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Star Wars Abridged — 9 films cut to 3 (new preview for sequel 3-in-1 available)

subjectzero

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EDIT: This idea has been expanded to a three film trilogy! Each film will condense a trilogy into a single film meaning each generation gets one movie.
  1. Star Wars: Abridged I — Republic (Episodes I - III)
  2. Star Wars: Abridged II — Rebellion (Episodes IV-VI)
  3. Star Wars: Abridged III — Resistance (Episodes VII-IX)
Original thread as follows:

I know I saw a thread somewhere about this but I've been giving it some light thought. I don't know if it's possible to improve the trilogy with a single film, but I think it would be a fun experiment! I don't have all the ideas as to what goes in, what gets cut, and how to reorganize all the shots so right now it's just a jumble of possibilities.
  • I'd like to either cut out Grand Moff Tarkin or reduce his role in ANH and keep the antagonist as just Vader.
  • Instead of arriving at the Death Star, it's the Executor which bombards Alderaan. (Maybe cut the dreadnaught from TLJ firing along with another sci-fi movie to complete this)
  • Cut out Yavin 4 and have the base be on Hoth
  • The battle of Hoth would be a bit of a weird thing. I THINK there might be a way to splice footage of the battle of Yavin, Hoth, and Scarif together. Have Luke be in his X-Wing while Han and Leia evacuate Hoth.
  • Have Obi Wan tell Luke to go to Dagobah during this battle (instead of using the force to destroy the death star)
  • Cut out the asteroid sequence from ESB (there's a reason)
  • Have Luke's training go on as normal
  • Somehow have it so Han is never frozen in carbonite and escapes Bespin
  • Remove Jabba's palace entirely
  • Repurpose the bacta scene here with his hand being rebuilt
  • Luke heads back to Dagobah
  • Meets up with the fleet where the Death Star is revealed to still be under construction (but is fully operational)
  • Repurpose the asteroid sequence so that Han takes out the Death Star
  • No Ewoks or ground battle
I have a few other ideas. I could maybe have Tarkin killed on the Executor at the battle of Endor instead of being cut out entirely. Perhaps also use the deleted RotJ scene where Luke finishes his new lightsaber but have it set on Dagobah before he speaks with Yoda. Perhaps even have a few scenes from Rogue One of Tarkin speaking with Krenic about having the Death Star built.

TBH, I'm not sure this will work and odds are good the whole thing would be a mess!
 
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Jrzag42

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I completely support this idea.
 

Zarius

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I experimented with merging planets together in my Ford Awakens edit, so it definitely can be done if you know your way around the movies
 

subjectzero

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After watching the movies as many times as I have, I hope I do!

Honestly, I think the biggest issue will be editing around sound and music or plot points that don't exist. Getting Han off of Bespin in something other than a box or getting Luke from the fleet to the Death Star are what really concerns me.

I think I've figured out how to do Alderaan being bombed. Cut from Leia to the guns on the TLJ Dreadnaught firing, then to the CU explosion of Jedha in RO followed by a wide shot of the explosion of Scarif and back to Leia.

I really really want to do an assembly cut of this thing now to see if it'll work!
 

Jrzag42

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For Han getting off Bespin, what if you find a way to kill him off instead? Like, edit him getting frozen in carbonite into him getting killed somehow. And then edit him out of the Jedi portion if possible?
Just throwing in ideas here. I don't necessarily think it's a great idea, but I don't know how you'd be able to make it make sense for him getting out safely.
 

Jrzag42

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I completely disagree, but I know that a lot of people think that, so I wouldn't have a problem with the change.
 

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Moe_Syzlak said:
Not a bad idea. The Han Solo character is terrible after Empire.

He's fine in ROTJ, just has nothing to do after the rescue
 

subjectzero

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I'm not a fan of killing him off either. He really isn't given much to do so the idea would be he's the one who knocks out the Death Star by using footage from the asteroid field scenes in ESB. Really won't know how to work all of this out until I start taking the films apart and putting them back together.
 

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Pretty much everything he does after being thawed out is, to me, not in keeping with who is as a character. He’s jealous and needy and insecure. If he’s edited to give him more to do and to remove those aspects of his character in RotJ, that would be a win-win.
 

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Scrubbing through footage and I think I have a plan. Lando will turn on the Empire and declare it to the populace as Luke arrives and a quick cut to them escaping on the Millennium Falcon. The bigger issue is not having C-3PO blown apart as that creates some continuity issues.

It also looks like the plans for the Death Star from RotJ might be set on Hoth before the Empire attacks. Will need to cut around the fact that Lando is there, Luke isn't, and removing the bit about the shield generator. Might also use a klaxon sound to signal the arrival of the Empire's fleet. But that also means after Luke healing after his first battle with Vader, there's only the big battle left.

Still not sure how Luke gets from the fleet back to Dagobah but he goes directly from there to Endor.

I'm pretty convinced shots from the Millennium Falcon cockpit can be repurposed to a slightly more brief Battle of Endor which will just cut between the fleet and Luke.
 

TM2YC

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I was experimenting with cutting the end of ANH into the beginning of ESB a few years back. Trying to make it appear that the Falcon escapes the DS and goes to the Hoth base, instead of the Yavin base (no battle of Yavin, no DS1 battle, no medals etc) and the Vader/Tarkin send the probe droid after the Falcon in hyperspace. Some of the altered shots I used are from other people's fanedits of the one film idea. This test video is very rough and I mean rough but if it gives you any ideas, use them, I never will:


(Password: fanedit.org)
 

subjectzero

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Ooooo... some great ideas in there! It's roughly the same shape as I was thinking so it's really great to see it cut together.
 
TM2YC said:
I was experimenting with cutting the end of ANH into the beginning of ESB a few years back. Trying to make it appear that the Falcon escapes the DS and goes to the Hoth base, instead of the Yavin base (no battle of Yavin, no DS1 battle, no medals etc) and the Vader/Tarkin send the probe droid after the Falcon in hyperspace. Some of the altered shots I used are from other people's fanedits of the one film idea. This test video is very rough and I mean rough but if it gives you any ideas, use them, I never will:


(Password: fanedit.org)
 

subjectzero

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Just realized that I'm not quite sure how to end the film. I probably won't be using the force ghosts or the party on Endor but I might still use the celebrations from the SE. One approach would be to use the victory scene from ANH right after the fireworks.

Another possibility would be replaying Yoda saying "pass on what you have learned" and then cutting to the ending of TFA where Rey shows up on Ahch-To. I'm kind of leaning toward this ending actually.

If I do go with that ending, I was wondering if there was a way to insert a premonition of Ahch-To somewhere in the film. Or change the cave scene on Dagobah where he encounters an older version of himself in the Jedi tree... or maybe both.
 

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subjectzero said:
Ooooo... some great ideas in there! It's roughly the same shape as I was thinking so it's really great to see it cut together.
 
TM2YC said:
I was experimenting with cutting the end of ANH into the beginning of ESB a few years back. Trying to make it appear that the Falcon escapes the DS and goes to the Hoth base, instead of the Yavin base (no battle of Yavin, no DS1 battle, no medals etc) and the Vader/Tarkin send the probe droid after the Falcon in hyperspace. Some of the altered shots I used are from other people's fanedits of the one film idea. This test video is very rough and I mean rough but if it gives you any ideas, use them, I never will:


(Password: fanedit.org)
Ever thought of trying to make it appear that Lando destroys the original Death Star?
 

TM2YC

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Zarius said:
Ever thought of trying to make it appear that Lando destroys the original Death Star?

I think it would be easier to make the 2nd unfinished DS the only DS (which Lando and Wedge destroy). Replacing the DS in all the fairly static establishing shots in the first ANH portion would be far, far easier than trying to make the 2nd DS in the big hectic ROTJ battle look finished. All the Yavin pilots could still take part in the ROTJ battle though (except Luke and younger Wedge obviously).
 

Jrzag42

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Replace any scene of Han driving the Falcon with Chewie and the Porg piloting.
 

subjectzero

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Did some EXTREMELY rough edits for some key scenes that I'd have to build to get the OT into a single film. Ignore most of the sound issues and video quality for now, I just wanted to see if these edits work.


Password: fanedit.org

Getting Han off Bespin is super tricky. The best I can do is cut it as short as possible and with a few audio additions, I hope it works. Cutting in shots of the Falcon's cockpit scenes from ESB's asteroid field sequence for the final Death Star battle seems to work pretty well. Lando's role is pretty much reduced, unfortunately.

With these rough tests, I feel confident I can pull this off!
 
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