brash_stryker

I've updated the list of changes to as far as I've got in my timeline. Not all these changes are done already, but all are planned. I will add more soon.

Now mystique is definitely a "changeling" that could fit into star wars :P

Why on earth they made the film so pink, I'll never know.

Nice work Ady!

Well I'd like to remove the reference of the assassin being a changeling, so I'm considering it. I think it's only funny to us because we know what the line was originally.

Comments like that are rife in movies in the era of the OT. I thought it might give Zam a Femme Fatale vibe. Thoughts?

I'm guessing you're not at liberty to give us a peek :p

I'm hoping to colour correct and add new music (your mockups would be an invaluable resource for me doing the former).

In regards to the music, I'd like to change the music in places, to give the film more of an OT feel but I'll have to see about that as both the dialogue and existing music are on the centre audio channel. Hopefully I can make the existing music almost inaudible. We'll see!

At the moment, I'm concentrating on the dialogue/visuals, and I'll go back to sort out the sound after that part is finished :)

I'd love to know if there was a program that generated the 5 other channels based on what's in the centre channel. Would make the job a hell of a lot easier!

Is there anything stopping me editing, and then doing the colour correcting? I've never done colour correction before and have just jumped straight in to cut all the crap out.

In case anyone hasn't seen, I've created a thread for my AOTC edit. I'll be updating the planned changes when I have the time, however ideas (including ones that have already been mentioned in this thread) are encouraged.

If anyone's interested, here it is:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/My-as-of-yet-unnamed-Attack-of-the-Clones-Edit/post/367519/#post367519

People shouldn't need an additional incentive to donate. Believing in the project and wanting to help out any way we can is incentive enough. I for one would prefer the previews coming through at the rate they are currently. That way when it's finally done, I can sit back and watch it and be genuinely surprised and blown away by the changes/additions, rather than having seen most of them already.

adywan said:

Ok i have to put an end to this. I though all this would have died out ages ago.

Your so gullible. lol. Killing Lando was never going to be part of my edit, but was being considered as a special feature only. Only the PT will be getting ripped apart. There will be some changes in jedi but none will be drastic in a way that will change the story. Yes there will be a new ending but that's being kept a secret. The Lando thing came about because so many people kept asking about the ending so i made one up.

Don't hate me :)

You evil, evil man!

I was just getting used to the idea too.

Good one :)

***This Project is cancelled. After 4 attempts from scratch, I just couldn't make this film work, and believe me, I'd exhausted pretty much all that was possible using straightforward editing. This movie is a mess. Having said this, I do believe I was onto some decent changes and who knows, hopefully some of my ideas will make it into an ambitious edit utilising brand new footage and new visual effects. I'll leave everything as is here in the hope it'll remain a useful reference for people (though youtube has been extremely zealous in blocking most of my videos).
Thanks everyone, for your interest.***

Well I've been a lurker on these boards for a while, and joined this year and I think it's about time I started getting in on this editing lark :)

My first edit will be of Attack of the Clones, as I feel that film is the biggest mess out of all of the prequels. If this edit is a success, I may move onto the other 2 prequels. I have no intention of editing the OT as I feel Adywan's edits will be the definitive versions (which will no doubt be true for his PT edits too, but at least I have a head start on him for those :P)

I see this edit more as a proof of concept than a definitive edition of the film. There are far more adept editors out there than me who can make a more ambitious edit. Hopefully, my edit will demonstrate some of my ideas compellingly enough that they appear in other people's subsequent edits too.

The Phantom Editor's cut, "Attack of the Phantom" has been invaluable, as many of his changes are spot on and are being incorporated into my edit.

The ideas at the The Prequel Radical Redux Ideas Thread have also been helpful, and many of my changes will have been raised by myself and others in that thread.

Members Trooperman, SomethingStarWarsRelated, Angel, bobgarcia74, Darth Editous and mrbenja0618 have also been extremely helpful, whether it's letting me borrow their concepts, giving me advice, brainstorming with me or helping me out with the technical side of things. Thanks guys!

Also, 'confusedmatthew' and 'Redlettermedia' and their video reviews of the film have both been an amazing resource, pointing out the stuff that just doesn't make sense.

So onto the details:

Software:

Final Cut Pro
Adobe After Effects CS5
Soundtrack Pro
Garageband
DVD Studio Pro

Equipment

Mac Mini 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Blue Yeti USB Microphone
Me and my insomniac tendencies 

Sources:

DVD of Attack of the Clones
Assorted Star Wars soundtracks - from both the films and computer games.
Assorted online sound effects libraries.

My aims with this edit:

To address the nonsensical plot, Jedi stupidity, Anakin being an asshole, Boba Fett being a kid, and many other issues.

General Changes (constant throughout):

• Complete colour correction.
• New music where there was reuse from TPM or I felt there was an opportunity for something more 'Star Warsy'

• Every scene has been trimmed and rearranged in order to remove annoying/redundant dialogue, bad acting, unconvincing, vomit-inducing romance, unnecessary exposition, long, boring and fake looking action sequences and Anakin being a jerk.
• Anakin is made likeable for someone who's seeing the film for the first time.
• There are far too many cuts for me to list them all. Hopefully TV's Frink will compose a cutlist script for me once the project is completed.

Specific Changes:

• New title and Crawl :-
  
  

  Episode II
  THE GALAXY DIVIDED

   

  The time of Peace is over.

  Several thousand star systems

  have declared

  their intentions to overthrow,

  the Republic.

   

  This separatist movement, led by

  former Jedi Master Dooku, has

  made it difficult for the limited

  number of Jedi Knights to maintain

  peace and order in the galaxy.

   

  With the prospect of dark times ahead,

  and with the galaxy on the brink of open

  war, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has

  Approved the deployment of a CLONE

  ARMY to assist the overwhelmed

  Jedi....
  
  

• Camera Pans down instead of up after the crawl (in line with the rest of the saga)
• Cutting yoda's cringeworthy line "seeing you alive brings warm feelings to my heart"
• Removing Anakin and Obi Wan bickering about Politics during the Kouhon attack. If there's anything the Prequels have to much of, it's boring politics. Instead, I might be replacing it with a (muffled) conversation about Anakin's mother (possibly about having freed her if I can cobble a line together), so that the foreshadowing of both Palpatine's rise to power, and Anakin's mother's death are done in a less blatant way.
• Jango does not speak to Zam. We see them meeting on the ledge, exchanging the tube, all to sinister music. It works a lot better this way.
• Cutting Much of the speeder chase with Anakin being a jerk and the stupid weaving between flames and 'power couplings' scene'. Now anakin just positions himself over where he knows Zam is coming from, and drops down a SHORT distance.
• Removing any mention of Zam being a "changeling". Now she has a femme fatale vibe, as when Obi Wan finds out she's a woman, he tells Anakin to be extra careful.
• Removing Anakin's "Tell us NOW!" from Zam's death scene. He seems a lot more compassionate without it.
• Hopefully making the dart disintegrate Zam.
• Reinserting the analysis droids deleted scene, but redubbing the droid, so that they find traces of something that links the dart to Kamino.
• Removing subsequent Dex's diner, Library and Younglings scenes - They are superfluous, and show the Jedi's ignorance of Kamino as well as the stupid missing archives thing that went nowhere. If we had the 'Lost 20' scene to work with, giving background on Count Dooku, I'd include this. Fingers crossed we get it in the imminent blu ray release!
• Removing Anakin's slimyness towards Padme.
• Moved the senate scene to just after Padme and Anakin leave for Naboo. Cut Jar Jar's involvement. Omitted all mention of creating an army. Cut Mace saying he's going to Geonosis to help Obiwan. Changed Yoda's line so that he's saying Obi Wan will go to Kamino.
• Reinserting Mace/Obi Wan deleted scene instead of the Yoda on a floating toilet one.
• Replacing Anakin and Padme talking with the Queen of Naboo with the deleted scene of them with Padme's family.
• Re-edited Kamino scenes to remove Jedi ignorance of the Republic ordering a clone army. Also hopefully redubbing Lama Su to achieve this more effectively.
• Also hoping to cut down Fett's involvement with the army through not having him be the sole host (again through redub of Lama Su)
• Remove all mention of Sifo Dyas.
• Jango Fett is now only referred to as "Fett" or "Bounty Hunter", so that we take for granted it is Boba. No mention of him asking for an unaltered clone for himself either.
• Remove child Boba.
• Cut down the Obi Wan/Fett fight.
• Fett's visor changed to red.
• Cut Watto scene. I tried keeping it, but there was just no way to edit it without it being apparent that Shmi was still a slave. WHICH IS RETARDED!
• The protocol droid at the Lars homestead is NOT Threepio. He will be redubbed with an alien voice that will portray him as a servant to Shmi, disgruntled with Anakin for leaving after freeing his mother. For some reason I'm thinking of Kreacher the house elf from Harry Potter in creating this new character.
• Cutting gratiuitous and fake looking space battle. Obi Wan simply follows Boba to the planet.
• Giving Boba a reason to go to Geonosis. He gets a transmission from Sidious telling him to lead Obi Wan to the seperatists. He's essentially framing Dooku for Amidala's assassination attempt, and kickstarting the war that will bring him to power.
• We never see Boba after this
• Anakin never tells Padme about his MASS MURDER OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN!
• Dooku is now good. He does not fight yoda. He leaves Anakin and Obi Wan alive of his own free will. Scene of him with Sidious removed.

Changes I'd like to make, but need some guidance:

• Dramatically recolour Geonosis, like in Angel and Bingowings' mockups.
• Give Kamino a reddish sky when ObiWan encounters Fett, so that it mirrors and contrasts with cloud city in ESB  (ESB - arrive in the day, Boba escapes at dusk. This cut - arrive at night, Boba escapes at Dawn.)
• Recolour ALL lightsabers blue, except Dooku's which will either be green (to mirror luke's) or another colour (to preserve the impact of luke's)
  
  

I've currently made a few rough videos from my timeline showing a few examples of the changes. These are by no means final, and could use more tweaking (not to mention colour correction)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUsl3qi8LP8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrIPznFKkmY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKiVFstZV2Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eTxp1IgdAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=var1udq3hi4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onooMQABtcg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsJ0Dlx1hJM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGTTG4Bbjf0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49L3xzkZ3Pc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKxDE9mJtrw

And here are a couple of mockups of my intended changes/additions:

I plan to assemble a 5.1 surround mix, and a dvd with a simple menu. Nothing too fancy. Although it will incorporate seemless branching ;)

I would appreciate any help, input or suggestions people can give me. The best edits are a collaborative effort, and hopefully we can come up with something special.

Absolutely brilliant! :)

Pretty much every scene in the film is being rearranged, so the music won't match up when there's a cut.

What do most editers do about this? Add sound fades to make it less jarring?

I have another scene being uploaded to youtube as we speak. It's the scene where Obi Wan contacts Yoda and Mace from Kamino. I've done 3 things with this scene.

1. Remove the Jedi's obliviousness to the clone army by changing Obi Wan's line from "A clone army" to "THE clone army"
2. Remove all mention of Sifo Dyas, and the army having been created without the Jedi's knowledge
3. Remove the name Jango Fett - In my edit, he is Boba, but seldom referred to by name.

Edit: Here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKiVFstZV2Y

Well I've had a listen to the Shadows soundtrack, and it just doesn't feel sufficiently like John Williams to me to appear in a star wars edit.

Here's another video from my fan edit. The only problem is my cuts have made it a bit short.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrIPznFKkmY

Is it wrong that I have more of a problem with the Falcon being destroyed than Lando dying? :P

I can't find my copy, so I'm downloading it now so I can see whether any of the tracks fit in with the prequel edits.

Thanks for the comment on my video ripplin :)

Made any progress Bingowings? Being able to minimise the music would make my edit one hell of a lot easier.

The Shadows of the Empire soundtrack was a soundtrack created for the book (on which the game is based).

Well I've been working on my edit all night, and thought I'd post this rather amusing scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUsl3qi8LP8

Oooh! I actually have that somewhere. I'll have to dig it out. :D

I've started on my own Attack Of The Clones edit. I'm still getting the hang of coordinating my visual cuts with the background music. I've split the ac3 into 6 wav files as per adigitalman's editing guide. I'm just wondering, how do the other editers here get around the problem of the voice channel also having music in it (which after cuts doesn't always sync up with the audio in the other channels).

I think I'm going to redo the music in the other 5 channels anyway. I'm just wondering if anyone knows off the top of their heads the best way to minimize the music in the voice track (I'm assuming it's impossible to remove it entirely)

Edit: Sorry. Just realised I should have posted this in the how to section, and also have just found Bingowings' thread asking exactly this.

Asteroid-man, have you considered making another version of your first cover that includes the title 'A New Hope', not just Star Wars?

I'm sure a lot of us would appreciate having that choice.

I'm so doing that if I ever have kids and the wife is away :P

Asteroid-Man said:

Ok I can leave purple for the cannons and all the new laser blasts and engine glows that are purple in the PT. But regarding the fight I'll do two versions.

It's a shame in regards to your covers, as this would have been the obvious colour to choose. I can see Ady removing the purple lasers too.

Uberfication :)