Phase3

JF_Sanderson said:

I don’t think they are ever hot in the OT. Plus wouldn’t the hilt get too much to handle after a while, if they were?

The hilt likely wouldn’t conduct the heat, much like when you hold the handle of a frypan.

Of course in the Phantom Menace we see lightsabers melt through a set of strong looking metal doors in the first five minutes of the movie. Compare to Luke cutting the hatch on an AT-AT, which should theoretically be sealed better than “a space door.” *

In a fantasy adventure film, it’s about doing what is in service to the story, and to maintain a certain pacing in the film. In TESB, Luke had to find an opening in the AT-AT, in order to plant his explosive. Taking 5 minutes to cut open a hatch would have been ridiculous, and greatly slowed down the pacing of the scene.

It’s less about what is “realistic”, and more about “what looks cool and will keep the audience interested?”.

The heat has also been used to explain why lightsaber wounds aren’t horribly bloody… (Someone please tell Ponda Baba)

That particular shot (of the arm on the ground) wasn’t filmed by George Lucas - from memory it was done in the US by the second filming unit (I don’t recall the exact details off the top of my head).

It’s relatively easy to adjust that shot though – I think that Adywan’s edit changed the arm. This is something I’ll do for my own edit.

Remarkably, in Return of the Jedi, we see Luke’s saber acting like a baseball bat against Jabba’s thugs. Not sure if it’s hot or not.

During filming of ROTJ in 1982, Lucas had a baby to raise, and stated that he wanted to make more of a child-friendly film, which means the film’s violent shots were reduced or removed, and the film became more cute and happy. Aside from that, if there were limbs being lopped off, and lots of visible wounds on Jabba’s cadre, the film wouldn’t have gotten a PG rating back in 1983.

*Ok I guess it’s not just a space door; the room must be sealed if the Jedi are to be poisoned, but who has poison cannisters in their AC system?

The production team did two things:
#1 Took inspiration from some real-life office building safety systems: fire suppression systems that activate when there are fires in certain rooms (such as a CRAC unit or Server room). This gas is poisonous! These systems lock the doors, and flood the room with fire suppression material.

#2 Did things to push the story forward – as mentioned above: doing things in service to the story. The Neimoidians want to get rid of the Jedi, so they activate their version of an internal fire suppression system, which in the case of this fantasy adventure film, is a type of poisonous gas.

JF_Sanderson said:

phase3 I kept thinking about your Darth Maul edit. I really didn’t understand my own reaction. Blood spray? Blood, uh, powder? No blood at all?

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Are-lightsabers-hot/id/138722

For the purposes of this fan-edit, the Lightsabers are intensely hot, so there would be instant cauterisation of the wound (and no blood spray!). 😃

Another update: I wanted to revise the colour of Darth Maul’s Lightsaber during the scenes of the duel with Qui-Gon on Tatooine. For several frames, the blade is translucent magenta, and for the majority of the duel the colour is more orange than red.

This isn’t the final colour grade, but this is to give an idea of the changes to the blade:

O00ll00O said:

For those who haven’t seen it:

https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1620853/action/topic#1620853

I looked into using the original footage, but restoring the Jedi – as in, changing them from invisible / partially invisible in a few frames to fully visible throughout, then adjusting the speed for a “normal” running speed.
There isn’t enough visual information in either the 35mm scan or the Blu-ray for the rotoscoping to work unfortunately.

Does anyone know of any good behind-the-scenes footage or photographs for this scene which show them running?

If so, I could rotoscope the footage, create a new composition with a corrected running speed, and share it with Hal9000 and any others who may want to use it.

Correcting a continuity error:

Here are some shots where I have removed Threepio:

For this shot, I removed both Threepio and Jar Jar; this was done by using portions of photography done by an ILM artist – no AI image generation!

Note: this is not the final colour grade.

I have removed the scene of the children talking to Anakin whilst he is building his podracer. I didn’t want to have Kitster magically appear in a few shots, so I have added him into a few of the earlier scenes.

G&G-Fan said:

Seriously how the hell does someone do that. It’s amazing.

It feels like magic to me. What do you do? Photoshop it frame by frame?

I’m glad that you like it!
I mainly use After Effects for these shots. Each scene has different requirements, however they usually have a few things in common: rotoscoping, creating clean background plates, then replacing / adding / changing footage. The new footage has to be tracked to the original footage, so that it all flows smoothly.

Rors said:

Nice stuff, my friend!Excited to see your reedit!

Thanks for your kind words!

Another shot completed: Jar Jar no longer jumps down with the Jedi to rescue the Queen.
Thanks to @JoyOfEditing for letting me use his VFX where he removed Jar Jar from this scene!

I’ve also removed the Battle Droid saying “D’oh!”; unfortunately the SFX-only track retained this dialogue, which meant that a full audio rebuild was required, in order to add in the correct SFX…for only a seconds of footage haha!

I’ve finished changing the Lightsaber blade colour from green to blue for Obi-Wan, plus I’ve also added in Lightsaber hilts for both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan:

arosa1091 said:

I’d personally love to see one, as well. Link me up, if you please, brother.

Yes mate I’ll send it your way too!

This edit gives me the impression that it’ll be up there with The Phantom Edit and Cloak of Deception, which are my two favorite TPM edits. I’m especially intrigued by the entry into Theed – I’ve always loved that shot.

Thanks for your kind words! I hope that I’ve made an enjoyable edit.

Have you finalized the title crawl?

Yes! That was the one of the very first sections completed.

honestabe said:

I think test clips of those changes regarding the fall and lightsaber would be interesting to see if everything flows smoothly.

Also, taking away Maul’s blood is a nice touch.

So far I’m happy with how it flows; I’m hoping to finish up the rest of the VFX changes for that scene today (including adding in Qui-Gon’s Lightsaber hilt on the floor), and can send you a test clip if you like?

In my edit, Obi-Wan never falls down the energy core shaft, and doesn’t lose his Lightsaber. Therefore, he no longer needs to use Qui-Gon’s weapon.
To accommodate this change, I’ve altered the colour of the Lightsaber blade, plus made the core a more bright white colour.

anakinskywalker said:

hi does anyone have phantom menace streamlined by phase3

That edit is currently being re-done; I don’t have the old version to share sorry!

Dazman said:

Well, seems for your version 2 you are really combing the desert of errors this movie has, spaceballs style. 😄

Hahaha hopefully in addressing a few errors, the edit will still be as much fun to watch as Spaceballs!

Nice work! I always interpreted the spray as the hot blade’s cauterizing effect turning blood into a momentary dust of blood. And since the blade is cutting through the whole torso instead of a hand, it hadn’t been seen earlier in other movies… Sometimes there seems to be a small puff of smoke when the limbs are cut but pretty inconsistent. So it’s everyone’s preference to remove or add those in their edits.

I agree that a fine mist of blood would look realistic for that kind of cut, however I was aiming for consistency between films, plus the speed at which Obi-Wan cuts him, along with how incredibly hot the blade is, lead me to the conclusion that the entire torso section would have been instantly cauterised, and not leave any time for a fine mist or blood spray to occur.
You’re absolutely right though - it’s down to each person’s preferences! 😃

I’m digging your colour grade tests! Helps with Tatooine especially that seems to have reddish dust in the air at all times in the original footage. Now the sky looks clean and pure again.

Thanks very much! I found that in that particular scene, there was a much stronger magenta tint than anywhere else in the film. Removing that helped to bring back the lovely blue sky.

Thanks to JoyOfEditing for the suggestion to use the 35mm scan of TPM to bring back the colours in the sky for scenes on Tatooine. I was able to adjust the colours, which means there is no need to do a full background or sky replacement.

There is a lot of dust, dirt and scratches in the 4K99 v2.1 video, however in this scene the damage is fairly minimal and will be easy to remove, so it won’t take long to do a complete restoration on this scene.

Here are work-in-progress photos on bringing back the blue sky:

One section I wanted to alter was the blood spray when Darth Maul gets cut in half. I’ve seen some edits where the editor cut footage around the blood spray, which to me is a low-quality way of revising this shot.

I’ve removed the blood spray from the entire shot, so that all of the available footage of his demise can be retained.
To note: this is a work-in-progress, and the final colour correction has yet to be done.

I have replaced the background with a section of the power core panels from a different side of the room - this was done as it was faster and easier to replace the background rather than use the original shot, which would have required a lot of time and work in order to create a clean version.

That’s a great restoration! Will you eventually be sharing final versions of your videos, so other editors can use them?

Sky_ said:

VIDEO LINK BELOW**
https://youtu.be/U55C3k7nDTw?si=--SU20fvk5Sq75gx

I’m going to restore the solid core to Darth Maul’s Lightsaber.

To note: this is a test / sample, and the final colour grade has not yet been done.

Rors said:

That’s a cool idea. Please, add it so some fan editors can add into their own fan edit.

Yeah I think that the scene can work; hopefully other editors will be able to use it in their edits too.

I’m thinking about ways to keep Sidious’ real identity hidden for as long as possible. As an experiment, I’ve made a very rough mask and darkened his face when he’s talking with Maul on Coruscant. It’s not finished yet, but so far I think it can work:

Before:

After:

honestabe said:

Are you upscaling every deleted scene for every pre-Disney Star Wars movie while having edits planned for all of them? I know you already have plenty of these partially completed.

No, I won’t be upscaling every single deleted scene. I’ll only focus on pre-Disney footage; my plan is to only upscale what I can use for my own edits, plus a few extra scenes that other editors can use.

So far, it’s looking like this:

Original trilogy:
I have a tiny handful of restored deleted scenes from ANH (Vader & Chief Bast walking in the Death Star hallway, alternate footage of stormtroopers searching for Artoo & Threepio) and TESB (bounty hunter shots, Boba Fett on cloud city), specifically for use in my edits. I’ve not upscaled them yet though.
At this stage, I have no plans to restore or upscale any other deleted scenes from ANH & TESB, unless I need them for my edits.

ROTJ = I’m restoring and upscaling a few scenes: Endor bunker scene, Jerjerrod scenes, and a very small amount of the full-colour pilots footage (just the aliens).
The pilots footage has been completed, which is for JoyOfEditing to use in his edit. Both of us will use the Jerjerrod footage; I’ve already upscaled it, and the next step is the restoration work.
I’m contemplating using the scene of Luke building his Lightsaber, however only if I’ll relocate the scene to Dagobah. At this stage, I have no plans on using (or restoring / upscaling) the scene of Vader’s telepathy, or any other deleted ROTJ scenes.

Prequel trilogy:
DVD deleted scenes of the prequel trilogy = done!
Blu-ray deleted scenes of the prequel trilogy = AOTC Anakin talking with Padme’s father (this has been completed).
Restoration / updated VFX / upscaling of prequel scenes =
ROTS Anakin speaking with Palpatine = to be upscaled, and a full background replacement done - I have artwork done by the ILM employee who did the Coruscant backdrop, to which I’ll add in traffic.
TPM Naboo fighter being destroyed = this has been upscaled, and the next stage is to create a new composition to include it in the film (this is a collaboration with JoyOfEditing).
Aside from the scenes mentioned above, I have no plans to upscale any other Blu-ray deleted scenes.

In terms of edits, I am aiming to do a total of 6x films:
3x prequel trilogy:
TPM v2 = the actual edit is going extremely well; there are some complex VFX shots I’m doing, for which I needed to learn some new techniques. I was a bit exhausted, so I took a break recently.
AOTC v1 = done!
AOTC v2 = there are a tiny amount of things I wish to do, namely revise the end Jedi & Sith duels, plus correct two continuity errors (more Jedi Lightsaber blade colour swapping found in the original film).
ROTS = not started, however I’ve been steadily sorting out some new VFX shots.

3x original trilogy:
No editing has happened as yet!

The only Disney-era film I liked was Rogue One; I had planned to do an edit of it, however I want to focus on the other 6x films first, so this edit may or may not happen.

I would prefer to only focus on SW films & series from 1977 - 2005 though!

I hope you are not overwhelming yourself. I have been a big fan of all the work you have completed, but over the years we have seen other people overwork themselves.

I very much appreciate your kind words! 😃
I am being careful to not burn-out or get overwhelmed. I took a break over the last two weeks, just to have a rest and come back to things feeling refreshed.

O00ll00O said:

Here’s what it could look like with some color.

That looks great! 😃

Luke’s lightsaber is way to thick and would need to be fixed too. I’m not saying whether it should be included in the movie or not, but I don’t think it would be thrown out based on picture quality.

That’s my thinking too – the scene can be restored, which may give Adywan a new scene he can add into his edit if he wants to.

Matt.F said:

That already looks much better in the screenshot, and as you say it’s got plenty left that could be done with it. Restoration tools and techniques have come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years, and are only going to improve further with each passing month. If you do further restoration of this scene Phase3 please do share!

I’m restoring a few different ROTJ deleted scenes, including this scene, which upon completion I will share in a separate thread. 👍🏽

Bingowings said:

Personally I would prefer to see Luke assemble the saber on Dagobah using the Force.

Same here! In my own edit, that’s precisely what I’ll be doing – replacing the background with Dagobah.

lionscout42 said:

This is another reason why I chose the DVD grade over the Final Cut. The Criterion laserdisc, which came from a completely different source from the Director’s Cut DVD (the LD came from an interpositive of the International Cut), looks quite similar to the DVD. This is evidence that the DVD’s color grade is accurate to what people saw in the theater.

I absolutely agree! Another good source for the original colours, aside from a scan of a 35mm print, is the 1983 LaserDisc released by Embassy.

lionscout42 said:

(FWIW, I also saw some 35mm frames, but they looked closer to the DVD. We are talking about analogue media, not digital, and no two release prints will look the same. This is especially true 30+ years after the fact.)

The colour timing of the original film was a source of much conjecture over the years; the 1996 DVD’s colour grade is just about the same as the 35mm version.

With regard to it being from an analogue source, a high-quality 4K or 8K scan of 35mm film will always yield beautiful results, and can easily surpass what is commercially released via DVD and Blu-ray.