SomethingStarWarsRelated

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.

• Mention of Anakin going through the window. Hopefully I can find someone to help me pull this off.
• A new history between Anakin and Padme eluded to. It hasn’t been 10 years.
• It’s more apparent that Padme’s interested in him but is still all about her job.
• More straightening out Anakin’s story (including motivations). Also setting up Ben as teaching him but no mention of Master/Apprentice
• There’s still a hickup that I’m trying to iron out. “Although I seem to recall your views on the Jedi’s code” The dialogue before and after…well…it’s hard tying it altogether. I’m trying to start with something general about the Jedi and segue into it being about Padme’s concern for Anakin’s safety…but also trying to keep some subtext going. Eh. That’s why the lipsync especially sucks right here. I just decided to go ahead and post it. Thoughts anyone?
• Didn’t originally plan on leaving the creepy Anakin stare at the end but I thought it worked in the new context of the scene.
• The music is temp too…but I just listened to Anakin’s theme from TPM soundtrack for the first time recently…I didn’t realize how OT sounding it was. Love it.

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.

Johannus said:

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?

@4throck
Once again, thanks for the feedback. And YES I would love to see your version. I want to see as many different versions as I can.

Anakin’s creepiness:
I would like to know if the general consensus thinks he’s still too creepy. My goal (in that instance) was to go a bit meta, referencing his creepiness in the original version PLUS attempting to have more chemistry between the two. Really, that particular idea came about when I was playing around and reversing footage. It looked funny so I found a way to use it. I sort of fell in love with that moment. BUT if the general consensus is that it’s creepy, I’ll cut it. I want to make Anakin more chill and NOT creepy at all.

As far as Anakin not being important in this movie and being a secondary character: I can’t say I agree. While it probably should have been written that way to being with (especially if you wanted to make the “I am your father” scene a surprise) it really wasn’t. My plan is to repurpose any appropriate dialogue from Anakin while changing a sh*t ton of the rest. The idea behind that is it will help make him a likable well-rounded character.

As far as Padme goes, I would argue she is a lead. Yes, she calls the shots a lot but my plan is to alter that in some cases to have Anakin do it instead.

I really want to make Anakin the “official” lead if you will. And I think it can be done. It will, at the very least, be more in line with the OT where you have Luke, Han and Liea. In this case, it’s Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme. Anakin being the link between the other two…since Obi and Padme spend very little time together.

Believe me, I’m not afraid to cut stuff. I’m already cutting that palace scene and looking at cutting more. I’ve seen people cut scenes and entire storylines out of the prequels which can work. But for this edit, I’m challenging myself to instead repurpose as much as I can to make something closer to what we all wanted…at least I hope!

I don’t believe I’ll be cutting the transport scene because I’ve been able to insert some info that I think is necessary to the plot of this movie and more so to the next. Anakin and Windu must be set up properly. And leaving these rules about “Jedi love” a bit vague works for me. It has become (in-world explanation) more of a tradition that Jedi don’t get romantically involved with others. There’s not one rule the Jedi could point to and say “See? Right here! Can’t marry!” but there are other writings that seem to indicate it. I hope to be able to fully communicate this in the edit.

Even though I disagree with some of your thoughts, this was also very helpful. Please continue to comment if you so desire.

I DO NOT want to go along blindly making this thing and it end up sucking. Again, if I get a lot of others saying similar things, I’ll reconsider just about anything. I also think it will help if I can post some more clips for more context.

@4throck
Thank you for your feedback. I can’t respond in full at the moment…it will probably be tomorrow. But thanks for taking the time to watch and type your thoughts.

IlFanEditore said:

Excuse me, what’s deepfakes?

Sorry I don’t know if you’re kidding. Deepfakes is the process of putting nic cages face on everyone else’s using a certain software I don’t understand. 😉
Here’s an interesting one
https://youtu.be/ANXucrz7Hjs

That channel has some pretty cool videos…including some tutorials.

I haven’t kept up with all of this but this last clip is working very well! I can also see where there could be a slight disconnect…Rey realizing it was R2 in her vision. But again, I do like how this is coming together. It’s very cool when essentially an entirely new scene can be made to fix and/or enhance an edit.

I finished this next clip sooner than expected.

https://youtu.be/2C9f1GyX4IQ

Let me know what you think!

I’ll let you know what I was going for:

-Added line from palace scene specifically for the “isolated” line. I don’t like the palace scene but that line sort of helps further the idea that they’ll be safer from any bounty hunting.
-Tried adding some chemistry between these two.
-Padme smiles more.
-Anakin attempts some humor (also slightly referencing original complaints about Anakin’s creepy stare…BUT is it still too creepy to leave in in this instance?)
-Tried to make Anakin a bit more “cool” if you will, with the way he speaks to Padme. In the original, he just seems too try to hard to make her like him.
-Leaving “Jedi love” rules a bit vague on purpose…making this more about Windu’s personal take on the Jedi Scriptures furthering Anakin VS Windu idea for the edit.

Is this scene working? Did anything feel “off”?

@ ben: I like the idea of Qui-Gon seeing the Sith in a vision. Probably easier to achieve than what I was originally thinking. Maybe show a vision of the Sith and cut to Qui-Gon opening his eyes (shot from the Maul battle from TPM) but instead he’s in Yoda’s chambers meditating?

I’m trying to get around to posting another clip with some more ideas BUT…

If anyone cares to, could you watch my first clip again and give me your impressions? I know most don’t care for my voice but does the dialogue and exchange work? Is there too much said off screen? Does R2 alerting the Jedi work? I’ve never seen anyone else edit it that way. It took me forever to figure out how to not only cut back and forth but to rework it so Anakin and Obi basically start at the balcony and move closer and closer to the bedroom. But does it work? Anything feel off?

Wow that looks pretty good. I didn’t realize how different the eyes are. Seriously, has anyone started messing around with deepfakes? Could something like this be done?