Sir Ridley

NeverarGreat said:

DominicCobb said:

The one awkward thing there that stands out for me is the re-editing of the Kor Sella scene. Any particular reason for that?

The original editing of the scene had Kor Sella smiling in reaction to Leia’s line ‘Not all the senators think I’m insane’. While that may be a humorous exaggeration, it doesn’t seem like a joke. After her reaction, Leia then says ‘…or maybe they do. I don’t care.’. This seems like the punchline to me, which is why I put her reaction here. It also gives the scene some room to breathe, otherwise it would cut too fast back to Finn and Poe. Of course, this change meant that I had to find some other shot of Kor Sella between Leia’s lines, so I took the only moment where she wasn’t talking and slowed it down as much as I dared.

Yeah, this is good. I’m not fully convinced by the new little reaction you made, I might tweak it a bit when I put in my FX parts. But putting Kor Sellas smile at the end is definitely the right thing to do.

MalàStrana said:

By the way Sir Ridley, have you been given second thoughts about some changes you want (or don’t want) to implement into your own edit ?

My plan hasn’t really changed. I will use most changes from Restructured v2, whatever they turn out to be in the end, perhaps apart from the changes to the Starkiller explosion scene. In v2 the plan seems to be to cut out Poe’s happy line but somehow keep the score intact by reediting and remaking parts of the sound mix. I’m happy with my simpler solution of cutting Poe’s line and sacrificing a bit of the score. And besides the v2 changes I will add my own changes, listed in my project thread. I will keep my thread updated if there’s any news!

That’s good (the briefing scene)! I see some small issues. It needs BB-8 foley, “any word from the republic” sounds a little odd around the “the” (perhaps someone could record a new line?) and the shot of Leia saying “no” could perhaps be better (maybe slightly animate the mouth to an O shape) but otherwise it seems like a good way to do it.

The deleted scene works great! Needs some work in the audio department (and visual, of course) but I like what you’ve done.

jarbear said:

The next question is, will someone try to move KYLO’s scar to match last Jedi?

I will try to do it for my edit.
http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Force-Awakens-Ridleys-Edit/id/55362

Finn’s line will be changed to “They’ve found us!”. 😃

I’m not sure about the sun thing, I think it was discussed but I don’t remember what was said exactly. It might be good to adjust that shot somehow.

Nit picking is fine. Maybe not everything can be changed, but it can be considered.

Nice! I’m not home for a few days so I can’t have a look until Monday, but this sounds promising.

adywan said:

Sir Ridley said:

If Adywan is still interested in fixing errors there’s a small one that stood out to me. The rain sound effect on the exterior shot of Yoda’s hut sounded a bit loud and “robotic” to me, like it was played in a big metal box. I watched it in stereo, so it might be an issue that appears when the surround sound is downmixed into two channels. If the same rain sound is played in different channels but with a slight delay this might cause a strange robotic echo effect.

That bit wasn’t touched. It the same on the Blu-Ray

I see! Thanks.

Amazing amazing edit. You have to admire the dedication and skill this took. It was a joy to watch and perhaps an even bigger joy to follow the making of. Thank you.

If Adywan is still interested in fixing errors there’s a small one that stood out to me. The rain sound effect on the exterior shot of Yoda’s hut sounded a bit loud and “robotic” to me, like it was played in a big metal box. I watched it in stereo, so it might be an issue that appears when the surround sound is downmixed into two channels. If the same rain sound is played in different channels but with a slight delay this might cause a strange robotic echo effect.

I can only speak for myself, but I’ve been busy with other things lately so I haven’t finished my contributions yet. Hopefully I will find the time for it in the coming month.

I’m working on the Leia effects (time code and braid removal) as well as the Maz sequence. The Maz sequence is mostly done, I just need to complete the sound mix. The Leia scene is more time consuming, so if that one is skipped for now V2 could probably be released earlier. I don’t mind finishing it though.

Hal 9000 said:

https://vimeo.com/221674605
password: snackbar

I still think Ackbar’s, and I can’t put enough quotes around what follows, “lip sync” works better without reversing that shot.

The reversed shot feels better, the turn to camera makes sense. Actually I think the “lip sync” for the line works well in this case, the odd thing is that his mouth moves a bit before the line. And the pause before he speaks feels like it’s a bit too long, half a second maybe. I feel like it breaks up the rhythm of the conversation, but it’s not a huge problem.

Anyway, the mouth movement before the line could be removed by inserting a still image of his closed mouth on top of the video, since he keeps his head pretty still during that part. I could do that.

Hal 9000 said:

Anyone have access to halfway decent and/or isolated 3PO and BB8 gyro/motor sound effects?

I just came across this video, there’s a lot of motor sounds here that could be extracted:
https://youtu.be/W6h4bV4_hxQ

Here too:
https://youtu.be/dVvWngFHHMk

And here’s a small pack of C-3PO sounds:
http://www.tk409.com/c3po/sounds.zip

I’d slow down the oscillator shot and remove the pilot shot, just keep his voice.

NeverarGreat said:
How’s the timecode removal going? I only ask because the deleted scene is the last major thing I need to do right now.

There are a few tricky parts left, but it’s doable once I find the time to work on it some more.

Sougouk said:

The voice was pretty clear amongst all the soundfx in the other surround channels. Though, I did notice a bit of extra soundfx from the Center channel. I don’t know how to build surround sound audio, so not sure if the Center channel can have other sounds when no speaking is present.

At least in this movie the center channel has the dialogue, sound effects that should be heard from the front and even a little bit of music.

Hal 9000 said:

Here’s my best attempt at implementing a revised X-wing sequence with Ackbar. Same as before, not perfect, but I don’t think anything stands out in a bad way.
https://vimeo.com/221590694
password: radio

That works nicely, I just think Ackbar’s voice should be processed to sound more radio like.

Glad to see everyone’s busy with interesting ideas! I’m currently trying to finish the Maz’s Castle sequence with a surround mix.

MalàStrana said:

By the way you’re not going to revisit (or remove) Ren’s wrath ? I consider this scene very silly and DigMod had an interesting - albeit not perfect - on it.

I’ll think about it, but it will probably stay. If it can’t be changed seamlessly I’d rather leave it as it is, even if it’s a bit silly. I don’t really have a big problem with it.

EddieDean said:

Sounds fantastic. This’ll probably become my archival version. I don’t think TFA needs much changed at all - I totally agree with HAL9000’s reshaping of the Starkiller firing, and NeverarGreat’s R2 database scan. Other than that some gentle trims to the humour make sense, but beyond that it’s just the Rathtar sequence which I never enjoyed.

You’ve said you’ll cut down the Rathtars - is this the version that I think appeared in HAL9000’s thread where they effectively release the Rathtars then just escape from Han’s ship, with none of the running around in corridors?

It’s similar to that version (DigMod’s), yeah. Rey and Finn don’t run into the Rathtars.

Edezio Enk’or Valorum said:

When I first saw the clip I was like ‘‘oh, the sand is moving’’, but then I remembered the island part of the video. Quite beautiful Dune Sea, I like the clip and I dont think it needs more editing imo.

And just curiosity, theres no way to modify the line of Poe ‘‘Our work here is done’’ to a sadder tone? The idea has been stuck in my mind for a while, but I dont know if by editing the audio, cuting it in middle of the phrase could work, or even if theres something like that on other Star Wars source, like the Lego shorts or something, that would be my only suggestion.
Looking foward to the edit for sure, waiting! 😃

Thank you! The moving sand illusion is something I really loved about NeverarGreat’s concept.

I don’t know if it’s possible to change Poe’s line, really. And the triumphant music and his smile is part of it too, so you’d have to change all that as well.

Paden said:

Sir Ridley said:

Here’s a clip of the island Force vision, based on the idea by NeverarGreat:

https://vimeo.com/218781507

Password: fanedit

That was great! Pity the sun wasn’t in the same position prior to the fade.
As Edezio Enk’or Valorum says the sea fading up looks just like sand blowing!
Cool 😃

Cheers, Paul

Thanks! I guess the sun is just part of the vision, but yeah.

I’m interested in helping. I’m working on a fan-edit of The Force Awakens and I would like to include the IMAX sequence in the best possible quality, so for that purpose I would do the things you’re looking for anyway. I don’t have adywan’s recreation though, I guess you have a copy?

Here’s a clip of the island Force vision, based on the idea by NeverarGreat:

https://vimeo.com/218781507

Password: fanedit

Hal 9000 said:

FWIW, I wonder whether a good point to reveal Kylo’s parentage would be when Han first encounters Leia.

“I saw him. He was here. Leia, I saw our son.”

Could be, could be. Right now I’m just keeping the “I saw him. He was here.” part. That way a connection to Kylo is implied, but we don’t know exactly what it’s about. But this might actually be the best place to mention their son. Their big talk about him comes barely five minutes later in the film. It might be good to know from the beginning of that scene that they have a son and that that’s who they’re talking about, so you can focus on what they say rather than figuring out who they’re talking about. Yeah, I think I might leave that line in after all. Thank you.

DigMod said:

Sir Ridley said:
x Remove Kylo calling Darth Vader “grandfather”

I went back and forth on this one in my own edit for a long time. I ultimately left it in, but you’re convincing me that this may be a good cut.

Excited to see your vision, especially your desert Force vision 😃

Thank you! It’s a debateable cut for sure, but for now I think cutting it is the right way to go for my edit. I will upload a clip of the vision!

Octorox said:

I’m not sure why you would cut this personally.

For me it’s simply about not spelling out Kylo’s lineage that early and that many times. At that point we learn that he worships Vader and wants to “finish what he started” and that’s plenty, I think. And then the human side of him is saved until later.

NeverarGreat said:

Is this edit intending to preserve the Han’s son reveal until the Oscillator scene? Because I wonder if you’d be able to cut enough out of the Han/Leia discussion at the base without it becoming unnatural. I do agree that some of that should be cut, especially the Snoke references. In fact, all Snoke references in the film could go and I wouldn’t be sad about it 😉

I’m not going to fully delay the reveal that far, just make it dawn on you a bit slower. I guess it will be pretty clear by the time Kylo takes his helmet off for the first time. I have considered to cut some Snoke references, yeah. But I don’t want to change things that might turn out to be important for the following episodes. It should be okay to remove a bit of exposition.

NeverarGreat said:

My edit seeks to remove the Poe closeups on his approach to the castle to preserve the revelation, and I wonder if the trailer footage can be combined with the film shots to repair the single X-wing shot.

Overall, this edit is pretty close to ideal.

I’ve considered delaying the Poe reveal, but I feel like his big comeback becomes less triumphant if it’s reduced to just a short glimpse of him at the end of his aerial heroics.

Thank you for your thoughts! 😃

MalàStrana said:

Ideas that I don’t consider to be good:

Replace Main Theme with Episode I version => Stick to the theatrical version !
Reduce the diss battle between Kylo and Lor San Tekka => I love Von Sydow too much to even remove one frame of him
Add VFX to practical effect desert bird to make the feathers look more convincing
Subtle zoom in on the spy watching as they pass
Remove droid saying “Alert the resistance”

I feel like the Episode I theme has a bit more oomph, but it’s a nitpick. Von Sydow is great, I suppose as a fellow Swede I should leave him be. But I think parts of his talk with Kylo feel a bit silly and contrived, sorry about that. The VFX and zoom are small things as well, I’ll upload a clip of the bird later. I remove the droid so they’re not spotted twice in a row, to give greater impact to the reveal of the spy.

MalàStrana said:

Ideas I need to watch finished to be sure about:

I will try to upload some clips later.

MalàStrana said:

I would then suggest to change other things (most of them found in DigMod edit), such as:

Great list, thanks! At a first glance there are a few points here I agree with, a few I disagree with and a few in between. Right now I like these the most:

• Cut Rey’s “No” when responding to Finn’s “You ever fly this thing?” line [DigMod Edit]
• Finn and Rey’s “I can do this” lines when they first get into the Falcon [DigMod Edit]
• Cut scene of Finn childishly pushing down on Rey’s head and added Red Gradient glow to mimic the overhead light and connect the edited scene visually [DigMod Edit]
• Cut Finn’s answer to Han’s “Trash compactor”: just cut directly to the following scene after Han delivers his line

Thank you! 😃

Hal 9000 said:

I sincerely look forward to watching your finished product, as the list sounds very sensible and targeted. I don’t have time at the moment to respond to each change, but many of them sound great and only a few seem ill-advised. It’ll have to wait for now.

Thank you! I’d love to hear some of your criticism later on.

Work in progress

This post last updated february 2019

I’ve been working on a TFA edit since 2016, mostly for fun. The goal is just to make what to me is the best version of an already great movie.

I’ve had my eyes on this nice community for a while, mostly thanks to adywan’s fantastic efforts, and I joined to help out with Hal 9000’s Restructured v2 (which is also the foundation of this edit). I’m taking inspiration and borrowing things from other people as well, like NeverarGreat and DigMod who have a lot of interesting ideas.

I work on this edit now and then in my spare time, so I can’t say when it will be done. But I made this thread to share this project with this community, because it’s nicer to work together!

As I mentioned; this edit uses the “Restructured” edit as a base, because I’m a big fan of that idea, and on top of that I’m including a bunch of small changes. Below is my change list, as it looks now. Points in italics are changes straight from Hal’s “Restructured v2.1”, points in bold are more or less completed. Points in parentheses are things I’m unsure of.

(• Replace Main Theme with Episode I version or adywans VII theme)
• New opening crawl, written by Hal 9000
• Reedit the part with Stormtroopers inside a transport to make the sequence less jumpy
(• Add unused shots of Stormtroopers from Teaser 1)
(• Fix Kylo’s helmet which has an inconsistent mouth guard)
• Reduce the diss battle between Kylo and Lor San Tekka
• Reduce Poe being cocky with Kylo
• Add VFX to practical effect desert bird to make the feathers look more convincing
• Add Rey having a daydream/vision about the island (idea by NeverarGreat)
• Remove Kylo’s line "Comfortable?"
• Reduce Finn shooting a lot of people as he escapes in the TIE fighter
• Remove Kylo saying Finn’s number
(• Cut Finn’s “this is what we look like, some of us”)
• Remove Rey’s “No” when Finn asks if she’s flown the Falcon (DigMod)
• Restore IMAX sequence
(• Add TIE attack soundtrack cue from TLJ)
• Add the Falcon jumping to hyperspace after leaving Jakku, then being ripped from hyperspace soon after, remove a now-out-of-place line from Finn about “get[ting] out of this system.” (FX by NeverarGreat)
(• Tone down childish celebrating)
• Remove part of Finn’s line “… cute boyfriend?”
• Remove Finn climbing on Rey making her angry (idea by DigMod)
(• Reduce Bala-Tik part (idea by NeverarGreat and DigMod))
• Reduce Rathtars
• Remove General Hux from first scene with Snoke (VFX by Jackpumpkinhead)
(• Make Snoke more hologrammy)
• Remove Snoke mentioning Han Solo being Kylo’s father
• Slight fix of shot of Rey by the lake (straightened horizon, removed lens distortion)
• Color correct shot of Maz, Solo, Rey and Finn walking past the spy to match following shot
• Subtle zoom in on the spy watching as they pass
(• Remove droid saying “Alert the resistance” or edit subtitle slightly)
• Remove Kylo calling Darth Vader "grandfather"
• Replace “These are your first steps” with Alec Guinness’ voice (audio by DJ Mitz)
• Replace seeing the Hosnian system being destroyed in the sky with a Star Destroyer (VFX by NeverarGreat)
• Change Finn’s line “It’s the first order, they’ve done it” to "they’ve found us"
• New sound mix and music for this sequence to match the change in visuals and story
(• New color grade of Takodana outdoor scenes after Rey runs away to more of a warm evening/sunset light (to have the nice looking TIE sunset shot make a little more sense))
(• Add unused shots of X-Wings approaching from Teaser 1 and 2)
• Remove Han shooting over his shoulder without looking
(• Reduce Han playing around with Chewie’s Bowcaster)
(• Remove Han’s line “I saw our son" and/or “he was here”)
• Add deleted scene with Leia discussing the Republic
• Remove mention of the Hosnian system’s destruction when Finn is introduced to Leia
(• Add Poe telling Leia that Finn knows about a weapon system/base (edit by NeverearGreat))
• R2D2 starts searching for map files on his hard drive after hearing C3PO mentioning the map (edit by NeverarGreat)
(• Changes to the talk about Kylo between Han and Leia)
• Flip back flipped shot of Kylo putting his helmet in the ash tray
• After Rey resists Kylo Ren’s mind probe, add the portion of the Snoke scene from earlier where General Hux suggests using the weapon to destroy the Republic (VFX by Jackpumpkinhead and krlozdac to overlay Kylo Ren’s head over his mask)
• Move General Hux’s speech to after Kylo Ren overreacts to Rey’s escape
• After the speech, the nearby Sun begins to be drained
(• Shrink death star hologram further during briefing to make Starkiller base bigger)
• During the Resistance briefing scene, remove Leia identifying their base as the Starkiller’s next target, Threepio lamenting the prior loss of the Republic fleet, and the mention of the First Order charging the weapon “again”
• Remove C3PO’s line “It would take a miracle to save us now”
• Flip back flipped shot of Stormtroopers looking for Rey
• Remove sharpening artifacts from a shot of Rey inside Starkiller Base
• Remove smoke from Starkiller Base when X-Wings approach (based on VFX by NeverarGreat)
• Add deleted scene of Kylo searching the Falcon
• Remove Finn not understanding Han’s signal to look at Rey behind him
(• Cut the “I’m in charge now!” part when Han and Finn encounter Phasma)
(• Cut Finn’s “trash compactor” reference)
• After Kylo kills Han, the Starkiller fires at the Hosnian system, and Leia senses it through the Force
• As Finn and Rey start to head outside the oscillator, cut to Snoke and Hux planning to destroy the Resistance
• First Order technician redubbed to state the weapon will be fully “re”-charged in 30 seconds (Voice from AbramPT)
• Change Kylo’s facial scar to match TLJ appearance
• As the Falcon flies away from the imploding planet, remove shots in which the fighter pilots appear too joyful and remove Poe’s line “Our work here is done”
• Remove Chewie walking past Leia (because of the Chewie hug controversy)
• Remove Chewie from crowd behind Leia
• Extend the shot of R2 waking up, to allow him to finish searching his backup data (FX by NeverarGreat)
(• Trim “map puzzle” scene, make it faster)
• End the film with Rey leaving in the Falcon, save Luke for TLJ (like DigMod)

What do you think? Anything else I should do? Anything I shouldn’t do? Please share your thoughts, and I’ll keep you updated as I make progress.

bromeo said:

Neverar and/or Ridley: do you guys have any plans to use DigMod’s (imo perfect) Rathtar scene in your edits?

I’ve been working on a revised Rathtar scene for a while (along with my edit) that I think is quite similar, but I will of course take a close look at DigMod’s work and see how he did it. 😃

DigMod said:

Does anyone have a nice kylo helmet that would be willing to film it in similar angles, as Sir Ridley suggested, for a v2 of this edit?

I’m working on one with my brother that should work, but it’s not done yet. 😛 The Anovos replica helmet looks good, and of course the $2000 Ultimate Studio Edition helmet looks great. Maybe there’s a helpful fan with one of those who could help out.

It’s a nice idea. I think splitting the interrogation mostly works fine, but splitting the Jedi mind trick feels a bit weird. She knows what she’s trying to do and just fine tunes it on the spot, so it makes sense to just try again until it works. And the small part of the first try feels a bit short and disjointed, as well as going in between what would have been a nice transition from Han and Leia believing there is good in their son to Kylo fearing that same thing.

The best way to add the helmet is probably to film a replica helmet with similar lighting and insert it in the film.

StarWarsFan Sweden said:

Ok which time can you send the project file to me. So i can know when i can check my email adress
And when your sending the project file to my email adress, the adress is out34w4@gmail.com

Just be patient, maybe I can send it later today.

StarWarsFan Sweden said:

Hi i have started a private topic about your opening crawl because right now i am also making a fan film and i need good accurate Star Wars Crawl Template from After Effects.

Yes, ta det lugnt, jag kan skicka senare.