I think this is an awesome idea. Good call Dek. I’ve had hecklers in my threads as well. Don’t worry about it. Most people want to be respectful.
Or you could get help and live a life devoted to improving others’ lives, find love, have children, and really live a life you’d be proud to look back on, with greater accomplishments than you now think possible. Please, this is important, more than your career. Get some help. I believe in what I do and I believe others in my field can help you.
I’ve actually never felt better, lol. But I’m sure you’re right.
Alcohol has become your medication. You literally depend on it. If you were to try to quit on you’re own, you would start going into DTs, with profuse sweating, nausea, anxiety and cravings. You could have a seizure and possibly die. You need to quit but you need medical help to do so. Alcohol is a depressant and will contribute to bad moods and depression. You will always want to drink to avoid such feelings. Your liver is swelling and becoming cirrhotic. Please get help, both with the motivation to quit, like AA, and with the process.
This is about day 15 of not drinking anything at all that isn’t alcoholic. All I’ve been drinking is screwdrivers in the morning, beer in the afternoon, bottled water that’s about 1/5 filled with vodka while at work, and whiskey and caffeine free coke at night. Other than a few sips of water here and there. I feel pretty good actually…
I’m very worried about you. This is a depressing and lethal path you are on. You truly need medical and psychiatric help. Not trying to be rude. I’m genuinely worried.
but in good news…
ENDER LIVES!!! : )
Thanks man. 😃 Hope all is well with you.
A Jedi council scene might include a rotoscoped clip from when Dooku sighs after slicing up Ani, probably best inserted when Qui Gin gets shut down about training Anakin. It’s a close-up if I recall and could show him sitting in a chair, thus furthering the implication of his feelings for Qui Gon and dissatisfaction with the Council.
This is about day 15 of not drinking anything at all that isn’t alcoholic. All I’ve been drinking is screwdrivers in the morning, beer in the afternoon, bottled water that’s about 1/5 filled with vodka while at work, and whiskey and caffeine free coke at night. Other than a few sips of water here and there. I feel pretty good actually…
I’m very worried about you. This is a depressing and lethal path you are on. You truly need medical and psychiatric help. Not trying to be rude. I’m genuinely worried.
I’ve said it many times before, but I’m honestly convinced of the same as the others. As a psych nurse, it’s a topic I’m very passionate about. Dwelling on suicidal thoughts but saying, “I’ll never do anything about it,” is a bit of a self deception. You really may slip down some dark thoughts one day and lose your judgment. One suicide attempt on one particularly bad day may be enough for me never to read another Possessed post. Take this stuff seriously. There is help, and maybe some other meds will work better for you. Mental health has come a long way with many options so don’t give it up or rely on self-medication. I wish you lived nearby where I could personally help. But trust me there is help for you and nothing is more personality altering than death. Your friends and family need you.
Hey jedimasterobiwan, when will this edit be ready?
I’m currently near the end if the novel. I’m telling you, I would have liked the movie more if many scenes had been included, such as more Snoke/Ren conversation about Vader and foreknowledge of the Starkiller before it does its thing, better understanding of the politics, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the movie, but I appreciate it a lot more with details fleshed out, and I’m pretty sure most of these scenes were filmed because the novel stays real close to the source material. An extended edition might be all I need to go from liking to loving the movie.
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/16/star-wars-restore-1977
There’s a good line in there which led me to post it here.
I think they’re all poo(h)!
I’m still looking for a fanedit that combines all 7 films, plus both Ewok movies, TCW movie, THS, and a bit of Thundercats into a single, 2 hour movie with a cohesive story and not too fast paced.
And you still never answered if you were going to add sound delay.
I suspect VFP has passed away if I’m truthful. CP3S was a worthy opponent but he apparently doesn’t care about this place enough to drop by too often. Bingowings may yet forgive darth_ender for his non-trangressions. And ender already has told you all, he’s always around. He just seldom comments 😉
Duracell, I enjoy your comments and humor a great deal. You can’t leave 😃
Alright. I’ll try to start recording more chapters. I’ll post them for you.
Destruction of the Veridian System from Star Trek Generations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmIaHAtabSU
I think some of this footage could be spliced into the Hosnian Prime destruction shots to show though that it was the sun itself hit, not the planet(s). In particular, the ground view the sun growing dark and the powerful shockwave (after the Nexus has left the frame) destroying the planet itself. Intercut with reaction shots on the surface and I think an editor could sell it.
Let’s rewrite that bloated crawl!
From my thread in the Scriptwriting subforum:EPISODE VII
THE FORCE AWAKENSLuke Skywalker, the last Jedi, has vanished.
In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER
has risen from the ashes of the fallen Empire.To counter this deadly threat, the Republic
mobilizes a covert RESISTANCE led by
General Leia Organa, to gather allies from
the farthest reaches of the galaxy.As the FIRST ORDER prepares a crippling
blow to the Republic, its dark forces gather
above the graveyard planet of Jakku…
I like this crawl. Succinct but revealing more information.
Here is my go. Bear in mind, I’m attempting to reveal several more details, but keep it concise. I have a feeling it’s still too long, but take a look:
The democratic NEW REPUBLIC rules with a just hand. But from the ashes of the evil Galactic Empire, the FIRST ORDER has arisen, its strongholds hidden among the recesses of the Unknown Regions.
This new Order, determined to restore the glory of the Empire, have secretly poured resources into a new weapon of rerror: the Starkiller!
General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE to combat such evil. With little support from the Reupublic, Leia is desperate to find her missing brother Luke Skywalker. She has dispatched her most daring pilot on a secret mission to Jakku, where a group of Force worshipers may hold a clue to Master Skywalker’s whereabouts…
The advantages of this crawl include: a) greater distinction between the Republic and the Resistance, and make the situation appear more dire for the latter; b) allusions to the otherwise surprising DS3; c) explaining why the First Order is still a force to be reckoned with; d) containing most of the same info as the original crawl; e) perhaps explaining why Jakku holds any clues at all; f) its consistent with the background designed for the world building, but not revealed in the film itself.
The disadvantage is that to include so much information, it can make for some clunky wording and an overly long crawl. I’m interested to read others’ thoughts on the matter.
- Distinguish the Starkiller from the Death Stars. I think this shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s name is “star” + “killer” after all, and besides a reference to early Star Wars concepts/Luke’s original last name, it could easily be changed to a weapon much like the Centerpoint Station of the old EU, which was stationary but fired a powerful beam at distant stars and caused them to supernova. I imagine a little technical wizardry could easily fire that beam at a star instead of the planet, cause a supernova (witnessed from the ground of Hosnian Prime), and have the supernova destroy the system. Meanwhile, remove our heroes actually witnessing this from Takdona.
I had forgotten to mention that if there is some way to remove the sun-sucking plot point (seems like it shouldn’t be too difficult–remove all references to it, and the darkening sky could simply be implied as the day wearing on during battle), it should be done. That is lame on a number of levels. And if this is done, clips of that effect could be run backwards, appearing to be the energy beam striking the distant sun, and used to simulate the supernova I’ve suggested.
“She’s gone from suck to blow!”
“Complete his training” is relative. If he’s already enough of a badass to freeze someone in mid-air with his mind at will,
It could be that little trick wasn’t even a Force power.
Maybe it was a piece of technology that created a "stasis shield " around an energie beam.Maybe is was a glitch in the edit, nope it was just as ridiculous as the rest of the film. I just got over prequelitis, now suffering severe sequelitis.
I seem to recall a great deal of Star Wars lore indicating that the dark side is the quick and easy path, wherein its weilders often learn powerful tricks swiftly, but at the cost of other skills, particularly with self mastery. I could easily see a Dark user like Kylo Ren, who is clearly powerful and talented, but also immature and lacking in self control, performing such a potent move, but in a rage motivated battle losing to someone inherently stronger.
Since this movie came out, it has been harder to stick to my lurker pledge. I feel compelled to add several ideas I’ve had in more organized fashion. I know I shared some earlier, and I will repeat some of them here. You see, the more I think about it, the more I enjoy the movie (I’ve only seen it once, since it’s so hard for me to get a babysitter). I find myself becoming more and more defensive about it when reading the criticisms of others. Sometimes it makes me really irritated with the nature of our own forum where we are far too critical of movies. You see, I still enjoy the prequels far more than most here, and simply am grateful that fan editors have made them better, though they will never match the OT. I fall into the camp that really loves ROTJ as well. And with all this, if I had been a more casual fan, never hooking up at this site, I have a feeling I wouldn’t have been so critical of TFA when I saw it if I hadn’t been tainted by the cynical nature of this site. Don’t worry, I love it here, but we’re too harsh at times, I feel.
Anyway, I’m rampling because I’m trying to be quick, so let me share my ideas:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/all-the-backstory-you-desperately-want-to-know-about-th-1751196966
Introduce the concept of the Starkiller sooner. Both Death Stars were mentioned in the respective crawls of their films. The Starkiller appears out of no where, with no reference to its existence until it gets used to destroy Hosnian Prime. That truly annoys me. Just throw it in the crawl and let us be aware of its danger.
On top of that, let us see more Hosnian Prime. Its destruction is almost meaningless to the audience. If we saw Leia’s envoy go there, get to understand the relationship of the Resistance to the Republic, this would truly help the movie. Again, this would probably require different wording in the crawl and the use of deleted scenes we know exist and will hopefully be present on the Blu-ray:
http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awkens-deleted-scenes/
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Centerpoint_Station
Not sure if this is possible, but remove Kylo Ren’s face from the Rey interrogation scene. I’m not sure if he could be shown placing his mask on the table but avoiding his face, or perhaps simply splice in a few shots with his mask still on, because obviously that scene needs to stay, but I really feel the impact of seeing him would have been stronger if we as an audience saw him the first time when facing Han.
Slow down the pace a bit with additional scenes just to pad things out.
Use musical cues from previous Star Wars entries, particularly the prequels, which I think are far better than people credit, and certainly better than TFA.
I don’t remember if this is possible, but it should would be great to remove Phasma’s lowering of the shield. It makes her a weak character who tried to save her own life at the cost of likely millions of her compatriots. She doesn’t do much anyway and was only cool in the beginning. It’d be better to introduce her there, and since I believe there are plans to use her later, save her as a cool character only teased at in this first of the new trilogy instead of wasting her as a weak-willed coward in the end.
I think I do like the idea of Hosnian Prime’s destruction to the end of the movie as well, as that would distinguish it further from ANH and create a powerful ending with some strong emotions for good and ill.
I’m sure there are little cuts here and there that could improve the movie, but I’m not as adamant about these. I read too many complaints in the review thread about too much fan service (I don’t mind mentioning the original Death Star–we are in the same universe with the same characters, after all; it’s not like their history was erased), and too many complaints about the humor. It’s not Jar Jar humor, and all the Star Wars movies have cheesy jokes–that’s part of the appeal! I hate it when editors remove all the humor in the PT, and I’d hate the same done to this. I’d probably suggest little trims in the rathtar scene, particularly how nice the one is to Finn to not devour him instantly as he did the others, and reduce or cut the circling helicopter shot of Luke at the end.
Edit in some shots from trailers, if possible, such as Kylo Ren igniting his saber in the forest.
Find some way to provide a better explanation for why R2 wakes up. Not sure how this could be done, but the fact that he did was far too convenient.
That’s really it. I can’t complain too much about other things and in fact enjoyed some things others did not. I don’t care that Snoke was CGI, though I know there are practical effects purists on this site. This is 2016 and all movies use it extensively these days, and it really didn’t look as bad as people complain. I didn’t mind a number of things and feel people are being way too picky, overlooking equivalent “problems” when they are present in the OT but tearing them to shreds for TFA, as if they theymselves are expert storytellers.
I may have more ideas when I see it again (probably not till BD), but for now these are my thoughts.
So as I restate about every time I do make exceptions and post here, this will be brief due to limited time. I’m not even going to write an original post. I sent an email to a childhood friend today after he shared his love of TFA and asked me my opinion. This friend still holds a special place in my heart (see this topic I started: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/A-Lengthy-Stroll-Down-Star-Wars-Memory-Lane/id/15211). Here is my discussion of the movie, which is my my review of the film and my suggestions for a fan edit:
Now on to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I have to say, I find myself somewhat less optimistic than you. That’s not to say that I didn’t like the movie; I just found myself a bit disappointed, hoping to be blown away, and truthfully just watching a movie that I found to be an enjoyable, if derivative, flick. Too much of the story was predictable, and when I say derivative, it felt like a carbon copy of A New Hope. The Republic capital (named Hosnian Prime) was little more than Alderaan, blown up by what is basically a third Death Star. The First Order is of course an outgrowth of the Empire, but the setup with it and the Resistance are too much like the Rebellion/Empire dynamic. Kylo Ren’s murder of his father Han is reminiscent of Vader killing his father-like former master Obi-Wan. There was an X-wing run much like the trench run of A New Hope, a latent Force-sensitive discovering her powers who comes from a desert planet, a cutesy astromech droid carrying essential information that the bad guys don’t want in the wrong hands and are also trying to obtain, a large hologram of the hideous leader of the bad guys with Force abilities speaking to his evil Force using minion (this is obviously more reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back), etc. I honestly feel like it was too much of a rehash.
Furthermore, the pacing was too fast for my tastes, the product of overall poor editing choices (the worst offender being what you mentioned about the lack of any caring at all when Hosnian Prime was destroyed), contrived solutions (again, as you mentioned, R2 waking up for no understandable reason), the problem with the map (I could understand if it was some “small” section of the Galaxy, which would technically still be a huge area and could be more difficult to identify), and this is compounded by the fact that their galaxy must be tremendously smaller than ours, where Starkiller is apparently no farther than Mars and Hosnian Prime than Venus from Earth, considering how the heroes could observe the destructive beam and the destruction of the other planets with their naked eyes–if planets and systems are so close, then it shouldn’t be that hard to explore all the planets in the Galaxy and find Luke. Furthermore, what is the relationship of the Republic to the Resistance? Is the Resistance essentially state-sponsored terrorism, but of course with good guys? Why are the good guys still in the minority? It seems to me that we should be seeing a legitimate government ruling over numerous systems battling another legitimate but tyrannical government. And finally, I was really disappointed in John Williams’ score. In the original trilogy I can imagine every moment of the movies just by listening to the music. In the prequels it was more forgettable but still had highlights. I honestly cannot remember a single moving piece of music from this newest entry–a real disappointment for me. Granted, I’ve only seen it once, but nothing really stood out to me. Even the opening theme sounded weaker, and was recorded by a different orchestra than past entries.
That said, I did enjoy it, and all the above criticism, while legitimate in my eyes, surely sounds far worse than I truly feel about it. Yes, I was a bit disappointed. But I reflected a great deal on the movie the next day, and thought how in reality, I think I really enjoyed it. It was simply much different than I expected. So let me enumerate that which pleased me, with a few suggestions to improve the film.
Kylo Ren was cool and interesting, with his conflicted nature giving him greater depth. His face reveal would have been more potent in my mind if the first time we saw him was when Han went to face him. Speaking of which, Han’d death was a good thing as well, if a bit predictable (of course, though I did a great job avoiding spoilers, I knew Harrison wanted him killed in Return of the Jedi, so I kind of guessed it would happen anyway). The new characters were great: Finn, Rey, and I was surprised at how much I liked BB-8. Some characters were underdeveloped, Poe in particular, but he too was cool. I agree, the lightsaber fights were very fun, and though a subject of criticism from some, I enjoyed Kylo Ren’s saber.
As you know, fan editing is an art where I hang out on the Net–not an art at which I am skilled, but which I appreciate in others. If I were to suggest a fan edit, I’d try to cut Kylo Ren’s face from Rey’s torture scene, possibly even cutting him removing his mask, though I don’t know if either is possible while retaining the display of her latent Force abilities. I would cut the visibility of the Starkiller’s destruction to the heroes on the Resistance base planet, and to give it weight, I would add the scene(s) listed here clarifying the relationship between the Republic and the Resistance and actually showing Hosnian Prime before its doom.
http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awkens-deleted-scenes/
With that, I’d give some indication that this base existed before it all of the sudden unleashes its power. It seemed to be a sort of ghost in the machine for the bad guys, and I always am bothered by such things. Such could be at least suggested in the opening crawl, along with further clarification on the politics of the Galaxy today. As I’ve read others say, while the prequels were bogged down with politics, there wasn’t enough in The Force Awakens.
Another interesting thought and suggestion from a site I watch would be to even arrange the story so that Hosnian Prime is the planet in danger at the end, and that the Resistance manages to destroy the Starkiller, but only after it blows up Hosnian Prime, thus further distinguishing the movie from A New Hope. It would be a bittersweet ending and wouldn’t offend future installments in the series, as the Republic capital would still be gone.
I would probably add musical cues from older Star Wars movies, even from the prequels if need be. I’d also add less important scenes, if only to slow down the pace a bit, and hopefully some would clarify other mysteries (like where Luke’s lightsaber came from). I think this movie is far better than the prequels, but I’ll never enjoy it like the originals without some serious editing. Lots of great setup in the movie, but not executed as well as I’d hope. I probably need to read the novel, as I have a feeling I’ll enjoy that far more. It’s written by Alan Dean Foster, a great author who ghost wrote the original Star Wars novel before it even was changed to A New Hope. I know it includes a number of these deleted scenes and I think that will help me appreciate the story better.
Anyway, I know my feelings are harsh. I need to see it again, but probably won’t till it’s Blu-ray release. I’m sure I’ll like it better then, as I won’t have the same sorts of expectations and will have more opportunities to appreciate it for what it is and look for the minutia. I greatly enjoyed the dialogue, the introductions and first half of the movie with little complaint. I’m excited for the franchise’s renewal and hope it will pan out far better than the prequels. I don’t love the movie, but I do like it.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ve sort of been on hiatus from this site, but I’ve been thinking about this project. I’d happily record the whole thing if someone else edits it. I don’t have the skills to do a good job.
I’m just joshing. Christmas used to be celebrated from Dec 25 till Jan 5. Those were the 12 days, though the mistake is common. Just thought I’d pop out if lurker mode for a quick tease. Now back to the Batcave.
The first day of Christmas is actually December 25. You might know that if you’d read Christmas-devoted threads outside December 😉
Hard to maintain my silence with an awesome thread like this, but I will simply say two things:
This is awesome that you are doing this. I feel this sort of thing has been needed for some time. So many editors have to reinvent the wheel, and there are skilled FX guys like you who can contribute so much to others’ edits.
My request would be simply that you finish the effects in several of the released deleted scenes. For instance, the scene where Luke speeds past the old lady on the way to Tosche Station, Luke training on Dagobah, Jerjerrod watching the Death Star II turn upon Endor on the viewscreen, etc. Such would be invaluable for sure. Even if the scene itself has scratches all over, it’d be neat to see the finished effects. Admittedly, the ANH scene with the old lady interests me for the sake of Ryan McAvoy’s Lost Workprint edit.
I think I will then. You played well and I poorly. In the past you might have missed my mistakes but no more. You have certainly moved up in the shogi ranks 😃