I was trying to do something similar but it sounds like you’re giving this an attention to detail beyond what I was prepared to put into it. Eagerly awaiting the results!
Great project. Screenshots look encouraging!
This sounds like a great project, seems like a perfect balance for someone like me who’s sick of rewatching the originals, and is happy with current fan edits but would love to show them to my kids so they have an entry point for getting into the bigger Star Wars landscape, flips and all
And agreed on the deleted scenes, they look gorgeous now
Thanks, I do plan to return to this at some point when I have the time.
Thank you for the feedback. Not sure I’ll be able to get to the novelization but I’ll definitely check out the video you mentioned.
I’ll keep playing with the Tusken confession scene but I think we just fundamentally disagree. Padme has always been characterized in other media as someone who fights for the rights of the downtrodden and sees the humanity in everyone. There’s even a deleted scene from this movie where she volunteers with alien children. I just don’t believe she would react that way to Anakin admitting to killing children, even if the Tuskens are stigmatized as a savage/monstrous race.
That’s fair; I think the intent back then was probably more to portray the Tuskens as wild animals more than intelligent beings, but I won’t argue if it still reads weird regardless.
Ultimately though, the specific scene isn’t as important as the wider point I was trying to make, which is that for even the most seemingly-inarguable thing you’re gonna have differing perspectives. That’s why I’m hoping for an AotC fanedit that wouldn’t be trying to alter the text of the film at all. I feel we have enough fanedits trying to, effectively, rewrite the prequels by trimming or cutting scenes. Effectively, I want a version of “what would AotC look like if Lucasfilm had gotten an extra couple months to do another editing pass”. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever really attempted that.All I really want out of an AotC edit is one that portrays the film’s contents as they already are, but adjusts the pacing and exposition, so that it isn’t expecting the viewer to juggle tons of info for multiple plotlines throughout the entire 2hr+ runtime lol. Again, that’s something I really like Caleb Gamman’s edit for, it really streamlined the experience; I just disliked when it started cutting things that fell into subjectivity, or diluted the George Lucas-y personality of the action scenes. He uploaded a few short videos on YT detailing his editing process, which I recommend also giving a look for sure!
I get what your saying, but I think there will always be some amount of subjectivity to a fan edit. We can apply certain principles to our decision making, but they will always be filtered through how we interpret those principles. In this case, I feel like the way Anakin emphasizes killing “not just the men, but the women and children too” is clearly intended to communicate that he’s crossed a line, and Padme’s reaction feels less like an intentional choice by the filmmakers, and more that the hadn’t considered her interiority as a character outside of how she supports Anakin’s story. You might disagree and that’s also a subjective interpretation. Ultimately, the official cut is George Lucas’s cut. I don’t really get a sense that he was rushed or didn’t get to fully execute on his ideas. This fan edit attempts to preserve more of the spirit of George Lucas than most, but it’s still ultimately filtered through my feelings on how to best communicate the narrative he was trying to tell. It’s okay if ends up not being for you, but I appreciate your feedback.
And to add to what Jar Jar Bricks said: Yes, consistency with current canon is also a goal of this edit, and everything we know about Padme from other sources (and even other parts of this film) kind of conflicts with her reaction here. Notably, I’m not actually changing the intent or outcome of the scene, just softening it a bit so her reaction feels a bit less out of character. If I really wanted to change things, I’d copy the Hal9000 approach of cutting the scene entirely, but I do think it has value for Anakin’s character development.
Wow! I’ve never seen the deleted scenes look this good. They have always stuck out like a sore thumb because of the low(er) quality, but here they look flawless. Never seen the bedroom scene before and now I wonder why no one else include it.
Now all that is missing is fixing the annoying laugh of the children.
Thank originaltrilogy.com forum member Phase3 who upscaled the deleted scenes!
Also, thank you to everyone for the feedback on the audio flashback. I was hesitant to do a full video flashback because as others have pointed out, it’s not really a Star Wars convention, but I may try adding two: one before Anakin’s conversation with Obi-Wan about his dreams “Will I ever see you again? What does your heart tell you?”, and another to replace the current voice only flashback in the bedroom deleted scene “Are you all right? It’s very cold.”
I don’t think the other deleted scene where Anakin is having a nightmare on the transport is really salvageable, but I’ll take another look at it.
The one thing I’m really missing in the Padme’s bedroom deleted scene is a good close-up reaction shot of Anakin in that moment, but I’ll try to make it work.
I’ll upload a test clip, hopefully sometime this week.
I wonder if the audio / brief visual flash in that moment could actually be the scene between Anakin and Padme en route to Coruscant. Since in both cases it was Padme caring for somebody younger than her.
“Are you all right?”
“It’s very cold…”
Oh, good call.
Here is a second test clip for Attack of the Clones, showing the placement of the deleted scene with Padme’s family. I’m experimenting with also using the accompanying scene in Padme’s bedroom, which I don’t think I’ve really seen used in any other fan edit, but I’m still 50/50 on it. I’ve made some adjustments to the scene iin an attempt to draw a parallel between Anakin and the children Padme attempted to rescue. Let me know if you think it works, or if you think there might be a way to improve it.
Alternatively, one could cut it so that Palpy is getting ready to strike, cut the awful flying spinning whateverthehellthatis effect and cut to Anakin landing, from there cut back to the battle and it’s just Mace vs. Palpy.
The FX are so bad it seems to me a fair trade, haven’t looped back to the music cues, might have an issue there.
I think it’s important to see the other Jedi die on screen, unless you remove them from the scene entirely, which I think is a little bit beyond what this edit is attempting to do.
So, speaking as someone who is fond of the PT and their quirks and would like to preserve as much of them as possible, the only one of the films I would like a fanedit of would indeed be AotC; my only issues with it are the editing and heavy exposition, that diminish the impact of the scenes that are there, or make plot points harder to follow. I think it’s a good story, told well in the novelization especially, but the intent of many scenes gets kinda smothered by the film’s editing.
So for example, I appreciate Caleb Gamman’s edit of AotC for its approach regarding the pacing, and reframing certain bits of dialogue (the way he did Anakin and Obi-Wan’s dialogue right before Padme’s assassination attempt was great and subtle, for example). But, his edit loses me once it starts cutting stuff, as I think it leans too far into his personal tastes (disliking the humor, cutting the romance scenes’ dialogue, altering the action scenes in any way, etc). I’d rather preserve George’s creative decisions as much as possible, warts and all, just have it be presented in a less jumbled manner.In your edit above, I honestly think trimming Anakin’s dialogue here is unnecessary. Gamman’s edit did a similar cutting of this dialogue, and it was pretty well done technically; but out of all the scenes in the film, I think this is the one where Anakin’s fully allowed to be quote-on-quote “whiny”. He’s having an emotional breakdown and beating himself up from his own overbearing guilt, that’s the point - and Padme has only ever been told how the Tuskens were vicious brutal monsters prior to this, so I never felt that this would’ve been “relationship ruining”. She knows he just lost his mother under incredibly cruel circumstances, so while she’s shocked, she’s still trying to support him through his grief.
Personally, the only thing I’d change about how Anakin and Padme’s relationship is presented by the film would simply be adding back the “meeting Padme’s family” deleted scene, and maybe reordering the picnic scene to happen before the “first kiss- but no, we shouldn’t” scene, to give the latter a bit more buildup. Maybe trimming a little bit of Anakin’s complaining to her about Obi-Wan; not entirely, but make it less overbearing.
I highly recommend giving the AotC novelization a read if you haven’t already, and I’d also recommend giving the YT video “The Romance of the Prequels is Good, Actually” (by 66 seconds) a watch, as it does a great job highlighting the intent behind many of the scenes. I don’t necessarily agree that they’re all executed perfectly, but I think they all have purpose behind them, which I’d prefer not get entirely cut.
(For example, there’s this one scene which the video also points out, where Anakin says something awkward and then bites his lip in regret - which is great, but my problem is that it barely registers, because the scene’s almost immediately fading to Obi-Wan anyway. Obviously I don’t expect a fanedit to suddenly be able to add extra seconds to that shot lol, but I’d rather it be kept in the film instead of the interaction being cut entirely, you know? That’s the philosophy I’d like to see a fanedit tackle the film with).
Thank you for the feedback. Not sure I’ll be able to get to the novelization but I’ll definitely check out the video you mentioned.
I’ll keep playing with the Tusken confession scene but I think we just fundamentally disagree. Padme has always been characterized in other media as someone who fights for the rights of the downtrodden and sees the humanity in everyone. There’s even a deleted scene from this movie where she volunteers with alien children. I just don’t believe she would react that way to Anakin admitting to killing children, even if the Tuskens are stigmatized as a savage/monstrous race.
I know you haven’t talked about ROTS yet, but if you could do something like the following (or just ask this author for permission) to the Palpatine fight it would be excellent and not something we’ve seen on the forum before:
Wow, yeah that definitely has a lot more energy. I was originally going to take the Hal9000 tact of just removing the flips but this might work just as well. I’ll see what I can incorporate when I get to ROTS. Still working on AOTC at the moment.
Something I could use feedback on is whether to incorporate the deleted scene of Padme addressing the senate about the creation of an army. I think it’s a good scene and gives some additional characterization to Padme as a powerful leader, but it doesn’t really tell us anything that isn’t already in the opening crawl. Also, the JarJar VFX are a little wonky, even in the version edited down by Hal. If I did use it, I’d probably put it in the same spot as Hal.
Honestly my biggest concern with the scene is the lighting and color grading. I don’t know that I would be able to get it to closely match the look of AOTC. I saw Spence’s edit and he tries but it still doesn’t look quite right. I’m not going to promise that this scene makes it in, but if you want to do any further work on it, I’d be interested to see it.
This version de-ages Obi-Wan and also Ani’s voice:
https://youtu.be/PvVvNiDTR_A?si=3v2DyJOFeAiHoiy9
I don’t know much about the creator though.
That actually looks pretty good. I will think about it. The creator seems to be all-in on AI generated video, which I don’t love, but this de-aging effect is pretty subtle compared to some of the other stuff on her channel, and seems in line with something an official release might do.
Very nice! I’m so glad somebody is tackling these movies with this approach. That scene does flow a lot better now without the “whining”. And he definitely didn’t need to dig himself a hole in front of Padme by talking about the women and children. Having him just say that he killed “all of them” is enough to read into for the audience’s sake.
What are your thoughts on including the Kenobi flashback early in the movie in a similar way to Spence’s edit of AOTC? This does feel very “special edition” coded in that it sticks out a little bit like the Jabba scene in ANH lol.
I will definitely consider it. I do like that scene in the context of AOTC. It’s just a matter if I can get it to visually match well enough for me to be happy with it. Notably, I haven’t seen any versions that attempt to de-age Obi-Wan, which I think would be somewhat necessary to get the scene to fit seamlessly.
Nice clip, is more natural, if im gonna leave a suggestion it would be that remove the mention of sifo-dyas from the clone plot, it’s really convoluted and incorent.
Thanks for the suggestion. I don’t plan to do this, since one of the goals of this edit is to mesh cleanly with other on-screen canon, and the Sifo-Dyas thread is picked up in The Clone Wars.
Hello, all. You may know me for my Star Wars prequel trilogy fan edits: “Faster, More Intense”, “Sanded Down”, and “Another Happy Sanding”. I made the first two of these edits in 2017, and I think it’s fair to say, almost a decade later, that I’ve grown as an editor and my sensibilities have changed somewhat. While I did go back and make some minor updates, these fan edits are still largely reflective of where my Star Wars fandom and editing philosophy was almost ten years ago.
At the same time, there has been a massive shift in popular opinion about the Star Wars prequel trilogy. These films, which were once almost universally derided, have become fond memories for a whole new generation of fans. While the Star Wars prequel trilogy has been fan edited to death, I do think there is actually an under-served population who enjoys these films while recognizing some of their flaws, and may be looking for lighter fan edits that address some of the issues while still keeping the eccentricities and flavor that make them distinct cultural artifacts.
While I haven’t done a complete 180 on my opinions about these films, I’ve decided that I want to re-approach them with a fresh set of eyes. Hence, the name “Special Editions” as a tribute to George Lucas’s penchant to revisit his films. My current favorite fan edits are Hal9000’s "maximalist’ editions, so I will be taking some cues from those, but unlike my previous edits, I will be working from the original Blu-Rays as a base, and recreating most “borrowed” ideas from scratch (although I may borrow an effects shot or a snippet of lossless audio where appropriate).
I will also be upscaling the Blu-Ray footage to 4K and adding subtle filmic effects like grain, halation, and grading changes via DaVinci Resolve. For Attack of the Clones, I will be using the chroma information from the HDTV broadcast to restore colors that are closer to the theatrical release. The audio will be presented in lossless FLAC 5.1 along with an AC3 track for compatibility.
Unlike Hal’s edits, trying to smooth over retcons or bridge more cleanly with the original trilogy will not be a goal of these edits. With the Clone Wars, Tales of the Jedi, and other beloved material building off the prequel films, I prefer to treat them as a distinct era of Star Wars.
I will be starting with Attack of the Clones because it’s my least favorite of the three films, and the one that I think needs the most consideration. One goal I have is to try to make some of the scenes work that many editors tend to excise completely. Here is a test clip showcasing a work-in-progress version of the garage scene, where Anakin confesses the slaughter of the Tuskens to Padme. My goal was to remove the on-the-nose dialogue and other elements that strain credulity. I want Anakin to seem intense and slightly frightening, but not so much so that we can’t believe Padme would choose to stay with him. Let me know what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRy_S5Bwvec
WOW! Just watched this, and it’s an extremely impressive edit. Technically flawless (well, could you turn up the initial Sith voices a bit?), but absolutely every narrative change landed for me
…
I was always a Rey Palpatine purist, because I figured Disney won’t let us ignore that canon forever, but until the Mouse forces my hand, this is my new primary version. Excellent work.Not gonna lie, I was worried when the new Rey movie was announced that it would invalidate what I was working on - at least that problem has been averted for now! I’m hoping TROS having such a negative reaction will encourage Disney to not mention the Palpatine stuff again, even if we do see Rey again in the future.
Thank you for the feedback as well! If anyone else notices anything that needs to be tweaked (such as turning up the Sith voices), please let me know!
I hope that my comment did not come across as overly negative. I want to emphasize that you really did a great job with this!
Just took a look at this last night. Really impressive effort overall. In particular, I think the work done to delay the Palpatine reveal into later in the movie was really effective. My only criticism, and I don’t know if this is colored by my familiarity with the original movie, is that sometimes the sheer amount of ADR and repurposed shots can give the impression that entire scenes were cobbled together in the edit. I particularly felt that way with some of the Hux stuff. However, short of filming new scenes, I don’t think anything can really be done about it.
I saw in the special features you had a segment about sentence mixing techniques, which was impressive since I assumed many of those scenes were AI. About how much of the new dialogue replacement would you say was sentence mixing vs. AI vs. new voice acting?
Interesting question! I went back through the script changes, and here’s the rough breakdown:
- Approximately 37.23% is original recordings/submitted voice clips
- 39.31% is completely dialogue spliced out of official audio and dialogue clips
- 4.95% is mostly dialogue spliced, with some specific AI additions
- Around 18.51% is completely AI generated
All of those techniques are selected on a line by line basis and interwoven together. Hopefully each feels homogeneous with the other changes (and of course, with the original script). A lot of work was done mixing and balancing everything - volume, EQ, reverb, pitch, etc.
And yes, several scenes were cobbled together in the edit lol! With the Hux stuff specifically, he was originally killed halfway into the film for treason. Since he’s no longer a traitor in Untold, it felt awkward to have him disappear for most of the film - hence the repurposed shots.
Thanks for the breakdown! And of course, that goes without saying. I guess what I meant is that in some moments the seams are more noticeable than others, but still very professional and impressive work overall.
Just took a look at this last night. Really impressive effort overall. In particular, I think the work done to delay the Palpatine reveal into later in the movie was really effective. My only criticism, and I don’t know if this is colored by my familiarity with the original movie, is that sometimes the sheer amount of ADR and repurposed shots can give the impression that entire scenes were cobbled together in the edit. I particularly felt that way with some of the Hux stuff. However, short of filming new scenes, I don’t think anything can really be done about it.
I saw in the special features you had a segment about sentence mixing techniques, which was impressive since I assumed many of those scenes were AI. About how much of the new dialogue replacement would you say was sentence mixing vs. AI vs. new voice acting?
It will be really difficult for me to pick a favorite radical reworking of TROS between this and Spence’s Final Order, but I’m happy to have another great edit to add to my collection.
Hi Hal, I thought I was looking at the latest version but I may not be. I’ll make sure I have the latest copy.
EDIT: I took another listen and it’s definitely improved. The music does continue into the next scene, but there is still a noticeable truncation of the theme in my opinion in a way that feels awkward, probably due to my familiarity with the original music cue. I’ll see if I can mock something up.
My only quibble with the current version is that I think the music transition from the flag parade to Anakin and his mom is still too abrupt. For someone familiar with the music, it does seem to cut off mid-theme. Ideally the flag parade music cue be allowed to finish at a reduced volume behind the next scene, similar to how The Phantom Edit approached it.
These are available in HD via Schorman’s HDTV Broadcast Preservations.
For what its worth, I think that scene was removed with the thought that it would be more dramatically interesting if Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan didn’t get to resolve their differences before Qui-Gon’s life is taken unexpectedly. It gives Obi-Wan more emotional baggage that he takes into training Anakin. This is a change that I think goes all the way back to the original Phantom Edit.
Really curious about this edit. Right now my go-to for a Rey Nobody edit is Spence’s “The Final Order” so I’m wondering if this will eclipse it for me.
Adywan has always prioritized using real models and homemade visual effects wherever possible. I don’t know why people think he will all of a sudden abandon all that for AI slop.
Possessed on Fanedit.org did an HD reconstruction of Attack of the Phantom. I believe someone has also done the Phantom Edit but I’m not as sure.
The volume level on Threepio’s new line sounds too low. It came off as quiet on playback.
It sounds to me about the same level as the surrounding dialogue on either side and as the original line.
I agree that the volume is fine but I do think the line sticks out a bit. It’s a bit higher pitched and nasal sounding than Threepio’s surrounding dialogue. Personally, I never had a problem with the original line in the context of your edits, since one could interpret that he’s talking about getting the hang of piloting the ship, which doesn’t contradict anything about his newly established backstory.
The updated version of LOE are now available.
Three versions: LOE proper, and two alternate or ‘max’ versions. One in which the original ending is included in which Padme dies, and one in which she still lives.
Awesome, can’t wait to check out the purist version.