SpenceEdit

Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

I just watched this again today. I’m not sure if Spence will ever consider a V4 of this. But here is my feedback:

• As mentioned above, there is a technical glitch at 1:29:49.

• Another technical thing that is a bigger undertaking… replace the source files with HQ rips from the 4K release. Colors are much better and this will help greatly with artifacts and crushed blacks from the Disney+ rip

• The musical cue when Leia is taken is a bit overdone. Maybe silence is better here? Some quieter echoey stings perhaps?

• There needs to be some explanation as to WHY Vader doesn’t continue pursuing Kenobi after their first fight. An AI line could help here, but what the reason is, I’m not sure. Maybe an AI line for a Stormtrooper stating that Reva has Leia and then Vader says something like: “Kenobi will come back to us.”

• Palpatine. This scene is essential to explain why Vader stops hunting Obi-Wan. It should go between the final Leia goodbye scene and the scene of Obi-Wan packing up to go meet Luke.

I don’t intend on a V4 except to maybe fix that black frame glitch that’s been mentioned. I’m otherwise happy with the edit.

TheDimitrios said:

The Ronin Black and White version is quite nice. The lack of color and top layer grain hides a lot of little imperfections in the sets and effects that pulled me out of the show originally. Pacing is quite fast and very cool solution for the lightsaber color change scene.

Thanks! Honestly I really like how the Ronin version turned out.

Quick update on this, I was never quite happy with the picture quality of this edit. The best quality source was also in 10-bit color, and I had a real hell of a time getting it to look right. I still don’t think it looks 100% right, with a blurry/smudgy quality to the colors.

I’ve now re-rendered the edit using a different source. It’s slightly lower quality, but the color was 8-bit and, to me, looks significantly better than the old version. The colors look right and it has a nice grain to it. I added a little brightness and a boost to the midtones to get it looking a little more vivid.

No other changes were made to the edit, other than redoing a couple of effects and upscales to replicate the old edit. So same thing, just looks better now.

I’m also toying with doing a B&W version that would give it the feel of an old Samurai movie with high contrast and deep blacks/bright whites. Not sure when I’ll get to do that, but could be fun!

arabian said:

I overall agree with this. My only changes would be:

TFA: Cut down some of the ratthar (sp?) attack.

TLJ: Cut Leia slapping Poe. If their genders were changed in ANY way, the slap would never happen.

Also, split some of the Canto Bight scenes in between the other set pieces instead of it happening in one long block. That gives it time to breathe, and integrates it with the rest of the action, as opposed to seeming like an outlier.

It’s really down to personal preference, honestly. I enjoy the Rathtar sequence so I left it mostly intact, and I think spreading Canto Bight out actually makes it worse, because you lose any pacing or momentum that the sequence is building.

Matt.F said:

Thanks very much for the link Spence, I just watched it this evening and really enjoyed it. The pace is considerably improved and more kinetic, and having only seen the film once before I didn’t have exacting knowledge of what you cut but for the most part it wasn’t missed and the movie still ‘worked’ in its shortened form.

There were just two exceptions where it felt like we went from A to C without passing B. Dementus (now ‘The Red’) showing up to attack the Citadel (which we’re seeing and hearing about for the first time), that lost me a bit and maybe needed some explanation. Later the scene with Praetorian Jack saying he’d teach Furiosa, and then the next scene he says words to the effect of I’ve taught you all I know - I wonder if there was a way to add a sense of ‘passage of time’ to better bridge those two scenes?

I liked what you did near the end of the film by repurposing the war montage, it now played out as Dementus’ forces being wiped out by Immortan Joe in one fell swoop. At the films very end I felt you could go even further with the cuts, it still feels slow with too much monologuing. Perhaps it could work well that after Furiosa snips the teddy off his groin you segue straight into the final shot of withered Dementus with the fruit tree growing out of him? Just a thought.

Regardless of these small suggestions it’s an entertaining and very effective edit. It keeps all the good stuff and modestly trims a bit of the fat, thanks for putting the effort in, it’s a big thumbs up from me!

Thanks for the feedback! I honestly wasn’t sure if that jump to the Citadel would work, but I thought I’d try it anyway. I don’t know that the context for why he’s there or why he’s red is really needed, but if that’s the general feedback I’d consider adding some scenes back in.

As far as the Praetorian Jack stuff, I actually didn’t cut anything in there so that’s how it plays in the original version too.

My argument for not cutting any of the climactic scene with Furiosa and Dementus is that I actually think it’s a really strong, really well acted scene. It could technically be trimmed down, but I think my personal preference is to let it breathe.

Please send me a DM for any link requests. Also, slight delay as I found a video issue in my current version. I’m fixing that then I’ll re-upload.

This is done!

Here’s a few sample clips!

This is the opening chase through the desert, significantly paired down and with some added background music from Fury Road to make it more intense and pacey:

https://streamable.com/5wzlad

This is the first part of the war rig chase. I didn’t do many edits to this as I think the scene is great already, but I did add some music from Fury Road:

https://streamable.com/hdjlja

And this is my version of the ending. I’m still working on this and trying to decide if it’s what I want to do with it. Shortened, no narration, new music from Fury Road:

https://streamable.com/gqtf2e

Imgur

Mad Max Fury Road is one of my favorite movies, and personally I regard it as the best action film since The Matrix. Nothing has dethroned it yet (Though M:I-Fallout got close).

So needless to say, I was very excited to hear that George Miller was returning to the world for a prequel about Furiosa. What an excellent cast! The trailer looks great! It was my most anticipated film last year.

I was severely disappointed. Though the cast was great and the additional world building was interesting, I found myself checking my watch through it’s extended run-time, never really engaging with the film and feeling like it never got off the ground. I wasn’t just disappointed, I was kind of heart broken.

I’ve spent the time since seeing the movie trying to figure out what exactly didn’t work for me, and it comes down to my favorite word: pacing. That lean and mean momentum and energy of Fury Road had been replaced with a bloated run-time, needless scenes, stops and starts, and the movie never fully gets in motion. An incredible mid-film action sequence on the war rig comes too late and doesn’t do enough to keep the movie moving forward. It’s just too long, too slow, and lacks oomph.

futon88 made a great edit of the film already that I encourage you to check out, but my intentions are a bit more aggressive.

So I’m giving a fanedit a go, with the intention of getting the movie down to 2 hours or less and replicating as much as possible that momentum that Fury Road carried with it. That means I’ve got to cut roughly 30 minutes, so a lot is being ejected, but I’m hopeful that the movie may feel more satisfying for those that felt it didn’t quite work like I did.

Some overall notes:

• Cut the narration, chapter title cards, subtitles for locations, and anything else that needlessly stops the film.

• Cut quite a lot of the over-explaining of the wasteland, part of it’s charm is that George Miller is the only person that really understands it.

• Speed up the first half of the movie significantly to get to adult Furiosa sooner. The majority of the cuts to the film will happen before the war-rig sequence.

• Significantly increase the pacing of Furiosa’s kidnapping and the desert chase that follows.

• Cut Dementus finding the wayward War Boy in the desert. We don’t really need to know why he’s decided to attack the Citadel.

• Cut Dementus coming up with the “disguised war boys” plan after capturing the war-rig from Gas Town. We get all the information we need when we see them enacting the plan.

• After Furiosa escapes from Rictus, jump forward to her already being embedded with the the black thumbs as they start work on the war rig.

• Remove references to how long the war with Dementus is, and speed up the section where she makes her robotic arm and cuts her hair.

• Cut from “I need a vehicle” to Furiosa already pursuing Dementus.

• Cut the “multiple deaths” of Dementus, going straight from the desert to him under the tree.

• Various micro-cuts for pacing throughout.

• Slight adjustments to saturation and film grain, and the addition of some slight camera shake to certain shots to give the film a less “digital” look.

I’ve already got the movie down to exactly 2 hours, but I need to go through and make sure I haven’t “over cut” it and that the emotional beats still resonate. This one isn’t far off from release.

MiDKnighT said:

Dumb question. I noticed there is a 3gb version of TPM and an 18gb version of TPM. It looks like the resolution and FPS are the same. What are you actually gaining with the 18gb version?

It’s just a higher bitrate. The bigger file is closer to blu-ray quality. I like to provide both since I know bandwith/storage can be at a premium for some. They both look good but the bigger one is significantly better.

Hey! Thanks for the feedback.

The Anakin/Jar Jar stuff is to taste, and most edits do remove a lot more of them than I did. I personally feel that too much of them is cut out in most edits, which makes everything feel disjointed. I’d rather have a few silly moments that make the whole better.

Also, your idea of the force battle with Dooku/Yoda is actually what a lot of other edits do, famously HAL9000’s. So a version like that does exist. Not sure about the senate fight. I don’t feel that we should cut away from the Anakin/Obi-Wan fight as it’s much more consequential. The Palpatine fight is cool but doesn’t really add anything.

Personally, I prefer to only see Yoda fight when he absolutely has to in ROTS when he’s threatened by the stormtroopers. It’s a similar payoff to seeing him fight in AOTC but to me, is more effective. As you said, you’ve watched bits and pieces, whereas that change is meant to payoff if you watch the whole thing.

Glad Order 66 worked for you, that was a real pain to get right!

My duel is pretty close to HAL’s but I cut a bit more than he did, while keeping some stuff he cut.

potty meister said:

I am a big fan of these edits. However, the added film grain and color adjustments to the picture take me a bit out of it. Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way…maybe not. Would there be any chance of putting a version out there without the picture adjustments?

The intention was to bring them more in-line with the look of 35mm film. Rather, to make them fit better with 4K77-83. I’m pretty happy with the result and don’t intend to release any alternate versions (other than the version of AOTC without the Kenobi series scene.)

Jar Jar Bricks said:

How would you say this compares to Smudger’s edit (just based on their description assuming you haven’t seen it)?

I haven’t seen it, but it sounds very different!

The big one is I included a lot more of the flashbacks and peppered them throughout the story at targeted points. I didn’t worry too much about aligning the lore or making the Jedi look more positive.

My edit is really the show, as a movie. So no major changes to characters or plot points. It’s also quite a bit shorter than smudger9’s. This is a faster, more intense, higher paced version of the story that feels like a Star Wars movie.

smudger9’s edit sounds very cool, just a completely different take to what I was trying to do.

Sorry for the silence here, I had another project to finish up and have been quietly fine tuning this edit.

The good news is, I’m ready to release this!

The edit came in a little under 2 hours and 21 minutes, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Final renders are happening today, assuming I don’t find any major issues I’ll be uploading and am ready to start sharing.

If you want to watch the edit, PLEASE just send me a private message, do not spam this thread with “can I get a link?.” Requests made this way will be ignored. Please send a private message to me and I’ll get you set up.

Loveableleif said:

Have you ever thought of making a 2 part movie edit of Ahsoka?

I think you could really make that show a whole lot more watchable, Just as you did with Kenobi.

In all honesty, I didn’t think Ahsoka was very good, so not really. There’s just not enough there. Almost every emotional or story beat is completely dependent on having seen Clone Wars/ Rebels. There’s not enough to it to have it be something good on it’s own merits.

Taking my personal tastes out of it, Ahsoka actually does feel like a television series, so it’s harder to cut that into a movie that actually feels like a movie. Kenobi and Acolyte work because they feel like movie concepts that got stretched out into series.

21C Peasant said:

SpenceEdit said:
I wanted to throw my hate in the ring.

A typo, a play on words, or a Freudian slip? We may never know.

Typo! I did genuinely enjoy the show, more than most people seemed to.

If I had to rank:

1. Andor
2. Mando Seasons 1-2
3. The Acolyte
4. Obi-Wan Kenobi
5. Book of Boba Fett
6. Ahsoka
7. Mando Season 3

dgraham414 said:

I wonder if there’s a way to interweve the past fight on Brendok with the finale fight between Darth Smiles and Master Sol

I played with that, but it was too confusing since the Mae/Osha fight is also interweaved there. I have that final flashback placed right before everyone heads to Brendok and I think it sits there well.

SUDOKU9 said:

SpenceEdit said:

… I still want to work on the sequence where Torbin and Sol leave the camp, as I’m trying to make it clear that they’re just going together, as opposed to Sol chasing Torbin.

I don’t know about this, I think Sol “chasing” after Torbing to stop him, and then just deciding to help him is really good at highlighting how irresponsible and higher-than-thou Sol is

It is! But “I just want to go home” is a really flimsy motivation, and I would need to spend at least 10 minutes of running time establishing that.

Sorry for the silence, this is still very much in the works!

I’m working on another project with the Red Apple Crew over at FE and that’s taking up a lot of time. The majority of the work I’m doing on Acolyte right now is tiny cuts for pacing and polishing up. I’ll probably have this out by the end of the year.

Here’s a look at a longer sequence, this is the final “truth” flashback slotted into the film. The sequence runs about 10 minutes, the longest of the flashbacks, but I think it covers everything needed. I still want to work on the sequence where Torbin and Sol leave the camp, as I’m trying to make it clear that they’re just going together, as opposed to Sol chasing Torbin.

https://streamable.com/65esy0

(If you have seen the workprint, this sequence was heavily updated)

I also want to get ahead of a few things, just because I know they will be commented on. A few of the “woke” things, or other things certain people complained about are going to be cut from my edit, but that’s absolutely not the reason why.

• The reference to Osha’s mothers is cut because the flashbacks have been so condensed that it adds confusion.

• The fire on the outside of the space ship is cut because I moved a flashback to right before that sequence, making it redundant.

• Ki-Adi Mundi’s line about the Sith is cut because that scene was heavily condensed for time.

I have no problem with representation in Star Wars, nor did the pedantic and bad faith complaints about other things bother me at all. Star Wars is better when it’s inclusive, when anyone can enjoy it. Complaining about scientific accuracy in a series about space wizards and hairy dog dudes is silly. None of these cuts were done to appease the fake outrage fans.

So the trick with the flashbacks being interspersed throughout the series is finding a natural way to transition to them. I think I’ve found something that works.

Whenever a flashback starts, it always transitions from a shot of Sol. Whenever the flashback ends, it transitions into a shot of Osha waking up. The only exception is the final “the real story” one, which starts with Sol having Mae captured, and ends with Osha approaching the Sith mask.

So there’s a consistent language to the flashbacks. They always bridge Sol and Osha together.

I’m going to make the first 3rd of this edit available for previews this week, so if you’d like to see it, send me a message.

Jar Jar Bricks said:

The problem with that is Quimir clearly registers something in his head (based upon his facial expression) when Sol mentions that the witches used the Force/vergence to create life. The impression being that he knows what his master is capable of, and the pieces are starting to come together for him. All of the language and acting in that scene is hinting at the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.

And while I do get what you’re saying about the focus being pulled from Mae when his cameo is shifted to the end, at least it explains why we don’t see anymore from those two characters going forward. If there is no looming/controlling threat above them, then we as the audience have to assume they get up to more dark side shenanigans leading to TPM without ever being discovered. This show already stretches the viewer’s suspension of disbelief quite a bit.

This is an excellent point. I’ll toy with it.

AbramPT said:

Excited to see where you go with this!!

Maybe I’m just bitter about them cancelling any plans for Season 2, but regarding Plagueis, I would just cut him entirely. Try to keep this movie as self-contained as possible, ya know? Don’t tempt the audience with something that will never be 😭

I’m honestly toying with that. The scene it happens in is largely unimportant and could shave a few minutes off the runtime. Right now it’s in. The edit is running 2 hours 26 minutes as of now, right around the same length as my Kenobi edit, and it feels pretty good at that length. So if I end up putting something back in, Plagueis is likely the first thing to go.

Jar Jar Bricks said:

What are your plans concerning the ending? No to Yoda, yes to Plagueis, etc.?

No Yoda, and we don’t see Mae again after she gets picked up by the Jedi (“What did I do?”). There’s a shortened sequence of Vernestra lying to the high council, and then it’s straight to Osha and Qimir.

I’m probably just going to leave the Plagueis hint where it is. I tried moving it to the end, with him looking at them on the beach, and it kind of stifles the ending a bit. The focus gets pulled from Osha, which I feel like is important.