- Post
- #1605645
- Topic
- The Acolyte - The Spence Edit
- Link
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1605645/action/topic#1605645
- Time
I’m so looking forward to this! Always a big fan of your work, and I love your mindset and attitude ❤️
I’m so looking forward to this! Always a big fan of your work, and I love your mindset and attitude ❤️
Thanks for your reply!
I’m glad I can help (but you’re definitely the pro here, so I trust your judgment more than mine 😄).
Yeah, Basil is probably one of those things you just have to live with, even if you don’t like it (but Star Wars has already taught us that lesson, so it’s not a big deal 😉 ). And don’t get me wrong, you’re already done a fantastic job!
Regarding your question about Sol’s arc: it’s coherent, understandable, and absolutely works. You’ve definitely made Sol a more interesting character than he would be in a pure series format.
With a fan edit of about 2.5 hours, though, this naturally comes at the expense of other characters (like the twins or Qimir). That probably can only be solved with a series edit.
In that sense, your (movie-) edit does exactly what it’s supposed to and wants to do (mission accomplished!)! I’m curious to see what someone who watches the story in your format for the first time thinks 😃
Thanks so much for your great work and for sharing it with us!
Sorry for only giving you a review now – I didn’t get a chance to watch your edit earlier.
When I first watched the series as it aired weekly, I was, to put it mildly, disappointed. The pacing, in particular, made the story hard to grasp for me. When I recently watched the (cleverly edited) series in one go, it surprisingly had a lot of positives: there was actually a good story underneath it all! I was very curious to see if your movie edit could further improve the pacing and make the story even clearer:
Now to your edit (I won’t go into every detail, just what stood out to me): I like your opening, especially starting with the flashback. How Sol finds the girls at the tree is a bit abrupt, but otherwise, I find the flashback very well put together.
Your cut of the plot on Olega is masterful and makes everything much more mysterious. However, over all in the first half of your movie, at some points I was concerned that someone who hasn’t seen the series before might be a bit confused by the plot.
The second half on the other hand, especially the last third of the film, works just as I hoped – the story is compelling, and the pacing is spot on. Here, too, your use of the flashback fits perfectly. I especially liked your interpretation of the conversation between Venestra and Mae at the end. And the Plagueis cameo is perfectly placed!
Content-wise, there are still things that don’t match my personal taste (like the child actors or Basil), but those are hard to change. And after all, it’s personal taste 😉
Technically, your edit is top-notch. There’s absolutely nothing to criticize here. Audio transitions are always tricky, but I didn’t notice a single weak point. Only the quality of the copy could be better, but that’s probably due to the export version I had.
Overall, I’m still not sure if I prefer a movie format or a (shortened, more intense) series format for “The Acolyte”. You did cut a few things I personally liked, but understandably, they would have been too much for a movie edit. And a movie for The Acolyte definitely shouldn’t be longer.
Your edit offers engaging entertainment and a gripping story – in that respect, I consider it my go-to version for now and give it 8 out of 10 points.
Like you, probably - if you are a SW fans or love to hate SW -, I watched The Acolyte, very uneasy,
Not like me, no unease at all.
besides all the politics and the modern ideology that gets in the way of good storytelling,
Politics! In Star Wars! Gosh, Lucas must be turning in his chair!
Especially as, compared to other shows like Andor or TCW, Acolyte has basically zero political dimension beyond a small segment of showing the stagnation of the Jedi Order. Unless by ‘politics and the modern ideology’ you’re getting at something else that should probably be spelt out in the open…
to which Disney seems to thinks that telling SW stories through TV series is still a good idea (Skeleton Crew, and so on until…)
It is a fantastic idea; Ewoks, Droids, CW, TCW, Rebels, Resistance, Mando, Andor, Ashoka, and BoBF. There’s only OWK and possibly this that might have been better as films, but the TV show format has worked perfectly for the franchise since Droids and Ewoks first came out.
Skeleton Crew is, of course, not out nor has any substantial information being released for you to form any opinion on how well the format will work for it.
I would like to prove my point stated earlier: the bad pacing and bad editing is what mainly plague The Acolyte.
This was the only part that’s relevant to your edit.
Gods, this place is really in danger of turning into Reddit, having to trudge through paragraphs of low effort YouTube grifter regurgitation to try find out what’s been changed and why.
Calm down.
I’ve now finished both parts and I honestly have to say that I really enjoyed them!
Of course, you can only do so much with the material at hand. But I think you made the best of it!
The idea behind this is impressive, your creativity in implementation is remarkable and your technical skills are enviable! 😄
It may not be my go-to version of the ST, but this is definitely an edit I’ll watch again sometimes!
(One question though: who is Snoke? Unfortunately I couldn’t hear the reference…)
This seems like about the most exciting ST project I’ve ever heard of.
Would also love a link! Best regards
Does anyone have access to Secior’s and L8wrtr’s Prequel-edits? I’m desperately looking for them, but only finding dead links at best.
Also: does anyone know of any other edits (besides Seciors) in which Sidious isn’t already revealed in Episode 1?
Well, it’s done.
Officially listed on IFDB this Sunday.
Uuuuh yeah! Perfect timing, with may the 4th right around the corner.
The most important edit since Ascendant, hands down
Next time I render I’ll send it to you, we can compare and contrast!
Don’t let your edit rest, we need as many different, interesting versions of this movie as possible.
That’s bloody generous of you! I would love to compare some of my takes on similar (or resembling) ideas like yours.
But don’t stress yourself too much, I’m a patient person and can wait for the final product 😉
Do you already have a complete cut list of all changes made/intended?
So there’s two things I’ve been wrestling with this whole time, and I’ve decided to put them back in.
C-3PO will exclaim “Oh, they fly now!” without Finn and Poe mimicking it. I think the initial line from 3PO is funny, but the other two don’t need to parrot it.
I’m gonna have Babu Frik pop up in the big battle. Honestly, it made me and everyone I was with laugh at the theater, and I still enjoy it.
A little humor never hurt anyone, right?
Oh dude, with each of your posts here I get closer to the point where I just let my personal edit rest 😄
90 percent of your ideas correspond to my imagination (and the other 10 are better than mine)
Spence, I haven’t seen your workprint yet (I didn’t ask for it either, as unfortunately I don’t have the time right now to review it appropriately), but only based on what you’ve planed and what you’ve already shown, I am very impressed by your edit.
Especially Leia’s death should work even better with the new changes and the connection to the mask-rebuild.
Thank you for your work!
That’s very cool!
I don’t know that you need the last bit of new dialogue from Luke. You could leave it with the original “confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi” because the vision gets the point across fine on its own.
I’ve been struggling with this scene in my edit, so I might play around with this idea. Cool stuff!
Thank you, Spence!
I would love to use the “confronting fear”-line, but since my edit will end the jedi, I would have to change it to something like “confronting your fear is your destiny”, and I wasn’t able to make this sound right…
Looking forward to see what you’ll come up with!
I’m not sure if I read this in this thread or another, but weren’t there attempts for Kylo/Ben to survive and go into exile in the end? (I know Acbagel in his Legends edit lets Kylo survive and Rey die, but I think there was some thought about both surviving as well).
Could someone point me to this?
Alright: In my eyes, the scene on Ahch-To is a key sequence of the film: instead of exiling herself, Rey (guided by Luke) realizes that she must fight for what she stands for. Now, if one simply strips away any reference to her origins, very little remains of the scene.
I wasted hours and days trying to somehow change the message of the scene, inserting lines from other Mark Hamill films and even interviews. Nothing was remotely satisfactory.
I’ve recently tried something different: Luke challenges Rey to reflect on herself again (“I’m scared of myself” “OK, but who exactly are YOU?”). She realizes that she is not only much more than her dark visions, but above all that she can choose who she wants to be (“This is your journey”).
So here is my attempt at the scene:
https://vimeo.com/689951972
PW: fanedit
It’s certainly not good and I’m a complete newbie to editing, but maybe it’ll at least serve as an inspiration for you pros.
(I especially want to expand her thoughts/memories of her “good” side in contrast to her dark visions. Oh, and my edit is centered around the theme of “Balance”, hence the the line by Luke)
This is my attempt at it so far, if you care to take a look. I included the surrounding scenes because the Leia stuff doesn’t happen here now.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xyqd6_NTFkYfmhuFUgBT_w64YZTk4UdL/view?usp=sharing
Yeah, that works.
I would have loved it if this scene has had some more weight to it, like being the third lesson Luke was owing Rey from VIII. But there is just not much to work with.
Under those circumstances, your take seems to be the most solid one.
I’ve tried roughly the same thing. But somehow it feels so… unsatisfactory. Does what’s shown that way sufficiently justify Rey’s change of heart?
Since you intend to both limit Leia’s role (accordingly, she doesn’t train Rey early in the film) while also eliminating the Palpatine lineage, what’s your plan for the sequence on Ahch-To?
If you just cut out everything about Rey Palpatine here, as well as the part about Leia, there’s not much left of the scene.
In my eyes, however, this is a key sequence of the film: After she has striked Kylo down in her anger, she is so afraid of her feelings that she wants to exile herself. Luke motivates her to accept those feelings, confront them and keep fighting.But if that only lasts a minute, it loses credibility.
I’m curious what your idea is!
Here’s what I came up with for that scene. Not a lot of meat on the bones, but it works as a little pop of action and showing Rey giving in to her anger a little bit.
Because I put Leia’s death where the “dark rey” vision originally occurred, I’ve tied her visions to the dagger. So she gets one when she picks it up in the desert, and then another one here. A few minutes later, I’m using a version of the “You will kill Palpatine and take the throne” edit that’s further up the thread. So we get a little reminder of that here too.
Yes, why not… that actually works quite well imo! Currently I’m losing my mind over changing the dialogue, but simply triming it like you did seems to be a good option.
Spence, What is your approach for the hangar scene?
YES!
That sounds exactly like what this movies needs: a sense.
Can’t wait to see what you’ll put out!
I’ve already searched the Index, the How-To’s and via google, but couldn’t find anything: is there already a collection/resources thread collecting alternative voices for Star Wars projects (e.g. voice emulators, voice parts from video-games, etc.)?
If not, wouldn’t that make sense?
Recently, the topic of replacing or changing individual words or entire sentences has come up again and again. Some resources and text-to-speech AIs (e.g. https://fakeyou.com/?vocodes=1) have already been mentioned in various threats.
Feeling very inspired by bbghost’s removal of the Jedi voices in TROS. Here’s a take I had for the third act.
Password: fanedit
Dude, that’s fantastic!
Ah, it feels like Christmas 😊 Everything here is developing exactly how I imagine it!
I’m actually in the process of incorporating the changes listed here (by RougeLeader and octorox) into my edit. That works quite well, but it feels like Rey’s agenda seem a bit thin.
So my idea was to base her motivation more around her identity crisis. RL’s idea for the Force Bond duel would actually be such a move: Kylo pouring gas on the fire that is her inner conflict (her fear of losing her friends/family, fear of her feelings, fear of her dark visions). Kylo fuels these fears, which he is familiar with (because he sees into her).
What I personally think should also be important is that Kylo’s agenda is not neglected: What is his motivation for this? I feel that Rey and Kylo’s character arcs and development mesh directly. For me, the “dyad” is the symbiosis between the two: where doubts grow in Rey, doubts also grow in Kylo; her pull to the dark, his pull to the light.
I’m looking forward to whatever you cook together, RougeLeader! You are the man!
Yeah, cool! As I’m trying something similar (and am new to this editing-stuff): how did you get the original scene so clearly? The voices kind of bleeding through all channels, so I still hear them when I’m just muting the center-channel
Oh wow, I actually watched the second one like 10 minutes ago without noticing the “over”…
Dude, thank you oh so much! You’re my hero! Man I love this community… ❤️
Now let’s see how this works out…
Hi community!
In my TROS-edit I want to change Luke saying “[…] and the war will be lost” to “[…] and the war will be over”.
All I need now is the word “over” from (old) Luke Skywalker/Mark Hamill.
I’ve looked through the movies, trailers and also a few recent interviews, with no success.
Does anyone of you have an idea? Maybe I missed something? I might find something in the OTs, but of course Mark Hamill’s voice sounds much younger there.