I haven’t looked very deeply into the making of TLJ but at some point I was led to believe the original cut was longer and some scenes were moved around at some point. Not atypical but I did personally find the final pacing odd, maybe tightening the already longest episode so far in the saga accounts for some of the character motivations not feeling perfectly in sync for everyone? Depending on how things were moved.

I think a reason they revealed Palpatine aside from his current meme street cred is they feel safe showing things from the OT that fans recognize and build hype on while saving the new stuff, Lando wasn’t hidden, but the character of “the oracle” I don’t think we’ll see in any trailer.

Hal 9000 said:

When acting in the capacity of Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren dons the ceremonial golden Snoking jacket.

Hal 9000 said:

Render the opening crawls in Aurebesh.

This is one of those so stupid it might work kind of ideas…

DominicCobb said:

SilverWook said:

I thought Jabba was well developed for a slimy piece of worm ridden filth. 😉

I agree, he was as developed as his role required.

And this is not what I feel from Maz

Agree shoehorned is the wrong way to put it, but these side characters really have only had about the same development going into the third film as maybe Jabba or Greedo from the OT, I want to connect, but I feel like I’m seeing more concepts of characters than full bodied established ones, I really need to see IX to declare one way or the other on a lot of the new characters.

I’m in the release order camp, love the amount of consideration into the question! Honestly the best thing you wrote was letting the kids go through it at their own pace and not try to marathon them. Considering the ages I think now is the right point to take your time letting them soak in the originals, uninterrupted, they won’t be able to appreciate the prequels in the middle of the OT. I would save those for maybe three years older after they are already invested, then I would be prepared for the oldest to even prefer the prequels for a brief time. But at a certain point I would just feed them whatever Star Wars they wanted, if they’re brought up with the OT I think that will resonate the most.

I honestly don’t consider Wikipedia a good enough resource in this instance on the exact definition of space opera as automatically under the umbrella term of science fiction, Wikipedia is good but I doubt the author of the article was diving deep into the minutia of the semantics they were implying, unless explicitly stated.

Understand where you are coming from by saying it is not only science fiction if it applies hard science, and it would be disingenuous for anyone to say Star Wars doesn’t contain elements of sci-fi, but I think there’s some similar biases in making space inherently science fiction. This doesn’t discount the droids, blasters, tractor beams and photon torpedoes, but I think most arguing fantasy believe those aren’t quite as muddled by the usual fake tech jargon. George did know what he was doing, he never even brings up how a lightsaber is made, too much Errol Flynn heroics to dwell on kyber crystals. Reminds me of the pitch that never came to be I believe at Warner Brothers to produce an adaptation of The Odyssey with Brad Pitt (roughly close to the time Troy was released) except set in space, in a way without changing much anything else, really trading one unexplored ocean for another, does this mean sci-fi really only needs a coat of paint for consideration? If so…then, well sure I guess that’s fair enough. But I think you had it right when you said Lucas needed to distinguish his movie as more on the side of Flash Gordon than movies like 2001, which is less relevant now because Star Wars mostly succeeded those. The heart of Star Wars is much closer to Wizard of Oz than most sci-fi and that’s how those like myself recognize it first.

Honestly though my truthful opinion is that other genres have just as much crossover and ambiguity but there’s more debate on what qualifies as sci-fi or fantasy because we’re all nerds.

I like the extra glow on the lights, maybe a little bright but mostly blends just fine. The re score also does well I think up to the point just before Alderaan is destroyed, if maybe the replacement music could come in after Tarkin finishes his line “soon enough” I think it would sound more natural.

4throck said:

act on instinct said:

• Making the style not clash with the material, making a bad pan&scan.

Don’t take me wrong, but for me about half of your examples (2, 4, 6, 8, 9) look cropped.
The framing looks off, with the interest points too close to the edge of the frame.

No, this is more than fair! George especially makes so much use of the whole frame end to end which will present a tough challenge, I actually have plans to really get in and rotoscope specific shots and some may be split and squeezed, the 4th shot you’re referring to is actually squeezed with very little cropped from the original frame. All said I’m working on a teaser to show how the project might look, I do understand it’s going to be too cropped for some people who have no interest in a new aspect ratio, but as I’m using it for my own shortcuts to rearrange scenes and dialogue I don’t see right now how I could continue with wide.

Broom Kid said:

Between Solo’s botched release (largely Iger’s fault) and Iger’s latest strategy of releasing a memoir full of stories where he makes George Lucas feel bad literally one week before the marketing campaign for the end of the Skywalker Saga starts, you have to wonder just how angry Kathleen Kennedy is at her boss right now.

I’m sure the anger is mutual, lot of drama behind the scenes is just inevitable when the stakes are this high, remember the Sony emails?

critics and even Reed himself went pretty hard against this album, but it’s very solid for me with great bite.

645/1.3

The festival seen in the latest trailer is actually happening on Dantooine, when they arrive to the scene, Poe will turn to both Rey and Finn and enthusiastically proclaim “Don’t let anybody say Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration!” before running to join the crowd.

my one criticism is that maybe it moves just too fast by the end, Obi getting to the hill works just great, but if Anakin can still reach a platform would feel more spacially seamless like Obi’s jump, plus I think for some they really might want to preserve that last bit of dialogue between the two, even if it’s trimmed further from that point somewhere in the middle. Just my take!

First you must dance to the original “Yub Nub” donning only a replica slave Leia bikini in front of Mike Verta, if your performance pleases him he will grant you the key, but should you fail it’s into the rancor pit with you…

snooker said:

https://streamable.com/rfpe0

Playing around with sound design in the Anakin vs. Obi-Wan fight. I feel like removing the score and just hearing them go at it makes it much more powerful and less stupid to watch.

Removing the score entirely is a mistake in my opinion if you want power, that music really is some of the best of the prequels, could it be within a longer sequence punctuated by score like the trench run in ANH?

IlFanEditore said:

That looks sooo good! What did you apply?

Appreciate it, I think it’s a really good idea to match the falcon with TFA, I eyeballed as I went through a few layers (no masking) mostly using selective color and shifting around the magentas blues and reds, it’s also a bit darker, sorry to say I was working on the fly so I can’t get more specific, I got there by keeping my focus on top of R2, Han and the floor/chess table stand.

The biggest issue is applying any changes non-destructively, with the lower res jpegs it’s difficult changing anything without picking up artifacts, did my best to avoid.

JEDIT: I couldn’t help myself and made it a little brighter (maybe too bright) and closer to TFA levels, it’s also aumsing to me how just a slight color change really makes ANH look so much more like a Disney movie.

Possibly somewhere around here?

yotsuya said:

When the Imperial officer comes in to tell Vader and Tarkin that Dantooine is not the Rebel base, Vader’s dialog toward the end of the scene doesn’t line up to his hand gesture.

This has always been a favorite of mine, those little moments only make ANH more endearing to me.

I think it’s seamless, green to satisfy curiosity but I personally prefer the blue.

Here’s an audio detail that I only picked up on after my most recent watch of ANH:
when the band starts up their second song you can hear the other cantina patrons applaud in recognition.

I guess I was always too distracted by the band to notice, but I’m happy even a rough area like Mos Eisley still has enough culture that can recognize and appreciate some jazz standards.

Totally fair, especially considering I don’t have in mind any additional edits of outside prequel material under the Knights name. I’ll update later this month with at least 3 versions including with no subtitle once I’ve rewritten the crawl.

Thanks for the input! I have considered dropping the subtitle and it comes down to the opening crawl. I will post a few variations before rewriting my own crawl to see what feels just right, I thought about including episode numbers or even defining them as chapters, but I landed on the subtitle because it was my original name for the edit and it just sums up the themes of the story, where Knights is really more of a logo like Star Wars to give an impression of the setting. I also don’t mind if anyone else shortens it or just calls it Knights or DotF, or the square one…

DISCLAIMER: This edit is in the very early stages, I’ll be updating this thread with further details as it develops. Images are meant to represent a proof of concept.

“For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire…”

Hello all! After a good amount of time here not to mention years spent as a lurker within the greater fanedit community I felt encouraged and inspired enough to present my own take on the prequels.

Mission Statement

• My intention is to create a 3-in-1 non-linear standalone prequel story, one that could be seen cold in place of a marathon. Where we witness the fall of Anakin and the republic, the journey of Obi-Wan, and the end of a bygone era through the life and death of Queen Amidala, hopefully within a 2hr 15minute runtime.

• If the title seems jarring, that’s on purpose. With all the existing edits and fanedits in the making, most of the best corrective story changes have already been addressed. I will be building off of a few of those suggestions, but I’ve wanted to try something that would be a shift in presentation, as a way of looking back on the PT with fresh eyes. Personally I don’t think you can bend the prequels into the pace and style of the OT, they’re just too different. Though many have warmed to the prequels, myself included, the two trilogies still feel distinctly separate. So rather than fight this I plan to lean in on those differences and highlight the best of them. To take things even further I’m dropping the name Star Wars altogether, because it’s really a prologue to the ‘star wars’ anyway, so that’s where you get Knights of the Old Republic, two distinct eras.

• I’ve also chosen as a major style decision in the same spirit to present this era visually in 1.37 aspect ratio, also known as academy ratio (examples below). This is for multiple reasons, the first is practical, by cropping roughly 25% at minimum for almost every given frame not only do I have more personal control over where to direct focus, I have more cutting room to space out timing, create new coverage, and so on. Second, I feel the PT better suits an older cinematic style, at its best the dramatic highs are Shakespearean, the intimacy of the tighter shots can really be compelling against the melodrama, there are also a fair amount of full body wide shots that support this composition nicely.

I’ll also be doing my own color adjustments but that will be one of the final steps.

Wow, feels like a mouthful and still I’ve barely said anything! Here is where I’ll gradually update with a cut list of all the changes I make: TBD

Challenges

• Cohesion is key, the goal is a clean edit that could be enjoyed and understood by someone who had no prior engagement with the prequels (unlikely, but it’s the principle of the thing!).

• Making the style not clash with the material, making a bad pan&scan.

Any thoughts, feedback, contributions or questions are appreciated, thank you for taking the time.