Let me temper things by saying that due to a couple things it will likely be released after 12/20, but should still roughly coincide with the anniversary in principle, if not technically.
So what you told us was true, from a certain point of view…
I remember MR’s tests for the caves with the different particle effects and everything, and those were absolutely gorgeous. Obviously, this lost kewlfish footage is a huge boon and could simply be inserted as-is; if MR and RL are still interested in pursuing the enhanced effect even more though, maybe kewlfish’s footage could be used as a base layer?
The cave especially is such a tricky shot - the lightsaber is the main source of light, and it’s not moving very fast; so this sequence more than any other really showcases the new effects.
That said, I’m absolutely not going to insist anyone do extra work that they don’t want to do. Just keeping with what’s already here would be fantastic for the project!
Thank you for combing through the thread, Master Lawdog! That’s the tricky thing about this project being nearly 600 pages long. Geez…
Here’s the Jedi Voices scene with only one Sors line.
(I’ve also exported the “two lines” version without the added dialogue, so if anyone wants to add their own Jedi voices, PM me.)
That’s a huge improvement imo! Personal preference, but I might make the new line just a hair softer, and add a touch more reverb. But it sounds really, really good right now! (I’m assuming the audio going completely screwy at 1:10 was just an accident 😉).
So is this still something being considered?
I have the audio line and everything still. Just might need a little bit of reverb added.
I…don’t hate it. I do agree that it doesn’t flow perfectly with what comes next; but then, the rest of the script sounds like it was run through Google Translate a dozen times and then fed through a wood chipper. Natural-sounding dialogue went out the window back with “I made Snoke.”
I’m inclined to think that a line that kinda fits would be better than a line that matches structurally, but was overdubbed by someone else. Jar Jar, are there any other options available? It doesn’t even have to be a big, dramatic line - just something like:
KYLO: Wherever you are, you are hard to find.
REY: You’re hard to get rid of.
KYLO: I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it. I needed you to see it. Who you are. I know the rest of your story… Rey-
REY: You’re lying.
KYLO: I never lied to you. No. Your parents were no one. They chose to be. To keep you safe.
(Really, I’m just looking forward to gutting this entire conversation in Rey Nobody.)
If I remember correctly, DominicCobb’s is the edit where Rey killed her parents as a child? That’s definitely a cool idea - it seems like it would be easier to implement, because flashback moments are built into the story, and you can keep a good chunk of Kylo’s existing dialogue (“You don’t know the full story,” etc.) - but I’d be interested in seeing if anything could be done with the Kylo Bedroom fight to avoid mentioning her parents entirely. After everything that went down in TLJ about Rey losing her dependence on her parents, it feels like it regresses her character somewhat to still have Rey defined by their fate.
Not that any Rey Nobody edit is “easy” to pull off…
There are a ton of continuity errors in this film anyway, and most probably wouldn’t be noticed except on repeat viewings. One of the ones that’s always stuck out to me was Rey having the lightsaber activated in the drone shot during the training montage, even though the shots before and after have it deactivated. But I doubt anything can be done about it, so…oh well.
The Jedi voices scene now features the return to the franchise of Sors Bandeam.
Super cool, Cap! I haven’t watched the scene in ages, so I wasn’t entirely sure which one was him; but…was he “We are all one in the Force, Rey”? I feel like that line needs a touch more reverb there - he sounds much clearer than Qui-Gon immediately before. Also, does the background audio sound a bit wonky to anyone else around 0:55, at the big music swell? It’s maybe a bit too loud, or almost like the different channels are increasing at different rates or something.
Definitely an awesome first step! How amazing is it that we get custom dialogue from an official Star Wars actor?
Why is it poppa’s responsibility? I don’t understand. He’s super busy anyway, and we’re lucky he’s been able to contribute so much to this project already.
Like Lawdog said, we should stick with discussing Ascendant on this thread. We’re literally theorizing about completely different edits at this point.
I do like this idea and feel it’d have been much preferable to the theatrical, but I think to realistically get at it we’d have to essentially let the theatrical alone. In other words I don’t think it’d work to imply Kylo has mysterious orders from Palpatine.
If the key ingredient of the idea is Palpatine knowingly trying to drain the dyad, I don’t think the footage is there to establish what’s happening, as he holds his hands up in surprise to exposit what’s happening.
I think it would be fine to start the film with a mysterious “What is Palpatine planning?” (It’s the one mystery box that actually has something inside.) As I understand it, Palpatine has three different plans throughout the film, even though the film tries to play each off as if “This was my plan the whole time.” (Just like how J.J. treated Episode IX itself!) First - ignoring the stupid “I never wanted you dead” - he wants Kylo to kill Rey and then possess Kylo. Hence, “The Princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plans.” Later, he wants Rey to kill him and initiate a Spirit Transfer. Evil Plot #3 is sucking up the Dyad Juice and rejuvenating his body to look like his hot, young, clone “son” his old, withered, zombie face.
If we were to pick one, true “goal” for Palpatine to have - I agree with Hal that Palp’s surprise at the Dyad wouldn’t work if that was his plan all along. I still think that Neerb’s plotline from months ago makes a lot of sense. Palpy wanted to lure Rey to Exegol; everything about wanting to kill her is a lie created by Kylo. All it would take is removing, what? Two lines? “Kill the girl!!” And “Kill her!” during his phone call with Kylo. Given that Hal was shooting for a December release, it would be fairly easy to do.
Side note: Have we done anything to clarify why he can’t possess Kylo? It can’t be genetic, because he was controlling Snoke just fine. If it’s because Kylo is conflicted, I mean…Rey is clearly conflicted about killing him too, so like…no. And also Rey wouldn’t have been conflicted at all if Palps had just let her kill him in the first place, and-and-…uuuuugggghhhhh. I haven’t thought about the finale in months and I was happier for it. Damn you, all lol.
I think GLogus’s idea has a lot of potential - you’d have to make it more that he wants Rey to join him as apprentice I think, otherwise you run into the same problems as before with the Dyad surprise. Then it’s like Anakin joining to save Padme, Rey joining to save her friends. But what would happen during the whole “She will draw her lightsaber” sequence? Would we just remove all of Palpatine’s dialogue?
Yeah, this really makes Kylo scary beyond all reason.
😉
Also, I understand that it is settled and binned 😄, but just in case I was not clear in my force ghost post, this was my ultimate suggestion:
What are people’s thoughts on having JUST BEN as a force ghost for that shot, replacing Mark and Carrie entirely
As someone who doesn’t really care much for the kiss, or for the 11th-hour Dyad-retcon, I think it’s more important to address the character relationships that have spanned the entire trilogy, not just the last film. So Rey and Kylo, yes; but also Rey’s relationships with Luke and Leia, and Luke’s and Leia’s relationships with Ben. I think it would feel unsatisfying to just ignore all of that.
There we go, I’ve figured out the Captain Hux conundrum.
Lol Hal, I’m never happy. MR, my edit is only using the mono center channel. I think the difference you’re hearing in the sound quality is because the original dialogue echoes into all of the other channels, whereas I’m just dropping in the center channel for now. For the final version, it would have to be copied into the other channels too, you’re right.
This is what it would sound like if “Hux” was pitched up a little bit. Like mes1983 pointed out, it might lose some of the emphasis on “Captain Hux” that I was originally shooting for. But if it sounds more natural, that’s ultimately the most important thing.
Higher: https://streamable.com/ioip9t
Lower: https://streamable.com/q4mu6h
Take 2 on the full “Captain Hux”. Does it sound any smoother?
Somewhat rough attempt at the full “Captain Hux,” if we think that way makes more logical sense.
I’ve been working with the Captain Hux audio a bit. I wanted to try playing up the whole “playground bully” thing that Hux and Kylo have going on, so I tried to focus more on “Captain” being an insult, not just a rank. And then all of the other officers look over at him like, “Oh shoot, Hux was demoted?? That’s some hot gossip, right there.” (Note that the word “Captain” would still need to be added into the surround channels, so it doesn’t sound as echo-y right now.)
I was in a hurry looking at Nev’s most recent clip until now. I like the subtle touch of adding lava to the extreme right side of frame for poppasketti’s forest flyover shot!
Agreed, brilliant as always, Nev! And I like the extra focus on the back lava river before that shot too - just have to resync the TIE sound FX.
Mainly that it’s more apparent, I suppose. With the Biomes shot, I think more of the focus ends up being on the lava river and on Vader’s castle. Plus, I think seeing “a” forest in the distance is less of a visual indicator than seeing the closeup of the forest overhead, and seeing how badly it’s been destroyed. It really feels homogeneous with what we see of the forest when Kylo’s on the ground. (Chase, brilliant find with the shot!)
I mean, it’s just my opinion, of course. I think it’s amazing that we have so many options from which to pick; and Nev, you’ve done an amazing job of recoloring them all!
I still contend that the the forest flyover is the most important shot in the entire sequence. The lava shot and the Biomes shot are nice to have in the sense that they’re borderline fan service - truthfully, it doesn’t matter what planet they’re on, but it’s fun to remember “Hey, look! It’s Mustafar! We’ve been here before!” The forest flyover, on the other hand, is the most important one from a directorial standpoint - it’s the one that connects the ships flying towards the planet with the action that happens on the ground, subconsciously establishing where the scene is going to take place. It essentially, if you’ll excuse the pun, ties the opening shots together.
Looking at it from another perspective, if we’re going to have a jump from “lava river” to “burning forest” no matter what, I’d rather do it in a way that we have TIEs in both shots as a bit of connective tissue.
Mustafar sequence, proposed as final:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UJwqxMyGw1DnzUXtjjo0Lc0wuyDdMvZD/view?usp=sharing
It’s got skenera’s LUT applied as well, so it’d be about how the final, cc’d fan edit will be.
From what I can tell on my crappy laptop screen, that all looks amazing! Colors seem to match much better between shots, audio levels sound good, and I’m not even noticing the ash anymore.
In a word, perfection!
Thank you for the kind words, Sherlock! (And sorry that it’s taken me so long to be able to get anything exported!)
I think the whole mix is a bit like a Rubik’s cube. If one part gets changed, the other parts sound different by recontextualisation, even if they haven’t been changed themselves. It’s such a tricky delivery to work with as well, and there’s no good source for any of the exact phonemes we need.
This is the perfect way of explaining the problem, honestly. It seems like it would be such an easy, subtle change, but everything has to fall into place just right. No problem about the wait, haha it was definitely worth it! Seriously, you created exactly what was needed to make the line perfect.
I don’t keep up with this thread as much as I should but bravo if it was your idea on the purple lightsaber. I remember Carrie saying that she’d want a purple lightsaber. So that’s a great subtle way of honouring her. 😄
Not my idea, but I agree it’s fantastic! (And flawless execution too by skenera.) I can’t even remember her lightsaber being blue anymore, honestly.
For sure, I absolutely love what Cap did with the line - I’ve practically been begging him nonstop to let me use his audio in the final mix - but there was some audio distortion happening around the “am a” that had to be removed for a final product. I incorporated a lot of what he did (particularly how he fixed “I’m” to “am” - god, I love it), cleaned up that tricky spot, and smoothed over the edges.
Okay, I’ve combined my latest edit with parts from Cap’s version (as well as a few extra layers to smooth over gaps and clean up some scratches)… and I think we may have finally cracked “I am a Jedi”. I’m genuinely really excited - to my ears at least, this is the best I think it’s ever sounded. Thank you, Cap!
Of course, I’m sure someone will hear something I missed and burst my bubble, lol.
Here’s the current state of the Mustafar sequence. I added TIE sounds to Nev’s and Poppasketti’s new shot, though I might need to make the TIE sounds a little louder.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v52axgvRcQNBNvBL4CfEOGPewj_Pmo_V/view?usp=sharing
That’s looking pretty darn incredible! Personally, I do think the TIEs should be a bit louder when they first appear - not quite as loud as in the first shot necessarily, but still up a bit. The synchronization sounds spot-on though!
Do we think the soot will be able to be cleaned up at all, or will it just be a particularly ashy day on Mustafar?
The opening is going to be incredible.
I think the way the camera is moving dictated to me how the ties should fly, so that’s what I went with, but you’re right it’s three shots in a row like that!
I think this is the most important thing. If it doesn’t match the camera movements, it’s going to stand out. And I don’t think it’s going to be too jarring to have three shots of the ships flying away from camera - the perspective of the camera changes enough (low angle/high angle shots) that I don’t think they’ll feel too samey.
If we go with Cinefy’s idea of mirroring the shot, I’ll only point out that we’d have to go back to the V1 forest flyover shot, to maintain a constant right-to-left screen direction between the shots (which wouldn’t be an issue).
Hey everyone,
Well, I managed to find some time last night to at least get a first pass out!
https://vimeo.com/640958502
pw: faneditI sent over the project files to Nev (including C4D files and models) so he can integrate any color correction or other tweaks he’d like to make.
Are you kidding me? You just “managed to find some time” and it’s perfect? We’d just have to fiddle with the sound effects to sync them to the flight path.
@Burbin, what does the back of the castle look like? Has it ever been shown?