TriggeredPuppy

Awesome! Would love to be part of it!

PMs sent!

I got you covered man! Since my Sequel 3-in-1 got some requests, I’ve pre-emptively made Plex / media server artwork for this one. If anyone needs that, I’ll have it available!

Movies Remastered said:

Nice work dude! There’s some really interesting choices and arrangements here. Really like what you did with TFA scenes. Actually making me think about rearranging my own edit again.

How long did this take?

I started the week after the RoS bluray dropped (I had looked at the other movies prior but didn’t dig in until I had them all). I would say 2 or 3 weeks of actual editing over the course of 3 months. I had to take breaks, both to step back and re-think certain choices but also because I was going so gung-ho early on that I started giving myself mild carpal tunnel!

So glad you liked it! It was a lot of fun and I really can’t wait to see what other people do with the trilogy. There’s definitely potential for a coherent story there, the same as the prequels. Pretty sure I’ve seen some of your videos on Reddit - love how collaborative you are. Keep up the amazing work!

I want to thank orchidal for encouraging me to share info about my 3 to 1 Prequel Edit, sourced from the 1080p blu-rays. This was my first fan edit, done a couple years ago and rendered in high quality. I’ve had good feedback toward it with friends and excited now to share it here.

Big Picture

The Episode I Duel of The Fates lightsaber battle is used as the assassination attempt on Senator Amidala that leads into Episode II. From there, it’s a very condensed Ep II with no Tatooine, no missing planets and significantly shortened action set pieces. Episode III is shortened to the essentials but only slightly altered (no death by broken heart, no flying R2, etc)

Total Run Time of 2 hours 29 minutes
Ep 1 @ 0:05:30 or 3.7%
Ep 2 @ 0:46:30 or 31%
Ep 3 @ 1:29:00 or 60%
Custom crawl + credits @ 0:08:00 or 5.3%

Goals

I meant for this version to be seen with Machete Order viewing. One movie that can be watched between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. If you want more info about this viewing order go here - https://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/

So my first goal was there couldn’t be Ep VI spoilers (success - though I left enough for people to infer some future revelations)

A big thing for me was that this needed to be a replacement for watching the movies with a new viewer. So the plot had to make sense without having seen the full movies. I was mostly successful. I didn’t want to drastically change the story, just condense it. You have to accept a few leaps of logic and Obi Wan changing his hair style in the first 10 minutes of the movie (the end of Ep 1 is the intro - sorry, no pod racing or yippees).

The next goal I set was it had to have a shorter runtime than the longest SW movie. Last Jedi made my life much easier as it clocked in at 2 hours 32 minutes with credits. I got mine to 2:29 - success! Pacing isn’t perfect but I pared down a lot of the actions scenes to keep it from just being set piece after set piece. Particularly in Episode II.

Another goal was to remove Jar Jar. Though that’s not quite possible (he’s in some crucial scenes), I was already going to take out all his dialogue (removing 90% of Episode I helped) and ended up being easier than I thought. Success! Similarly, I wanted to see if I could make the Trade Ministers not speak. Along with Jar Jar, they’re the other most annoying and mildly racist portrayal in the series. I got them down to only four lines.

Here was the big goal - make Annakin less annoying. What I found was, the more of his dialogue you cut out, the more tolerable he gets. There are some scenes I just cut in half. Like, he’s kind of okay for the first half of the scene and then devolves into child-like whining for the second half. Get rid of that and he’s okay! Also, lost any mention of his intolerance to sand. In fact, I got rid of Tatooine completely.

Final note - so many transitions! There were so many scenes that went through 5 wide shots to go from one location to another. I hadn’t seen the movies in a while so I had completely forgot. That really shaved down a surprising amount of minutes to just cut those transitions down to two shots each.

The biggest issue is some of the music transitions.

Hope everyone enjoys - would love to hear your thoughts!

I’ve gotten a few requests on Reddit, Youtube and DMs for artwork to use with Plex or other media servers. I’m no graphic designer but I put together a really minimalist poster. I’ve added it as a link in the Youtube video description I posted above. Thanks for the encouragement!

Oasissky said:

This is the most ambitious of any sequel trilogy edit I’ve seen. And I love it.

SPOILERS

Right away General Hux is using the starkiller weapon. By starting with this I feel this scene has more impact , and we get that the First Order is as strong as the empire or even stronger, and must be dealt with.

Leia and Han from the beginning are fighting on together with the Resistance in the midst of planning their attacks on the first order. We know right away that Kylo is Han and Leia’s son. We see that Rey is with the Resistance and Leia has trained her. Finn and Poe are also just Resistance fighters along with Han and Leia also.

I love seeing Leia and Han so early in this. It just works better for me continuing on from ROTJ. Taking the Emperor out of the movies works better for me also.

I would like to see this edit tinkered more with so that the cuts flow better because obviously the amount of cutting is enormous with this edit.

Really appreciate hearing such positive feedback! You’re seeing all the things I was trying to put on screen.

Definitely ended up being a lot of work - I started as soon as the blu-ray released and hoped to have it done in time for May the 4th. Ended up giving myself mild carpal tunnel so had to slow down!

Audio transitions really are the only area of criticism I’ve gotten so far. They’re absolutely the biggest obstacle - I feel great about some but there are others that just don’t have much room for improvement without grabbing the full soundtrack and matching up music cues with scenes. It’ll take a bit more time and gusto, but I’m not opposed to trying to up the quality!

Yorick said:

Maybe you could say in the opening crawl:

“The remnants of the old empire have gathered near the ruins of the second Death Star”

This would explain why Rey and Kylo travel there at the end of the movie.

There is no opening crawl. I’ve envisioned this cut as a Star Wars story, more in line with Rogue One. One interpretation I like is that Kylo Ren was obsessed with his grandfather so he uses his connection to Rey to subtly influence her into meeting him there. You’ll have to watch the edit to see how it plays out! PM me if you want a link.

I’ve gotten a few PMs looking for more info. If anyone wants to know more about the editing process and creative choices, here’s a Youtube video my friend and I made about the project - https://youtu.be/NkLiYY3pvt4

Yorick said:

If there is no Palpatine and no wayfinders why are Rey at Kylo at the Death Star ruins?

In my hopeful head canon, it’s because fate has brought them there. In my cynical head cannon, it’s because there’s no way to escape the choices Disney made 😃

You definitely have to give some dramatic license and a few character assumptions, particularly in the third act. We’ve had great response thus far so hopefully you enjoy the cut as well!

Yorick said:

Sounds interesting. Is the climax of your edit Rey and Kylo fighting on the Death Star II ruins while the rebel fleet battle the first order above Exogal?

That’s exactly it! I crosscut that light saber battle in place of all the Palpatine scenes. Slightly more involved but that’s the gist of the new ending.

Hello, there!

I posted this over at the Reddit fan edit sub to very positive response. A user commented on Youtube and encouraged me to create a listing here. While I’m new to the site, I’m well aware of OriginalTrilogy.com - please let me know if there’s a better / standard way information is usually presented.

My edit (sourced from the episode VII-IX blu-rays) drastically alters Rey and Kylo’s characters and completely changes the ending. I feel strongly that the first 6 movies are self contained. So my edit most appropriately resembles Rogue One or Solo in that it tells a less essential but still entertaining story in the Star Wars universe. Hence the title First Order, Last Jedi - A Star Wars Story.

My main goal

Tell a compelling, coherent Star Wars story in the space of one movie, cutting over seven hours of film down to just under 2.5 hours (though I never had to limit the length, I felt it cheating if it became longer than any existing Star Wars movie).

The second goal

To give Rey and Kylo proper character arcs. Rey’s acceptance of her destiny with the Force. Kylo’s descent to the dark side. To accomplish both, it was always my intent to remove Palpatine entirely.

The big picture / major changes

My story begins with the destruction of the republic. The remnants of the military and government by default become a resistance. Through Leia, Rey is already a Jedi in training. But she’s holding onto her past while uncertain where her destiny with the force leads. The first act is a condensed telling of Force Awaken’s second half with scenes from Rise of Skywalker inserted.

The second act has Rey seeking Luke’s help in fighting the First Order. The resistance goes on the run, constantly trying to buy time while they attempt to get word of the threat to their allies. Canto Bight is completely removed as well as the mutiny sub plot. Otherwise it’s a condensed version of Last Jedi with the misplaced humor softened or removed.

While individual scenes of Rise of Skywalker are used earlier in the edit, the third act is an absolute Frankenstein of RoS scenes. Rey has a final showdown with the now unredeemable Kylo Ren as the resistance makes a desperate attack on the First Order fleet, hoping their messages have reached the rest of the galaxy in time.

Total Run Time - 2 hours 23 minutes

Consisting of (approximately) -

23% Episode 7 (33 minutes)

51% Episode 8 (73 minutes)

20% Episode 9 (29 minutes)

Credits @ 8 minutes or 6%

Arbitrary rules

I limited myself solely to footage from Episodes 7-9. The only manipulation I did was one scene of color correction (to match the look of Exegol), one reversed shot and one mirrored shot. I also inserted a couple lines OS (off screen) that helped with exposition. However, I allowed myself to use music and voice over from any Disney related Star Wars properties. Specifically, the opening uses music from Rogue One and VO from Mandalorian to give context to the rise of the First Order.

Shortcomings

Character introductions are minimal or missing, so there is a certain benefit of having seen at least Force Awakens before watching my edit, though definitely not essential and my story vastly changes the plot and some of the characters. It’s sorta assumed you’ve seen the original trilogy.

As with any fan edit, especially one that remixes the original material so much, there are inevitable continuity issues. I avoided major characters being in two inconsistent places at once but some minor characters show up in the background in places they seemingly shouldn’t be. Also there are erratic costume and hair changes occasionally.

Random thoughts

I made it a small goal to keep Kylo’s face concealed until Han confronts him. It was important to me to keep a sense of mystery about his appearance until that moment. I also added back the Luke mourning scene that was cut from Last Jedi. Such a great deleted scene!

I really made every effort to have high quality audio transitions between scenes. Without access to the music stems, there are limits to what can be done, but I’m satisfied with what I was able to accomplish here. It forced me to create some really engaging moments where sound drops out and it’s only music taking you through a short emotional section of a scene.

Similarly, I really strove to connect the emotional beats of the story together. When Rey is hitting her emotional lows, I wanted to match that with the resistance. I’m really proud of some of the cross cutting I was able to accomplish throughout.

My only disappointment is having to cut the bombing run scene from Last Jedi. There’s an earlier draft where I had it during the climactic battle and the tone was there but it dragged the ending a little long and cut Finn’s big moment. Plus, despite being edited with Exogol shots it still was a little jarring in how different it looked. Too bad because at least the bombs made more sense being dropped in atmosphere - and I love the emotions in that scene!

Random complaint - I did a similar (though less ambitious) Prequel trilogy edit a while back and noticed the overabundance of planetary transition scenes in those movies. George Lucas loves that stuff! The opposite was true with the Sequel trilogy. There was sometimes a frustrating lack of shots showing people moving from location to location!