sherlockpotter

RogueLeader said:

Yeah, I believe I was given a version of the film/edit that had already been color corrected. It looks like the first few shots of that video are the film’s original color.

If we’re talking about the original 4K clip that I found, I believe that one matched the original Bluray colors. But maybe there had been color corrections added to it since? I guess it doesn’t matter, as long as everything matches in the final version.

NeverarGreat said:

Hal 9000 said:

As I said in our PM, it’s very much okay.

If anyone is in a position to add TIEs to that shot to match the audio, feel free. Any speck removal can be done to the resultant footage, so no need to wait.

The link again is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MRUglJE0jJH57_tJFMYWTDS95KStwtSJ/view?usp=sharing

Granted the addition of TIEs would be great, but would it be possible to just move the sound to the very end of the biomes shot to act as a bridge between that and the TIE forest flyover?

If we can’t get the actual TIEs into the shot, I think the sounds should be softer. Right now, it sounds like they’re right in front of the camera; whereas realistically, they’d be pretty far away. On that note, if the ships can be added, the sound might have to be adjusted to match - for example, fading it out as they get further away.

You know, after looking at the sequence 40 million times, does the forest shot look a little more - I dunno, orangey? - than the castle shot? Like, the smoke and clouds in the castle shot are on the greyish end, whereas the forest-shot clouds and the sky in the Kylo shot are a bit more colorful.

I say this after watching the scene I don’t know how many times, and also on a screen that doesn’t have the best colors in the first place, so take it with a grain of salt.

CaptainFaraday said:

So, just to recap, my remaining jobs are:

• Export “I am a Jedi” current audio
• Try one last idea with the “I am a Jedi” line and present it here for consideration
• Finish the Jedi Voices scene.

Can’t wait to see it, Cap! (And to get a hold of your “I am a Jedi.” *cough* 😉)

NeverarGreat said:

As for the specks, Maybe there’s an automated tool to clean up film grain that would pick these up? Otherwise I would happily go in and clean them if it meant salvaging the end of the shot.

If it is possible to clean up some of the soot, I think that might be worth it. Right now, it’s the only thing standing out to me as betraying that the shot was sped up; it almost looks like digital noise at this speed.

But that said, it’s a very minor thing, and the rest of the shot looks phenomenal!

Looking really good Nev! I noticed some specks on the screen at points - is that just soot that’s present in the original footage, or is stemming from the recolor?

I’d definitely love to get the TIEs into this shot too if possible; but I thought we decided to also keep the V1 forest flyover shot before cutting to Kylo, correct?

Are we doing the two-shot or the three-shot version with the Biomes footage?

EDIT: Nevermind, Hal answered before I hit submit lol.

Always love reading your ideas, RL!

If Hal thinks a fully separate version is going to be necessary for Ascendant Rey Nobody, I’d also be more inclined to remove mention of her parents being nice and helping to protect her. So stuff like:

RogueLeader said:

So in this version of the film, Palpatine basically saw a vision of Rey usurping him in the future, and sent Ochi to find/kill her. Rey’s parents turn out to still have some love for their daughter and they don’t tell them where she is. It’d be nice to not contradict the “filthy junk traders” characterization from TLJ, but I think Hal has already done some work to keep it from being overly contradictory.

I’d rather just remove her parents entirely. Come to think of it, if we remove her parents sparing her from Ochi, would it be better to just outright remove the implication that Ochi was hunting Rey at all? I think the only other time it would be mentioned would be the scene with Finn and Poe - “He was sent to find a little girl on Jakku” or whatever. Could that scene be reframed to just be D-O has the data on Exegol because Ochi was involved with the Sith?

RogueLeader said:

Palpatine calling her weak like her parents, and then her saying her parents were strong and saved her from him wouldn’t have to be cut, since it doesn’t necessarily imply she’s a Palpatine. I hate this line, but it can be kept depending on how her parents are handled. It’d be nice if she could just say, “They saved me from you” if you had to keep anything.

I did a test at one point of Palpatine mocking her, calling her “Weak, like your parents,” and not having Rey respond to that. I thought it worked well - it suddenly hearkened back to her parents being filthy, drunken junk-traders, as if he was stripping Rey of her newfound confidence and abilities. It’s really just that awkward shot of Rey bleating about “My parents were strong…” that doesn’t fit at all.

RogueLeader said:

I actually think Hal said he changed this scene so you probably don’t have this line anymore. But I’m not sure if he cut him saying, “Some things are stronger than blood.” I feel like this line would need to be cut too. Maybe you have Luke say that line as he is sitting down if you felt like he needed to say it.

I wonder if Old Man Luke has any dialogue to say basically, “I know your folks were losers, but we’re not defined by our parents. Some things are stronger than blood.” Probably easier just to cut it entirely though.

CaptainFaraday said:

I still haven’t sent my individual files to Sherlock - BUT! - I might actually have my first chance to sit and export it all for him (and others) tomorrow during my lunch break at work. Fingers crossed!

Also, thanks, Burbin!

That would be fantastic, Cap! I was actually just saying the other day that I was still hoping to work in some of your changes with what I had done!

While we’re talking about the new saber VFX, did anyone have any thoughts on doing that “flicker out” effect on the Death Star? I was looking into it, but I don’t trust myself (and my complete lack of any experience) at all.

Also, MR, were you able to export a finished version of the sabers finally sparking out on Exegol? I seem to remember it looked really, really good back in the day - you just needed to finish tracking some smoke or something?

Burbin said:

The nostalgic imagery of Vader’s TIE right next to Luke’s X-wing feels more like the kind of thing they would’ve done for real for this particular movie.

I guess you could say it TIEs everything together… sorry.

That’s why I voted for the TIE as well. The visual silhouette (and the symbolism) of an X-Wing and a TIE being next to each other means more to the overall saga I think than the Imperial Shuttle does. Plus, there’s something fitting about Vader flying the TIE-whatever (Interceptor?) in the first Star Wars movie, and Ben flying the same type of ship in the last.

“It’s like poetry, it rhymes.”

Mind you, I don’t necessarily think it’s the exact same ship, just the same model. And in that respect, I think different models of TIEs would be more readily available on the Death Star than an Imperial Shuttle would be, since those always seemed to be reserved for the highest ranking officials. So there’s story justifications and lore justifications.

Screw it. Pop the Titanic back in and be done with it, Hal.

Movies Remastered said:

I havent been able to open anything in after effects properly for months. It makes my computer turn red hot in a very short time

From what I remember people didn’t think the effect was strong enough in the day shots and I only finished one cave close up with the new filter layers. The final design has 5 different Saber effect layers so it takes forever to do a few seconds.

Also, I’ve since re-ripped the bluray but worried about replacing the current file incase something goes wrong. This also means I’ll have to redo the source files on all after effects shots I’ve made including the crackling saber.

Does anyone know an easy way to replace source files that haven’t been nested? I’ve tried render and replace but the file is greyed out?

Dude, I’m so sorry to hear that things aren’t going well.

Knowing literally nothing about After Effects’ project structure, do you have access to the project save files you were working on? Depending on how much is left to do, maybe it’s possible to share the files with someone else, have them open them on their end (replicating your source file structure), and render the video for you?

omnimuffin said:

sherlockpotter said:

Burbin said:

I don’t see the problem with Pryde saying Palpatine & co. “conjured legions of Star Destroyers”, I don’t think he means that they literally materialized the ships out of thin air. It’s just a riposte to that other officer calling them “conjurers”, he’s simply stating they have brought forth a large & previously unknown fleet, as if being “conjured”.

In any rate I don’t think Pryde would be privy to the inner machinations of the Sith Eternal and their ‘fleet conjuring rituals’, so I don’t see how this line could be read as him explaining the origin of the Sith Fleet.

On the other hand, Kylo was the only person who even went to Exegol (as far as we know), so all any of them would know is what Kylo told them. Why would Kylo, in his official report, say that Palps had “conjured” Star Destroyers if he hadn’t? I’ve always interpreted as Pryde being literal (not to mention, it’s the closest thing the original film offered to an explanation for the Sith Fleet’s existence).

Personally, I’m not super concerned about this either way. If Pryde/the script wants to say that the Sith Fleet was conjured…fine, whatever. It’s not the stupidest thing in the film by a long shot. But if Ascendant does want to downplay that whole aspect…like Chase said, it would probably be more in line with that goal to trim the line.

This feels like one of those things where people are going out of their way to assume the absolute worst possible interpretation of something that happened in the movie. Nothing about the movie implies that the ships were literally conjured, and arguing that it does feels like arguing in bad faith.

I’m not arguing in bad faith, I’m just quoting what the script is literally saying verbatim. I even said the line doesn’t matter to me either way.

Hal said he’s not going to pursue changing the line regardless, so I don’t understand why we’re trying to reignite the debate.

Burbin said:

I don’t see the problem with Pryde saying Palpatine & co. “conjured legions of Star Destroyers”, I don’t think he means that they literally materialized the ships out of thin air. It’s just a riposte to that other officer calling them “conjurers”, he’s simply stating they have brought forth a large & previously unknown fleet, as if being “conjured”.

In any rate I don’t think Pryde would be privy to the inner machinations of the Sith Eternal and their ‘fleet conjuring rituals’, so I don’t see how this line could be read as him explaining the origin of the Sith Fleet.

On the other hand, Kylo was the only person who even went to Exegol (as far as we know), so all any of them would know is what Kylo told them. Why would Kylo, in his official report, say that Palps had “conjured” Star Destroyers if he hadn’t? I’ve always interpreted as Pryde being literal (not to mention, it’s the closest thing the original film offered to an explanation for the Sith Fleet’s existence).

Personally, I’m not super concerned about this either way. If Pryde/the script wants to say that the Sith Fleet was conjured…fine, whatever. It’s not the stupidest thing in the film by a long shot. But if Ascendant does want to downplay that whole aspect…like Chase said, it would probably be more in line with that goal to trim the line.

For what it’s worth, Hal, one of the things I most admire about this edit is that I think it really comes from a place of respecting (overall) what J.J. & Co. set out to do - it’s just trying to add to it and fix the execution of it. I remember a fan edit of TLJ where the editor completely gutted the movie, replaced half of Luke’s dialogue with his own (poorly dubbed) voice; it was obvious that he just absolutely hated TLJ and wanted to fundamentally remake the movie. Heck, even my own first attempt to edit this movie last year was me just stripping out every part I hated, and there was barely any movie left.

I think you’ve really produced a film here that’s the antithesis of that - an edit that’s additive, rather than destructive; and you’ve encouraged me to think of the film in a whole new light. Not “What do we want to remove,” but “What can we add or change to make it better?” To quote a now-removed line: “That’s how we’re gonna win. Not by fighting what we hate. But saving what we love.”

Anyway, I think if we can get Kijimi working, including that revamped Poe rooftop scene, I think that will help with Poe’s/the galaxy’s motivation for coming together at the end. After all, the whole point of that change is showing how they’re inspiring each other to stand fast. (I am still working on it, albeit slowly!)

Peonthegrate said:

I like the idea of the captain Hux, but it sounds tacked on for me with headphones at least. Maybe the captain part is too loud? Or some of the background noise could be amped up some potentially.

Agreed. I wonder if it’s a problem with the pitch? Like, his voice should be lower on “Captain” and go up on “Hux”? Right now it’s the opposite - starting higher on “Captain” and jumping down on “Hux.” I wonder if a bit of autotune could (ironically) make that feel more natural.

Chase Adams said:

Since the conference scene is being brought up again, I mentioned this a couple times already, though quite some time ago… I still really feel that Pryde’s line about ‘conjuring star destroyers’ directly contradicts what this edit attempts to imply about the Final Order’s resources. If we want a hypothetical first time audience to believe these ships are a stashed remnant of the Empire, it seems weird not to cut it.

Oh now that’s interesting. You could probably do a pretty simple trim just from “They sound like a cult, conjurers and soothsayers.”…“The Sith Fleet will increase our resources ten thousand fold.” The only potential problem would be covering up the cut, since there’s only a focus pull there now. There’s a shot in the BTS of some random officers at the conference table; although I think someone walks across the frame, so I’m not sure how much of that would actually be usable.

Cinefy said:

Hal 9000 said:

Seems unlikely due to the crackly saber which has a handful of sequences remaining.
I could put out a workprint that would be viewable, omitting changes that aren’t complete.

Honestly I think the wait is worth it, we all want whats best for the edit so it can be in the best shape possible.

Just going to chime in and say that I second this. I’d rather wait a bit longer and have a beautiful, fully-realized edit than spit out something half-finished. There’s always V1 to hold us over in the meantime; but I’m confident V2 (and Rey Nobody!) will be worth the wait.

poppasketti said:

sherlockpotter said:

Original ending for comparison: https://streamable.com/15r2vd

Potential new version: https://streamable.com/asygmi

I mainly tried to smooth over the pickup note between Rey’s Theme and the End Credit fanfare. Oh, and shoutout to bbghost for helping me find the correct music clips!

BOOOOO. Booooo. 😂 (it’s been a while was that in the original soundtrack?)

I do think this transition is a bit cleaner. Has a nice punch on that first note of the credits. Good work!

Edit: after listening a few times I think what I like about the new version isn’t so much the punch of the first note of the credits but the last swell of violins from Rey’s theme. It feels a little longer and rises to a bigger crescendo, which I think is appropriate for the last note of the Star Wars saga.

I think poppa is referring to the booing of the screenwriters, Hal. Which was totally in the original version, poppa; I don’t know what you’re talking about 😂.

But yeah, you’re exactly right - I added a bit of crescendo and extended the ritard a little more. I didn’t want to be excessive with it, but does it all sound properly balanced to you? Does it need a bit more?

EDIT: To be clear, the music in the theatrical is the Jedi Steps music from TFA. Ascendant uses a variation on Rey’s Theme. I kept the same Ascendant music here; I just tweaked the transition from that piece into the end credits. The exact frame on which to place the cue is up to Hal - I’m just focused on the music itself right now. Does the music flow seamlessly between the two pieces?

Original ending for comparison: https://streamable.com/15r2vd

Potential new version: https://streamable.com/asygmi

I mainly tried to smooth over the pickup note between Rey’s Theme and the End Credit fanfare. Oh, and shoutout to bbghost for helping me find the correct music clips!

I have an end credits transition I was working on. Just having some export issues over here, so…stay tuned, I guess.

And Cap, it’s been a pleasure. Hope we’ll still see you for some of the discussions at least!

DZ-330 said:

Master Lawdog said:

Also, is it still being worked on for the final shot to be an overhead shot of Tatooine in space as the Falcon makes the jump to lightspeed?

I would love to see this idea fully realized. I posted a mockup of it a while ago but my experience is nowhere close to where it would need to be to pull it off. I think the music just needs to extend out a bit. I’m just not a fan of it cut straight from Rey’s theme to the credits 🤷‍♂️

I was actually working on smoothing out that music cue; hopefully I’ll get something out soonish.

Master Lawdog said:

DMC said:

Why are you so fixated on Tobey Maguire?? I’m confused.

It’s because someone managed to recreate Sebastian Shaw from an image of Maguire, due to the two of them having the same, or at least similar, head shape.

Can we please keep the Shaw discussion to the other thread from now on? Hal vetoed the idea months ago, and has several times since.

SCREW YOU, CHASE!!!

Nah I’m just kidding. Here’s a split rar archive.

https://pastebin.com/tYaTjv1z
https://streamable.com/cmoyve

I’ve been combing through the behind the scenes footage, mainly because I’m hoping to incorporate some extra shots into the Kijimi sequence. As I was going through though, I also went ahead and pulled every other shot I could find that might potentially be added somewhere in the film with minimal touch-ups. I know some shots have been considered or even included in Ascendant already - and the shots that remain likely won’t work for any number of reasons - but I thought it might be worth looking through them again with fresh eyes. Maybe add an extra landscape shot or two on Pasaana? More footage at Leia’s funeral? An extra shot on Endor? I dunno; I’m just looking for more ways to slow the pacing.

I rendered it as uncompressed to preserve as much information as possible, so the file’s kind of large.

https://mega.nz/file/5TZm2RjR#L3H4Qiw4714bxSnaHAu3IzdeVc0RAGe19Ng8HjezJEc

sade1212 said:

sherlockpotter said:

I was thinking, I wonder if there’s some way to use Rey’s horrible, drunk parents in TLJ to help lure her to the Dark Side in Rey Nobody. Like, a really obvious character thread for anyone who isn’t Chris Terrio is for Kylo or Palpsters to say “Your parents abandoned you. Doesn’t that fill you with anger and hatred?” Or “You have no family, all alone. Join me.” Or heck even, “Take the Throne, rule over the galaxy, and you can ensure that no one else will ever be forsaken again. Like you were.”

Isn’t this what Kylo does in TLJ? “You’re nothing… but not to me.”

Not exactly. My take on the TLJ scene was that Kylo was telling her, “Your parents left you. You’re not special. You’re all alone. But you and I can be friends.” In TROS, my thought was to transition the issue from “Aren’t you sad that you’re alone?” to “Your parents were horrible to you. Doesn’t that make you angry?” Kind of like Anakin being sad about his mom - that turning into anger, into hate, etc.

“It’s like poetry, it rhymes.”

I was thinking, I wonder if there’s some way to use Rey’s horrible, drunk parents in TLJ to help lure her to the Dark Side in Rey Nobody. Like, a really obvious character thread for anyone who isn’t Chris Terrio is for Kylo or Palpsters to say “Your parents abandoned you. Doesn’t that fill you with anger and hatred?” Or “You have no family, all alone. Join me.” Or heck even, “Take the Throne, rule over the galaxy, and you can ensure that no one else will ever be forsaken again. Like you were.”

I don’t know if the dialogue exists anywhere (it’s probably easier to just ignore her parents entirely), but it might be interesting to tie it all back together like that. TFA - the trilogy starts with Rey fantasizing about her lineage, TLJ - she realizes that she’ll have to make her own path instead of inheriting one, and TROS - she has to decide which path to walk. Besides, I think “Parents selling child for drinking money -> Child falls to the Dark Side out of resentment” is a much more logical progression than “Parents sacrifice themselves to save child from the Dark Side -> Child falls to the Dark Side…for reasons.” Logical, that is, for anyone who isn’t Chris Terrio.

I’ve been talking to MR. He says that he is still planning on working on the cracked saber VFX, he just can’t do much editing at the moment due to computer trouble; but he’s hoping to get back into the game in the near future.

I don’t know if you’re still interested in the “Kijimi Rebellion” angle, Hal; but I was discussing that with axlanian recently. He’s had to deal with some stuff lately that’s prevented him from working on the film; but ideally, I’m hoping we could still put something together in the coming weeks. I’ve worked out how we could portray it; I think it’s just a matter of recording new dialogue and mixing the audio FX now.

Is it possible to paint out the lightsaber in that first wide shot during the training course? The next shot has the lightsaber deactivated, so it’s just a continuity break in the theatrical edit.

It’s definitely very good (I asked Cap to send me his original audio so that I can mix it into a new version I’m working on), but there’s still some noticeable audio distortion happening on the seam between “am” and “a”. Maybe I’m just hyper-aware when it comes to this line, but it’s definitely there. It almost sounds…I dunno, a little “Donald Duck”-y for a split second?

That said, it’s still very impressive work. I know first-hand how much of a nightmare this line is - the tone of voice, the speed of delivery, the mushiness of the phonemes… none of it lends itself well to editing. I’m hoping that combining both of our clips will make the line just about perfect.

Master Lawdog said:

It still sounds like she’s saying “I’m a Jedi.”

Well I’ll be…I just double checked the subtitles on Disney+, and apparently the original line is “I’M all the Jedi.” All this time, I’ve thought it was “am all the Jedi.” Go figure.

Not that it really matters, I suppose. “I…I’m a Jedi” and “I…am a Jedi” both work fine grammatically. The big hurdle is making sure the reconstructed “a” in the new line sounds un-garbage-y.

jarbear said:

Can one repost the scene prior to the “added” lightsaber sound. Im curious to “hear” the seam (if i can) and it could be good to brain storm what kind of sounds to use to mask it.

(Just have Palps say SENATE! that was cut out from Hals LOE 😉)

https://streamable.com/81qs12

This was my attempt from a little while back. I don’t think it’s terrible, but I did want to try working it a little more to see if it could be made a bit smoother. I know we’ve also talked about emphasizing the “am” more, but that word is unaltered from the theatrical mix, so I don’t think that part will be a huge issue in the final mix.

Hmmm…honestly, I think I prefer it without the sound. Just like how the music drops out at that point, I think the line has more weight when there’s nothing to distract from it. Obviously, that comes with the huge caveat that the original edit can be made flawless; barring that, I think the lightsaber sound is a clever band-aid over it.

That said, I agree with oviniboy that it doesn’t quite sound organic to the scene yet. I think it needs more bass maybe? Just something to give it more “oomph.”

Which actually leads into an important question - how will the lightsaber sounds change as a result of the new “cracked crystal core” concept? Will it be modified to sound closer to Kylo’s saber, with that buzzing/motor quality to it? Maybe a blend of Kylo’s saber sounds coupled with the original Luke saber sounds? However that goes in V2, this new effect would have to match.