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The latest in the Possessed Star Wars series: Return of the Jedi.
Unlike my ANH and ESB "edits", which were basically just a hybrid of the original and special edition cuts with some spruced up visual effects and enhancements, with a few small original cuts... This will be a full blown edit, largely inspired by the style and techniques used by the Phantom Editor when he made Attack of the Phantom (which I recently recreated in HD as part of the Possessed collection)
Certainly this Return of the Jedi edit won't be nearly as heavy handed as Attack of the Phantom, but I really admire the technique used in giving it a professional pace and flow while still cutting things that needed to go.
Those of us around during the olden days will remember I had started to edit this film over a decade ago, and now I'm finally ready to fully tackle it. There have been some good edits of ROTJ, chiefly darthrush's version, but i feel I have a unique drive and vision to make a very good edit. Some areas may have similar ideas and cuts to other edits, and while I will say I did take inspiration from some other edits, it's largely a coincidence and I've had these ideas for over 10 years. But that's not to say there won't be plenty of unique things!
The chief aim of this edit will be tone. It won't be a radical edit that changes story elements... It's main goal is to even out the tone and pacing to be more consistent with the first two films... Not removing all of the humor by any means but trimming the things that are overtly silly and campy so that the good moments shine as brightly as they deserve to and aren't weighed down by the silliness and it feels more like a cohesive conclusion. This will be achieved mostly through small cuts and rearranging footage, but with some larger cuts as well.
Basic cutlist, though incomplete:
*All lightsaber blades and blaster shots are reanimated, as well as a few VFX enhancements courtesy of Telecine7.
*Very light color regrade.
*Salacious Crumb no longer has any cutaways or close ups of him laughing at the character. You can still see him in the background and hear him laughing with the crowd a few times.
*Many cuts and rearranging of footage for the entire Jabba's Palace portion of the film to make it less silly, and conceal some of the bad muppet looking creatures.
*The Sail Barge battle is completely re edited. It is more intense now.
*Rebel briefing scene edited heavily to remove campiness.
*Han and Lando's scene together removed. I hated to do this because it was their only scene together, but it just wasn't a good scene. **This change is reverted in V2, just still listed here for historical purposes to avoid confusion**
*Heavy trims to the scenes aboard the stolen shuttle.
*Leia's scene where Wickett discovers her removed. Her appearance is a surprise to the audience as well as Luke and Han.
*Many trims to the ewoks and endor as a whole, especially the battle, to be less campy, silly, and make the ewoks more menacing and less cutesy.
*Various trims throughout the entire film to improve tone and momentum, but I was very careful not to make the pacing too fast.
*A few new surprises.
There are tons of cuts, but they are mostly small save for a few. And while it is true i am making the tone of the film darker and more serious, do not worry I will still be keeping the genuine humor when it works, i don't want this to be dreary. And good humor always has a place in Star Wars as long as it isn't taken too far.
Update: V2, most likely final, available now.
V2 basically does two things.
1) Reinstates Han's interactions with Lando, both of them. They were original cut for tone and pacing, and from that perspective it does benefit the tone and pacing but looking back I was getting carried away. In hindsight it's really weird that they never speak to each other in the film without those two scenes (which I hadn't considered at the time, I was so hyper focused on the pacing and tone), plus there's no formal explanation to why Lando has the falcon without them. I do wish those scenes were better, but looking back they aren't so bad and it's much less awkward to have them in than having them ignore each other.
2) Retouched, regraded, and further refined footage from other sources such as 4k83 when used (like for the sarlaac pit) to better blend with the surrounding footage and be more seamless. V1 did a pretty good job at this, but just from time and experience I'm better at that sort of thing now so it just seemed apt to give that a second pass while I was already at it making a V2. Plus 4k83 had improved since I made v1 anyway so since I was already making a V2 for the han/Lando scenes it just seemed like it would be a waste to not also update that as well.
Other than that it's the
same! Enjoy.
Unlike my ANH and ESB "edits", which were basically just a hybrid of the original and special edition cuts with some spruced up visual effects and enhancements, with a few small original cuts... This will be a full blown edit, largely inspired by the style and techniques used by the Phantom Editor when he made Attack of the Phantom (which I recently recreated in HD as part of the Possessed collection)
Certainly this Return of the Jedi edit won't be nearly as heavy handed as Attack of the Phantom, but I really admire the technique used in giving it a professional pace and flow while still cutting things that needed to go.
Those of us around during the olden days will remember I had started to edit this film over a decade ago, and now I'm finally ready to fully tackle it. There have been some good edits of ROTJ, chiefly darthrush's version, but i feel I have a unique drive and vision to make a very good edit. Some areas may have similar ideas and cuts to other edits, and while I will say I did take inspiration from some other edits, it's largely a coincidence and I've had these ideas for over 10 years. But that's not to say there won't be plenty of unique things!
The chief aim of this edit will be tone. It won't be a radical edit that changes story elements... It's main goal is to even out the tone and pacing to be more consistent with the first two films... Not removing all of the humor by any means but trimming the things that are overtly silly and campy so that the good moments shine as brightly as they deserve to and aren't weighed down by the silliness and it feels more like a cohesive conclusion. This will be achieved mostly through small cuts and rearranging footage, but with some larger cuts as well.
Basic cutlist, though incomplete:
*All lightsaber blades and blaster shots are reanimated, as well as a few VFX enhancements courtesy of Telecine7.
*Very light color regrade.
*Salacious Crumb no longer has any cutaways or close ups of him laughing at the character. You can still see him in the background and hear him laughing with the crowd a few times.
*Many cuts and rearranging of footage for the entire Jabba's Palace portion of the film to make it less silly, and conceal some of the bad muppet looking creatures.
*The Sail Barge battle is completely re edited. It is more intense now.
*Rebel briefing scene edited heavily to remove campiness.
*Han and Lando's scene together removed. I hated to do this because it was their only scene together, but it just wasn't a good scene. **This change is reverted in V2, just still listed here for historical purposes to avoid confusion**
*Heavy trims to the scenes aboard the stolen shuttle.
*Leia's scene where Wickett discovers her removed. Her appearance is a surprise to the audience as well as Luke and Han.
*Many trims to the ewoks and endor as a whole, especially the battle, to be less campy, silly, and make the ewoks more menacing and less cutesy.
*Various trims throughout the entire film to improve tone and momentum, but I was very careful not to make the pacing too fast.
*A few new surprises.
There are tons of cuts, but they are mostly small save for a few. And while it is true i am making the tone of the film darker and more serious, do not worry I will still be keeping the genuine humor when it works, i don't want this to be dreary. And good humor always has a place in Star Wars as long as it isn't taken too far.
Update: V2, most likely final, available now.
V2 basically does two things.
1) Reinstates Han's interactions with Lando, both of them. They were original cut for tone and pacing, and from that perspective it does benefit the tone and pacing but looking back I was getting carried away. In hindsight it's really weird that they never speak to each other in the film without those two scenes (which I hadn't considered at the time, I was so hyper focused on the pacing and tone), plus there's no formal explanation to why Lando has the falcon without them. I do wish those scenes were better, but looking back they aren't so bad and it's much less awkward to have them in than having them ignore each other.
2) Retouched, regraded, and further refined footage from other sources such as 4k83 when used (like for the sarlaac pit) to better blend with the surrounding footage and be more seamless. V1 did a pretty good job at this, but just from time and experience I'm better at that sort of thing now so it just seemed apt to give that a second pass while I was already at it making a V2. Plus 4k83 had improved since I made v1 anyway so since I was already making a V2 for the han/Lando scenes it just seemed like it would be a waste to not also update that as well.
Other than that it's the
same! Enjoy.
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