Sorry for the silence, this is still very much in the works!
I’m working on another project with the Red Apple Crew over at FE and that’s taking up a lot of time. The majority of the work I’m doing on Acolyte right now is tiny cuts for pacing and polishing up. I’ll probably have this out by the end of the year.
Here’s a look at a longer sequence, this is the final “truth” flashback slotted into the film. The sequence runs about 10 minutes, the longest of the flashbacks, but I think it covers everything needed. I still want to work on the sequence where Torbin and Sol leave the camp, as I’m trying to make it clear that they’re just going together, as opposed to Sol chasing Torbin.
(If you have seen the workprint, this sequence was heavily updated)
I also want to get ahead of a few things, just because I know they will be commented on. A few of the “woke” things, or other things certain people complained about are going to be cut from my edit, but that’s absolutely not the reason why.
The reference to Osha’s mothers is cut because the flashbacks have been so condensed that it adds confusion.
The fire on the outside of the space ship is cut because I moved a flashback to right before that sequence, making it redundant.
Ki-Adi Mundi’s line about the Sith is cut because that scene was heavily condensed for time.
I have no problem with representation in Star Wars, nor did the pedantic and bad faith complaints about other things bother me at all. Star Wars is better when it’s inclusive, when anyone can enjoy it. Complaining about scientific accuracy in a series about space wizards and hairy dog dudes is silly. None of these cuts were done to appease the fake outrage fans.
So the trick with the flashbacks being interspersed throughout the series is finding a natural way to transition to them. I think I’ve found something that works.
Whenever a flashback starts, it always transitions from a shot of Sol. Whenever the flashback ends, it transitions into a shot of Osha waking up. The only exception is the final “the real story” one, which starts with Sol having Mae captured, and ends with Osha approaching the Sith mask.
So there’s a consistent language to the flashbacks. They always bridge Sol and Osha together.
I’m going to make the first 3rd of this edit available for previews this week, so if you’d like to see it, send me a message.
The problem with that is Quimir clearly registers something in his head (based upon his facial expression) when Sol mentions that the witches used the Force/vergence to create life. The impression being that he knows what his master is capable of, and the pieces are starting to come together for him. All of the language and acting in that scene is hinting at the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.
And while I do get what you’re saying about the focus being pulled from Mae when his cameo is shifted to the end, at least it explains why we don’t see anymore from those two characters going forward. If there is no looming/controlling threat above them, then we as the audience have to assume they get up to more dark side shenanigans leading to TPM without ever being discovered. This show already stretches the viewer’s suspension of disbelief quite a bit.
This is an excellent point. I’ll toy with it.
Excited to see where you go with this!!
Maybe I’m just bitter about them cancelling any plans for Season 2, but regarding Plagueis, I would just cut him entirely. Try to keep this movie as self-contained as possible, ya know? Don’t tempt the audience with something that will never be 😭
I’m honestly toying with that. The scene it happens in is largely unimportant and could shave a few minutes off the runtime. Right now it’s in. The edit is running 2 hours 26 minutes as of now, right around the same length as my Kenobi edit, and it feels pretty good at that length. So if I end up putting something back in, Plagueis is likely the first thing to go.
What are your plans concerning the ending? No to Yoda, yes to Plagueis, etc.?
No Yoda, and we don’t see Mae again after she gets picked up by the Jedi (“What did I do?”). There’s a shortened sequence of Vernestra lying to the high council, and then it’s straight to Osha and Qimir.
I’m probably just going to leave the Plagueis hint where it is. I tried moving it to the end, with him looking at them on the beach, and it kind of stifles the ending a bit. The focus gets pulled from Osha, which I feel like is important.
I’m not denying that it’s a good moment, but it hints at a greater conspiracy than what we’re ultimately presented with. That retroactively taints my perception of the scene itself. In truth, I think the greater argument for removing all of it is to save screen time and keep the pacing going. The gang is told that somebody tried to break into a local Jedi temple, they show up, and both the audience and them are shocked to discover the person they were trying to save is already dead somehow. It just flows better.
I intend to keep it, and my argument for that is that we already don’t see Kelnacca’s death, so removing another one kind of short changes Mae and the audience. Also, I just think all the stuff with Torbin is cool.
I always imagined something akin to Batman Begins or Man of Steels use of flashback would fit well with this story as a film
You’re not far off from what I’m doing, I am using MoS as an inspiration as far as when/how to add them in.
Can’t wait to see more! Interested to see how you’ll integrate the flashbacks without sticking on them for too long while still keeping the necessary context.
I’ve found a bit of a system. We only get flashbacks when somebody wakes up, usually Osha. So they’re basically her dreams. “The truth” so to say, comes when Sol has Mae captured on the ship.
Right now I have, I believe anyway, all the necessary flashbacks integrated this way. The edit is running about 2 hours 35 minutes but I’m confident I can get another 15-20 out of it. The big fight happens right about half way through, which is what I wanted.
Hi everyone,
What a divisive series, huh? I know there’s going to inevitably be a boat-load of edits for this series, some already released, but I wanted to throw my hate in the ring.
For some perspective, I actually really liked The Acolyte. Sure, it had it’s flaws, but I found it refreshing that the show didn’t rely on nostalgia/legacy characters, and presented some interesting and new ideas. Also, it’s hard to deny that the lightsaber action was top tier, and they introduced a great new villain. It was a good show with great promise, and I’m sad we aren’t getting a second season to see where it goes from here.
My goals with this edit are similar to my edit of Kenobi, so if you liked that, this will be similar. Basically, I want to find a way to cut this down to a manageable length (less than 2 hours 30 minutes) and have the pacing and feel of a Star Wars theatrical film. This isn’t necessarily an “I’m gonna fix The Acolye!” edit, and more of a “what would this story look like if it were presented as a theatrical film?”
The biggest change that I’m most proud of so far, even though it needs more smoothing, is removing Osha’s adventure on the snow planet. Things have been re-organized and re-edited so that Sol, Jecki, and Yord go together to initially confront Osha, with Yord being the one that goes aboard to speak with her. This necessitated removing Yord’s padawan, who is never seen again anyway. Mae’s attack on Torbin happens right after Osha is brought aboard, so she’s not the prime suspect pretty much right away.
Here’s an early preview of Yord confronting Osha with the padawan removed:
https://streamable.com/n5df3g
I also intend to sprinkle snippets of the flashbacks from episodes 3 and 7 throughout where appropriate, so we only get the pieces of the backstory needed to reach the climax of the story.
This will take a little while to get right as there’s a lot of pieces that I need to get right, but I’ll post more work here as I go.
I’d love to give this a go, would it be possible to get a link in PM please Spence?
Please send a PM instead of requesting in the thread so as not to fill the thread with requests. Thanks!
I’ve just rewatched TPM & AotC for the first time in a while. Overall I still feel like these are the best versions of these films I’ve yet seen, so a massive thank you for your hard work. The updates to AotC are very welcome and well done.
Upon the rewatch there was just one cut that felt a little off, and I fully acknowledge that I’m being really, really, nitpicky here; during the opening of TPM, when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are being gassed, the droids no longer speak. Their heads bob, and the droids generally chatter a bit throughout the rest of the film albeit reduced, but they don’t make a noise in this scene. It’s the only scene out of the two movies I’ve rewatched where I felt something was missing or had been cut, which is a testament to just how great the rest of your content is.
Thanks for the feedback! Most of the big Ep 1 edits do this with the droid voices, and I’m happy with the decision.
AOTC has been updated to V2. I have deprecated V1 as there isn’t much reason to keep it.
The “no flashback” version will be rendered and posted over the weekend.
Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far. I’m glad the edits seem to have been received well.
I wanted to let everyone know that I will soon be releasing a V2 of Attack of the Clones. Very little is changing, but here is what to expect:
I’ll likely have this out within the next week or so.
Thanks!
Anyone got links to these edits? Spence hasn’t been on since March, it seems.
Thanks, in advance. MTFBWY
Edit:
Got a link. 👍🏼
Apologies, I’ve been working/traveling a lot. I should be around more if anyone needs a link just DM me.
That’s weird, just fixed it.
Something like this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/170zHpKWGIWADwuwOIzSa5X_f4pXewy06/view?usp=drive_link
One of the most frequent pieces of feedback I’m hearing, so much so that I can’t ignore it and you’re all probably right, is that we don’t see Anakin have a nightmare about his mother. So V2 will rectify this. I’m already working on it.
I really hate the “Anakin just writhing around shirtless in bed” thing so it’s going to be more of a montage of images, similar to Obi-Wan’s nightmare in the Obi-Wan series.
Hi everyone, I have listed these on the IFDB. If you’ve watched the edits, I’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment to leave a quick review.
This is not to hear everyone sing my praises or anything. Reviews on IFDB push the edit to the front page, which means more people see that it exists, which means it gets out to more and more viewers. Reviews are also very helpful in finding and fixing any issues that I missed, and getting feedback on where I could improve as an editor in general.
So if it’s not too much trouble, I’d really appreciate it!
https://ifdb.fanedit.org/fanedit-search/tag/faneditorname/spence/
Any V2 updates?
Not yet, but the edits will go live on IFDB this weekend. So I should get a lot more eyeballs on it, which means more feedback. Then I’ll revisit for V2.
Personally, I’d prefer it if it was just an uncut series edit where the only changes are the appearances of the Inquisitors to how they look in Rebels and having Anakin and Obi-Wan’s faces de-aged in the flashback scenes to how they looked in AOTC, and keep it all in 4K HDR with Atmos sound. I’m probably not gonna get it, though.
Once all the material is available this would be extremely simple to put together in a free NLE. You could leave the audio as is and just replace the clips you want with the new stuff.
Would everyone be irked if I pushed out a V2 now? I fixed the problems that have been mentioned, but I also found some audio transitions in ROTS that mysteriously vanished without my noticing. Most of them were probably not easily heard, but I noticed and it bothers me. I’m also adjusting the size and amount of grain.
There wouldn’t be any other major adjustments, it’s all audio stuff and/or smoothing out transitions. So if you’re happy with them as they are, you wouldn’t need to download them again.
Not at all, but I do want to mention I caught another muffled line in AOTC when the delete senate scene is transitioning to the Kenobi duel scene. You can barely make out Palpatine’s next line but it’s there in the mix.
Got it, fixed.
Here’s the ending of ROTS. I’m pretty happy with how this is turning out.
I’m coming into this very late, so this might have already been discussed. But have you thought about or experimented with changing their birth order so that Leia is born first? That way it’s Leia that spends the most time with her mother, is even caressed by her before her death. I think it would really help to smooth over the inconsistencies with ROTJ.
No, I haven’t messed with that. I’ve kind of come to terms with that just being an inconsistency.
Would everyone be irked if I pushed out a V2 now? I fixed the problems that have been mentioned, but I also found some audio transitions in ROTS that mysteriously vanished without my noticing. Most of them were probably not easily heard, but I noticed and it bothers me. I’m also adjusting the size and amount of grain.
There wouldn’t be any other major adjustments, it’s all audio stuff and/or smoothing out transitions. So if you’re happy with them as they are, you wouldn’t need to download them again.