STAR WARS: TWILIGHT OF THE REPUBLIC

[TV's Frink]

Sorry for the double post, but here's my earlier comments about some audio transitions:

I noticed a few audio transitions that weren't seamless. Most of those were during the droid factory battle, when cutting between Anakin and Padme and vice versa. The other one that was noticeable to me was the transition from Anakin and Padme kissing on Naboo to the goodbye scene between Obi Wan and Taun We. I'm not sure if that audio transition could have been improved, but I will say that I definitely prefer that transition to seeing Padme pull away from the kiss. Cutting before she pulls away is one of many improvements to the love story.

And regarding how Padme escapes the container, SomethingStarWarsRelated from OT.com posted this to youtube.

Having Anakin use the force to get Padme out of the container is pretty neat.

 

[JasonN]

16. Completely removed the "Shmi Skywalker captured by Sandpeople/Anakin turns to the Dark Side" subplot - Anakin now arrives on Tatooine to find his mother already dead and buried

Any chance you will put this back in for v2?
Seems that this is the big issue that prevents this from being as highly regarded and your ep 1 and 3 edits.

I'm sure most people (Frink included) would've figured this answer out already, but if not, here's my response on this subject:

"No. Absolutely not."

 

[zeppelinrox]

Just so you know, constructive criticism isn't a bad thing.
If suggestions have merit, don't take it as a personal attack but more importantly, having and open mind and listening to such suggestions allows people to learn more and achieve more.

/just sayin :smile:

 

[TV's Frink]

In this case, I see both sides. While I would prefer a heavily edited version that leaves some of the subplot intact, this version doesn't bother me.

Would it affect Anakin more if he never even sees her alive? It's certainly plausible.

 

[joebshmoe]

Sorry for the double post, but here's my earlier comments about some audio transitions:

I noticed a few audio transitions that weren't seamless. Most of those were during the droid factory battle, when cutting between Anakin and Padme and vice versa. The other one that was noticeable to me was the transition from Anakin and Padme kissing on Naboo to the goodbye scene between Obi Wan and Taun We. I'm not sure if that audio transition could have been improved, but I will say that I definitely prefer that transition to seeing Padme pull away from the kiss. Cutting before she pulls away is one of many improvements to the love story.

And regarding how Padme escapes the container, SomethingStarWarsRelated from OT.com posted this to youtube.

Having Anakin use the force to get Padme out of the container is pretty neat.

works... other than the previously broken lightsaber visible during the force push

 

[TV's Frink]

Yeah, you'd have to change the order up a bit. Seems doable.

 

[L8wrtr]

In this case, I see both sides. While I would prefer a heavily edited version that leaves some of the subplot intact, this version doesn't bother me.

Would it affect Anakin more if he never even sees her alive? It's certainly plausible.

While this is true, in general terms part of what drives Anakin is his inability to save his mother. As powerful as he is with the Force, when confronted with his mother just before death, he is in fact helpless, which is carried through in his outburst about becoming more powerful, and his pledge to her at her grave, and finally his fascination with Palpatine's offerings in E3.

I haven't seen JasonN's edits, so I can't really speak to how critical this is to how he's laid the story out, but if the edits rely on the general outline that Lucas created, I would say that cutting out the attack severely weakens Anakin's path to the Dark Side. Again, that is in general terms without seeing JasonN's specific vision.

 

[Remixed by Jorge]

"No. Absolutely not."

But you didn't say positively.

 

[JasonN]

Obi's line when he first flies over Geonosis "There's an unusual concentration of Federation Starships over there." What the hell would be a "usual" concentration? A single Federation ship would be odd and require investigation. And the use of the word "concentration" is weird too. If they were spread out more, would that be more "usual?" Slumberland is the only one who removed this so far.

It is an unusual delivery and line, but it never really bothered me and without it, the audience has no explanation as to the Federation being involved on this planet or why Obi-Wan is so cautious during his arrival and search of the factory.
(if it helps, I did go and delete the R4 droid's "Wah wah wah" noise after Obi-Wan's line... why I didn't do this in the first cut is beyond me)

When Padme and Ani are in the starship having the discussion about if they should fly off Tatooine to help Obi, Padme pushes the same button twice. Not only is it a repeated shot, but each time she is able to access information by a single button push that makes no sense (unless it's a universal remote button or something). No one has done anything with this yet.

Did a check of these shots and no, they're not repeat shots - they just seem like it since she's pressing the same button, but I'll see what (if anything, since I can not lose the second shot since it has story information) I can do.

As they fly over Geonosis, Padme says a couple of really dumb lines. "See those columns of steam straight ahead?" is a Ric Olie quality line, and "They're exhaust vents of some type" is just silly. Sithlord is the only one to remove these lines.

Agreed, I've removed these lines.

During the Monster Arena battle, Padme swings the chain at the Nexu a couple of times as it attempts to scale her column. It looks fake and I don't get the sense at all that the Nexu would have been so hurt from a small-ish chain like that. A very minor quibble that no one has deleted.

Deleted Padme's first swing and the Nexu getting hit - it now crawls straight up the column and swipes Padme's back.


As a sidenote, here's a new cut of the Geonosis droid factory sequence that I'm toying with, which cuts out the entire business of Padme getting trapped in a stone pot and escaping before molten metal pours on her (now she gets caught by the Geonosian who attacks her before the cut sequence):

 

[TV's Frink]

Thanks for the replies JN.

I'm torn on the new clip. On the one hand, it's nice to just lose the whole "trapped in the pot" business completely. However, you are kind of left wondering what happened to Padme...we see her struggling with the Geonosian, and then next we see her she's in the conference room. The resolution seems missing.

 

[TV's Frink]

When Padme and Ani are in the starship having the discussion about if they should fly off Tatooine to help Obi, Padme pushes the same button twice. Not only is it a repeated shot, but each time she is able to access information by a single button push that makes no sense (unless it's a universal remote button or something). No one has done anything with this yet.

Did a check of these shots and no, they're not repeat shots - they just seem like it since she's pressing the same button, but I'll see what (if anything, since I can not lose the second shot since it has story information) I can do.

Oops, you're right. It wasn't the repeat factor that actually bothers me, but the fact that it's the same button both times...a wonderous, magical button that knows what you want when you push it! *sigh*

 

[L8wrtr]

I could be mis-remembering, but I believe I read or saw an interview where this is actually intentional, in that it became a running gag, that this one button does everything, as this same button (because the same basic cockpit design is used in ROTS).

 

[xDeeMx]

Maybe the royal Naboo ships are built by Apple. The design certainly fits.

 

[JasonN]

The V2 of Twilight of the Republic is done and I'm burning the DVD-9 right now. The changes to the V2 are, in no particular order:

- lowered Zam's voice when she's speaking to Jango before attempting to kill Padme as she sleeps
(yeah, just shout out that you tried to hit a Senator's ship with a bomb....)

- removed R4's "Wah wah wah" noise after Obi-Wan comments on the activity of Federation ships on Geonisis

- cut Padme's lines of ""See those columns of steam straight ahead?"& "They're exhaust vents of some type" when she and Anakin arrive on Geonosis

- cut the entire sequence of Padme getting trapped in the giant stone cup in the Geonosis droid factory
(yeah, I ended up cutting it just as I did in the preview video I just posted - while true that there's no sort of resolution to her struggling with the Geonosian, I think most viewers will assume that she gets captured by him, plus with the removal of the "R2-D2 flying rescue" sequence this subplot of her getting trapped in a stone cup for molten metal goes nowhere and serves absolutely no purpose at all)

- cut the shot of Padme swinging the chain at the Nexu and the Nexu's reaction shots (now it just climbs up the column and swipes her back)

- added back in several shots of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme on the clone attack carrier firing missiles at the Frederation star ships (just before Yoda arrives at the command center)

- changed a few words to the subtitles of Poggle the Lesser in the Geonosian command center (same meaning, just improving the grammar and readability of his speech)

- after Poggle the Lesser says that Dooku and the other Separatists should flee at once, I added in an altered line of Dooku stating "I will never allow the Republic to get away with such treachery."


EDIT: Forgot two addtional edits.

 

[TV's Frink]

Hey Jason, any update on this? My fingers are getting itchy...

...

...

...um, that didn't come out right.

 

[JasonN]

Hey Jason, any update on this? My fingers are getting itchy...

For the record, I'm still alive and working on this.

In addition to getting bogged down with work, I ended up having TWO hard drives fail over the course of a single day, which had me lose a sh*t-ton of data including the V2s of TOTR and TBKR (yeah, I was pleased as punch that day... :twisted: )

So I've been busy as hell trying to recover the failed HDs and transfer the data to new ones - it's taken a while, but about 95% of the data was saved and recovered to the new hard drives. And yes, the V2s of EP2 and EP3 was saved, but the new Dooku rotoscoped shots for EP3 were lost.... which means I'll have to redo them all over again. :roll:

 

[TV's Frink]

Sorry about the bad luck, but glad to hear you're still around and planning on finishing. Looking forward to it.

 

[emphatic]

Wow, that sucks. Here's hoping you never experience failing drives again.

 

[Hal9000]

Since this is no longer available for download, I'd like to ask a question of anyone with a copy. I'm making my own set of prequel fan edits, and would like to remove Anakin slaughtering the Tuskens, saving Darth Vader-esque behavior for Episode III. Would someone be willing to post (or PM me) a description of how JasonN edited this part of the film? Thanks very much.

 

[TV's Frink]

Since this is no longer available for download

I see what you did there, and it's definitely walking that thin line between rules violation and not rules violation. But because I'm a sucker for this trilogy, I'll just add it to my upload list. Don't tell anyone else, as we don't want to encourage this kind of behavior.

In the meantime, I will look for my old cutlist script (the link is dead) and I can post the relevant portion.