they expand on this Arthurian take on the hero while also exploring the more weak and human nature of the villain it will be an interesting inversion of the original trilogy. Here’s to hoping that it happens.

Oh? Has this been the plan? Iiinteresting 😃

http://www.hitfix.com/harpy/one-simple-trick-that-makes-that-star-wars-prequels-way-more-watchable

So what do you think? I’m pretty sure that Lucas never considered this angle, but it’s fun to think about.

FanFiltration said:

Creed 5/10
The Big Short 8/10
The Force Awakens 7/10
Twelve Angry Men (original) 8/10
The Man From Earth (2007) 9/10
Birdman 7/10
Gravity 6/10
The Martian 5/10
Sunshine (2007) 4/10

I’ve seen all of those except The Big Short, and I find your subjective opinion to be wrong! Sunshine is one of my favorite films, and Creed is at least an equal to TFA. Good choice on The Man From Earth though. 😃

I had an idea this morning for a set of Blu-ray covers showcasing the small things in Star Wars. As a rule, I determined that they should be smaller than a lightsaber, since lightsabers are overused on covers already.

This is just a rough draft. If I were to create art specifically for these, I would have chosen R2’s restraining bolt for ANH and the crackers that Leia gives to Wicket for ROTJ, as well as focus on just the lamp held by Yoda.

It’s a damn good poster.

(I’m going to assume this is the one he has in his house, as long as we’re making assumptions about other people’s lives, since I have the same one and it’s awesome 😉 )

TavorX said:

The funniest bit about that image is that he owns a pair of BB8 sneakers.

Let’s rewrite that bloated crawl!
From my thread in the Scriptwriting subforum:

EPISODE VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS

Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, has vanished.
In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER
has risen from the ashes of the fallen Empire.

To counter this deadly threat, the Republic
mobilizes a covert RESISTANCE led by
General Leia Organa, to gather allies from
the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

As the FIRST ORDER prepares a crippling
blow to the Republic, its dark forces gather
above the graveyard planet of Jakku…

My friends and I have just seen Episode 7, and although it was a fun (if derivative) movie, the crawl stood out like a sore thumb. So we have taken a stab at rewriting it:

First, here’s the crawl as it is in the film:

"Luke Skywalker has vanished.
In his absence, the sinister
FIRST ORDER has risen
from the ashes of the Empire
and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi,
has been destroyed.

With the support of the REPUBLIC,
General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE.
She is desperate to find her
brother Luke and gain his
help in restoring peace and
justice to the galaxy.

Leia has sent her most daring
pilot on a secret mission
to Jakku, where an old ally
has discovered a clue to
Luke’s whereabouts . . . ."

And here’s our version:

STAR WARS
EPISODE VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS

Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, has vanished.
In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER
has risen from the ashes of the fallen Empire.

To counter this deadly threat, the Republic
mobilizes a covert RESISTANCE led by
General Leia Organa, to gather allies from
the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

As the FIRST ORDER prepares a crippling
blow to the Republic, its dark forces gather
above the graveyard planet of Jakku…

Thoughts?

Animeman1000 said:

On MySpleen I’ve only found the 2.5 version of “A New Hope”, but the other versions are like 1.0 or 2.0 and so on of The Empire Strikes back and Return of the Jedi. I want 2.5 of all 3 films, but no one has uploaded them and I can’t get Jdownloader to work properly! So I can’t download from tehparadox!!! AGH!!! I’ve downloaded Jdownloader 5 or 6 times and have reinstalled it that many times as well.
Can anybody help!?

I can’t help you with Jdownloader, but version 2.5 only exists for A New Hope. The latest versions for the other two are a 2.0 Workprint for Jedi, and I think only 1.0 for Empire.

Here’s the CUBE version of my latest LUT:

https://mega.nz/#!fFlhDYBA

Key: !hRF4lpAM6wpP984TMlx61RdFKXxL1wn-COz3X8rqrkA

Hal 9000 said:

Shadester9 said:

what are your thoughts on redubbing Jar Jar with an alien voice (and subs) to make his dialogue not only bearable but good, like the Anti-Cheese edits?

It could be fun to try, and I’d toyed with doing an alternate version just to try it. But I haven’t, and I would not want to subtitle Jar Jar since he’s a supporting character who follows the core group around as opposed to a villain we see here and there (like Jabba).

It’s only a matter of time before someone gets a whole new English voice cast for this film so that they are able to completely change the sound. Director Danny Boyle once suggested that sound is 70% of the movie experience, and I agree. If were to happen, Anakin could become a strong character, Qui-gon could become fatherly and wise, and Jar Jar could become actually decent: He could be seen by Qui-gon as a budding Force Sensitive who fights the guiding hand of the Force for most of the film, resulting in him appearing clumsy, mindless, and cynical. However, under the Jedi’s influence, he is able to channel some of his intuitive ability and gains some self respect, regardless of his mannerisms.

As far as I can tell, it’s good for the entire film. Although when I uploaded it, I saw that some of the green lights in the film turn slightly blue, an unfortunate side effect of removing the green tint from the film. I’ve played around with the settings some more, and I think this new LUT is better in most respects:

https://mega.nz/#!nFE0kbTB

Key: !zhXrB_AaERV2t5DzQpJ890At-YDHzMzebN25xrs28lo

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/154445/picture:0

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/154447/picture:0

clutchins said:

How can one go about applying your LUT to the .mkv on the spleen? Also, thanks for doing this!

I used TSmuxer to convert it to a TS stream, then used Adobe Media Encoder to apply the LUT (there’s an option for this under export settings - effects in Premiere Pro and Media Encoder) and re-export it as a h.264 video with 23-25 mbs quality. The comparison images are taken from this render. There’s a little bit of loss, so you may want to bump up the quality even more, but that should get you a file that’s similar in size and quality to the original.

I’m no expert in video formats or rendering, so if there’s a better way to do this, let me know!

Some friends and I were going to have a Star Wars OT marathon before TFA, and I decided to use the Grindhouse version of ESB. So to that end I have made a LUT to correct the colors:

https://mega.nz/#!2FdX0QIb

Key: !HCtmQgTtkQtuj6qIbLw4mvrIEodn2q1hODyAr_Pm9l0

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/154438/picture:0

JEDIT: See updated LUT below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTRbkIBn2j0

More praise for Despecialized! Glad to see the word getting out before TFA.

Is this article for real?

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/hot-yoda/419454/#article-comments

I am not an expert on audio preservation, but I would have thought that digitizing this stuff would have happened a long time ago.

Yeah, this is a pretty great edit, it actually managed to remain compelling throughout. I still think some of the mindless action sequences (such as Obi-wan chasing Grevious with a lizard) could be cut without much problem, and the flashbacks sometimes cause more confusion than anything. I think a more streamlined and chronological version would be better, though I do think it would add to the narrative if a few flashbacks to Anakin’s childhood remained near the end of the film. Also, not sure why midichlorians were left in.

I really liked Maul turning into Grevious, it would be brilliant if it was better executed. I also loved the line near the end where Anakin shares with Obi-wan his final vision. It finally brings the saga full circle without feeling shoehorned in.

As far as Anakin’s body dematerializing, I like that we don’t see it happen because it leaves it open to interpretation. Perhaps it dematerialized a few seconds after the end of the shot, and you can believe that if you want to. However, there is the fact that Anakin doesn’t just have a cyber suit, it is that much of his body has become mechanical. Would all of his robotic limbs and implants just be rattling around in an empty suit like in the Left Behind series? Seems silly to me.

I just watched the Phantom Menace edit. It’s quite good, though I think that some parts now feel rushed. The podrace could be cut quite a bit shorter, however. The way that the Nemoidians are portrayed in this is rather cool.

This was the first time that I genuinely FELT the villainy of Palpatine. That we don’t get a chance to see the villainy on screen is one of the biggest problems with The Phantom Menace, even if that is implied in the title. If we saw the suffering of the people of Naboo, just one shot of the overcrowded camps at night with a mass grave in the distance, it would go a long way to making the stakes real. Then the Nemoidians could be subtitled to order the death of Sio Bibble in the scene where they say ‘tuck him away’, and we could perhaps hear the laser blast.