This may seem like a stupid question but have you considered trying to find a way to just cut out the “No”? Here’s a quick mockup that uses just a bit of the Japanese audio. I imagine the music and audio as well as the transition could be finessed to seem less abrupt. Password is “fanedit”
https://vimeo.com/144902210
Yeah to be fair, I just skimmed through, I haven’t watched the edit in full yet. I’m planning on using your edits for a saga watching with friends before TFA so I’ll see what kind of feedback I receive. It’s just hard for me to imagine a context in which that scene works.
The “first time” scene I never minded, it seems more natural than 90% of the romance scenes in this movie and seems like something young lovers might actually talk about. I also think it might take the edge off the “creepy” political talk that occurs right after.
I also wanted to recommend a few dialogue trims in the Padme’s family scene from L8wrtr’s edit. Particularly the line “our relationship is strictly professional”. In this scene we should see Padme’s barriers start to break down. That line smacks of the “will they, won’t they” nature of the romance in the original that has largely been removed in this edit. imo It’s a lot more effective to hear “Anakin and I are friends…” then Sola gives her a look and she looks doubtful. The other lines are mainly lines from the parents that just come across as a little hammy in the original. I’d recommend giving the L8wrtr version of this scene another watch.
Last thing I wanted to mention was the scene with Anakin in the Lars garage. I’ve noticed you chose to totally excise this scene but I believe other editors such as L8wrtr have proven that this scene can be downright effective when edited down. I definitely miss it in your edit. I think it’s more essential than say, Cliegg’s speech at Shmi’s funeral which is 100% skippable imo.
That said, I don’t want you to feel like I’m unnecessarily comparing your edit to L8wrtr’s. Honestly, I’m just trying to give input in what I feel would make the best edit possible. I listened to your commentary on EpI and I really liked what you said about your edits being a sort of “curation” of the best decisions from various fanedits so my suggestions are totally in that spirit. I hope they help.
EDIT: I also wanted to ask about the removal of the Droid Factory scene and the substitution of the war room scene with Padme, Anakin and Dooku. Right now it doesn’t work for me. Essentially Padme’s “diplomatic solution” is to walk in and ask Count Dooku to set Obi-Wan free. Beyond that she has no plan, essentially gives up when Dooku says “No” and they both get themselves captured. Imo, this makes Padme look stupid and weak-willed. You could argue that they are intentionally getting themselves captured in order to free Obi-Wan later, but if that were the case, you would expect there to be some discussion about it beforehand. In the original, it at least seemed like maybe they were trying to sneak in and find Obi-Wan covertly and in the original context of the deleted scene, the diplomacy was a last ditch effort after they had already been captured. Imo I would STRONGLY recommend reinstating a cut down version of the droid factory for this reason.
Hey Hal, I’m curious. What is your rationale for keeping in the scene where Anakin rides the fat CG animal in the meadow? Imo, it’s a hard scene to stomach and totally takes me out of the film. I realize that part of your philosophy with these edits is to salvage as much of the original films as possible, but imo I’d rather see the extended conversation where they talk about past relationships than that scene.
Hey Hal, I’m not sure if you can help me but I’m having an issue burning your v4 of Ep1 to Blu-ray using tsmuxer. Basically I’ve been able to burn the movie but when I try to play it on my PS4 the video is glitchy and stutters. Is your mkv supposed to be blu-ray compatible?
Yeah, I tend to agree. An explanation, however flimsy, is better than none.
Well technically neither Rebels or the Force Awakens are EU 😉
I agree that a slight pulsating effect to the sabers might make them look a little less digital and a little more organic. Perhaps a little more understated than in Rebels or that commercial.
I’m a fan of that solution, can’t wait to see how it plays out. I agree that the election at 14 thing is silly but I’m willing to accept that conceit because I believe the rest of the scene strengthens the relationship and also provides some more context for Padme’s character.
Thanks! The Vimeo link isn’t working for me though.
Hey Hal, for V4, do you plan to do anything about the clearly temp/animatic shot of the Coruscant senate building used before cutting to the discussion in Palpatine’s office? I would honestly prefer a reused shot from either another part of the movie or ROTS to seeing that clearly unfinished shot.
Sad that you’ve ruled out the Japanese audio. Well, I guess that’s more motive for me to actually do my own fan edit.
It’s still a bit silly, but I think it sounds marginally better. Makes it seem more like he’s in pain from overexerting himself with the force vs. just sad about Padme.
Bingowings said:
TheFirmament said:
I don't know why Adywan would spend any time fixing the Prequels after finishing the OT. They're so forgettable. Best to count them as a lost cause and focus more time on the OT.
Further to my recent answer here I would add that they are the most broken.
You can't really change much story wise with the first two films because they are narrative speaking pretty sound movies.
Jedi and the prequels allow increasingly more room to be creative because anything you do to them will be seen less like vandalism.
Not sure that I really agree with Jedi. It certainly the weakest of the OT and not a great film by any means but it still holds a nostalgic place for a lot people. Frankly, I wouldn't want ROTJ:R to significantly depart from the Revisited goal of "what the special editions should have been" with any major narrative changes. If it does, I hope that a "Purist version" is at least provided.
SilverWook said:
Before people start really flying off the handle, try thinking in universe for a moment. Design flaws aside, the Death Star is an effective weapon for scaring planets into submission. And flaws can be fixed.
The know how to make one doesn't magically go away. It's like a nuclear weapon, once the genie is out of the bottle, somebody sooner or later is going to want to build one.
And how do we know this one belongs to the Empire? They aren't the only ones with a copy of the original technical readouts. ;)
Also what is up with Leia's hair? I'm getting a Mom from Futurama vibe here.
I can't agree more with this. If weapons technology that can destroy entire planets exists it would seems stupid to not follow up on and improve that technology. It would be like if after WWII we decided that Atom bomb was old hat and never developed nuclear weapon technology any further. While It may seems lazy from a storytelling perspective at first sight, we don't know how exactly the weapon will factor into the film, that plot structure could be quite different.
An interesting video essay on Abrams visual style and how that might relate to Star Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=980&v=7tx5z1kAFwQ
This is a really good edit with a lot of interesting ideas. My main criticism is that the audio overall is pretty rough with inconsistent levels and the original score popping in and out but there's only so much you can do with the elements that are available. I also think that someone who didn't watch the original movies might be a little lost since the narrative kind of jumps from place to place. Overall though I really dig the tone, minimalist style and efficiency of storytelling. If I ever take a stab at editing the prequels again I will surely keep this one in mind for inspiration.
I'd be interested in auditioning for a part again if you have any openings.
Hey Nanner Split and Harmy, any news on the Blu-Ray release with menus? I don't mean to bug you but I'm really excited by the prospect of having slick professional blu-rays so I can pop them in and show off Harmy's great work.
I'm sorry but the AOTC color correction done by Ady just looks too cyan to me. The whites like Dooku's hair and Padme's outfit look cyan pushed. NeverarGreat's looks better, but still not quite right.
Yeah, I remember seeing this edit years ago and took another look at it just now. It's very ambitious but very rough. It's definitely sort of a workprint or proof-of-concept.
The bar sequence is great. Probably my favorite part of the edit. Also it innovated the exchange of "I think he's a she" "In that case be extra careful" which I emulated in my own edit.
Pretty simple reason. I deleted all of my original files a while ago because I wasn't satisfied with where I was getting and abandoned the project. Luckily I kept a copy of a more recent workprint than the one I had previously released and was able to make some final fixes and cleanup off of that. However, If I wanted to make more radical changes I'd probably need to recreate the project from scratch
I may consider a v2 with some simple changes if many people point something out that needs fixing or could be improved, but nothing radical at this point.
As as for tying Qui-Gon in at the end, I just couldn't do it in a way I was satisfied with. Adding the final scene on the Tantive IV just added too much to the running time (truly only a couple minutes but I was trying to get as close to normal Star Wars length as possible) while adding too little to the narrative.
I will consider it if I do ending up creating a v2
And...surprise! Final version of this is up on myspleen and will be viewable on my Vimeo page as well (Keith Bress). I wasn't able to accomplish everything I wanted but I decided to bite the bullet and just clean it up a bit and release what I had. Hopefully it can at least serve as inspiration to other editors.
Bumping just to say that this edit is officially dead. Unfortunately I just couldn't get things to work as well as I wanted to. Edit was still coming in way too long and the narrative and character development still felt way too rushed. I think there's only so much that can be done with these films but of course I'd love to see someone prove me wrong.
So this is an entirely seperate project then? Any updates on what you guys plan to do on the Hobbit side of things?
Not really sure if this is the place to ask but does Kerr still plan on doing "Arkenstone Editions" of the other Hobbit films? I watched the first one with some friends and we all loved it. It was their first fanedit experience.
Not sure if anyone posted this yet but here are some official hi-res stills and they look less teal/orangey.