NotTheDri0ds

Honestly I think the first two episodes were great.

Honestly kinda agree, just a raw ver of the OG movie with this color correction/continuity fixes without the re editing would be appreciated.

Dazman said:

Does anyone know which is better for creating cinemating objects and environments now, Blender or Unreal engine 5? And which is easier to learn from scratch?

I haven’t actually tried UE yet (might have to some time), but Blender 3.0’s been pretty easy to pick up and learn for me… with the only caveat that Cycles render times are a nightmare and a half. Then again, guess that render quality is kind of overkill considering the rest of the CG in the films

Hope progress is going well! v1 Is probably hands down my favorite TPM edit, solely due to how much it radically altered the original film, the changes for v2 look and sound great so far!

EddieDean said:

Another option to preserve Otoh Gunga, though more radical and mutually exclusive from the above ideas, would be to have the Jedi visit the city upon their RETURN to Coruscant, failing to convince Boss Nass to help them but at least convincing him to meet the Queen, transitioning then into the Queen-meets-Boss-Nass scenes where she wins him over.

The Ancient Lore actually took this approach, and it worked surprisingly well

Another older set of fan edits I’ve been trying to find are MagnoliaFan’s Episode I and II Edits, Balance of the Force and The Clone War, as well as maybe their recreation of the New York version of the Phantom Edit, known as The Phantom Re-Edit?

Also, I’ve sadly had little luck with acquiring Attack Of The Phantom, I’ve been unable to locate the recommended reddit thread, and have no idea where to find and contact Possessed (mostly due to me having zero clue how to use fanedit.org lmao).

Hope my dumb pursuit for ancient edits isn’t too annoying.

I might be able to help with simple VFX shots as well! I know a relatively small around of Blender (my biggest drawback being only really having knowledge animating models, rather than making them), but a couple days ago I whipped up a quick VFX shot of the Jedi’s ship arriving on (implied to be) the forests of Naboo, using a free model and stock footage I found. Not the best but it’s mostly a demonstration.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/126lblFu6SejRELI-3ZLTn9hA1qMwcu9b/view?usp=sharing

Does anyone have a copy of Attack of the Phantom? Found The Phantom Edit ages ago, but want to check out its sequel as well.

Unrelated to the current discussion, but a random idea occurred to me. One issue with TPM I have is Qui Gon sensing Anakin has some connection to the force, yet we the audience don’t really see much of it until the pod race. When trying to find some way to add it I thought, hey, what if I tried to indicate that Anakin somehow unknowingly uses a mind trick on Sebulba when he attacks Jar Jar, which is what draws Qui Gon’s attention to him? (Both shows Anakin being force sensitive much earlier, and is a nice little parallel to ANH)

Currently have a sort of test edit of the idea I have in mind, though it’s still not perfect, I feel it’s not obvious enough, but can’t for the life of me find a way to rewrite the dialogue to fit the idea more.

https://streamable.com/or8ieg

Shit, it has been over a month. Sorry, lotta shit going on, so I haven’t had the time to work on the edit much. Planned release date kinda went off the shitter

Hm, guess I’ll have to try redubbing the rest when I have the time. Not quite sure how well I’ll be able to do characters like Jar Jar, the gungans in general, since voice acting isn’t really my forte, lol, but I’ll try

Still working on patching up the edit, but I sorta randomly wanted to try redubbing the alien characters manually, instead of just reversing their dialogue and using that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bStCaO2sU4M

Not quite sure if I’ll do it for the full thing, it’d be a fair effort, but if it makes a good amount of difference I might, who knows.

Honestly, not sure there is a way to make Yarell Poof more visible, the pre existing bloom and low quality of the DVD I use as a source kinda doom him to an eternity of being impossible to make out if I even think about touching the highlights, lol.

Update, still working on the project. Received some great feedback from a few others on the thread, and have begun re editing scenes to improve flow, missing plot points, things of that nature.

One of the first things I’ve began to adjust however is the color grading because the initial cut was a bit… rough in that area.

First, let’s look at the original grade from The Phantom Menace:

There are, in my opinion, a few very distracting flaws with the currently available color grading that really irk me.

For one, ever since the DVD release there has been an ugly pink tint over the entire film. When you notice it, it just makes the entire thing look ugly in my eyes.

Another thing is, there’s a large lack of contrast through the whole thing, the picture feels a fair bit flat and dull in that area.

So, I tried to correct it in my initial grade, but, as a wise man once said, I went a bit too far in places.

For one, upon rewatching it, it seems I had overcorrected and made the entire film pretty grey/green, which doesn’t really fit Star Wars.

And another, more important one, I upped the contrast wayyyy too high. As pointed out by someone in this thread, in scenes with especially bright areas, too much got lost in the high lights And the blacks.

I’m currently trying to reach a happy medium of these extremes, I lowered the contrast and re saturated the footage to a point where I think it’s the best of all worlds, though of course criticism is always welcomed.

Eyepainter said:

The inferiority of the federation has always been a tough one for us faneditors, including myself. I ended up keeping the scene where Nute Gunray threatens the governor in my fanedit. It’s not because it was a good scene, but because it was one of the few scenes that showed the sinister side of Gunray. My logic being that anything that shows this side of Gunray is necessary to understand why the federation is a threat to the Naboo.

One of the biggest and most unavoidable downsides of Episode I is the fact that there is no footage of the actual conflict on Naboo. I ended up having to find ways to work around that problem, and I still have no idea if I succeeded on that front. Just the reality that I tried.

Bottom line, don’t beat yourself up too much over it. It’s always been a tough issue for every fan edit.

Eh, I guess. It’s been pretty much the biggest thorn in TPM really, we never really have any reason to fear the Trade Federation, we never really have any reason to fear the Battle Droids. I think I might have some ideas for how I could potentially manipulate footage from the cut first act, though not certain how well it’d work.

Something I have briefly considered is using my limited Blender knowledge to do the scenes myself, but environments aren’t quite my forte, and I don’t quite have the tools to replicate Battle Droids’ movement (They appear to be primarily motion captured in TPM)

A little something on my mind. Rewatching the edit so far, we hardly get a taste of the might of the Federation until the final act. I’m wanting to add a scene earlier of the film showing the droid army ravaging the streets of Theed, but there’s one issue: There’s not really much usable footage of their occupation (most have Padme or her entourage in it, which wouldn’t make sense as they’re with the Jedi).

Is there perhaps some footage from some sort of commercial, series, or whatever of Battle Droids roaming the streets of a city that could pass for Theed, blasting people? The closest thing I can think of is The Mandalorian, but those are Super Battle Droids.

As of now, an hour and 25 minutes. Though I haven’t quite looked it completely over for pacing, continuity errors, all that stuff, that’s how it is as of now.

On a somewhat related topic, I think I’m about comfortable with sending the edit over to a few people for feedback, if anyone’s interested, shoot me a PM, I’ll try rendering it out here in a bit.

I’m not exactly sure if it’s relevant to the thread, but something that’s been unfixed since 77: The laser blasts and lightsabers don’t mesh with the rest of the saga, as well as the noticeable jumpcuts and lack of startup for lightsabers, as well as the saber wobbling all about in one scene during Luke’s training aboard the Falcon during the Disturbance in the Force scene (It even appears to be misaligned with the handle).

One set of edits I’m really curious about is TMBTM’s Silent Serial Editions. I’m currently doing a sorta similar “black and white/silent” version of the PT and want to see his renditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFPMh8gfYMM Finished the new sound mix for the intro! My first time really doing it, and there are a fair few inaccuracies from the original, but I think it works.

Another clip of a reworked intro. Wanted to intercut a bit between the Federation and the protagonists. Sound mix isn’t final (had to completely redo since the Federation scenes had completely different music) https://youtu.be/5PVM3-232I4

So I’ve been considering whether or not I should obscure Sidious’ face when talking with the Federation. Since it’d make sense for him to hide his identity from them incase one babbles. I’ve had a few thoughts on how I should go about it:

1. Pixelate his face

2. Blur his face

(Original for comparison)

I’d like to hear what everyone else thinks would be best

I’m trying to think of a better title for this edit currently, “The Phantom Menace Silent Fan Edit” is a bit of a mouthful, and pretty… bland.

My current thoughts for the actual film are to not have a subtitle, instead just calling it “Star Wars”, but it’d be nice to have something to call it.

If anyone has any ideas, feel free to drop them!

Skybatman said:

Count Dooku is gonna be in your edit ?

Most likely no, I don’t really have a place for him, and the sentence mixing/rotoscoping needed would most likely be a bit too much for my current skill level.

Was finally able to see v1 of this edit, gotta say it’s one of my favorite TPM edits! The Trade Federation were actually pretty intimidating in their early speeches, and I really liked the rearranged opening (which sadly seems like it’ll be nixed in v2). Most of the Sentence mixing is also surprisingly well, and the addition of Dooku ties things alot better.

My biggest issues were probably in the latter half, (especially the final battle), some of the rearranged parts felt a bit odd, a few plot holes came up, and some minor inconsistencies in what was seen before (Sidious suddenly not having his face blurred in the latter half), as well as the occasional shoddy grammar or weird subtitled line, and a fair amount of overlapping music sorta took me out at times sadly. And a really, REALLY minor nitpick: the subtitles aren’t in the font used in ANH, or the theatrical versions of the PT.

I really look forward to v2, seeing as almost all of my big issues look like they’ll be tweaked. Despite it all it’s probably one of the most impressive, and one of my favorite TPM edits!

Also I really dig Qui-Gon’s new purple saber.