Indeed! I’ve gone back and worked on shot 1 a bit more. I wasn’t able to completely smooth out the trooper movement, but it’s at least a little better.
Anyway, I’ve gone ahead and rendered it in ProRes format so anyone who wants the scene, let me know via PM 😃
Watching the scene again, I think it would work to simply duplicate the theater shots, and put one after the establishing shot of the children that shows Luke simply facing the AT-AT, then show the closeup of the children looking in rapt attention, then the existing shot of Luke deflecting the fire followed by the children laughing.
I showed the scene to my girlfriend who wasn’t clued-in beforehand, and it took three playthroughs before she figured out what was happening.
So I think we should definitely look at slowing it down a bit, though even if it was unchanged it would still be a dramatic improvement to the film.
Here is the puppet show! It’s very short, but hopefully people will think it’s worth all of the effort. I’m sure I’ll need to tweak it some more, so I’m just gonna share a streamable link until it’s finalized.
Also wanted to note who all contributed to this very small edit.
I may be wrong, but I believe DZ-330, Cinefy and DominicCobb all had this idea at one point or another.
Proof of Concept by Cinefy
Clean Stage Plates by poppasketti and MoviesRemastered
Puppet Designs by Captain Faraday
Alien Dub by ThisIsCreation
Produced by RogueLeader
Well, uh, there it is.
Yeah, but the upside is that I’m much more comfortable with After Effects due to this scene.
With my new knowledge, I think I can do a better job on shot 1 so I’ll take another stab at that later and then render the whole thing. 😃
Timecode Removal Ver 1 is complete!
I haven’t had the energy to talk about this movie at all lately. But here’s something: does Anakin’s voice say “bring back the balance, as I did”? or something to that effect? because that always struck me as an awful line. He didn’t bring back crap
What are you talking about? Palpatine did die, albeit temporarily. In TLJ Luke specifically says “for many years, there was balance” when talking about the time between episodes 6 and 7.
To be fair, that’s the only line that establishes that and it is arguably contradicted by Tekka’s ‘Without the Jedi, there can be no balance’. Luke never finished bringing back the Jedi, so it’s a bit more up for interpretation.
Lol.
I remember trying to use a Kylo ‘Captain’ line in my edit, but ended up removing it because it didn’t sound enough like Adam Driver. Hopefully there’s a better version in there somewhere.
I got my second Covid shot last week and it kicked my butt for a day or two, but I am back to working on the timecode removal! Shot 4 also kicked my butt, but at least it’s done and I’m officially over halfway done with the scene. 😃
JEDIT: Shot 5 complete!
ROTJEDIT: Shot 6 Complete!
Updated first post to clarify the status of both versions of this edit.
TJEDITA: Shot 7 Complete!
TLJEDIT: Shot 8 Complete!
Yeah, it’s a nice change.
I love that TROS sticks out horribly even in this example.
I couldn’t find it so I did it myself real quick (maybe I did this on my own originally…)
“And” being cut might be noticeable to some who are aware of the change, but I honestly believe your hypothetical first time viewer, or people who just haven’t seen the movie since release, wouldn’t even notice this change. I moved “Me” up a few frames earlier, and I think the slight shift helps sell it as well.
I like how Finn assumes it’s Ren with such conviction, only to be left not knowing what to say after Rey says it was her. I think this is the simplest way to handle it.
Seamless.
Totally unbelievable. Anakin was never this self-aware.
The Empire is evil because it destroys peaceful planets. Aside from that, and the whole dictatorship angle, there’s a sizeable school of thought on The Empire Did Nothing Wrong, which is of course absurd but does make some fair points about galactic stability and making the space trains run on time.
The prequels establish that there are only ever two Sith in existence at any time, at least according to the Sith Rule of Two, a master and an apprentice. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other dark Force wielders out there or even other would-be Sith, but there are only two official Sith in recent galactic history at any one time. Of course, this is an invention of the prequels, and the Original Trilogy was quite vague on the nature of the Sith apart from calling Vader one of their order. Presumably there could be unlimited numbers of Sith.
According to the prequels, the Jedi have a three-tiered system of Padawan(Apprentice), Knight, and Master. A Jedi Knight takes on a Padawan to train as a Jedi Knight. When the Padawan reaches knighthood, my understanding is that their teacher can become an official Jedi Master. This system was not apparent during the Original Trilogy, however, and the working canon by Lucas was that a student or apprentice could become a Jedi Knight if they wished to use a lightsaber and be a warrior monk like Obi-wan, or they could devote themselves to teaching and peace and become a Jedi Master like Yoda. It was not a linear succession, and btw it’s my favored explanation of the Jedi.
That needs to be a scene.
It’s not really about the expectation, though cutting to Finn for a split second does feel odd, it’s more about that series of statements.
“I had a vision. Of the throne of the Sith. And who was on it. And me.”
The first two statements make clear that she had a vision about the throne of the Sith, and the third statement clarifies that she saw someone on that throne. The fourth statement however doesn’t make it clear at all that she saw herself on the throne, rather that she had a vision of herself separate from the throne, since the ‘and’ implies that her presence in the vision was not included in the part of the vision revealing the throne.
She could say “I had a vision. Of the throne of the Sith. And who was on it…me.” This would confirm that she was on the throne and not separate from it.
Or she could say “I had a vision. Of the throne of the Sith. And me.” Which merely implies that she is on the throne.
The absent line is felt, unfortunately.
Maybe it could be cut so that Finn says “Ren?”, then mask out Rey’s mouth movement and delete her ‘and’, so that she simply says ‘Me.’ You might not even have to change her mouth movement, though it could help.
I think there needs to be a shot between Rey and BB-8 leaving frame, and the shot of the Falcon flying. There’s too much action that happens offscreen too rapidly (boarding the Falcon, the Falcon taking off), and I think that’s what makes it feel rushed.
Have the old woman take off her false face to reveal Ben.
Welcome to the forums!
I agree that those lines are some of the worst in the film. If we’re throwing around complete replacement ideas, maybe something like:
“I am all you can ever hope to be!”
“I…I can be more.”
Something that is vague yet speaks to Rey’s core character arc, whether you interpret it to be one of self-worth, belonging, destiny with the Dark Side, whatever.
Indeed. I think the installation of a leader with true Force powers torpedoes the ultimately mean simplicity of a fanatical Imperial Remnant, so if they took Palps out of the equation and just had Snoke as a leader who is implied to have Force powers but is actually a pretender, it would be pretty spot-on.
