I agree with 4throck. It did feel like parallel editting as opposed to a dream sequence. Yeah I would suggest it being shorter too…maybe adding some sort of dreamy filter either on top or something around the boarders of the frame aaand perhaps playing with the sounds by adding reverb or something.
I finished watching the edit and here is a bit of feedback…
The first change I really enjoyed was the ANH music added at the transition to Palps office. To me, that works well in helping establish a more “friendly” Palpatine.
If you make a 2.0 edit, I would consider removing the skeptical look from Yoda at Palps when he’s talking about extra security. That would help further establish we don’t know Palpatine is a baddy yet.
Again, nice addition of some ANH music. The OT sounds from Mr. Williams has some real emotion (for lack of a better word) behind it that a lot of the prequel scores seem to lack.
The scene where they all sit down and talk in Padme’s apartment: It’s a frustrating scene to edit. There’s only so much you can change because of the lack of footage and/or dialogue. And then, if you cut out the main piece of the scene which is Anakin and Obi-Wan bickering, the scene mostly becomes everyone sitting down and then almost immediately standing up again. With all that being said, your edit works pretty well. One continuity issue: Anakin says “We will find out who’s trying to kill you, Padme” and in the next shot he’s looking down. It’s just a bit jarring IMO.
The buildup to Zam shooting works well. What piece of music is that? It’s nice. Again if a 2.0 is going to happen, I would suggest removing the percussion from the first shot of Zam getting her gun. Since we all know these movies really well, we know when something has been changed by an editor. I think what I personally find jarring is when shots get shifted around (for a good purpose) but the audio (in this case, music) remains the same. So something like that takes me out of the moment.
Moving onto some of the color grading. I’m no expert when it comes to this stuff….I can’t always identify when something looks a shade different here or there. That being said, the Jedi achieves looked really cool in green! But why didn’t you finish the scene? They turned back to blue by the end of it. The only other thing that bugged me was in some scenes characters skin tones were desaturated except for their lips…they looked a bit orange/pink to me.
I like how you ended the scene with Anakin and Padme eating on the transport.
I have never seen anyone edit their first “kiss” this way. It threw me for a loop but it also works very well.
I also like the music you’re using in the asteroid belt chase…is that from TFA?
The best edit involving cutting the droids (specifically 3PO) out was Anakin and Padme leaving Tatooine. I can’t say I’ve seen anyone use this particular edit before. I liked it.
I know there’s not much to work with and you needed to somehow have Anakin and Padme brought into the deleted scene with Dooku…but it’s a bit odd. Using them going into the hallway with the Geonosians milling around behind them and then wiping to the deleted scene…it’s unclear as to what happened. I mean, WE know, but a casual viewer may not.
The ROTJ music with Palpatine being voted emergency powers does wonders for this scene IMO. Excellent!
I like the music choice for the arena monster battle here too. It seems like you’ve definitely put some thought into your music choices because they do fit into your scenes quite well.
Cutting out Padme’s jump is, of course, quite welcome! 😉
Again, the music added to the beginning of the battle of Geonosis is excellent! I would love to know all of your sources.
When Dooku turns to see Yoda and then turns away from him: you might consider zooming in a bit on that reversed footage so that it might hide the fact that it is indeed reversed.
And, again, the music at the end of the film is a really nice touch.
Overall (in case it’s not obvious), your music choices and placement are my favorite things about this particular edit. IMO, you could’ve gone much further with your editing choices…but AOTC is not my favorite to begin with…that being said, this is a fun alternative to AOTC. Thanks for sharing!
I say: do what you want for your edit. It’s…well…your edit.
With that in mind, I personally would love to have that shot redone with the original timing. And I’m also keeping in mind that you said you may change your mind. RogueLeader makes some excellent points. I know when I work on my edit I’m always trying to keep in mind where my eyes focus is. There are some excellent videos out there on film editing including on eye focus…i think there’s an actual term for it, but I can’t remember.
But again, it’s your edit.
Absolutely fantastic! So will it be that much closer to the camera? It’s great to see it up close in that shot!
@SWOTFAN25
Yes this is going down the right path IMO. One thing I tried a while back was once the line “Shall I hold?” is said, I kept Vader from responding on screen. That way, we’re left wondering what Vader is thinking.
I thought Angel was a myth! 😉
You’d better start your own thread here so we can bug you all the time about finishing your edit! 😄
I think we can all agree AOTC probably has the most issues. And while it’s hard to pick THE worst scene, the one that drives me crazy is Padme (NOT a Jedi but a regular human-type character) drops from who knows how many feet in the air, lands on her…um…crotch…and without missing a beat, gives her new boyfriend a peck on the cheek.
Very nice! Can’t wait to see the entire shot in motion.
Alright another clip:
https://youtu.be/w4mvbRCT5VQ
Ideas going on here (besides ideas I’ve mentioned previously):
Keep in mind: This is really their proper first scene together.
OK, another video came up on my feed that I’ve never seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4jGrpAXg-g
Some interesting ideas here.
I’m trying to get around to watching all of your clips. I just watched “Poe Shoots First”. Wow. Absolutely wow. I can’t believe how well this works. I love how Kylo “searches” Poe. The ONE thing I would suggest is once Kylo says “Put him on board” the camera follows him and you see Phasma enter the shot. I would cut before she enters the frame.
I just came across this short video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N0P-qsXxUY
I like shot composition better shows how the death star is not yet in range. Plus the extra fighters.
@ziggyonice
Agreed.
@4throck
Nicely done! I like this edit quite a bit. The ewoks are more formitable. Almost all of the goofiness is gone from the battle (the “I love you” exchange is still there, but what can you do, am I right?). 😉
One thing I did a long time ago was change 3PO’s “We surrender” to some bit of Ewok-ese which made it seem like he was in on the plan.
Another thing I tried, which I couldn’t get to work to my satisfaction was to have Chewy (in the AT-ST) kill the troopers who were about to kill Han and Leia.
Awesome. Yes, it sounds sooo much better than what’s currently in the original. Again, I’m no expert when it comes to the crawl…any time I pop in one of the movies, it’s something I rarely pay attention to…I times times even skip it! 😮
I don’t know the intricacies of any of the crawls but the font for A NEW HOPE looked off to me…slightly different font? It also seemed like it’s at a slightly different angle than the rest of the crawl. But I could be completely wrong about all of this. Which film is the score from? Because it’s not from the original, right?
By-the-way, this still looks really good!
Yes, best version yet!
I meant the slow mo shots in the original edit…not the ones you slowed down…specifically from the lightsaber battle.
I would say it was perhaps a little subtle - also perhaps if there could be a pause in Anakin’s line it could highlight that he has stopped to listen to it, and act as the viewer’s prompt that it is of some relevance so we should notice it too.
I will definantly play around with it once I get a better quality copy of the movie and begin the actual edit. These are excellent notes. Thank you!
Perhaps something like “I heard she is no longer with her partner” could get the same meaning across without sounding quite as casual modern day speech? (This is all very much personal preference though).
I understand. And I believe I will play with this too. It’s a difficult balance because everyone is so stoic and I want to have him be a bit more loose. I’d like to bring in some more OT sounding dialogue.
Annoyingly I made a mock up of the Vader vision scene a long time ago, and also an incredibly rough version of the Obi Wan and Padme rescuing Anakin scene (where they all rode out of the arena on the Reek) but have lost them both some time back (always back up your work eh) so I cannot offer any visual help.
Dang! I would love to see this!
All in all though I fully accept that this would probably be very choppy and a lot of work to get there so probably wouldn’t be worth it. In the interest of throwing random ideas around though I still like it - I’m just not sure how to make it work as it is such a big change around.
Yeah, it sounds like something I’d like to see someone try but I can’t really wrap my head around how to go about this. For me, it comes down to the characters more than anything. Since it wasn’t originally filmed this way, the arena scene has no character introductions for our heroes.
Just some extra food for thought. Can we hear your idea for protecting the Vader reveal you hinted at yet lol?
Ha! Yeah, well…I think it was on these boards (probably the prequel radical redux ideas thread)
where someone was talking about how if someone could make it look like Obi-Wan takes on another apprentice in ROTS, then it could possibly work. And I don’t know if they had some specifics or if this is something I came up with but:
I’m currently planning on cutting young Boba Fett out of AOTC. A shot of two of him could be inserted into the scene when Obi-Wan and Anakin are parting ways (Goodbye old friend) with maybe Anakin (or Obi) saying something about this new Jedi apprentice named Vader. He wouldn’t have any lines, he’d simply be standing there. That would be the entire setup. Although, I can’t remember if this puts a hitch in anything further down the line.
Excellent work! I’m looking forward to more!
Do you know if any sequences in your edit will be shortened or lengthened?
Will you keep any SE shots? Will the Jabba scene stay in?
Just curious
@4throck
I do appreciate your feedback and ideas. Thanks! As far as making things easier with less dubbing goes…I guess I don’t want to make things easier! I wanna squeeze every ounce of Star Wars out of these scenes as I can! 😉
While I agree he goes from being upset about his mother then straight into Padme without much of a transition, the original was about the same: “I’d much rather dream about Padme”. BUT you’re still right. I’d like to make the transition smoother in the dialogue. Any ideas?
Obi-Wan having such a direct conversation about a Senator they are protecting: Well, again, they DO have this in the original version. There’s really no way around this. They need to have this conversation about Padme. There’s information that must be talked about. Plus, Luke and Han talk about a princess they’re protecting too. 😉
I’d never thought about the idea of the romance being gradual with Anakin becoming happy. I don’t dislike the idea, BUT I kind of have a plan already in place that will help Anakin and Padme’s relationship…at least I hope. I’ll have to get around to posting another clip soon!
@Johannus
Thank you so much for your kind words and ideas! Let’s talk…
About the “here’s our stop” clip: I guess I made it too subtle because there actually IS an announcement being made which is what Anakin’s responding too! Ha! It’s not really supposed to be understood…it’s not necessarily in English. Did you notice it? Was it too quiet?
Yeah, I can’t say I know how to write dialogue…especially Star Warsy dialogue! Please, you or anyone who has ideas for altered dialogue, send it my way!
Sometimes, the way I go about doing these scenes is I think of what dialogue is available to me. In this case, it was pretty much anything Natalie Portman has said in these movies (I’m also looking into other films)…but of course, specifically her lines from this scene. I’m constantly moving dialogue around…usually in a word document…kind of like a script…then I’ll be thinking about what I need Anakin to say and what information needs to be conveyed…but of course ALL of this needs to flow and it can’t feel forced AND it needs to be cute or funny…I mean, this is not easy guys! 😉
I do believe Dooku will be a rogue Jedi but I’m leaning towards him having a green lightsaber. Qui-Gon was sort of a rogue Jedi and he had green. Luke had one in ROTJ and in some ways he was also a rogue Jedi.
I didn’t know Chris Lee read Sherlock Holmes…nice! I’m checking into this! A friend sent me a link to some of his lines from the Kingdom Hearts games…didn’t know about that either!
Believe me, I really like the idea of cutting Yoda altogether…I’m just not sure if I can….I’ll really have to look into it. It might be possible in AOTC but if I ever do ROTS…I just can’t imagine how to get through certain scenes without him.
I’m not sure how I feel about this idea of Vader and his name. I’m not sure how I could pull that off. I certainly would like to somehow fit the name of Vader in there somehow somewhere so that I could keep the “I am your father” moment a surprise. I might have an idea…one that I believe was floating around these boards ages ago…but this would be for ROTS.
This idea about making it look like Vader killing the Sandpeople in a force vision. I believe I said earlier that I didn’t really want any foreshadowing…BUT…hmm…that’s kind of a cool idea. I’ll have to think about this.
Orson Welles…that’s an interesting idea. I don’t believe I could find enough dialogue to make it work but maybe someone could mimic him…? Anyone?
I’m not sure how I would pull off Padme and Obi rescuing Anakin. I think the idea of essentially starting the movie at the arena is very interesting…something I’ve already considered…but I’ve yet to figure out how to make it work…to my liking anyways. You then have the question of: if the end of the movie is moved to the beginning, then what’s now the ending?
Please keep up the ideas! This is good! 😃
Just curious, has anyone attempted to speed up the slo mo shots and make them “real time”?
No problem. There’s 3 sylables in “Skywalker” so if you can get in there and play with the pitch of each sylable, you might get it to sound better.
How about taking windu saying “skywalker” from ROTS? “Take a seat, young Skywalker”.
Thanks for sharing your wip edit! I like to see everyone’s take on AOTC scenes especially. I do like some of what you got…and there are some things I’m not as fond of. It’s all subjective of course.
I do like the cut from “quite as a tomb” to zam.
While it’s nice to have the bickering gone between Anakin and Obi, imho it feels a bit off with staying inside padmes bedroom the whole time. It felt we should cut back to the Jedi…but maybe that’s just from seeing this scene a million times.
Personally, I don’t like cutting all of the zam speeder chase. I’ll be cutting a huge portion of it but not all.
And I’ve never been a fan of the nightclub scene or the conversation before the Jedi enter.
As far as I can tell, there’s nothing we gain by going into the nightclub.
I believe I’ve found a way to have zam crash and the Jedi pick her up and move her to the back alley. Now it just looks like she’s injured from the crash.
I hope that didn’t sound like I was bashing your cut. Just my thoughts. Obviously there are going to be things the majority of us agree on cutting or fixing. Then there are other things that are more subjective. Things like: “this moment just feels like Star Wars to me” or “I’ve always like this certain shot”.
While I’m sure I’ll mess with this scene again in the near future, I’ll probably keep a good chunk of it the same. I know I could cut it down but I’ve added that additional dialogue to better flesh out the Jedi order and how Anakin feels about some of it.
Or is there something I’m just not understanding? By looking at my cut, what specifically are you suggesting I cut? I hope I’m not coming off like a know-it-all ass. I’m honestly interested.
@NeverarGreat
Excellent video…all 3 parts. I’d never seen these. This guy seems to know what he’s talking about.
I openly admit I’m no screen writer. Plus it makes things more difficult when you have to make alternate dialogue work with lip sync.
I hope to eliminate all predatory and creepy (not to mention whiny) behavior from Anakin. He’ll obviously have some flaws. But the flaws need to seem reasonable…like the flaws we can see in Luke. We don’t dislike Luke for these flaws, we relate with him because of them. We see ourselves in him and his choices and actions.
“But take away Anakin’s predatory and creepy behavior and you have removed his most distinctive and interesting trait.”
Wow, I can’t argue you on this! 😉
As far as eliminating this behavior: I think something that will really help is by removing certain shots of Anakin. Those overtly creepy shots (“I’m sorry M’lady”) OR giving them another context by reworking the dialogue.
I hope to show more clips in the future of what I’m talking about…giving you guys more context. If this is not working…then…I don’t know what I’ll do.
This is looking great, Adywan! I’ve been waiting for ROTJ to finally come around! There’s probably no point in my pointing this out because you’ve probably already seen it buuuuut: at around 33 seconds into the clip Sy raises her arm and you can see the rod that operates it.
By-the-way, how have I never noticed the fireplace behind Jabba?