SpenceEdit

mrbenja0618 said:

I love the cuts here, but I’m afraid I liked this far less than you, but this still looks interesting.

Oh trust me, I had many issues with it. It’s my least favorite of the D+ shows so far. Maybe tied with Fett.

This was absolutely intended to be a movie. It’s too easy to see the structure. It’s kind of amazing how much better things start to click with a little pacing injected into it.

Unfortunately I can’t do a whole lot about the abysmal cinematography and action direction.

I know that there’s a ton of edits of this floating around, but I’ve been quietly taking a stab at it as well. I’ll try to give some detail here about what might make mine different.

The big stuff:

• The edit runs roughly 2 hours 21 minutes.
• I tried to envision what this would’ve looked like if it was a movie as originally intended as opposed to a stretched out miniseries. The majority of notable plot points are retained.
• Reva is still there, but the last we see of her is getting stabbed on Jabim. It’s implied that she’s dead, but left ambiguous enough that she could show up for further adventures. The whole Lars farmstead sequence is excised.
• I cut the training duel flashback, and many other instances of seeing Vader out of the suit. The only time I kept was when he and Kenobi are both in their bacta tanks. I think holding off on showing Anakin makes the broken helmet moment stronger. It also screams of “scene that was cool that we cut that we can now add back in because it’s a series”
• I removed the initial Order 66 flashback, keeping Reva’s motivations less obvious.

Smaller details:

• I kept my eye on pacing and making this feel like an actual movie with a three act structure. There are huge chunks cut, but also more subtle changes that just trim a line or even a few seconds from a scene.
• A few, very selective scenes bring in some original Star Wars music. I didn’t want to go too heavy on this, but Leia’s theme and Imperial March make appearances.
• Selectively added some Gradient wipes as scene transitions.
• Episode 2 probably gets the most cuts. The entire rooftop sequence is excised, and Reva never puts the bounty out on Kenobi. It can be implied through other dialogue that the Inquisitors put the city on lockdown and have people looking for them. Almost every scene in this section got a little trim.
• The first Vader duel got some trims for pacing, and to minimize the silliness of Kenobi running away a bunch of times.
• The rescue from the castle is also heavily trimmed, and Kenobi does not find the frozen bodies. I thought that was cool, but it doesn’t go anywhere with regard to the rest of the plot.
• Tala’s scene with Reva is also much shorter. She doesn’t try to play the double agent card.
• The battle on Jabim is much tighter. It doesn’t feel like the Stormtroopers miss a million easy shots anymore.
• Kenobi’s decision to leave the rebels and lure Vader happens a bit faster to keep the pace high.
• There are some trims to the big duel. But they were mainly to make the scene flow together well after cutting Reva stuff.
• I added the standard Star Wars end credits music.

Generally, it’s the same plot as the show, just shrunk down to the necessities to fit a movie length and pace. I’m currently finishing up the audio editing so this should be done fairly soon.

If you have any questions about what I kept or changed, just let me know!

Tantive3+1 said:

This is something that I would like to see in a TLJ fan edit

https://youtu.be/Jkr9iGBdyQo

That’s actually really cool. I wonder if the creator of that would share a full quality file for faneditors to use? I love it, and if I ever tackled TLJ I’d definitely want to use it.

I based The Final Order edit on HAL’s TFA and theatrical TLJ (I like it as is).

All files have been updated to Version 2 of this edit.

The differences:

• Added a short title card for V2 so you know which version you’re watching.
• The little bit of the old crawl that was still barely visible has been removed.
• Palpatine’s explanation of spirit transfer is returned to the end of the movie where it was originally. Both major emperor scenes now have a bit more meat on the bones as this change allowed me to make the changes smoother and retain more shots/dialogue.
• The Leia death scene now has different music and ambient sound, and the Leia footage has been brightened to match the Rey footage.
• Multiple video and audio transitions have been smoothed or completely reworked.
• Audio has been improved for Kylo’s dialogue replacement, and I added a new line as he disappears.
• The initial reaction to Hux’s spy reveal has been reinserted, but shortened a little for pacing.
• Rey no longer says she’s going to find Palpatine and destroy him. Her reaction to the Sith whispers triggers BB-8 and Finn to respond.
• Transition from Ben on the Death Star to Rey burning the tie fighter had been lengthened so it’s less abrupt.
• Added a new shot of Rey when Luke sits next to her to fix the incorrect eyeline.

The big improvements here are the better audio editing and the new score for Leia’s death scene, but I made a ton of tiny little adjustments as I went back through it.

I’m much happier with this version and barring some new revelatory idea that will improve the whole thing, I’m ready to move on to new projects. So V2 is most likely gonna be the final version.

New test! I reworked Leia’s death again, this time to make all of the audio a little more deliberate. I removed the score from all the dialogue I needed to use MI-2 style. Then, I combined two different tracks that fit the tone fairly well but could also blend together fairly easily. I think I like this better, and with some further iteration it may be the way this looks in V2.

https://vimeo.com/710976054

I’ve decided not to include the above clip with more Leia footage. Conceptually it’s helpful, but the flow of everything gets thrown off by it.

During the Leia death scene, I’ve swapped the last shots of Rey and Kylo. A lot of feedback told me I should have them the way I have them now, but it doesn’t feel right on my gut. Going from Rey’s reaction to Kylo’s reaction, then down to the Falcon just feels better/right to me. I can’t really explain it. As Finn says, it’s a feeling.

I’ve got a few other things I’m toying with, so this V2 should be ready for next month. It’s not a huge revolutionary difference. The biggest change is to the two big Palpatine scenes. So if you were pretty happy with V1, V2 isn’t a requirement.

Getting the new audio file for V1 because I messed up rendering the surround panning, however, is definitely a requirement! That file is available as a standalone AC3, which you can then mux to the version you already have with a program like MKVtoolNix. All the files have also been updated with the new audio file.

I think it works fine as is, but I too would probably switch the Rey close up for her attacking angrily or something.

Anakin Starkiller said:

You say that like destroying it with a star destroyer is better than doing it with Starkiller Base.

Depending on one’s goals with the edit, it could be. You could also use the footage to show them destroying just the particular city part of Hosnian Prime without blowing up the whole planet.

BrotherOfSasquatch said:

I dig this idea. Also, knowing how a lot of TROS fan edits have cut out the Kijimi destruction footage, editors could now use some of that footage to show how FO Star Destroyers are blitzkrieging worlds.

I know there’s multiple edits that try to remove the idea of Starkiller base being a superweapon. Theoretically, you could still do the destruction of Hosnian Prime but use footage of Kijimi’s destruction instead.

Could you just… use BD-1’s sound effects for D-O?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTU_jQipee0&ab_channel=Lucasfan375

Just want to point our that RogueLeader should get the props for the Hanger scene. That’s 99% their work!

My original idea with this was to open the movie with Leia’s little funeral, but there wasn’t a good way to involve the main characters in that, which makes it feel even more obviously edited.

NeverarGreat said:

I’m not terribly familiar with TROS, but would it be possible to have Rey leave for the obstacle course and right after that have Leia collapse, as if she wanted to spare Rey the knowledge of her illness? Then we would view the entire course as build up to an inevitable reveal.

This is a fantastic idea but the material isn’t there. What I included there is basically all there is.

I’m testing out an idea, this is very rough.

Basically, I wanted to try and establish that something is up with Leia before her actual death scene so it doesn’t come out of nowhere. I don’t know that this is a change I NEED to do, but I think it might help with the choppiness at the beginning of the edit.

Here’s a test clip of the concept:

https://vimeo.com/707256580

Obviously I’d have to tidy up the audio transition and add ambient sound, but do you think this is worth pursuing?

All versions have been updated with the fixed audio track. Again, the audio track is also available on it’s own if you just want to remux it to the version you may have already obtained. It’ll work for any of the sizes.

Now that that’s been solved, here’s some stuff I’m doing for Version 2:

• The little bit of old crawl text that snuck into the background has been eliminated.

• Palpatine’s line about killing him and passing on his spirit has been moved back to the end of the movie, where it originally took place. This clarifies Palpatine’s plans a bit more, but also makes Rey seem less clueless. I have reverted his line at the beginning back to the “unnatural abilities” thing he originally said. The editing around both of these scenes is a little less choppy now because I could retain more shots of Palpatine.

• The color/brightness/contrast of Leia’s death scene is adjusted to better match the daylight scenes with Rey. I can’t do much about the rain in the background, but it can be assumed this is just water from inside the cave. It at least now looks like it’s roughly the same time of day.

• The transition from leaving on the Falcon to Kylo and the Knights of Ren flying to the Star Destroyer has been reworked to be a little less sudden.

• Some tweaks to the dialogue replacement in the Force Bond fight to give Kylo more purpose in the scene, beyond taunting Rey. It’s not much, but it’s a little more context and makes it feel less rushed.

• I put the initial reaction to Hux being the spy back in. I still hate it, but cutting it just makes it feel disjointed. Can’t win 'em all.

• Rey’s line about finding and destroying Palpatine has been removed. The idea was to make her intentions a little murky, but it didn’t really work. Also, murky intentions aren’t a particularly “Star Warsy” notion, especially for the main character. Now she hears the Sith whisper and reacts to it, which triggers Finn to try to comfort her.

• The transition from Ben on the Death Star to Rey on Ach-To has been reworked to be a bit smoother.

I’ve received feedback on some other things as well, but I’m not changing everything that’s been mentioned. Some of it I’m fine with as-is, and some of it is a deliberate choice that I like. I want this to be the best it can be, but I also want it to remain “The Spence Edit.”

I’m certain that a lot of the work from this is going to find it’s way into future fanedits. I know HAL9000 is doing a Rey Nobody version of Ascendent that will incorporate a lot of the things I did here, just as I used a lot of the work from his edit for this. That’s the fun part of Star Wars edits. We borrow and steal from each other to make new things. If there’s something I did here that I’m not intending to change that irks you, by all means, borrow and steal!

I figured out what was causing the surround panning issues and have fixed it. I’m uploading new versions to replace the old versions.

If you already downloaded it, I have also uploaded the Ac3 file on its own so you don’t have to get the whole thing again. You can just use MKVtoolnix or a similar program to replace the audio track.

The Ac3 track on its own has already been added to the folder, the updated versions of the movie should be on there later.

I want to note that this is NOT a V2 of this edit, it’s the same as the one I released last week. It’s just got a new audio file that greatly improves the surround sound panning.

Since this is an alt version I’d recommend doing whatever your heart tells you, Hal.

Yellow lightning. Pink lightsabers. Replace all the tie fighters with flamingos. Give Poe a sombrero throughout.

Unrelated, I think I have vacation on my mind.

So I’ve received some wonderful feedback so far that will inevitable find it’s way into a version 2 of this.

Can anyone thinking of a line of dialogue from Palpatine where he says either “find” or “bring me” from anything?

It’s funny you bring up reverting the Force Essence stuff to the third act, as that was something I was arguing with myself about. Maybe I’ll have to do that in my inevitable V2.

It’s something a lot of people don’t think about when making suggestions. I need something to cut to!

Apparently Abrams doesn’t believe in insert shots or cutaways, or anything that can establish a space.

The biggest issue with this scene is there’s nothing to cut to except close ups of Rey. So whatever you do is going to feel a bit jumbled, because the only thing to mask the line change with is a 2 second shot of Rey looking stern.

That’s a good idea! I have a feeling there will be a V2 down the line anyway, so I’ll keep that in mind.

I appreciate the enthusiasm for this edit I’ve received so far. And thank you to those that have reached out about it!

The edit is now listed on the IFDB. If you have watched the edit, I would ask that you spare a few moments to leave a review there.

It’s not just so I can get your feedback, which I absolutely want. The more reviews something gets on IFDB, the more visibility it gets. The reviews help spread the word!

https://ifdb.fanedit.org/star-wars-episode-ix-the-final-order/