NeverarGreat

I think Jar Jar is an important part of Episode 1, especially since he’s designed to be a contrast to the weird uptight Jedi and the weird uptight Queen. However, it would be really cool to see him redubbed as less of a comic relief character and more of an example of a typical person in this galaxy thrust into these strange situations. Essentially he is the barometer for judging what is ‘normal’ and this version of the character would have him comment on the strangeness of the Jedi and the stilted nature of the queen, the broken nature of the Senate and the insanity of war. His quest is just to get back to something approaching normal in his life.

It’s really weird though, to think of a dagger pointing like a compass towards only one of two wayfinders, and the furthest one away at that. I assume there are two wayfinders as a callback to the rule of two, as if both master and apprentice would have one of them in days of old? I don’t know. So what if Kylo gained the Apprentice’s wayfinder at the beginning of the film, but the Master’s wayfinder was still to be found? That way the dagger’s purpose would make sense as a way for Sith cultists to travel back to their master wherever he would be at the time:

“Only two grant the way to Exegol; Novitiate and Master. Attune with the spirit of the Sith and passage to the Master only this blade tells. Only this blade tells.”

Or better yet:

“Only two grant the way to Exegol; Novitiate and Master. Anoint thy spirit in darkness and passage to the Master of the Sith this blade tells. This blade tells.”

I like the idea that there may have been many blades at one point used by many cultists, so removing the ‘only’ from ‘only this blade tells’ will allow for this interpretation.

Also, just a random thought, but have people considered how it would play for Rey’s pals to know that she basically has to become evil to find Exegol?

Replace all practically realized Stormtroopers in the franchise with CGI to make them ‘fit in’ with the prequels.

JEDIT: Finn will now be a 100% CGI character.

It’s rather funny to think of a scene full of live actors in suits with one early 2000’s CGI clone trooper pasted on top of the footage to complete George’s Vision.

I believe that the only truly IMAX scene in the Sequel Trilogy was the Falcon Jakku dogfight from TFA.

I feel like Restructured already requires us to live with this plot hole since the Senate (the entire Republic as it’s portrayed in the film?) is the obvious target.

My headcanon for rationalizing the lack of evacuation:

-Leia could simply be stating their best guess as to the target, but they don’t know for certain of the target or if the weapon will even work based on its new technology.

-From a logistical perspective it would probably take days or weeks to evacuate everyone from the entire Hosnian system (In reality it would probably take months or years, but I’m being generous).

-It seems that the Resistance has protocols in place that prevent it from simply transmitting electronic communications directly to the Republic to retain anonymity, which is why they sent one of their officers in person, presumably with some course changes along the way. It might take more time to safely alert the Senate of the danger than it would for the weapon to fire, so the Resistance would have negated that option out of hand.

-The film portrays the Republic as run by a bunch of Neville Chamberlains who clearly want to appease the First Order while secretly supporting the Resistance to fix the problem. At this point in the story the Republic should have no knowledge of the status of the weapon unless they are getting intel from the Resistance, so starting an evacuation would be a de-facto declaration of war with the First Order which many in the Senate are desperately and perhaps even illogically trying to avoid.

Leia might even suspect that the First Order is pointing its weapon at the Republic merely to test the anonymity of the Resistance (Remember, they know that Finn has defected to the Resistance with knowledge of the weapon), and Leia is hoping that retaining radio silence with the Republic will be enough on its own to make the First Order accept that the Resistance is truly working alone. This isn’t the fist planet she’s seen destroyed, after all, and in that case Alderaan was destroyed merely because the Empire suspected it to be in league with her. She’s probably desperate to avoid the same mistake, and recognizes that allowing the senators to escape in time isn’t worth the risk of the billions which will be left behind.

…

Whew, that turned into a bit of a novel. I wish there was more in the film about this, but I think these are reasonable extrapolations from the scant details we do get. My change even hints at this, since after Leia names the Senate as the target Poe clarifies that it’s the entire Hosnian system which is under threat.

For anyone who has seen the new workprint, you might notice that the box that I’ve had light up on the Falcon as it takes off is the one which later hangs open when Han and Chewie come onboard. Han then pokes at it briefly and I’ve tried to make it look like he’s deactivated the light, but it’s very brief.

I bring this up because I didn’t realize before that he closes this box on his way out of the room and heads into the cockpit. There is no point at which I can see the box open unless I’m just missing something, and for this box to get the attention of Han twice seems suspicious to me.

My wild theory is that an earlier version of the film actually has this box serve a function in the film as the tracking device since there’s no shot where it opens. I bet that it originally opened at some point during the escape from Jakku and Han may even have had a line about the tracking device when he went to poke around in it. Since Han’s line about finding a clean ship that can’t be tracked was clearly ADR’d, I bet that this was placed in the film to shore up the reasoning for going to Maz’s castle and at that point the tracking device needed to be cut since Han deactivated it upon arriving.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, it’s been an honor, etc.

Sent!

Acbagel, do you mean what was changed from V1 of the workprint to V2? If so there are quite a few changes and tweaks not all of which I remember at the moment, but most of the total changes for the project are kept up-to-date on the first post of the thread.

Speaking of the new workprint, I watched through the whole thing last night and took notes on what still stood out in terms of issues:

-Include deleted scene of Finn and the villager (Optional, probably not for V1).
-Insert a shot or two of Unkar Plutt in his first scene with him still not speaking.
-Finesse Leia’s audio during Poe Interrogation.
-Darken the sky when Finn wakes up from crash – more sunrise pink.
-Slightly darken some of the Falcon on Jakku shots so they aren’t blown out.
-Integrate Hux better in odd shot of first Snoke Scene.
-Change Obi-wan’s ‘Rey’ to audio of Luke saying her name.
-See if there’s an acceptable shot of Rey on the big wall to place before the troopers walk past.
-Remove timecode from Kylo Falcon scene.
-Put another shot of Han and Kylo gripping the saber after the sun goes dark.
-Quiet some of the sounds of the Starkiller firing.
-Tweak shot of Rey and Finn looking at Starkiller beam.
-Delete casual Resistance officer from Leia’s mourning.
-Make more definitive musical transition between Leia’s shot and Oscillator.
-If good audio is found, have Poe interject that he wants to ‘get even’ with the FO after the attack.
-Add Sith eyes to Rey after her Force trance.
-Remove timecode from deleted scene of Rey.
-Add sinister whispers in Rey’s final dream, as well as the shot from her vision with Artoo and Luke.

The bold items are things that will probably take at least a day of work for each item, but the other things should be fairly simple or trivial. A handful of things are due to changes not having quite enough time to linger on screen, but if not fixed they would still be fine.

Let me know if anything else stands out to those who have watched the new workprint. 😃

Great! I actually changed it a bit yet again.

This project is getting very close to a full release. I’m uploading another workprint right now so if anyone wants to check that out just ask. There are quite a few new changes from the first workprint, from beginning to end, literally. The new crawl is included, as well as a whole new piece of music in the end credits.

The only major things left to do are the timecode removals. Other than that, it’s just some finessing of the present changes. Off the top of my head, I’d like to work more on Poe’s interrogation, the Hosnian Destruction shot that was brought up earlier, the Sith eyes, and swapping out the TLJ footage in Rey’s final dream/vision for more TFA appropriate imagery.

I’ve cut the cliff scene together in a way that seems ideal, keeping more of the action but only hinting at the cliff which I’ve always found to be over-the-top. Rewatching that scene and the entirety of act 3, I feel like there should be an extra indication of Rey’s darkness. Should I go a subtle Sith eyes route in that dark Force cliff scene?

On another note, in thinking about how to indicate the Resistance knowing about the Starkiller without drawing attention away from the map, I am more and more skeptical that any lines can be added to work. Leia’s words in the interrogation already need to establish the quest for Luke and the importance of the droid, and adding this Starkiller business just seems too much.

This is why I feel like as much as I don’t want to, the information has to go into the crawl. Here’s what it looks like right now:

The New Republic is in
crisis. Luke Skywalker,
last of the legendary Jedi
Knights, has vanished.

In his absence, leaders
from a thousand worlds
have forsaken the fragile
Republic in favor of the
IMPERIAL FIRST ORDER,
which has vowed to return
strength to the galaxy
through the designs of
the once mighty Empire.

Fearing another civil war,
the Senate mobilizes a
covert Resistance to
locate the missing Jedi
and repel the sinister
shadow now spreading
across the stars…

And here’s a possible replacement:

The New Republic is in
crisis. Luke Skywalker,
last of the legendary Jedi
Knights, has vanished.

In his absence, the fragile
Republic has quailed
under threats by the
IMPERIAL FIRST ORDER,
which claims to have
constructed a weapon
greater than any built by
the once-mighty Galactic
Empire.

Fearing a direct conflict,
the Senate mobilizes a
covert Resistance to
locate the missing Jedi
and repel the sinister
shadow now spreading
across the stars…

So here the Republic knows of a vague threat by the First Order but can’t substantiate the claims. Nevertheless, it can’t afford to take any direct action due to this threat so it forms this Resistance to find Luke and tip the scale in its favor.

This crawl also de-emphasizes the agency of the Senate, so that it’s not expected that they would be too active in the story.

I’ll try a version with the beam going all the way out of frame instead of going through the clouds, since that doesn’t really make sense anyway.

And yeah, I’m reverting the Starkiller Destruction closer to Restructured. Believe me, I didn’t come to the decision lightly after all the work that went into the prior version, but after taking that long break and revisiting the project I had to admit that it just wasn’t as effective as Restructured. The issue was primarily because in Restructured and the theatrical version, Leia and the Resistance leave the film after the Oscillator scenes and only return after the final destruction. This focuses the film on the new characters of Rey, Finn, and Poe. With my workprint plot there is far less focus on the new characters, to their detriment I believe.

If there’s interest in the old version, I could render out that section alone since it was fairly well-realized.

I’m still debating how I want the final minutes of the Starkiller Destruction to play out. I would like to keep the darker version of Rey tapping into the Force, but it might make sense to include the cliff in that scene. It also might flow better to revert the scene of Snoke back to its Theatrical location.

Anyway, that’s where I am right now.

If it’s just a clip of your proposed change, I don’t see why not.

Well it is one of the newest additions, and really is more of a proof of concept to see if it works at all. If people think it shows promise I can try a more finished version.

I second that testimonial, CatBus. You_Too was a big help in my early days on this forum doing color correction work on ANH.

I’ve sent a little money his way and hope others who can, do.

Chase Adams said:

Seeing as to how that shot of Leia breaks my immersion every time I see it relocated in a fan-edit, my vote would be that it’s worth the effort. However, after watching the clip again, I would suggest that the only person who actually needs to be removed is the one guy that strolls past, everyone else should be fine to leave as is.

I’ll see what I can do 😉 I agree with most here that there’s not much issue with the background extras, just that one casually strolling through.

EddieDean said:

Watching this reminded me of a personal annoyance that just gets me every time, and since I first saw it I now can’t unsee it. In the room where Kylo kills Han, the balcony/entrance that Rey and Finn stand at has a railing, and on that railing are lights. The lights have a red light on the left and right of the fixture. But really annoyingly, the lights just look clipped on to the railing, and one is offset. I don’t know why, but that’s always taken me out of the scene, even though it’s not even really that egregious, possibly not even an error.

I have noticed those lights, but never considered that it’s an issue that one is off-center. I figure that there would probably be a lot of that on a base as large and hastily constructed as Starkiller.

Oh, I had another idea for the Reconnaissance briefing, which I think Hal would be interested in as well:

https://vimeo.com/533027544

Password: fanedit

I managed to put a reference in there to the Senate and link it to the Hosnian system, which solves the issue in Restructured of never actually knowing what planet was destroyed. It also arguably does a better job of conveying this information than the theatrical version, since we are given the info before the planet is blown up and not twenty minutes after.

I did have to sacrifice Snap’s line about contacting the Republic, but I think it’s a fair price since that line wasn’t working too well anyway.

There’s also the oddity that Leia says ‘the Senate is their next target’, but it can easily be interpreted that she’s referring to the escalating series of First Order attacks throughout the film.

I’ll see what I can add back into the Poe interrogation scene in terms of audio.

In terms of progress on Act 3, the major thing is of course the Hosnian Destruction. I decided to use the entire music track this time in order to fit all of the important characters reacting to the destruction, including Rey, Finn, and Kylo:

https://vimeo.com/533003587

Password: fanedit

There are of course audio issues to sort out. The actual destruction scene had to be practically silent due to moving the music around, though I kind of like it.

It may be possible to remove the Resistance officers from around Leia in that final shot, but would that be worth the effort?

As far as getting a V1 of this project out there, I feel like it’s getting pretty close. There’s some stuff in Act 3 that is still outstanding, but Acts 1 and 2 are now basically finished.

However, there is still something that would be nice to figure out, which is an issue which has never been solved since Hal’s Restructure, and that is of answering how the Resistance knows about a First Order superweapon. The sudden attack in the theatrical version answers this question but now there’s no indication the Resistance knows about the weapon until Poe and Leia are talking with Finn about it as if they knew all along.

I tried to fix this by giving Poe the visions of the Starkiller in act 1, but now that this is gone I wonder if there’s any other way to convey this information. Maybe there can be some Leia dialogue in Poe’s interrogation suggesting that there’s a mysterious First Order weapon and they need Luke to save them, or something along those lines. Or maybe we could find some dialogue from Max Von Sydow from another movie where he says words that we can fit into a weapon context.

Thoughts?

I hear listicles are a thing.

That is equal parts hilarious and terrifying.

Ellie Sattler is actually Holdo who was esploded through hyperspace in a million drops of blood and one of these was slurped up by a mosquito on ancient Earth and trapped in amber, then grown in a test tube by Hammond as his first experiment after which she was adopted at an early age and by happenstance took an interest in paleobotany and had the opportunity to visit Isla Nublar. This is the opening crawl to TROS, the rest of which has been replaced by Jurassic Park. Thus it comes to be that Spielberg directs a Star Wars movie.

Keep in mind though, the half-script stops after Rey’s first meeting with the knights, which hadn’t yet been transformed into the darker versions. It’s one of the reasons I stopped where I did, and I intend in the new version to introduce the knights much sooner.

I hope you like the unfinished version though, I believe there’s a lot of good there that will be carried over to the new script.

I actually did blink and miss that shot the first two times I saw the movie. Might have had an effect on my opinion.

Yaeh, that’s another area I changed to fit better with existing lore. Now the Knights are Luke’s former students who have bought into Kylo’s (and Luke’s pre-TROS) ideology of letting the past and the Jedi die. I am now concieving them as growing even more extreme in their thinking than Kylo himself, to the point that they could be easily swayed to ally with Hux to destroy Kylo, who is quickly becoming the last vestige of the Skywalker legacy.