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[align=center]
Update 3/30 -
Current Status:
Current Status:
Fixed 3P0 rotoscope
New Animated Poster, Poster and BR Case
New Animated Poster, Poster and BR Case
Added Music to Takodana Raid from War of the Worlds
Fixed credits background
Fixed audio during Snoke scene
Fixed audio levels
Trailer #1
[align=center]Trailer #2
Hello everyone,
I've decided to drop all my other editing projects and focus on actually completing a fan edit
The idea of this edit is to preserve the mystery of the film by prolonging the reveal of Kylo Ren's parentage. Other minor snips will be made to remove portions of dialogue that I personally feel are out of place in a Star Wars movie. I'll update this post with new video examples for critiquing and further changes to the cut list.
Software: Sony Vegas Studio HD Platinum 10.0 (yes I need to upgrade); Audacity; Sony Acid
Source: Official BluRay disc
Video = Lossless AVI
Audio = DTS sourced WAV files
Please note that the video examples below are rendered as 640x480 mp4's in order to keep down their size. I have noticed that the videos are abnormally dark after this encoding. As for now, I'm looking for critiques on the concepts and audio more so than the video. When the edit is nearing completion I will post higher quality video files and solicit for previewers of HD versions.
[align=center]
[img=400x400]https://digmodification.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/disc.png[/img][/CENTER]
Blu Ray Menus
[align=center]Main Menu
[align=center]Bonus Features
[align=center]Special Thanks
Blu Ray Menus
Loading Screen
[align=center]Main Menu
[align=center]Bonus Features
[align=center]Special Thanks
https://youtu.be/5csV9PjaYt8[/video][/CENTER]
1. Added Custom Loading Screen and Menus (Blu Ray)
2. Added New Fanedit.org title card based on current logo
3. Added custom ROTJ style disclaimer
4. Added A DigModiFicaTion Title card
5. Added Custom Walt Disney 20th Century Fox title card with 20th Century Fox fanfare
6. Replaced opening crawl music with opening crawl music from Episode IV
7. Replaced crawl with custom “Heir to the Force” crawl
8. Removed Poe's "so who talks first....." lines
9. Clipped Poe’s line as he is forcefully picked up, now it sounds like he was going to start saying something but the jolt of being hoisted up stops him.
10. Replaced Video when Kylo Ren says "put him on board"; Video is a slightly cropped/zoomed shot where Kylo Ren is standing still vs the movement in the theatrical cut
11. Removed Kylo Ren's "comfortable?" line and Poe's response during Poe's interrogation scene
12. Transition to next scene before Unkar Plott pulls down the window on his other customers
13. Cut Poe and Finn's conversation after Finn says "Because it's the right thing to do"
14. Removed Finn firing on and killing Stormtroopers and the traffic control room
15. Cut Finn and Poe's celebration after blowing up a turret and Scene of tie flying away from Star Destroyer.
16. Cut “Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you Finn.”
17. Cut Kylo Ren saying "FN-2187" (even for a Sith lord, that is unbelievable)
18. Moved "Sir, ventral cannons hot" further up in the audio mix of the scene and cut the Star Trek-esque turret scene down. Now they just fire
19. Cut the tie fighter blowing up after sinking in the sand
20. Cut Finn's "this is what we look like, some of us" lines
21. Cut Rey’s “No” when responding to Finn’s “You ever fly this thing?” line
22. Cut Finn and Rey's "I can do this" lines when they first get into the Falcon
23. Removed the Falcon taking a nose dive into the sand upon take off
24. Cut Rey's line "I’m going low"
25. Replaced new Millennium Falcon turret sfx with OT turret sfx in chase scene
26. Replaced audio of Finn cursing after the impact with a grunt (yes I know the originals had cursing, but this is just a personal preference)
27. Cut scenes of scavengers when the first tie fighter is shot down
28. Cut the JJ Abrams zoom when the Falcon flies into the downed Star Destroyer’s engines
29. Cut Finn and Rey's excessive teenage celebration after they make it to space
30. Reworked scene in order to remove Kylo Ren's tantrum when the officer reports on not getting the droid
31. Cut Finn's line "you got a boyfriend?"
32. Cut scene of Finn childishly pushing down on Rey's head
33. Added Red Gradient glow to mimic the overhead light and connect the edited scene visually
34. Cut down the Rathtar scene; Han and Chewie run down a corridor, they turn, Chewie is hit, hand blasts the raiders, Rey and Finn pop up from the hatch, Han shoots the door and yells "come on!"
35. Cut mention of Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon from Snoke's dialogue
36. Added hologram effect to Snoke
37. Cut scene of Ren standing up after talking to Vader’s mask in order to use it later in film.
38. Added Darth Vader breathing sfx when his mask is revealed after Ren talks to it.
39. Cut down Chewie grabbing Finn and Finn saying "but that's ok"
40. Added lightsaber sfx and enhanced (echo & reverb) Vader lines “You are not a Jedi yet” and “You don’t know the power of the dark side” along with the Emperor’s laugh to Rey’s force vision
41. Added SWTFUII Terror on the Salvation cue to Hux’s speech
42. Changed Hue of Apocolypse now Tie Scene (color matched with sky to make it blue)
43. Cut Han's no look shot and use of Chewbacca's crossbow and subsequent "I like this" line
44. Rearranged the Arrival of the Resistance scenes to remove visuals of Poe. Rebuilt audio surround tracks to fit the changes.
45. Added Rathtars cue and “Attack on the Car” cue from War of the Worlds to the scene where Han, Chewie, Finn, and Maz emerge from the castle ruins. The War of the Worlds track plays during Finn’s lightsaber use.
46. Cut the continuous pan of Poe’s X-Wing flying, now cuts to Rey right after Finn blasts the second Stormtrooper.
47. Cut Han's lines about seeing their son; he now says "I saw him, he was here”
48. Cut Poe's references to his jacket when talking to Finn
49. Cut scenes with the nurse and Chewbacca
50. Added R2-D2 visually to the checking the map sequence; also added Artoo beeps and sad sounds; he is now seen, heard, active and present
51. Cut scene where Artoo is uncovered by 3P0 and all dialogue about Artoo being asleep.
52. Edited Han to say "I know everytime you think about Luke you're reminded of him"
53. Cut Leia's lines about their son's training, Snoke, and Han being able to help because he's Ben's father.
54. Cut Kylo Ren's "you’re my guest" line, now he just coldly stares at Rey
55. Rearranged and repurposed shots of helmeted Kylo Ren and composited/combined others in order to have Ren Masked. Shortened scene as well.
56. Edited audio to simulate Ren’s helmeted voice.
57. Added subtle audio of Vader breathing when Rey reveals that Kylo Ren is afraid and the connection is severed
58. Repurposed and replaced shots (cropped and speed) during Snoke conversation as to have Kylo Ren hooded and masked.
59. Added Hologram effect to Snoke
60. Digitally painted hooded and masked Kylo Ren into the far shots when Hux is walking away….ugh….
61. Removed Han’s “so it’s big” line
62. Removed Han's "there's always a way to do that" line after asking how to blow it up. Removed Leia's "Han's right" line
63. Removed Leia's lines about bringing their son home; inserted shot of Han's face when she would have been talking
64. Horizontally flipped the scene where the stormtroopers are looking for Rey and everyone is obviously left handed
65. Cut scene where Han asks Finn what his job was and their verbal altercation; it's a gag to set up a later gag and slows down the movement of the narrative
66. Cut Finn's "you remember me" lines and scene with Phasma; took Han's advice and brought it down
67. Cut Rey crawling into the space that soon will squash her; now she just begins to descend down the wall
68. Cut Finn threatening to blow Phasma's bucket off
69. Reinstated the Kylo visits the Falcon deleted scene (cropped out timestamps) and added the “The Bombing Run” cue from the FYC version of the soundtrack.
70. Cut Finn's lines about not being ready and his head nod "what's that" lines
71. Horizontally flipped scene where x-wing crashes into the snow and Han, Fin, Rey, and Chewie run into the frame and stop. (The next scene contradicts the placement of the characters)
72. Added a combination of the cue Finn’s Trek and Finn and Poe Reunited from the FYC Star Wars TFA soundtrack along with the Han and Leia cue to the Catwalk scene
73. Added The Force Unleashed (Infiltrating the Junk Temple) during Finn and Kylo Ren's duel
74. Removed the ground ripping apart separating Rey and Kylo Ren; superimposed same shot of Rey and Kylo Ren when Rey shuts down her light saber looking across ravine at Kylo Ren. Now the two cropped images meet removing the gaping hole.
75. Cut first order officer going AWOL, the scene cuts to Hux and Snoke before the officer speaks
76. Added hologram effect to Snoke
77. Cropped video to exclude Chewbacca from the background when Leia walks towards Rey; we can imply that Chewbacca hugged her or whatever
78. Leia's hug with Rey stays; it's easy to explain, Leia knows how much Han meant to her, “Han told me about the girl” (Rey) and she (Rey) needed that one person who understood to be there for her
79. Added composite of Artoo’s eye being active when he is supposed to be waking up.
80. Cut 3P0’s line “R2-D2 you’ve come back!” when approaching R2; he now says “Come along you two” (taken from the 2016 Oscars speech)
81. Edited 3P0’s lines to say “Artoo may contain some much needed good news” instead of “Artoo D2 may…”
82. Cut 3P0’s line “how I’ve missed you”
83. Cut scenes of Rey arriving on planet to find Luke; I used the force theme from the end of the movie to make the famous iris ending and fanfare occur right as the Millennium Falcon enters hyperspace; also added various sound effects for the Millennium Falcon, crowd, and Chewbacca during takeoff.
(The reason for this particular decision was to mirror the OT in how they end. The OT trilogy ended two ways, a victorious celebration (IV and VI) or an adventurous plan set in motion (V). Showing Luke at the end of the movie is like showing scenes of Han frozen in carbonite in the trunk of Slave I. The scene with Luke doesn't really advance the story and it removes the sense of episodic closure the OT accomplished with each episode. We know that there will be a Star Wars VIII, we know that Luke will be in it, we didn't see Luke the entire movie, why not just wait? He was in the movie to sell the movie. I'm already sold on the movie, so out he goes so that we can focus on Rey, Ren, and Fin.)
84. Revised “edited by” credits to add Fanedited by DigModiFicaTion
85. Added “A DigModiFicaTion” after “A Bad Robot Production”
86. Added 20th Century Walt Disney Logo, Fanedit.org logo, DigModiFicaTion logo, and special thanks section to credits
Original Run Time 2:18:06
Edit Run Time 2:08:56
Time Cut 0:11:55
Time Added 0:02:01 (includes title cards during opening and credits)
Special Thanks (in alphabetical order):
Anakin5kwalker
Canon Editor
Force Ghost Recon
Imperial Fighter
ironman23
Kexikus
LastImpressions
Moe_Syzlak
Original Trilogy Fan
revel911
RougeLeader
Smithers
ssj
That OT Ruler
thecuddlyninja
ThrowgnCpr
TM2YC
Zarius
Walt Disney and LucasFilms ltd
the fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com communities
and my family, who put up with me through this whole process
As mentioned in the fan edit ideas for TFA thread; this idea aims to prolong the mystery of Kylo Ren's identity while mirroring the progression of Luke's reveal in the OT. New to this version are: some audio errors have been fixed in this updated version, and Han now saying "everytime you think of Luke you're reminded of him" along with musical edits to try and smooth the transition. Again the scenes are stacked up against each other for the purpose of quickly sharing the idea and concept.
The following explanation is a quote of my original post.
Here I add music from The Force Unleashed soundtrack (Infiltrating the Junk Temple) during Ren and Finn's duel. I feel it brings more emotion into the scene and makes it more story telling than just mano-e-mano, imo. I toyed with a more percussive duel sound, but ultimately thought that would interfere with the buildup of Rey and Finn's duel. I like that the music is slightly creepy and implies that Ren is toying with Finn.
The idea of this scene is to preserve an added sense of mystery to Kylo Ren. If we don't see his face, we don't even know if he's human. While this isn't integral to preserving the reveal, it would add an element to his character much like Darth Vader, when we never knew until the third film what he even looked like. I've indicated where the helmet would need to be added in each scene. I've spent way too much time trying to key frame some edited production prop shots and it just looks like a goofy jib-jab video. I did leave in two of my key framed sequences that I thought were pretty good, perhaps you can point them out If anyone is interested in this idea and has the chops to make it happen please pm me. If not, this idea will probably have to be abandoned.
I'm pretty happy with the audio editing of this scene. It's not perfect, but for a first time shot at creating a Kylo Ren voice, I'm ok with the outcome. I used a few audacity guides online and combined their ideas to produce the effect. Essentially it's a lowered pitch megaphone modulation with hard limiters and a treble and bass boost plus a regular lowered pitch track. The pitch was lowered about 18% on both and the distortion comes from the megaphone track. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the voice augmentation to see if your ears think it is close enough or needs major reworking.
As always, please leave your thoughts, suggestions, rants, and encouragement. I greatly appreciate your input. Thanks!
Slider 4.0
Edit List
1. Added Custom Loading Screen and Menus (Blu Ray)
2. Added New Fanedit.org title card based on current logo
3. Added custom ROTJ style disclaimer
4. Added A DigModiFicaTion Title card
5. Added Custom Walt Disney 20th Century Fox title card with 20th Century Fox fanfare
6. Replaced opening crawl music with opening crawl music from Episode IV
7. Replaced crawl with custom “Heir to the Force” crawl
8. Removed Poe's "so who talks first....." lines
9. Clipped Poe’s line as he is forcefully picked up, now it sounds like he was going to start saying something but the jolt of being hoisted up stops him.
10. Replaced Video when Kylo Ren says "put him on board"; Video is a slightly cropped/zoomed shot where Kylo Ren is standing still vs the movement in the theatrical cut
11. Removed Kylo Ren's "comfortable?" line and Poe's response during Poe's interrogation scene
12. Transition to next scene before Unkar Plott pulls down the window on his other customers
13. Cut Poe and Finn's conversation after Finn says "Because it's the right thing to do"
14. Removed Finn firing on and killing Stormtroopers and the traffic control room
15. Cut Finn and Poe's celebration after blowing up a turret and Scene of tie flying away from Star Destroyer.
16. Cut “Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you Finn.”
17. Cut Kylo Ren saying "FN-2187" (even for a Sith lord, that is unbelievable)
18. Moved "Sir, ventral cannons hot" further up in the audio mix of the scene and cut the Star Trek-esque turret scene down. Now they just fire
19. Cut the tie fighter blowing up after sinking in the sand
20. Cut Finn's "this is what we look like, some of us" lines
21. Cut Rey’s “No” when responding to Finn’s “You ever fly this thing?” line
22. Cut Finn and Rey's "I can do this" lines when they first get into the Falcon
23. Removed the Falcon taking a nose dive into the sand upon take off
24. Cut Rey's line "I’m going low"
25. Replaced new Millennium Falcon turret sfx with OT turret sfx in chase scene
26. Replaced audio of Finn cursing after the impact with a grunt (yes I know the originals had cursing, but this is just a personal preference)
27. Cut scenes of scavengers when the first tie fighter is shot down
28. Cut the JJ Abrams zoom when the Falcon flies into the downed Star Destroyer’s engines
29. Cut Finn and Rey's excessive teenage celebration after they make it to space
30. Reworked scene in order to remove Kylo Ren's tantrum when the officer reports on not getting the droid
31. Cut Finn's line "you got a boyfriend?"
32. Cut scene of Finn childishly pushing down on Rey's head
33. Added Red Gradient glow to mimic the overhead light and connect the edited scene visually
34. Cut down the Rathtar scene; Han and Chewie run down a corridor, they turn, Chewie is hit, hand blasts the raiders, Rey and Finn pop up from the hatch, Han shoots the door and yells "come on!"
35. Cut mention of Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon from Snoke's dialogue
36. Added hologram effect to Snoke
37. Cut scene of Ren standing up after talking to Vader’s mask in order to use it later in film.
38. Added Darth Vader breathing sfx when his mask is revealed after Ren talks to it.
39. Cut down Chewie grabbing Finn and Finn saying "but that's ok"
40. Added lightsaber sfx and enhanced (echo & reverb) Vader lines “You are not a Jedi yet” and “You don’t know the power of the dark side” along with the Emperor’s laugh to Rey’s force vision
41. Added SWTFUII Terror on the Salvation cue to Hux’s speech
42. Changed Hue of Apocolypse now Tie Scene (color matched with sky to make it blue)
43. Cut Han's no look shot and use of Chewbacca's crossbow and subsequent "I like this" line
44. Rearranged the Arrival of the Resistance scenes to remove visuals of Poe. Rebuilt audio surround tracks to fit the changes.
45. Added Rathtars cue and “Attack on the Car” cue from War of the Worlds to the scene where Han, Chewie, Finn, and Maz emerge from the castle ruins. The War of the Worlds track plays during Finn’s lightsaber use.
46. Cut the continuous pan of Poe’s X-Wing flying, now cuts to Rey right after Finn blasts the second Stormtrooper.
47. Cut Han's lines about seeing their son; he now says "I saw him, he was here”
48. Cut Poe's references to his jacket when talking to Finn
49. Cut scenes with the nurse and Chewbacca
50. Added R2-D2 visually to the checking the map sequence; also added Artoo beeps and sad sounds; he is now seen, heard, active and present
51. Cut scene where Artoo is uncovered by 3P0 and all dialogue about Artoo being asleep.
52. Edited Han to say "I know everytime you think about Luke you're reminded of him"
53. Cut Leia's lines about their son's training, Snoke, and Han being able to help because he's Ben's father.
54. Cut Kylo Ren's "you’re my guest" line, now he just coldly stares at Rey
55. Rearranged and repurposed shots of helmeted Kylo Ren and composited/combined others in order to have Ren Masked. Shortened scene as well.
56. Edited audio to simulate Ren’s helmeted voice.
57. Added subtle audio of Vader breathing when Rey reveals that Kylo Ren is afraid and the connection is severed
58. Repurposed and replaced shots (cropped and speed) during Snoke conversation as to have Kylo Ren hooded and masked.
59. Added Hologram effect to Snoke
60. Digitally painted hooded and masked Kylo Ren into the far shots when Hux is walking away….ugh….
61. Removed Han’s “so it’s big” line
62. Removed Han's "there's always a way to do that" line after asking how to blow it up. Removed Leia's "Han's right" line
63. Removed Leia's lines about bringing their son home; inserted shot of Han's face when she would have been talking
64. Horizontally flipped the scene where the stormtroopers are looking for Rey and everyone is obviously left handed
65. Cut scene where Han asks Finn what his job was and their verbal altercation; it's a gag to set up a later gag and slows down the movement of the narrative
66. Cut Finn's "you remember me" lines and scene with Phasma; took Han's advice and brought it down
67. Cut Rey crawling into the space that soon will squash her; now she just begins to descend down the wall
68. Cut Finn threatening to blow Phasma's bucket off
69. Reinstated the Kylo visits the Falcon deleted scene (cropped out timestamps) and added the “The Bombing Run” cue from the FYC version of the soundtrack.
70. Cut Finn's lines about not being ready and his head nod "what's that" lines
71. Horizontally flipped scene where x-wing crashes into the snow and Han, Fin, Rey, and Chewie run into the frame and stop. (The next scene contradicts the placement of the characters)
72. Added a combination of the cue Finn’s Trek and Finn and Poe Reunited from the FYC Star Wars TFA soundtrack along with the Han and Leia cue to the Catwalk scene
73. Added The Force Unleashed (Infiltrating the Junk Temple) during Finn and Kylo Ren's duel
74. Removed the ground ripping apart separating Rey and Kylo Ren; superimposed same shot of Rey and Kylo Ren when Rey shuts down her light saber looking across ravine at Kylo Ren. Now the two cropped images meet removing the gaping hole.
75. Cut first order officer going AWOL, the scene cuts to Hux and Snoke before the officer speaks
76. Added hologram effect to Snoke
77. Cropped video to exclude Chewbacca from the background when Leia walks towards Rey; we can imply that Chewbacca hugged her or whatever
78. Leia's hug with Rey stays; it's easy to explain, Leia knows how much Han meant to her, “Han told me about the girl” (Rey) and she (Rey) needed that one person who understood to be there for her
79. Added composite of Artoo’s eye being active when he is supposed to be waking up.
80. Cut 3P0’s line “R2-D2 you’ve come back!” when approaching R2; he now says “Come along you two” (taken from the 2016 Oscars speech)
81. Edited 3P0’s lines to say “Artoo may contain some much needed good news” instead of “Artoo D2 may…”
82. Cut 3P0’s line “how I’ve missed you”
83. Cut scenes of Rey arriving on planet to find Luke; I used the force theme from the end of the movie to make the famous iris ending and fanfare occur right as the Millennium Falcon enters hyperspace; also added various sound effects for the Millennium Falcon, crowd, and Chewbacca during takeoff.
(The reason for this particular decision was to mirror the OT in how they end. The OT trilogy ended two ways, a victorious celebration (IV and VI) or an adventurous plan set in motion (V). Showing Luke at the end of the movie is like showing scenes of Han frozen in carbonite in the trunk of Slave I. The scene with Luke doesn't really advance the story and it removes the sense of episodic closure the OT accomplished with each episode. We know that there will be a Star Wars VIII, we know that Luke will be in it, we didn't see Luke the entire movie, why not just wait? He was in the movie to sell the movie. I'm already sold on the movie, so out he goes so that we can focus on Rey, Ren, and Fin.)
84. Revised “edited by” credits to add Fanedited by DigModiFicaTion
85. Added “A DigModiFicaTion” after “A Bad Robot Production”
86. Added 20th Century Walt Disney Logo, Fanedit.org logo, DigModiFicaTion logo, and special thanks section to credits
Original Run Time 2:18:06
Edit Run Time 2:08:56
Time Cut 0:11:55
Time Added 0:02:01 (includes title cards during opening and credits)
Special Thanks (in alphabetical order):
Anakin5kwalker
Canon Editor
Force Ghost Recon
Imperial Fighter
ironman23
Kexikus
LastImpressions
Moe_Syzlak
Original Trilogy Fan
revel911
RougeLeader
Smithers
ssj
That OT Ruler
thecuddlyninja
ThrowgnCpr
TM2YC
Zarius
Walt Disney and LucasFilms ltd
the fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com communities
and my family, who put up with me through this whole process
Special Thanks (in alphabetical order):
Anakin5kwalker
Canon Editor
DarthRush
Force Ghost Recon
Imperial Fighter
ironman23
Kexikus
LastImpressions
Moe_Syzlak
Original Trilogy Fan
revel911
risc19*
RougeLeader
Smithers
ssj
That OT Ruler
thecuddlyninja
ThrowgnCpr
TM2YC
Zarius
*for supplying the hyperspace menu effect
Walt Disney and LucasFilms ltd
the fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com communities
and my family, who put up with me through this whole process
Prolonged Reveal v.2
As mentioned in the fan edit ideas for TFA thread; this idea aims to prolong the mystery of Kylo Ren's identity while mirroring the progression of Luke's reveal in the OT. New to this version are: some audio errors have been fixed in this updated version, and Han now saying "everytime you think of Luke you're reminded of him" along with musical edits to try and smooth the transition. Again the scenes are stacked up against each other for the purpose of quickly sharing the idea and concept.
The following explanation is a quote of my original post.
DigModiFicaTion said:I've been working on ideas on how to prolong the reveal of Kylo Ren's parentage. I really think they had an opportunity to engage the viewer into Kylo Ren more if they had left the mystery until Han says "the face of my son" on the catwalk. It would have mirrored the reveal of Vader to Luke, and would have perhaps been just as shocking to all of us. My hope is to create such a moment for my kids when they watch the movie in the future. So far this video is what I've come up with.
*please note that these scenes were spliced together, they will not be ordered one after another in my edit
Here's the idea with the first edit. Snoke only informs Kylo Ren that his father will be the greatest test he ever faces. No mention of the Millennium Falcon or Han being his father here. Two things happen as a result; the original mystery question of "Is Kylo Ren Luke Skywalker?" is all but answered, unless of course this is Luke.... and a new question of who is father is is thrust into the minds of the viewer. Is he Luke's son? Is he Jacen Solo? We don't know.
The next edit is Kylo Ren talking to Vader's mask. He then reveals that Anakin Skywalker is his grandfather. We know that Snoke referenced Kylo Ren's father as being his greatest test. This mirrors Luke's greatest test being confronting his father and not being seduced. As with the rhyming of Star Wars, this theory fits and the viewer will hopefully be swayed towards the thought that Luke is Kylo Ren's father, and that that he is in fact a Skywalker. The mystery though is still intact.
The third edit simply removes Han saying that he saw their son. He now simply says, "I saw him. He was here." This could imply that he saw their nephew, Luke's son. This edit is followed by Han and Leia's conversation about Kylo Ren. Any reference of Kylo Ren being their son is removed. There is a left over hint of "I know every time you see me you are reminded of him" that Han says to Leia which I may remove, but it may make the scene too short. The purpose of this scene was to set up the idea that Leia feels the awakening call to the light within him. Her link to him could be explained because she is the daughter of a Skywalker. It's loose, but it's the best I could do to this scene at the moment.
The next edit is also a simple removal of a line. Here, Kylo Ren does not say "he would have dissapointed you" after he reads Rey's mind and mentions that she thinks of Han Solo as the father she never had. This removes the link of Kylo Ren implying that Han was his father. Also, as seen in later scenes, his reference to Han Solo by name rather than by father further leads the audience to believe that Luke is Kylo Ren's father after all. I had hoped to attempt to replace Kylo Ren's mask for these scenes as to keep him cloaked in mystery even further, but alas, my skills do not meet those requirements.
After this edit I removed Leia asking Han to bring their son home if he sees him at StarKiller base. I achieved this by a zoomed pan and rearranged video.
The next edit is Kylo Ren sensing Han's presence and saying "Han Solo" while turning to the camera. This again increases the disconnect. It continues in the following edit. Han yells out "Ben!" and the hope is that the audience now thinks he is Ben Skywalker. Kylo Ren increases the likelihood of this by saying, "Han Solo" when talking to Han. The reveal is then left for a more appropriate timing, with Han and Kylo's exchange with Han revealing that Kylo is his son, Ben Solo.
I do have the issue of explaining why Han left as a result of this restructure. It becomes clear, possibly, once the reveal is made, but honestly his character takes a hit from this editing idea.
Finn v Kylo Ren Duel Edit
Here I add music from The Force Unleashed soundtrack (Infiltrating the Junk Temple) during Ren and Finn's duel. I feel it brings more emotion into the scene and makes it more story telling than just mano-e-mano, imo. I toyed with a more percussive duel sound, but ultimately thought that would interfere with the buildup of Rey and Finn's duel. I like that the music is slightly creepy and implies that Ren is toying with Finn.
Interrogation Scene (w/out needed visual effects)
The idea of this scene is to preserve an added sense of mystery to Kylo Ren. If we don't see his face, we don't even know if he's human. While this isn't integral to preserving the reveal, it would add an element to his character much like Darth Vader, when we never knew until the third film what he even looked like. I've indicated where the helmet would need to be added in each scene. I've spent way too much time trying to key frame some edited production prop shots and it just looks like a goofy jib-jab video. I did leave in two of my key framed sequences that I thought were pretty good, perhaps you can point them out If anyone is interested in this idea and has the chops to make it happen please pm me. If not, this idea will probably have to be abandoned.
I'm pretty happy with the audio editing of this scene. It's not perfect, but for a first time shot at creating a Kylo Ren voice, I'm ok with the outcome. I used a few audacity guides online and combined their ideas to produce the effect. Essentially it's a lowered pitch megaphone modulation with hard limiters and a treble and bass boost plus a regular lowered pitch track. The pitch was lowered about 18% on both and the distortion comes from the megaphone track. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the voice augmentation to see if your ears think it is close enough or needs major reworking.
Rathtar Scene
As always, please leave your thoughts, suggestions, rants, and encouragement. I greatly appreciate your input. Thanks!