NeverarGreat

I could do that.

However, ‘one-shot’ or a variation on that line could refer to the fact that it can’t move and thus can only absorb a single star to be used for one or two attacks.

Perhaps “some kind of single charge Kyber cannon.” would make everyone happy.

Alternatively…perhaps we could play up the fact that this weapon is experimental and unstable:

“An extremely unstable Kyber cannon.”

or

“A massive, unstable Kyber cannon.”

or

“Some kind of unstable Kyber cannon.”

This would not only set up the plan later in the scene based around destabilizing the weapon, but it would explain the First Order’s behavior as well. Only Hux seems eager to use the weapon and his last dialogue in the film practically implies that he expected the weapon to be destroyed. It also explains why Snoke is nowhere near the Starkiller at any point in the film, and why such a weapon isn’t just a power-crept Death Star.

Yeah, Eddie liked that idea because it tied the Illum planet’s history to the weapon, and for casual viewers it’s just some in-universe jargon that won’t matter either way.

I’m still working on the Senate Response scene, but Eddie also provided line variations for the character’s other speaking role in the film. So here it is, hopefully making some more sense of the Starkiller weapon.

While yes, a desert can be striking and beautiful, there is at least a thematic reason why Tatooine is so drab in Star Wars, that being Luke’s angst at his backwater nothing planet.

I’d like to see a desert planet in Star Wars that actually is stunning. Pasaana tries to do this but it isn’t fully there.

That would be awesome! I’ll send you the clip.

There’s another line in this edit that could use replacement, and it appears in the mockup videos. A First Order officer tells Kylo ‘Sir, she was not found in hangar 718, but all troops are on alert.’

For the edit, Rey hasn’t yet entered hangar 718 so I truncated the line to ‘Sir, all troops are on alert.’ However, it still feels a bit strange to have that gap in dialogue, so I thought it might be good to kill two birds with one stone and establish the players of the upcoming scenes:

‘Sir, Phasma is in full command of base security, and all troops are on alert.’

This reminds everyone that Phasma will be important in a few scenes as well as establishing that she would have the clearance to deactivate the shields. An audience member could then guess what Finn is about to do instead of throwing up their hands with an ‘I guess!’ when he does it.

Anyway, it should probably have a different voice actor than Eddie since the scene is so close to the ones he’s already working on. If anyone else wishes to volutneer as tribute, I would be inestimably grateful.

Speaking of audio, the Starkiller destruction sequence has never felt right to me due to the constraints of the music forcing me to delete the ships jumping to Hyperspace. I’ve revamped that entire sequence with a modified musical cue that removes the upbeat section back on D’qar and replaces it with a single ending note. Now the ships jump to Hyperspace on this finale and the scene on D’qar begins with no music whatsoever, better fitting the somber tone of Restructured and Starlight.

I like it!

Great!

Story time, I was working through the comments on Starlight V1 and a few people were noticing that audio that should have been surround or stereo were sounding very mono. Taking a closer look at my timeline, I realized that a few of my audio tracks were indeed forcing stereo tracks into mono. This has been fixed, which means that quite a few effects and scenes throughout the film now sound a lot more dynamic, noticeably deleted scenes and the Starkiller firing sequence.

This is why feedback is so vital, so thank you everyone who pointed this out!

I actually noticed that as well, RL, so we’re going to try splitting the sentence like that.

And as you say, I’m thinking the extra shots are just not worth the trouble, especially since most of them are too short anyway.

^ I have gone through the documentary in search of extra shots and have a bit of a library, but the primary use of the documentary to my knowledge has been in finishing the Han dice hanging scene. Other than that, there’s not too much in the way of useful footage that I recall.

The Last Jedi documentary actually has more of this sort of thing going on.

…

So it’s quickly become clear to me that the audio for the end of the scene is unlikely to sync up well with the mouth movements, so I’m making the decision to cut that part of the scene and end it with a wipe that partially obscures Threepio and his weird exit. This actually works fairly well now that it wipes to a neutral mountain shot.

This is only the first real attempt at making the line work, but I’m happy with how it’s turning out. I hope to further adjust the takes to really nail the line, but even as-is I think this could work in the edit.

I’ve just got some great line readings from him now, so I’ll be busy going through and editing them. But in the meantime, an important test.

I hope so too.

RogueLeader said:

I think we’re both referring to, “And General, unless that shield is destroyed…nobody can save us.”

Maybe another off screen rebel could be calling for 3PO, needing his help. Or some droid beeps. It could just be a subtle background voice/sound, but something like that could provide some logic to his action.

Ask and ye shall receive.

It’s funny, but also kinda brings the scene together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u62ao6_xYHc

That’s the second time we’ve seen him gliding in an unpowered spaceship towards Coruscant.

Which one is the second line? I realize now that numbering would help.

And yeah, Threepio’s arm movement is just so bizarre in that scene. I originally tried to cut away from it but there’s so little footage that I can use, it will probably stay in. There must have been more to his behavior at one point. It looks like he’s remembering something or has been alerted to some activity. Maybe a couple of people have just dumped R2 in the corner and he is going to check up on it. Guess we’ll never know.

As for ‘within an hour’, yeah that makes sense. That’s why I originally put the line at ‘launching in 0200 hours’, but we can do several versions of that to see what works best.

JEDIT: And I might not even end up needing a final line after 3PO waltzes out of frame if I transition right to the snowy establishing shot, but it would be nice to have a line just in case.

Sure!

That’s fair. I just included it because it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it 😉

Good one! However, I’m constrained by the mouth movements to put the word ‘destroyed’ at the end of the phrase, so perhaps:

“And General, without that shield destroyed…nobody can save us.”

It could work even if someone watches the theatrical film, since this could be Rey doubting her intentions from the beginning and believing that she has always been evil.

Funny enough, I just gave the Sith Eyes scene another pass to make them more prominent.

Thanks, and I agree. This is probably the single most important part of this edit for the greater story and trilogy.

BTW, I just updated the link above. I realized that there was an establishing shot of the Starkiller prisons that I had cut from the first version which would help the flow of this scene.

I’m not sure what to put for that final line.

“And General, if the advance team is destroyed…nobody at all could save us.”

Or

“And General, unless that shield is destroyed…nobody can save us.”

“And General, until that shield is destroyed…not even the Force can help us.”

I’ve been tinkering with the Senate Response scene a bit more since I’m not entirely happy with its integration in the film. The falcon landing leading into ‘The Falcon has landed’ works a treat, but it feels like it breaks off at the end without leading into anything else. Some version of Rey in the hallway and Kylo looking for her must come after this scene since Kylo’s scene must precede Han and Finn’s scene. Therefore, I must come up with a way to segue into Rey.

Here’s what I’m thinking.

“Black Leader, the Falcon has landed!”
“All fighters clear for takeoff, all fighters clear.”
“All teams, altitude confirmed, hold for jump to Light Speed.”

“General, the Senate has voted to mobilize the fleet! They expect to launch within the hour.”
“They haven’t got a chance.”
“Oh my, without the Republic Fleet we’re doomed!”
“And General, if our advance team is…destroyed…nobody can save us.”

-Cut to Rey.

Just a little dramatic foreshadowing with a double meaning for Rey Nobody fans out there 😉

Up to this point last year I had really only done the crawl in After Effects, so the effects for the entire alternate ending, for example, were hand-tracked frame by frame in Premiere.

Thanks! And now that I have a better handle on motion tracking in After Effects (can you believe I used to do everything by hand in Premiere?!), the process of finishing these R2 scenes should be far quicker.

headtaker18 said:

RogueLeader said:

Even if Holdo wasn’t name dropped, perhaps we could see a few ships manage to escape the Hosnian destruction by jumping to hyperspace at the last moment. I’m pretty sure someone did this in their edit. They added a Holdo close up but that wouldn’t be necessary.

And yeah, I think the idea tracks in your mock up, but I’ve seen it so much I may be biased. Though Rey wouldn’t necessarily have any idea the map might be in R2, so she would just be fixing R2 without realizing what is in him. So I can see that being an advantage of adding 3PO to that scene. Still think it would be worth a mock up even if you waited to mess with any effects.

Absolutely love this idea! Seeing a couple hyperspace jumps right before Starkiller destroys the Senate would really help tie into TLJ as to where the bombing fleet came from

Then I shall put this on the list of things to accomplish for v2 😃

Fair enough 😃

Here’s what I’m thinking for R2 neglect:

I don’t want to go too extreme since that increases the workload exponentially, but I think this is enough to be noticeable.