Trooperman said:
Hello everyone. I just read your new posts today.
To be honest I completely forgot about this project and the website until I found it on my old drive and watched the DVD-9 workprint all the way through for the first time in a long, long time. My first reaction was, my gosh- so much work went into this. My second reaction was that emotionally (if not technically) it really seems to still have a strong impact. It has a more adult feel than I remember, too.
Of course, I saw mostly the flaws (Anakin's dub and especially Boba Fett's dub have to go, also what was I thinking with that loud 70s lounge track on the flight to Naboo scene? I also co-opted a lot of music and video clips from other places. I think the music is mostly fine, but would need to replace the video clips from Independence Day and Blade Runner to really have it taken seriously). It's a little discouraging because it seems that there'd be so much to do to make it a proper movie, including new special effects work to replace the Independence Day stuff.
I was actually thinking of just putting a "ROUGH CUT" at the beginning, slapping a time-code on the video, and calling it done. But I am really sad but also encouraged that you guys still think this is the strongest edit.
Maybe I'll fire up my hard drive and see what is what.
EDIT: To those who have requested the DVD-5 version I seem to have lost it, but I'm sure I can shrink the DVD-9 and make a new copy when I have time.
Funnily enough, I only just got back into my edit after nearly a year. It is really discouraging when even after loads of hard work, you look at it and think "this could be so much better". Unfortunately we're really limited by the source material and without re-filming major scenes with new actors, it's never enough to make it "what it could have been". This has made me view my edit as a 'workprint' as well, as I don't think I would ever be comfortable calling it finished. I stated all along with mine though that it's more a proof of concept for other editors. I'm hoping that my ideas will contribute to other more ambitious edits someday and that when some insane bastard comes along with actors and a film crew on board, then I will have contributed towards making it the best edit ever (even if I'm not credited directly).
And you, Trooperman, have certainly had that effect on my edit. I've shamelessly stolen so many of your ideas (and some from a few other edits), and complimented them with my own. This accumulative nature can only mean subsequent edits are better still.
I've thought about releasing it as a rough cut and calling it a day because I'm not happy with the limitations of the source material. Along with blank title cards like "replace all battle droids with evil clones" and "new actor, new dialogue" because filming/compositing the footage needed to make this film what I envision is beyond me. Also with the amount of new content that's needed to, in my opinion, make the film work, it ceases to be an edit and becomes an entire production.
What I'm leaning towards is finishing my imperfect edit (with Hayden Christensen's voice, as personally, if it can't be another actor entirely then I'd rather not bother as I still won't be happy with it having to look at his stupid face :-p)
Then I will release my aspirational edit. A complete reordering of the movie with blank title cards abound explaining new scenes/FX/actors/dialogue that I have no hope in hell of ever bringing to life. Then my edit will be perfect.....err sort of!
Also, you might be interested in knowing that I had to be told about the Blade Runner shots (they looked familiar but I couldn't figure out where they were from) and I've yet to figure out where these Independence Day bits are that you speak of......so it must be pretty seamless even if you might think they're too recognisable.
EDIT: I think I may remember the independence day stuff now.
