Here is a 10 minute long behind-the-scenes video that appears to have quite a bit of unused footage. I’m wondering if it’s possible to integrate some of this into a fanedit, if needed.
TIE fighter escape:
• Remove Finn saying “Did you see that, did you see that?” Poe “I saw it”.
• Remove Poe saying “well I ain’t using it” and instead just have him say “FN huh, Finn, I’m gonna call you Finn”.
• Remove TIE fighter exploding after being sucked into the sand.
Another option, as many have said, is to plant the seed at the end of TLJ. One thought I had is that so much is made of the Resistance sending out a signal for help, and no one answering. It’s reinforced again in TROS. What if they did get an answer, from Palpatine? The radio crackles, and maybe we just hear his iconic laugh. Just a tease at the end to build up anticipation for TROS.
I know I’m late to this convo but that sounds incredible.
The one thing I wished we saw more of was a connection between TLJ and TROS. Bridging those two films together would have helped things immensely.
I wish there was some way to go as far as Rey’s parental reveal happening in TLJ, but I don’t know how it would work.
I’m going to come back to this post and fill in the blanks with more detail, but…
I really think a lot of this movie should have happened in The Last Jedi.
Wondering if it’s possible to combine the two movies or use some of that film to better flesh out this one. It moves so fast.
Yeah, I was wondering, why did you keep that awful jokeful dialog at the opening segment. ¿Does it really work? I see it as a horrible statement to a terrible character. (Poe being the central victim here)
I absolutely, 100% disagree with this comment. There are some folks that are very anti-humor in Star Wars. I am not one of them.
While yes, I believe there are some jokes that run on or just miss the mark (C3PO’s puns in Attack of the Clones come to mind), Poe’s snarky comments to Kylo Ren are lighthearted and “feel” real. They sold me on him being an awesome character from the start.
If it were my fanedit, I wouldn’t get rid of either line. I think they are both a welcoming introduction, especially for folks that aren’t as familiar with Star Wars — keeps things fun and fresh. Puts some life in Star Wars without being too meta or overbearing.
There is no reason why either of Poe’s intro lines should be removed. Just my opinion, of course.
This looks promising. I hope to give this a watch here soon!
Okay, just watched the workprint.
Let’s start with what goes without saying: Nev, you have created what is likely one of the most ambitious Star Wars fanedits ever made. Not only are the concepts for your vision executed with care, but they are done so in a way that is incredibly polished and blurs the line between the original and what you have improved upon. Absolutely excellent work and you should be very proud.
I am not going to comment on every change that was made, because frankly, I agreed with nearly all of them. Upon a rewatch, I may come back to this with other thoughts. However, let me call out some of the issues that need to be addressed (most of them are minor technical quirks):
In the crawl, is “Episode VII” centered? It looks too far off to the right above “THE FORCE AWAKENS.”
What’s with the speed increase at the end of the crawl? It should move as the same speed throughout.
When the village gets shot up by stormtroopers, Phasma says, “On my command.” Listen close, you can hear her repeat the last syllable happen a couple times (maybe due to a duplicated audio segment). I would recommend headphones for this, but it’s definitely there.
Why did you cut Unkar Plutt’s introductory line? “What you brought me today is, hmm, worth one quarter portion.”
The Poe/Kylo Ren interrogation scene looks great.
There is just some clipping on some of the audio (again, can be heard through headphones).
Maybe add some fades at the beginning/ends of those clips to prevent the clipping sounds.
Not seeing the point of the nighttime BB-8 scene after Poe’s interrogation. It looks pretty but doesn’t serve a purpose if its that short.
Just as Snoke’s first scene occurs, is there a way to have Hux say Supreme Leader Snoke’s name or something? For people new to the series, they don’t know who this giant holligam is. If Hux said it, it would help — even if just as a voiceover in the clip leading up to this one.
Clipped audio at Snoke scene / line: “Our strategy must change…"
I’ve seen edits before where they put an effect on Snoke to make him look more like a hologram.
Is that possible here? Since when did holagrams go HD?
The transition from Kylo Ren praying feels a little weird
Is there any shot of Kylo Ren walking down the hall of his star destoryer that could be used after he stands up from praying but before the shot of Finn preparing to leave? Like as a transition?
Turn down the music volume just a tad when Han says “where’d you get that” when Maz hands him the lightsaber
When Rey returns to Maz’s castle during the battle, you can hear Han’s voice say, “Oh no” (probably from a duplicated audio clip).
I feel like the music is just a tad too loud when Leia and Han are having their talk about Ben while they are inside the Resistance base.
Another clipped audio just before Leia says, “The First Order, they’re charging the weapon now”
When Rey hides from the stormtroopers while on Starkiller Base, the scene cuts to Phasma saying, “Take no chances, I won’t tolerate sloppiness,” then back to Rey, then back to Phasma. Why not just have Rey hide, then have one cut to Phasma? It feels a little choppy having to switch between the two.
Moving the Leia reaction scene to Han’s death… I’m debating on this one. I feel like it actually flowed better having her reaction take place after Han dies but before Chewie goes crazy. You did the opposite here (that I do see the reason to why!); however, I’m just a little unsure.
Everything looks awesome. I’ll have more comments after I can watch it again, but these are my initial notes. Thanks again for putting this all together — it’s really great!
I’m super excited!
Once the workprint is out, you should expect to hear quite a bit of feedback. I think that enjoying it as a whole will likely give a different perspective to some of the more specific changes you’ve made over the last couple years (wow, has it been that long?!).
My suggestion is, once you have the workprint out, maybe take a few days and let folks pick it apart while you go see The Rise of Skywalker. Then when you’re ready, dig in, see what suggestions have been made, and think about whether there’s anything new that could further enhance the film. If you have a detailed changes list to accompany the workprint, it will probably help.
Finally, as an aside: Thanks for making this so much fun, Nev! I know that I only started commenting the last few months or so (yikes, it’s been almost a year since I started following this project — time flies!), but I think I speak for everyone here when I say that watching your project evolve has been a blast. I genuinely get excited each time you post a new clip.
Thanks for letting us be a part of it!
I’m seeing TROS with my girlfriend and brothers early (7:20 AM) on Saturday
Haha, alright I’m not going to post anything in this thread between Thursday and Saturday morning then!
But I’d be careful about getting spoilers from newbies that might comment here. At least until you can see it on Saturday.
I think that works really well.
Although I do think that the previous version you put together felt more dreamlike, particularly with the voices of Han and Kylo Ren echoing in the background.
I noticed that you also switched to doing simple dissolves in/out on those clips. I’m wondering (and this may be a terrible idea, but here it is): what if instead of fading to black between the clips, it just cut back to Rey sleeping in the chair?
Eventually moving faster and not returning to Rey until she wakes up.
I’m just playing with ideas here. I think we may have more to work with after seeing The Rise of Skywalker.
P.S. When are you seeing the movie, by the way?
Really, really good. You do great work.
The only item I maybe kinda wish it also had was a shot of the Jedi texts, since she indicates that she’s dreamt about the place.
I love the peaceful music in the latter half. If there was any place to integrate the Jedi texts, it would be along with those clips.
If it doesn’t work though, no big deal.
Just cut to black right after Leia and then let the dream fade in.
On second thought, how would this work? “Tell us all you know.” And then sharp cut to black? I feel like it would need to fade to black. Like you would need a wide shot of the interior of the Resistance base or something as Leia, Poe, and Finn discuss and then fade from that into the dream sequence.
I also felt when you cut to this scene, you start with the dream first and we don’t see Rey until she wakes up suddenly. So something like, “Tell us all you know.” cut to black. Fade in on island. The simplest thing might be to start with her entering frame looking at the tree, and cutting when she is reaching for the books. Simple and mysterious.
I agree. This reminds me of Anakin’s dream sequence from Revenge of the Sith. We don’t need the shot of Starkiller Base or of a sleeping Rey. Just cut to black right after Leia and then let the dream fade in.
You could take a cue from ROTS, the balcony scene wipes from the balcony to a black screen, and then the dream fades in, then as the dream ends it hard cuts to Anakin waking up.
Exactly.
I’m surprised the subtitles are burned in. Does the Blu-ray have an alternate audio track for other languages or subtitles? Because I would think that would require they not be burned in.
I cannot believe how great the lyrics match the action. I had a huge smile when the battalion line came up. 😄
It’s looking really good, dude.
J.J. Abrams originally wanted to put Jar Jar’s skeleton in a scene, but it didn’t end up happening in the final cut. Do you plan on putting it back in?
This seems unnecessary and a little petty. Not sure what value this change would bring to the film other than being an easter egg requiring a lot of work to render.
You can of course discuss anything at any time, I’m all ears 😉
Okay, I’m going to talk about the crawl!
I consider myself to be a semi-purist, and I don’t like changing canon too much. Moving the order of events around and providing some additional context for what has happened is great, but major alterations bug me a bit. So with regards to the crawl, I’d like to keep its contents true while shedding light on three main points:
Your existing crawl has some great verbiage and does explain some of this, though it needs to be just a little less wordy and a little more in line with canon. So I’d like to propose another version, which takes some of your ideas (which are fantastic, by the way) and merge them with some of mine. This is what I came up with:
https://vimeo.com/370007727
Password: fanedit
Luke Skywalker has vanished.
In the years since his absence,
the fledgling New Republic has
been threatened by the sinister
IMPERIAL FIRST ORDER,
risen by remnants of the Empire.Lead by a mysterious shadow,
this faction of evil grows quickly,
annihilating all in its
path until Skywalker, the last
Jedi, has been destroyed.Determined to defend the
vulnerable Republic, a small
RESISTANCE is desperate to
find Luke and enlist his help in
defeating this new darkness
spreading across the stars . . . .
This crawl addresses the three points made above, and also sheds a little light on some of the unanswered questions about the political state of the galaxy without being overbearing. It explains that the First Order comes from remains of the Empire and is lead by “a mysterious shadow,” which might give some credence to their quick rise to power and military clout. Finally, I want it to be clear that the Resistance is not lead by the Republic, but still vows to defend then — with Luke as a key player in their strategy. Hence why, “This will begin to make things right.”
It also uses some of your great expressions (“spreading across the stars” is awesome) and many of the word choices, albeit in a few other locations in the text, where terms like “sinister” and “shadow” are great too.
Let me know what you think.
Speaking of the crawl, I had a somewhat weird idea for a more substantial change to the galactic table setting, so it would be something to do after v1 is released (if at all):
I have to think a bit more about this.
This change is certainly interesting and does make me curious how it would look if executed correctly. Of course, I’d have to loosen up about my desire to keep things canon here! 😜 But you’re right, it does fix the issue of Leia not warning the Republic of the impending Starkiller attack. However, there may be another way to resolve that, although I had never even thought about that until you just mentioned it. Wondering if a line could simply be thrown in about Hosnian Prime preparing to evacuate or something. I’ll think on this some more.
Can I add a request? This is minor and silly, but hear me out.
In the final trailer that was released for The Force Awakens, it included a shot of an X-Wing shooting a TIE Fighter during the Takodana battle. The same shot is in the final version of the film, albeit with one change: they took out the sound effect of the X-Wing shooting the TIE Fighter (or they lowered the volume of its laser cannons so much that you can barely hear them).
I’m wondering if you would consider putting it back in.
Listen to the difference (I’ve cued up the exact moment I’m talking about):
It’s not a big deal, but I just think the X-Wing’s laser cannons sounded so cool in that trailer and when it was removed from the final version of the film, I was a little disappointed.
Definitely like the lowest thing on your priority list but I figured I’d ask.
…a potential upside is that the crawl might not need to be quite as plot heavy.
I don’t mind having some plot elements mentioned in the crawl. This does take place ~30 years after Return of the Jedi, so I feel like at least a few major elements are going to need to be mentioned in it.
Speaking of which, I’d like to discuss the crawl again and some of the content of it… whenever you’re ready to have that discussion. 😃
However with the new images I’ve created of BB-8 sitting outside of Rey’s house at night, a new option becomes available. Rey finds BB-8 and brings the droid home, then BB-8 facilitates the transition to the Finalizer as a flashback.
I am struggling to picture how this would work. If there’s anyone that can figure it out, it’s you. With that said, I’m afraid it’s probably going to complicate the story more than it needs to. Let’s be real, for most non-fans, understanding Star Wars is confusing enough as it is.
I’m of the opinion that, if you can keep it simple, that’s going to be the better route to go. If you want to make a mock up of the order of scenes with a flashback, I’m open to looking at it and tell you what I think. But when I watch a fanedit, I watch it with the idea that I’m going to be showing this to someone that hasn’t seen Star Wars, so I go for whatever makes the most sense.
Would it be better if I were to replace the rocks behind Luke and have him fade in totally independent of the surroundings?
I don’t mind Luke fading in, as it is a dream sequence, after all. However, I would maybe see if you could have him fade in more slowly, almost with the bright white bloom effect of the background.
I kind of like the idea of the viewer seeing this and wondering if he faded in, or if it’s just almost like he’s appearing from the fog of the background. Maybe if his fade in was slower and not so obviously an appearance. Think more of a gradual reveal — “is that a figure? a person? it is a person! omg, is that Luke?”
In its current state, it’s more like he just apparated into the frame. Having his appearance come in a little slower may make it seem more mysterious. I don’t think you have to replace the rocks necessarily.
This change looks good, and I like your reasoning behind it. I always felt like BB-8 needed to be part of that scene, and this edit pulls it off well.
Visually, I didn’t like the shot of Chewie, Poe, and rando Resistance member that interrupts BB-8 rolling forward. It just felt choppy or too quick or something. Would the shot of Rey looking at the map be a better fit here? Or would that be too awkward after having seen her in the Luke/dream sequence?
This sequence is really good. Definitely raises the stakes. The first time I watched The Force Awakens I remember thinking to myself, “Oh no, she’s turning to the Dark, she doesn’t even know it but she’s turning.”
This version you’ve put together shows this really well. Also, I like it because I felt like, in the theatrical version, it took just a little too long showing her thinking about the Force.
Much more effective presentation.
Just wanted to say the addition of Phasma body fixes the biggest gripe I had with this fanedit.
This is such a fantastic project, poppasketti. I’m glad to see you back at it again because your work is great.
While I’m here, I’ll mention my “wish list” that still remains for The Last Jedi, though maybe I’ll just use your work on Rekindled as the foundation for my own fanedit someday:
I wish…
…that “The Jedi Steps” played when Luke confronts the First Order. I made my own version of this here, and I think it is SO much more powerful than the music that plays currently.
…that Luke’s lightsaber was green. There, I said it. You’re right that there are symbolic reasons for why it is blue, though I will say that I was caught off guard when I first saw the movie and was confused as to why the blue one is what was being used despite it having clearly been destroyed moments before and would be a clear indicator to Kylo Ren that something was off.
On second thought, those are the only things on my must-have wish list. There are a few other odds and ends (I’m still not sure where I land on the Broom Boy sequence at the end), but those are my thoughts anyway.