bbghost

Update the OP with some examples of my work in this edit.

oojason said:

An unexpected choice of music for the trailer - and definitely something different. Very nicely done trailer 👍
 

Thank you! I thought I’d rather just lean in and go full AMV rather than trying to make a traditional movie trailer. It seemed more fitting for this project.

Update: here’s a trailer
https://vimeo.com/548325471

Updated the OP with a link to some previews:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EHlYId_SV8zdaf0v1IAK6PvOIxMMZm-j?usp=sharing

I want to say a huge thanks to Hal 9000, poppasketti, skenera, Luka Frik, NeverarGreat, SherlockPotter and dozens of others whose lively discussion and thoughtful contribution to their won and others’ fan edits helped propel this project.

bbghost said:

---

Luke Skywalker has vanished.
In his absence, the sinister
FIRST ORDER has risen from
the ashes of the Empire and
will stop at nothing until
Skywalker, the last Jedi, has
been destroyed.

As the peaceful New
Republic struggles to fight
this resurgent menace,
General Leia Organa gathers
her allies and leads a brave
RESISTANCE. She is
desperate to find her brother
Luke and restore hope to the
galaxy.

Searching for clues to Luke’s
whereabouts, Leia’s most
daring pilot has been
intercepted by the First Order
on the desert planet of
Jakku…

---

Star Wars: The Last Skywalker Awakens is a fan edit condensing all three films of the Star Wars sequel trilogy into a single, monolithic tale centered upon Rey, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, and their battle over the Skywalker legacy. It is meant to serve as an epilogue of sorts to Lucas’ Star Wars saga (episodes I-VI).

At its core, Rey and Kylo’s story remains much the same: a metatextual space opera of lineage, legacy, belonging, betrayal, war, family, and lucrative merchandising potential. This is not a “cut out everything I don’t like” edit; I’m incredibly fond of Finn, Phasma, Rose, Holdo, Zorii and many other characters whose roles wound up in the margins of this story. In a just world they would all have had their own films.

This is more an attempt to refocus and amplify what I felt already lay at the heart of the sequel trilogy, without losing a wider sense of scope. It was also just a fun thing to make while learning to use editing software, and wouldn’t exist without the passionate fan editing community, so thanks to you all.

Some of the most significant changes and additions include:

• Introduction of insert shots, visions and flashbacks earlier on to mesh with their increasing use in the later films
• Removal of any planet-killer weapons from the story
• The restored 16:9 IMAX version of the Falcon’s escape from Jakku
• New use of musical score in two previously music-less sequences in TRoS
• An overall color grading

Here you can find more a comprehensive list of changes (as well as a manifesto of sorts on the thoughts and feelings behind this edit, which you definitely do not have to read to enjoy it), but blind first viewings are always advised.

The end of Luke and Yoda’s scene in The Last Jedi makes a good half-way mark.

Runtime (incl credits): 5hr 25min
Video: 1080p H.264 .mov
Audio: 2-channel stereo

---

This edit borrows heavily from Hal9000’s sequel edits TFA Restructured, TLJ Legendary, and TRoS Ascendant, as well as from popasketti’s TLJ Rekindled and NeverarGreat’s TFA: The Starlight Project.

---

Art by Brian Rood

If you can wait a week or two, I would if I were you. The final cut is well on its way and is a significant improvement imo 😉

Thanks to the kindness and grace of the fan editing community, Star Wars: The Last Skywalker Awakens is now… done! Much earlier than expected. The final cut is uploading now, I’ll send out PM’s to those who’ve enquired soon. May the 12th be with you.

I’ve uploaded some better comparison frames for the color grading I’ve given TLJ:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wpU3t5haz6gtESjByNSagqImoURrh0-T?usp=sharing

Icecream2448 said:

I took it as the moment it cuts away from Luke crying to Death Star II action is when Anakin fades away. And Luke is only burning the empty suit in the end. But you still have to fade away before you become a ghost.

Qui Gon’s didn’t, he was cremated on an open-face flame, and he supposedly discovered the ghost power. They play pretty fast an loose with this stuff.

RogueLeader said:

Considering those facts, and the fact that the entire Sequel Trilogy takes place over the course of only a year, makes me feel like if you made a trilogy edit where most of the action takes place beyond New Republic territory, and the Republic is never destroyed, it wouldn’t really impact the films that much.

FWIW my edit removes any planet killing weapons or mentions of the New Republic outside the title crawl and it really doesn’t. If anything I found by narrowing the scope of the narrative in this way, it helps the story significantly!

PM sent

Hal 9000 said:

Let me also just pass along from the dozens of redditors who have sent me PMs over the course of the last several days: You’re awesome.

Bless this mess 😂

I could get them to you if you need. Any particular reason? My Google Drive is busting at the seams, so I’d just upload them, let you snag them (because they’re large collectively), and take them back down.

For one I’m hoping to use some of that stuff in my own big sequel edit, eventually! But I know that V2, as with all good things, will take time. Just being impatient is all, heh.

Also I’m getting to the point with AE where I’m hoping to take a stab at what’s left to do of the crackling saber, and I don’t want to already jump on stuff that’s already been covered!

At the risk of derailing the thread a bit, could I ask about the effects stuff that’s already been done for version 2?

At one stage there were 2 or 3 different people working on the crackling lightsaber stuff for example, did any of the final shots for that make their way to you, hal? Or the time of day change for ach-to?

Just wondering whether it would be acceptable, with the blessing of those responsible for the original work of course, to make the already finished parts available for other editors before V2 is out, same as the other stuff that’s in V1 currently?

PM sent!

Playing around with communicating much earlier on the dynamic between Kylo, Vader’s helmet, Palpatine, the Sith, and Kylo’s ultimate goal of overthrowing his masters to become the supreme ruler of the galaxy, just like he imagines his grandfather to have sought:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wi4tDWlj8qqLVEzfvApz7OLfRbCpzAf7/view?usp=sharing

IIRC people have played around with those troopers’ lines a lot and nothing particularly satisfactory sounding was reached. They sound more detesting of them than bored, to me.

Is there any kind of quick shot that could go between the camera whip panning to the left and then whip panning to the right? The frames are similar enough that it’s a slightly jarring moment.

Otherwise, this is a big improvement.

Good point. Could probably trim that second shot a bit so that the pan-right is diminished, but I kind of like the disorienting nature of the cut as it’s a hectic moment for everyone involved.

sherlockpotter said:

Quick crash landing mock-up, also incorporating bbghost’s idea:

https://streamable.com/hn6q21

Thoughts?

I like the idea, Sherlock. Where did you grab that landscape shot after the explosion from?

Jar Jar Bricks said:

I like it myself. I just know that for others they might not like the idea that Rey can hit a flying target like that so easily.

It’s cool that you hear the explosion of the trooper echo throughout the valley.

Just for my $0.02c on the Rey bullseye cut, my thinking was that Rey and Kylo by this film are already basically superheroes. She bullseyes that speeder in the air earlier, Poe calls her their “best fighter” but outside of Jedi duels you don’t get a huge sense of that. This little cut does a lot towards selling that, imo.

Heya! Would love a link to the V2 workprint, please. Also I love your work with the drawing of Ach-To in Rey’s home, would you be alright with me using that small shot with credit in my sequel trilogy edit?

Jar Jar Bricks said:

bbghost said:

Just quietly, I think this is one of my favorite small bits of editing I’ve done so far to this film:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fe-6n7XalPBHtDnJD7nDz9sG57ayMQYw/view?usp=sharing

I like it as well. But I can already hear the “Mary Sue” comments lol.

Oh yes, I can hear them now! Look, after 5 hours of film she’s either a badass space-superhero or she’s not, right?

Just quietly, I think this is one of my favorite small bits of editing I’ve done so far to this film:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fe-6n7XalPBHtDnJD7nDz9sG57ayMQYw/view?usp=sharing

I’ve cleaned up the OP a bit in preparation for releasing finished version of this edit, but in the meantime, I think this is quietly one of my favourite small bits of editing I’ve done so far:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fe-6n7XalPBHtDnJD7nDz9sG57ayMQYw/view?usp=sharing

Unsure whether this thread is allowed here, but I thought I’d try my luck given I’m searching for these to use in my own fan edit.

There is mention in this thread here of a composite between the 720p STARZ broadcast of the Falcon chase sequence in TFA and the blu-ray source that adywan put together: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Info-The-Force-Awakens-IMAX-Edition-Help-needed/id/51703

If anyone still has this, or any other version of the IMAX scene kicking around that they could send me, I’d enormously appreciate it!

Does anyone still have either the original files or adywan’s composition kicking around that they could PM me a link to, please?