Star Wars EP VII: Heir to the Force (Prolonged Reveal)

[TM2YC]

Submitted to the Academy for preview. Thread moved to "pending".

 

[ssj]

may the funk be with you, DMF.

 

[ImperialFighter]

Congrats on finishing up this one Dig.  I look forward to hearing what you're tackling next out of your extensive ideas list.

 

[ironman23]

Hey, congrats Digi!

 

[ssj]

I look forward to hearing what you're tackling next out of your extensive ideas list.

he's working on a dune edit, except it's set in a water world. harkon harkonnensen, if i recall correctly.

 

[TM2YC]

I finished giving this a watch through for The Academy. I'm glad to say there are no problems that would cause me to reject the edit (aside from an easily correctable framerate encoding issue we've already discussed via PM) so this is approved in the current state.

Generally the sound and visual editing is smooth and polished. There are also some clever FX tweaks, nice opening titles and a professional looking new crawl. Personally, I think TFA doesn't have that much wrong with it and doesn't need much fixing, so this is probably a case of reading the cutlist and deciding if the changes by @"DigModiFicaTion" are going to be to your taste. For example, the removal of the island finale is technically very well done but it wasn't something I wanted removed (It was one of my favourite scenes ). There are many small changes and removals that I know will tick the boxes for many other viewers, who have issues with elements of TFA though.

Though there are no big problems there are still a few points that I think could be improved...

00.22.02 - The sudden music switch would probably sound 100% fine, if I didn't already know what the score sounded like before it had been changed. It stands out only for that reason. That's just one of those fanediting crosses you gotta deal with
00.23.33 - The music fade here sounded off, or maybe it's like that in the original cut? I'm not sure
00.33-ish - The new (correct) Falcon cannon sounds are a good change but they are too loud in the mix IMO
00.46.30 - The overlayed blue "scanlines" look too perfect in that they always align exactly with the way the shot is framed. So they look like something that is not infront of Snoke but in front of the camera. Perfection looks like an imperfection. If you could add some tilt to the video lines to make them feel like something that exists in a 3D space it would be improved. A mockup of what I mean...

They are also always the exact same size, no matter how far the camera is away from Snoke.
01.12.49 - The music change here could maybe be smoothed out more?
01.19.26 - The redub of Han is very noticeable but I doubt it can be improved
01.21-ish - The interrogation scene is very well edited, considering what you had to work with. Did you try sharpening and adding grain to make the cropped shots look better and stand out less? If I was intending on cropping shots this much, I'd probably do the edit at 720p because hiding it at full 1080p is very hard. It's a personal choice
01.32.53 - Adding back the deleted Ren/Falcon scene means he now says "Han Solo!" out loud to himself twice at toward the end of a scene in the space of 3 minutes. I'd remove the second instance and perhaps you could replace it with a distant rumble of the X-Wings entering the atmosphere (if that's doable)

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Oh wow,  thank you TM2YC for all of your help and tips. I've greatly appreciated everything! 

Thank you to EVERYONE who has contributed ideas and or kind encouragements along the way. This has been quite the process and I nearly gave up multiple times, but you all kept me going. I can't tell you how much I respect editors who can close the deal.

 

[Sistros]

Wiiiiii =) the Force will be with you, always. 


Get the final touches and jump to lightspeed lol. I'm excited to see it =)

Hug Digi

Oh wow,  thank you TM2YC for all of your help and tips. I've greatly appreciated everything! 

Thank you to EVERYONE who has contributed ideas and or kind encouragements along the way. This has been quite the process and I nearly gave up multiple times, but you all kept me going. I can't tell you how much I respect editors who can close the deal.

 

[Canon Editor]

The Force will be with you, Dig!  I can't wait for another great project!  And I can't wait to watch it!!

 

[TV's Frink]

Thread moved to Fix/Mix.  Congrats on the approval.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Ok, so I've fixed the variable frame rate issues I was having and also decided after some great feedback from those who held out for the release and those who have been contributing all along, to do a small revision to the edit. Audio levels for the rebuilt surround tracks during the Falcon escape and Takodana have been reworked to smooth out the mix. Also, sharpness filters have been added to some cropped scenes (Ren on the Falcon & interrogation scene) as suggested. The interrogation also received a trim to deal with the source material issues that many commented about. I won't be addressing the hologram scan line differentiation at this time. I've also removed the Blu Ray option, for now. PM if you'd like to have Heir to the Force v1.1.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Super giddy in a nerdtastic way. The edit is now featured on ifdb and ready for reviews 
Thanks again to all you wonderful people!

 

[Canon Editor]

Yes!  I am so happy!!

 

[stretch009]

Super giddy in a nerdtastic way. The edit is now featured on ifdb and ready for reviews 
Thanks again to all you wonderful people!

Are you sure? I'm not finding it.

 

[TM2YC]

Are you sure? I'm not finding it.

It was in moderation because DigModiFicaTion must have edited the listing. I've put it back up now.

 

[skyled]

This is more of a mini review and letting me complain. It's for Version 1.1
Overall the changes are mostly good. I enjoyed it but my complaints are extremely noticeable:
1. There's about a 1 second long "black frame" at 1:50:35
2. The Rey interrogation is Ok but the shots you were forced to use of Kylo with his helmet on really just don't work well. The angles are wrong and it's just goofy with using the same shot repeatedly. I know you've talked about filming some shots using a replica helmet. You could also try taking shots of Kylo and removing the background and inserting those into the interrogation.
3. The part with Han and Leia hugging with the dialogue cut and the frame cropped also is extremely goofy.

I like basically all the changes this edit made outside of the main focus. I like the intent of keeping on Kylo's helmet and delaying the reveal, and the effect it makes is certainly strong, but the methods used to achieve it are very distracting.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

I enjoyed it but my complaints are extremely noticeable:

Thanks skyled for your honest thoughts. And yes, your complaints were extremely noticeable 

1. This is only present in the google stream file (which has been taken down due to this upload error). I had informed others of this when it became known and have since only shared the other sources.

2. Thanks for your honest opinion here. I'm curious as to the angles being wrong that you mention as the all but two of the shots were taken from the actual scene. I had attempted to do some masking, as you suggest here, but honestly it looked even more "goofy" and noticeable to me. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it.
*I just did a quick rewatch and while I do use the same shot, I attempted to mirror what was in the original which repeatedly went back and forth between Rey and Ren's face in a similar fashion. This edit speeds everything up and removes quite a bit of dialogue which results in quicker cuts back and forth.

3. Is this the same type of goofy as in #2?
Honestly, I'd love a bit more feedback on it.

Thanks for taking the time to watch the edit.

 

[skyled]

Ok then

2. During the interrogation, you used the shot of Kylo crouching down several times, but the angle of the shot is wrong for when it's used. Kylo is above Rey and leaning over her, but the shot you use is taken from above Kylo and looking down on him. There's even a shot of Kylo that you re-did immediately after at 1:21:14 (which looks fantastic by the way) taken from a nice low angle, but the previous shot was looking down on Kylo. The end result is just rather distracting and jumpy.

3. Well with the Leia/Han hug bit, you used the same shot of Han twice but with cropping the first time, and the same shot of Leia twice in quick succession. I like the actual cut that you did to Leia's dialogue a lot, but the reuse of the shots is the problem. If you just did each shot once it would probably be great.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

2. During the interrogation, you used the shot of Kylo crouching down several times, but the angle of the shot is wrong for when it's used. Kylo is above Rey and leaning over her, but the shot you use is taken from above Kylo and looking down on him.

This is true for the original version. To deal with this, I never show him hovering over her. He's always at a distance. The cropping was done to help sell the idea that she was still infront of him, but perhaps in a different plane. Apparently it didn't sell for you.

I'll take a look at the Han and Leia scene to see what my thought process was there. 

Thanks for explaining your concerns, they are very helpful for future edits.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Had some feedback lately that some users are experiencing difficulties with the mega options. Just want to get a feel of how everyone's experiences are going. I'll try to get a 4gb 720p option back up on Google and mega for casual viewing. I'm officially done with grad school, so I can slave my computer to create the updated blu ray as well.

*The links are still active, I'll just be adding those options again.