Octorox

I quite liked The Force Awakens and loved The Last Jedi but my thoughts on this film are more mixed to negative. The pacing, especially in the first act, feels way too frenetic with scenes often ending abruptly. I am really not a fan of the “Rey Palpatine” reveal and I feel it severely undercuts the messages I found resonant in The Last Jedi. Overall it often feels like there’s just way too much going on in this movie and not opportunities to slow down and let the film breathe. I hope the Blu-Ray offers enough deleted material to fill in some of those gaps, because otherwise this movie may prove a tough nut to crack.

Jackpumpkinhead said:

https://comicbook.com/starwars/2019/12/19/star-wars-the-skywalker-saga-4k-blu-ray-box-set-is-coming/

Since Ady is waiting on the 4K D+ versions to continue…looks he won’t have to wait too long

As much as I want a nice boxset, that’s a bonkers price-point. I hope it isn’t a limited release like the Marvel sets 😕.

Just thumbed through the new ROTJ workprint and it indeed looks much better! I’ll try to give it another watch-through and look out for any issues.

That said, any particular reason you only chose to encode 2-channel AAC audio this time? I believe your TLJ V3 workprint and your previous ROTJ workprint both included 5.1 AC3 at 640kbps.

Personally I’d also be up for a higher bitrate 1080p encode at around 10ish GB considering the quality of the source, but I understand why you’d choose not to do that for a workprint release.

Hal 9000 said:

Currently encoding a new workprint for ROTJ using the 19SE as the primary source, since it was easy to do. This should be much more watchable than the BR-sourced one available now.
But, I probably won’t use the 19SE as the ultimate source because it is a different feel to the ones I used for ANH and ESB. Whether it’s Adywan adjusting the BR or someone else adjusting the eventual disc release of the 19SE, the ultimate source remains hidden for now.

Looking forward to checking out the workprint! The 19SE does have a bit of a different feel, However I’m not convinced that a single LUT couldn’t remedy that. It’s such a better starting point for colors than the Blu.

Hal 9000 said:

Well, sure, assuming that an eventual 1080p rip/conversion I can get in front of me looks right. (Any of my devices make it look dark and dull.) I agree about the eyebrow removal being superior.

I subscribe to Disney+ and own the Blu-Rays so I grabbed a 1080p web rip from Schorman. The colors look good as does the video quality generally, but unfortunately the bitrate is too low to use for anything but a workprint I’d think. The 4k webrip floating around seems to be a significantly higher bitrate and encoded with HEVC which should allow for much better quality. Unfortunately I think you would then run in to problems with HDR > SDR conversion, unless someone is able to rip a 4k SDR version from D+.

EDIT: checked out the 4k version. Quality looks immaculate but yeah, you would need to convert it from HDR to SDR somehow using tonemapping. Not sure how this would be done using commercially available software.

Now that the 19SE is out and the colors are pretty good, any thought about using that as the primary source for ROTJ? Really only needs some contrast and saturation adjustments and you can use DrDre’s tool to color match pre-2011 footage. Seabastian Shaw’s eyebrow removal looks quite a bit better as well.

Dat_SW_Guy said:

Speaking of praxis rings on explosions, I made a edit for my new A New Hope fanedit that has a new explosion for Alderaan that doesn’t look “too modern” or “stitched from two seperate explosions” like in the theatrical, and no praxis rings.

https://streamable.com/3m8fb

That looks really good, although I’d like to see some chunks of debris. Right now it’s all flames. Good work though!

ChainsawAsh said:

Unfortunately, streaming quality isn’t as high as Blu-Ray quality would be. And also unfortunately, if it’s not released on physical disc or, at minimum, a purchaseable download (versus streaming subscriptions), working on an edit using material from it would mean that edit can’t be discussed at fanedit.org or listed on IFDb due to their extremely strict “own the source” rule.

Sadly, though, I agree - it’s unlikely that The Mandalorian will be released on physical media in the forseeable future.

If something isn’t commercially available on physical media, I feel like being subscribed to the service where it is commercially available should count as “owning the source” for the purposes of fanediting. Either way you’re circumventing copy protection, which isn’t strictly speaking legal due to the DMCA in the US. As media moves from an ownership model to a subscription model this will become more and more of a problem for faneditors.

I’m a dirty praxis effect apologist. Honestly I think that without the praxis ring, the explosions look pretty obviously like miniature effects. I don’t think that’s inherently a bad thing but the sense of scale isn’t really there.

SparkySywer said:

Octorox said:

Captain Rex (from Clone Wars and Rebels) in Return of the Jedi

That’s already Captain Rex. No need for any effects. The character in the Clone Wars was inspired by that extra, that’s already him.

I know. However the actor looks nothing like Temeura Morrison, the actor who plays all the Clones in the prequel films. The idea was just to improve continuity by making the connection more explicit.

RogueLeader said:

Huh, that Rex one is pretty cool. I’m guessing deepfaking the rebel would be a challenge considering the beard.

Is that a still image of the Death Troopers or a 3D model?

Yeah I don’t know anything about deepfakes so I’m not sure how you could accomplish it. For the still image I just used a photo of Morrison from the film Mahana and blended it with the original Nik Sant beard.:

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ff0cb4a9f048f036e5430554e47103a430a9889e/0_48_1275_766/master/1275.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=69335747bdd0c052f1e3f7ad7f2e1221

As for the Death Troopers, they’re still images of an action figure actually. Like I said, quick and dirty XD. I think to make it convincing in motion you’d need to film actors in front of a green screen.

An editor on YouTube did some interesting dialogue replacements for Boba Fett using lines from Battlefront II, some which work better than others:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy2OqQIS-ps&list=PLtj-aNFWYd8ic2j58QfpOQkx8NDyPVfVe&index=7

Also If you ever wanted to know what a chatty Boba Fett would sound like…well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5GFSjbZK_A

Made some quick and dirty Photoshop mockups of ideas to make the OT fit better with some of the supplementary material. I think these would be pretty difficult to execute but just thought I’d share the ideas.

Captain Rex (from Clone Wars and Rebels) in Return of the Jedi:

Death Troopers (from Rogue One, Rebels and The Mandalorian) in A New Hope:

ZaneFlare92 said:

I remember at one time you had a Extended Edition with alternate ending if im not mistaken. Is it possible that a V2 with the extended alternate ending will get a release???

It’s unlikely. I’ve found that the demand for the version with alternate ending just wasn’t enough to justify using my limited Google Drive space on it. If you’re interested in the alternate ending, I think you might as well go for Hal9000’s full edit “Labyrinth of Evil”

FYI a fixed version has been uploaded and is available the usual way.

MaggiPower said:

Is there any way that you could make a Version without the Qui-Gon audio from the Clone Wars? Without it, your extended edition would be the definitive way for me to watch Episode III.

Hm, I mainly went with one audio track just to simplify things but if I end up doing another release I’ll consider having an option without the Clone Wars audio.

MalàStrana said:

Are you going to implement the new sequence idea you had for your fanedit ?

I wasn’t going to because technically that version cuts bits of footage out of the film (mainly Anakin looking at the datapad and Padme’s line “he came by this morning”) and therefore isn’t a pure extension. If there’s enough of a push for it I’d consider it though.

I haven’t yet, sorry 😦

I know Hal’s v5’s are on MySpleen but I’m not sure where else.

Has anyone been able to determine if the wacky editing changes from the Attack of the Clones Blu-Ray are still there?

DominicCobb said:

I’m curious how the other films fare. DNR on TPM? Teal tint on AOTC? Wipe or hard cut in ROTS?

Yeah I’m curious about the treatment the prequels got. Probably going to surf through later tonight.

I thumbed through bits of A New Hope in 1080p non-HDR and can confirm that the regrade looks a lot better regardless of those visual enhancements. I don’t know if it quite compares to some of the fan efforts here but it looks consistent with no strange blue/magenta tinting.

Huh, I actually really like this idea in theory, but without any scenes of Padme and Obi-Wan interacting, I don’t think the implication that she’s talking about Obi-Wan and not Anakin will be as a strong as needed to sell the idea. I’ll think on it.

It has just come to my attention that V2 has a significant sync issue. I’m going to pull it for now and will upload a new version when it’s fixed. Thanks for your patience everyone.

No need to apologize! I’m happy to see that my clip generated a lot of interesting discussion. I definitely agree that there are a lot of half-explored ideas regarding Anakin’s motivation to turn. Rogue, could you elaborate on your idea of restructuring the seeds of Rebellion scenes? That sounds interesting.

I made some tweaks using the suggestions everyone provided. Check out the new clip here and let me know if it works any better: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11NGXtfg4OkEtHo4gHZJCNp0qaz8hYZke/view?usp=sharing

NeverarGreat said:
I think the change is worth trying, but I think most of the issue is actually with the Anakin/Padme scene following the office scene. Anakin immediately acts suspicious because Obi-wan has been there, and while that wasn’t too problematic in the original coming right after his departure for Utapau, now it feels odd since he has presumably been gone a full day at least. I also think that scene in general is too schizophrenic with Anakin going from mistrust of Obi-wan to weariness back to mistrust and then doubtful of his own abilities. Removing the exchange ‘I feel lost’ ‘Lost, what do you mean?’ might allow a more natural flow.

My intent with putting the two scenes in that order was to imply that Anakin is now suspicious not only because of Obi-Wan’s appearance in the second dream sequence but because of Palpatine’s suggestion that Padme is hiding something from him. In his mind, I imagine he’s having paranoid thoughts that the two of them conspiring together behind his back. I will try the edit you suggested, thanks.

Hal 9000 said:

I’d agree, but only for the hologram in Ep3, because of AOTC’s implication that he’s starting to deteriorate. It must have been somewhere between 2 and 3 that he started masking himself. At least if you go by that.

I don’t think AOTC’s implication that he’s starting to deteriorate is that strong or obvious. He just looks like a normal old man for the most part. Maybe a little more palid than he does in Episode 3 but not significantly so.

Don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up just yet but I’ve started tinkering with this again. Trying to find a narratively satisfying place to put the 3rd seeds of the rebellion scene and I think I may have finally cracked it. Borrowed a shot from Siliconmaster482’s edit which I believe was pulled from Attack of the Clones and flipped/color corrected.

Here is the clip: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ar3OOaZZGQ9oaf5ZGoqojil3Dj2Ugwy4

EDIT: Watching through it a few times, I may ultimately decide to wipe to the next scene after “Senator Amidala is hiding something, I can see it in her eyes”. Thoughts on that vs. how the clip currently plays?